Carnegie Hall

Ted Hearne is a composer, singer, bandleader, and recording artist. Inspired by the overlay of different viewpoints and their sonic possibilities, he creates personal and multi-dimensional works that often explore unconventional interactions of text and music, and are rooted in a sense of inquiry.

The New York Times has praised Hearne for his “tough edge and wildness of spirit,” and “topical, politically sharp-edged works.” Pitchfork called his work “some of the most expressive socially engaged music in recent memory—from any genre,” and Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that Hearne’s music “holds up as a complex mirror image of an information-saturated, mass-surveillance world, and remains staggering in its impact.”

Selected works include The Source (2014 BAM Next Wave, 2016 LA Opera, 2017 San Francisco Opera, with director Daniel Fish and librettist Mark Doten, adapting words of Chelsea Manning and redacted Department of Defense cables); Sound from the Bench (2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist, written for The Crossing and Volti, text appropriated from US Supreme Court oral arguments by poet Jena Osman); Place (2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist, written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with poet Saul Williams and director Patricia McGregor); Law of Mosaics (2012 orchestral work for A Far Cry, adapted in 2022 by Pam Tanowitz for New York City Ballet); Freefucked (2022 suite of songs for cellist Seth Parker Woods, text by Kemi Alabi); and Farming (2023, a speculative work for The Crossing setting texts by Jeff Bezos and William Penn among others, directed by Ashley Tata).

Hearne has collaborated with Erykah Badu, Taylor Mac, Sanford Biggers, and Damon Davis, among others. His works have been conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams, and Gustavo Dudamel. Upcoming projects include over and over vorbei nicht vorbei for Komische Oper Berlin with Daniel Fish, an installation for 24 singers and robots for the Munich Biennale, and an orchestral work for Pam Tanowitz and London’s Royal Ballet.

Eliza Bagg is a Los Angeles–based experimental musician, working primarily as a vocalist in the field of contemporary classical music along with producing her own work. She has collaborated with prominent experimental artists with performances that range from Meredith Monk’s opera Atlas with the Los Angeles Philharmonic to touring as a member of Roomful of Teeth, singing chamber motets by John Zorn, and premiering a new work by Ellen Reid with the New York Philharmonic. Her singing has been called “ethereal” by The New York Times and “gossamer” by The New Yorker.

Recent performance highlights include Girl Angel in Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone, vocalist for Yaz Lancaster’s video-opera Paper Tiger at Opera Philadelphia, performances at Big Ears Festival, Ape in Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta, and Iphigenia of the Sea in Iphigenia by Esperanza Spalding and Wayne Shorter. This season brings the premiere of a new opera with Ted Hearne and director Daniel Fish at the Komische Oper Berlin, a performance at the Concertgebouw, and a week-long residency at The Stone.

Bagg’s compositional work is grounded in the human voice mediated by technology, as she combines virtuosic singing with electronic processing, exploring the “valley between authenticity and artifice” (The Guardian). Dubbed an “electro-pop alien” (NPR), her critically acclaimed album Patterns for Auto-tuned Voices and Delay combines medieval and minimalist vocal styles and idioms with vocal effects, creating “gleaming electro-hymns” (Uncut) and re-contextualizing these musical languages and the spiritual nature of layered, choral singing within a technological, futuristic sensibility.

Bagg has performed as a soloist in new music projects with major symphonies, including the Chicago and Boston symphony orchestras, New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, and North Carolina and San Francisco symphonies. She has also worked closely with and premiered music by composers such as David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Caroline Shaw, Christopher Cerrone, Ellen Reid, Michael Gordon, John Zorn, and Angélica Negrón, among many others.

Rohan Chander (aka BAKUDI SCREAM) is an electronic musician and artist based in Los Angeles. Described as “hypersensory” (The Washington Post), “remarkably alive” (The Wire), and of “transcendent metamorphosis” (I Care If You Listen), Chander’s work explores gothic, science-fiction storytelling as rewriting of personal and shared histories. Performance space collapses into BAKUDI SCREAM’s various avatars of the Architect Prince, somnus, HINDOO, and FUTURANGEL through pursuit of the romantic and gruesome—tales of hackers and lovelorn heroes breaking and restructuring within new ecologies. Positionality is not a constant but a perpetually mutating agent, driving the work of BAKUDI SCREAM to explore the forces behind shared space and the glitches that flower intimacy.

Chander has been commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, and Matt Marks Impact Fund. His works have been performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Chromic Duo, Sō Percussion, Vicky Chow, and more. BAKUDI SCREAM was recently named winner of the 2022 Gaudeamus Award for his debut solo album, FINAL SKIN, on Cantaloupe Music, which has also been featured by experimental artists such as Moor Mother, OHYUNG, and Wild Up.

