Free Admission (register here)
Award-winning singer/songwriter Ayanna Witter-Johnson joins performers from NYC-based ensemble ShoutHouse and composers from ICEBERG New Music for a thrilling program of world premieres. Witter-Johnson, a MOBO-winning artist whose debut album debuted in 2019, has been described by Jazzwise as "a huge talent. Like a young Cassandra Wilson would have sounded if she also happened to be a fine cellist." This concert features new arrangements of songs from Ayanna's recent Roadrunner LP, presented alongside original concert compositions by ICEBERG composers.
Special Guest: Ayanna Witter-Johnson (Cello and Voice)
Compositions by Stephanie Ann Boyd, Victor Baez, Alex Burtzos, Drake Andersen and Ayanna Witter-Johnson
Audio engineering and mastering by Johannes Felscher
PERFORMERS:
Will Healy, Synths
Megan Atchley, Violin
Caeli Smith, Viola
Gabe Rupe, Double Bass
Additional (pre-recorded) Musicians from ShoutHouse:
Philip Sheegog
Jack Gulielmetti
David Valbuena
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher
Jesse Greenberg
Connell Thompson
Andres Valbuena
Connor James Mikula
Dizzy Senze, featured MC on “Rise Up”
Ayanna Witter Johnson arr. Baez - Something More
Victor Baez - Something More
Ayanna Witter-Johnson arr. Andersen - Falling
Drake Andersen - Falling
Ayanna Witter-Johnson arr. Burtzos - Wooden Woman Part I
Alex Burtzos - Wooden Woman Part II
Ayanna Witter-Johnson arr. Boyd - Unconditionally
Stephanie Ann Boyd - Momma
Ayanna Witter-Johnson arr. Healy - Rise Up
ICEBERG New Music is a collective of ten young composers based in New York City. ICEBERG's mission is to promote the idea that substance, not surface, is the heart of music creation and perception. The collective's ten member composers hail from different schools of thought and cultivate radically different sounds – from musical theater and indie rock to avant-garde sounds and electronic installations – but their contrasting musical languages belie a shared emphasis on structure and depth of meaning. When these artists compose for the same ensemble and present their works during a joint concert, the result is a glimpse into the ever-widening possibilities of art music in the twenty-first century.
ICEBERG is committed to excellence of craft, inclusiveness of style, and educational outreach on behalf of the new music community. They present numerous concerts each season, partnering with some of the country's top ensembles to create programs that are innovative, diverse, and listener-oriented. In 2020-21, ICEBERG's New York City concerts will feature acclaimed ensemble ShoutHouse, performing alongside singer-songwriter Ayanna Witter-Johnson and members of the band Bent Knee. All of the organization's events are followed by a community discussion with continuing open bar, giving audience members the opportunity to engage directly with the composers and performers about the music they just heard.
ICEBERG composers are dedicated to engaging directly with the community as energetic advocates of contemporary music. The collective participates in an annual residency at Crosstown Arts in Memphis, TN, during which they present public concerts, free lectures, and teach at the University of Memphis Summer music camp. In 2018, ICEBERG unveiled its Young Composer Award, a scholarship fund aimed at pre-collegiate composers from underprivileged and underrepresented backgrounds. In 2020, they began the ADVICEBERG project, which offers free career counseling to emerging BIPOC composers.
ICEBERG is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supported in part by a creative engagement grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Singer, songwriter, cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson is a rare exception to the rule that classical and alternative r&b music cannot successfully coexist.
Graduating with a first from both Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Manhattan School of Music, Ayanna was a participant in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Young Composers Scheme and became an Emerging Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre. She was a featured artist with Courtney Pine’s Afropeans: Jazz Warriors and became the only non-American to win Amateur Night Live at the legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem, NYC.
As a composer she has been commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Güerzenich Orchester, Ligeti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, The Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company and as an arranger/orchestrator for the London Symphony Orchestra (Hugh Masekela, Belief!) and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Urban Classic).
Since releasing her EP’s (‘Truthfully’, ‘Black Panther’ & ‘Ella, Reuben & Ay’) and her debut album ‘Road Runner’ via her own record label (Hill and Gully Records) working with producers Marc Mac (4Hero), James Yarde (Terri Walker, Jamelia, Eric Benet) and featuring artists including pianist Robert Mitchell and rapper Akala. Ayanna has collaborated with several artists including Anoushka Shankar and Nitin Sawhney, extensively toured the UK and several countries in Europe, whilst gaining a MOBO nomination, receiving airplay on stations including BBC Radio 1, 1xtra, 2, 3, 4, 6, BBC London, BBC Manchester, Jazz FM and Scala Radio, TV features on BBC One London News and London Live and producing three commercial music videos via her YouTube channel.
A performer of extraordinary versatility her live shows are intimate journeys that chronicle her experience as a female artist in the 21st century. Because of her musical prowess, mesmerising vocals, non-compromising lyrics and ability to deftly reinterpret songs on the cello, Ayanna is able to straddle both the classical and urban worlds effortlessly.
She is the definition of eclectic soul.
Hailed as “incomparable to anything else… experimenting with a whole new form of expression” (The Culture Trip), ShoutHouse is a collective of musicians based in New York. Founded by composer Will Healy in 2014, ShoutHouse has formed a large community of artists that come together to present cutting-edge concert experiences that are redefining the boundaries of genre. Their debut full-length album, “Cityscapes”, came out on New Amsterdam Records in 2019.
Recent season highlights include performances on The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, National Sawdust’s Resonator Festival, The Harlem Arts Festival, Satellite Collective’s Echo & Narcissus at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Cooper Hewitt Museum’s summer concert series, and on 44 Charlton at The Greene Space. ShoutHouse often appears at New York’s legendary clubs like The Bitter End, The Shrine, Rockwood Music Hall, and more. ShoutHouse’s first EP was featured on radio programs around the world, including WNYC’s “New Sounds” with John Schaefer, WBAI’s “Making Music” with Jordan Maclean. Since its inception, ShoutHouse has received support from The Juilliard School’s entrepreneurship program, the Brooklyn Arts Fund, Jerome Fund for New Music, the Queens Arts Council, The Sparkplug Foundation, and others.