Columbia University School of the Arts Announces Rare NYC Show

School of the Arts Dean Carol Becker: "I am honored to welcome the legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago to the Lenfest Center for the Arts during its inaugural fall season. As a long-time fan, it is an opportunity of a lifetime to present the ensemble in the School's flagship new building. To see this come to fruition would not have been possible without the dedicated collaboration of Melissa Smey, Associate Dean and Executive Director, who played a leading role in facilitating the Art Ensemble's performance in New York."

In one of the very first public performances at the Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University School of the Arts presents an unprecedented and rare opportunity to hear one of the most legendary bands of all time, the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Marking 50 years since they originally began to perform as the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble, the group reemerged at Café OTO in London earlier this year to great acclaim. This performance will be their only New York City stop, one day ahead of their participation in October Revolution, a new jazz and contemporary music festival in Philadelphia. Joining the Art Ensemble for this concert will be original member Joseph Jarman, who will be performing his poetry, long an integral part of the band's shows.

The Lenfest Center for the Arts is a new venue designed for the presentation and creation of art across disciplines and dedicated to expanding the partnerships between Columbia University School of the Arts and the diverse, dynamic arts communities that have long defined Harlem's cultural legacy. From readings and installations to performances, screenings, and symposia, the vibrant array of activity produced by the School of the Arts at the Lenfest Center aims to strengthen local partnerships while highlighting contemporary scholarship, global perspectives, and compelling voices of our time.

Tickets for this performance will be available (online only) after September 12:
lenfest.arts.columbia.edu/events/art-ensemble-chicago-tribute-joseph-jarman.

With special guest Joseph Jarman, spoken word Art Ensemble of Chicago The Art Ensemble of Chicago has been at the forefront of "creative improvised music" for over 50 years. Emerging from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the Art Ensemble formed out of one of groups that was an integral part of the AACM's development in the mid 60's: the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble, which featured Roscoe Mitchell, the world-renowned woodwind virtuoso and composer, bassist Malachi Favors Maghostut, and trumpeter Lester Bowie. Favors and Bowie were at the core of the group featured on Mitchell's 1966 LP Sound, the first recording by an AACM band. By the end of 1966, Mitchell was calling his group the Art Ensemble, a name signifying that the band was moving beyond the genres of jazz, experimental music and performance art into a creative realm that was entirely their own. In the years that followed, two more musicians joined the Art Ensemble: woodwind player and poet Joseph Jarman and percussionist Famoudou Don Moye. This lineup - with Bowie, Favors, Jarman, Mitchell, and Moye - was the "classic" Art Ensemble of Chicago, a band that recorded for major labels (Atlantic, ECM, DIW), performed in all the world and became one of the most significant improvising groups in music history. In February 2017, the Art Ensemble united for a residency in London, playing sold-out concerts that were joyfully received by music critics as well as the group's longtime fans.

Columbia University School of the Arts awards the Master of Fine Arts degree in Film, Theatre, Visual Arts and Writing and the Master of Arts degree in Film Studies; it also offers an interdisciplinary program in Sound Arts. The School is a thriving, diverse community of talented, visionary and Committed Artists from around the world and a faculty comprised of acclaimed and internationally renowned artists, film and theatre directors, writers of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, playwrights, producers, critics and scholars. In 2015, the School marked the 50th Anniversary of its founding. In 2017, the School opened the Lenfest Center for the Arts, a multi-arts venue designed as a hub for the presentation and creation of art across disciplines on the University's new Manhattanville campus.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University is the leading presenter of new music in New York City and one of the most vital forces nationwide for innovative programming. In partnership with Columbia University School of the Arts, Miller is dedicated to producing and presenting unique events in dance, contemporary and early music, jazz, opera, and performance. Founded in 1988 with funding from John Goelet, Brooke Astor, and the Kathryn Bache Miller Fund, Miller Theatre has built a reputation for attracting new and diverse audiences to the performing arts and expanding public knowledge of contemporary music.