DiMenna Center for Classical Music to Screen Essie Jain's Film Album ALL BECAME GOLDEN, 2/28

On February 28 at 8:00 PM, The DiMenna Center for Classical Music will host the premiere screening of Essie Jain's film album, All Became Golden, a visual 5.1 surround-sound version of the album conceived by Jain and director Natalie Johns with music arranged by Nico Muhly. The project was recorded at The DiMenna Center in February 2012. Together with its first public screening, Jain will give a live performance with members of Orchestra of St. Luke's, followed by a conversation with the artist and filmmaker.

The album All Became Golden was a triumphant return for the British singer-songwriter Jain, whose spare and elegant songs are invigorated by Muhly's tailored arrangements and the backing of a classical orchestra. Muhly, who has collaborated with Björk, Grizzly Bear, and Antony and the Johnsons, and whose compositions have been performed by the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera, assembled a group of musicians from New York's modern-classical scene to perform on the record. The film documents the group as they convene to simultaneously rehearse, perform, and record the album, allowing a rare glimpse of the joy, risk, generosity, and blind faith inherent in acts of creative collaboration.

Recorded before an audience of friends and family over two days at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City, the premise of All Became Golden required a certain amount of bravery on the part of participants. "I really liked the idea of doing it live, because you can see there's no trick to making music like that happen," says Muhly. "In a lot of cases with orchestrated, non-classical music, you get the sense that there's a little bit of synth, a little bit of reinforcement, but with this project it was clear- because it was all videotaped-that it was going to be really honest." All Became Golden was recorded by Grammy-winning recording engineer Justin Guip of Levon Helm Studios and Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated music engineer Bob Clearmountain (Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones) who mixed the entire album to picture.

Jain is thrilled to return to the same space her album/film was recorded for this premiere screening and special performance with Orchestra of St. Luke's. "The moment I first walked into The DiMenna Center, I knew it was a perfect fit for our project. The space was modern and magnificent, yet warm and welcoming, and set the stage to bring our album to life," she explains. "With its vivid acoustics and matching beauty, we all feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to record and film there. It is absolutely one of kind."

Essie Jain: Film Screening & Performance

Friday, February 28, 2014
8:00 PM (Doors open at 7:30 PM)
THE DIMENNA CENTER FOR CLASSICAL MUSIC
Mary Flagler Cary Hall

PERFORMERS:
Essie Jain, singer
Halldór Smárason, piano
Patrick Glynn, guitar
Krista Bennion Feeney, violin
Daire FitzGerald, cello
John Feeney, double bass

Tickets: $25, general admission. To purchase, visit OSLmusic.org or call 212.594.6100.

To Listen:

· Watch the film album's trailer: http://vimeo.com/69123269

· Download or stream the film album: http://vimeo.com/ondemand/allbecamegolden/68883247

· Purchase the album on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/all-became-golden/id662401729

· Stream the album on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/34EZAxBhHhMDINvZndgKi7

About Essie Jain: Born into a musical family, singer-songwriter Essie Jain grew up in London, where her childhood featured classical piano and cello instruction, as well as training in operatic singing. By the time she moved out of her teenage years, Essie had suspended her musical education. "I had to cut music out my life for bit to hit the re-start button," she says. "I think everyone in my family was pretty upset with me at that point, but I always knew music would end up back in my life, and it did.

"In my early 20s, I went through a really complex and difficult year personally," she continues. "I found it really hard to speak to anyone about the things I was dealing with, and I needed a way to express it. That's when music crept its way back in."

Years later, residing in New York, Essie Jain made her recorded debut with the glacial delights of We Made This Ourselves, an album which expressed a quiet and powerful minimalism. Released in 2007, the album's delicate and painfully honest chamber-folk detailed a wrought and failing relationship, and a disintegrating emotional self. It put Essie on the musical map, winning critical raves and a cult following, drawing comparisons to 60s psych-folkies Sandy Denny and Vashti Bunyan. Jain followed up her debut with The Inbetween in 2008, which garnered a "Rising Artist" stamp of approval from the influential British magazine Mojo, among other plaudits. In 2011, Jain returned with a collection of original lullabies, Until the Light of Morning, which was widely lauded, receiving praise from Pitchfork and BBC Music Magazine, which wrote,"to a baby it might well point the way to the Land of Nod; to an adult, it'll shut out the world for a brief spell."

All Became Golden is Essie's fourth studio album and is presented in the form of an audio-visual record with an accompanying film.

Essie lives in New York with her husband, musician and collaborator Patrick Glynn.

About Orchestra of St. Luke's and The DiMenna Center for Classical Music: Or­chestra of St. Luke's (OSL) is one of America's foremost and most versatile orchestras, regularly collaborating with the world's greatest artists and performing approximately 70 concerts each year-including its Carnegie Hall Orchestra Series, Chamber Music Series at The Morgan Library & Museum and Brooklyn Museum, and summer residency at Caramoor Music Festival. OSL has commissioned more than 50 new works; given more than 150 world, U.S., and New York City premieres; and appears on more than 90 recordings, including four Grammy Award-winning albums and seven releases on its own label, St. Luke's Collection. Pablo Heras-Casado, recently named 2014 Conductor of the Year by Musical America, is OSL's principal conductor.

OSL grew out of a chamber ensemble that began performing concerts at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields in Greenwich Village in 1974. Today, St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble consists of 21 virtuoso artists who make up OSL's artistic core and are dedicated to a diverse repertoire spanning Baroque to contemporary.

OSL owns and operates The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in midtown Manhattan, where it shares a building with the Baryshnikov Arts Center. The DiMenna Center is New York City's premier venue for rehearsal, recording, and learning, having quickly gained a reputation for its superb acoustics, state-of-the-art facilities, and affordability. Since opening in 2011, The DiMenna Center has welcomed more than 50,000 visitors, including more than 300 ensembles and artists such as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Valery Gergiev, and James Levine. OSL also hosts hundreds of neighbors, families, and school children at its home each year for free community events.

Through its wide-reaching and immersive Community & Education programs, OSL has introduced audiences across New York City to live classical music. OSL brings free chamber concerts to the five boroughs; offers free, interactive events at The DiMenna Center; provides chamber music coaching for adult amateurs; and reaches 10,000 public school students each year through free school concerts and in-school instruction. In July 2013, OSL and Police Athletic League (PAL) launched Youth Orchestra of St. Luke's (YOSL), an after-school orchestra and instrumental coaching program emphasizing musical excellence and social development.

For more information, visit OSLmusic.org.