JacobTV Presents THE NEWS, Among Dutch Festival Events, 4/27

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Museum's Off the Wall performance series proudly presents the world premiere of THE NEWS, a 90-minute "reality opera" by avant-pop Dutch composer JacobTV based on non-fiction footage from the international media. This special premiere sponsored by Joan Humphrey is part of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Distinctively Dutch Festival which runs through May 20, 2012.

THE NEWS is a remix of musical composition, video production and social commentary through live performances designed for two vocalists, nine musicians, soundtracks and videos. The drama is constructed using broadcasts, sampled speeches and sound bites from newscasters, politicians, scientists, televangelists, athletes, movie stars and celebrities discussing a vast array of socio-political issues. From global warming to the credit crunch, as well as matters of war and peace to mundane trivialities, THE NEWS exposes western society's obsession with public image, fame, catastrophe and morality.

Featured artists include: Kristien Kerstens (videos); Jan Boiten (stage design, lighting, videos); JacobTV (concept, music, lyrics, direction); "anchor women" Josefien Stoppelenbrug (soprano) and Lori Cotler (alto); Fulcrumpoint New Music Project; and conductor Stephen Burns.

JacobTV (Jacob Ter Veldhuis 1951) started as a rock musician and studied composition and electronic music at the Groningen Conservatory, where he was awarded the Composition Prize of the Netherlands in 1980. He became a full time composer and soon made a name for himself with melodious compositions, straight from the heart and with great effect. Long queues at the box office of the four-day Jacob TV Festival in Rotterdam in 2001 confirmed his growing popularity. The NRC called him the 'Jeff Koons of new music' and his 'coming-out' as a composer of ultra-tonal, mellifluous music reached its climax with the video oratorio Paradiso, premiered the day after 9-11 and released on CD and DVD by British record label Chandos.

In the last decade JacobTV's boombox music, for live instruments with a grooving soundtrack based on speech melody, became internationally popular. Although JacobTV is one of the most performed European composers, he is still an outlaw in the established modern classical music scene, and was recently accused of 'musical terrorism' after a premiere at the World Harp Congress in Amsterdam. According to the Wall Street Journal his newest work 'makes many a hip-hop artist look sedate'. In 2007 the 'box set trilogy, an anthology of his work with 12 hours of audio and video, was released by Basta and presented at a three-day JacobTV mini festival at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

"JacobTV is preoccupied with American media and world events and draws raw materials from those sources. His work possesses an explosive strength and raw energy combined with extraordinarily intricate architectural design," notes Limor Tomer, Concerts & Lectures General Manager of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Formed by trumpet virtuoso and conductor Stephen Burns in 1998, Fulcrum Point New Music Project champions new classical music and highlights contemporary composers who are inspired and influenced by popular culture, including literature, film, dance, folk, rock, jazz, blues, Latin and world music. Through multi-disciplinary concert performances and educational programs, the Fulcrum Point ensemble seeks to encourage audiences to make cross-cultural connections between new music, art, technology and literature, gaining greater insight into today's diverse world.

JacobTV will premiere THE NEWS at the Byham Theater (101 Sixth Street, Cultural District) on Friday, April 27, 2012, at 9 p.m. The world premiere culminates a two-day series of Distinctively Dutch events. On Thursday, April 26, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Carnegie Mellon University's Remaking Cities Institute and World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh will host a panel discussion on "Rethinking Cities in the 21st Century." Panelists include Donald Carter, Director of the Remaking Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU); Vivian Loftness, University Professor at CMU's School of Architecture; Paul Scheffer, Professor of Urban Sociology, Tilberg University, Netherlands; Rijk van Ark, Director of Economic Affairs, City of Amsterdam; and moderator Rob de Vos, Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

On Friday, April 27, from 5:30-9 p.m., The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's free Gallery Crawl will have a Dutch focus with four galleries exhibiting work by visual artists from the Netherlands. Featured exhibition Global Navigators, supported by the Mondriaan Foundation, highlights multimedia installations and videos at Wood Street (601 Wood Street), SPACE (812 Liberty Avenue) and 707 Penn Gallery. Dutch photographers Rachel Nieborg and Ine Mulder will present the explosive exhibition Guns'N'Girls at 709 Penn Gallery.

Tickets ($20-$30) for THE NEWS and information on all festival events are available at the Box Office at Theater Square, online at trustarts.org/dutchfestival and by calling 412-456-6666. Groups can obtain discounts by calling 412-471-6930. Student tickets are $15 and available at the Box Office and through the phone room.

For more information on JacobTV visit http://www.jacobtv.net/index.html

Trailer and information at http://dutchfestival.pgharts.org/fest_event/jacobtv/

Following the world premiere at the Distinctively Dutch Festival, THE NEWS will be performed in Chicago at the Park West, 322 W. Armitage Avenue, on Friday, May 4, at 6 and 9 p.m. For more information on the Chicago performances and the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, please visit www.fulcrumpoint.org.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Distinctively Dutch Festival is supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Performing Arts Fund NL, Music Center the Netherlands and Theater Instituut Nederland. In addition, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust gratefully acknowledges the Carol R. Brown Performance Fund for support of the Festival, as well as media partners Pittsburgh City Paper and 90.5 Essential Public Media.

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