Solomon Dorsey is a bassist, singer, songwriter, and producer whose creative curiosity has led to collaborations with jazz luminaries such as José James, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Lakecia Benjamin, as well as songwriters Amos Lee, KT Tunstall, and Kesha. Currently performing with the dynamic indie pop-folk band Lucius in support of their new album Second Nature, Dorsey has also enjoyed creating orchestral arrangements for and performing with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna State Opera, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Seattle Symphony. An avid supporter of education and diplomacy, he has participated as a clinician and educator with Carnegie Hall’s Cultural Exchange program and was also named a Cultural Ambassador by the US Department of State, presenting concerts and master classes in Greece, Kosovo, Turkey, Mexico, Macedonia, Russia, and India.

Taylor Levine is a guitarist and circuit builder. He is often working within the experimental, improvised, composed, and noise music communities. Besides playing in his quartet Dither, he has been found making music with a diverse range of artists, including John Zorn, Steve Reich, Marc Ribot, Bang on a Can, Lee Ranaldo, and Kronos Quartet. When not performing, Levine can be found living in Brooklyn, developing electronic circuits for himself and others in the music community.

Nathan Koci is a music director and performer across many disciplines, including theater, folk music, jazz, contemporary classical music, dance, and karaoke singing. His credits include Illinois (with Justin Peck and Sufjan Stevens); Hadestown (US tour, Broadway, Citadel); Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! (Bard SummerScape, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Broadway, West End); Most Happy in Concert (Bard SummerScape, Williamstown Theatre Festival); María Irene Fornés’s Promenade (Barnard/NYU); and Ted Hearne’s The Source (LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, BAM Next Wave). Performance credits include William Kentridge’s The Great YES The Great NO (2024 premiere); as well as The Head & The Load (Park Avenue Armory, Ruhrtriennale, Tate Modern, Art Basel Miami, Joburg Theatre); Maira Kalman and John Heginbotham’s The Principles of Uncertainty (BAM Next Wave); and Alicia Hall Moran’s Coldblooded (National Sawdust). He is the featured accordionist on Sam Sadigursky’s Solomon Diaries volumes I–III, and also performs and records with The Hands Free, Shovels & Rope, Michael Leonhart Orchestra, Guy Klucevsek, and The Opposite of a Train. For more information, visit nathankoci.com.

Ron Wiltrout is a percussionist who is based in Charleston, South Carolina. He performs regularly in the Southeast with ensembles whose styles range from jazz and salsa to free improvisation, avant-garde, and contemporary classical music. As a performer of new music, Wiltrout has premiered pieces by Michael Pisaro, Sam Sfirri, KCM Walker, Andy Akiho, Sean Friar, Philip White, Nathan Koci, and Ted Hearne, which earned him a Grammy nomination. Wiltrout is devoted to exploring the use of unconventional percussion and extended techniques, and integrating the drum set into any musical scenario. He co-leads multiple jazz groups, and is the leader and originator of the band Rad Western. Wiltrout has performed with the Charleston Jazz Orchestra, Barrel Proof, Garage Cuban Band, Harry Allen, Lee Barbour, Tommy Gill, Asphalt Orchestra, Gino Castillo and the Cuban Cowboys, Duda Lucena, Conor Donohue, Lindsay Holler, Matadero, Katrina Ballads, Your Bad Self, and The Opposite of a Train.

Grammy-nominated violist Diana Wade likes to make strange sounds, usually on the viola. In a performance of Berio’s Sequenza VI, she was praised for playing with “both athletic and operatic ferocity” and “throwing herself into tremolo passages with a physical force that shook her and a sonic one that practically shook the walls” (Los Angeles Times). As a studio musician in Los Angeles, Wade has worked with John Williams, Pat Metheny, Barbra Streisand, Michael Bublé, and Jon Brion. She can be seen performing with LA Opera, Wild Up, and her neogalactic DIY dadaist duo SpacePants.

Ashley Bathgate has been described as an “intrepid cellist,” an “eloquent new music interpreter” (The New York Times), and “a glorious cellist”(The Washington Post), who combines “bittersweet lyricism along with ferocious chops” (New York Magazine). Her “impish ferocity,” “rich tone,” and “imaginative phrasing” (The New York Times) have made her one of the most sought after performers of her time. Dynamism drives her to venture into previously uncharted areas of sounds and techniques, breaking the mold of a cello’s traditionally perceived voice.

Bathgate was a member of the acclaimed sextet Bang on a Can All-Stars from 2009 to 2019. She is currently a member of the chamber music groups Eighth Blackbird, TwoSense, Mammoth Trio, and Anzû Quartet. As a soloist, she has collaborated with, commissioned, and recorded works by some of today’s leading voices in contemporary music, including Kate Moore, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and the Sleeping Giant composer collective. In 2022, Bathgate was appointed artistic and executive director of Avaloch Farm Music Institute, a creative arts residency program located in Boscawen, New Hampshire, where she currently resides. For more information, visit ashleybathgate.com.

