The Gauntlet
Rockefeller Center, New York City
4pm & 7pm performances
About
Tickets
“I see the activity in the city as streams of light… of people’s energies… the energy in the city… the energy in life. I see it in motions of color. I see movement generated through the city streets…” —Terese Capucilli, Movement Interviewee
Be transformed by the sound of hundreds of human voices this summer at Rockefeller Center.
On August 3, across Rockefeller Center’s outdoor plazas, the immersive, site-specific choral and movement piece The Gauntlet will bathe thousands of people in waves of harmony, poetry and gesture, performed by a chorus of hundreds featuring singers from across New York City.
An intimate, personal experience in the center of bustling Manhattan, individuals will be led through musical corridors of sonic architecture formed by the human voice.
Created by composer Sxip Shirey and choreographer Coco Karol, each performance of The Gauntlet is unique, reflecting the site, community, and performers it is created with. This iteration of The Gauntlet is inspired by the theme of Transformation, with text formed from ‘movement interviews’ with changemakers, cultural figures, and artists, including visual artist Swoon; journalist Kurt McVey; costume and fashion designer Claire Fleury; composer, co-founder, and artistic director of National Sawdust, Paola Prestini; dancer Terese Capucilli; publisher and Editor-in-Chief of One World, Chris Jackson; spiritual care counselor for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Kei Okada; puppeteer Erin Orr; choir member of Choral Chameleon, Nicole Belmont; artist, writer, and curator Sarah Walko; and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.
The performance features independent singers from across all five boroughs of New York City, including choir members from C4 – The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, Choral Chameleon, Downtown Voices, Inspire, The O’s Ensemble, Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, Moving Star Ensemble, Wintersweet Ensemble, New York City Master Chorale, and R.Evolución Latina.
The Gauntlet was performed at National Sawdust in FERUS Festival 2018 and has since been performed at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Sydney Opera House’s Antidote Festival.
This summer’s performance is a new commission by Rockefeller Center, on the theme of Transformation, co-produced by National Sawdust Projects.
Creative & Producing Team
Sxip Shirey, Composer & Music Director
Coco Karol, Choreographer
Nilusha Dassenaike, Assistant Music Director
Raquel Acevedo Klein, Assistant Music Director
Nathan Repasz – Assistant Music Director
Holly Hunter, Producer & Director of National Sawdust Projects and Community Engagement
Lorna Simpson, Producer & Director of Programming and Events, Rockefeller Center
Featuring singers from across New York City and choirs including:
C4 – The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective
Choral Chameleon
Downtown Voices
Inspire
Moving Star Ensemble
New York City Master Chorale
R.Evolución Latina
The O’s Ensemble
Wintersweet Ensemble
Young New Yorkers Chorus
Dancers
Miguel Angel Guzmán
Remi Harris
Wanda Gala
Effy Grey
Natalie Deryn Johnson
Jeremy Jae Neal
The Artists
Sxip Shirey is an avant-garde composer specializing in populist music that is often used for circus, dance, and theater. He has released seven albums including three solo albums, toured internationally, and been recognized by press worldwide. He is known for innovative instrumentation and object oriented compositions which he often performs and presents to audiences with stories, dialogue, and delight.
@genesxipshirey
Coco Karol is a dancer and choreographer who creates cross-disciplinary performance works about how we make meaning of personal experience and communicate through gesture, touch, and effort. She has had an expansive dance career in New York and has choreographed works for stage and film, as well as for art galleries and public art.
@findingcoco
Nilusha Dassenaike is an award-winning vocalist/composer who possesses a distinctive vocal style that incorporates a delicate balance between her South Asian and Western musical influences. She has released four albums to critical acclaim and has toured projects throughout Australia, Mexico, Cuba, Sri Lanka, and more. She is one of the musical directors of The Resistance Revival Chorus and has performed on The Tonight Show and at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Roots Picnic.
@nilushasings
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Raquel Acevedo Klein is an active conductor, vocalist, instrumentalist and visual artist. She has been a member and subsequent conductor for the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus. She has participated in the premieres of works by Philip Glass, John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Paola Prestini, Bryce Dessner, Missy Mazzoli, Shara Nova, and Aleksandra Vrebalov, to name a few. Raquel has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Town Hall, BAM, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Celebrate Brooklyn!, National Sawdust and elsewhere. She has recorded and performed with the likes of Glen Hansard, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, The National, Grizzly Bear, The Knights, the NY Philharmonic, and the Marinsky Orchestra among others.
