John Schaefer News

The World Music Institute launches its 2013-14 season with the New York concert debut of CHRISTINE SALEM tonight, October 4 at 8:00pm at Peter Norton Symphony Space.

In the shadow of 9/11, the late New York poet, playwright, songwriter and educator SEKOU SUNDIATA spent three years traveling through the U.S. gathering perspectives from ordinary Americans to create what would be his last theater work, "the 51st (dream) state." He sought to understand how he and others felt about being American during a time of terrorism and war and what future we could imagine and make possible.

Spottiswoode & His Enemies, the cult septet who recently celebrated their 15th anniversary by winning two Independent Music Awards for their recent album Wild Goosechase Expedition, will play a 4-show residency this fall at The Living Room. It will be their first New York performances since April and their last before the release of their sixth album, English Dream, next year (spring 2014).

Spottiswoode & His Enemies, the cult septet who recently celebrated their 15th anniversary by winning two Independent Music Awards for their recent album Wild Goosechase Expedition, will play a 4-show residency this fall at The Living Room. It will be their first New York performances since April and their last before the release of their sixth album, English Dream, next year (spring 2014).

The World Music Institute launches its 2013-14 season with the New York concert debut of CHRISTINE SALEM on Friday, October 4 at 8:00pm at Peter Norton Symphony Space.

On Monday, September 9, at 8 p.m. the Young People's Chorus of New York City conducted by its Artistic Director/Founder Francisco J. Núñez will give the broadcast premiere of the four newest compositions in Radio Radiance, its ground-breaking commissioning series for young voices.

Bang on a Can's 2013-2014 season takes the new music collective's house bands - the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Asphalt Orchestra - on multiple tours throughout the world, for performances as far-flung geographically as Lawrence, Kansas; New York, NY; Krakow, Poland; Paris, France; Istanbul, Turkey; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Essen, Germany; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Moscow, Russia; Macau, China; Seoul, South Korea; Washington, DC; North Adams, MA; and many other places around the globe.

Lincoln Center announces its October lineup. Events include Target Free Thursdays, Poetry Competition, White Light Festivals, and Great Performers concerts.

Bang on a Can's 2013-2014 season takes the new music collective's house bands - the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Asphalt Orchestra - on multiple tours throughout the world, for performances as far-flung geographically as Lawrence, Kansas; New York, NY; Krakow, Poland; Paris, France; Istanbul, Turkey; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Essen, Germany; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Moscow, Russia; Macau, China; Seoul, South Korea; Washington, DC; North Adams, MA; and many other places around the globe.

A number of program changes and additions have been made to the performances, screenings, and events presented by Great Performers and the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center this season. Below is a final schedule of events for both series through June 4, 2013.

Hazmat Modine will kick off The Jewish Museum's popular SummerNights series with tonight's June 27 concert beginning at 7:30 pm.

Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss today announced the roster for Lincoln Center's fourth multidisciplinary White Light Festival, October 24 through November 23, 2013. The Festival's focus is music's capacity to illuminate the many dimensions of our interior lives, with a particular emphasis this year on the power of the voice. Spanning numerous musical traditions, genres, and disciplines, the Festival will offer 23 performances, films, and events featuring seven premieres and debuts by artists and companies from more than a dozen countries, including France, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, the U.K., Mali, Estonia, Italy, Austria, Canada and the U.S. New to this edition of the Festival is White Light on Film, film screenings followed by discussions with their directors. Other Festival components include: a panel discussion focused on the subject of time, pre- and post-performance artist discussions, and the popular post-performance White Light Lounges.

Hazmat Modine will kick off The Jewish Museum's popular SummerNights series with a June 27 concert beginning at 7:30 pm. The band draws on American music of the 1920s and 30s through the 1950s and early 60s, blending elements of early blues, hokum, jug band, swing, klezmer, New Orleans R&B, and Jamaican rocksteady. This event also includes an open bar with wine and light refreshments. The Jewish Museum is located at Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, Manhattan.

Tonight, April 19, at 8 p.m. the Young People's Chorus of New York City, conducted by its Artistic Director/Founder Francisco J. Nuñez, will premiere the four newest commissions in its Radio Radiance series in a recording before a live audience in Kaufmann Concert Hall at the 92nd Street Y. This new Radio Radiance music, in which technology and the human voice overlap to make new sounds and great music, will be recorded for later broadcast this spring by WWFM The Classical Network and hosted by YPC's longtime friend and collaborator John Schaefer from WNYC.

On Friday, April 19, at 8 p.m. the Young People's Chorus of New York City, conducted by its Artistic Director/Founder Francisco J. Nuñez, will premiere the four newest commissions in its Radio Radiance series in a recording before a live audience in Kaufmann Concert Hall at the 92nd Street Y. This new Radio Radiance music, in which technology and the human voice overlap to make new sounds and great music, will be recorded for later broadcast this spring by WWFM The Classical Network and hosted by YPC's longtime friend and collaborator John Schaefer from WNYC.

On Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 7:30pm, Bang on a Can will present the 2013 Bang on a Can People's Commissioning Fund concert, one of the most anticipated and reliable launching pads for emerging composers in New York and beyond, as part of Kaufman Music Center's Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Concert Hall (Kaufman Music Center, 129 W. 67th St.).

Composer Bill Ryan is known to many as The Force behind The Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, the student group that gained widespread praise for recordings of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians (2007) and Terry Riley's In C with remixes (2009). With Towards Daybreak, the sophomore release from Ryan's ensemble Billband, the focus returns to his own work. Towards Daybreak came out Tuesday, January 29 on Innova. The music - by turns contemplative, roiling, elegaic, and aggressive - reflects experiences in Ryan's life, from the birth of a child to the loss of his parents.

On Tuesday, February 26, the debut recording of David T. Little's 'sharp, elegantly bristling' opera-theatre piece, Soldier Songs (2006), which recently completed a wildly successful NYC premiere run on the inaugural PROTOTYPE festival, is released on audio CD from Innova Recordings, produced by Lawson White. The recording receives its digital release on iTunes and Amazon today, February 5, 2013.