Composer, producer, and video artist Emily Wells and her band (cellist Topu Lyo, drummer Addie Vogt, and multi-instrumentalist Alec Spiegelman) will perform work from her 2022 album Regards to the End. A loving ode to and dialogue with AIDS activists of the past, Wells' latest album weaves a narrative of radical empathy and hope out of their resiliency.

A GOD OF HER OWN MAKING is an immersive opera in which the human vessel serves as a primary instrument and conduit for sound as a healing pathway to the divine. Incorporating both old and new technologies, woman and machine come together in sacred co-creation. 

A GOD OF HER OWN MAKING is an immersive opera in which the human vessel serves as a primary instrument and conduit for sound as a healing pathway to the divine. Incorporating both old and new technologies, woman and machine come together in sacred co-creation. 

Fast-emerging British singer, songwriter and pianist Reuben James’ virtuoso jazz techniques and soulful, evocative voice have led him to be widely regarded as one of the most exciting and creatively assured artists to have emerged in recent years.

This fall our neighbors at Disco Tacos bring the party next door to National Sawdust in a special monthly edition of their hallmark dance party Spin Days. Get down in Sawdust’s state-of-the-art venue home with special guest DJs while sipping natural wines and mezcal from partner brands.

Yeule is a project from London-based painter, musician, performance artist, and cyborg entity Nat Ćmiel which invites us to transcend into a post-human world where expression is no longer bound by identity, but rather we are free to assemble ourselves along lines of affinity.

Responsible for “changing the face of opera” (The Wall Street Journal), BMP: NEXT GEN returns for the final round of its second ever cycle as Beth Morrison Projects’ leaders set out to discover the next generation of boundary-pushing composers.

Responsible for “changing the face of opera” (The Wall Street Journal), BMP: NEXT GEN returns for the final round of its second ever cycle as Beth Morrison Projects’ leaders set out to discover the next generation of boundary-pushing composers.

Contemporary pianist Alex Peh explores the piano as a hybrid global instrument in a program of new work by Ne Myo Aung, Anna Clyne, Hafez Modirzadeh, Nikos Ordoulidis, and Susie Ibarra.

A part of the The Future Is… Festival: Celebrated American soprano Karen Slack’s dynamic opera and recital performances combined with her passionate advocacy for racial justice and women composers make her a sought-after artist on many fronts. For her performance at National Sawdust, Slack performs Of Thee I Sing, her incredibly moving program conceived during the turmoil in the summer of 2020, when the country was forced into a long-overdue racial awakening.

Two weeks of memorable performances, engaged sharing, open-to-the-public sound installations, and deep listening.

FREE WITH RSVP: A collaborative space for all to explore tools, skills, and rituals for improving our listening and achieving expansive futures... featuring Adji Cissoko, Val Jeanty, Molly Joyce, Laurel Lawson, Jihye Lee, Aditi Mangaldas, Marisa Michelson, MIMS, Miriam Parker, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Alice Sheppard, Emily Wells, and Kara Wilkes with Additional Contributions from eddy kwon and Lynne Procope

FREE WITH RSVP: A collaborative space for all to explore tools, skills, and rituals for improving our listening and achieving expansive futures... featuring Adji Cissoko, Val Jeanty, Molly Joyce, Laurel Lawson, Jihye Lee, Aditi Mangaldas, Marisa Michelson, MIMS, Miriam Parker, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Alice Sheppard, Emily Wells, and Kara Wilkes with Additional Contributions from eddy kwon and Lynne Procope

A part of the The Future Is… Festival: The June 12 performance of ChamberQUEER's Pride Festival highlights Gay Guerrilla by iconoclastic queer composer Julius Eastman, in a new arrangement for string septet by Jessie Montgomery, and featuring the arranger on violin.

A part of the The Future Is… Festival: Irreversible Entanglements cultivate the liberation technologies of jazz and associated Black music in root, stem, and branch.

A part of the The Future Is… Festival: Open G Records presents Music in The Constellation: An In-Person Immersive Audio Experience, an invitation to our community to engage with National Sawdust’s performance space and to explore the possibilities and nuance of our state-of-the-art sound technology.

