New Songs Now Program
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+ PRESENT N E W S O N G S N O W NEW SONGS NOW IS PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH NEW SONGS NOW July 22 - 26 SERIES LINE-UP JULY 22 – Jen Goma // Georgia Stitt → conversation led by Anne Kauffman JULY 23 – Rebecca Hart// Or Matias → conversation led by Lisa Kron JULY 24 – Nehemiah Luckett // Melissa Li → conversation led by Paul Scott Goodman JULY 25 – Simone Allen // Helen Park → conversation led by Natasha Sinha JULY 26 – LPfunK // Lucas Steele → conversation led by Eisa Davis ARTIST BIOS SIMONE ALLEN is a singer/songwriter, music director/pianist, and arranger. In January 2018, she presented "The Songs of Simone Allen" at 54 Below— she has also performed at venues such as Joe's Pub, Ars Nova, Pianos, Mirror Tea House, Playwrights Horizons, and New York SongSpace. As a New York SongSpace grant recipient, she is currently developing a new musical loosely based on the life of Clara Wieck Schumann. She was a featured songwriter in the NYCLU's 2017 Broadway Stands Up For Freedom concert at the NYU Skirball Center (winner of the "Songs of Freedom" protest song contest). She has collaborated with artists such as Shaina Taub, Mike Brun, Andrea Grody, Leigh Silverman, Ellen Winter, Justin Levine, & Bandits on the Run and accompanied performers such as Aaron Tveit, Stephanie J. Block, Karen Olivo, and Joel Perez. Recent theater credits: The Cher Show (Chicago), The Suffragists (Public Theater lab), Cruel Intentions, Folk Wandering (Pipeline Theatre Company), Moulin Rouge (lab), As You Like It (Public Works), and East o', West o'! (Ars Nova ANT Fest). She music-directed eleven productions with Torn Ticket II at Tufts University (B.A. Music 2017). She is a composer in the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. JEN GOMA (Showtime Goma) is performer/creator of music, videos and live shows. A self-propelled multi- media artist with "serious chops... (and) undeniable charm"--Pitchfork Music, whose debut album, Smiley Face, "shows how she can cause – and helm – a commotion while working with beats borrowed from R&B and pop."-- Rolling Stone. Her self-produced music and videos have appeared on Playboy, NPR, Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound and Stereogum. A member of the bands A Sunny Day in Glasgow and Roman à Clef, she is currently alongside Kristine Haruna Lee in the Soho Rep. Theater Writer/Director Lab. The album Smiley Face was made in collaboration with Deerhoof's Greg Saunier and her A Sunny Day in Glasgow bandmates, was released in June of 2017 and Rolling Stone placed it on their list of "Albums to Stream Now." Goma tours frequently, opening for acts like of Montreal, in her most recent live show with collaborator Lou Tides (Teeny Lieberson of the band TEEN), as well as with her band A Sunny Day in Glasgow, who have been invited to perform at the Primavera Sound Festival, Les Nuits Botanique and SXSW. Goma was also a member of People Get Ready, a band/performance vehicle that has mounted shows at NY institutions like The Kitchen and New York Live Arts, in addition to providing live original music for Jodi Melnick in the Fall For Dance festival and performing at the Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Festival. The consummate collaborator, she has shared the stage with Jherek Bischoff, been featured on records by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and created a documentary video short series with Luisa Conlon called The Working Life, which has been shown by the Brooklyn Filmaker's Collective. A consultant on the Play Our Kiki: A Gay Farce which premiered in 2013 at the Fringe Festival as an AEA Showcase, Jen is currently writing music and lyrics for, You're It, a musical based on the Netflix series Making a Murderer, while composing and sound designing for harunalee's Memory Retrograde and Built for Collapse's Danger Signals. REBECCA HART once accidentally won a comedy competition in Dublin, Ireland while appearing as musical guest (true story). She has been acting since her first stage appearance at the age of nine months and writing songs for only a slightly shorter time. Recent acting credits include the workshop of The Pogues’ Fairytale of NY (The Public); (Not) Water (New Georges @3LD); the short film I Enjoy Being a Girl (Play Mountain Productions), and Midsummer; a Play With Songs (Hartford Theaterworks - CT Critics Circle Best Actress Nomination). Recent composer-lyricist activity: The Cabaret at the End of the World (Hard Sparks, co-winner of NY Innovative Theatre Best Original Music Award); Rimbaud in NY (The Civilians @BAM), How to Break (Village Theatre, Seattle), Uriel Acosta (Target Margin). Known for her ‘infectious stage presence’ (BAMCafe Live) and ‘impressively well-textured voice’ (TimeOut), she is a regular at the Rockwood Music Hall and plays all over NYC and elsewhere with and without her band. She is a Civilians Associate Artist and a recent graduate of NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (book & lyrics). Her new album The Magician’s Daughter was produced by Ben Sollee in Louisville KY and by Ben Arons in NYC and is available now. www.rebeccahart.net MELISSA LI is a composer, performer, and writer. She is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Award and a Queer|Art|Mentorship fellow. Musicals include Surviving the Nian (The Theater Offensive, IRNE Award for Best New Play 2007), 99% Stone (The Theater Offensive), and Interstate (New York Musical Festival). Her works have received support from the National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts, Dixon Place, terraNOVA Collective, and Musical Theater Factory, among others. Upcoming residency: The Village Theater. LPfunK (a.k.a. Lucas Papaelias) is an actor, musician, composer, & filmmaker. He was an original cast member of the Tony-winning musical Once on Broadway and was a regular on the Cinemax medical drama The Knick. LP appears in the Lake Lucille Chekhov Project's upcoming docudrama I Am A Seagull, for which he composed original music. He also appeared onscreen in School of Rock, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and four episodes of Law & Order, among other guest TV spots and indie films. Additional onstage credits include This Flat Earth at Playwrights Horizons, New Neighborhood's These Paper Bullets! at the Atlantic, Jack’s Precious Moment at 59E59, CYRANO on Broadway (w/ Kevin Kline) for which he also composed original music, Essential Self-Defense at Playwrights Horizons (Drama Desk nomination: Original Music) and Cellini at Second Stage. You can view his experimental films & music videos at roadporn.net, as well as learn about his most recent project in development with New Neighborhood, BYWAYZ with Randy Roads: an odd-time blues rock migration of the lost highways & scenic byways of the great American landscape. NEHEMIAH LUCKETT Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, Nehemiah Luckett has been composing, conducting and performing for over 20 years. He has been a featured soloist at the National Cathedral, Carnegie Hall and has performed all over the US and Europe. He has composed solo, choral and instrumental pieces. His Secular Mass (a five-movement work for chorus, string quartet and oboe) was premiered in 2004. In 2015 he was commissioned by Greenpeace UK to compose Requiem for Arctic Ice: The Northernmost Part. In January 2017 his piece Kyrie 2017 was premiered at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has also written two full length musicals: Hamlet: Prince of Funk (1999) based on the Shakespearean classic with collaborators Owen Beverly (Evans) and Matthew Smith and Brick by Brick (2006), based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe with collaborator, Ross Wade. Nehemiah is the Music Director and composer for Rev. Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir (http://revbilly.com) and is the choral accompanist and Drama teacher for Manhattan Country School. Also, check out the rock band, Moons of Mercury (http://moonsofmercury.com) which Nehemiah on keys and vocals. Nehemiah has deep gratitude for Power APAC (Academic and Performing Arts Complex) in Jackson, Mississippi where he studied music and theater and for his family that allowed him to dream crazy dreams. OR MATIAS is a composer, lyricist, pianist, orchestrator, and music director. He has worked with Josh Groban, The Trans Siberian Orchestra, Ingrid Michaelson, Rachael Yamagata, and tap dancer Andrew Nemr, alongside countless others. He was most recently the music director and conductor for Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway. As composer and playwright, Or is writing a musical adaptation of The Wave - the 1967 experiment which turned an entire high school into a proto-fascist movement in just 5 days. He frequently composes for the radio show “Israel Story” alongside other collaborations in Israel. His musical Wall Between Us, about a relationship between two Israeli and Palestinian men, was performed across the United States to wide acclaim. He is currently writing scores for Rise to the Tap featuring virtuoso tap dancer Andrew Nemr, and a musical about Ignacy Paderewsky, sponsored by The Adam Mickiewicz Institute of Poland. His scores for dance and theater have been performed at many venues in New York City. Or has served as the music director for the NY branch of Playing for Change – an organization which raises money through concerts to build music facilities for underprivileged kids worldwide. He is proudly sponsored by Yamaha. HELEN PARK is a composer and arranger based in New York City. Her music has been described as “perversely addictive” (New York Times) “infectious” (Hollywood Reporter) and “irrepressible” (Theatermania). Helen has received the 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, 3 Drama Desk Nominations and the Richard Rodgers Award for her Off-Broadway musical KPOP, which had a critically- acclaimed, sold-out Off-Broadway run last year.