Lillias White

Congratulations to the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus who just unveiled their new web site, designed by PerformSites, the web development branch of Peter McDowell Arts Consulting.

On December 18th at NYC’s Town Hall, the NYCGMC presents their annual concert of holiday singing in jazz and gospel styles. A New York holiday tradition, this fun-filled holiday show will combine original titles and swinging interpretations of the classics performed with high-spirited unity, peace and love.

This year, the Chorus is elated to have two very special guests on stage. The sensational, multi-talented Broadway powerhouse Lillias White will bring her unparalleled vocal talent to several songs. Ms. White won a Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and People’s Choice Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as “Sonja” in The Life and recently enjoyed rave reviews for her starring role in the hit Broadway production of Fela! The Chorus will also welcome Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man ever consecrated as a bishop in the Anglican branch of Christianity and an accomplished choral singer and director in his own right.

The holiday concert takes place Sunday, December 18th at 3pm and 8pm at New York’s landmark theater The Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd Street, New York. Tickets are available through the NYCGMC website, www.nycgmc.org. The evening will feature holiday favorites, alongside an exciting and unusual mix of choral music.

On the heels of the Chorus’s holiday spectacular, the men continue their momentum with the more-than-over-the-top March production. Following three years of sell-out, sing-along performances, NYCGMC will present Big Gay Sing 4, March 16 and 17, 2012, featuring the third annual “Big Gay Idol,” a singing competition for a chance to sing live with the Chorus. The summer Pride concert June 27, What Now?(!), will celebrate our achievements through an elegant evening filled with invigorating song while simultaneously asking what’s next on the GLBT political agenda. Both 2012 shows will be at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are available through www.nycgmc.org.

About the NYCGMC:

A fixture on the New York City cultural scene since its founding in 1979, the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus has performed in a wide variety of venues from the Metropolitan Opera House to Madison Square Garden, and even Yankee Stadium and Joan Rivers’ living room. Named one of the five top amateur choruses in New York City by WQXR, The Classical Music Station in New York City, the group was the first gay chorus to perform in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, the first American gay chorus to tour Europe, and the first to have a recording contract with a major label, having produced eight recordings. To learn more, visit http://www.nycgmc.org/press/.

“Avant-Cabaret” electronic artist Amy X Neuburg performs on Tuesday December 13, 2011 at 8:00 PM at the brand new Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue (at 3rd Avenue) in Brooklyn, NY. Tickets are $15 ($10 for students, seniors, and members) and can be purchased at www.roulette.org or by calling (917) 267-0363. The beloved Bay Area techno-songstress collaborates this time with NYC pianist/improviser Cory Smythe (of ICE), The evening will consist of new compositions for voice, piano and live electronics, improvisational duets, and solos from Amy and Cory — including Amy’s spirited ‘avant-cabaret’ songs for voice and drum-controlled looping, and works from Cory’s recent release “Pluripotent” for piano with live processing.

Amy and Cory met in June 2011 where they performed with the venerable Present Music Ensemble in Milwaukee, and Cory premiered Amy’s “When” for live-looped piano and voice — a fully scored song in which both performers are recorded in real time, then instantly played back and layered in interlocking parts. Amy’s evocative, haunting “When,” which uses few words to sum up nearly a whole life, was paired with her 2001 voice and piano piece “What he Was” — a clever, tongue-twisting wordplay exercise that uses many words to say very little.

Amy and Cory will recreate this duet of songs as well as present new compositions for voice, piano and electronics — partly composed and partly improvised, and created by both artists expressly for this concert. In addition, Amy will perform several of her classic “avant-cabaret” solo songs for voice with electronic drums and live looping/processing, and Cory will perform selections from his recently released “Pluripotent” recording of solo piano works with electronic processing, about which composer Jason Moran said: “The music is captivating, and hands down one of the best solo recordings I’ve ever heard.”

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Amy X Neuburg is widely considered one of the most innovative practitioners of voice and live electronics performance working today. She calls her style “avant-cabaret,” as it combines theater and wordplay, intricate multi-layered composition, expressive use of music technology (with emphases on drums and live looping), and exploration of multiple genres using the many colors of her 4-octave vocal range — with lyrics ranging from the personal and poignant to the political and downright outrageous. As soloist Amy has performed at Other Minds, Bang on a Can, the Berlin International Poetry Festival, the Wellington and Christchurch Jazz Festivals (NZ), the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, electronic music festivals, colleges, clubs, and concert halls at home and abroad. As composer/collaborator, commissions include numerous works for ensembles with and without live electronics (recently Present Music, Robin Cox Ensemble, Pacific Mozart Ensemble chorus, Del Sol String Quartet), as well as for theater, visual media, and modern dance, and she performs regularly with her Cello ChiXtet — three cellists with voice and electronics — for whom she composed her formidable song cycle “The Secret Language of Subways” (Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco Symphony After-Hours, LA Philharmonic Left Coast Festival). As vocalist Amy toured Europe and Japan with Robert Ashley’s operas. Among her many grants and honors she is a 2011 recipient of the Alpert/Ucross prize. A fixture of the San Francisco Area new music scene, this will be Amy’s fourth appearance at Roulette — her favorite place to play in New York.