A part of the The Future Is… Festival: ChamberQUEER 2022 opens their two-show engagement at National Sawdust on June 10 by drawing centuries of music into conversation – juxtaposing boundary-breaking Renaissance nuns with the voices of three fantastic emerging composers drawn from their 2020 Call for Scores.

A part of the The Future Is… Festival: Featuring contributions from Brandon Kazen-Maddox, Max Greyson and Austin Regan with an opening performance by Tiffany Rea-Fisher (2022 Toulmin Fellow at National Sawdust and Center for Ballet and the Arts) and a talkback with Kevin Gotkin

With Mauro Refosco, Musical Director for David Byrne’s American Utopia Featuring Davi Vieira (percussion) and Felipe Hostins (accordion), curated by Karen Wong

El Puente Beacon @ MS50 183 S3rd Street - (between Roebling Ave and Driggs Ave.) Brooklyn, NY 11237

Variant 6 is a virtuosic vocal sextet that explores and advances the art of chamber music in the twenty-first century. For this performance, they celebrate the release of their first full-length album, New Suns.

The culminating event of New York Youth Symphony's 2021/22 season, “Composition Date 2022” will include sixteen world premieres, performed by members of the NYYS Orchestra, Chamber Music, Jazz, and Robert L. Poster Conducting programs, with direction by Dr. Kyle Blaha.

A special night celebrating the release of Amaryllis and Belladonna, two new, modular, and interlocking projects by Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer and MacArthur fellow Mary Halvorson.

Alfa Mist is one of the most dynamic and consistent talents to emerge from London’s widely celebrated jazz reformation.

Check back week of show for ticket releases.

Critically acclaimed and broadly respected, The New Yorker has hailed MATA as "the most exciting showcase for outstanding young composers from around the world." The performances at National Sawdust will be curated by and feature their season artist-in-residence Darius Jones and ensemble-in-residence International Contemporary Ensemble.

National Sawdust partners with Music at the Anthology (MATA) to present their celebrated annual spring festival. Critically acclaimed and broadly respected, The New Yorker has hailed MATA as "the most exciting showcase for outstanding young composers from around the world." The performances at National Sawdust will be curated by Darius Jones and feature their season ensemble-in-residence International Contemporary Ensemble.

with Anthony Roth Costanzo, Sean Gandini + Kati Ylä-Hokkala (Gandini Juggling), Magos Herrera, Raquel Acevedo Klein, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Carl Hancock Rux, and Jeffrey Zeigler, hosted by NS+ series curator Elena Park

For Anand Wilder’s solo debut ’I Don’t Know My Words’, he was determined to press on creatively despite pandemic’s isolation. Now, he brings the stunning result – braided strands of English folk revival, Topanga Canyon jangle, and desert blues licks – to the National Sawdust stage.

Chris Grymes and Open G Series present composer, performer, and 2019 Miss America Nia Imani Franklin in a concert featuring works from her debut EP, Extended, as well as new and recent music by American women composers.

Daniel Bernard Roumain and DBR Lab return to National Sawdust to present cross-disciplinary talent by emerging artists from Arizona State University. Original projects explore interactive digital media, music, spoken word and film. This event features special guest performances by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Paola Prestini and New Jersey Symphony players, plus a special performance by co-facilitators Daniel Bernard Roumain and Jeff McMahon.

For the Trees is an immersive, multi-media show centered on a new string quartet by Colorado composer Jeffrey Nytch and performed by Tesla Quartet. The show, which features components of live music, sound installation, spoken word, and visual images, both emotionally and creatively engages the destructive impact of deforestation and strikes out to motivate action to combat it.

For this exclusive concert at National Sawdust, Stephane Wrembel will treat the audience to an intimate solo performance of 17 Django Reinhardt guitar preludes.

New York Baroque Incorporated brings together a program of two double concertos, one by Bach and one by Vivaldi, for pairs of harpsichords, violins, violas (da braccio and da gamba), and cellos. This concert features Aya Hamada and Avi Stein on harpsichord, Shelby Yamin and Isabelle Seula Lee on violin, Stephen Goist and Nicole Divall on viola, and Ezra Seltzer and Matt Zucker on cello.