Ashley Kelly Tata makes multimedia works of theater, contemporary opera, performance, cyberformance, live music, and immersive experiences that have been called “fervently inventive” (The New York Times) “extraordinarily powerful” (Los Angeles Times), like something that “reaches out across the centuries and punches you in the throat” (The New York Times). Tata’s production of Kate Soper’s Ipsa Dixit was named a notable production of the decade by Alex Ross in The New Yorker. Her work has been presented in venues and festivals across the US and internationally, including Theatre for a New Audience, Ars Nova, PS21, LA Opera, Austin Opera, Miller Theater, National Sawdust, EMPAC, BPAC, Crossing the Line Festival, Holland Festival, Big Ears Festival, The Big Sing, Prelude Festival, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and Fisher Center’s SummerScape Festival at Bard. Recent directing credits include the premiere productions of Ted Hearne’s Farming and Kate Soper’s The Hunt. Tata is currently a visiting assistant professor and artistic producer at Bard College. For more information, visit tatatime.live.

Thomas Dunn designs lighting across the US and abroad. His approach to lighting stems from years of investigative work with light, treating it as both a sculptural medium and a facet of stage design. Selected design credits include works with JoAnne Akalaitis, Jonathan Bepler, Wally Cardona, Steve Cosson, Annie Dorsen, DD Dorvillier, Daniel Fish, Beth Gill, Trajal Harrell, Ted Hearne, Jennifer Lacey, Noémie Lafrance, David Levine, Molly Lieber, Ong Keng Sen, Zeena Parkins, Tina Satter, Jay Scheib, Eleanor Smith, and Muna Tseng. Dunn is the recipient of a Kevin Kline Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for The Little Dog Laughed at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and a Bessie Design Award for Nottthing Is Importanttt with DD Dorvillier / human future dance corps.

Joshua Higgason is a video, scenic, lighting, and interactive media designer who creates experiences for theater, opera, and events. He recently designed augmented reality and projections for Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival. Other recent projects include Omar (LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Spoleto); Orpheus in der Unterwelt (Vienna Volksoper); Hänsel und Gretel and Die ägyptische Helena (La Scala); Falstaff and Così fan tutte (Florence); King Arthur (Berlin State Opera); Acquanetta (Bard SummerScape); Blue (Detroit Opera); The Threepenny Opera (Salzburg Festival); and Michael R. Jackson’s White Girl In Danger (NYC). He has also designed projects for Sufjan Stevens, ZviDance, Radiolab, Ira Glass, Daniel Fish, Lucinda Childs, The Windmill Factory, Big Dance Theater, and Christine Jones’s Theatre for One. Higgason’s work has been seen at BAM, Carnegie Hall, TED, SXSW, and MASS MoCA. He teaches design at MIT.

Marc Urselli, a seven-time Grammy-nominated, three-time Grammy-winning music producer, audio engineer, mixer, sound designer, and front-of-house engineer. He has collaborated with a variety of musical and visual artists, and mixed-media multidisciplinaries, including U2, Foo Fighters, Nick Cave, Lou Reed, Sting, Keith Richards, Kesha, Jeff Beck, Les Paul, Buddy Guy, Luther Vandross, Børns, The Black Crowes, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Mike Patton, Jack DeJohnette, Esperanza Spalding, John Patitucci, and Laurie Anderson.

Urselli has provided sound design for theatrical productions by Peter Sellars and Julian Crouch, and for composers Tyshawn Sorey, John Zorn, and Paola Prestini. He has also provided sound design, site-specific composition, and sonic installations for visual artists such as Italian sculptor-painter Arianna Carossa, French lighting artist Laurent Fort, Chilean video artist Nicolás Rupcich, and American installation artist Michelle Jaffé.

Urselli was born in Switzerland and raised in Italy, where he opened his first commercial recording facility at age 17. He later moved to New York City, where he currently resides and works as chief house engineer for the historic recording studio EastSide Sound.

Rachel Perry is an interdisciplinary artist working in drawing, sculpture, video, photography, textile, and performance. Her work is held in numerous museum collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Baltimore Museum of Art. She has had solo exhibitions at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she was artist-in-residence in 2014; deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum; Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University; and Yancey Richardson in New York, where she recently had her seventh solo show.

Perry has received four fellowships from MacDowell and is a three-time recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Award for Excellence, becoming the only artist in its history to win in three separate disciplines: photography, drawing, and sculpture. She has been reviewed in Art in America, The New Yorker, Art21, Sculpture, and The New York Times. In 2011, Perry created a four-page pictorial essay for Vogue. She has twice been commissioned by The New York Times Magazine, most recently for a feature on the Me Too movement. For more information, visit rachelperrystudio.com.

Randi Rivera is a native New Yorker from the Bronx. She has been a freelance stage manager and lighting director since 2009, working both in New York City and on the road. A few favorite colleagues include Tina Satter and Half Straddle, Keigwin + Company, Dance Heginbotham, Harlem Stage, Faye Driscoll, Doug Elkins Choreography, Sidra Bell Dance New York, The Chocolate Factory, Andrew Schneider, Ivy Baldwin, Cathy Weis, Gallim Dance, Sean Donovan, The Kitchen, Phantom Limb Company, and Ballez. Rivera served as associate director for the Broadway run of Half Straddle’s Is This a Room in 2021. She is thrilled to be on Ted Hearne’s team for the first time. All of her work is for her family.