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Home , Bryce Dessner, Caroline Shaw, Colin Stetson, Elaine de Kooning, Hazel Larsen Archer, Jherek Bischoff

BAM 2014 Next Wave Festival #BlackMountainSongs

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board

William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board

Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board

Karen Brooks Hopkins, Black President

Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer Mountain Songs

BAM Harvey Theater Nov 20—22 at 7:30pm; Nov 23 at 3pm

Running time: one hour and 30 minutes, no intermission

Brooklyn Youth Chorus Choral director and conductor Dianne Berkun-Menaker Creator Co-curators Bryce Dessner & Director Maureen Towey Season Sponsor: Music composers , Bryce Dessner, , John King, Muhly, Richard Reed Parry, , and Aleksandra Vrebalov Time Warner is the BAM 2014 Choreographer Jenny Shore Butler Next Wave Festival Sponsor Filmmaker Matt Wolf Set designer Mimi Lien Viacom is the BAM 2014 Music Sponsor Sarah Maiorino Major support for Black Mountain Songs provided Lighting designer Ben Stanton by Robert L. Turner Sound designer Jamie McElhinney Video & projection designer Grant McDonald Support of works by women composers provided Dramaturgy Anne Erbe by Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation

Leadership support for music at BAM provided by: Co-commissioned by BAM and Brooklyn Youth Chorus Frances Bermanzohn & Alan Roseman for the 2014 Next Wave Festival Pablo J. Salame

This engagement is dedicated to the late Mary The 2014 Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Award honors Anne Yancey, former Board Chair of Brooklyn Brooklyn Youth Chorus and the production of Black Youth Chorus and long-standing BAM supporter. Mountain Songs. Black Mountain Songs

PERFORMERS BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS Conductor Margaret Grabar Sage Isabella Nigro Dianne Berkun-Menaker Julia Harbutt Sophia Partow Natalie Hawkins Aisha Perez Meaghan Accarino Akiya Henry Lily Pisano Kristina Adolphe Symone Henry Juliet Schlefer Emily Ahn Julia Holman Maya Sequira Rachel Asaeda Camille Johnson Madelaine Smith Josephine Attal Olivia Knutsen Maria Smith Gabriella Babolcsay Adrian Korin Sarah Sotomayor Taylor Boria Joyce Kouassi Isabella Stevenson Julia Cassidy Meghan Kouassi Jacob Sutton Nell Compton Ona Linna-Hipp Allison Tindel Ciara Cornelius Trina McGhee Josette Tolliver-Shaw Fannie Feynberg Maeve McNamara Rachel Vales Kierra Foster-Bagley Anna McNeil Nikolay Vartsaba Zoe Frazer-Klotz Jake Montagnino Jennifer Williams Nathaniel Goodyear Jillian Nedd Deanna Goudelias Stephanie Negron

Guitar Bryce Dessner Guitar, Bass Richard Reed Parry Caroline Shaw Miranda Cuckson Violin Elena Moon Park Paul Wiancko Piano Ning Yu Percussion David Cossin Dancer Gus Solomons, jr Dancer Adam Gauzza Narrator Basil King

CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION TEAM Line producer Laura Roumanos Production manager Neal Wilkinson Stage manager Aislinn Curry Film segment producer Mandy Mandelstein Additional video animations Grant McDonald Cinematographer Greta Zozula Archival research Michael Dolan, Sarah Dunlap Official film sponsor C41 Media Costume assistant Isabelle Coler Set Design Assistant Brittany Vasta Chorus Manager Sheila Carroll PROGRAM

JOHN KING ars imitatur naturam text by St. Thomas Aquinas

BRYCE DESSNER Black Mountain Song text by Robert Creeley

RICHARD REED PARRY there is a sound text by Parry, with excerpts by John Cage

CAROLINE SHAW Its Motion Keeps text from a traditional hymn from The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion

BRYCE DESSNER My World text by

ALEKSANDRA VREBALOV Bubbles text by Robert Creeley and John Cage

JHEREK BISCHOFF Childhood’s Dreams text by Robert Duncan

NICO MUHLY Fielding Dawson in ’s Studio text by Fielding Dawson

BRYCE DESSNER Maximus text by Charles Olson

RICHARD REED PARRY Spaceship Earth text by Parry, with excerpts by Buckminster Fuller

CAROLINE SHAW Anni’s Constant text by Shaw and Anni Albers

RICHARD REED PARRY Their Passing in Time text by Parry

Additional music: TIM HECKER and BRYCE DESSNER M.C. Richards text by M.C. Richards

Narrative text by Fielding Dawson, The Black Mountain Book: A New Edition,” North Carolina Wesleyan College Press, 1991. Courtesy of the Estate of Fielding Dawson Who’sBlack MountainWho Songs