Nathan Repasz is a drummer, vocalist, improviser, and composer exploring the liminal spaces of groove/noise and meaning/nonsense. He makes improvised music with GORPLORD (curators of the monthly series RIGHT ON! at Red Hook Record Shop) and On The Way (with free jazz luminary Daniel Carter and activist/musician/Tiananmen Massacre survivor Rose Tang). He also plays with pop-punk cover trio Imitation Crab and the multimedia collective/YouTube channel Apartment Sessions. As a soloist, he’s collaborated with Undertow Dance and presented work at Hurrá in Reykjavik and at The Brick Theatre as part of CORIOLANUS: 2018 Midterm Election Extravaganza. He is currently working with the Syndicate of Initiative to develop a free jazz adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed for the Loading Dock Theatre’s Forklift program. He most recently collaborated with Sxip Shirey to provide music for Bindlestiff Family Cirkus: Brooklyn Abridged.
Holly Hunter is a producer and programmer whose focus is to create meaningful opportunities for people of all walks of life to experience and participate in the highest-quality art and collaborate with the world’s leading artists. As Director of National Sawdust Projects & Community Engagement, Holly produces and tours new interdisciplinary projects that speak to themes of social justice, as well as developing the Brooklyn venue’s community engagement initiatives. Recent projects include Forward Music Project at The Wallis Annenberg Center of the Performing Arts, Beverly Hills, LA, and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts DIRECT:CURRENT Festival, Washington DC; and National Sawdust: Hear It New! at Classical:NEXT Conference, De Doelen, Rotterdam. In 2018, Holly was Associate Producer for Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival commission In the Name of the Earth, by composer John Luther Adams, performed by 800 singers in St John the Divine Cathedral. Before relocating to New York City, she worked at London’s Southbank Centre, where she ran the community singing program, Voicelab, programmed the annual Chorus and WHY? What’s Happening for the Young festivals, and produced a range of public programs and participatory workshops.
@holly___h
Currently in its 19th (Mixed) & 8th (Women‘s) seasons, the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus (YNYC) brings together the finest choral musicians from the thousands of young people in their 20s and 30s who flock to the city for its excitement and artistic life. YNYC’s two ensembles perform for a large and devoted youthful audience, exposing them to the beauty and transcendent potential of choral art. The choir performs a vast variety of music, from works by classical greats to those of prominent living composers in New York‘s leading venues, such as Carnegie Hall and BAM. YNYC performed at the American Choral Directors Association National Conference at Symphony Hall in Chicago, cementing the choir’s emerging reputation as one of the finest choral ensembles in the country. YNYC has been featured in the film “Catechism Cataclysm” and on WNYC’s RadioLab, the New York Public Library’s Library After Hours Program, the World Fashion Parade, TBS’ hit show “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” and as a featured performer for iHeartRadio. The choir is deeply committed to new music and debuts a minimum of three original works every year through its annual Competition for Young Composers. For more information, visit www.ynyc.org.
Website: ynyc.org
Soundcloud: young-new-yorkers-chorus
Instagram: @ynyc
Twitter: @ynycmusic
Facebook: YoungNewYorkersChorus
Praised by the New York Times for its “incisive, agile strength,” Downtown Voices is a semiprofessional choir made up of volunteer singers from the New York metro area and members of the Choir of Trinity Wall Street. Directed by Stephen Sands since its inception in 2015, Downtown Voices has performed works by Anton Webern, Alberto Ginastera, Benjamin Britten, Johannes Brahms, Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and a large-scale commission for the 250th anniversary of St. Paul’s Chapel, Spire and Shadow, by Zachary Wadsworth. Most recently, they finished their 2018-2019 season with Carl Orff’s epic Carmina Burana.
Facebook: DowntownvoicesTWS
Instagram: downtown.voices
Twitter: @Downtown_Voices
Choral Chameleon is a choir known for championing new music for voices, programming multiple musical genres together and for frequently presenting their programs with non-traditional staging. The company has premiered over 170 original compositions and arrangements to date. Founded in New York in 2008, by Artistic Director Vince Peterson, the Company encompasses: a professional ensemble, a volunteer chorus of 40+ and an annual week-long Summer Institute for composers and conductors. Choral Chameleon was 2017-2018 Group in Residence at National Sawdust in Brooklyn.
The culture of the organization marries informality, loving support and joyful curiosity, with the expectation of solidly technical musicianship, constant learning and openness towards the unexpected. Choral Chameleon was the 2015 recipient of Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and, in recognition of his work with Choral Chameleon over the past decade, Vince Peterson was the 2018 recipient of the Chorus America Louis Botto Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Zeal. In addition to the Company’s self-produced programs, recent appearances and collaborations in the past 2 Seasons have included: Philip Glass ‘Madrigal Opera’ directed by R.B. Schlather at National Sawdust, ‘Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music’ 24-hour marathon show at St Ann’s Warehouse, ‘The Gauntlet’ immersive choral installation with Sxip Shirey at Ferus Festival at National Sawdust and at MakeMusicNewYork Festival.
