Baryshnikov Arts Center Sets Fall 2016 Season

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) announces the fall 2016 performance and residency series, which runs September 27 through December 16. BAC Presents will bring to BAC's stages World and U.S. Premieres of works by international music and dance artists. Tickets go on sale August 15 and can be purchased online at bacnyc.org or by phone at 866 811 4111. Throughout the season,BAC Residencies will provide critical support to nine artists across disciplines to develop new work in BAC's studios.

BAC Presents: MUSIC

Somi (Sep 27)
Merasi: Master Musicians of Rajasthan (Oct 6-7)
BAC Salon: Dialogues with Margaret Brouwer + Du Yun (Nov 1)
BAC Salon: Carolina Eyck + American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) (Nov 4)

Launching BAC's fall season is vocalist and songwriter Somi, who was in residence at BAC last fall to develop a jazz opera inspired by the late South African singer Miriam Makeba. Somi, who is often referred to as a modern day Makeba, and who was recently hailed "the new Nina Simone" (Huffington Post), draws from her Chicago roots and East African heritage to create "an elegant amalgam of her bi-continental experiences" (NPR). On September 27 in the Jerome Robbins Theater, she will perform a program of songs from her repertoire, both old and new, which will also be the featured performance of BAC's annual Fall Fête on September 26.

BAC's music programming continues with Merasi: Master Musicians of Rajasthan, bringing a centuries-old cultural tradition from the Great Thar desert of Northwest India to the Jerome Robbins Theater, on October 6-7. An ensemble of musicians spanning three generations from Jaisalmer will perform a blend of sacred Hindu, Sufi, and folk music with unique instruments specific to their ancient practice, unfolding in a contemporary context. Audiences will have a rare opportunity to experience a world-class artistic legacy charged with passion, mastery, and social significance.

This fall, the signature BAC Salon series-concerts performed in an intimate salon setting-offers two programs this season featuring all female composers. First is BAC Salon: Dialogues with Margaret Brouwer + Du Yun on November 1 in the Howard Gilman Performance Space, hosted by composer Tania León. This co-presentation with Composers Now, of which León is founder, is a performance and conversation format featuring composers and musicians Margaret Brouwer and Du Yun. Then on November 4 in the Howard Gilman Performance Space is BAC Salon: Carolina Eyck + American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME). German-born composer Carolina Eyck, who is a theremin virtuoso, is joined by the New York-based "contemporary music dynamos" (The New York Times) ACME for the World Premiere live performance of Eyck's minimalist Fantasias for string quartet and theremin.

BAC Presents: DANCE
Rachid Ouramdane (Oct 13-15)
Liz Gerring Dance Company (Nov 10-12)
Brooklyn Touring Outfit (Nov 16-18)

BAC's season of dance performances starts with a co-presentation with French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)'s Crossing the Line Festival. For the past decade, Rachid Ouramdane has been at the forefront of European dance practice, forging a boundary-breaking path as founder of Company L'A, co-director of the National Choreographic Center of Grenoble, and through collaborations with artists such as Emmanuelle Huynh, Meg Stuart, Christian Rizzo, and Alain Buffard. In Tordre, making its U.S. premiere, two of Ouramdane's longtime collaborators-Lora Juodkaite and Annie Hanauer-perform intensely physical solos together, October 13-15 in the Jerome Robbins Theater.

BAC then collaborates once again with Lincoln Center's White Light Festival to co-present the World Premiere of T(h)ere to T(h)ere by Liz Gerring Dance Company, November 10-12 in the Jerome Robbins Theater. Gerring's last performance at BAC was the 2011 critically-acclaimed World Premiere of she dreams in code, described in The New York Times as "a stage world that keeps deepening as you watch, and then again further in recollection." Her latest work, which received development support from both BAC and Lincoln Center, builds on Gerring's exploration of non-narrative, abstract movement set to an original score by her longtime collaborator Michael J. Schumacher. It also incorporates projected texts by visual artist Kay Rosen.

