LIVE MUSIC RETURNS TO MoMA’S SCULPTURE GARDEN WITH SUMMERGARDEN 2014 AND MoMA NIGHTS
Summergarden 2014: New Music for New York
The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden
Sunday evenings, July 6, 13, 20, and 27, 2014
Sculpture Garden opens at 7:00 p.m. Concerts begin at 8:00 p.m.
Admission is FREE
MoMA Nights
The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden
Thursdays, July 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31; August 7, 14, 21, and 28
Concerts begin at 6:30 p.m.; MoMA stays open until 8:00 p.m.
FREE with Museum admission
NEW YORK, June 19, 2014—The Museum of Modern Art announces its lineups of free live music events in The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden for summer 2014. The annual Summergarden: New Music for New York free concert series returns for four Sunday evenings beginning July 6, 2014. Summergarden, a tradition since 1971, is part of MoMA’s long history of presenting contemporary classical music and jazz. MoMA once again welcomes the collaboration of its programming partners, The Juilliard School and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Members of the New Juilliard Ensemble, under the artistic direction of Joel Sachs, perform on July 6 and 20, offering two distinctive programs of contemporary compositions, all of which are receiving their New York premieres. Jazz at Lincoln Center has selected two jazz groups whose concerts on July 13 (Jonathan Ragonese Ensemble) and July 27 (Helen Sung Quintet) emphasize original works, each with one New York premiere.
On Thursday evenings in July and August, the Museum presents MoMA Nights, a series of musical performances organized in collaboration with PopRally, MoMA’s cross-departmental committee that programs events at MoMA and MoMA PS1. Beginning July 3, the Museum will remain open until 8:00 p.m. and present concerts in the Sculpture Garden, free with Museum admission. Musical acts for the 2014 MoMA Nights series feature an array of vibrant, creative women who are making their mark on today’s music scene. Veterans and up-and-coming artists perform in a range of musical styles, including dream and synth pop, alt-folk, surf rock, neo-soul, and pop punk. Acts include Au Revoir Simone, Thao (from The Get Down Stay Down), La Luz, and THEESatifcation.
Summergarden
Summergarden is free and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Entrance to Summergarden is through the Sculpture Garden gate on West 54 Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. The Sculpture Garden opens at 7:00 p.m., and concerts start at 8:00 p.m. and run approximately one hour to 90 minutes. The Sculpture Garden closes at 10:00 p.m. In the event of rain, Summergarden concerts will be held in The Agnes Gund Garden Lobby, and the Museum’s 54 Street entrance will open at 7:30 p.m. The Garden Bar sells gelato and seasonal sorbetto from Il Laboratorio del Gelato, with sweet and savory treats from Cafe 2. Prosecco, New York State wines, American craft beer, specialty coffees, and bottled water are also available for purchase. The exhibition galleries are closed during Summergarden. See MoMA.org/summergarden for details.
MoMA Nights
MoMA Nights performances are free with regular Museum admission, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Sets begin at 6:30 p.m. and run approximately 45 minutes to one hour. The exhibition galleries and Terrace 5 café are open during MoMA Nights. The Sculpture Garden and the Museum galleries close at 8:00 p.m. In the event of rain, the Sculpture Garden will close and MoMA Nights concerts will be held in either The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1 or The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2. Seasonal snacks, chef’s-choice small plates, and specialty cocktails, draft beer, wine, and nonalcoholic beverages are also available for purchase from The Garden Bar on Thursday nights. See MoMA.org/nights for details.
SPONSORSHIP:
Summergarden is made possible by a partnership with Volkswagen of America.
Major annual support for Summergarden is provided by The Ethel P. Shein Fund for Music at MoMA, which is generously funded by Agnes Gund and by Paul D. Shein and family, in memory of Ethel P. Shein.
