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Tag: Theo Bleckmann

Resonant Bodies Festival 2017

What: The annual Resonant Bodies Festival returns in September to present nine boundary-pushing vocalists perform over three consecutive nights.
When: Tuesday—Thursday, September 5-7, 2017, 7:30pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $25/20 Online $20/15 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door

Brooklyn, NY – Roulette is pleased to host the fifth annual Resonant Bodies Festival, taking place September 5-7, 2017.

Highlights include Grammy-nominated jazz singer and composer Theo Bleckmann performing “Songs in Color and Black and White,” a piece he has written and developed over the past seventeen years, on opening night, Tuesday, September 5, followed by legendary composer / performer / sound artist Joan La Barbara presenting a world premiere opera based on the lives and work of Joseph Cornell and Virginia Woolf on Wednesday, September 6. The festival closes on Thursday, September 7 with Kayleigh Butcher (director and founder of Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble) presenting newly commissioned works by Sivan Cohen Elias, Cara Haxo, Andrew Tham, and Daniel Felsenfeld, with the help of choreographers Katelyn Halpern and Miro Magloire, as well as violinist Hajnal Pivnick.

Tuesday, September 5 Theo Bleckmann, Jennifer Walshe, Davóne Tines

Wednesday, September 6 Hai-Ting Chinn, Joan La Barbara, Odeya Nini

Thursday, September 7 Mary Bonhag, Kamala Sankaram, Kayleigh Butcher

Founded in 2013, Resonant Bodies Festival is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to hear expert contemporary music vocalists present repertoire that feeds their passion. Presented over three nights, nine dynamic and unique vocalists curate and present 45-minute sets expressing their particular blend of musical tastes. The festival recently expanded to Australia and was presented at the Melbourne Recital Center in May 2017, with further expansion on the horizon.

Curated by Meredith Monk: Theo Bleckmann’s Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush

What: Theo Bleckmann reinterprets the music of Kate Bush for the second installment of the Curated By Meredith Monk series.
When: Saturday, November 26, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors $50 Series Pass
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door, $50 Series Pass

Brooklyn, NY – Vocalist Theo Bleckmann takes on the mysterious songbook of British pop recluse Kate Bush by not merely recreating Bush’s music but taking it into other realms of sound and interpretation. Bush’s œuvre is mysterious and often enigmatic in nature: unusual song forms, oracular lyrics and unpredictable meter- and harmony-changes are an anomaly in pop music, making her oeuvre the perfect vehicle for Bleckmann‘s distinctive, interpretive spirit and interest in the unusual.

Kate Bush’s use of British and Irish myths, her references to psychology, literature and film, her meticulously multi-layered productions and her unusually high voice make her idiosyncratic body of work challenging for other artists to interpret. Bleckmann first heard Bush as a young teenager and was immediately intrigued: ”Her music has this thing that I love in art: you’re instantly drawn into someone’s universe without really knowing why but somehow understanding everything in your heart.” Many teenage pop heroes came and went, but Kate Bush remained a constant in Bleckmann‘s life. “Her songs and records never became obsolete – I now realize that the way she layered sound, speech and music became a major influence for my live electronic looping aesthetic.” For Hello Earth!, Bleckmann chooses songs that warranted a different interpretation.

A jazz singer and new music composer of eclectic tastes and prodigious gifts, GRAMMY-nominated Theo Bleckmann makes music that is accessible, sophisticated, unsentimentally emotional, and seriously playful. A resident of New York City since 1989, Bleckmann has released a series of albums on Winter & Winter, including recordings of Las Vegas standards, of Weimar art songs, and of popular “bar songs” (all with pianist Fumio Yasuda); a recording of newly-arranged songs by Charles Ives (with jazz/rock collective Kneebody); his acoustic Solos for Voice I dwell in possibility, and his highly acclaimed Hello Earth – The Music of Kate Bush. Bleckmann has worked with Meredith Monk as a core ensemble member for over fifteen years.

About the Series: Curated by Meredith Monk features performers selected by Monk who are following his or her own path, asking questions, finding places that fall between the cracks of genres or categories.