Eternal Spirit: Vijay Iyer & Friends Celebrate The Music of Andrew Hill

CREATE FEARLESSLY

ABDULLAH IBRAHIM · ADAM W. SADBERRY

ALEXANDER DAVIS · AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE

BERTHA HOPE · BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE COMPANY

BOBBY MORGAN · BORA YOON · CAMILLE A. BROWN

CARL HANCOCK RUX · CHLOE DAVIS · CRAIG HARRIS

DAFNIS PRIETO · DANIEL FETECUA · DAVID VALBUENA

DJ SABINE BLAIZIN (OYASOUND) · FEI-FEI

FLOR DE TOLOACHE · GEORGE EMILIO SANCHEZ

HANNAH LEMMONS AKA LEMMONS · IAN ISIAH

JAMES BLASZKO · JASON MORAN · JOANNE BRACKEEN

JOSÉ JAMES · JOYA POWELL · JUEL D. LANE

KALÍ RODRÍGUEZ-PEÑA · KIMBERLY NICHOLE

LUCIANA SOUZA · MALEEK WASHINGTON

MARY PRESCOTT · MATTHEW WHITAKER

MAYTE NATALIO · MICAH THOMAS · NORA CHIPAUMIRE

PABLO MAYOR’S FOLKLORE URBANO ORCHESTRA

PATTY ORTIZ · RICKEY TRIPP

RONALD K. BROWN/EVIDENCE

SHANTELLE COURVOISIER JACKSON · STEW

SUN HAN GUILD · TAMAR-KALI · URBAN BUSH WOMEN

VIJAY IYER · YASSER TEJEDA · YUNIYA EDI KWON

ABOUT THE EVENT

Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker, and multicultural gateway,” composer and pianist Vijay Iyer is one of the leading musicmakers of his generation. Iyer returns, following his Harlem Stage commissioned work, Holding It Down, to guest curate and perform in Eternal Spirit: Vijay Iyer & Friends Celebrate the Music of Andrew Hill. Iyer leads a stellar ensemble, including drummer Nasheet Waits, trumpet player Milena Casado, saxophonist Mark Shim, bassists Devon Gates and Reggie Workman, flutist Nicole Mitchell, vibraphonist Yuhan Su, and others, through his arrangements of compositions by his friend and hero, the vastly influential jazz piano legend Andrew Hill.

Andrew Hill’s album Black Fire, released on Blue Note Records in 1964, was a “revelatory vision of jazz — and impacted generations of progressive pianists” (TIDAL Magazine). Iyer reflects on Black Fire, “there’s so much wildness going on inside of it…You could not write that down, whatever that is. It’s just in its own universe” (TIDAL Magazine).

ARTISTS

VIJAY IYER, piano, music director

with

REGINALD WORKMAN, bass

NICOLE MITCHELL, flute, alto flute

MARK SHIM, tenor saxophone

MILENA CASADO, trumpet

YUHAN SU, vibraphone

DEVON GATES, bass

NASHEET WAITS, drums

TONIGHT’S PROGRAM WILL DRAW FROM THE FOLLOWING WORKS BY ANDREW HILL

Black Fire

Smoke Stack

Refuge

Soul Special

Premonition

Siete Ocho

Euterpe

Desire Illusion

Golden Sunset

Gone For Emilio Dusk

A REFLECTION

“I have been privileged to learn of, follow, and love Andrew Hill’s music for decades. He and my husband, the late artist Emilio Cruz, became friends and mutual admirers. I first presented Andrew in the early 90s at the Studio Museum in Harlem in the Artist’s Voice series that I created. Andrew sat down at the piano declaring to play something with which we were all familiar. I joined the audience bewildered and bewitched as we tried to find the familiar in the music he performed. He concluded his performance by claiming it as his version of an ‘old Negro spiritual.’ A spiritual transformed and reinvented into an unrecognizable piano solo, grounded in tradition but radically reimagined and transcendent. We later presented Andrew Hill in our Pianos for Duke concert in 1999.”

Pat Cruz

Harlem Stage Artistic Director & CEO

AN EXCERPT FROM ANDREW HILL’S MEMORIAL

Andrew Hill – an enigma musically

He once played a song, a composition, a tune, a hymn perhaps that he claimed that we had all heard in our homes long ago. It must have a been a very long time ago because to a person we all looked with bewilderment at one another unable to claim that tradition, not knowing that tune. No - not in my house. And finally through the tortured, twisted, transcendent rhythm/ harmonies we heard something familiar, something religious – a spiritual perhaps, no definitely spiritual but like none other. A Hill spiritual – combining all the complexity of his brilliance with the blessing of his gift, his life, his music. And then he would play it again, differently.

