Mark Stewart News

Composer Paola Prestini, the Creative and Executive Director of National Sawdust (NS), today announced programming for the non-profit's inaugural fall season in its new home-a $16 million, 13,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art chamber hall in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The performance and recording venue, designed by Brooklyn-based architecture firm Bureau V in the shell of century-old former sawdust factory, will provide composers and musicians a setting in which they can flourish, and a place where they are given commissioning support, mentoring and other critical resources essential to create, and then share, their work. For audiences-serious fans and casual listeners alike-the venue will be a place to discover genre-spanning music at accessible ticket prices.

Join Lincoln Center Out of Doors for its final week, August 5 - 9, for concerts ranging from Latin Boogaloo to the gospel stylings of The Fairfield Four, to a unique "silent" screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show, and closing weekend devoted to the "Roots of American Music" with artists co-presented with Americana Music Association.  

MAST, now playing at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, is a new play by paper chairs co-founder and local playwright Elizabeth Doss. In its World Premiere staging, MAST tells the story of Ann (Katie Bender), a rancher's daughter working on an Air Force base outside Abilene, TX, where she meets Walter (Jesse Bertron), a journalist, and ends up unexpectedly conceiving a child, Michael (Sean Francis Moran), in the heat of wartime frenzy. They elope to the Dominican Republic, which is under the oppressive rule of Trujillo (Noel Gaulin). This is the place where Michael is born and where everything begins to unravel. Based on stories of her own mid-century Texas relatives that have been with playwright Elizabeth Doss for most of her life, MAST spans the decades of this family's life.

Lincoln Center Out of Doors one of the country's longest-running, free, summer outdoor festivals opens its 45th season on July 22, 2015. A range of concerts, dance performances, family events, related film screenings, talks, and an exhibition will be presented across three weeks, from July 22 - August 9.

The Pop Group and Sleaford Mods release a split 7' today, June 18th through Freaks R Us.

In conjunction with the Jewish Museum's exhibition, Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television, on view through September 20, 2015, the Jewish Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Cooper Union are co-presenting a series of programs from May to July.

In conjunction with the Jewish Museum's exhibition, Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television, on view from May 1 through September 20, 2015, the Jewish Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Cooper Union are co-presenting a series of programs from May to July.

paper chairs will premiere MAST,  a new play by paper chairs co-founder and local playwright Elizabeth Doss that explores a nuclear family born of World War II as it blows apart over the globe.

The Pop Group and Sleaford Mods release a split 7' on Monday June 18th through Freaks R Us. The single features 'Face To Faces' a raw alternate version of a track featured on the forthcoming Sleaford Mods new album

Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and HERE have announced programming for the third annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival, running today, January 7-17, 2015, in New York City.

This holiday season, Kristin Marting, Kim Whitener, and Beth Morrison are making their lists and checking them twice. In mid-January, they'll be producing seven separate shows over ten days as part of PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now, a festival of opera-theatre and music-theatre. While PROTOTYPE is only in its third year, it has already established itself as the crucible for contemporary opera and theater in New York City. BWW sat down with the three co-producers at HERE, PROTOTYPE'S epicenter, to chat about each of the upcoming festival's unique offerings.

The Pop Group will be kicking off an ambitious release program with two titles, both of which will be available in multiple formats individually and also packaged together as a limited CD box set accompanied by memorabilia and an extensive 36pp booklet.

Warner/Chappell Music, the global music publishing arm of Warner Music Group Corp., today announced that it has extended its worldwide publishing agreement with songwriter, producer and recording artist Terius Nash

Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and HERE have announced programming for the third annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival, running January 7-17, 2015, in New York City.

Austin theater company, Paper Chairs hits the road this July for a Central Texas tour to San Antonio, Fort Worth, and a special performance at a historic farm in Strawn, to present MURDER BALLAD MURDER MYSTERY.

paper chairs hits the road this July for a Central Texas tour to San Antonio, Ft. Worth, and a special performance at a historic farm in Strawn. We'll round out the month with a limited appearance of ONLY TWO Austin performances: July 15 at Cheer Up Charlie's & July 17 at the Longbranch Inn.

Bang on a Can: Other Primary Structures, a concert featuring Bang on a Can All-Stars Vicky Chow (piano) and David Cossin (percussion) with Dither Quartet guitarists Taylor Levine and James Moore, will take place at the Jewish Museum on Thursday, July 10 at 7:30pm. This program is the first auditorium concert of the Jewish Museum and Bang on a Can's new partnership to produce a series of dynamic musical performances at the Museum from June 2014 to May 2015, inspired by the Jewish Museum's diverse slate of exhibitions.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars, known for combining 'the power and punch of a rock band with the precision and clarity of a chamber ensemble' (New York Times), will give a Carnegie Hall Family Concert tonight, February 1, 2014 at 1pm at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, complementing Bang on a Can co-founder David Lang's season-long curation as the holder of the 2013-2014 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars, known for combining "the power and punch of a rock band with the precision and clarity of a chamber ensemble" (New York Times), will give a Carnegie Hall Family Concert on Saturday, February 1, 2014 at 1pm at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, complementing Bang on a Can co-founder David Lang's season-long curation as the holder of the 2013-2014 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall. Lang will host the program, which includes Tan Dun's Concerto for Six (2000), Don Byron's Eugene with video of American TV iconoclast Ernie Kovacs (2000), and selections from David Lang's Cheating, Lying, Stealing (1995). Before the concert at 12pm, Bang on a Can's social engagement wing Found Sound Nation will host its mobile studio, equipped for concert goers to spontaneously create and record original music, in the Parterre Lobby of Zankel Hall.

On their website, Paper Chairs describes their latest production, Murder Ballad Murder Mystery as "part existential whodunit, part slapstick haunting, and part ramshackle hoedown [that] investigates the many ways and whys we carry out a death sentence." I didn't see the existential pieces or the ruminations on the death sentence when I caught a performance on Thursday night, but quite frankly, I don't care. Murder Ballad Murder Mystery is a disjointed, non-linear, and nonsensical spoof on the western and musical genres, and I loved every wacky moment of it.