National Sawdust Announces New Masterclass Livestreams Through May 18

Mentorship, education, and community building are hallmarks of the National Sawdust ethos. This Spring, building on our previous sessions with luminaries of new music, National Sawdust presents seven masterclasses from March 9 to May 18.

Speakers include: experimental Indigenous artist Raven Chacon, acclaimed orchestral composer Jeffrey Mumford, dancer and choreographer Okwui Okpokwasili, award-winning movement consultant Loni Landon, and more. In development of our seasonal theme, BODY ⁄ SPACE, one of the workshops will explore disability across cultures with the founders of Enact Lab.

Masterclass livestreams will be available to watch for free at Live@National Sawdust, as well as the National Sawdust's Vimeo channel and Facebook page.

Master classes are made possible through our interdisciplinary collaboration with the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU which is generously supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

Each masterclass will feature 30-40 minutes of presentation and 15-20 minutes of participant questions.

Masterclass Schedule

Available Now, On-Demand
Hildegard: On Gender Inclusiveness
Featuring inti figgis-vizueta, Kiyan Williams, and Zan Emerson
Hosted by Benedict Nguyen

Ideas have always been at the heart of our mission at National Sawdust. This year, we continue to foster intellectual conversations with a series of programs that address urgent issues in culture and society. The Hildegard panel will tackle framing gender in the arts as our field attempts to include more fluid ideas and experiences around gender and the body. It will be presented on the week of one of our flagship programs;the Hildegard competition and concert which specifically fosters female, trans and non-binary composers through mentorship, financial support and industry outreach. Our partnership goal is to foster a cohort of composers and choreographers who can collectively develop their skills while creating new work, in order to rebuild the arts sector with a deepened sense of ethics, equity, and fairness as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

inti figgis-vizueta writes music through the lens of personal identities, braiding a childhood of overlapping immigrant communities and Black-founded Freedom schools-in Chocolate City (DC)-with direct Andean & Irish heritage and a deep connection to the land. Her music has been praised by The Washington Post as "haunting" and "raw, scraping yet soaring," The New York Times as "alternatively smooth & serrated," and The National Sawdust Log as "all turbulence" and "quietly focused." Kiyan Williams is a multidisciplinary artist from Newark, NJ, who works fluidly across sculpture, performance, and video. Rooted in a process-driven practice, they are attracted to quotidian, unconventional materials and methods that evoke the historical, political, and ecological forces that shape individual and collective bodies. Zan Emerson is a Brooklyn-based artist, designer, and marketer in the music industry and beyond. Employers, clients, and collaborators past and present include National Sawdust, Wordless Music, NYC Nightlife United, Death by Audio, and Le Poisson Rouge. For their unique take on bold, minimalist design, they were named Village Voice's "Best Concert Poster Designer" of 2015. A deep believer in both workers' rights and the life-altering power of live music, Emerson strives to harness their passion for this line of work, not only to connect art with audiences, but to support and uplift the entire industry both on stage and behind the scenes.

Tuesday, March 30 at 6PM EST

Nature, Liberation and Mentorship Through Music
Featuring Jeffrey Mumford and Miranda Cuckson

The composer Jeffrey Mumford grew up with a rich musical collection ranging from classical music to jazz. He wove these influences into his own compositions, which draw from nature and movements of liberation for a sound that is radical and healing. He will talk with his friend, violinist and violist Miranda Cuckson, about inspirations, interpreting his music, and transmitting legacies through teaching.

Jeffrey Mumford has received numerous fellowships, grants, awards and commissions. Mumford's most notable commissions include those from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and the Library of Congress (co-commission), the BBC Philharmonic, the San Antonio, Chicago & National Symphonies (National Symphony twice), Washington Performing Arts, and many more. Violinist and violist Miranda Cuckson delights listeners internationally with her versatile and expressive playing of a large range of music, from the newest creations to older pieces. She has become one of the most acclaimed and committed performers of contemporary music, playing innumerable concerts and premieres of new works; moving new music more into the center of classical music life. She is passionate about the creative role of the performer in the artistic process. She is very active as a soloist and collaborator at concert halls and festivals, as well as schools and informal spaces.

Tuesday, April 6 at 6PM EST

Okwui Okpokwasili
Reimagining Historical Narratives Through Movement
Hosted by Shirine Saad

Dancer and choreographer Okwui Okpokwasili reimagines the boundaries of the stage with performances that center historically marginalized narratives, such as the interior lives of African Americans and African women. She will address radical practices and paradigms in the aesthetic and activist realms, and movement-based practices of healing and listening.

