SummerStage Announces FREE Shows in the Month of July

SummerStage Announces a series of FREE shows set for this July to take place in various parks throughout NYC!

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA SUMMER RECITAL SERIES

Crotona Park, Bronx on Tuesday, July 1 and Thursday July 3rd at 7:00pm
An enchanting evening of favorite opera arias and duets featuring rising Metropolitan Opera stars.

Mary-Jane Lee (soprano) is in her first year of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Most recently, she was featured as Parasha in Mavra, as part of a co-production of the Met and the Juilliard School, conducted by James Levine. She has received awards from the Met's National Council Auditions, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Vocal Competition, the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, and the Dallas Opera Guild Competition.

Ginger Costa-Jackon (mezzo-soprano) is a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and a Samling Scholar. She made her Met debut in the Opening Night Gala of the 2008-09 season and has since appeared in the Met premiere of Nixon in China, new productions of Thaïs and Manon, and in Cavalleria Rusticana, Lulu, La Fanciulla del West, Carmen, andFrancesca da Rimini. Next season, she will appear in Xavier Montsalvatge's El Gato con Botas with Gotham Chamber Opera in New York and return to the Met as Lola in a new production ofCavalleria Rusticana.

Yunpeng Wang (baritone) is in his first year of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. This past season, he was featured as Fieramosca in Benvenuto Cellini as part of a co-production of the Met and the Juilliard School, conducted by James Levine. He was a first prize-winner in the Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Vocal Competition at the Manhattan School of Music in 2013 and recently won the Second Place Prize, the Zarzuela Prize, and the Audience Award at Plácido Domingo's Operalia World Opera Competition.

Dan Saunders is increasingly well known to audiences around the world as an accomplished conductor and pianist. An assistant conductor to James Levine and Seiji Ozawa and a recitalist with many of the world's finest soloists, he served as the associate conductor of the Virginia Opera from 2000 until 2006 and is currently an assistant conductor with the Met. This past season, he served on the music staff for Met productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Fledermaus, and Arabella.

URBAN BUSH WOMEN
LAURIE M. TAYLOR with SOUL MOVEMENT
Central Park, Manhattan on Wednesday, July 2 at 8:00pm

Join Urban Bush Women as they celebrate their 30th anniversary year with an evening of special performances that showcase the best of the company's repertoire as well as a SummerStage premiere.

Founded in 1984 by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women (UBW) seeks to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance. The company presents this from a woman-centered perspective and as members of the African Diaspora community in order to create a more equitable balance of power in the dance world and beyond. The company will premiere Chalabati, a new work choreographed by Zollar, with choreographic assistance by Maria Bauman for dance students at Virginia Commonwealth University, Florida State University, and recently Southern Methodist University. Chalabati, inspired by the Gnawa people of Morocco, is a work that explores journey, memory and ritual retelling of a shared history.

Laurie M. Taylor is the Artistic Director of Laurie M. Taylor/Soul Movement (LMTSM). As movement storytellers, LMTSM delves deep into the emotional truth and wit of the human experience. Taylor's choreographic approach is based on "sound perception," showing how rhythm, tone and "feel" can be physically embodied and expressed through dance. Fusions of Jazz, African Diaspora and Hip-Hop sensibility mesh together through Taylor's rich Liberian and American (the American South) background, rendering a grounded, curvilinear contemporary dance style. LMTSM's repertory explores a full spectrum of experiences, whether it be the courageousness lunch counter sit-ins of the late 1950's, or being caught up in whirlwind of love and passion. For Taylor, music is the primary impulse for movement, and she has formed close collaborations with many musical partners including EMMY-winning/composer Darin Atwater, GRAMMY-winning Blue Note recording Artist Derrick Hodge (Robert Glasper Experiment), arranger/violinist Stephanie Matthews (String Candy, Sphinx Organization). Her work continues to engage new audiences both in and beyond the dance world, setting the tone for a fresh wave of choreographers who wish to remove the veil between the performer and the audience.

FREEDOM DANCE PARTY
Herbert Holler, DJ Cosi, Marc Smooth
Central Park, Manhattan on Thursday, July 3 at 6:00pm

The Freedom Party is the longest running, weekly, Friday-night party in NYC history. Winner of Papermag's highly coveted award for "Best Party (People's Choice)" and runner up in URB Mag's "Best Party" (nationwide), Freedom was created in 2003 by Herbert Holler, DJ Cosi and Marc Smooth to provide a place for people from all walks of life to dance and be free. Today, it is a bona fide nightlife institution, with monthly events in both Chicago and Washington, D.C., as well. Playing a tight mix of danceable, soulful hits across all genres of music from the 60s through today, Freedom continues to fill its dance floor each week with fun, beautiful people from all over the globe looking to have an unforgettable, true NYC party experience. The Freedom Dance Party will be celebrating 11 years with a huge live outdoor dance party at SummerStage in Central Park!

