Rite of Summer Music Festival Presents DITHER on July 7

Rite of Summer Music Festival continues its eighth stellar season with DITHER performing two free shows on Saturday, July 7th at 1pm and 3pm. The program will feature works by Eve Beglarian, Josh Lopes, Lisa Renée Coons, Gyan Riley, James Moore, and Taylor Levine. Taking place at Colonels Row on Governors Island, Rite of Summer presents free outdoor concerts through August curated by Co-Artistic Directors Pam Goldberg and Blair McMillen. In a locale The New York Times has called a "Playground for the Arts," the aim of the Festival is simple: to present the highest quality live performances, and to bring free contemporary classical music to as many people as possible in a relaxed, fun, outdoor setting.

Next up on Saturday, August 18th, Collaborative Arts Ensemble presents Letters of the American South, music by Samuel Barber, Charles Ives, Johnny Cash, Aaron Copland, Hoagy Carmichael, Henry Mancini, and more.

Rite of Summer shows will be presented twice the same day, at 1pm and 3pm, for each respective date in Colonels Row. Audiences should feel free to walk by, stop and listen, lay down a picnic blanket and relax, eat lunch, mingle, and take in these engaging live performances.

Governors Island is a short 8-minute ferry ride from the Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan, located at 10 South Street (Subway: 1 to South Ferry; R to Whitehall Street; 4/5 to Bowling Green) and a 3-minute ride from Brooklyn Bridge Park, where ferries leave from Pier 6 on weekends only (Subway: 2/3/4/5 to Borough Hall; R to Court Street). Concerts are free; ferries are $3 after 12pm (free from 10am-12pm on weekends). For a full ferry schedule, please visit www.govisland.com.

Upcoming Shows: Collaborative Arts Ensemble August 18, 2018 1pm & 3pm

Saturday, July 7 - DITHER (Rain date: July 8)

DITHER, a New York based electric guitar quartet, is dedicated to an eclectic mix of experimental repertoire which spans composed, improvised and electronic music. Formed in 2007, the quartet has performed across the United States and abroad, presenting new commissions, original compositions, multimedia works, and large guitar ensemble pieces. Dither's members are Taylor Levine, Joshua Lopes, James Moore and Gyan Riley. Dither has performed and collaborated with a wide range of artists including Eve Beglarian, Nels Cline, Fred Frith, Mary Halvorson, David Lang, Ikue Mori, Phill Niblock, Lee Ranaldo, Lois V. Vierk, Yo La Tengo, and John Zorn. They have brought their live 13-guitar rendition of Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint to The Barbican Center, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, The Ellnora Guitar Festival and WNYC's New Sounds Live. The quartet has also performed at the Guggenheim Museum, the Bang on a Can Marathon, The Performa Biennial, The Amsterdam Electric Guitar Heaven Festival, Hong Kong's Fringe Theater, The Winter Jazz Festival and the Borealis Festival. Dither produces an annual Extravaganza, a raucous festival of creative music and art, which has been called an "official concert on the edge" by the New Yorker and "the here and now of New York's postclassical music scene" by Time Out New York. The quartet's self-titled debut album was released on Henceforth Records in 2010 to critical acclaim. Their latest release Dither plays Zorn on Tzadik, featuring the premiere recordings of several of John Zorn's improvisational game pieces, was named one of Rolling Stone's "top avant albums of 2015."

Photo Credit: Brendan Adamson