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| Artists' Residency / Exchange |
NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS
LAUNCHES ITS FIRST
INTERNATIONAL COMPOSERS EXCHANGE
Premier Concert
Saturday, October 13th, 8pm
@ Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral,
Henry and Remsen St, Brooklyn Heights
Tickets available here
Initial Program Brings Dutch Artists to New York for
Performances and Other Events,
With a Reciprocal Exchange in The Netherlands Next Spring
New Initiative Underscores
NYFA's Expanding Global Footprint
Reflecting its expanding profile across the global arts community, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has launched its first International Composers Exchange. The International Composers Exchange offers composers from a specific country outside of the United States artist-in-residency opportunities in New York, where they can develop their careers through seminars, creative exchanges and performances. NYFA then sends its artists abroad for similar opportunities that complete the exchange. The announcement was made by NYFA Executive Director Michael L. Royce.
The initial program is a month-long reciprocal residency with The Netherlands that will bring five artists from Holland to New York from mid-September to mid-October for performances, lectures and other events. In April 2013, three NYFA composers and one NYU composer will visit Amsterdam and The Hague to work with selected ensembles and institutions. On the American side, this first effort is in partnership with NYU and The Consulate-General of the Netherlands, with support from Netherland-America Foundation. On the Dutch side, the exchange is organized by Sasha Zamler-Carhart, a composer and faculty member at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He brings his experience producing his works on both sides of the Atlantic to this project.
The International Composers Exchange aligns with NYFA’s mission to provide support, counsel and creative interaction with arts organizations from around the world. In recent months, NYFA has met with arts and cultural institutions, and individual artists, in a range of countries, including Lebanon, China, the UK, Germany and Costa Rica, as well as The Netherlands. In addition to cultural exchanges, NYFA also provides a best practices business framework to arts organizations and artists in need of reimagining their funding and revenue models in the face of diminished government support.
The Dutch composers, all of whom work in a variety of genres, have been selected to work collaboratively with ensembles in New York City. They will create new works, and/or further develop current works to be performed both in The Netherlands and in New York. The composers will also lecture on their experience in both hosting locations. Several of the artists, all of whom make their homes in Holland, actually come from different countries of origin, reflecting the vibrant cross-cultural creative environment that draws artists to Holland’s music community from across Europe and beyond.
The composers who will be in residency in New York are:
Sander Breure and Witte van Hulzen
Witte van Hulzen (Netherlands, 1984) is an Amsterdam-based visual artist. While a student he was Jan Fabre's directing assistant during the production of 'Orgy of Tolerance' and interned with Job Koelewijn during his solo exhibition 'Loco Motion.'
Sander Breure (Netherlands, 1985) studied composition at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague with Martijn Padding, Yannis Kyriakides and Richard Ayres.
Music, film and performance artists Sander Breure and Witte van Hulzen
have worked together since 2007. Their award-winning 3-channel video installation "You'll Never Walk Alone" was recorded in Uganda. In 2010 they had their first solo exhibition, featuring their video "Ebedi Dönus," made during a residency program at Platform Garanti, Istanbul. The video is a mixture of Turkish television programs, poetry of Nazim Hikmet and the imagination of Sander and Witte themselves. The duo will be in residence at the NYFA Studios in Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center (CSV). CSV is located within Artists Alliance Inc.
Thanasis Deligiannis
Thanasis Deligiannis grew up in a family of traditional folk musicians. He is a member of the artistic team of the Nieuw Ensemble, the Atlas Ensemble and a graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatory. A native of Greece, he is partnering with Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, the New York vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and rarely-heard works and gems of the historical avant garde.
Jeremiah Runnels
Born in 1982, Houston, Texas, Jeremiah C. Runnels studied Sonology, Composition and Music Theatre at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague as well as Master of Artistic Research within the Interfaculty of Art and Science. He attended workshops that enabled him to work with key artists in the contemporary music scene, such as Karlhienz Stockhausen, Brian Freneyhough, Robert Ashley and Alvin Curran.
