A concert performance of The Father Who Stayed featuring the songs and music of Jeremy Schonfeld and additional text by Rinde Eckert.

Following the tragic death of his young daughter Emily Rose, Theseus is left lost and alone in the empty void of their old home. As Theseus re-ignites the magic of the bedtime storytelling ritual they used to share, the house fills with the ghosts of past occupants sharing stories of those who lived and died within its walls. The Father Who Stayed is a musical journey of everyday life, death, and the afterlife in America.

A concert performance of The Father Who Stayed featuring the songs and music of Jeremy Schonfeld and additional text by Rinde Eckert.

Following the tragic death of his young daughter Emily Rose, Theseus is left lost and alone in the empty void of their old home. As Theseus re-ignites the magic of the bedtime storytelling ritual they used to share, the house fills with the ghosts of past occupants sharing stories of those who lived and died within its walls. The Father Who Stayed is a musical journey of everyday life, death, and the afterlife in America.

Hancher has enjoyed a long and creatively fruitful relationship with both the Kronos Quartet and UI alum Rinde Eckert. For My Lai, the string quartet and the vocalist come together with Vietnamese multi-instrumentalist Vân Ánh Vanessa Võ to lay bare the tragedy of the 1968 massacre at My Lai. The story of the destruction of the village at the hands of American soldiers is told from the perspective of Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot who tried to intervene and who was vilified for reporting what he had witnessed.

For more than 40 years, the Kronos Quartet has pursued a singular artistic vision, combining a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually reimagining the string quartet experience. Kronos’ adventurous approach dates back to the ensemble’s origins. In 1973, David Harrington was inspired to form Kronos after hearing George Crumb’s Black Angels, a highly unorthodox, Vietnam War-inspired work featuring bowed water glasses, spoken word passages and electronic effects. Kronos revisits the inspiration for the founding of the group with My Lai...

It was nearly 50 years ago that American soldiers massacred hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese villagers at My Lai. Kronos Quartet's fully staged collaboration with composer Jonathan Berger and novelist Harriet Scott Chessman revisits the horrors of that day and its aftermath, from the perspective of the heroic helicopter pilot who tried to intervene. Berger's "richly evocative" and "hauntingly beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle) score blends Rinde Eckert's expressive voice with string quartet augmented by traditional Vietnamese instruments played by Vân Anh Võ, and an electronic soundscape of helicopters, voices, and snippets of American blues. 

ABOUT MR. WAU WA
The Mr. Wau Wa Band was formed in 1998 as part of a project at P.S 122, which was celebrating Bertolt Brecht’s centenary. The band was inspired by a photo of Brecht from the ‘20s, performing with some clowns including the famed Karl Valentin and his partner Liesl Karlstadt. Brecht is standing in a cart playing the flageolette, behind a roll-down cartoon drawing of a strong-man being run over by a car full of revellers, with the inscription “Mr. Wau Wa”.

Soloist Rinde Eckert in Steven Mackey’s oratorio “Slide” with Orchestra 2001

LOCATION: National Sawdust, 80 N 6th St, Brooklyn, NY 11249
DATE: Friday, November 17, 2017
TIME: 7:00 PM

Orchestra 2001 is located in Philadelphia, PA under Executive Director Adam Lesnick.

Orchestra 2001 presents SLIDE by composer Steven Mackey and librettist Rinde Eckert. The performances will feature Mackey (guitar/narrator) and Eckert (actor/singer) depicting a lonely psychologist’s experiments and memories of lost love. The staged production will be directed by Mark DeChiazza and crosses many musical genres, featuring music from Mackey’s Grammy-winning album Lonely Motel.

Soloist Rinde Eckert in Steven Mackey’s oratorio “Slide” with Orchestra 2001

LOCATION:  Venice Island Performing Arts Center (250 seats)
DATE: Thursday, November 16, 2017
TIME: 7:00 PM

Orchestra 2001 is located in Philadelphia, PA under Executive Director Adam Lesnick.

Orchestra 2001 presents SLIDE by composer Steven Mackey and librettist Rinde Eckert. The performances will feature Mackey (guitar/narrator) and Eckert (actor/singer) depicting a lonely psychologist’s experiments and memories of lost love. The staged production will be directed by Mark DeChiazza and crosses many musical genres, featuring music from Mackey’s Grammy-winning album Lonely Motel.

Soloist Rinde Eckert in Steven Mackey’s oratorio “Slide” with Orchestra 2001

LOCATION:  Princeton University Sound Kitchen, Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall
DATE: Tuesday, November 14, 2017
TIME: 8:00 PM

Orchestra 2001 is located in Philadelphia, PA under Executive Director Adam Lesnick

Orchestra 2001 presents SLIDE by composer Steven Mackey and librettist Rinde Eckert. The performances will feature Mackey (guitar/narrator) and Eckert (actor/singer) depicting a lonely psychologist’s experiments and memories of lost love. The staged production will be directed by Mark DeChiazza and crosses many musical genres, featuring music from Mackey’s Grammy-winning album Lonely Motel.

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the horrific 1968 massacre of more than 500 Vietnamese villagers by American soldiers in My Lai, Vietnam, comes a commemorative music performance. My Lai reminds us all of the horrors of the battlefield and the blight of the Vietnam War on the American soul.

This GRAMMY-winning vocal project is dedicated to mining the expressive potential of the human voice.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Artistic Advisor at Large Renée Fleming today announced the artists for the inaugural season of Renée Fleming VOICES, a new concert series that heralds the power of the voice across a wide range of genres. The series includes Broadway favorites such as Hamilton Tony Award® winner Leslie Odom Jr., Tony® winnerAlan Cumming (Cabaret), and Tony® favoriteMegan Hilty, plus acclaimed jazz vocalist Jane Monheit, opera sensationLawrence Brownlee, multidisciplinary performance artist Rinde Eckert, and composer and jazz pianist Billy Childs, who will bring to life his Grammy Award® Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro.

Rinde makes his way to Rangely, CO to perform at THE TANK as a part of Rinde's Odyssey. Forty years ago, when its unique acoustic potential was first recognized by Bruce Odland, The TANK — an empty steel water tank in Rangely, Colorado — began its secret life as a recording destination for a dedicated group of musicians. 

Rinde Eckert and fellow musicians from the 2004 album Sandhills Reunion perform the work on Wednesday, May 29 at 7:00 pm at National Sawdust as part of Rinde's curated series at the new venue. U.S. Premiere.

“…an enigmatic detente….potent, soulful.” Steve Smith, NY Times

“Aging Magician is brilliant” Robert Wilson

“The Aging Magician is grandly, even venerably, operatic…[from the composer] who wrote the acclaimed Oceanic Verses.” WQXR

Rinde Eckert curates his third music event at National Sawdust on February 10 at 7:00 pm. See and hear this music work in seven parts based on seven different texts for five musicians: Rinde Eckert, Will Bernard, Kenny Wollesen, Don Falzone and Jeffrey Zeigler. 

Tickets available here

The band Mr. Wau-Wa returns to Barbés on Wednesday, October 14 at 8:00 pm | $10.00

The band is dedicated to performing the songs of Bertolt Brecht as set by his collaborators Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau, as well as some contemporary settings by David Hidalgo (from Los Lobos). Formed with four members of Kamikaze Ground Crew, plus the internationally renowned performance artist Rinde Eckert With Gina Leishman, vox, accordion, pump organ; Rinde Eckert, vox, accordion, pump organ; Doug Wieselman, clarinet, sax, guitar Marcus Rojas, tuba and Kenny Wollesen, drums. $10