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Summergarden 2014 Schedule
July 6
Juilliard Concert I: New Music for Mixed Ensembles
Members of the New Juilliard Ensemble: Joel Sachs, conductor; Stephanie Kwak, flute and bass flute; Hassan Anderson, oboe; Anton Rist, clarinet and bass clarinet; Brent Foster, bassoon; Joe Betts, French horn; Andrew Funcheon, percussion; Miles Fellenberg, piano; Alex Shiozaki and Robyn Quinett, violins; Meredith Treaster, viola; Paul Dwyer, cello; William McPeters, double bass
Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky (Uzbekistan, b. 1963)
K. 347b (2008)—World premiere
In creating this work, the Tashkent-based composer paid homage to Mozart by drawing on an unfinished work by the Austrian composer, the perpetual canon K. 347. Mr. Yanov-Yanovsky first wrote the piece for nine strings, on commission from the Belgian ensemble Musiques Nouvelles. Summergarden is presenting the premiere of a second version for mixed ensemble.
Henrik Strindberg (Sweden, b. 1954)
One Child (2013)—First performance outside Scandinavia
The title refers to a 2013 speech at the United Nations by Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani teenager who had campaigned for women’s educational rights and was badly wounded in an assassination attempt by the Taliban. At the UN she said, “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.” Each of Mr. Strindberg’s four movements takes up one element of the young woman’s formulation.
Donald Crockett (United States, b. 1951)
to airy thinness beat (2009)—New York premiere
This composition for viola and ensemble takes its title from John Donne’s poem “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” in which he compares parting from his lover to the ability of gold to change form without losing its integrity: “Our two souls therefore / which are one, / Though I must go, endure not yet / A breach, but an expansion / Like gold to airy thinness beat.” The viola soloist will be Meredith Treaster.
Matthew Hindson (Australia, b. 1968)
Septet (2009)—Western Hemisphere premiere
This work was an 80th birthday tribute to Mr. Hindson’s teacher, Peter Sculthorpe. The composer writes that “the Septet takes as its starting point some of the ideas expounded by Sculthorpe in his music, including the influences of both Asian and Australian indigenous musics. Furthermore, the piece makes reference to both the lyrical and visceral approaches found in a variety of his pioneering works.”
July 13
Jazz Concert I: Jonathan Ragonese Ensemble
Jonathan Ragonese, saxophones and narration; Alex LoRe, alto saxophone; Kyra Sims, French horn; Jay Rattman, woodwinds; Russell Hall, bass; Jason Burger, drums; Dan Mitra, tap dancer
Jonathan Ragonese is a composer, arranger, and saxophonist who has lived in New York City for six years. He has concertized and recorded with outstanding performers such as Terell Stafford, Jon Faddis, Jimmy Heath, the Harrisburg Symphony with conductor Stuart Malina, Steve Wilson, and James Moody. His compositions encompass both fully notated works and improvisations, played by ensembles ranging from duos and trios to symphony orchestras. His Summergarden concert will feature the premiere of American Dialogues: Introduction. Mr. Ragonese writes, “Words, movement, and sounds all come together to enliven the possibilities of what is and what can be. Part historical documentation, part poetic prose, part musical meditation, part visual manifestation, this work is indeed the introduction for my own unforeseeable future; and the future, not being owned or understood by any one person, is indeed our future.”
July 20
Juilliard Concert II: New Music for String Quartet with Flute
Members of the New Juilliard Ensemble: Elizabeth Derham and Blanca Cecilia González, violins; Jiwon Kim, viola; Paul Dwyer, cello; Chelsea Knox, flute
Roberto Sierra (Puerto Rico/United States, b. 1953)
Duo Concertante, for violin and viola—World premiere
Among Mr. Sierra’s teachers was György Ligeti, who credited his pupil with transforming his own music by introducing him to Afro-Caribbean drumming. Mr. Sierra often draws on aspects of Caribbean traditional and popular music, treating his sources freely and imaginatively. In the four-movement Duo Concertante, these elements include Afro-Caribbean salsa rhythmic structures and an exploration of clave rhythms. The soloists are Elizabeth Derham and Jiwon Kim.
Peter Sculthorpe (Australia, b. 1929)
String Quartet no. 15 (1999)—United States premiere
Mr. Sculthorpe’s music has been powerfully motivated by the social climate and aboriginal cultures of Australia, Asia, and the Torres Strait. He based this five-movement work on a sequence of songs of the Simori mountain people of Western New Guinea. The work does not imitate Simori music, he writes, but represents “a personal response to it. . . . The movements are harmonically related, and the harmonies that I employ are characteristic of my present style.”
