John Zorn News

The nominees for the 49th Annual JUNO Awards were announced today by The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) at a press conference attended by media and industry notables at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre (CBC), in downtown Toronto. JUNO Week 2020, hosted in Saskatoon, SK, will culminate with Canada's biggest night in music - The 2020 JUNO Awards - broadcast live from the SaskTel Centre on Sunday, March 15 on CBC, CBC Gem, CBC Radio One, CBC Music, the CBC Listen app and globally at cbcmusic.ca/junos.

Tom Gold Dance will present its annual spring season, featuring World Premieres from Tom Gold Dance Founder and Director Tom Gold to music of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw and from John Zorn, Wednesday, April 1 and Thursday, April 2, 2020 at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College.

Bang on a Can and the Jewish Museum's 2019-2020 concert season continues on Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 7:30pm at the Jewish Museum's Scheuer Auditorium (1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street). Flutist Nicole Mitchell's trio Matape, with Val Jeanty and Chad Taylor, creates ancient future soundscapes informed by the African diaspora through flute, Afro-Electronica, and percussion. This season's Bang on a Can performances celebrate the unique power of artist's voices, and Mitchell, emerging from Chicago's innovative music scene in the late 90s, continues that theme. The power of artists voices also resonates with themes in the current exhibition Rachel Feinstein: Maiden, Mother, Crone.

On February 7, Guitar Mash and the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment will bring an audience as diverse as Queens itself to 'mash' with some of the music industry's most acclaimed guitarists and singer/songwriters when Flushing Town Hall hosts the first-ever NYC Urban Campfire: QUEENS.

American singer-songwriter, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jonny Polonsky has announced his new album 'Kingdom of Sleep', scheduled for release on March 6, 2020. Ahead of that, he presents the lead single 'The Weeping Souls'. Self-produced by Polonsky, this album was mixed and mastered by Mike Tholen (Chris Connelly, Revolting c*cks).

In the dead of winter, 92Y's February concert programs promise intimacy and warmth, along with some new sounds: world premieres by John Zorn, Natacha Diels, and Marcos Balter form the basis of cellist Jay Campbell's program with pianist Conor Hanick (February 14). Alexi Kenney's solo violin recital includes scores by Du Yun, Kaija Saariaho, Reich, Kurtág, Enescu, and others, interspersed with movements of Bach (February 7).

See what's coming up in February at National Sawdust!

American singer-songwriter, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jonny Polonsky has announced his new album 'Kingdom of Sleep', scheduled for release on March 6, 2020. Ahead of that, he presents the lead single 'The Weeping Souls'. Self-produced by Polonsky, this album was mixed and mastered by Mike Tholen (Chris Connelly, Revolting c*cks).

See full details for January 2020 performances at National Sawdust

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) presents new music piano trio Longleash in their 5BMF debut, performing Beethoven Reflections on Friday, January 10, 2020 at 7:30pm at Flushing Town Hall in Queens and Sunday, January 12, 2020 at 3:00pm at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. The program includes two of Beethoven's celebrated trios - the Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1 No. 3 and Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70 No. 1 'Ghost' - paired with two contemporary responses: John Zorn's Ghosts, and the world premiere of Reiko Füting's free - whereof -- wherefore, co-commissioned by 5BMF and Longleash.

Yara Arts Group (www.yaraartsgroup.net), under the direction of Virlana Tkacz, will stage a concert-theater event, 'Koliada and Music from the Carpathians,' December 6 and 7 at 7:00 PM at the Ukrainian Museum, 222 E 6th Street in Manhattan.

2019-20 Artists-in-Residence Kinds of Kings present Real Loud, the first of four concerts in their Equilibrium and Disturbance series String quartet ETHEL presents fourth chapter of their HomeBaked Project, an initiative showcasing emerging composers, Canadian Brass presents 50th anniversary of their annual holiday celebration

Grammy-nominated virtuosic guitar duo Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge have announced plans for a major U.S. tour, their first in nearly three years. The dates begin with an eagerly awaited two-night-stand at Nashville, TN's Station Inn on April 1 and 2 and then continue through mid-April. The tour includes stops in major markets including New York City, Chicago and Minneapolis along with visits to such iconic venues as Buck Owens' Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, CA. For complete tour details and ticket information, please visit www.lageeldridge.com.

The celebrated Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo will perform works by renowned Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, Aaron Copland, and John Zorn on Sunday, November 10 at 8:00pm.

The Oratorio Society of New York begins its four-concert 2019-20 season on Tuesday, November 5, with a special program at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Ensemble Connect continues its two-year fellowship program this season with concerts at Carnegie Hall and The Juilliard School, as well as residencies and performances at The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Skidmore College, and in schools and community venues throughout New York City.

The New School's College of Performing Arts (CoPA) announces its fall 2019 season highlights, featuring a series of exciting world premieres and newly commissioned works.

The 2019-2020 season sees the innovative JACK Quartet continuing to push the boundaries of contemporary music, with a series of performances in the ensemble's hometown of New York City, tours to Europe in both the Fall and Spring, numerous premieres of new works, performances of the complete quartets of John Zorn and Clara Iannotta, the inaugural JACK Frontiers festival, and the inaugural season of the ensemble's new JACK Studio program. 

Known for groundbreaking performances that bridge a variety of genres and cultural traditions, Jen Shyu (pronounced 'shoe') returns to National Sawdust to give the world premiere of her multilingual, multimedia monodrama ZERO GRASSES on Wednesday, October 30, at 7:00 p.m. The work was commissioned by John Zorn, who invited Ms. Shyu to compose a new work for his series at National Sawdust in celebration of The Stone, his revolutionary venue dedicated to the experimental and avant-garde. This premiere reunites her with Romanian director Alexandru Mihail, who also directed her acclaimed one-woman show Nine Doors, which premiered at National Sawdust in 2017 and was reprised at last year's Resonant Bodies Festival.

The iconoclastic composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton is one of the most important musicians, educators, and creative thinkers of our time.