It was his story, his composition. He could play/tell it in a way that suited him. I’ve come to believe that the world, our world is not so much of our own making but of our doing. There is a difference. Andrew searched ceaselessly for himself.

From Point of Departure in 1964 through Time Lines in 2006 - odd times, unexpected harmonies swinging deeply/relentlessly/soulfully.

We, Emilio Cruz his friend, and I were always surprised, always exhilarated by his music. I listen still to those 2 disks, never removed from my CD player. What solace and beauty I find there.

He crossed boundaries fearlessly taking what revealed himself to himself from sovereign, sometimes warring states – bebop, classical, the blues, the avant garde, free music - to find/create himself. ANDREW HILL –taking “Flight”

Patricia Cruz, September, 23, 2007

Andrew Hill Memorial/St. Peter’s Church

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

We are grateful for this chance to honor the beloved composerpianist Andrew Hill (1931-2007). This weekend we pay tribute to his innovative compositions and ensemble conceptions, his piano artistry, and his endless creativity.

Mr. Hill’s music first shook and bewildered me about 35 years ago; it still does today, without fail. Like his forebear Thelonious Monk, Mr. Hill was a courageous musical seeker who thought for himself. Starting with his first recording, So In Love with the Andrew Hill Trio (1960), then more famously in 1964 with his Blue Note debut Black Fire, and on session after session thereafter, he devised compact, uniquely labyrinthine forms, composed of asymmetric blocks, studded with jewel-like details, shaded by subtle variations in texture and orchestration. These works would then open out into sprawling, mesmerizing improvisations, exuberant and insurgent, pushing against convention, harkening revolution through these new practices of aesthetic freedom.

His piano playing was laced with mystery. Beginning with his early sideman appearances with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Hank Mobley, and Joe Henderson, Mr. Hill loved a propulsive rhythm, and he equally loved to peel it apart like an onion. He had his own way with harmony, stripping it down to its irreducible components, namely resonance and counterpoint. He would cause the piano to ring and shake like a giant bell, and his hands would splash melodies across each other in acerbic polyphony.

In the 1970s, perhaps out of necessity — for who can keep a group together in this so-called ”jazz business”? — Hill cultivated his own personal infinities through revelatory solo piano performance. On Live at Montreux, From California with Love, and Verona Rag — their very titles charting an itinerant life of site-specific outpourings — the pianist’s rich, stark, deconstructed playing alternately caresses and confounds

the listener, carrying you to the brink of your own awareness, guiding you onward to new vistas. There is existential poetry in this music, an ecstatic abandon in view of the abyss; it documents an artist’s fearless, full-body embrace of the unknown.

It was in the last decade of his life that Mr. Hill became my friend, mentor, and supporter, first showing up at our concerts unannounced, then phoning me out of the blue to dispense affirmations, critiques, wisdom, and wisecracks. In those years I was privileged to witness what many called his renaissance, even though we in his circle knew that he had never stopped creating in the first place; he’d simply been enjoying life outside of New York’s media crucible.

His music in this late period resounded in wave after resplendent wave: incendiary compositional makings and unmakings, piano phrases cutting hard like diamonds, ensemble formations shimmering like flocks of starlings. As J.D. Parran observed after a fall 2006 Merkin Hall performance of Hill’s large-group masterwork Passing Ships, “Andrew has entered that phase of life where everything he touches is magic.”

Then, the following spring, he departed this realm, leaving our global community of acolytes, torchbearers, admirers, and fans with many blessed memories of his sly wit and cheshire grin, and a stunning catalog of musical provocations that will continue to teach and inspire us for the next century.

In a word, we are lucky. Mr. Hill’s timeless music lives on. Thank you for joining us here at Harlem Stage in admiration of his oeuvre. Thank you, Joanne Robinson Hill, for trusting us with this project. And thank you always, maestro Andrew Hill, for being here with us in Eternal Spirit.

Harlem

February 28, 2024

Vijay Iyer

BIOGRAPHIES

VIJAY IYER

PIANIST, MUSIC LEADER

Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway,” VIJAY IYER has carved out a unique path as an influential, prolific, shape-shifting presence in twenty-first-century music. A composer and pianist active and revered across multiple musical communities, Iyer has created a consistently innovative, emotionally resonant body of work over the last twenty-five years, earning him a place as one of the leading music-makers of his generation.