Okwui Okpokwasili is a Brooklyn-based performance maker. Her work includes two Bessie Award winning productions: Pent-Up: A Revenge Dance and Bronx Gothic. Other productions include Poor People's TV Room, and Adaku's Revolt. Okpokwasili recently co-curated the Danspace Project Platform "Utterances From the Chorus." Her commissions, residencies and awards include: 10th Annual Berlin Biennale Commission, 2018 Doris Duke Artist Award in Contemporary Dance, 2018 USA Artist Fellow, 2018 Princeton Hodder Fellow, 2018 Herb Alpert Award in Dance, LMCC's Extended Life Program (2013-2016, 2019), The Foundation for Contemporary Arts' Artist Grant in Dance (2014), MOMA, The Young Vic, and Tate Modern. Okpokwasili is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow.

Tuesday, April 13 at 6PM EST

Accessibility as an Everyday Mindset
Featuring Enact Lab and Molly Joyce
Hosted by Paola Prestini

How can the performing arts field create structures and spaces that are accessible to all? How can the aesthetic experience be conveyed to those with various disabilities? How can an artist with a disability build a successful practice and find support? We will explore these essential questions with Copenhagen-based Enact Lab, who have been leading conversations on the topic, and composer Molly Joyce, whose impaired left hand drives her music and movement.

Molly Joyce was recently deemed one of the "most versatile, prolific and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome" by The Washington Post. Her music has been described as a vessel of "serene power" (The New York Times);written to "superb effect" (The Wire); "unwavering" and "enveloping" (Vulture). Joyce's work draws on disability as a creative source. After suffering an impaired left hand from a previous car accident, one of her primary mediums became an electric vintage toy organ-an instrument she bought on eBay that engages her disability on a compositional and performative level. Enact Lab is a knowledge lab, combining the lived experience of people and society with the methods of the Enact Model in order to enact meaningful change and agency.

Tuesday, May 4 at 6PM EST

Music, Decolonization and Activism
Featuring Raven Chacon
Hosted by Martha Redbone

Native American musical traditions are as profound as they are influential, yet they are often overlooked in official historical narratives. Raven Chacon has bridged his musical practice with a concrete activism mission that challenges established structures and ideas, creating disruptive Noise music and art installations with the Native American art collective Postcommodity.

Raven Chacon is a composer, performer, and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. As a solo artist, collaborator, or with interdisciplinary arts collective Postcommodity, Chacon has exhibited or performed at Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, REDCAT, and more. Every year, he teaches 20 students to write string quartets for the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP). He is the recipient of the United States Artists Fellowship in Music, The Creative Capital Award in Visual Arts, The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Artist Fellowship, and the American Academy's Berlin Prize for Music Composition. Martha Redbone is a vocalist, songwriter, composer, and educator of Cherokee/Choctaw/African-American descent. She is known for her unique gumbo of folk, blues, and gospel from her childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky infused with the eclectic grit of pre-gentrified Brooklyn.

Tuesday, May 11 at 6PM EST

The Future of Performance
Featuring Yuval Sharon
With Artists Marisa Michelson and Miriam Parker
Hosted by Paola Prestini

Influential opera director Yuval Sharon will join our co-founder Paola Prestini to discuss arts leadership in times of change, the future of performance and the operatic form, collaborating with artists and creating safe spaces for all. Marisa Michelson and Miriam Parker, Sharon's mentees for the season, will also participate.

Yuval Sharon has amassed an unconventional body of work that expands the operatic form. He is founder and Artistic Director of The Industry in Los Angeles and the newly appointed Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director of Detroit's Michigan Opera Theatre. With The Industry, Sharon has directed and produced new operas in moving vehicles, operating train stations, Hollywood sound stages, and various "non-spaces" such as warehouses, parking lots, and escalator corridors. In 2017, Sharon was honored with a MacArthur Fellowship and a Foundation for Contemporary Art grant for theater.

Tuesday, May 18 at 6PM EST

Building a Practice as a Choreographer
Featuring Loni Landon
Hosted by Shirine Saad

Loni Landon will share the workings of life behind the scenes, and on stage. How did she become a choreographer and movement consultant? How does she collaborate with clients? What are effective ways of communicating with dancers? How has the pandemic changed the way she works? What are some healing practices we can implement?

Loni Landon is a dancer, choreographer, and movement consultant based in New York City. In addition to creating dances for her own collective, Loni Landon Dance Project, her work is commissioned by dance companies and film director's across the country. Born and raised in New York City, Landon received her BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School in 2005. As a sought-after choreographer, her work has been commissioned by The Joyce Theater, Keigwin and Company, James Sewell Ballet, and many more. Her company has performed at The Joyce Theater, Pulse Art Fair, Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out Series, as well as Bryant Park and the first annual Beach Sessions in Rockaway Beach. Landon has won numerous awards, including 1st Prize Winner of Ballet Austin's New American Talent Competition, Winner of Northwest Dance Project's "Pretty Creatives'" Choreography Competition, and Winner of the Next Commission from CityDance Ensemble. She has been adjunct faculty at NYU, Barnard, SUNY Purchase and Princeton University.

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