Diamanda Galás Announces New York, Toronto Performances

Singer, pianist, and composer Diamanda Galás has announced rare performances in Brooklyn, NY and Toronto, ON.

Her Brooklyn performances, including one on Halloween, are her first concerts in the city since the run at the Red Bull Music Academy Festival NYC in May of 2016 that produced her recent live album At Saint Thomas The Apostle, Harlem. Diamanda will be performing music featured on that album and All The Way, both of which were released on Intravenal Sound Operations earlier this year and were roundly critically praised. Galás recently toured Europe, with the Guardian giving her London performance 4 stars.

Diamanda Galás Tour Dates

October 29 - Brooklyn, NY - Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph [TICKETS]

October 31 - Brooklyn, NY - Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph [TICKETS]

November 26 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall [TICKETS]

All The Way features singular, radical takes on familiar tunes, including Lew Brown and Ray Henderson's "The Thrill Is Gone" and a solo piano interpretation of Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight." The album's centerpiece is the American traditional "O Death," which has become a staple in live performances, and concludes with "Pardon Me I've got Someone To Kill" by country singer Johnny Paycheck. All The Way includes both live recordings (recorded in Paris, Copenhagen, and East Sussex) and studio recordings made in San Diego, CA.

At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem documents Galás' volcanic May 2016 performances as Saint Thomas the Apostle church in Harlem, NY, described by the New York Times as "guttural and operatic, baleful and inconsolable, spiritual and earthy, polyglot and wordless, nuanced and unhinged." The concert, produced by Intravenal Sound Operations and Red Bull Music Academy, was composed exclusively of what Galás calls "death songs." Sung in Italian, German, French, and Greek, the performances include Galás' dramatic settings of the death poems by Cesare Pavese and Ferdinand Freiligrath, as well as interpretations of songs by Jacques Brel ("Fernand", "Amsterdam") and Albert Ayler ("Angels," sung by Galás, who has always believed that Ayler's work is also vocal music).

Taken together these albums showcase the work of an artist at the height of her power and creativity, demonstrating mastery not only of her voice (for which she has become so well known), but also of the piano, and as a composer.

The composer, vocalist and activist Diamanda Galás is one of the most uncompromising and influential avant-garde performers of the last thirty years, with an extensive catalog of work that is often oppressive but always thrilling. With a searing voice and background in classical and jazz piano, Galás has continually asserted the connection between her art and activism, tackling subjects like torture, genocide and AIDS in philosophically thoughtful and musically incendiary ways. Galás has previously collaborated with musicians varying from Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones to influential composer Iannis Xenakis, in addition to numerous others; and her vocal technique and performance has been cited as an inspiration by such performers as PJ Harvey and Anohni. Over the past few years, Galás has been working extensively in Europe, in particular on the theatrical performance "Das Fieberspital (The Fever Hospital)" - based on the writings of Georg Heym, Gottfried Benn and herself - at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, Poland.

Order All The Way: https://diamandagalas.myshopify.com/products/all-the-way

Order At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem: https://diamandagalas.myshopify.com/products/live-at-st-thomas-the-apostle

Order bundle of both albums: https://diamandagalas.myshopify.com/products/all-the-way-live-at-st-thomas-the-apostle-bundle.

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