Rounding out BAC's fall season of dance is Brooklyn Touring Outfit co-founded by dance archivist David Vaughan and artist Pepper Fajans, whose cross-generational friendship is explored and celebrated in the dance theater work Co. Venture, having its U.S. PremiereNovember 16-18 in the Howard Gilman Performance Space. The duo met while working and touring around the world with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Drawing from their experiences of adventure and camaraderie, Co. Venture-which received the 2015 Montréal Fringe Festival Award for Outstanding Choreography-incorporates a sculptural and interactive décor. Holley Farmer and David Neumann join Vaughan and Fajans as collaborators for the New York run.

BAC Residencies

At the core of BAC's mission is the Residency Program, which provides time, space, and resources for creative experimentation and artistic freedom. For a fifth season, BAC will host BAC Space, a residency format designed to encourage peer exchange, during which artists will work concurrently in all of BAC's studios. BAC Space Fall 2016 will take place over two three-week periods: October 31-November 18 and November 28-December 16, and will include a series of public events to be announced by October 1. ?BAC Space Fall 2016 Resident Artists include Manuela Infante (Theater), Sibyl Kempson (Theater), Dianne McIntyre (Dance), Richard Move(Dance/Theater), Emmanuele Phuon (Dance), Andrew Schneider (Theater/Multimedia), and Kota Yamazaki (Dance).

In addition to BAC Space, BAC's Princess Grace Foundation-USA Works-in-Progress Residency will support a residency December 5-16 for dance/theater artist Eric Simonson. And Alexei Lubimov continues as the inaugural Cage Cunningham Fellow, through which he has commissioned new works by five composers at the forefront of music innovation: Anton Batagov, Bryce Dessner, Pavel Karmanov, Julia Wolfe, and Sergei Zagny.

Tickets for BAC Presents can be purchased online or by phone:

BACNYC.ORG / 866 811 4111. A complete schedule of BAC Fall 2016 Presentations follows.

BAC PRESENTS FALL 2016:

MUSIC

Somi

September 27

Tuesday at 8PM

Jerome Robbins Theater

Tickets: $25

"The earthy gutsiness of Nina Simone blended with the vocal beauty of Dianne Reeves." - JazzTimes

Born in the American Midwest to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda, vocalist and songwriter Somi draws inspiration from her multicultural background and international travels to create a lush Afro-beat straddling the worlds of jazz, soul, and pop. With powerful expressiveness and a unique style of melodic storytelling, she is hailed as a modern day Miriam Makeba.

Running Time: 60 Minutes

MUSIC
Merasi: Master Musicians of Rajasthan

October 6-7

Thursday and Friday at 8PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets: $25

From the desert of Northwest India, the Merasi ensemble is rooted in a rich artistic legacy tracing back to temple and court musicians for the Maharajas and royal families of Rajasthan. Nine musicians spanning three generations perform an invigorating mosaic of sacred Hindu, Sufi, and traditional folk music of varied flavors and rhythms, unfolding in a contemporary context.

Running Time: 60 Minutes

DANCE

Rachid Ouramdane

Tordre (U.S. Premiere)

October 13-15
Thursday through Saturday at 8PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets: $20

Diversity Panel Discussion

Bridging: A French-American Dialogue on Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts supported by the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations

October 15

Saturday at 5PM

Jerome Robbins Theater

Free Admission / Reservation details to be announced

Co-presented with French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)'s Crossing the Line 2016

Rachid Ouramdane is at the forefront of dance innovation, extending definitions of performer and choreographer and blurring the line between dance and documentary. In a haunting duet, two dancers perform lonely, intensely physical solos. Through hypnotic, whirling gestures, each woman's body paints a raw, captivating self-portrait.

Running Time: 70 Minutes

MUSIC

BAC Salon: Dialogues with Margaret Brouwer and Du Yun

Hosted by Tania León, founder of Composers Now

November 1

Tuesday at 7:30PM

Howard Gilman Performance Space

Tickets: $20

Co-presented with Composers Now

In an evening of performance and conversation, Margaret Brouwer and Du Yun share their music and discuss their creative process as part of a series designed to showcase the diversity of living composers, and create a forum for meaningful exchange among composers, performers, and audiences.

Running Time: 90 Minutes

MUSIC

BAC Salon: Carolina Eyck + American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME)

Fantasias (World Premiere)

November 4

Friday at 7:30PM

Howard Gilman Performance Space

Tickets: $20

Theremin master Carolina Eyck and ACME perform Eyck's minimalist Fantasias for string quartet and theremin, using electronic effects to bring an authentically fresh sonic pallet to the forefront. At times reverent to traditional melody, harmony, and tone, while at other times as defiant as the most eccentric Musique Concrete, the Fantasias bears the mark of a true virtuoso in her prime.