Eric Lindsay (United States, b. 1980)
Hopkin in the Wired Night (2008)—New York premiere
Internet memes—phrases, images, or ideas that spread virally from one user to many others, often in unexpected permutations—are the inspiration for this work. The “Hopkin Green Frog” meme (see Lostfrog.org) was based on a child’s hand-drawn poster seeking a lost frog. Mr. Lindsay notes that his piece “progressively comments on, transfigures, misquotes, drops, riffs, augments, enhances, and parodies aspects of an initial musical idea over the course of 13 minutes.”
Errollyn Wallen (Belize/United Kingdom, b. 1958)
All the Blues I See (2004)—United States premiere
The “blues” of the title of this five-movement work refers both to the color in its various shadings—especially in the seascape of the composer’s native Belize—and also the musical blues, as “blue” notes inform the harmonic language of the whole. Meditativeness, tranquility, and even bleakness are juxtaposed with passages of vitality, joy, and ecstasy. The flute emerges as soloist but also is integrated with the strings to form a new sound palette.
July 27
Jazz Concert II: Helen Sung Quintet
Helen Sung, piano; Seamus Blake, tenor saxophone; Chern Hwei Fung, violin; Harish Raghavan, bass; Donald Edwards, drums
Helen Sung began as a classical pianist, but switched to jazz in college, after an epiphany “in the form of a Tommy Flanagan solo.” She has worked with such luminaries as Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry, Ron Carter, Steve Turre, and Regina Carter. For Summergarden, the Helen Sung Quintet will premiere Convergence, about which she writes, “The idea of conversation or dialogue . . . was a revelation as I became more familiar with jazz. . . . Creating dialogue between the established and the experimental, the past and the present, is central to The Museum of Modern Art’s mission. These elements, which meet in the moment (the ‘now’), sum up, in many ways, my personal artistic journey.”
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ABOUT THE JUILLIARD SCHOOL:
The Juilliard School established this country’s standard for performing arts education in music in 1905, adding dance in 1951, and as a Lincoln Center founding member, adding acting in 1968. More recently, Juilliard added programs in playwriting, jazz, historical performance, and in 2012, an MFA in drama. Partner programs such as those with the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and The Academy (with Carnegie Hall, Weill Music Institute, and the New York City Department of Education) further enhance Juilliard students’ understanding and mastery of their chosen professions. Faculty appointments such as NY Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert, and our newest department head in jazz, alumnus Wynton Marsalis, maintain Juilliard’s position as a leading performing arts school. Juilliard’s 800 students come from 43 U.S. states and 40 foreign countries. They participate in almost 800 annual performances, in five theaters within Juilliard’s building, in Alice Tully, Avery Fisher, and Carnegie halls, and of course tonight at The Museum of Modern Art. For further information, please visit juilliard.edu.
ABOUT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER:
The mission of Jazz at Lincoln Center is to entertain, enrich, and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education, and advocacy. We believe that jazz is a metaphor for democracy because jazz is improvisational. It celebrates personal freedom and encourages individual expression; jazz is swinging, it dedicates that freedom to finding and maintaining common ground with others; and jazz is rooted in the blues, it inspires us to face adversity with persistent optimism. With the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and guest artists spanning genres and generations, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces thousands of performance, educational, and broadcast events each season in its home in New York City (Frederick P. Rose Hall, “The House of Swing”) and around the world, for people of all ages. Jazz at Lincoln Center is led by Chairman Robert J. Appel, Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, and Executive Director Greg Scholl. Please visit us at jazz.org.
