GENERATION: MATA 25 Anniversary Benefit
March 17, 2023 @ National Sawdust

March 17 | Doors @ 6:30PM // Concert @ 7:30PM
National Sawdust
80 S. 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY

Join MATA for our 25th Anniversary Benefit Concert in celebration of supporting emerging composers and sound artists for a quarter-of-a-century. MATA is dedicated to expanding our listening where time and sound meet. This concert features Curtis Stewart (violin), Ariadne Greif (voice), and Lester St. Louis (cello), all artists who each engage with new music in their own thoughtful, whimsical, and reflective way. Tonight we dive deep into Generation. Yes, as in generations of human beings and looking to the future of MATA, but more deeply – Generation as in the process of bringing into being.

Benefit Speakers:

Amanda Gookin, Executive Director
Philip Webb, Board President
Olivia Jones, Board Vice President
Du Yun, Board Member
Lisa Bielawa, Benefit Honoree and Founder
Eleonor Sandresky, Benefit Honoree and Founder

Tickets: $75 VIP Front Row // $50 Back Row // $40 Balcony

All proceeds will benefit the 2023 MATA Festival from May 31-June 3, 2023

Performances by:

LESTER ST. LOUIS

Lester St. Louis (b. 1993) is a New York born and based Composer, Improviser, Cellist, Sound Designer and Curator. His work traverses through performance, installation, curation, artistic research and recording. His works are rooted in dynamic environments of improvisation both sonically and socially, ecstatic sound worlds. flow and interaction.  He has performed internationally throughout The U.S, The E.U, Canada, China and in South America; and collaborates with artists such as Chris Williams [under the moniker HxH], Edi Kwon Jaimie Branch, Dre A. Hočevar, Charmaine Lee, Isabel Crespo Pardo, Emeka Okereke, Tortoise, Yo La Tengo, TAK Ensemble, The International Contemporary Ensemble, Random International, Superblue, Terrence Nance, Found Sound Nation, Wet Ink Ensemble and many more. As a composer, Lester has been commissioned by artists such as The JACK Quartet, RAGE THORMBONES, Jennifer Koh, String noise Ghost Ensemble among others. He is deeply excited to see what new ventures and collaborations the future may bring and those that will be made.

ARIADNE GREIF

Ariadne Greif, praised for her "luminous, expressive voice," "searing top notes," and "dusky depths," (NYTimes), enjoyed a casual child career as a “boy” soprano at the LA Opera, eventually making an adult debut singing Lutoslawski's Chantefleurs et Chantefables with the American Symphony Orchestra. She starred in operas ranging from Donizetti’s Elixir of Love with The Orlando Philharmonic, to Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias at the Aldeburgh Festival, and Atthis, by G.F. Haas, which the NY Times called "one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances in recent times.” She performed with William Kentridge in his production of Ursonate at the Luxembourg Philharmonie, the Performa Festival, CalPerformances, and the Ultima Festival in Oslo, where she was invited back for September 2020 and 2022 with two large pieces of her own. She stepped in at the last minute at the 2022 Ojai Festival with AMOC, and starred in a film for Opera Philadelphia of We Need To Talk, a new monodrama written for Ariadne by Caroline Shaw and Anne Carson, as well as an opera film called Table Manners by Sheree Clement. Ariadne has premiered upwards of twenty new operas and more than a hundred new chamber works. Ariadne has performed at Resonant Bodies, Sydney Chamber Opera, Sarasota Opera House, The Meidan Festival, Den Norske Opera, with the Orlando Philharmonic, The Knights, and across the US, Canada, France, Finland, and the Middle East, including more than 200 concerts with Ensemble Mélange, and in appearances with Pekka Kuusisto, Gabriel Kahane, Lukas Ligeti, and JACK Quartet, among others.

CURTIS STEWART

Curtis Stewart is a multi Grammy-nominated violinist/composer who enjoys bouncing between MTV specials with Wyclef Jean and sold out shows at Madison Square Garden with Stevie Wonder to stints at the Kennedy Center with the Jimmy Heath Big Band and runs at the Guggenheim, MoMA and Whitney Museums in NYC. Curtis has performed as a classical soloist at Lincoln Center, with the New York Philharmonic Bandwagon, as well as held chamber music residencies at Carnegie Hall, the MET Museum and National Sawdust. His work realizes a vision to find personal and powerful connections between styles, cultures, and music. Curtis is Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, faculty at The Juilliard School, director of Contemporary Music at the Perlman Music Program, has been commissioned to write works for the Royal Conservatory of music, The Virginia Symphony, WQXR in New York, Newport Classical Festival La Jolla Festival,The Eastman Cello Institute, The Knights, New York Festival of Song, PUBLIQuartet, and Carnegie Hall: Play/USA.  He is the Artistic Director of the American Composer’s Orchestra.