Germán López is one of the world's most brilliant and prolific Canary Island “timple” virtuosos – an emblematic diminutive guitar. López embraces Canary Island tradition, as well as Flamenco, West African music, and the spirit of jazz and folk.

Violinist Miranda Cuckson and composer Rand Steiger collaborate on three works for violin and spatialized electronics, exploring the dazzling, immersive sonic potential of National Sawdust’s 102-loudspeaker Meyer Sound Constellation system.

In 2020, Lee "Scratch" Perry joined with electronic duo Mouse on Mars for a bold final experiment: a journey into immersive audio realized via the hyper-fidelity of next-generation Spatial Sound. Mixed by MOM and mapped exclusively to National Sawdust's custom Meyer Sound System, this premiere listening event offers intimate access into the creative process of a true musical giant.

Lawyer, trailblazing corporate executive, writer, and speaker Chinwe Esimai's new book Brilliance Beyond Borders celebrates "immigrace": the genius and unique power of women immigrants making their mark in America.

In 2020, Lee "Scratch" Perry joined with electronic duo Mouse on Mars for a bold final experiment: a journey into immersive audio realized via the hyper-fidelity of next-generation Spatial Sound. Mixed by MOM and mapped exclusively to National Sawdust's custom Meyer Sound System, this premiere listening event offers intimate access into the creative process of a true musical giant.

In 2020, Lee "Scratch" Perry joined with electronic duo Mouse on Mars for a bold final experiment: a journey into immersive audio realized via the hyper-fidelity of next-generation Spatial Sound. Mixed by MOM and mapped exclusively to National Sawdust's custom Meyer Sound System, this premiere listening event offers intimate access into the creative process of a true musical giant.

Continuing a proud tradition of showcasing the iconic artists of our time, National Sawdust proudly presents Duet Behavior 2022, an intimate evening featuring Meredith Monk and John Hollenbeck.

Norwegian electronic duo Smerz present material from their critically acclaimed debut album, Believer, alongside unreleased work in process, with an opening set from producer, DJ, and composer Ouri.

Don't miss the chance to hear the drummer/musical director/producer/dj/composer Pauli The PSM’s upcoming spatial sound album, OFFAIR: The Power of Your Subconscious Mind Vol. I: SPACE, on National Sawdust’s famous Meyer Spacemap and Constellation sound system.

In her return to the National Sawdust stage, Magos Herrera Quartet – as well as a string quartet comprised of members of the orchestral collective The Knights – will present "Remanso" with music that Herrera produced during the COVID-19 isolation.

The Juilliard Blueprint Fellowship is an annual National Sawdust mentorship and commissioning initiative that connects Juilliard student composers with career and project mentorship, culminating in a concert of their commissioned projects.

Electroacoustic composers/performers Lesley Flanigan, Christopher Tignor, and Tristan Perich present their own unique visions for combining the human and bespoke electromagnetic instruments.

Filmed over the course of two years, Rosehardt: Live at National Sawdust chronicles the rising creator’s artistic and emotional journey before and throughout the COVID-19 era. This concert film and music documentary hybrid offers audiences a raw and unfiltered look into the experience of what it means to be an artist – and, more importantly, human – in our new world.

Two interactive evenings of art and song to bring you on a dazzling journey of the senses (Night 2)

Two interactive evenings of art and song to bring you on a dazzling journey of the senses (Night 1)

This project with the string quartet Seme explores the tradition of the accordion – a relatively modern instrument (c. 1820) that moved across the globe, often in an emigrant’s suitcase, from Europe to America and Africa, and informing new traditional music in Argentina, Brazil, USA, Canada, Madagascar, and Kenya, and beyond. In pairing an accordion with a string quartet, Claudio Prima and Seme create a rich and complex musical environment that investigates the expressive possibilities of traditional music, in its continuous flow and dialogue with modernity.