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MoMA Nights 2014 Schedule
July 3
Au Revoir Simone
Erika Forster, vocals, keyboard; Heather D’Angelo, vocals, drum machine, keyboard; Annie Hart, vocals, keyboard
Brooklyn’s seasoned dream-pop trio Au Revoir Simone blends vintage synths, drum samples, and lovely voices in a sound all its own. Last fall the band released its first record in four years, Move In Spectrums (produced by Jorge Elbrecht). Why the long pause? Formed in 2003, Au Revoir Simone achieved early success—the trio collaborated with the likes of French band Air and legendary singer/guitarist Johnny Marr, recorded three critically acclaimed albums, and become a favorite of the director David Lynch—and toured all over the world, filling music halls from Tokyo to Reykjavik, from Montreal to São Paulo. When touring came to an end, each musician took her own path— D’Angelo to finish a degree in environmental biology, Forster to record a solo album, and Hart to tour with other bands. Each also continued to collect vintage keyboards and write music. In time, they started sharing their creations with one another and playing together again—at which point they found themselves making a record, Move In Spectrums. Au Revoir Simone found a perfect label in Instant Records, which focuses on bringing innovative female artists to the forefront of the music scene.
July 10
Computer Magic
Danielle “Danz” Johnson, vocals, keyboards, composition; Chris Egan, percussion; Randy Smith, bass, synthesizer
Computer Magic is the project of the New York–based producer Danielle “Danz” Johnson. After taking a break from DJing in New York City a few years ago, she moved in with her mom in Tampa, Florida. There she began experimenting with sounds, garnering inspiration from 1970s sci-fi films, which formed the genesis of Computer Magic. The style that resulted is bright electronic pop, with warm and wistful vocals over simple yet sturdy beats. Johnson has since toured with Chris Egan (Solange, Blood Orange, Turing Machine), and released seven EPs worldwide and two full-length records in Japan. She is currently working on a full-length Computer Magic record with producer Claudius Mittendorfer.
July 17
Ex Hex
Mary Timony, vocals, guitar; Betsy Wright vocals; bass, Laura Harris, drums
Ex Hex is what your older brother’s friends listened to: “Roxy Roller” and “Virginia Plain” rumbling from the Kenwood in the basement. The pop-punk power trio hails from Washington, D.C., and is led by veteran rocker Mary Timony (formerly of Helium and Wild Flag). The three songs on Hot and Cold, the band’s debut EP (Merge Records), were recorded in Timony’s basement over the course of two days in July 2013. As a writer for Time Out New York noted, “Timony is a bona fide underground-rock hero. . . . The trio hammers out playful tunes that are catchy as heck—glammy, surf-splashed, and enhanced with an FM-radio classic-rock edge.” A spring tour included SXSW in March; a much-anticipated full-length album is slated for release later this year.
July 24
Thao (from The Get Down Stay Down)
Thao Nguyen, solo guitar and voice
While growing up in Falls Church, Virginia, Thao Nguyen picked up a guitar at the age of 12 and began performing in a pop-country duo in high school. She spent most of her twenties working and touring with a laundry list of vaunted artists, including Andrew Bird, Mirah, Laura Viers, and the producer Tucker Martine. She also toured the United States with the syndicated NPR program Radiolab. A little over a year ago, Nguyen finally settled in San Francisco: “I wanted to try to actually be a real live person, rather than just singing songs about them.” Life off the road has meant time to think about things besides music and to engage in community activism, such as advocating for incarcerated Californians. When Nguyen stepped into the studio with her band The Get Down Stay Down and producer John Congleton, the result was We the Common. The album’s 12 songs are raw and rollicking, homemade and reckless, revealing this musician’s punk soul and folk heart.
July 31
La Luz
Shana Cleveland guitar, vocals; Alice Sandahl, keyboard, vocals; Lena Simon, bass, vocals; Marian Li Pino, drums, vocals
The Seattle-based La Luz brings a relaxed beach-babe vibe to the sweet, thick harmonies of 1960s girl-group, garage, and doo-wop bands. Formed in the summer of 2012, La Luz is driven by thumping, energetic bass lines, danceable surf beats, trembling organ, reverb-soaked guitar, and a wild love of rock ‘n’ roll. Its music embodies that most elusive element of the human condition: longing, and the fleeting relief that tags along with deep desire. The band’s first EP, Damp Face, was created with the help of friend Johnny Goss in a sweaty apartment across from the laundry room in a trailer park in Bothell, Washington. The initial run of 100 home-dubbed cassettes sold out after the band’s first few shows, and in early 2013, Burger Records rereleased it. It’s Alive, La Luz’s debut full-length record, came out on the Hardly Art label in October 2013. The band looks forward to inspiring damp-faced dance parties in clubs, basements, theaters, and backyard séances all over the world.
