Bryant Park presents IN/TERSECT: Billy Childs Quartet, Derek Bermel and More This Summer

Showcasing world-class jazz and classical music, IN/TERSECT is a rare opportunity to experience some of the most sophisticated music being created today. The two-day music festival is produced with Chamber Music America and curated by Patrick Zimmerli.

Each day, the focus is on a prominent composer who has created significant work in both classical and jazz genres. Grammy-winning pianist Billy Childs is featured on Friday with his jazz quartet, and in his compositions for classical brass quintet and wind quintet. On Saturday, dynamic classical works, jazz, and a hip hop set are part of the musical exploration of Derek Bermel, multi-award winning composer and clarinetist.

"This year IN/TERSECT celebrates two compositional titans that straddle classical/jazz music," says the curator of IN/TERSECT, composer/saxophonist Patrick Zimmerli. "Billy Childs, eminent jazz pianist and composer, has also created beautiful oratorios, symphonic, and chamber music. Derek Bermel, with an impeccable pedigree in contemporary composition, has written rich big band, musical theater, and, as August 5 illustrates, creative hip hop works. This combination of depth and amazing inclusiveness is what IN/TERSECT is all about."
Ethan Lercher, Executive Producer of Bryant Park Presents, says, "Patrick Zimmerli has taken great care in curating IN/TERSECT with an exciting array of exceptional musicians and interesting juxtapositions. The jazz and classical music festival features a mix of incredible ensembles and solo artists, and a focus on the work of two important contemporary composers, Billy Childs (on Friday) and Derek Bermel (on Saturday). With such an unexpected range of music, both days of IN/TERSECT are not to be missed."

IN/TERSECT Day 1: Featuring the Music of Billy Childs
Manuel Valera, The Triton Brass Quintet, The City of Tomorrow, and Billy Childs Quartet
Friday, August 4 6pm - 10pm
Manuel Valera Jazz trio: Manuel Valera (piano), Hans Glawischnig (bass), and E.J. Strickland (drums) perform, including a piece by Billy Childs Grammy-nominated pianist and composer Manuel Valera was born and raised in Havana, Cuba. Since arriving in New York City, he has become well known in the local modern jazz scene, garnering national reviews and working as a pianist and composer with such notable artists as Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D'Rivera, and Jeff Watts, among many others. He has been awarded several grants for composition and has performed in over thirty countries at some of the biggest international venues and festivals.
The Triton Brass Quintet Program features Two Elements (2007) by Billy Childs with guest artist, pianist Glenn Zaleski Prize winners at the 2005 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition and 2003 Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, The Triton Brass Quintet is in its fourth year as artists-in-residence at The Boston Conservatory. The ensemble is an exciting musical collaborative that is a fervent supporter of new music, performing multiple world premieres throughout the US and maintaining a growing repertoire of works from talented young composers. Glenn Zaleski, one of the most in-demand jazz pianists in New York City, has played with Ravi Coltrane, Lage Lund, and Ari Hoenig, and was a semi-finalist in the 2011 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition.All About Jazz says, "Glenn Zaleski has quickly become one of the most important pianists of his generation." DownBeat called his debut album "sublime," and The New York Times praised his "fluent but unhurried sense of phrase."

The City of Tomorrow Wind quintet performs their Chamber Music America Commission, Leander and Hero (2015) by Hannah Lash, and Fugue in Perpetual Motion by Billy Childs The City of Tomorrow, an accomplished woodwind quintet that seeks to give voice to emotions of people living in the world today, makes music where contemporary classical music, experimental music, environmentalism, and humanism converge. Forging a new identity for the wind quintet, and the group shatters expectations of what a concert of chamber music can be. It is the first woodwind quintet to win a gold medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in over ten years.

