Ecstatic Music Festival 2019 lineup & tix (Zola Jesus, Wye Oak, more)

2019 Ecstatic Music Festival

The 2019 edition of Ecstatic Music Festival runs from January 7 to March 21 at NYC’s The Kaufman Center, which annually brings together a diverse array of artists and composers from various genres for unique collaborative performances. This year’s fest includes a performance by Zola Jesus in collaboration with composer William Brittelle and chamber orchestral group Wild Up on January 7; politically-charged free jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements teaming up with pianist/vocalist Amina Claudine Myers and composer/flutist Nicole Mitchell on February 28; the annual Bang on a Can People’s Commissioning Fund Concert on March 6; string quartet ETHEL collaborating with youth ensemble Face the Music, topped with an appearance by Todd Rundgren on March 17; a special performance from Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Wye Oak (who have collaborated in the past) who will premiere a new work by Owen Pallett on March 21; with further artists TBA.

Tickets for all these shows are on sale now. Passes for the whole festival are also on sale, along with two-show bundles. Many of these shows will be livestreamed from NewSounds.org. You can view the fest’s full schedule and more details about individual performances below.

2019 ECSTATIC MUSIC FESTIVAL LINEUP/SCHEDULE
Monday, January 07, 2019
ZOLA JESUS, WILD UP & WILLIAM BRITTELLE
A New Sounds Live co-presentation hosted by John Schaefer & streamed live on NewSounds.org
Zola Jesus brings her unmistakably powerful, Gothic-electronic songwriting into dialogue with William Brittelle’s “silo-bombing music that is at once free-ranging, formally adventurous, unconventionally beautiful, and a joyful thrill to experience (The Nation), in a special collaboration with the “raucous, grungy, irresistibly exuberant” (New York Times) chamber orchestra, wild Up.

Saturday, February 16, 2019
ARTIST LINEUP TBA
Stay tuned for the artist lineup announcement on Sep 4!

Thursday, February 28, 2019
IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS, AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS & NICOLE MITCHELL
From Copenhagen to Brooklyn, the “revolutionary” (Shadowproof.com) free jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements has shared its message of liberation, starting with its first appearance at a Musicians March Against Police Brutality in New York City in early 2015. Comprised of mesmerizing vocalist Camae Ayewa (a.k.a. Moor Mother) – whose searing poetic narrations of Black trauma, survival and power drive each work, alto saxophonist Keir Neuringer, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, double bassist Luke Stewart and Tcheser Holmes on drums, this quintet will join forces for a unique evening of music-making with two equally powerful artists: Legendary pianist/vocalist/improviser Amina Claudine Myers, a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1966; and the “furiously inventive” (Los Angeles Times) composer/flutist Nicole Mitchell. A member of the AACM since 1965, her influences are multi-dimensional, across generations and genres. She received a 2011 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, and has been named “the most important jazz flutist of her generation” (Allaboutjazz.com).

Wednesday, March 06, 2019
2019 BANG ON A CAN PEOPLE’S COMMISSIONING FUND CONCERT
A New Sounds Live co-presentation hosted by John Schaefer & streamed live on NewSounds.org
Bang on a Can’s People’s Commissioning Fund (PCF) is a radical partnership between artists and audiences to commission works from adventurous composers. Founded in 1997, long before crowd-funding became the norm through Kickstarter and the like, Bang on a Can’s PCF has pooled contributions of all sizes from hundreds of friends and fans and since its inception has commissioned over 50 works of music for New York’s electric Bang on a Can All-Stars.

Sunday, March 17, 2019
ETHEL & FACE THE MUSIC
Special guest appearance by Todd Rundgren
NYC’s “infectiously visceral” (Pitchfork), “vital and brilliant” (New Yorker) string quartet ETHEL teams up with the dynamic youth ensemble Face the Music for an afternoon of invigorating new music. The performance showcases repertoire commissioned for ETHEL and developed during the quartet’s 2018-19 residency with Face the Music at Kaufman Music Center.

Thursday, March 21, 2019
BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS & WYE OAK
A New Sounds co-presentation hosted by John Schaefer
The Brooklyn Youth Chorus presents a live collaboration with the beloved rock duo Wye Oak, plus the premiere of a new work by Owen Pallett plus other collaborators TBA. Acclaimed for their “enormous versatility and polish” (New York Times), the Brooklyn Youth Chorus has been praised for their “perfect intonation” (Classical Voices) and “astonishingly secure performances” (New Yorker).