Ashni; Death Is A Business' Celebrating Death and Rebirth; Fear Not Ourselves Alone

Yoojin Park Quartet; Ryan McBride Trio; James Kennedy's And Then He Painted the Sky

Zhenni Li-Cohen; Miolina's Tête-à-Tête; Friedrich Heinrich Kern's Alone Together

Jennifer Cendaña Armas; Lavender Suarez's Sound Bath

Bryant Park Picnic Performances' season of free, live performances continues on Friday, September 17 at 7pm with the live premiere of Allison Loggins-Hull's Diametrically Composed, exploring the duality of being a mother and an artist.

Come join us for a spiritual journey through love, loss, trauma and healing with some of NYC's most potent creative forces.

Since 2015, National Sawdust has pushed the boundaries of the artistic sonic experience. This six-episode retrospective series, curated by composer and co-founder Paola Prestini, presents an overview of National Sawdust’s past, present and future.

Featuring Interviews with Renée Fleming, Beth Morrison, Paola Prestini and new music by Holland Andrews, Amyra León, Lido Pimienta, Paola Prestini with Eve Gigliotti, Theodosia Roussos and Diana Syrse

National Sawdust’s flagship educational program for middle school performing artists and composers, Student CoLab, seeks to engage young creatives through artistic expression to lead students into creating works of their very own. For this live event along the Domino Park waterfront, our students composed works for a subset of a marching band, engaging in a long and passionate history of protest music.

Discover the most exciting new voices in opera and music-theatre.

The Blueprint Fellowship is an annual National Sawdust mentorship and commissioning initiative that connects Juilliard student composers with career and project mentorship, culminating in a concert of their commissioned projects.

Take a look behind the scenes of Alicia Hall Moran's Mother's Day performance.

For Mother’s Day, National Sawdust shares an offering from the heart: a piece composed by mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran and performed with flutist Allison Loggins-Hull and pianist Kris Davis, exploring the duality of being a mother and an artist.

Take a look behind the scenes of the making of Marisa Michelson and Miriam Parker’s ’Beneath the Surface’ – an exploration of the connection between body and space through music and movement.

Founder of Constellation Chor, Marisa Michelson, and interdisciplinary artist Miriam Parker, connect sound and movement from sacred music to free jazz, Buddhism to divine spirituality.

A collaboration between composer/performer Molly Joyce, dancer Jerron Herman, writer Max Greyson, and director Austin Regan to examine historical myths of the left versus right side.

Brianna Mims focuses on the body as a poetic and political site of liberation this season through dance and music.

Explore the ephemerality of flowers in their natural and abstract forms with Alabama-born choreographer Amy Hall Garner for a production that brings together music, dance, and art.

Delune spent three days at National Sawdust developing and shooting the film. A truly collaborative ode to performance, the piece incorporates many artistic disciplines that explore not only the stage, but all of the architectural flourishes that make the building unique. Here is a behind the scenes look at their time at Sawdust.

For National Sawdust, Izzi and Kate Eberstadt of Delune premiere a new concept video, “Pierrot and the Reverie”, blending animation by Alexandra Hohner, theater, pop music, and silent film.

Featuring the world premieres of three commissioned composers, Flannery Cunningham, Jimena Maldonado, and Sonja Mutić, and four works by competition finalists, Amanda Feery, Lauren Siess, Alicia Jane Turner, and Tan Yuting.

Galya Bisengalieva makes the world premiere performance of two tracks from her newly-released album, Aralkum, an elegy for the former Aral Sea, now the Aralkum Deser, in Kazakhstan.

Created across the distances of the Covid era, The Vanishing Point spirals in the anxious euphoria and isolation of our time.

Five artists perform in harmony, weaving an intimate choreography in this immersive visual experience. Everything starts and ends with the breath.

Choreographer and MacArthur Fellow Kyle Abraham and pioneering producer Jlin have come together to create a new commission exploring death, folklore, and reincarnation through a reimagining of Mozart’s Requiem in D minor.

From the underground punk scene in a repressive Tehran to the creation of an auxiliary human named YONA, the polymath performer and self-described “software humanist” Ash Koosha lives on the front lines of the musical vanguard, both real and virtual.

