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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS CONTACTS February 6, 2019 Aleba Gartner, 212/206-1450 Tickets & Information: 212/854-7799 [email protected] millertheatre.com Lauren Bailey, 212/854-1633 [email protected]

"There are few series as satisfying as the Miller Theater’s signature dives into one composer." — The New York Times

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts

continues the 2018-19 Composer Portraits series with JOHN ZORN

New music superstars perform Zorn's recent chamber works, including five world premieres

Thursday, March 7, 2019, 8:00 p.m. Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)

Tickets: $20–$30; Students with valid ID: $7–$18

From Miller Theatre Executive Director Melissa Smey: “It's always an exciting occasion to present a world premiere on the Miller stage, and presenting five of them in one evening is even better. John Zorn is one of my favorite composers, and I'm honored to once again collaborate with him on this Portrait. And for the first time ever, you can preview the next composer in the Composer Portraits series as a performer in this one—the incredible Tyshawn Sorey joins the all-star line-up of musicians.”

John Zorn Photo courtesy John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Composer Portraits Thursday, March 7, 2019, 8:00 p.m. Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street) John Zorn “If his work is a game, then…it’s a beautiful one,” says The New York Times of the iconic and prolific composer John Zorn. He returns to Miller’s Composer Portraits series for a program of chamber music that has been written within the last three years, including five world premieres. Boundlessly imaginative and energetic, Zorn is a smart, generous, and thoughtful collaborator, drawing into his orbit a host of new music superstars who bring his creations to life.

PROGRAM: Asclemandres (2018) world premiere Encomia (2018) world premiere Konx Om Pax (2018) world premiere Nachtsräglichkeit (2018) Rµν-½gµνR= 8πΤµν (2018) world premiere Icarus (2017) world premiere Merlin (2016)

ARTISTS: John Zorn, composer Tara Helen O'Connor, flute JACK Quartet Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, bass Peter Evans, trumpet Marshall Gilkes, trombone Dave Taylor, bass trombone Stephen Gosling, piano Sae Hashimoto, vibraphone Tyshawn Sorey, drums

John Zorn

Drawing upon his experience in classical, jazz, rock, hardcore punk, klezmer, film, cartoon, popular, world, and improvised music, John Zorn has created an influential body of work that defies academic categories. Born and raised in New York City, he is a central figure in the Downtown Scene, incorporating a wide variety of creative musicians into various compositional formats. His work is remarkably diverse and eclectic, drawing inspiration from Art, Literature, Film, Theatre, Philosophy, Alchemy, and Mysticism as well as Music. He founded the Tzadik label in 1995, runs the performance space The Stone, and has edited/published five volumes of musician’s writings under the title ARCANA. Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz

Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz studied at the Manhattan School of Music and holds a B.A. in Performance from Berklee School of Music in Boston, MA. Additionally, he attended Rimon School of Music in Israel where he founded the Lemon Juice Quartet in 1993, an avant-garde jazz quartet that has extensively toured the U.S. and performs regularly around New York City. Blumenkranz is a founding member of Satlah, a Jewish-inspired trio mixing rhythms from the middle-east with avant-garde sensibilities. Satlah has recorded numerous albums for Tzadik Records, including Rashanim, Shasha Argov, and Masada, a compilation of music composed by John Zorn for the ten-year anniversary of his band. Blumenkranz has performed and/or recorded on acoustic bass, electric bass, and oud with the Jazz Mandolin Project, Pharaoh's Daughter, George Garzone, Satoshi Takeshi, Hank Roberts, Daniel Carter, Roy Campbell, Sabir Mateen, Charles Burnham, Brandon Ross, Will Connell, Ravish Momin, Jim Puglesie, Jamie Saft, Mark Dresser, Frank Lacy Anthony Coleman, Ned Rothenburg, Marty Erlich, Trevor Dunn, Susie Ibarra, Roberto Rodriguez, Ikue Mori, and John Zorn.