He received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artist Fellowship, three Grammy nominations, the Alpert Award in the Arts, the Greenfield Prize, and two German “Echo” awards, and was voted DownBeat Magazine’s Jazz Artist of the Year four times in the last decade. He has been praised by Pitchfork as “one of the best in the world at what he does,” by the Los Angeles Weekly as “a boundless and deeply important young star,” and by Minnesota Public Radio as “an American treasure.”

Iyer’s musical language is indebted to the great composer-pianists from Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk to Alice Coltrane and Geri Allen, the rhythmic traditions of South Asia and West Africa, and the African American creative music movement of the 60s and 70s. February 2024 brings the release of Compassion (ECM Records), the second recording by Iyer’s much-admired trio with drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Linda May Han Oh. The New York Times writes, “It’s as if this band wants to both seduce you and discomfit you, stripping you of everything but the ability to think and see for yourself.” Other recent releases include Love In Exile (Verve, 2023), a Grammy-nominated collaboration with vocalist

Arooj Aftab and bassist Shahzad Ismaily; Uneasy (ECM Records, 2021), the acclaimed first trio session with Sorey and Oh; Far From Over (ECM, 2017) with the award-winning Vijay Iyer Sextet; and A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke (ECM, 2016) a suite of duets with visionary composer-trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.

Iyer is an active composer for classical ensembles and soloists, with works premiered by Brentano Quartet, Imani Winds, Parker Quartet, Bang on a Can All-Stars, The Silk Road Ensemble, Sō Percussion, International Contemporary Ensemble, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Oregon Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, and virtuosi Matt Haimowitz, Mishka Rushdie Momen, Claire Chase, Inbal Segev, Sarah Rothenberg, Shai Wosner, and Jennifer Koh. He recently served as composer-in-residence at London’s Wigmore Hall, music director of the Ojai Music Festival, and artist-in-residence at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A tireless collaborator, he has written big-band music for Arturo O’Farrill and Darcy James Argue, remixed classic recordings of Talvin Singh and Meredith Monk, joined forces with legendary musicians Henry Threadgill, Reggie Workman, Zakir Hussain, and L. Subramanian, and developed interdisciplinary work with Teju Cole, Carrie Mae Weems, Mike Ladd, Julie Mehretu, and Prashant Bhargava. Iyer is a tenured professor at Harvard University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies. He lives in New York City. He is a Steinway artist.

BIOGRAPHIES

REGINALD WORKMAN BASSIST

Reggie Workman, hailing from Philadelphia, is a dynamic figure encompassing roles as a bassist, bandleader, composer, community organizer, educator, producer, and soloist-composer collaborating with dancers and actors. Renowned for his originality and technical prowess, Workman traverses styles from Post-Bop to avant-garde realms, sculpting his own sonic landscapes. Currently engaged in crafting music for various ensembles including small groups, strings, and orchestra, Workman’s endeavors extend beyond performance into educational outreach, curricula development, and workshops. He is a key figure in projects ranging from documentary filmmaking to theater productions like “Dos Worlds” and “Ophelia” in tandem with choreographer Maya Milenovic Workman. Collaborations with ensembles like Trio Imagination and the Brew Trio highlight his versatile artistry. Recognized with prestigious honors including the 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2020 NEA Jazz Masters award, Workman’s impact resonates deeply within the jazz community and beyond.

NICOLE MITCHELL

FLUTIST, ALTO FLUTIST

Nicole Mitchell is an award-winning creative flutist, conceptualist and composer. Utilizing her art to build alternative worlds that “bridge the familiar with the unknown,” Mitchell emerged from Chicago’s innovative music scene in the late 90s. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. With an impressive 14 year run (2010-2023) as “Top Flutist of the Year” of Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association for the development of her unique improvisational language, she is also the recipient of the Herb Alpert Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and the Doris Duke Award. As a United States Artist and a Guggenheim Fellow, Mitchell is a professor of Music at the University of Virginia. Her book, The Mandorla Letters was published in 2022 by Green Lantern and the University of Minnesota Press.

MARK SHIM

TENOR SAXOPHONIST

In 1995, at the age of 21, Mark Shim was tapped by legendary vocalist Betty Carter to join her band on a world tour. He is the only saxophonist to ever tour with Ms. Carter’s band overseas. Since that auspicious debut, Mark Shim has made an impact on the musical world with his unique brand of creativity and inventiveness. Over the course of his 20-year career, Shim has recorded three albums for the prestigious Blue Note label, including the critically acclaimed Turbulent Flow. He has also had the honor of touring with the great Elvin Jones, as well as many other distinguished artists. Born in Jamaica, Shim currently resides in New York, and is a highly sought-after educator and performer.