Billy Childs Quartet Jazz set featuring Billy Childs (piano), StEve Wilson (alto saxophone), Hans Glawischnig (bass), and Ulysses Owens Jr. (drums) Four-time Grammy winner Billy Childs is perhaps the most distinctly American composer since Aaron Copland - for like Copland, he has successfully married the musical products of his heritage with the Western neoclassical traditions of the twentieth century in a powerful symbiosis of style, range, and dynamism. A native of LA, he grew up immersed in jazz, classical, and popular music. By the time he graduated from USC with a degree in composition, Childs was already an in-demand performer in the LA jazz scene. He has recorded and performed with many influential jazz musicians including Freddie Hubbard, J.J. Johnson, Joe Henderson, Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Ron Carter, and Wynton Marsalis, with classical musicians Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming, The Kronos Quartet, The Ying Quartet, and The American Brass Quintet, and with Sting and Chris Botti. Simultaneously with his recording and performance career, Childs has occupied a parallel niche as a composer. His orchestral and chamber commission credits include Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, The American Brass Quintet, and The Dorian Wind Quintet. Childs has garnered thirteen Grammy nominations and four awards: two for Best Instrumental Composition and two for Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist. In 2009, he was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, was awarded the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award in 2013, and received the music award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2015. IN/TERSECT Day 2: Featuring the Music of Derek Bermel
Ashley Jackson, Helen Sung, Luciana Souza, Manhattan Chamber Players, Derek Bermel and Nate Smith, and Metropolis Ensemble
Saturday, August 5 2pm - 9pm
Ashley Jackson: Electric Lady A celebration of contemporary works written by female composers, centered around collaborations with New York-based composer Danielle Eva Schwob, a musical polymath with "deep roots in rock music" (The New York Times) Praised for her rhythmic precision and dynamic range, harpist Ashley Jackson enjoys a multifaceted career as a highly sought-after musician and collaborator. As an orchestral harpist, she has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Metropolis Ensemble, and is the principal harpist of NOVUS NY. She has appeared on stages throughout the city and around the world, and has premiered works by Timo Andres, Danielle Eva Schwob, Nina Young, and many others. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Juilliard, and a Master of Music and a Bachelor of Arts from Yale, serves as the Deputy Director of The Dream Unfinished, and is on faculty at Vassar College.

Derek Bermel: Clarinet Grammy-nominated composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel has been widely hailed for his creativity, theatricality, and virtuosity. Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, he is also Director of Copland House's emerging composers institute Cultivate, served as Composer-in-Residence at the Mannes College of Music, and enjoyed a four-year tenure as artist-in-residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He has become recognized as a dynamic and unconventional curator of concert series that spotlight the composer as performer. Alongside his international studies of ethnomusicology and orchestration, an ongoing engagement with other musical cultures has become part of the fabric and force of his compositional language, in which the human voice and its myriad inflections play a primary role. He has received commissions from orchestras, chamber ensembles, festivals, string quartets, solo virtuosi, and many others throughout the world. His many honors include the Alpert Award in the Arts, Rome Prize, Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships, American Music Center's Trailblazer Award, and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; commissions from the Koussevitzky and Fromm Foundations, Meet the Composer, and Cary Trust; and residencies at Yaddo, Tanglewood, Aspen, Banff, Bellagio, Copland House, Sacatar, and Civitella Ranieri. The Boston Globe wrote, "There doesn't seem to be anything that Bermel can't do with the clarinet."

Helen Sung: Sung with Words Sung with Words (2014) by Helen Sung (Chamber Music America Commission) Pianist/composer Helen Sung hails from Houston, TX, and received both a Bachelor's and Master's in classical piano performance from the University of Texas, and then she graduated from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at the New England Conservatory and won the Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition. Now based in NYC, she has worked with Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Regina Carter, and the late Clark Terry. Along with appearances at major festivals/venues including Newport, Monterey, Detroit, SFJAZZ, and Carnegie Hall, she has performed internationally throughout southern Africa, Europe, Asia, and Central America. She is an active composer and has received several commissions and grants, and joined the jazz faculties at the Juilliard School and Columbia University in 2015.

