National Sawdust Gala Series to Present JUGGLING & SONG: NECESSARY MOVEMENT and More

National Sawdust brings the celebration home to its intimate performance space with a Gala Series celebrating the National Sawdust belief that artistic and musical expression helps us all create a more joyful and just world. The National Sawdust Gala Series raises needed financial support specifically designated for its professional development and mentorship work including its Artist-In-Residence program and the Hildegard Competition, our mentorship initiative highlighting outstanding female and nonbinary composers in the early stages of their careers.

Juggling & Song: Necessary Movement, a festive and fun evening of NationalSawdust+ artists with performances and conversation bookended by cocktails and dinner, launches the Gala Series on May 2. Since 2015, NationalSawdust+ has brought together luminaries from across disciplines to share their passion for music and explore ideas and issues. Each program, curated by Elena Park, has its own alchemy, making the series an ideal space for those with curiosity, adventure, and vision. The gala program will include music by National Sawdust Co-Founder and Artistic Director, the composer Paola Prestini, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, and Steve Reich, as well as a few standards - made complete with juggling.

The remarkable program, spanning classic to contemporary work, will feature countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, Gandini Juggling's Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala, singers Magos Herrera and Carl Hancock Rux, conductor Raquel Acevedo Klein, composer/pianist Nico Muhly, composer Paola Prestini, and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler. Park will host the benefit evening, presenting many of the artists that have appeared in her National Sawdust series since its inception. In keeping with the ethos of NS+, the lineup will showcase surprising collaborations and conversation.

Costanzo and Muhly will be joined by Gandini and Ylä-Hokkala (artistic directors and founders of Gandini Juggling) in works including Glass's transfixing Liquid Days (with text by David Bryne), with Gandini also offering their virtuoso, six-minute juggling version of Reich's Clapping Music (a setting for four balls and four hands). Vocal selections will include Prestini's haunting Fratres (inspired by Palestrina) for Herrera and women's voices, conducted by Klein; a song in tribute to Paul Robeson as performed by Rux and Zeigler; and Muhly performing his own music on piano. National Sawdust is grateful to the Metropolitan Opera for releasing Anthony Roth Costanzo, Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala, currently preparing for the production of Philip Glass's Akhnaten, for this special event.

The title of this May 2, 2022 benefit, Necessary Movement, is drawn from an observation about the nature of jugging made by multi-instrumentalist (and amateur juggler) Mark Stewart when he joined a NationalSawdust+ evening with Costanzo, Gandini Juggling, and other artists in a program that essayed Gershwin, Glass, Ligeti, and singer/composer Caroline Shaw (who performed with a large Gandini troupe), among others, in December 2021.

The Gala Series continues on June 7, 2022 at 6:30 with House Party: Forró Forever featuring Mauro Refosco, music director for David Byrne's American Utopia, Davi Vieira, percussion; Felipe Hostins, accordion. This intimate evening of music, dance, food, and community is curated by Karen Wong and celebrates the Brazilian music and dance genre of forró.

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