Pianist Cory Smythe is an inventive improviser, chamber musician, and performer of contemporary classical music. As a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Cory has contributed to numerous premieres, worked with composers Philippe Hurel, Dai Fujikura, Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Mathias Pintscher, David Lang, and Alvin Lucier among many others, and performed in venues across the U.S. and abroad. His recent performance of solo piano music by Lindberg was praised by the Boston Globe for its “grace and intensity,” and a forthcoming recording by ICE (Mode Records) will feature Cory as soloist in Iannis Xenakis’s “Palimpsest.” Equally invested in the classical repertoire, Cory is a sought-after chamber musician and soloist, appearing with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, violinist Hilary Hahn, and Present Music, and making his Carnegie Weill Hall debut with violinist Sung-Ju Lee. As an improviser and jazz musician, Cory has worked with the Greg Osby Four, Pete Robbins’ Centric, Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, Beth Schenk, Kyle Quass, and Anthony Braxton.

Honey Pot Performance Presents: The Sweet Goddess Project

Chicago house music/dance as culture, lifestyle & consciousness in the lives of women.

Performances by Abra M Johnson, Boogie McClarin, Meida McNeal, and Ni’Ja Whitson with a live set by DJ Jo de Presser.

Thursday & Friday, November 10, 11 at 7:30pm, Sunday, November 13, 3pm and 7:30pm at Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Avenue, Chicago. Stay for post-show sets by DJ Jo de Presser immediately following the Thursday, 11/10 and Sunday, 11/13 evening performances. **please note: there is no Saturday performance.

The Sweet Goddess Project is a multimedia dance theater work exploring women’s experiences in Chicago house music and dance culture. While women have long been essential to the sounds and scenes of house as vocalists, dancers and DJs, this urban performance tradition is often narrated as a male-dominated practice and cultural space. Artistic Director Meida McNeal’s ethnographic research and directorial vision examines the cultural and musical roots while highlighting the inherently feminine, sensual, and political nature of the scene. The work is part of an ongoing journey to identify core characteristics of house culture illustrating its power as a way of knowing the world through music and movement.

Experimental Station is located at 6100 S. Blackstone Avenue. Parking is available on 61st Street, Dorchester Avenue, and in the University of Chicago Press parking lot. Please enter the Experimental Station on Blackstone. The event is wheelchair accessible.

Tickets: $12 online or $15 suggested donation at the door.

Meida McNeal, Artistic Director
In collaboration with Abra Johnson, Boogie McClarin and Ni’Ja Whitson

Set & Costumes: Jeanne
Lighting: Garvin Jellison
DJ: Jo de Presser
Video: David Weathersby

This work is supported through grants from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum, the Puffin Foundation, the Community Arts Assistance Program and the generosity of individuals supporting Honey Pot Performance’s artistic endeavors.

The Steve Hudson Chamber Ensemble, led by composer Steve Hudson – piano/melodica, and featuring Zach Brock – violin, Jody Redhage – cello/voice, and Martin Urbach – cajon/percussion, returns to play a live show backing their critically acclaimed album “Galactic Diamonds” – on Friday, November 18th, 8 and 9:30pm, at An die Musik, 409 N. Charles Street, Baltimore. Call 888.221.6170 or 410.385.2638 for more info. There is a $10 cover charge.

Recent praise for their newest recording, Galactic Diamonds:

“the debut recording from his Steve Hudson Chamber Ensemble, Galactic Diamonds, is a collection of little gems.” — All About Jazz

“Once in a while something comes over the transom here that’s so disarmingly fun that it’s impossible to resist: the Steve Hudson’s Chamber Ensemble new album, Galactic Diamonds is a prime example. It’s a good-naturedly eclectic mix of third stream jazz with a catchy, quirky pop edge.” — Lucid Culture

“Whether pushing the envelope with energetic improvisations or crafting more gradually developing essays, the Steve Hudson Ensemble is consistently engaging.” — Christian Carey, Signal To Noise

Praised by Keyboard Magazine for his “exquisite compositions” and for “a quest for beauty in his lines that evoke the masters,” Steve Hudson has worked with Steven Bernstein, James Zollar, Marcus Rojas, and Claire Daly. Zach Brock has performed and recorded with Stanley Clarke, Joel Harrison, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, while Jody Redhage currently tours with bassist Esperanza Spalding and has performed with the Tokyo String Quartet, and Bang on a Can.  Martin Urbach has shared the stage with Lee Konitz and Dave Liebman. The ensemble was recently selected to perform at Chamber Music America’s national conference in New York in January 2011, and in March 2011 toured Italy and Austria to promote “Galactic Diamonds.”

Steve Hudson is a pianist and composer based in New York City whose compositions and piano style embrace the history of jazz, blues, folk, and modern classical music, all with a free spirited love of improvisation. Recently, Steve and saxophonist Claire Daly premiered an extended suite at the Juneau Jazz Festival dedicated to the Alaskan explorer Mary Joyce which they also took to Jazz at Lincoln Center.