MILENA CASADO

TRUMPET PLAYER

Milena Casado is a composer, trumpet and flugelhorn player from Spain, whose sound and creativity have led her to perform with acclaimed international artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Aaron Parks, Kris Davis, Jorge Rossy, Vijay Iyer, Jazzmeia Horn and Francisco Mela, among others. She has performed throughout the world at noted venues and festivals including The Carnegie Hall, The Village Vanguard, The Kennedy Center, North Sea Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival and Marciac Jazz Festival. Milena has also been focusing on performing and recording her original music with her group the “Milena Casado Quintet”.

BIOGRAPHIES

YUHAN SU VIBRAPHONIST

Recent nominee for the DownBeat Critics Poll in the category “Rising Star” of Vibraphone, New York based Taiwanese vibraphonist Yuhan Su’s four records release as a leader including Liberated Gesture (2023, Sunnyside Records), City Animals (2018, Sunnyside), A Room of One’s Own (2015, Inner Circle Music) and Flying Alone, have received widespread approval and numerous music awards and nominations, including ‘Best Album of the Year’, ‘Best New Artist’, ‘Best Jazz Single’, ‘Best Instrumentalist Award’ from the Golden Indie Music Award and ‘Best Performance Album of the year’, ‘Best Composer Award’ from the Golden Melody Award in Taiwan, and ‘Best Release of the Year’ by All about Jazz and Downbeat. Yuhan also have performed with different projects including Amir Elsaffar’s Rivers of Sound, Matt Mitchell Quartet, Webber/Morris Big Band, Brian Krock’s Big Heart Machine, Miho Hazama’s M_Unit, Greg Osby’s Sextet, Jason Yeager’s Septet and more.

DEVON GATES

BASSIST

Devon Gates is a bassist, vocalist, and composer from Atlanta, Georgia, now based in Brooklyn, NY. Through studying anthropology and jazz performance at Harvard University and Berklee College of Music, she has worked with Terri Lyne Carrington, Linda May Han Oh, Vijay Iyer, Danilo Perez, Claire Chase, Yosvanny Terry, and esperanza spalding, and has performed at Joe’s Pub, the Monterey Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, DC Jazz Festival, Winter JazzFest, the Kennedy Center, Roulette Intermedium, and SFJazz. In 2020, she released her first EP, “Voice/Bass” on Bandcamp, followed by the release of single “skipped that step” in spring 2023. In 2022 her original composition “Don’t Wait” was published in Berklee Press’ “New Standards” collection of 101 lead sheets by female jazz composers.

BIOGRAPHIES

NASHEET WAITS DRUMMER

Nasheet Waits, drummer and music educator, is a New York native. His interest in playing the drums was encouraged by his father, legendary percussionist, Frederick Waits. Over the course of his career, Freddie Waits played with such legendary artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sonny Rollins, Lee Morgan, Max Roach, Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, and countless others. Nasheet’s recording and performing discography is a veritable who’s who in Jazz. Outside of lengthy associations with Andrew Hill, Jason Moran, Christian Mcbride, David Murray, Fred Hersch, and Antonio Hart, Waits has boasted stints with jazz notables Jackie McLean, Wadada Leo Smith, Dave Douglas, Stanley Cowell, Peter Brotzmann, Mark Turner, Miroslav Vitous, Bunky Green, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Eddie Gomez, Geri Allen, Ralph Alessi, Mario Bauza, Hamiett Bluiett, Steve Coleman, Amir Elsaffar, Tony Malaby, Jackie McLean, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Greg Osby, Michel Portal, Antoine Roney, Wallace Roney, Jacky Terrason, and The Mingus Big Band. Waits has recorded and toured extensively in Africa, Europe, Japan, Canada, South America and the United States.

OUR SUPPORTERS

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.

Harlem Stage’s Programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional support is provided by the Diana King Memorial Fund presented by the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation.

LESTER ST. LOUIS

MAGGIE HEATH

LIGHTING DESIGNER

WaterWorks Established Artist Commission

Tamar-kali—The Swann

Carl Hancock Rux, Libretto

Friday, May 3 – Saturday, May 4 | 7:30PM

Maggie Heath is a production designer and manger located in NYC. They received a BFA from Portland State University, focusing in sculpture, though found a creative home in theaters and with dancers. Recent design credits include Will Rawls, [siccer] (2023, Lighting + Scenic); Marcel Dzama, To Live on the Moon (For Lorca) (2023, Lighting); Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, Cardiac Organ (2023, Props + Scenic dressing); SUN HAN GUILD, EARTH IRIDESCENCE / SORROW CHURN (2023, Lighting); Linda Austin + Allie Hankins, || /ə ˈsɪŋgəl pɪŋk klