JOE’S PUB AT THE PUBLIC is one of New York City’s most celebrated venues for emerging and established performance artists. Named for Public Theater founder Joe Papp, Joe’s Pub debuted in 1998 and plays a vital role in The Public’s mission of supporting young artists while providing established artists with an intimate space to perform and develop new work. Joe’s Pub presents talent from all over the world as part of The Public’s programming downtown at its Astor Place home, hosting approximately 800 shows and serving over 100,000 audience members annually. The diverse roster of programming featured at Joe’s Pub includes top performers from Broadway, cabaret, dance, world, singer-songwriter, jazz, country and indie genres as well as New York Voices, its commissioning initiative, today’s rising stars and GRAMMY Award winners. Joe’s Pub also collaborates with other Public Theater programs to present events such as the Under the Radar Incoming seriesand the Public Forum lecture and debate series. The New York Times has praised Joe’s Pub as at the “nexus” of “a downtown axis of clubs whose performers gleefully fuzz the boundaries between old and new, and between pop, rock, jazz, rhythm-and-blues, swing, country, world music and performance art.” Its elegant neoclassical design, intimate atmosphere, and superior acoustics have consistently landed the venue on annual Best Of New York lists. A top-to-bottom renovation was completed in 2011, leading to improved sightlines, expanded seating capacity and a new menu from acclaimed Chef Andrew Carmellini. Open seven days a week, dinner and drink service is available during every performance.

Nora York

Voice is at the center of Nora York’s creative invention, engaging the diverse disciplines of musical composition, live performance, and multimedia arts. She has 4 CDs in release.  She received a awards and grants including the Rauschenberg Foundation and two New York State Council on the Arts Composer’s Commissions: In 2009 for Jump, a compositional response to Puccini’s Tosca opera/theater piece written in collaboration with playwright David Greenspan, director JoAnne Akalaitis and artist Kiki Smith. Jump was commissioned by the Public Theater and presented at the Under the Radar Festival 2011.

York has worked with theater and visual artists to stage performances at Off Broadway theaters, museums, and concert venues. June 2013 JoAnne Akalaitis invited York to compose music for and perform in new work in progress entitled  Bad News! for River to River Festival NYC at Poets House. York’s song cycle Power/.Play (originally commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2001) was performed during the 2006 Biennial at the Whitney Museum. She won the Franklin Furnace Future of the Present Grant for her collaboration with artist Nancy Spero. York has headlined at numerous festivals including the Newport and JVC Jazz festivals. York has performed at concert venues, universities throughout the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Europe since 1987. She has written and performed the music for German filmmaker Doris Dorrie – including Dorrie’s first television series, Klimawechsel. She has written for network television, various documentaries on HBO (with co-composer Jamie Lawrence) and several European feature films include her songs.

There is a Nora York TED Talk. Music historian W. Royal Stokes featured a profile on York in the “Visionaries and Eclectics” section of “Growing Up With Jazz”, Oxford University Press (pp. 214-226) published in 2006.  York has been on the faculty of Tisch School of Drama, New York University since 1997.

www.norayork.com
@norayork
http://artonair.org/series/love-crazy-0

Program Description

NORA YORK’S WATER WATER EVERYWHERE / NAY ANY DROP TO DRINK
(INSPIRED BY G.F. HANDEL’S WATER MUSIC SUITES)
FREE ONE-NIGHT-ONLY PERFORMANCE
NOVEMBER 10, 7 pm at Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St
(between 4th St & Astor Pl)
New York, NY 1000

Conceptual artist, musician and educator Nora York specializes in deconstructing and reimagining established musical masterworks. In Water Water Everywhere / Nay Any Drop To Drink she is framing Handel’s Water Music suites with her own original compositions to confront the topic of climate change as it affects water—the oceans, rivers, aquifers, lakes, streams, wells, and our bodies and minds. This work-in-progress is both a love letter to water and a wake-up call. At its core, it asks the audience to consider the essential significance of water to all life on earth.

In preparation for Water Water Everywhere / Nay Any Drop To Drink, York is engaging in conversations with scientists and activists in the fields of climate change and water. By “distilling the facts” she will identify the dominant images, metaphors, and concepts for her songs. York is also curating visual images for projections during portions of the live performance to create a complimentary metaphoric visual landscape to accompany the music. The visual artists committed to contributing images are Kiki Smith, Kate Teale, Judith Belzer, Jerry Kearns.

Joining York will be an ensemble of both contemporary and classical musicians and singers. Her Amazing Band, York’s musical collaborator Jamie Lawrence synth & piano; Dave Hofstra, bass; Steve Tarshis, guitar and Sherryl Marsall, vocals) will be joined by luminaries from the classical world including Andrew Schwartz, bassoon; Diane Lesser, oboe; Kevin Burdette bass vocals; with a collection young and old singers from Ms. York’s orbit.

This provocative new work inspires the audience to remember the significance, centrality, and essential aspects of water and awakens a new understanding of the issues, inviting the audience to find ways to come together and contribute to healing our planet.

Water Water Everywhere / Nay Any Drop To Drink (after G.F. Handel’s Water Music suites) is presented by Joe’s Pub at the Public, one of New York City’s most celebrated performance venues, in association with Marfa Dialogues NY.

After the concert performance the audience will be encouraged to engage with each other in an informal talk back in the new lobby at The Public Theater and The Library Café.

Praise for Nora York:

“Ingenious…radical…extravagant talent.” —New Yorker

“Nora York is the conceptualist Diva.” —Downbeat

“Subtle and refined … magnificent.” —Elle Japan

“One of the more original musicians on the current scene.” —NY Review of Books

Water Water Everywhere / Nay Any Drop To Drink
By Nora York
Joe’s Pub at The Public
November 10, 2013 – 7:00 PM

Visit Joe's Pub at the Public Theater Presents Nora York >

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