NOTE FROM BRYCE DESSNER Because the identity of Black Mountain was so diverse and creatively expansive, we allowed I’ve been interested in each composer and collaborator to explore for many years. I went to summer camp in North the ideas and characters of the place on their Carolina as a kid just a few miles from the site of own. In the spirit of the college we wanted this the college and actually learned to play music in process to be inspiring for each composer and those same mountains that spawned some of the to reflect a process of individual self-discovery. greatest artists and art movements of the 20th The music was written over a three-year period century. I first learned about Black Mountain and commissions were rolled out on different College through the well known and long- timelines, which allowed us to steer artists running John Cage and towards exploring different ideas and texts collaboration, which was in its early years at based on what others already covered. For Black Mountain (both were teachers at the instance, once we had a couple of Cage and college). I learned more about the college later Creeley inspired works, we suggested that in reading about the many profoundly important other composers look elsewhere. In the end we visual artists who came through there either as touched only a fraction of the vast community teachers, visiting lecturers, or students (Robert of the college. The songs and narration woven Rauschenberg, , , throughout the show set texts or ideas from , Philip Guston, and Franz John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Josef and Kline, to name a few). But the decision to create Anni Albers, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, a staged work for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Buckminster Fuller, Robert Duncan, Fielding reflecting on Black Mountain was born out of a Dawson (including a song set in Franz Kline’s more recent exploration of the school of Black studio), Ruth Asawa (who inspired the stage Mountain Poets. Poets like Robert Creeley and design), Basil King, and MC Richards. It is Charles Olson (also the last rector of the College) particularly rewarding that the piece premieres in were hugely influential American writers and the Harvey Theater, considering that Harvey integral to the Black Mountain story. My original Lichtenstein is a Black Mountain alumnus. idea was to set poems by the Black Mountain Poets; this idea expanded to embrace the ethos Our team has spent the last year immersed in of community and collaboration which was so Black Mountain research, visiting the former essential to the college. The spirit of learning campus with its beautiful rolling hills, drawing through doing and emphasis on self-exploration inspiration from its community of hard-working for both teachers and students seemed like a artists. But, perhaps Fielding Dawson said it perfect vehicle to create a collaborative work that best: “All the interviewing of former students would be meaningful to both the young singers and faculty are but shallow reminders, dim of the chorus, as well as the creative community reflections. It is too bad, and may seem unfair, of composers and artists who we embraced for but so Black Mountain was, and if you weren’t the project. there, you will never know, or understand. Unless you create it. That’s the catch. If you never were there, you’ll have to create it.”

Archival Stills and Footage courtesy of: Claude Stoller Jonathan Williams from the Yale Collection of Estate American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Black Mountain College + Arts Center Manuscript Collection Cape Ann Museum Photographs by Josef Albers copyright and cour- Charles Olson Research Collection, Archives and tesy the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Special Collections at the Thomas J.Dodd Western Regional Archives, State Archives of Research Center, University of Connecticut North Carolina Libraries. “Charles Olson, 1965—66” footage courtesy of The Poetry Center & American Poetry Archives, San Francisco State University Who’s Who

BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS and master classes for University, New Now in its 23rd season, the Grammy Award- York State School Music Association, American winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, under the Choral Directors Association, and the New York direction of Founder & Artistic Director Dianne City Department of Education. She is the creator Berkun-Menaker, is one of the country’s leading of the Chorus’ Cross-Choral Training® program, youth choruses and the ensemble of choice for a proven holistic and experiential approach to de- internationally renowned and artists, veloping singers in a group setting encompassing including the , both voice and musicianship pedagogy. and Atlanta symphonies, Mariinsky , , Elton John, Grizzly Bear, and BRYCE DESSNER (creator, co-curator, compos- . The Chorus’ television appear- er) is a Brooklyn-based composer, guitarist, and ances include Late Night with David Letterman, curator who is also a member of the Grammy , Late Show with Conan Award-nominated band the National. In addition O’Brien, and on commercials for Taylor Made to his work with the National, Dessner has made Gold Clubs and Santander Bank. The Chorus a name for himself as an acclaimed composer, won a Grammy Award for the world premiere live working with some of the world’s most creative recording of John Adams’ On the Transmigra- and respected musicians. Dessner’s recent tion of Souls with the New York Philharmonic in commissions include pieces for the 2005 and appears on Bryce Dessner and Kronos Philharmonic, the National Audiovisual Institute Quartet’s 2013 release Aheym. The New York of Poland, the Grammy Award-winning Kronos Times has hailed them as “remarkable young Quartet, and the new music ensemble eighth singers,” and recently described the Chorus as blackbird, among others. The first recordings of “a consistently bold organization that regularly Dessner’s compositions, performed by Kronos commissions works from composers representing Quartet, were released in 2013 by Anti on an unusually broad stylistic range.” The Chorus an album entitled Aheym. In 2014 Deutsche studies and performs a diverse repertoire and Grammophon/Universal Music Classics released thrives on collaboration with composers and St. Carolyn By the Sea; Suite from There Will artists including , Paola Prestini, and Be Blood, which features three of Dessner’s and Rinde Eckert. The Chorus orchestral works performed by the Copenhagen serves more than 500 singers annually at its Philharmonic and conducted by André de Ridder. headquarters in Cobble Hill and locations in Dessner is also the founder and artistic director Bedford-Stuyvesant and Red Hook. Choristers, of the MusicNOW Festival in , OH, who range from seven to 20 years old, reflect the which will present its 10th season this March. In broad diversity of the metropolitan area. brook- addition, Bryce and his brother Aaron produced lynyouthchorus.org the ’s extensive AIDS char- ity compilation, Dark was the Night, which has DIANNE BERKUN-MENAKER (choral direc- raised over $2 million for AIDS charities. Dessner tor and conductor) is the founder and artistic is a composer-in-residence at Muziekgebouw director of Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Under Eindhoven. brycedessner.com visionary leadership, the Chorus has become one of the most highly regarded ensembles in the RICHARD REED PARRY (co-curator, com- country and has stretched the artistic boundaries poser) is the red-headed musical polymath at for the youth chorus. Berkun-Menaker has pre- the heart of the inventive band Arcade pared choruses for performances with acclaimed Fire, but his work and story reach far beyond. conductors, including Alan Gilbert, Lorin Maazel, Born in Toronto and raised in a community of Marin Alsop, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, and ex­-pat British isles folk musicians, Parry studied Robert Spano. Most notably, she prepared the electro-acoustics and contemporary dance at Chorus for its 2002 debut with the New York . As well as contributing to Philharmonic in John Adams’ On the Transmi- ’s success over the past 10 years, he gration of Souls, the recording for which the also released his debut album as a composer Chorus won a Grammy Award in 2005. Berkun- this year entitled Music for Heart and Breath on Menaker is a regular choral clinician and teach- . Parry has also written ing artist for such organizations as the Weill Mu- commissioned works for Kronos Quartet, yMusic, sic Institute at Carnegie Hall and the New York and Bryce Dessner, and his chamber works also Philharmonic and has also presented workshops have been performed by the Calder Quartet and Who’s Who

Warhol Dervish. He has also formed many con- TIM HECKER (composer) is a Canadian-based temporary instrumental ensembles, Bell Orches- musician and sound artist, born in Vancou- tre with Arcade Fire violinist , and ver. Since 1996, he has produced a range of the sonic folk trio Quiet River of Dust. He has audio works for , Alien8, Mille Plateaux, also collaborated and performed with artists like Room40, Force Inc, Staalplaat, and Fat Cat. , The National, , Neil has described his work as Young, Mick Jagger, , , “foreboding, abstract pieces in which static and , , La La La Human sub-bass rumbles open up around slow moving Steps, and Islands. richardreedparry.com notes and chords, like fissures in the earth wait- ing to swallow them whole.” His 2006 album, MAUREEN TOWEY (director) has been recog- Harmony in Ultraviolet, received critical acclaim, nized as an AOL/PBS MAKER, a Princess Grace including being recognized by as a top fellow, a TCG Leadership U fellow, and a Ful- recording of 2006. His sixth full-length album, bright scholar in South Africa. Towey has worked Ravedeath (1972), won the 2012 Juno Award as creative director for Arcade Fire on their for Electronic Album of the Year. His most recent Grammy Award winning album, . album, Virgins, was recognized by The Wire Highlights from that campaign include collabo- magazine as one of 2013’s top five records. In rating on interactive video The Wilderness Down- addition to his own work, he has collaborated town, working with Terry Gilliam for a livestream with Christof Migone, Martin Tétreault, Fly Pan concert at Madison Square Garden, and manag- Am, Aidan Baker, and others. His body of work ing a number of Arcade Fire’s charitable projects also includes commissions for contemporary in Haiti. Towey has also directed concerts for dance and film scores sound-art installations. musicians Ray LaMontagne, tUnE-yArDs, the sunblind.net Walkmen, and White Denim. As an ensemble member of Sojourn Theatre, she leads radical JOHN KING (composer) composer, guitarist community engaged arts events including Throw- and violist, has received commissions from ing Bones, Finding Penelope, and most recently, Ethel; Kronos Quartet; All-Stars; The Islands of Milwaukee. Finding Penelope in- Mannheim Ballet; Ballet/Diamond spired a documentary (currently touring festivals) Project; Stuttgart Ballet; Les Ballets de Monte and a book, co-written by Towey, to be published Carlo; and Merce Cunningham Dance Company. in 2015. Additional theater highlights include His string quartets have been performed by the The Saints Tour (River to River Festival), Three Secret Quartet and Crucible Quartet, which he Sisters (Working Theater), Emergence (Foundry leads. He has written four operas: herzstück/ Theatre), Swallow What You Steal (ubom, South heartpiece, based on text by Heiner Müller, Africa), and multiple productions with Boise Con- which premiered at the 1999 Warsaw Autumn; temporary Theatre. Towey has assisted Michael la belle captive based on text by Alain Robbe- Rohd, Brett Bailey, and JoAnne Akalaitis. She is Grillet, which premiered at Teatro Colon/CETC in a native New Yorker and a graduate of North- Buenos Aires; and Dice Thrown, based on the western University. maureentowey.com Stéphane Mallarmé poem, which premiered in April, 2010 in Los Angeles. King recently com- JHEREK BISCHOFF (composer) is a Seattle- pleted SapphOpera, a work based on the text based songwriter, producer, performer, and com- fragments of Sappho, translated by Anne Carson. poser. A finalist for the Stranger’s Music Genius He has written seven compositions for the Award in 2013, Bischoff has composed music Brooklyn Youth Chorus. He received the 2014 for dance and orchestral performances, and Music/Sound Award from the Foundation for elegantly produced records including Casiotone Contemporary Arts and was the recipient of the for the Painfully Alone’s critically-acclaimed Eti- 2009 Alpert Award in the Arts for Music. He was quette and ’s Safe as Houses. music curator at The Kitchen (1999—2003) Bischoff serves as both full-time member and and was a co-director of the music committee guest musician/arranger for the for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company Quartet, as well as experimental pop crews the (2002—11). johnkingmusic.com Dead Science, , and Parenthetical Girls. He was born in and currently lives in NICO MUHLY (composer) is one of today’s Los Angeles. jherekbischoff.com foremost composers with a wide scope of work for ensembles, soloists, and organizations Who’s Who

