this week in music

PERFORMA TELETHON

Laurie Anderson will revisit Nam June Paik’s 1984 Good Morning, Mr. Orwell for Performa telethon (photo courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York)

Who: Jason Moran, Ragnar Kjartansson, Lang Lang, Yvonne Rainer, Jennifer Rubell, Laurie Anderson, Omer Fast, Maria Hassabi, Jesper Just, William Kentridge, Liz Magic Laser, Rashid Johnson, Shirin Neshat, more
What: Virtual benefit gala for Performa
Where: Pace Gallery
When: Wednesday, November 18, free with RSVP, 2:00 to 10:00 pm
Why: Performa is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary with an eight-hour gala fundraiser featuring live performances, specially commissioned artist editions, and testimonials, an online mashup of Nam June Paik’s 1984 Good Morning, Mr. Orwell and Barbara Kruger’s 1989 critique of Jerry Lewis and his annual MDA Labor Day Telethon, aired live from the seventh floor of Pace Gallery in Chelsea. “Nam June Paik’s innovations in broadcast and large-scale architectural installations of television monitors changed the way we think about the screen as an art form,” Performa founder and director RoseLee Goldberg said in a statement. “Half a century after Paik’s legendary interventions in television, we find ourselves in a unique situation: We must now rely on the screen in new ways in the midst of a pandemic that has cost over one million lives. Like Paik, we approach the screen as an exciting platform for artists to communicate their work and ideas.”

Produced in collaboration with E.S.P. TV, the fundraiser honors founding patron Toby Devan Lewis and will include a giant tally board, confetti, giant checks, balloons, a bank of people on telephones, and other telethon staples while acknowledging the Covid-19 crisis, election unrest, the BLM movement, and other critical contemporary social issues. The show will be highlighted by performances from Derrick Adams & Dave Guy, Jérôme Bel, Torkwase Dyson (reading an excerpt from Myself a Distance), David Hallberg, Glenn Kaino, Ragnar Kjartansson, Lang Lang, Marching Cobras, Jason Moran, Oyinda, Yvonne Rainer, Jennifer Rubell, Jacolby Satterwhite, Rufus Wainwright, Hank Willis Thomas & Ebony Brown, Samson Young, and Laurie Anderson, who will pay tribute to Paik; there will also be screenings of Lynda Benglis’s On Screen, The Grunions Are Running, and Document and testimonials from Tamy Ben-Tor, Elmgreen & Dragset, Omer Fast, Maria Hassabi, Jesper Just, William Kentridge, Liz Magic Laser, Kelly Nipper, Rashid Johnson, Shirin Neshat, and others, along with archival footage and never-before-seen behind-the-scenes outtakes. Six artist editions will make their debut and will be available only during the broadcast, by Korakrit Arunanondchai, Barbara Kruger, Kia LaBeija, Michèle Lamy, Cindy Sherman, and Laurie Simmons. The twentieth Performa Biennial, curated by David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards, is scheduled for 2021, but it might look very different from previous ones depending on the state of the pandemic.

ROSANNE CASH AND A. M. HOMES: EYE OF THE COLLECTOR

Rosanne Cash and A. M. Homes appear in new Met film Eye of the Collector (photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images North America)

Who: Rosanne Cash, A. M. Homes
What: Prerecorded film with songs and poems
Where: Met Museum Facebook and YouTube
When: Tuesday, November 17, free, 7:00
Why: In conjunction with the exhibition “Photography’s Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection,” which continues through November 30, the Met is hosting the free virtual presentation Eye of the Collector. In the half-hour film, directed and edited by Phyllis Housen, singer-songwriter extraordinaire Cash, whose albums include Seven Year Ache, The List, and She Remembers Everything, and Homes, who has written such books as Days of Awe, This Book Will Save Your Life, and The Mistress’s Daughter, share songs and poems, accompanied by images from the exhibit, which features works by Paul Strand, Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Joseph Cornell, Diane Arbus, Andy Warhol, Sigmar Polke, Cindy Sherman, Richard Avedon, and many others, promised as a 150th anniversary gift to the Met from Tenenbaum and Lee. The film will be streamed over the Met’s Facebook and YouTube pages on November 17 at 7:00.