@ChoralChameleon
The mission of the New York City Master Chorale is to connect people through choral music by presenting high-quality concerts inspired by the distinct energy, diversity, and talent of New York City.
The Chorale seeks to engage and inspire audiences of all ages, backgrounds, and musical experience by performing a challenging repertoire of traditional and contemporary works, working in collaboration with other artists and organizations who share our vision, and bringing our music into the community through our outreach and education programs.
The New York City Master Chorale has performed at a variety of venues, including: Riverside Church, Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Trinity Wall Street, Symphony Space, New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, as well as Carnegie Hall. The Chorale had its European debut on April 29, 2011 at Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris, France.
Recent repertoire includes: Orff: Carmina Burana, Bernstein: Chichester Psalms, Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, Mozart: Requiem, Bach: Magnificat, Rachmaninoff: Vespers, Fauré: Requiem, Poulenc: Gloria, Duruflé: Requiem and Messe cum Jubilo, John Rutter Magnificat, Morten Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna, and Paul Leavitt: Requiem (New York and European premieres), along with choral works by Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Randall Thompson, and spirituals by Moses Hogan. In September 2011, NYCMC was recognized as a semi-finalist for the Community Chorus Division of the American Prize in Choral Performance in recognition of the quality of a recorded performance.
Founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Thea Kano, the 70-voice Chorale celebrated its 10th Anniversary in April, 2016 at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. 2019 – 2020 marks the Chorale’s
14th season. For more information, please visit www.nycmasterchorale.org.
Instagram: @NYCMasterChorale
facebook.com/NYCMasterChorale
Since R.Evolución Latina‘s beginning in 2007 we have had a choir as part of educational programming. Participants have come and gone but the mission and heart of the choir has always stayed true. Through the years RL’s choir has performed for dignitaries and world leaders for the International Conference on Population and Development at the Ford Foundation and the United Nations, and have been part of The Mile Long Opera and Antigone in Ferguson. The choir is also featured on the album Dare to Go Beyond produced by R.Evolución Latina and Rocket-it Science Records.
Twitter & Instagram @revlatina
Facebook: facebook.com/revlatina/
C4 exists to enrich artists and audiences alike through passionate advocacy of new choral works, performing pieces written within the last 25 years, premiering and commissioning new choral works, and mentoring emerging singers, composers, and conductors of today’s choral music. C4 is a unique, award-winning chorus directed and operated collectively by its singing members, functioning not only as a presenting ensemble in its own right but also as an ongoing workshop and recital chorus for the emerging composers, conductors, and singers within the group. It is the first organization of its kind and one of the few choral groups in the nation to focus exclusively on the music of our time.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/c4ensemble/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c4ensemble/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE11FqzczssDjkTAzomOmBA/featured?disable_polymer=1
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/c4ensemble
Led by conductor Raquel Acevedo-Klein, Os Ensemble is a group of adventurous and committed young singers who interpret and transform new works for voice. With an inaugural commission by composer Eve O’Donnell, Os Ensemble made its performance debut at National Sawdust. Since its launch in September 2017, Os Ensemble has premiered operas, chamber music, and electroacoustic works by composers including David Lang, Paola Prestini, and Guido López-Gavilán, and performed with members of Sō Percussion and the Harlem Quartet among others.
Moving Star is a vocal ensemble that creates original music for a cappella voices infused with a wide variety of improvisational techniques. The ensemble is currently in residence at Carnegie Hall and includes singers and musicians from diverse traditions and backgrounds. Singers include practitioners of the vocal improvisation techniques of Bobby McFerrin and Rhiannon, members of The M6: Meredith Monk Music Third Generation, as well as composers, singer-songwriters and classical, jazz and world music trained singers.
Inspire is New York City based chamber choir dedicated to cultivating compassion and action for diverse social issues through the power of song. In partnership with organizations seeking positive social change, we encourage individual and collective action on socially pressing issues. We seek to inspire a spirit of unity among our artists, audiences, and wider community.
Our concerts seek to amplify the work of our community partners through the performance of evocative music carefully curated to encourage reflection on the social issues captured by our concert themes. In our first two seasons we have partnered with a dozen organizations including Sandy Hook Promise, 350NYC, Sing for Hope, The Bowery Mission, Housing Works, and the United Nations Orchestra and Singers. Our 2019-2020 season will focus on the theme of Youth Leadership and you can learn more about us at choirforunity.org.