including the American Symphony Orchestra, Dramatists, American Opera Projects, Other Boston Pops, Carnegie Hall, Symphony, Minds Festival, and Tanglewood. Her awards countertenor Iestyn Davies, violinist , include the American Academy of Arts and choreographer , New York Letters Charles Ives Fellowship, Barlow Endow- City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, Paris Opéra ment Commission, MAP Fund, Vienna Modern Ballet, soprano Jessica Rivera, and designer/ Masters, Meet the Composer, and Douglas Moore illustrator , and Brooklyn Youth Fellowship. Her works have been recorded for Chorus’s 2011 production of Tell the Way at St. Nonesuch, Innova, and Centaur Records, and Ann’s Warehouse. Among Muhly’s most frequent Vienna Modern Masters. Vrebalov’s most recent collaborators are his colleagues at Bedroom collaboration, with director Bill Morrison, Beyond Community, an artist-run label headed by Zero (1914—1918), was commissioned and Icelandic musician Valgeir Sigurðsson. Bedroom premiered by Kronos Quartet at Berkeley’s Cal Community was inaugurated in 2007 with the Performances and had its European premiere release of Muhly’s first album, Speaks Volumes. at the Edinburgh International Festival this year. In spring 2012, released Vrebalov is currently setting Charles Simic’s Muhly’s three-part Drones & Music, in collabora- poetry for a song cycle commissioned by ASCAP/ tion with pianist , violinist Kingsford Fund and is collaborating with archi- Pekka Kuusisto, and violist Nadia Sirota. In tect Ronit Eisenbach on a site-specific sound in- September, released a live stallation at the Washington College in Maryland. recording of the ’s production aleksandravrebalov.com of , Muhly’s first opera. nicomuhly.com. BASIL KING (narrator) is a painter and poet, CAROLINE SHAW (composer) is a New York- born in England and currently living in Brook- based musician appearing in different guises. lyn. He attended Black Mountain College as a She is a Grammy Award-winning singer in teenager and has been for the last six , a busy freelance violinist, and decades. He began to write in the 1980s and in 2013 became the youngest-ever winner of since then has practiced both arts. His books the for her enigmatic include Warp Spasm, Identity, mirage: a poem composition . She will make in 22 sections, 77 Beasts/Basil King’s Beastiary, her solo violin debut in 2015 with the Cincinnati and Learning to Draw/A History. He recently ex- Symphony (MusicNOW Festival), and she is the hibited his visual art at Poets House in 2010. He inaugural musician in residence at Dumbarton is the subject and narrator of the 2012 film Basil Oaks as well as the composer in residence with King: MIRAGE by the artists Nicole Peyrafitte and ’s Music on Main. Shaw has also Miles Joris-Peyrafitte. basilking.net performed with ACME, Signal, Trinity Wall Street Choir, , Mark Morris Dance NING YU (piano), praised for her, “taut and Group, the Knights, and many others. Recent impassioned performance” by The New York commissioned projects include new works for Times, pianist Ning Yu performs with vigor and Carnegie Hall, Carmel Bach Festival, Cincinnati dedication traditional and avant-garde repertoire Symphony, Guggenheim Museum (FLUX Quar- of the 20th and 21st centuries on stages tet), the Crossing, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus. across the US, , and Asia. She is the Other personal projects include the development winner of the Boucourechliev Prize at the Ninth of an evening-length theater work, Ritornello, International Concours de Orléans in France, and a slowly-evolving ambient electronic album. a competition devoted to piano repertoire from carolineshaw.com 1900 to today. Yu has performed on the stages of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, MoMA (New ALEKSANDRA VREBALOV (composer) has writ- York City); Contempo Concert Series at University ten more than 60 works, ranging from concert of Chicago; Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; music and opera to modern dance and film Köln Philharmonie; Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam); music. Her works have been commissioned or Kwe-Tsing Theater (Hong Kong); and numerous performed by Kronos Quartet, Serbian National festivals around the world. Yu has worked with Theater, Carnegie Hall, Moravian Philharmonic, numerous ensembles such as Bang on a Can All- Belgrade Philharmonic, and Providence Festival Stars, Talea Ensemble, and Wet Ink Ensemble. Ballet. Vrebalov is a fellow of MacDowell Colony, She is a member of Yarn/Wire, counter)induction, Rockefeller Bellagio Center, New York’s New and Signal Ensemble. In theater, Yu performed in Who’s Who

