Bang on a Can, Kaki King, Julia Holter and More to Celebrate 5 Years of Ecstatic Music Festival This Winter

Kaufman Music Center's Ecstatic Music Festival (EMF) returns for a fifth season of one-night-only performances bringing together artists from across the sonic spectrum. This winter, nearly 100 composers and performers will premiere collaborative works that give audiences an unparalleled opportunity to experience music that is fresh, unexpected and utterly unique.

The 2015 Ecstatic Music Festival launches with two free performances presented by Arts Brookfield at the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place (230 Vesey St.) on January 15 and 16, 2015, and continues with eight concerts at Kaufman Music Center's Merkin Concert Hall (129 W. 67th St.) from February 12 through April 16, 2015. The January 15 performance at the Winter Garden will be followed by an invitation-only launch party at Tartinery, Hudson Eats at Brookfield Place.

Launched in January 2011 by Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Concert Hall, the annual Ecstatic Music Festival was quickly hailed as "a who's who of the current music scene" (WQXR) and "the most bracing combinations of adventurous, fulfilling music in recent memory" (NPR) at a moment when young, classically-trained artists were re-defining classical music. The EMF brought together artists from different genres or scenes who didn't typically work together and gave them the opportunity to create something completely new on the stage of an intimate chamber music hall. The result: invigorating, often genuinely surprising concerts audiences would not have been able to experience anywhere else. Musical partnerships first forged at the EMF have flourished beyond the festival, leading to further collaboration, performances and recordings.

In the last five years, presentations of the kind of post-genre music incorporating diverse influences that the EMF has helped pioneer have proliferated. At a time when genre-challenging work such as pop artists writing for string quartets or classical ensembles performing in rock clubs has become the norm, the EMF's emphasis on meaningful, well-chosen collaborations continues to create creative contexts for exceptional new work.

"Despite all the wonderful developments in our musical culture over the last few years, there are still no other festivals devoted entirely to new musical collaborations between artists from different musical backgrounds," says Ecstatic Music Festival curator Judd Greenstein. "The EMF is unusual in that we are not merely presenting new work, but are putting artists together in surprising combinations and challenging them to extend beyond their usual ranges. The results are a unique contribution to what is happening in music today."

"When Kaufman Music Center launched the Ecstatic Music Festival five years ago, we wanted to give both artists and audiences a unique opportunity to experience something completely different from what they would get anywhere else," says Lydia Kontos, Kaufman Music Center's Executive Director. "Where else could you see extraordinary performances like Dan Deacon with So Percussion (2011), The Mountain Goats and Anonymous 4 (2012), or Carla Kihlstedt with the International Contemporary Ensemble (2013)? Our fifth anniversary lineup is the most exciting yet!"

Presented by Kaufman Music Center, the 2015 Ecstatic Music Festival will include three New Sounds Live concerts hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer, which will be webcast live on Q2 Music (q2music.org) and taped for future broadcast on WNYC. Q2 Music is the festival's digital venue and will be the center for on-demand artist interviews and concert audio. The EMF is presented in association with New Amsterdam Presents.

---

Performance Schedule:

Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 8 pm, FREE
Ian Williams & Mantra Percussion
Presented by Arts Brookfield at the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place

Guitarist and composer Ian Williams has been a member of some of the most influential American progressive rock groups: the '90s math-rock innovators Don Caballero, the experimental rock trio Storm and Stress, and currently the powerhouse pioneers Battles. He has undoubtedly expanded the aural lexicon of rock and roll through his virtuosic technique and innovative compositional voice. Williams joins Mantra Percussion, hailed by Time Out New York as both "forward thinking" and "superhuman," for a full evening of intensely driving percussion, guitar and electronics that intersects Williams's music at its core.