Composed specifically for the LP format, Eyck and ACME have recorded the Fantasias for release in October 2016 on Butterscotch Records.

Running Time: 60 Minutes

DANCE

Liz Gerring Dance Company

(T)here to (T)here (World Premiere)
November 10-12
Thursday through Saturday at 8PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets: Orchestra $30 / Balcony $25

Tickets are on sale now at bacnyc.org / 212 721 6500

Co-presented with Lincoln Center's White Light Festival

"Not since Trisha Brown have we had a dance-maker who conjures such spells from movement at its purest." - The New York Times

Choreographer Liz Gerring turns abstract movement, minimalist scores, and austere staging into profound, lucid artistry. With projected text by artist Kay Rosen creating a visual space of words and color, and an original score by Michael J. Schumacher, dancers come together and move apart, mirroring the cyclical nature of relationships.

Running Time: 45 Minutes

DANCE

Brooklyn Touring Outfit

Co. Venture (U.S. Premiere)
November 16-18
Wednesday through Friday at 7:30PM
Howard Gilman Performance Space
Tickets: $20

"A beauty of a show...what it feels like to be alive" - The Dance Current

92 year-old dance archivist David Vaughan and 31 year-old artist Pepper Fajans explore their cross-generational friendship, developed while working together on the final world tour of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Joined by collaborators Holley Farmer and David Neumann, the duo brings their experiences of adventure and camaraderie to a dance theater incorporating sculpture, puppetry, and storytelling.

Running Time: 65 Minutes

BAC PRESENTS ARTIST BIOS:

The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) was honored by ASCAP during its 10th anniversary season in 2015 for the "virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers." NPR calls them "contemporary music dynamos," and The New York Times describes ACME's performances as "vital," "brilliant," and "electrifying." Time Out New York reports, "[Artistic Director Clarice] Jensen has earned a sterling reputation for her fresh, inclusive mix of minimalists, maximalists, eclectics and newcomers." ACME has recorded for New World, New Amsterdam, and Butterscotch Records. Its recording of Max Richter's 8-hour piece, Sleep, was released by Deutsche Grammophon in fall 2015. The group's 2015-2016 season includes performances presented by BAM, the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Krakow, Washington Performing Arts in DC, MASS MoCA, Krannert Center, Walker Art Center, Dartmouth's Hopkins Center, Five Boroughs Music Festival, and a residency at National Sawdust. ACME's dedication to new music extends across genres and has earned them a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. ACME's many collaborators have included The Richard Alston Dance Company, Wayne McGregor's Random Dance, Gibney Dance, actress Barbara Sukowa, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, Grizzly Bear, Low, Matmos, Jeff Mangum, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Roomful of Teeth, Lionheart, and Theo Bleckmann. The group has performed at leading venues including Carnegie Hall, BAM, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Miller Theatre, The Met Museum, Constellation Chicago, Stanford Live, UCLA, Peak Performances, Melbourne Recital Hall, Big Ears, and All Tomorrow's Parties in the UK, among many others.

Margaret Brouwer is known for creating music that abounds in lyricism, strong imagery and emotional power. The Dallas Morning News declared she "has one of the most delicate ears and inventive imaginations among contemporary American composers." Reviewing her 2014 Naxos CD, released as part of the label's American Classics Series, NewMusicBox wrote, "From the relentless, primal energy of 'Shattered Glass' to the naked beauty of 'Whom do you call angel now?'...Brouwer's music represents just how uniquely diverse the output and voice of a single composer can be." Reviewing the same disc, The Classical Reviewer stated that the composer "has an ear for creating some exquisite sounds and textures that listeners will find beguiling." Among the ensembles to champion her works are the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the American Composers Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, and the American Modern Ensemble, and she has served as composer-in-residence of the Cabrillo Music Festival. In March 2017 Brouwer's Pluto for orchestra and chorus receives multiple performances with the Maryland Symphony. She is the founder of the Blue Streak Ensemble which brings innovative and eclectic music to new audiences across the country. The Margaret Brouwer Collection, containing her scores, manuscripts, papers and recordings, was created by the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in 2015. Brouwer served as head of the composition department at the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1996 to 2008.

German-born performer and composer Carolina Eyck is widely considered the world's foremost theremin virtuosa. A childhood prodigy, Eyck developed an innovative theremin technique by age 14 and published The Art of Playing the Theremin, which teaches her technique, while just 17 years old. As a soloist and chamber musician she has given concerts worldwide and collaborated with Heinz Holliger, Robert Kolinsky, Gerhard Oppitz, conductors Andrey Boreyko, Michael Sanderling, Gürer Aykal and John Storgårds, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, HR-Symphonieorchestra, Dresden Philharmony, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Heidelberg Symphonic Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and ACME, American Contemporary Music Ensemble. In 2012, Eyck played the theremin solo in the world premieres of two symphonies by Fazil Say - Mesopotamia and Universe. In 2012, the Finnish composer Kalevi Aho wrote a theremin concerto for Eyck, her recording of which was released by BIS Records in July 2014. The recording was awarded with a 2015 ECHO-Classic prize in Germany for "Concert Recording of the Year (Music 20./21.Century)." Eyck has performed in a duo with pianist and composer Christopher Tarnow since 2013, producing two records, one for Butterscotch Records and one for Germany's GENUINE label. Eyck has conducted theremin workshops, lectures, and master classes worlwide. Since 2010 she has been the artistic director of the Theremin Summer Academy in Colmar (France), and since 2013 she has led the Theremin Spring Academy in Leipzig (Germany).

Pepper Fajans is the Founding Director of Brooklyn Studios for Dance (BkSD) and the Brooklyn Touring Outfit. Born in 1985, he was the personal assistant to Merce Cunningham and continued to tour with the Cunningham Company as the production carpenter and assistant to David Vaughan through the final world tour. As director of BkSD he partnered with Cadman Congregational Church in 2015 to renovate their 1920's era gymnasium into a burgeoning dance studio offering classes, performances, and community events. Fajans has performed as a dancer and puppeteer in Hagoromo at Brooklyn Acadamy of Music, The Windup Bird Chronicle at the Ohio Theater, and other productions at La Mama, Danspace Project, and the 92nd Street Y. His solo work has appeared at St. Ann's Warehouse and Judson Church. He has been featured in The New York Times, The Montreal Gazette, andCulturebot. Fajans is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, a resident of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, and a 10-year member of the Seattle's Royal Famile Ducaniveaux.

New York-based Folk Arts Rajasthan (FAR) and India-based Lok Kala Sagar Sansthan (LKSS) are two non-profits joined together by a shared vision of a thriving and just future for the Merasi community of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. Carrying a unique musical legacy of over 38 generations, the Merasi endure the burden of a caste system labeled as "Manganiyaar," meaning "beggar." Defiled by touching the skins of dead animals on their instruments, they are scorned as "untouchables." Most live in poverty and are denied access to education, healthcare, and political representation. Despite daily prejudices, they persist in their roles as oral genealogists, storytellers, and musicians. FAR & LKSS are committed to fostering community development and celebrating cultural understanding through their education and legacy preservation programs. This collaboration envisions a future where the Merasi can live in peace, and share their musical heritage with dignity and respect.

Rachid Ouramdane has been making art projects since 1995. He is an Associate Artist at the Theâtre de la ville in Paris, and at the Bonlieu Theater in Annecy, France. He is regularly invited to work on a variety of collaborations, such as the Lyon Opera Ballet (Superstars - 2006, All around - 2014); the Russian company Migrazia during a residence in Siberia for the Intradance project (Russia) (Borscheviks... a true story... - 2010); and for the 20th birthday of Candoco Dance Company (UK) with disabled dancers (Looking back - 2011). Since Ouramdane founded L'A. Dance Company, his work is based on a meticulous collection of evidence, in collaboration with filmmakers or authors. Through the art of dance he aims to contribute to social debates through choreographic pieces that develop a poetics of testimony. Alongside his creative projects, Ouramdane is working to enhance the transmission and exchange through the management of international workshops for artistic research in France, Romania, Netherlands, Brazil, and the U.S.

