John Zorn News

String quartet ETHEL, known for its enlivened playing and consistently groundbreaking redefinition of concert music, announces their landmark 20th anniversary season. Described as "an adventurous quartet with a rock band's zest" by The New York Times and deemed "a genre unto itself" by the Village Voice, ETHEL continues to set the standard for contemporary concert music. Celebrations begin with a June 20th benefit gala hosted by New Sound's John Schaefer, honoring ETHEL as well as fellow new music champions: Bang on a Can founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe. ETHEL's 2018-19 season offers the New York premiere of Circus: Wandering City at the 2018 BAM Next Wave Festival, along with continued touring of the group's signature works: The River and Documerica. (Please scroll below for more details and complete 2018-19 schedule of events.)

The Rabbit and the Fallen Sycamore, the third album in a trilogy by singer-songwriter Kristo Rodzevski and his group of jazz progressives, will be released by Much Prefer Records today!

National Sawdust, the artist-led nonprofit incubator and venue, announces June 2018 as Hildegard Month at the Williamsburg space that serves as a dynamic home for artists and new music of all kinds. Named for the influential medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen and celebrating the contribution of women and gender non-binary artists to music of all genres, including contemporary classical music, the Hildegard Month festivities center around the June 12 concert featuring premieres from Hildegard Competition winners Emma O'Halloran, X. Lee, and Kayla Cashetta performed by The Refugee Orchestra under the baton of Lidiya Yankovskaya.

Rehearsals are underway for Underneath the Lintel, starring Sally Wingert. As part of Theater Latte Da's commitment to developing new works, this production of Glen Berger's acclaimed play features original music commissioned by Latte Da from Grammy award-winning composer Frank London, founding member of The Klezmatics. Theater Latte Da Artistic Director Peter Rothstein directs the production with Music Director Dan Chouinard and vocalist Natalie Nowytski. Performances begin May 30 at the Ritz Theater (345 13th Avenue NE in Minneapolis). Single tickets go on sale May 1 and can be purchased at Latteda.org or by calling 612-339-3003.

Performance Space New York's East Village Series, the first themed series under the leadership of Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, has reexamined the audacious origins of the organization and the communities that formed around it. In 1986, choreographer Ishmael Houston-Jones, composer/guitarist Chris Cochrane, writer Dennis Cooper, and an ensemble of dancers performed the first full version of THEM, an unblinking interdisciplinary work of scored improvisational dance, spoken text, and guitar, at what was then Performance Space 122.

New York Youth Symphony (NYYS), is proud to continue its mission of providing an outstanding music education and performance opportunities to students between the ages of 12-22 by launching a new Musical Theater Composition program aimed at diversifying the world of musical theater. The new director and performance information is expected to be announced in summer 2018. Also new in 2018/19 the NYYS Orchestra and Chamber Music Programs will tour together for the first time ever to Spain in 2019, where they will explore cities including Madrid, Granada, and Seville.

Two sides of the same coin—culminating concert in 17-18 Season of Sacred Music in a Sacred Space explores secular, sacred dualities of Francis Poulenc on May 23rd at 8pm

On Wednesday, May 30th, at 7:30 pm the Austrian Cultural Forum New York presents Press Play Backwards. A collaboration between vocalist Lauren Kinsella and pianist Elias Stemeseder, Press Play Backwards is an opera for two improvisers. Admission is free, and reservations (online at ACFNY.org) are required. Austrian Cultural Forum New York is located at 11 East 52nd Street, New York, NY.

A Dutch librarian embarks on a quest to find out who anonymously returned a library book; a travel guide that is 113 years overdue. A clue scribbled in the margin of the book and an unclaimed dry-cleaning ticket then take her on a mysterious adventure that spans the globe and the ages. The librarian, who has never left her native town of Hoofdrop, grows determined to track down the offender. As she travels around the world on her obsessive search, she finds herself on a journey that not only unlocks ancient mysteries, but also moves her to new revelations about her place in the universe.