Friday, January 16, 2015, 8 pm, FREE
Wet Ink Ensemble with Deborah Lohse & the Shake Down Dance Collective
with Mantra Percussion
Presented by Arts Brookfield at the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place

For more than a decade, the New York-based Wet Ink Ensemble has commissioned, premiered and recorded works by many of today's most promising emerging composers, while also continually collaborating with a broad international range of highly-renowned artists. For this performance, Mantra Percussion performs three new works written by the founding composers of Wet Ink -- Sam Pluta, Alex Mincek and Eric Wubbels - to be accompanied by the beautiful choreography of Deborah Lohse and the Shakedown Dance Collective. Contemporary classical music and the art of percussion will be reinvented and paired with dance to create a unique experience.

Thu, Feb 12, 2015, 7:30 pm
John Zorn, Talea Ensemble, Tyshawn Sorey & Ikue Mori
Presented by Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Concert Hall

New York's path-breaking Talea Ensemble joins forces with the unstoppable composer, improviser and performer John Zorn for a program of new and classic works. The program includes Zorn's "Prophetic Mysteries" for solo flute and two foley performers, and features Ikue Mori and the world premiere of a new trio for piano, bass and drums featuring Tyshawn Sorey and Trevor Dunn along with Talea pianist Stephen Gosling. Also featured will be two of Zorn's classic game pieces, Rugby and Hockey, the latter including John Zorn on saxophone. Talea will perform the ensemble work "Bateau Ivre," composed for Talea, and the world premiere of a new string trio.

Wed, Feb 18, 2015, 7:30 pm
Helado Negro & thingNY
Presented by Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Concert Hall

Helado Negro, the one-person band masterminded by Roberto Carlos Lange, creates a perfect equilibrium of intricate electronic music with shades of kraut rock bathed in mesmerizing rhythms. Together with the theatrically-charged, experimental collective thingNY, he will re-develop his 2013 piece "Brain Finger Composition," a performance of his songs built on spontaneous direction and interaction between thingNY and Roberto as he controls the players via yarn tethering them to his fingers. thingNY will also perform a set of text-pieces, including a preview of their upcoming opera "This takes place close by."

Wed, Feb 25, 2015, 7:30 pm
Julia Holter, Alex Temple & Spektral Quartet
Presented by Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Concert Hall

Julia Holter's take on ambient pop earned her spots on Pitchfork Media's coveted "Top 50 Albums" list in 2013 and NPR's list of Best Outer Sound Albums of 2011. This February she conspires with Spektral Quartet for the world premiere of Alex Temple's "Behind the Wallpaper." Holter's hypnotic and intimate mezzo-soprano is a perfect match for Temple's multi-movement, avant-pop slide into the sometimes cozy, sometimes sinister landscapes of isolation and otherness. The narrator of this set of songs is undergoing an unnameable change that manifests itself in many mysterious ways. She tries to confess a secret, but instead live fish flop out of her mouth. She encounters a man with a foul-smelling purple stain on his forehead and finds a house that's constantly growing. She attends a masquerade ball at an art gallery and discovers a vast secret world superimposed on our own. She takes a lonely midnight bus ride through the suburbs.

Thu, Feb 26, 2015, 7:30 pm
Bang on a Can People's Commissioning Fund Concert: Bang on a Can All-Stars
World premieres of new works by Glenn Kotche, Jace Clayton & Ben Frost
A New Sounds Live co-presentation hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer
Presented by Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Concert Hall

The Bang on a Can People's Commissioning Fund (PCF) concert is one of the most anticipated and reliable launching pads for emerging composers in New York and beyond. Founded in 1997, long before crowd-funding became the norm through Kickstarter and the like, Bang on a Can's PCF has pooled contributions of all sizes from hundreds of friends and fans and since its inception has commissioned over 40 works of music. This year, the Bang on a Can All-Stars will give the world premieres of works by three PCF-commissioned composers: Wilco's Glenn Kotche, Jace Clayton (aka DJ/rupture) and Ben Frost.

Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 7:30 pm
Terry Riley 80th Birthday Concert
With Gyan Riley, Emily Wells, Face the Music, Marco Benevento and more
A New Sounds Live co-presentation hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer
Presented by Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Concert Hall

Celebrate the 80th birthday of Terry Riley, who launched the Minimalist movement in the 1960s and changed the course of 20th century music. Composer/performers inspired by Riley's work and legacy -- including guitarist Gyan Riley, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Emily Wells, pianist/vocalist Marco Benevento and the celebrated teen new music sensations Face the Music -- will perform tribute pieces. Then, artists from across the sonic spectrum will come together for a massive performance of Riley's revolutionary 1964 classic "In C."

Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 7:30 pm
John King, Kaki King & ETHEL
A New Sounds Live co-presentation hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer
Presented by Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Concert Hall

Three of today's top contemporary composer/performers join forces for a finely hued collaborative concert. It's a trio unlike any other - a combination of the effusive, white-hot power of America's premier string quartet ETHEL; raw, emotionally charged picking and pounding of guitarist Kaki King; and complex harmonies and structures of composer/guitarist/violist John King. This eclectic program includes world premieres by all three artists written both individually and collaboratively, as well as some existing pieces, peppered by guitars, dobros, banjos and ouds.

Thu, Apr 2, 2015, 7:30 pm
Xiu Xiu & Mantra Percussion
Presented by Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Concert Hall

Untold sonic possibilities will be spilled when the post-punk cult favorite Xiu Xiu teams up with Mantra Percussion. Hailed for their "hypnotic intensity" by the New York Times and "superhuman" performances by Time Out New York, Mantra adds six percussionists to Xiu Xiu's already drum-heavy sound world, described by Pitchfork as "challenging...because it addresses you in a manner that's categorically different from what you've come to expect from any kind of music -- pop, experimental or otherwise."

Thu, Apr 16, 2015, 7:30 pm
Annie Gosfield, Roger Kleier, Billy Martin & Wicked Knee
Presented by Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Concert Hall

Composer/sampling junkie Annie Gosfield meets drummer extraordinaire Billy Martin of Medeski Martin & Wood, in a collaboration that includes members of Billy's avant brass band Wicked Knee and Annie's longtime collaborator, guitarist Roger Kleier. Inspired by the tradition of the instrumental 45 RPM single, they will present a grooving new music take on instrumental songs that are built on Annie's wild analog synth samples, factory sounds, jammed radio signals and noise, propelled by Martin's supple, danceable beats, punctuated by a wicked horn section, and set aflame by combustible guitar.

Tickets at 212 501 3330 or EcstaticMusicFestival.com. Single tickets: $25. Ecstatic Music Festival Pass (8 Merkin Hall concerts): $100 (until Dec 31), $150 (after Dec 31). Subscription (2+ concerts in the Ecstatic Music Festival or New York Guitar Festival): $20 per concert. Students with ID: $15.

Kaufman Music Center is New York's go-to place for music education and performance.
It's where music lovers, from curious fans to renowned performers, come together to explore their musical passions. Founded in 1952 as a community school for pre-conservatory music training, today's Kaufman Music Center is home to Merkin Concert Hall; Lucy Moses School, New York's largest community arts school; and Special Music School, a K-12 public school for musically gifted children.

Arts Brookfield presents exciting, world-class cultural experiences to hundreds of thousands of people for free each year in both indoor and outdoor public spaces at Brookfield's premier office properties in New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Houston, Toronto, Perth and Sydney. From concerts, theater and dance to film screenings and art exhibitions, Arts Brookfield brings public spaces to life through art.

Q2 Music is WQXR's online music station dedicated to contemporary classical composers, innovative ensembles and vibrant, live webcasts from New York City's leading new-music venues. Q2 Music, a live 24/7 music stream available at wqxr.org/q2music, includes immersive festivals, insightful commentary from hosts and composers, full-length album streams, in-depth interviews with trend-setting artists, and special live events at The Greene Space at WQXR. Q2 Music is also available via the free WQXR app.

About New Amsterdam Presents - Founded on principles of community, artistic diversity and stylistic freedom, New Amsterdam Presents is an artist's service organization dedicated to supporting the public's engagement with new music by composers and performers whose work does not adhere to traditional and outdated genre distinctions. By acting as a direct conduit between artists and the audience for their work, New Amsterdam allows musicians to make projects that grow directly from their creative impulses, free from the pressures of the musical marketplaces.