Mabou Mines’ Dollhouse, a critically-acclaimed 2012), Shapey, Hersch, Martino, Finney, Carter, production directed by Lee Breuer. She can be Eckardt, Sessions, Haas, and Xenakis. In 2015, seen in the production’s feature-film version, she records her first CD for ECM Records. She produced by ARTE France. A native of China, is director of Nunc and a member of counter) she currently lives in New York City. induction. Cuckson studied at Juilliard, where she received her doctorate and won the Presser DAVID COSSIN (percussion), a specialist in new Award. She is on faculty at Mannes College. and experimental music, has worked across a mirandacuckson.com broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms to incorporate new media with percussion. Cossin ELENA MOON PARK (violin) is a musician has recorded and performed internationally with and educator living in Brooklyn. Originally from composers and ensembles including the Bang Oak Ridge, TN, she studied anthropology and on a Can All-Stars, and Musicians, ethnomusicology at Northwestern University and , Yo-Yo Ma, , Tan completed a masters degree in Urban Policy from Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon Percussion Quartet, in New York City. Before moving and the trio Real Quiet. Numerous theater proj- to NYC, Park worked as an organizational devel- ects include collaborations with Blue Man Group, opment consultant for several grassroots social , and director Peter Sellars. Cossin justice organizations in south and west Chicago. was featured as the percussion soloist in Tan Currently, she manages programs for Bang on Dun’s Grammy- and Oscar-winning score to Ang a Can’s Found Sound Nation and is a freelance Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Most musician in NYC specializing in new music. As recently, he joined Sting for his world tour, Sym- a member of the all-ages folk rock band Dan phonicities. Cossin has performed as a soloist Zanes and Friends, with whom she plays , with orchestras through out the world including , mandolin, ukukele, and sings, Park the , Orchestra Radio actively engages in outreach and collaboration France, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, São Paulo with various youth arts organizations across State Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Gothenburg the country, and has performed on stages and Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Hong Kong in festivals throughout the US and abroad. She Symphony, and Singapore Symphony. Cossin is also interested in the preservation of diverse ventures into other art forms include sonic instal- music and culture in the US and has recently lations, which have been presented in New York, released an album for families featuring folk and Italy, and Germany. He is also an active composer children’s music from East Asia. and has invented several new instruments, which expand the limits of traditional percussion. Cossin PAUL WIANCKO (cello) has performed is the curator for the Sound Res Festival, an experi- extensively throughout the US, Europe, South mental music festival in southern Italy, and teaches America, , and South Africa. Besides solo percussion at Queens College in New York City. performances with orchestras around the world, Wiancko has collaborated with artists from all MIRANDA CUCKSON (violin), violinist/violist, walks, including Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, the Guarneri is acclaimed for her performances of a wide Quartet, Etta James, Dave Stewart, Joe Cocker, range of repertoire, from early eras to current and many others. As a composer, Wiancko’s re- creations. Praised as “a prodigiously talented cent commissions include works for the Grammy player” who “plays daunting contemporary music Award-winning Parker Quartet, cellist Judith with insight, honesty, and temperament,” (The Serkin, the Methow Valley Music Festival, and New York Times), she is in demand as a soloist Barge Music in Brooklyn. Upcoming highlights and chamber musician. She performs at such will include scoring the prison-drama feature film venues as the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Heartlock, as well as a new Mars-exploration- Hall, , Miller Theatre, Teatro based work for solo piano commissioned by Colón, Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, and the Peter Smith, the principal investigator for NASA’s Marlboro, Bard, Lincoln Center, Bridgehampton, Phoenix mission to Mars. Wiancko has toured Portland, and Bodensee festivals. She made her regularly with Chick Corea, ECCO, and Musicians Carnegie Hall concerto debut in Piston’s Con- from Marlboro, and writes and performs as a certo with American Symphony Orchestra and member of the Brooklyn-based electro-acoustic Leon Botstein. Her lauded CDs include music chamber ensemble Bright Wave. by Nono (New York Times Best Recording of paulwiancko.com L

