As expected, the lineup for the Big Ears Festival 2020 is growing—and with some very, very notable names that are already creating additional excitement. Big Ears is announcing that rock icon, writer, poet and photographer Patti Smith will join the festival in 2020, where she will perform with her band as well as present a literary program during the weekend, March 26-29, 2020.
“Cited by Rolling Stone in 2010 as one of our 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, Smith galvanized the New York punk scene in 1975 with the release of her debut album, Horses. She is now a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as well as a Commander of the French Ministry of Culture’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She received the National Book Award in 2010 for her memoir Just Kids, which chronicles her friendship and journey in art with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. She has since published several other acclaimed collections of poetry and prose, including the recently released The Year of the Monkey.”
Film fans mesmerized by the eerie Bernard Hermann soundtrack to the 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still probably know all about the effect that the electronic instrument known as the Theremin has on listeners. Invented by Léon Theremin in 1928, the instrument has seen a resurgence of usage around its 100th birthday. The Big Ears lineup will also pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of the invention of the Theremin, with Theremin master Rob Schwimmer leading a trio featuring pianist Uri Caine and violinist Mark Feldman in a concert that also marks the 20th anniversary and recent release of their collaboration, Theremin Noir.
Other additions to the lineup include the Bell Orchestre, the post-rock chamber ensemble, featuring Arcade Fire members Sarah Neufeld and Richard Reed Parry. They will make their Big Ears debut on the heels of a long-awaited new recording.
Returning to Big Ears is Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O’Halloran’s A Winged Victory for the Sullen with a new recording, The Undivided Five, inspired by the mystic Swedish painter, Hilma af Klint.
Chicago’s groundbreaking chamber group, Ensemble Dal Niente, will be joined by saxophone virtuoso Ken Vandermark, performing music written for them by Roscoe Mitchell, along with works by Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, and others contemporary composers. Dal Niente and Vandermark are also planning a kaleidoscopic array of performances at the Knoxville Museum of Art during the festival weekend.
Fennesz, whose richly textured guitar and electronics dazzled the very first Big Ears audience on opening night back in 2009, returns to the festival at long last. His latest release, Agora, was cited as one of the best recordings of the year in Pitchfork, which described it has having “a cumulative force that is unlike anything he’s done in years.”
Nivhek is the name of a new project from Big Ears alum, Liz Harris (Grouper), also cited by Pitchfork as one of the finest records of 2019, “…her music remains in an enigmatic class of its own.”
Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard will bring his evocative and mysterious explorations of the world that surrounds us, with both installations and live performance.
Other newcomers to the 2020 lineup include Pakistani singer / composer Arooj Aftab’s Vulture Prince Ensemble, with Gyan Riley, Maeve Gilchrest, Shazad Ismaily, and Greg Fox; the mysterious mezzo-soprano folk singer Josephine Foster channeling Harry Smith’s “old weird America;” composer / percussionist extraordinaire John Hollenbeck’s minimalist/maximalist post-jazz ensemble, The Claudia Quintet; Chicago’s adventurous, boundary-pushing composer / cornet player Ben LaMar Gay and his band; an evocative solo performance from Múm’s cellist and singer Gyda Valtysdottir; saxophonist Sam Gendel’s haunting reimagining of jazz standards; the spirited Argentine / Mexican / North Carolina string band wizardry of Che Apalache; composer/performer Astrid Sonne, who explores perception and its accompanying emotional states through her viola and electronics; Sonja LaBianca, whose solo saxophone performances create poetic, minimalist soundscapes.
For details and current lineup for Big Ears 2020, check out the festival website: http://www.bigearsfestival.org/
Big Ears 2020 Performers
75 Dollar Bill
A Winged Victory for the Sullen
Andrew Cyrille
Annette Peacock
Anthony Braxton
Areni Agbabian
Arooj Aftab’s Vulture Prince Ensemble
Astrid Sonne
Aurora Nealand & the Royal Roses
Bang on a Can All-Stars
Bell Orchestre
Ben Lamar Gay Quartet
Caroline Shaw
Caterina Barbieri
Che Apalache
Christian Scott
D. Scot Williams
Damo Suzuki Network with the Sound Carriers
Dan Weiss Starebaby
Daniel Pioro & Valgeir Sigurðsson
Devendra Banhart
Diamond Curtain Wall Trio
Dos Santos
Efterklang
Electric Appalachia (William Tyler, Mary Lattimore, Eric Dawson of TAMIS)
Ensemble Dal Niente + Ken Vandermark
Fennesz
Gyan Riley
Gyda Valtysdottir
Harriet Tubman
Jacob Kirkegaard
Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die
Jason Moran & the Harlem Hellfighters
Jeff Parker and the New Breed
Joe Henry’s 115th Dream
Josephine Foster
Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society
Kim Myhr
Kronos Quartet
Marc Ribot
Maurice Louca
Mdou Moctar
Meredith Monk
Moonlight Benjamin
mssv (Mike Baggetta, Stephen Hodges, Mike Watt)
Múm
Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret
MZM (Miya Masaoka, Zeena Parkins, Myra Melford)
Nadah El Shazly
Natalie Joachim
Nivhek
nief norf
Patti Smith
Paul Lazar’s Cage Shuffle
Peter Brötzmann
Sam Gendel Concert Group
Sarah Davachi
Saul Williams
Shabaka and the Ancestors
Sō Percussion
Sonja Labianca
Sons of Chipotle (John Paul Jones & Anssi Karttunen)
Sound for Andy Warhol’s KISS (Kim Gordon, Bill Nace, Steve Gunn, John Truscinski)
Spektral Quartet
Steve Coleman and Five Elements
Sudan Archives
Tamino
Terry Riley
The Claudia Quintet
The Haden Triplets
The Necks
Theremin Noir (Rob Schwimmer, Uri Caine, Mark Feldman)
Thunder Music Ensemble
Thundercat
Tindersticks
Xylouris White
Correction: Nivhek, that’s Liz Harris (not Liz Cooper. Cooper rhymes with Grouper?)
Fixed, thanks.