August 7
Tashaki Miyaki
Lucy Miyaki, drums, voice; Rocky Tashaki, guitars; Dora Hiller, bass, voice
The lo-fi, dream-pop trio Tashaki Miyaki, based in Los Angeles, was born from a late night jam between Miyaki and Tashaki in early 2011. They soon started making recordings with producer-engineer Joel Jerome. Posting a few songs on bandcamp.com suddenly led to responses from bloggers and business-types alike, including jetting off to London to play a private event at the legendary 100 Club. Seeking to fill out their live sound, the duo asked bassist Hiller to join. Since then Tashaki Miyaki has toured North America and the United Kingdom, and released a self-titled EP, a single (Luvluvluv Records), a seven-inch of Everly Brothers covers (Rough Trade/For Us Records), and a tape of early recordings (Burger Records). A debut full-length album is in the works. A writer for Fader observed that the band’s serene, ambling sound is “so pretty I’m afraid saying anything else might diminish it.”
August 14
Frankie Cosmos
Greta Kline, vocals, guitar; Gabrielle Smith, keyboard, vocals; David Maine, bass; Aaron Maine, drums
Frankie Cosmos is a four-piece band led by the singer and songwriter Greta Kline. The songs range from slow, sad ballads to goofy rock ‘n’ roll love songs. They celebrate, mourn, or otherwise commemorate the small daily stories that weave the textures of a young life. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times found a recent performance “bracing and warm and full of tiny observational gems. . . . The aesthetic of naiveté here is just a cover—more interesting things are happening underneath the hood.” Frankie Cosmos is based in New York City (where Kline and Smith grew up) and Pleasantville, New York (where the Maine brothers grew up). Zentropy, the group’s first studio album, features 10 songs and was released in March on the label Double Double Whammy.
August 21
THEESatisfaction
Stasia “Stas” Irons and Catherine “Cat” Harris-White, vocals and electronics
The sound of the Seattle-based THEESatisfaction infuses funk-psychedelic feminista sci-fi epics with the warmth and depth of black jazz and Sunday morning soul, frosted with icy raps that evoke Elaine Brown, Ursula Rucker, and Q-Tip. Rapper Irons and singer Harris-White write, perform, and produce their own material. Immediately embraced for their singular sound, unflinching commentary, and immortal groove, they have made friends, fans, and new family from coast to coast through a combination of sharp digital hustle and self-organized tours that connect them to like minds everywhere. The band’s debut full-length album, awE NaturalE, was released by Sub Pop in 2012. Pop Matters praised it as “a powerful testament to hip-hop’s potential for challenging, inspiring, and pushing beyond the boundaries of genre toward new and exciting forms of hybridity and interconnection.”
August 28
Widowspeak
Molly Hamilton, vocals and guitar; Robert Earl Thomas, guitar
Widowspeak is an American band known for its wistful, Western-tinged take on rock ‘n’ roll. The group formed in 2010 and released two singles in 2011 (“Harsh Realm” and “Gun Shy”) followed by a self-titled debut album that summer, all on the Brooklyn label Captured Tracks. Widowspeak has been praised for its reverential spaciousness, Hamilton’s haunting voice, and Thomas’s spindly, Morricone-esque guitar lines. The music draws on 1950s pop ballads and 1970s psych, and features languid call-and-response melodies. The band has toured extensively, wearing in its warm, nostalgic sound. The Swamps is Widowspeak’s newest release. Here the band’s characteristic sonic landscapes, poignant harmonies, and layers of delicate guitar-work usher in a new chapter. Inspired by the light-choked wetlands of its title, the album brims with songs about fears of stagnation and the pitfalls of nostalgia, but never relinquishes Widowspeak’s melodic optimism.
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The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 708-9400, MoMA.org.
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