Who’s Who

GUS SOLOMONS JR. (dancer) is a two-time opera. Her work often focuses on the interac- Bessie Award recipient as a dancer and chore- tion between audience/environment and object/ ographer. Over six decades, he has danced with performer. She is an artistic associate with Pig Donald McKayle, Martha Graham, and Merce Iron Theatre Company and the Civilians, and Cunningham, among others, before directing resident designer at BalletTech. Recent work two dance companies of his own, Solomons includes Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of Company/Dance and PARADIGM. As an , 1812 and The Oldest Boy (Lincoln Center), An he has performed in Shakespeare’s Othello, Octoroon, A Public Reading… About the Death Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero, Joseph Mosso’s of Walt Disney (Soho Rep), Zero Cost House (Pig Jason Holliday—I’ll Never Tell, Gillian Nogeire’s Iron), Elephant Room (St. Ann’s Warehouse), Manhattanville, and dance theater productions and a building-wide installation at ’s by postmodern master David Gordon. Some Kimmel Center for the inaugural Philadelphia of Solomon’s film credits include John Tur- International Festival of the Arts. Her design for turro’s Romance & Cigarettes, Jayce Bartok’s Love Unpunished (Pig Iron) was exhibited in the Fall to Rise, and Ira Rosenzweig’s Think Tank. Prague Quadrennial, and her sculptures were PARADIGM-nyc.org. featured in the exhibition, Landscapes of Quar- antine, at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. ADAM GAUZZA (dancer) is a performer and Lien is a recipient of a Lucille Lortel Award and choreographer based in New York City. Gauzza American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award, has worked with a variety of artists and com- Barrymore Award, and in 2012, she received an panies including Carolyn Dorfman, Lyric Opera for sustained excellence. of Chicago, Sylvain Émard, Zoe Scofield, and mimilien.com JAXON Movement Arts. In 2013, he premiered his collaboration with Tate Jorgensen, Head Over SARAH MAIORINO (costume design) began Heels. In 2012, Gauzza was named in Time Out designing for theater and found her way into film Chicago’s list of “Ten Dancers We Discovered.” and television via a stint touring with Blue Man He has assisted in the setting and creation of Group. Her credits include I Have Before Me a works by choreographers Jeff Hancock and Jo- Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young anna Rosenthal at Northwestern University, Uni- Lady From Rwanda (Boise Contemporary The- versity of Minnesota, the Actor’s Studio, and the ater), Gruesome Playground Injuries (BCT), The Joffrey Academy of Dance. He graduated cum Saint’s Tour (River to River Festival), and make- laude in 2009 with a BA in dance and gender up design for Arcade Fire’s Hyde Park London studies from Northwestern University where he concert. Films include The Confines, It Felt Like was the recipient of the Mercy Simerall Parkhill Love, Appropriate Behavior, My First Kiss and award from the School of Communication. The People Involved; Live With Kelly & Michael Halloween Special (2013, 2014). In addition to MATT WOLF (film) is an award-winning film- costume design she creates mixed media sculp- maker whose work screens widely at festivals, tures and dioramas. sarahmaiorino.com theaters, , and on television. His feature documentaries include Teenage (2014) BEN STANTON (lighting design) is an inter- about the birth of youth culture, and Wild nationally-recognized lighting designer based Combination (2008) about the avant-garde in Brooklyn. He has been nominated for four cellist and disco producer Arthur Russell. Wolf’s Henry Hewes Design Awards, a Drama Desk short films include I Remember, about the artist Award, and three Lucille Lortel Awards. In 2011, and poet Joe Brainard, and Whitney Stories, a he won the Lortel Award for Matthew Lopez’s multi-part series for the Whitney Museum. His The Whipping Man, produced by Manhat- slideshow about the artist David Wojnarowicz tan Theater Club. Stanton’s work spans many was recently featured in the Whitney Biennial. markets including theater, installations, events, Wolf’s latest film for HBO, It’s Me, Hilary, is and concerts. Recent work for BAM: Planetarium about Hilary Knight, the illustrator of the classic (created by Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, Sufjan children’s book Eloise. Stevens). Recent New York theater includes Fun mattwolf.info Home (The Public), An Enemy of the People, Seminar (Broadway), Into the Woods (Shake- MIMI LIEN (set design) is a designer of sets speare in the Park), Piece of My Heart (Signature and environments for theater, dance, and Theater), Belleville (NYTW), Murder Ballad Who’s Who