Liz Gerring Radke was born in San Francisco in 1965. She grew up in the Los Angeles area and began studying dance at age 13. In high school, she studied dance at the Cornish Institute in Seattle. In 1987, she received a BFA from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Kazuko Hirabayashi and Doris Rudko. In March 1998, she presented her first piece, a four-hour movement installation, and soon after formed the Liz Gerring Dance Company. The company is noted for its close collaboration with contemporary visual artists and a longtime association with electronic music composer Michael J. Schumacher. In 2001, Gerring and Schumacher, with the support of Kirk Radke, founded the nonprofit organization TonalMotion Inc., dedicated to the creation and presentation of movement and sound art. The Company currently comprises seven dancers, and has presented work at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, Montclair State University's Peak Perfs, and Danspace Project, among other venues. Recent works, she dreams in code and glacier, were on New York Times journalist Alastair Macaulay's top ten dance works of the year in 2011 and 2013 respectively, with glacier nominated for a Bessie Award. Gerring was awarded The Jacob's Pillow Prize in June 2015 and a Joyce Theater residency and creation award in the same year.

Vocalist and songwriter Somi was born in Illinois to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda. Her latest recording effort and major label debut The Lagos Music Salon was released on Sony Music's historic jazz imprint Okeh Records. The album, inspired by Somi's 18-month sabbatical in Lagos, Nigeria, landed at #1 on U.S. Jazz charts and earned her an ECHO award nomination for Best International Jazz Vocalist. The New York Times hailed the album, which also features special guests Angelique Kidjo and Common, as "both serious and seductive." Somi is a TED Senior Fellow, an inaugural Association of Performing Arts Presenters Fellow, and was a 2015 Artist-in-Residence at UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and The Robert Rauschenburg Foundation. Known for both her activism and her artistry, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon invited Somi to perform for the United Nations General Assembly to commemorate the International Day of Slavery. Later that year, she performed alongside her long-time mentor Hugh Masekela at Carnegie Hall to celebrate 20 years of South African democracy. Somi is currently working on her next album (to be released in 2017) as well as a theater piece about Miriam Makeba. In her heart of hearts, Somi is an East African Midwesterner who loves family, poetry, and freedom.

David Vaughan (born London, England, 17 May 1924) has danced, sung, acted, and choreographed in London, Paris, on and off Broadway, in American regional theaters, in film, television, ballet and modern dance companies, and cabaret. He was the archivist of the Cunningham Dance Foundation. He is the author of Merce Cunningham: 50 Years (Aperture, 1997; as an app for iPad, as Merce Cunningham: 65 Years ) and of Frederick Ashton and his Ballets (revised edition, Dance Books, 1999). He was a member of the editorial board of the International Encyclopedia of Dance(Oxford, 1998). At the Dancing in the Millennium Conference in Washington DC in July 2000, he received the 2000 CORD (Congress on Research in Dance) Award for Outstanding Leadership in Dance Research; in September 2001 he received a New York Dance and Performance Award ("Bessie") for sustained achievement; in December 2015 a Dance Magazine Award. He returned to the stage in 2015, when Co.Venture, his collaboration with Pepper Fajans, won prizes at the Montreal Fringe Festival.

Du Yun, born and raised in Shanghai, China, and currently based in New York, is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, performance artist, and activist for new music, working at the intersection of orchestral, opera, chamber music, theater, cabaret, pop music, oral tradition, visual arts, electronics, and noise. Hailed by The New York Times "as a leading figure in China's new generation of composers," she was selected by the National Public Radio as one of its 100 Composers Under 40, featured as One of the Top Creatives by Origin Magazine in 2015, and her opera Angel's Bone received its world premiere as part of the 2016 Protoype Festival. The Financial Times characterizes her work as "riveting...a significant voice." Chameleonic in her protean artistic outputs, Yun's music is championed by some of today's finest performing artists, ensembles, orchestras and organizations, including the BAM Next Wave Festival, the Seattle Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, Matt Haimovitz, and Claire Chase. In addition, she has also made works in the art world, including the 4th Guangzhou Art Triennial, Sharjah Biennial (UAE), Auckland Triennial, Istanbul Biennial, and the inaugural Shanghai Project under the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and Youngwoo Lee. She is a member of the composition faculty at SUNY-Purchase, was a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and currently serves as the Artistic Director of MATA, a pioneering organization dedicated to commissioning and championing young composers from around the world.