Laurie Anderson News

Sunday, Oct. 21 marks the final day of The Next Fifty, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, and Seattle Center is planning a festive finale to six months of anniversary activities honoring the past, celebrating the present, and envisioning futures possibilities.

Thursday, October 25 through Saturday, October 27 at 7:30 PM, vocalist Theo Bleckmann and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) will perform OUT COLD/ZIPPO SONGS- a double-bill of dramatic song cycles with music and lyrics by Phil Kline (Unsilent Night, John the Revelator) - presented as part of BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music)'s 30th Next Wave Festival, in a co-production with American Opera Projects (AOP).

Two River Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, continues its 2012-2013 Season with Ethan Lipton's No Place to Go, a musical composed by Ethan Lipton, Eben Levy, Ian M. Riggs, and Vito Dieterle and performed by Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra. The production is directed by Two River Associate Artist Leigh Silverman. Performances will begin on Saturday, October 6 and continue through Sunday, November 4.

Visual artist, dancer, actor and downtown cabaret artist John Kelly will make his solo debut at Joe's Pub at The Public this fall, performing songs by Kurt Weill, Charles Aznavour, The Incredible String Band, Holcombe Waller and Carol Lipnik on October 14, October 28 at 7 PM and November 4 at 9:30 PM.

As social media transforms communications, progressively enabling grassroots initiatives to make change, what do social participation and responsibility look like? The culminating month of The Next Fifty explores this question.

As the country prepares for the 2012 presidential election, Texas Performing Arts welcomes one of America's premiere artists, Laurie Anderson, performing her intimate but volatile piece, Dirtday! Anderson looks at politics, theories of evolution, families, history, and animals in this riotous and soulful collection of songs and stories. As Anderson says, "Politicians are essentially story tellers. They describe the world as it is and also as they think it should be. As a fellow story teller, it seems like a really good time to think about how words can literally create the world."

Ethan Lipton's new play Red-Handed Otter will be given its world premiere by Playwrights Realm www.playwrightsrealm.org, Katherine Kovner, Artistic Director and Renee Blinkwolt, Producing Director, when it opens at Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street, tonight, September 20, at 7:00pm.

Violinist and artistic director Gil Morgenstern's acclaimed Reflections Series opens the 2012-2013 season tonight, September 12 at 7pm and Thursday, September 13 at 7:30pm with Stravinsky, The Violin Years: 1930-1935.

GabrielKahane will return to Carnegie Hall on April 27, 2013, this time in Stern Auditorium. It will be another world premiere: a concerto for himself and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with which he has served as composer-in-residence for two seasons.

As the country prepares for the 2012 presidential election, Texas Performing Arts welcomes one of America's premiere artists, Laurie Anderson, performing her intimate but volatile piece, Dirtday! Anderson looks at politics, theories of evolution, families, history, and animals in this riotous and soulful collection of songs and stories. As Anderson says, "Politicians are essentially story tellers. They describe the world as it is and also as they think it should be. As a fellow story teller, it seems like a really good time to think about how words can literally create the world."

One of the most successful and iconic music releases of the Eighties, Peter Gabriel's 1986 album, So, has been digitally remastered for a special 25th Anniversary Edition to be released October 23rd (October 22nd internationally) by Real World Records/EMI in multiple physical and digital configurations. Peter Gabriel has confirmed a 16-date North American tour for September and October, with many of the musicians from his 1987 'So' tour joining him to perform the album from start to finish, as well as other hits spanning his solo career.

August is just around the corner, so we figured we'd let you know what we had in the works. We start with a CD release party with the Las Cruces-based Hard Road Trio. Their new CD was recorded in and named for Monticello New Mexico, which turns out to be home to some of the finest artisan balsamic vinegar in the country. Who knew? We'll have a special tasting and champagne toast to celebrate their new CD.

Ethan Lipton's new play Red-Handed Otter will be given its world premiere by Playwrights Realm www.playwrightsrealm.org, Katherine Kovner, Artistic Director and Renee Blinkwolt, Producing Director, when it begins previews at the Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street, Wednesday, September 12, at 7:00pm for an opening Thursday, September 20, at 7:00pm.

Violinist and artistic director Gil Morgenstern's acclaimed Reflections Series opens the 2012-2013 season onWednesday, September 12 at 7pm and on Thursday, September 13 at 7:30pm with Stravinsky, The Violin Years: 1930-1935.

A concert of classical Persian music performed by the remarkable Ostad Hossein Omoumi, master of the Persian ney, as well as vocal performance by Jessika Kenney, readings by Dr. Fatemeh Keshavarz and Eyvind Kang on viola and setar, will take place Saturday, June 30, 8 pm at PONCHO Concert Hall, located at 710 East Roy St., Seattle, Wash. Call 206-726-5112 for tickets and more information, or visit www.cornish.edu/musicseries. Tickets are $20 general; $15 seniors; $10 students and Cornish alumni.

A concert of classical Persian music performed by the remarkable Ostad Hossein Omoumi, master of the Persian ney, as well as vocal performance by Jessika Kenney, readings by Dr. Fatemeh Keshavarz and Eyvind Kang on viola and setar, will take place Saturday, June 30, 8 pm at PONCHO Concert Hall, located at 710 East Roy St., Seattle, Wash. Call 206-726-5112 for tickets and more information, or visit www.cornish.edu/musicseries. Tickets are $20 general; $15 seniors; $10 students and Cornish alumni.

Over 20 years in the making, singer songwriter Glen Hansard will release his first ever solo album, Rhythm and Repose, on Anti- Records today, June 19. Best known for his work with The Frames, The Swell Season and in the feature film Once, for which he won an Academy Award, Rhythm and Repose is Hansard's debut solo album and first album of new material since his 2009 release Strict Joy with The Swell Season. The album will be available for pre-sale at the Anti Store. In recent months Hansard has been seen in the documentary The Swell Season which has toured the film festival circuit this year, contributed two songs to the blockbuster soundtrack, The Hunger Games, and been active in the promotion of Once, The Musical which successfully opened on Broadway on March 18. Hansard will support the new record on a U.S. tour. See reverse for details.

Individual performance tickets to the 2012-2013 Texas Performing Arts season go on sale Friday, June 15th. In celebration, tickets to all season performances will be discounted for one day only. From midnight - 11:59 p.m. on Friday, June 15th, single tickets to all 2012-2013 season performances will be priced at 15% off face value. Tickets will be available at all authorized ticket outlets, which include the Bass Concert Hall Box Office, most H-E-B stores and all Texas Box Office outlets, online at www.texasperformingarts.org, or by calling (512) 477-6060 or (800) 982-BEVO.

Museum of the Moving Image will present a live performance by Sideband, the groundbreaking electronic music ensemble, on Friday, June 15, 2012, at 8:00 p.m. The concert will feature laptops as musical instruments, augmented by wireless networks, multichannel speakers, live 3-D video projections, hacked video game controllers, homemade hardware, traditional instruments, physical movement, pianist Kathy Supove, and much more.

Celebrate Brooklyn! previously announced its lineup for this year, which begins today, June 5 with a free concert by reggae icon Jimmy Cliff.