“The pandemic and the protests were the perfect storm of isolation, longing, inspiration, longing, fear, and hope,” Cash writes about her new single, the sociopolitical “Crawl into the Promised Land,” adding, “Living in New York City was a pressure cooker, particularly in April and May, when the deaths were spiking and the city sealed itself off, and utterly changed. But strangely, there was also a sense of unity and community, and the potential for transcendence. I kept thinking of the model in physics, where things have to fall apart in order to re-assemble themselves in a more refined, evolved state. . . . I need more space and time to understand what happened, what we are still going through. Why we elected such an unfit person to guide us, why we kill Black people with impunity, why our leaders dismantle and mock every institution we have painstakingly created to hold us safe, why some deaths matter and others don’t. I won’t be here ‘fifty years away from here,’ but someone I gave birth to, or someone they gave birth to, will live in those times and understand, and maybe pass the knowledge on to me, even in another world or another life. The magnitude of the moment requires time and an ocean of reflection.” That is precisely what Cash and Homes will be offering on Tuesday night.

LE PETIT GALA: OUTSIDE THE BOX

FIAF’s virtual gala on November 16 features live music and dance from Florence Gould Hall

Who: Jonah Bokaer, Isaiah João, Nadia Khayrallah, Hala Shah, Rourou Ye, Cal Hunt, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Bryan Wagorn
What: Virtual gala
Where: FIAF online
When: Monday, November 16, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: The French Institute Alliance Française will be holding its gala on November 16 at 7:00, featuring livestreamed performances direct from the stage in Florence Gould Hall. The soirée “Le Petit Gala: Outside the Box” will include the live world premiere of Jonah Bokaer Choreography’s Softer Distances, a dance solo and quartet with Jonah Bokaer, Isaiah João, Nadia Khayrallah, Hala Shah, and Rourou Ye; FlexN specialist Cal Hunt’s solo dance Gliding: From Brooklyn to Paris; and France en chansons (“L’invitation au voyage” by Henri Duparc, “J’ai perdu mon Eurydice” from Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, “Sous le ciel de Paris” in honor of Juliette Gréco) with opera countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and pianist Bryan Wagorn. The limited in-person dinner in the FIAF Skyroom is sold out, but you can also participate by bidding in the silent auction, where you’ll find jewelry, wine, art, perfume, a Frédéric Fekkai experience, a private piano lesson with Wagorn, furniture, food, luxury bags, and more. All proceeds benefit FIAF’s cultural, artistic, and educational programs.

SOIL BENEATH: AN EMPIRICAL DECAY

Soil Beneath: An Empirical Decay streams through Primary Stages this week

Who: Chesney Snow, Kevin Hillocks, Rachael Holmes, Winston Dynamite Brown, Latra Wilson, Kimille Howard, Diedre Murray
What: Choreopoem
Where: Primary Stages online
When: November 11-15, $35
Why: Beatboxer, actor, songwriter, poet, and educator Chesney Snow will debut his Primary Stages commission, Soil Beneath: An Empirical Decay, this week, livestreaming November 11-15. The sociopolitical, multidisciplinary exploration of race and class in America was created by and stars Snow (In Transit, Oo Bla Dee), who will be joined in the forty-minute show by Kevin Hillocks as Homerel, Rachael Holmes as Dori, and choreographers Winston Dynamite Brown and Latra Wilson; Soil Beneath, which includes music, dance, poetry, and storytelling, is directed by Kimille Howard and features a score by Pulitzer Prize finalist Diedre Murray (Running Man, Eli’s Comin’). The November 11 opening-night performance will be followed by a Zoom talkback with members of the cast and artistic staff.

LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD: FRED HERSCH

Fred Hersch and Miguel Zenón will perform live fron the Village Vanguard this weekend

Who: Fred Hersch, Miguel Zenón
What: Livestreamed concerts from the Village Vanguard
Where: Village Vanguard online
When: Friday, November 6, and Saturday, November 7, $10, 9:00
Why: Jazz pianist, composer, and educator Fred Hersch is celebrating his sixty-fifth birthday, this past October 21, with the release of the intimate Songs from Home (Palmetto Records, November 6) and two shows at the Village Vanguard, to be streamed live from the legendary club. The Cincinnati-born Hersch will perform solo on November 6, then be joined by multiple Grammy nominee and MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow Miguel Zenón on alto saxophone on November 7; tickets for each concert are $10 and will be available for viewing for twenty-four hours. Hersch recorded the album on a laptop in the woods of Pennsylvania during the pandemic; it includes such classics as Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman,” the Beatles’ “When I’m 64,” Frederick Loewe’s “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want,” and Duke Ellington’s “Solitude.” In the liner notes he explains, “I hope this selection of songs that mean something to me will bring some warmth to your days and that all of you stay well and walk with peace.” Puerto Rico native Zenón’s latest release is Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera, a tribute to the famed salsa singer.