National Sawdust has responded to the pandemic by creating the New Works Commission, and awarding twenty composers the resources to create a new work for streamed performance.

National Sawdust has responded to the pandemic by creating the New Works Commission, and awarding twenty composers the resources to create a new work for streamed performance.

JACK changed our perception of performance and sound with a show played in complete darkness.

In November 2018, composer laboratory Golden Hornet brought The Sound of Science to the National Sawdust stage.

Hailed as “the future of chamber music” (Strings), the veteran string quartet Brooklyn Rider presents eclectic repertoire and gripping performances that continue to draw rave reviews from classical, world, and rock critics alike.

Vocalist Lucy Dhegrae confronted sexual violence squarely and unapologetically in her residency project The Processing Series, which “attempts to shed light on the complex relationship between mind and body” (New York Times).

Vocalist Helga Davis and guitarist Taylor Levine collaborated on a cover of the seminal Lou Reed song, “Perfect Day.” Their recording is a work of languorous exploration and longing for closure.

Four-time Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Female Vocalist nominee Thana Alexa performs with her husband, the Pat Metheny sideman and Birdman original soundtrack composer, percussionist Antonio Sánchez. They will explore how the pair use song to bridge cultures and musical traditions, both as performers and as a couple.

The Sonic Great Wall, seeks to build connection by breaking down barriers. It draws inspiration from the Great Wall of China to disrupt the barrier between audience and performer.

The New Jersey-born pianist, percussionist and composer Matthew Whitaker is one of America's fastest-rising and best-known young jazz musicians. Blind from birth, Whitaker's prodigious talent on the keys won him endorsements from both Yamaha and Hammond by the age of fifteen.

Scheduled on the 18th anniversary of the passing of John Cage, Robert Wilson presents an appreciation of the revolutionary composer with a solo performance of his famed “Lecture on Nothing.”

Jenny Hval brings her fearlessly avant-garde and undeniably catchy live show to National Sawdust in support of her album, Blood Bitch.

The Tesla Quartet will perform works from their "Alternating Currents" commissioning project, in which Tesla selected 12 freelance composers whose work has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic to write short works for string quartet.

In 2018, pianist Lara Downes launched her Sony Classical debut album FOR LENNY, a Leonard Bernstein centennial tribute that spans the landscape of American music from the past, present, and future.

Join us for a Digital Discovery concert with the versatile percussionist Sae Hashimoto.

Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation, Julian Lage has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via impeccable technique, free association and a spirit of infinite possibility.

At this 2018 concert, Alan and his band performed his free jazz album Valley of Search live for the first time in over 40 years, followed by a second set of recent music.

Join us for a Digital Discovery solo electronic set with the enigmatic, experimental new music composer Tyondai Braxton, who has has been capturing the imagination of avant-pop aficionados since he first emerged on the scene nearly twenty years ago as a co-founder of the seminal art-rock collective Battles.

Join us for a Digital Discovery concert full of high-flying improvisations and sterling technique with Blue Note recording artist, rising jazz star and vibraphonist, Joel Ross. Ross will be joined by flautist Gabrielle Garo.

From post-rock to contemporary classical, percussion trio Square Peg Round Hole brought their minimalist, ambient music to the stage for their headlining debut in celebration of their album release 'Branches'.

Join us for a Digital Discovery concert with composer and performer Molly Joyce, who will be presenting five self-composed songs,

One of his generation’s extraordinary talents, Dan Tepfer has earned an international reputation as a pianist-composer of wide-ranging ambition, individuality and drive.

Mireya Ramos is a New York-based, Latin Grammy-winning vocalist, violinist, composer, arranger and founder of Flor de Toloache – NYC’s first and only all-women mariachi. In this performance, Ramos is joined by her partner Andy Averbuch on guitar as they perform works off her upcoming solo debut album.

Join us for a Digital Discovery concert with the multi-talented cellist Andrew Yee, a founding member of the award-winning Attacca Quartet. Yee will perform works by new music composers Ernst Reijseger, Mingjia Chen, Caroline Shaw, and past National Sawdust Hildegard Competition winner, inti figgis-vizueta.