Celebrate John Cage's 100th Birthday with "Sounds and Silence" in FlynnSpace

Friday, September 14 at 8 pm, FlynnSpace

Amber deLaurentis, voice; Brian Johnson, closed piano and percussion; Adam Tendler, prepared pianoIn celebration of John Cage’s 100th birthday, Amber deLaurentis, Brian Johnson, and Adam Tendler perform a tribute to the master of minimalism. The program includes The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs, A Flower, and Nowth Upon Nacht for closed piano (Johnson) and voice (deLaurentis); 4’33 (Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Seconds), Cage’s famous ‘silent’ piece, performed by deLaurentis, Johnson, and Tendler; and Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano, performed by Tendler.

Amber deLaurentis has just released her first full-length record, Hey Sadie (available through www.amberdelaurentis.com, Amazon, and iTunes). As a recording artist, she has collaborated with keyboardist Chris Cameron of Sonia Dada and Jim Tullio (producer of Mavis Staples and Los Lonely Boys). As a performer, she has opened for Patti Larkin, Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks, NRBQ, Tom Paxton, Marshall Crenshaw, Five for Fighting, Alana Davis, and Entrain. She has performed with artists including pianist Marcus Roberts, and has toured Scotland. Amber collaborates with lyricist Sarah Blue, with whom all of the songs on the Hey Sadie were written. One of these, “Lonely in Love,” took second place in the Billboard International Songwriting Competition in 2002. Their songs have also been finalists the John Lennon Songwriting Competition and Unisong. In 2002, the Amber deLaurentis Band was one of six finalists (chosen from over 1,200 entrants by the editorial staff of Billboard Magazine) and took Grand Prize in the 2002 Independent Music World Series. Amber has performed solo and with her band in venues including the Bitter End in New York City, Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, Toronto’s North by Northeast, and Musikfest. For more info: www.amberdelaurentis.com. 

Brian Johnson has appeared as soloist and ensemble musician in many of the major venues for new and experimental music in the United States and Europe, and has performed in many New Music America Festivals and Percussive Arts Society conventions. As soloist, he has premiered works by leading figures of the American avant-garde, including John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Joseph Celli and  Stuart Saunders Smith. As ensemble musician, Johnson has performed with Loren Mazzacane, William Hooker, The Vernon Frazer Poetry Band, No World Improvisations, Billy & The Buttons, and the Chamber Music Plus Jazz Band. He has made voice and percussion music for dance and theater, and was the on-stage sound effects artist for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of The Comedy of Errors, and percussionist for Public Theater’s production of Troilus and Cressida. Johnson is a percussionist with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Vermont Mozart Festival, Green Mountain Opera Festival, Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, Vermont Stage Company, and others. Recording credits include the CBS, Folkways, Spectrum, Button, Woodcrest and OO Discs labels.

A 2012 American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship Award Nominee and “modern-music evangelist” (TimeOut New York), Adam Tendler first made national headlines with America 88x50, a completely independent, completely unsponsored recital tour created and conducted out of his Hyundai and offered for free to underserved communities in all fifty states.  Celebrated for his uncompromising recital programming, innovative teaching style, unapologetic literary voice, and bold original compositions, he has gone on to perform internationally, direct classical music initiatives across the country, and serve as an announcer and contemporary music liaison for NPR and Pacifica radio stations nationwide. Currently based in New York, he is the founding director of a daily music series at Soho House New York, and is in the process of publishing an interactive memoir about coming-out and coming-of-age during the America 88x50 tour, the development of which you can follow at dissonantstates.com