In the past year his works were performed in various locations: Delta Centre for Contemporary Art, Korzo (the Hague), Concertgebow (Amsterdam) and Warwick Arts Centre (UK) to name a few. He was invited guest lecturer for a lecture-performance by the Political Art Initiative hosted by LUC Research Center, Leiden University. He is currently founder and member of both Ensemble Lös Caballeros with Andy Ingamells, Ivan Babinchak Renqvist, Julia Reist and Het Atelier with Yedo Gibson, Cornelis de Bondt. He is partnering with Ensemble Mise-En, the innovative and versatile New York-based contemporary music collective, led by composer Moon Young Ha.
Artist Statement: The use of Chance/ indeterminacy: sound as a self standing medium for art (and later the definition of sound that reaches past its physiological demarcations), removal of the audience: are put forward not as novelties but as radical and primal procedures. They are the axioms by which we navigate, not by which we map. We are the generation of mutants and monsters.
I speak Experimental Music as my mother tongue. Not as the music of the elite in reference to the music of the ordinary, but as the music that allows me to play. It allows the ruins of previous eras to be remodeled into structures that can stand well in these uncertain times. Infrastructure is only as contingent as the seismic activity upon which it is built.
Sport Music: Pétanque, 2012, Ensemble Lös Caballeros, performed at Warwick Arts Centre.
Pentecost, 2011, Performed within the show "Some Exhibitions are better than others," Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague, Digital video still.
Yedo Gibson
Yedo Gibson is a saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and improviser. He is the founder of The Royal Improvisers Orchestra (RIO), a group of 20 young musicians from all kinds of backgrounds playing improvised music conducted by Yedo and other musicians from the orchestra. Yedo, originally from Brazil, is partnering with the NYU Jazz Ensemble.
A private reception for the artists is scheduled to take place at the Dutch consulate in New York on September 19th. On September 28th, the artists will participate in a talk/work-in-progress lecture series at NYFA, 20 Jay Street in Brooklyn. This event is free and is open to the public. To reserve space and RSVP, please contact curatorial@nyfa.org
The program will culminate with a series of performances by all of the participating artists at Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral in Brooklyn on Saturday, October 13th. For tickets to this event, please visit issueprojectroom.org.
“The difficult economy of the last several years has challenged artists throughout the world to develop creative avenues of support so that they can continue to pursue their livelihoods,” said Royce. “NYFA is committed to the dual goals of helping artists and arts organizations find those alternate paths, and then to also providing them with the platforms upon which they can showcase their work.”
"In the current climate, in which funding for the arts is becoming increasingly harder to attain, partnerships such as these are extremely valuable,” added Erwin Maas, Director of Performing Arts - Specialist for Theater, Contemporary & Classical Music for the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. “Mutual investments provide not only the opportunity for international collaboration between artists, but also show the commitment to strengthen universal ties and fraternization between our two peoples. The Netherlands has a longstanding tradition when it comes to innovation in the contemporary music scene. New York has the fertile ground for composers to expand on experimentation within their field. The NYFA International Composers Exchange provides a wonderful opportunity to bring these two worlds together.”
“Matching composers who have such strong personalities with suitable ensembles is as perilous as matching two people for a date. It requires personal knowledge of both sides but also a willingness to take risks and try potentially reactive cocktails,” commented Zamler-Carhart. “Ekmeles is probably the boldest and most virtuosic vocal ensemble in New York, so it was an obvious choice for Thanasis. Mise-En has the perfect combination of flexibility and artistic discipline, so it was ideal for Jeremiah. Yedo's alternative approach to jazz practice will be a fascinating combination with NYU's jazz department. As for Sander and Witte, their residency at CSV will allow their imaginations to run wild against the rich background of the Lower East Side. This entire program is a testament to the incredibly dynamic Dutch music scene."
The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) was founded in 1971 to empower artists at critical stages in their creative lives. Each year it provides over $1 million in cash grants to individuals and small organizations. The NYFA Learning programs provide thousands of artists with professional development training and the website, nyfa.org, received over 1 million unique visitors last year and features information about more than 8,000 opportunities and resources available to artists in all disciplines.
About Sasha Zamler-Carhart
Sasha is a Dutch-educated French composer working in France, the Netherlands and the US. He is a professor of medieval music at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. His volunteer involvement organizing the International Composers Exchange reflects in his belief that a cooperative model in the artistic world can keep musical creation afloat and healthy in times of uncertain institutional reliability. For more information, please visit sasha.zamler-carhart.com.
Media Contacts:
Alan Winnikoff
212-725-5200 x111
alan@sayleswinnikoff.com
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