Peter Evans

Peter Evans is a trumpet player and improvisor/composer based in New York City and is widely recognized as a leading voice in the field. He is leader of Peter Evans Ensemble and Being & Becoming and is a member of the cooperative groups Pulverize the Sound (with Mike Pride and Tim Dahl) and Rocket Science (with Evan Parker, Craig Taborn, and Sam Pluta). He has worked with some of the leading figures in new music: John Zorn, Ingrid Laubrock, Jim Black, Weasel Walter, Ambrose Akinmusere, Matana Roberts, Tyshawn Sorey, Levy Lorenzo, Nate Wooley, Steve Schick, Mary Halvorson, and Joe McPhee, and performs with both International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and the Wet Ink Ensemble.

As a composer, Evans has been commissioned by ICE, Yarn/Wire, the Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival, the Jerome Foundation's Emerging Artist Program, and the Doris Duke Foundation. He has been releasing recordings on his own label, More is More, since 2011. In 2018, he released a new solo album, the first duo album with Levy Lorenzo, a new record by Pulverize the Sound, and the new album by the Peter Evans Ensemble.

Marshall Gilkes

Marshall Gilkes is a performer, composer, sideman, and clinician who settled in New York in 1998. In the following years, he has worked steadily as a sideman while honing his own highly individual voice. Gilkes has played and recorded with a variety of artists and ensembles, including the David Berger Jazz Orchestra, Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, the Christian McBride Big Band, Billy Cobham, Richard Bona, and Barbra Streisand. His musical career has taken him to stages around the world, including four years in Cologne, Germany as a member of the WDR Big Band. During that time, he worked with renowned soloists, composers, and arrangers including Michael Abene, Vince Mendoza, John Scofield, Chris Potter, Kenny Wheeler, Randy Brecker, Patti Austin, Mike Stern, Ron Carter, and Maceo Parker. Gilkes ultimately entered the jazz program at The Juilliard School, though he continued his classical education in parallel, including studies with Joseph Alessi, the longtime Principal Trombonist of the New York Philharmonic.

Gilkes released his debut as a leader, Edenderry (2004), with a quartet featuring pianist Jon Cowherd, bassist Matt Clohesy, and drummer Johnathan Blake, followed by the quintet recordings Lost Words (2008) and Sound Stories (2012). On Köln (2015), he teams with the German WDR Big Band. Gilkes is an artist for Edwards Instruments.

Stephen Gosling

Pianist Stephen Gosling is a soloist and chamber musician with a focus on contemporary music. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees at The Juilliard School, where he was awarded the Mennin Prize and Sony Elevated Standards Fellowship. He is a member of New York New Music Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Orchestra of the League of Composers, Perspectives Ensemble, and Ne(x)tworks, and has appeared as guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Orpheus, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, eighth blackbird, American Composers Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, among others.

Gosling has collaborated with composers, including Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Brian Ferneyhough, Jorge Villavicencio Grossman, Oliver Knussen, John Psathas, Steve Reich, Poul Ruders, Charles Wuorinen, and John Zorn, with whom he has performed worldwide over the past two seasons and released several recent recordings (including the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-nominated Hexentarot).

Sae Hashimoto

Sae Hashimoto is a percussionist based in New York City who is a passionate advocate for contemporary music. She has served as guest timpanist with the New York Philharmonic and has performed off-stage at the Metropolitan Opera. She is currently the principal timpanist of the New Jersey-based orchestra Symphony in C.

In 2014, she gave the world premiere of Robin de Raaff’s Percussion Concerto. In April 2017, she premiered two works by John Zorn for solo vibraphone and improvised rhythm section. Her performance of these pieces is featured on The Interpretation of Dreams, released by Tzadik.

Hashimoto received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, with the support of the Kovner Fellowship. As part of her fellowship with Ensemble Connect, she teaches at Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Manhattan.

JACK Quartet

Deemed "superheroes of the new music world" (Boston Globe), the JACK Quartet is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and spread of new string quartet music. Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, JACK has collaborated with composers John Luther Adams, Chaya Czernowin, Simon Steen-Andersen, Caroline Shaw, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, Matthias Pintscher, and John Zorn. Upcoming and recent premieres include works by Derek Bermel, Cenk Ergün, Roger Reynolds, Toby Twining, and Georg Friedrich Haas.

The recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA's Trailblazer Award, and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, JACK has performed to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Miller Theatre at Columbia University, Wigmore Hall (U.K.), Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (Netherlands), IRCAM (France), Kölner Philharmonie (Germany), the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), Suntory Hall (Japan), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Festival Internacional Cervatino (Mexico), and Teatro Colón (Argentina).

Tara Helen O'Connor

Tara Helen O'Connor is a charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique, and colorful tone spanning every musical era. A much sought-after chamber musician and soloist, she has collaborated with the Orion String Quartet, St. Lawrence Quartet, the Emerson Quartet, Jaime Laredo, Dawn Upshaw, Eliot Fisk, Jeremy Denk, Ida Kavafian, Peter Serkin, and David Shifrin. O’Connor is a Season Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She is also a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, the legendary Bach Aria Group, and is a founding member of the Naumburg Award- winning New Millennium Ensemble.

O’Connor is Associate Professor of Flute, Head of the Woodwinds Department, and Coordinator of Classical Music Studies at Purchase College School of the Arts Conservatory of Music. She is also on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music, and is a visiting artist, teacher, and coach at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Tyshawn Sorey

Newark-born multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey is celebrated for his incomparable virtuosity, effortless mastery and memorization of highly complex scores, and an extraordinary ability to blend composition and improvisation in his work. He has performed nationally and internationally with his own ensembles, as well as artists such as John Zorn, Vijay Iyer, Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, Wadada Leo Smith, Marilyn Crispell, George Lewis, Claire Chase, Steve Coleman, Steve Lehman, Robyn Schulkowsky, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, and Myra Melford, among many others.

Sorey has received support for his creative projects from The Jerome Foundation, The Shifting Foundation, and Van Lier Fellowshi and was a 2015 recipient of the Doris Duke Impact Award. The Spektral Quartet, Ojai Music Festival, and ICE have commissioned his works. As a percussionist and resident composer, he collaborates regularly with ICE. As a leader, he has released six critically acclaimed recordings that feature his work, including his latest Verisimilitude (Pi Recordings, 2017).

Sorey received his Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition in 2017 from Columbia University. He is currently Assistant Professor of Composition and Creative Music at Wesleyan University, where he received his Masters in Composition in 2011.

David Taylor

David Taylor holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degree from The Juilliard School of Music and began his career with Leopold Stokowski’s American Symphony Orchestra. He records solo albums, presents numerous recitals throughout the world, and has performed on numerous Grammy Award-winning CDs. Taylor has won the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) Most Valuable Player Virtuoso award for five consecutive years. He currently teaches at Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College and is an artist clinician for Edwards Trombones. Upcoming Concerts in Miller Theatre's Composer Portraits Series

Single tickets: $20-$30 Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)

Thursday, March 28, 2019, 8 p.m. TYSHAWN SOREY

Thursday, April 18, 2019, 8 p.m. DAVID T. LITTLE

Miller Theatre millertheatre.com

Now in its 30th Anniversary season, Miller Theatre at Columbia University is the leading presenter of new music in New York City and one of the most vital forces nationwide for innovative programming. In partnership with Columbia University School of the Arts, Miller is dedicated to producing and presenting unique events, with a focus on contemporary and early music, jazz, opera, and multimedia performances. Founded in 1988, Miller Theatre has helped launch the careers of myriad composers and ensembles over the years, serving as an incubator for emerging artists and a champion of those not yet well known in the United States. A four-time recipient of the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming, Miller Theatre continues to meet the high expectations set forth by its founders—to present innovative programs, support the development of new work, and connect creative artists with adventurous audiences.

Major support for Miller Theatre’s 2018-19 Season is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature Columbia University’s Miller Theatre is located north of the Main Campus Gate at 116th St. & Broadway on the ground floor of Dodge Hall.

Directions and information are available online at millertheatre.com or via the Miller Theatre Box Office at 212.854.7799.

For photos, please contact Lauren Bailey, 212/854-1633; [email protected].

For further information, press tickets, photos, and to arrange interviews, please contact Aleba & Co. at 212/206-1450 or [email protected].

Copyright © 2019 Aleba & Co., All rights reserved.

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