TEDDY AFRO, NOURA MINT SEYMALI, HAHU DANCE CREW
Central Park, Manhattan on Saturday, July 5 at 3:00pm

Raised by musical parents, it was apparent at an early age that Tewodros Kassahun, (now know as Teddy Afro) had a deep love of music. Over the past ten years, Teddy has emerged as the number one voice in Ethiopia, breaking records for album sales and show attendance. He is known far and wide as the rising star of East Africa. Using Reggae rhythms combined with traditional sounds his songs are sung exclusively in the national language of Ethiopia, Amharic. Influenced by Ethiopian Maestro Tilahun Gessesse and international Reggae superstar Bob Marley, he sings of freedom from tyranny and self-emancipation.

Noura Mint Seymali is a nationally beloved star and one of Mauritania's foremost musical emissaries. Having begun her career at age 13 as a supporting vocalist with her legendary step-mother Dimi Mint Abba, Noura Mint Seymali was reared in a transitive culture where sounds from across the Sahara, the Magreb, and West Africa coalesce in the dynamic language of the Moorish griot. Fueled by the exploratory sound of her husband Jeiche Ould Chighaly's distortion-fueled psych guitar lines and a declarative rhythm section with Ousmane Touré (bass) and Matthew Tinari (drums), Noura Mint Seymali has already made a formidable debut on the international stage. Performing at events like Festival-au-Desert (Mali), Hayy Festival (Egypt), and Festival Timitar (Morocco) and collaborating with artists like Tinariwen, Bassekou Kouyaté, and Baaba Maal, Noura Mint Seymali is steadily gaining wider recognition, determined to bring Mauritanian music to the world.

Hahu Dance Group are a contemporary modern traditional group that aims to promote Ethiopian culture, art and indigenous knowledge all over the world. Hahu won Ethiopian Idol in 2011, and represents Ethiopian multiculturalism, by including four traditional dancers each hailing from different ethnic groups, showing a true sense of community. The group's early works were inspired by the poor Addis neighborhoods and performances were focused on community awareness creation and empowerment. The group has been working in collaboration with nongovernmental organizations (Andugna dance company, Hope for children organization, Music Media, Addis Ababa city administration theater, A.A. Culture and tourism bureau) on various community issues.

GLOBAL FAMILY DAY
Central Park, Manhattan on Sunday, July 6 at 3:00pm

SummerStage Kids presented by Disney presents Global Family Day, featuring a wide array of performing arts for all ages and tastes. Families will be delighted by folk music performances, the premiere of "whYnot?," a new circus work by Brooklyn's The Hybrid Movement Company, dance performances from two unique companies and a hysterical water balloon show with comic antics and opera music.

Families will also have the opportunity to participate in interactive workshops of circus arts, face painting and more!

ANDREW BIRD & THE HANDS OF GLORY and LUKE TEMPLE
Central Park, Manhattan on Tuesday, July 8 at 7:00pm

Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist and lyricist Andrew Bird picked up his first violin at the age of four and spent his formative years soaking up classical repertoire completely by ear. Since beginning his recording career in 1997 he has released 11 albums and played thousands of shows. Bird has gone on to record with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and perform at New York's Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, and festivals worldwide. Recently Bird composed his first ever film score for the movie Norman (hailed as "a probing, thoughtful score" by The New York Times), contributed to the soundtrack of The Muppets and collaborated with inventor Ian Schneller on Sonic Arboretum, an installation that debuted at New York's Guggenheim Museum and exhibited at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. He's recently been performing with Tift Merritt, developing a children's TV show, and writing for his next album.

Originally from Cape Anne, Massachusetts, Luke Temple moved to the North West, sleeping rough in the woods, working in a candy store and as a janitor at a suburban mall. All of his aimlessness lasted a year and half. He enrolled in school of the Museum of Fine Arts and spent five years painting portraits, after which Luke moved to New York. After recording two critically acclaimed albums to little commercial reception, Luke made what would become the first Here We Go Magic album, forming the band and releasing the self-titled debut in 2009. Luke kept busy touring and recording two more full lengths and an EP.

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