On Modern Lore, Julian Lage's second studio recording with his trio, the composer and guitarist focuses on the groove, building his melodies and solos around the work of the prodigious rhythm section of double bassist Scott Colley and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Modern Lore finds Lage playfully flipping the script he followed on his acclaimed 2016 Mack Avenue debut, Arclight. That album -- produced, like Modern Lore, by Lage's friend and collaborator, the singer-songwriter Jesse Harris -- was his first trio set on electric guitar and found Lage inspired by the sounds and the attitude of the freewheeling, pre-bebop jazz era, when, as he puts it, 'country music and jazz and swing were in this weird wild-west period.' This time he incorporates the sensibility, if not the outright sound, of early rock and roll, a similarly hybrid form driven by rhythm, personality and a passion for the electric guitar.

Theater Latte Da announces single tickets go on sale May 1 for Underneath the Lintel, starring Sally Wingert. As part of Theater Latte Da's commitment to developing new works, this production of Glen Berger's acclaimed play features original music commissioned by Latte Da from Grammy award-winning composer Frank London, founding member of The Klezmatics. Theater Latte Da Artistic Director Peter Rothstein directs the production with Music Director Dan Chouinard and vocalist Natalie Nowytski. Performances begin May 30 at the Ritz Theater (345 13th Avenue NE in Minneapolis).

The Rabbit and the Fallen Sycamore, the third album in a trilogy by singer-songwriter Kristo Rodzevski and his group of jazz progressives, will be released by Much Prefer Records on May 25, 2018.

Featured Performers Include Sopranos Sarah Shafer and Abigail Fischer, Tenor James Reese, and Baritone Lee Poulis

The Kitchen presents a multimedia project from Charles Atlas, continuing the institution's nearly 45-year relationship with the video art pioneer. In The Kitchen's gallery, two new video installations take a retrospective look at Atlas' work while offering a counterpoint to his interactive 2003 show Instant Fame! and its portraits of downtown figures (through May 12).

National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company, under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2017-2018 Season at Lincoln Center with Beethoven Symphony #9 on Friday, April 13, 2018 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC. Tickets are $30-$100 and are available at www.nationalchorale.com, or by calling (212) 333-5333.

Rova Saxophone Quartet: a group that can move you the way an Eastern European choir of voices can move you, but also a group with force, a force that can feel as if it is tearing the walls of the listening space down, celebrates its 40th Anniversary and the release of their new CD, 'In Transverse Time.' Rova will play music from their new CD (on the adventurous Canadian label Victo) and reprise vintage Rova material from the vaults.

National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company, under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2017-2018 Season at Lincoln Center with Beethoven Symphony #9 on Friday, April 13, 2018 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC.

On Tuesday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, acclaimed American tenor Lawrence Brownlee presents the New York premiere of Cycles of My Being, a new song cycle composed by Tyshawn Sorey with lyrics by Terrance Hayes that explores the realities of life as a black man in America. Brownlee—hailed as one of “the world's leading bel canto tenors” by the Associated Press—is conducted by composer Tyshawn Sorey and joined by violinist Randall Goosby, cellist Khari Joyner, clarinetist Alexander Laing, and pianist Kevin Miller for Cycles of My Being, which is co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall as part of the Hall's 125 Commissions Project. The program opens with Schumann's Dichterliebe, to be performed alongside pianist Myra Huang.

Marking the debut solo record of “envelope-shredding” trumpeter/composer Stephanie Richards, Fullmoon is years of shaping, culminating in a mesmerizing work of refined electric insanity. With Fullmoon, Richards is unplugged, acoustically manipulating her horn against resonating surfaces, appearing to sound processed, only to be live-sampled by electronic pioneer Dino J.A. Deane. Unbridled and succinct, Fullmoon is a sonic exploration of supernatural pulses and groove.

The Kitchen presents a multimedia project from Charles Atlas, continuing the institution's nearly 45-year relationship with the video art pioneer. In The Kitchen's gallery, two new video installations take a retrospective look at Atlas' work while offering a counterpoint to his interactive 2003 show Instant Fame! and its portraits of downtown figures (March 28-May 12).