#IVOTED HEADCOUNT FESTIVAL

Who: Trey Anastasio, the Disco Biscuits, Fantastic Negrito, Umphrey’s McGee, Jim James, Citizen Cope, Billie Eilish, MGMT, Jerry Douglas, Jim James, Taking Back Sunday, GEM, Jeff Tweedy, Rise Against, the Dresden Dolls, Colin Meloy, the Polyphonic Spree, Shawn Colvin, Bush, Jukebox the Ghost, Drive-by Truckers, Phantom Planet, DJ Logic, more
What: Virtual festival in support of get-out-the-vote efforts
Where: ivotedconcerts.com
When: Tuesday, November 3, free with RSVP, noon – late
Why: Although we are unlikely to know who is president on November 3, all of us who voted can at least know that we honored our responsibility to participate in our democracy, especially with voter suppression on the rise. The nonpartisan, nonprofit HeadCount is celebrating the end of the election with #iVoted, a virtual music festival featuring hundreds of bands, performing live, sending in videos, or taking part in conversations, divided into eighteen themed stages depending on where they’re from or where they are trending, including the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, and Ohio as well as college campuses. The event will conclude with the Everyone Orchestra — Andrew Borger of Pink Martini, JP Downer of Portland Cello Project, Sarah Clarke of Dirty Revival, Asher Fulero of Emancipator Ensemble, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, and Nick Werth, conducted by Matt Butler — performing the two-set “Soundtrack to History,” followed by a dance party with DJ Logic. You’re also encouraged to send in a selfie outside a polling place or voting by mail. Among those making appearances are Trey Anastasio, the Disco Biscuits, Jim James, Citizen Cope, Billie Eilish, MGMT, GEM, Jeff Tweedy, Rise Against, the Dresden Dolls, Colin Meloy, the Polyphonic Spree, Shawn Colvin, Bush, Jukebox the Ghost, Drive-by Truckers, and Phantom Planet.

THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW MUSICAL LIVESTREAM

Who: Tim Curry, Wilmer Valderrama, Lance Bass, Rosario Dawson, Jason George, Nell Campbell, Seth Green, Jason Alexander, David Arquette, the Dresden Dolls, Miss Peppermint, Eiza Gonzalez, Josh Gad, Ben Barnes, Jenna Ushkowitz, Rachel Bloom, Karen Olivo, Marissa Jaret Winkour, Madison Uphoff, Kalen Chase, Rumer Willis
What: Livestreamed Halloween political fundraiser
Where: WisDems Zoom
When: Saturday, October 31, suggested donation $31, 10:00
Why: America is in danger of going through a perilous time warp if the current administration gets another four years in office, further setting back gains that have been made over decades toward freedom and equality for all. With that in mind, the Wisconsin Democratic Party has been on a fierce and furious drive to flip the swing state blue on election day with virtual cast reunions of Happy Days, The Princess Bride, Veep, and Superbad that have each raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. Next up is a celebration of the 1975 midnight cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a film that celebrates individuality and daring to be different. We might not be able to touch-a, touch-a, touch-a, touch one another, but we can reach out and come together online, and joining in the fun on Halloween night will be Dr. Frank N. Furter himself, Tim Curry, along with Wilmer Valderrama, Lance Bass, Rosario Dawson, Jason George, Nell Campbell, Seth Green, Jason Alexander, and David Arquette, with musical performances by the Dresden Dolls, Miss Peppermint, Eiza Gonzalez, reunion champ Josh Gad, Ben Barnes, Jenna Ushkowitz, Rachel Bloom, Karen Olivo, Marissa Jaret Winkour, Madison Uphoff, Kalen Chase, and Rumer Willis. The suggested donation is $31 for the one-time-only live event, but you can give any amount to watch the festivities and submit your own question, so as far as change goes, don’t just dream it, be it.