Grizzly Bear not playing Letterman, but are playing WNYC.

WNYC Radio Presents
"American Blend"
The 69th Annual American Music Festival
Featuring a Live Studio Performance by GRIZZLY BEAR
And a World Premiere Performance by DAFNIS PRIETO
in The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space
May 21 - May 27, 7pm-11pm (8-11 on Saturday and Sunday)
on WNYC 93.9 FM and streaming at wnyc.org

WNYC Radio's 69th American Music Festival kicks off on Thursday, May 21, with a live broadcast performance by GRIZZLY BEAR from WNYC's studios, and will wrap with a public performance of live works, including a DAFNIS PRIETO world premiere, in WNYC's Jerome L. Greene Performance Space on Wednesday, May 27.
In between, AMF 2009 will present an "American Blend" of musical selections that reveal a quintessentially American musical alchemy: as cultural backgrounds and influences meet and mingle in music, they combine and transform into rich and individualistic new musical flavors. Featured artists will include Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Ornette Coleman, Osvaldo Golijov, John Zorn, Frank Zappa, Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, Joanna Newsom and Sufjan Stevens.

The Brooklyn-based group GRIZZLY BEAR will open the festival on Thursday, May 21 from 7pm - 8pm with a live in-studio performance, including songs from their anxiously-awaited forthcoming album, Veckatimest and a conversation with Evening Music host David Garland. GRIZZLY BEAR might loosely be described as a rock band, but their adventurous, unusual songs have inspired concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and their album, Yellow House, was on the New York Times' list of the top albums of 2006.

GRIZZLY BEAR's performance will receive an encore presentation on WNYC's Spinning On Air with David Garland, Sunday, May 24, 7 to 8 pm on 93.9 FM.

The festival concludes on Wednesday, May 27 with a live concert presented in WNYC's Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, WNYC's new broadcast studio and performance venue. The evening will feature works commissioned as part of WNYC's NEW AMERICANS SERIES, devoted to foreign-born, American-based composers. The evening, hosted by Evening Music host Terrance McKnight, will feature the world premiere of a new work by jazz phenom DAFNIS PRIETO, described by All About Jazz as "easily the most impressive young drummer to come on the jazz scene during the past decade... possessing awesome virtuosity and astonishing versatility." Other artists include Italian-born classical and film score composer, PAOLA PRESTINI; the widely acclaimed Argentine-American composer who often writes for voice, EZEQUIEL VINAO; and the singer many call "the voice of Tibet," YUNGCHEN LHAMO. Some of the WNYC commissions may be heard at http://www.wnyc.org/music/articles/114312.