Bill Morrison News

On Friday, December 14, 2018 at 8:00 p.m. at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, The Crossing gives its annual Christmas concert, The Crossing @ Christmas, presented by Annenberg Center Live. The concert is in memorial of Jeffrey Dinsmore, co-founder of The Crossing, and features an evening-length world premiere by Gavin Bryars, composer of The Fifth Century, for which The Crossing won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.

LA-based music collective, wild Up, returns to the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts with of Ascension, the first Jazz Club performances for the 2018/19 season on November 8 & 10, 2018.  of Ascension, co-commissioned by The Soraya, is a musical journey inspired by John Coltrane's legendary 1966 album, Ascension. 

Winner of the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, The Crossing, led by conductor Donald Nally, presents The Tower and The Garden today, October 27, 2018 at 8:00 p.m. at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. The evening features two world premieres, including Gregory Spears' The Tower and the Garden and Philadelphia composer James Primosch's new work Carthage. The concert also includes other works written for The Crossing, Joel Puckett's dizzying I enter the earth (2015), and Toivo Tulev's A child said, what is the grass? (2015).

Bang on a Can All-Stars-joined by the Grammy Award-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street, led by Julian Wachner-will perform Julia Wolfe's Pulitzer Prize-winning Anthracite Fields on Saturday, December 1 at 9:00 p.m. in Zankel Hall.

The story bridges the dichotomy between the civilian perception of war and the conditions experienced by soldiers. It shows the reason why veterans often choose not to tell their war stories to anyone who has never been to war. As The Soldier says repeatedly: "I never talk about this." Bill Morrison's film illustrates the resulting loss of innocence and the gnawing fear brought about by living in danger.

This fall, cello soloist Maya Beiser and composer/conductor Evan Ziporyn embark on a U.S. tour with Ziporyn's Ambient Orchestra, bringing Bowie Symphonic: Blackstar to the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA (Friday, October 12); the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, VT (Saturday, October 13), Bass Concert Hall presented by Texas Performing Arts in Austin, TX (Thursday, November 1), and Bing Concert Hall presented by Stanford Live in Stanford, CA (Wednesday, November 7). Bowie Symphonic: Blackstar is a startling and soaring new version of David Bowie's entire last album Blackstar for solo cello and orchestra. Arranged for Beiser by Ziporyn, who will also conduct Ambient Orchestra, Bowie Symphonic: Blackstar has been performed to capacity audiences in Boston, Barcelona, and New York City's Central Park SummerStage. For the fall tour, Ambient Orchestra is joined by musicians from Boston Conservatory at Berklee. 

Winner of the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, The Crossing, led by conductor Donald Nally, presents The Tower and The Garden on Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 8:00 p.m. at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. The evening features two world premieres, including Gregory Spears' The Tower and the Garden and Philadelphia composer James Primosch's new work Carthage. The concert also includes other works written for The Crossing, Joel Puckett's dizzying I enter the earth (2015), and Toivo Tulev's A child said, what is the grass? (2015).

The Ford Theatres and LA Opera Off Grand, in collaboration with Beth Morrison Projects, present Soldier Songs, a monodrama for baritone and chamber orchestra on Saturday, October 13, 2017 at 8:30pm. The performance will take place at the Ford Theatres (2580 Cahuenga Boulevard East, Los Angeles CA 90068).

Musiqa, two-time winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, is proud to announce its 2018-19 season. Building on the bold, adventurous programming of previous years, Musiqa's seventeenth season features new, exciting interdisciplinary collaborations, commissions, world premieres, and community and educational programming.

Winner of the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, The Crossing, with conductor Donald Nally, today announces its 2018-19 season, titled Aniara. The season-which is centered around exploring mankind's place in the universe, the relationships between humans, navigating through space and life, and the passage of time - features The Crossing's New York Philharmonic and Peak Performances debuts, the world premiere of the choral-theater work Aniara: fragments of time and space; and world premieres by Gavin Bryars, Michael Gordon, Thomas Lloyd, and Toivo Tulev.

The Ucross Foundation hosted its inaugural New York Gala & Awards Dinner last night at The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The night was filled with performances and readings by notable award-winning artists, all Ucross alumni, including Ricky Ian Gordon (Grapes of Wrath, opera), Steven Lutvak (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder), bestselling author Tayari Jones, author and Vanity Fair contributor Elissa Schappell, composer/pianist Dylan Mattingly, trumpeter Frank London, and singer-songwriter Kate Schutt. Special guests included Broadway stars Laura Benanti and Nancy Anderson. A collection of artwork from Ucross visual artist alumni was on display and available for purchase. The emcee was former journalist and current film and television screenwriter William 'Bill' Broyles.

On Sunday, June 10, 2018 at 9:30pm (doors 9pm), the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), will perform the music of the late Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker St., NYC) as part of the venue's 10th anniversary celebration, LPR X. The concert will include selections from Johannsson's first concert in New York, which took place in 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge, with ACME. ACME artistic director Clarice Jensen will also perform bc for solo cello and tape loops, a piece that she co-composed with Johannsson last year, which is included on her 2018 debut solo album For this from that will be filled (Miasmah).

Peak Performances presents the world premiere of Spinning, a collaborative musical work written and composed by Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow Julia Wolfe (Anthracite Fields, 2015), and conceived with "cello goddess" (The New Yorker) Maya Beiser, with multimedia projections by innovative artist Laurie Olinder (May 10-13). Commissioned by Peak Performances and culminating their season of works by women, Spinning considers the essential labor of spinning thread-work once performed by hand by women-paying homage to the human dignity of this "women's work."

LA Opera has added a performance of Soldier Songs by David T. Little, with film by Bill Morrison, as part of its 2018/19 Off Grand season. Starring baritone David Adam Moore, the multi-media concert presentation directed by Ashley Tata will take place at the Ford Theatres (2580 Cahuenga Boulevard East, Hollywood, 90068) on Saturday, October 13, at 8:30pm.

The Ford Theatres today announced the 2018 season of events at the fully transformed John Anson Ford Theatres. The 2018 season will open on Friday, June 1 with Chano Dominguez'sFlamenco Sketches, a reimagining of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album in the world, featuring Chano on piano and National Flamenco Contest (Cordoba, Spain) winner Daniel Navarro, and will conclude on Sunday, October 28 with a new site-specific work by the always innovative Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre.

Cellist Clarice Jensen, artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), releases her debut solo album, For this from that will be filled, worldwide on Miasmah Recordings on April 6, 2018. She celebrates the release with a concert featuring music from the album presented by the Ambient Church Series on April 7, 2018 at 8pm (doors 7pm), at Bushwick Methodist Church (1139 Bushwick Ave.). The Ambient Church concert also celebrates the release of electronic artist Christina Vantzou's new album, No. 4, and includes the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Steve Hauschildt, Deradoorian, John Also Bennett, and C. Lavender.

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents the Kronos Quartet, tenor Rinde Eckert and Vietnamese instrumental virtuoso Van-Ánh Võ inMy Lai, composed by Jonathan Berger with libretto by Harriet Scott Chessman, at8 p.m. on Friday, March 9 at Royce Hall. Tickets for $29-$59 are now available online at cap.ucla.edu, via Ticketmaster, by phone 310-825-2101 and at the UCLA Central Ticket Office.

Cellist Clarice Jensen, artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), releases her debut solo album, For this from that will be filled, worldwide on Miasmah Recordings on April 6, 2018. Building on a long and romantic tradition of solo cello repertoire, Jensen expands and confuses the familiar sound of solo cello through the use of effects pedals, multi-tracking, and tape loops recorded at variable speeds.