Mason Bates' KC Jukebox Series to Continue with NEW VOICES, OLD MUSES

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced details for NEW VOICES, OLD MUSES, the third performance in its innovative contemporary music series, KC Jukebox, curated by Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates, on Monday, April 18, 2016 at 8 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Atrium.

In NEW VOICES, OLD MUSES, a pop-up club set amidst a recreation of the Hall of Mirrors in the palace of Versailles is the setting for an exploration of how the inspirations of the past are impacting the music of the future. Featuring innovative responses to old forms, poetry from the distant past, and ancient instruments, the event includes large-scale vocal works by Donnacha Dennehy and Anna Clyne, two leading lights in new music. Excerpts from That the Night Come, Dennehy's song cycle based on the poetry of W.B. Yeats, is complemented by As Sudden Shut, Clyne's response to Emily Dickinson. The program also includes Edmund Finnis's In Situ, which offers a striking response to composers of the past; Molly Joyce's Sit and Dance for cello and electronica; and Bates's own Bagatelles, which uses electronic sounds to offer a 21st-century perspective on 18th-century forms. Projections, videos, and evocative lighting elements will complement the music to create an immersive multimedia concert experience. The evening is conducted by Donato Cabrera, Music Director of the California Symphony and Las Vegas Philharmonic and Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony.

Following the performance, patrons are invited to a free after-party featuring DJ entertainment; ticketholders will also receive a voucher for one free drink during the after-party (a specialty cocktail will be on offer, along with full bars).

Using a mix of cutting-edge technology and dynamic electro-acoustic palettes-and bringing together forward-thinking instrumentalists, vocalists, and DJs from Washington and beyond-KC Jukebox spotlights the works of living composers as filtered through Bates's signature re-imagining of the classical music experience. At the first sold-out event-Lounge Regime on November 9, 2015-Bates took listeners on an immersive journey through a century of ambient music, presented in three different period-appropriate lounges. And at Of Land & Sea on February 22, 2016, imaginative music inspired by geography was brought to life by a wide range of ensembles and projected scenery that morphed through the environs depicted by the music in the concert. Both events featured popular after-parties with full-service bars and DJ entertainment.

KC Jukebox will expand to five events in the 2016-2017 season and will include the Washington debut of the acclaimed classical/club event Mercury Soul (Monday, October 24, 2016); an eclectic evening exploring hot-off-the-presses chamber music (Monday, January 30, 2017); a concert headlined by Angolan composer and instrument builder Victor Gama (Wednesday, February 22, 2017); a performance by superstar chorus Chanticleer (Tuesday, May 2, 2017); and the Kennedy Center debut of the legendary local DJ collective Thievery Corporation (Monday, May 15, 2017). More information on the Kennedy Center's 2016-2017 season can be found here.

Mason Bates and his work will be spotlighted in other areas of the Kennedy Center during the remainder of the 2015-2016 season. Anne Akiko Meyers will perform one of Bates's violin concertos along with the National Symphony Orchestra led by Hugh Wolff on April 14-16, 2016 in the Concert Hall. At the April 15 performance, part of the NSO's new DECLASSIFIED: Fridays at 9 series, Bates will bring the orchestra into the digital age with a sampling of his most innovative hits, including his electro-acoustic suite The B-Sides, which drops into five surreal soundworlds, from a Detroit warehouse to a NASA spacewalk, and The Rise of Exotic Computing, which uses infectious riffs and techno rhythms to evoke a self-replicating computer.

NEW VOICES, OLD MUSES takes place on Monday, April 18, 2016 at 8 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Atrium. Tickets are $20 and are on sale now at the Kennedy Center box office, by calling Instant Charge at (202) 467-4600, or through the Kennedy Center website.

Mason Bates joined the Kennedy Center in the 2015-2016 season as its first Composer-in- Residence. A contemporary composer grounded in both the fundamentals of classical music and electronica, he tackles broad, creative themes, moving the orchestra into the digital age and dissolving the boundaries of traditional symphonic music. His award-winning compositions combine an expanded orchestral palette, often including electronic sounds with large-scale, imaginative narrative forms that incorporate topics ranging from earthquakes to energy.

Frequently performed by orchestras large and small, his symphonic music has received widespread acclaim and is championed by leading conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Riccardo Muti, and Leonard Slatkin. In 2012, he was awarded the Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities, and in 2014 was named the second most-performed living composer by symphony orchestras.

Mason Bates moves fluidly between two distinct musical worlds, with one foot in prestigious symphony halls and the other in late-night dance clubs, where he deejays. He brings these two worlds together not only with his electro-acoustic compositions, but also through his efforts to introduce new music to new venues. His classical/club project, Mercury Soul, integrates classical performances into an evening of DJing in alternative spaces and has attracted large crowds to events created for the Chicago, San Francisco, and New World symphonies.

Bringing classical music to new audiences is a central part of Bates's activities as a curator. With composer Anna Clyne, he has transformed the Chicago Symphony's MusicNOW series into an imaginative concert experience, drawing huge audiences with cinematic program notes and immersive stagecraft.

Bates recently served as the Mead Composer-In-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which in 2012 performed his Alternative Energy under Riccardo Muti on the opening night of Carnegie Hall's fall season. He also maintains deep relationships with the San Francisco Symphony, which recently completed a three-week Beethoven and Bates Festival; and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he recently served as Composer of the Year.

Mason Bates was raised in neighboring Virginia, and his early musical education was shaped by frequent visits to the Kennedy Center. With the future in mind, he looks to continue expanding his musical contributions and explore composition in the realms of theater, opera, and film.

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