(Union Square Theater). Recent concert credits tion of new works by , Kirk include: The National (Touring LD, Trouble Will Lynn, Annie Dorsen, Aaron Landsman, and Tarell Find Me), (Age of Adz, Christmas McCraney, among others. As a dramaturg, she Tour), Regina Spektor (What We Saw from the maintains long-term collaborations with director Cheap Seats world tour). benstanton.com Lear deBessonet, director Charlotte Brathwaite, and playwright/director Aya Ogawa. Erbe is a JAMIE MCELHINNEY (sound designer) is a lecturer and producer in the playwriting program New York-based audio artist, sound designer, at the Yale School of Drama, where she gradu- and engineer who was worked on music, theater, ated with an MFA in dramaturgy and dramatic dance, and visual performances in venues all criticism. over the world. His work can be found at the MoMA atrium, International Music Exchange, NEAL WILKINSON for Corps Liminis (Produc- Celebrate Brooklyn, BAM, Sydney Opera House, tion Management) Recent projects include Ryan , and Lincoln Center, among Elizabeth Reid’s Henri at Smith Center in Las others. McElhinney holds an MFA in sound Vegas, Isaac Julien’s 10,000 Waves at MoMA, design from California Institute of the Arts. He is Robert Wilson’s Zinnias: The Life of Clementine the recipient of an NEA/TCG Career Development Hunter at Montclair State University, and Karen Program for Designers. jamiemcelhinney.com O’s Stop the Virgens at the Sydney Opera House.

GRANT MCDONALD (projection and video de- AISLINN CURRY (stage manager) is a New sign) is the artistic director of the -centric York based-freelance production stage manager theater company Rescue Agreement, where for and production manager devoted to new and five years he has overseen the creation of original ambitious work across disciplines. She has productions across the US. He has also col- recently collaborated with Calliope, Cell Theater, laborated as a projections designer and director Chocolate Factory, Columbia Stages, Edinburgh on dozens of productions internationally. Current Fringe Festival, GayFest, HERE, Hip-Hop Theater and recent projects include Ethel Plus (2014/15 Festival, LabRats, Morningside Opera, New York international tour), Billy Lewis Jr. (video launch, Musical Theatre Festival, Page 73, PS 122, and 2015 tour), 3LD’s Deepest Man, Tectonic on several readings and workshops. She also Theater Project’s Square Peg, Round Hole, and recently served as the operations and production Matrix-L’Oreal’s Imagination. grantmcconald.com associate at the 2014 World Science Festival.

JENNY SHORE BUTLER (choreographer), a LAURA ROUMANOS (line producer) is a pro- St. Louis native, studied dance at Northwestern ducer and arts administrator. As general manager University in Chicago. There, she made work for for St. Ann’s Warehouse for six years, Roumanos Northwestern’s Danceworks, Evanston Dance produced and presented large scale international Ensemble, the Other Dance Festival, the Chicago theater, music, and art events. Over the past Humanities Festival, and her own company, several years, she has worked as the senior Raizel Performances. Now based in producer of Creative Time and as a producer and New York, her choreography can be seen and operations director at the World Science in Arcade Fire’s NBC special Here Comes the Festival. She is currently the executive producer Night Time, as well as its live video for Afterlife, and cofounder of United Photo Industries and directed by Spike Jonze. Most recently, Butler’s Photoville, producing large-scale public art proj- choreography was featured in Jonze’s short play ects, while consulting, managing, and producing for Opening Ceremony, 100% Lost Cotton. numerous theatrical shows and events through- out New York. Roumanos recently produced ANNE ERBE (dramaturg) is an independent the Opening Ceremony Spring Fashion Show dramaturg and producer based in Brooklyn and play written by Spike Jonze and Jonah Hill and New Haven. She is the former artistic producer directed by Jonze at the Metropolitan Opera, and of The Foundry Theatre, where she currently sits is currently developing and producing several on the board of directors. With The Foundry, she theatrical music projects for 2015 and 2016. collaborated on the development and produc- BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS

BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS ADMINISTRATION Dianne Berkun-Menaker, Founder & Artistic Director Elise Bernhardt, Executive Director Marie-Laure Kugel, Director of Development & Institutional Advancement Julian Sheffield, Director of Finance Elizabeth Woodhouse, Director of Training Divisions & Elective Programs Jennifer Cambras, Production & Events Manager Frank Impelluso, Marketing & Communications Manager Angela Batchelor, Kris Burke, Sheila Carroll, Eric Williamson, Chorus Managers Linnea Marik, Development Associate Oksana Yemchuk, Bookkeeper Andrea Arevalo, On-site Coordinator Marjory Bruno, Office Coordinator Blake Zidell & Associates, Publicity