Luciana Souza: Sappho Performance of Sappho: Desire by Patrick Zimmerli (2013) featuring Patrick Zimmerli (saxophone), Gary Versace (piano), and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion). Written for Luciana Souza, this song cycle takes the listener on an emotional voyage, exploring the connections between Sappho's suggestively incomplete lyrics and jazz, classical, and 20th century popular song. Grammy winner Luciana Souza is a leading jazz singer and interpreter whose work transcends traditional boundaries. She has earned six Grammy nominations for her recordings and has performed and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bobby McFerrin, and many others. She has been a prominent soloist in important works by composers Osvaldo Golijov and Derek Bermel, performing with the New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the American Composers Orchestra. She began her recording career in São Paulo, Brazil at age three with a radio commercial. She has twice been named Best Female Jazz Singer by the Jazz Journalists Association and Billboard called her "a uniquely talented vocalist who organically crosses genre borders. Her music soulfully reflects, wistfully regrets, romantically woos, joyfully celebrates ..."

Manhattan Chamber Players Performance of Death by Interruptions (2014), by Derek Bermel, featuring pianist John Novacek, and Verklarte Nacht(1899) string sextet by Arnold Schoenberg Manhattan Chamber Players, comprised of an impressive roster of prize-winning musicians, performs the greatest works in the chamber music repertoire at the highest level. Recently praised inStrings Magazine for "A fascinating program concept ... It felt refreshingly like an auditory version of a vertical wine tasting", the ensemble is firmly grounded in the music of both the core repertoire of the past and the exciting music of the present, featuring commissioned works and collaborating with many types of artists. American pianist John Novacek has taken top prizes at both the Leschetizky and Joanna Hodges international piano competitions, among many others. As a sought-after collaborative artist, Novacek has performed with Joshua Bell, Matt Haimovitz, Leila Josefowicz, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, and many more.

He has recorded over 30 albums (including the Grammy-nominated Road Movies) and has made numerous radio and television appearances, including NPR's Performance Today, A Prairie Home Companion, and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Derek Bermel Raps! with Nate Smith Derek Bermel and Nate Smith perform Half and Half (2013) by Derek Bermel, a classical-rap theatrical and comical arpeggio of words. Nate Smith, drummer, composer, songwriter and producer, has played or recorded with an array of artists including: Ravi Coltrane, Jose James, Nicholas Payton, John Pattituci, Adam Rogers, Regina Carter, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Lionel Loueke, and Derek Bermel. In 2012, he toured the US and Europe with pop songwriting legend Joe Jackson, and has appeared on The Today Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with David Letterman and Conan.
Metropolis Ensemble New commission by composer/saxophonist Matthew Evan Taylor, and Three Rivers (2001) by Derek Bermel Metropolis Ensemble is a dynamically evolving 21st century orchestra dedicated to the future of classical music.

The Grammy Award-nominated Andrew Cyr is the driving force of the ensemble as well as its founder and artistic director. Through its collaborative process, the ensemble supports ascending contemporary classical performers and composers, often engaging them with other cultural innovators and artists. An agile, evolving collective of composers and performers, Metropolis Ensemble thrives in a state of creative flux. It has won national and international recognition for its three studio recordings, including winning Canada's prestigious Juno Award for Best Classical Composition in 2013 for Vivian Fung's Violin Concerto. For nearly a decade the ensemble has served as an incubator for today's most outstanding emerging composers and performers to present bold new work. The organization has commissioned over 135 works of music from a dynamic mix of emerging composers. Metropolis Ensemble has also collaborated with a wide-array of artists who defy classification, including several large-scale concert productions with Questlove, and performed with Deerhoof, San Fermin, BabX, Emily Wells, Sonnymoon, Tom Krell and How to Dress Well, David Murray, Jeremy Ellis, Razel, and DD Jackson. In 2014, Metropolis performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon alongside The Roots and appeared with The Roots on their critically acclaimed 2014 album.

Bryant Park Corporation (BPC), a private not-for-profit company, was founded in 1980 to renovate, finance and operate Bryant Park in New York City. BPC is funded by income from events, concessions and corporate sponsors, as well as an assessment on neighboring properties, and does not accept government or philanthropic monies. In addition to providing security and sanitation services and tending the park's lush lawn and seasonal garden displays, BPC provides public amenities and activities, including movable chairs and tables, cafe umbrellas, restaurants, food kiosks, world-class restrooms, and a wide range of free events throughout the year. The Midtown Manhattan park is visited by more than six million people each year and is one of the busiest public spaces in the world. BPC's website, bryantpark.org, is available for more detailed information and a schedule of upcoming events.