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Johari Jenkins ARTISTIC ADVISORY BOARD Jennifer Sage, Chair Annie Keating John Adams Marie DeRosa, Vice Chair Hillary Richard Julian Crouch Diana Adams, Treasurer Karen Rockey Bryce Dessner Gail Erickson, Secretary Jonathan Rouner Jeremy Geffen Dianne Berkun-Menaker, Grace Row Hilda Harris Founder Tamer Seckin, M.D. Jim Keller Judy Berkun Felicia Stingone Paola Prestini J. Barclay Collins, II Lynn M. Stirrup George Steel Rufus Collins Narcissa Titman Theodore Wiprud Gwendolyn Dunaif Amanda Van Doorene Martha Eckfeldt Martha Watts Naomi Gardner Michelle R. Yagoda, M.D. Matthew Gatto Dick Yancey Nicolas Grabar

BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS gratefully acknowledges the following individuals and institutions for their extraordinary support of Black Mountain Songs.

Diana and Kenneth Adams Robert Johnson and Hector Narcissa and John Titman J. Barclay Collins, II Contreras Mary Anne† and Dick Yancey Marie DeRosa and Richard Gwen R. Libstag Anonymous McNeil Hillary Richard and Peter Educational Foundation of McCabe † Deceased America Jonathan and Katrin Rouner Emily H. Fisher and John Jennifer Sage and Nicolas ADDITIONAL THANK YOUS Alexander Grabar Susan Maldovan Jeanne Donovan Fisher Craig Smith and Ian Bruce Vincent Katz Charles J. and Irene F. Hamm TD Bank and TD Charitable Brooklyn Law School and Annie Keating and Kim Foundation Christopher Gibbons Hawkins The Morris and Alma Schapiro Bearsville Theatre Woodstock Richard Klapper and Helena Fund Carroll Music Lee Tiger Baron Foundation Black Mountain College—An Interdisciplinary Approach

Black Mountain College: An Interdisciplinary graduate work. During the summer of 1948 Approach is a visual arts exhibition comprising and for the next five years, she documented life archival photographs by Hazel Larsen Archer and at Black Mountain College while also pursuing other , drawings, and sculpture by no- her own experimental trajectory in photography. table Black Mountain College alumni. The show, In particular, the summer of 1948 proved to be which is on view in the Natman Room Patron one of the most productive in the school’s short Lounge in the Peter Jay Sharp Building and the history, hosting a number of now-iconic visionar- ies like John Cage, Merce Cunningham, , Buckminster Fuller, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, and , among others. Archer was there to capture the creative synergy of this singular moment in American his- tory, producing a stunning series of Cunningham in motion in addition to numerous portraits of students, faculty, and staff alike. On view here is a selection of these photographs, most of them original vintage prints, along with a sampling of work by notable Black Mountain College alumni. The subject matter of the images alone gives testament to the nature of interdisciplinary study at Black Mountain College, from Rauschenberg dancing to the light studies that Archer pursued, where she explored the boundaries of the me- dium of photography. In the main lobby of the Peter Jay Sharp building is a 1984 wool tapestry Harvey Theater through January 4th, was orga- by Anni Albers, a textile designer, weaver, writer, nized in conjunction with the 2014 Next Wave and printmaker (and Josef’s wife), who is widely Festival production of Black Mountain Songs, recognized as a major force in the elevation of a live performance song cycle by the Brooklyn fabric as a fine art form in the 20th century. Youth Chorus that derives its inspiration from the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of Black Though Black Mountain College remains an Mountain College. indelible chapter in American art history, it also has a particular importance within BAM’s story. Black Mountain College, a progressive liberal arts Former BAM President/Executive Producer and school in western North Carolina, was an experi- cultural impresario Harvey Lichtenstein, who ment in education and artistic idealism, attract- established the institution’s renowned reputation ing some of the best and brightest American art- between 1967—99, attended the summer ses- ists over the course of its 23 years (1933—56). sion at Black Mountain College in 1953, where With a focus on community living and uncon- he met many of the collaborators he would later ventional structure, students were encouraged bring to BAM’s stages. to work across a wide range of disciplines and genres. Hazel Larsen Archer, who became the —Holly Shen, Curator of Visual Arts at BAM first full-time photography teacher in 1949, stud- ied with faculty member Josef Albers during a Black Mountain College—An Interdisciplinary summer session in 1944, staying on to continue Approach is on view Sep 8—Jan 4, 2015.

Photos: This page—Anni Albers wall hanging.

Opposite page (clockwise from top left), photos by Hazel Larsen Archer: Merce Cunningham at Black Mt. College, John Cage at Black Mt. College, both late 1940s—early 1950s, vintage gelatin silver print; Robert Rauschenberg at Black Mt. College, ca. late 1940s; Buckminster Fuller in his Classroom at Black Mt. College, summer 1948, vintage gelatin silver print. All courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer and the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.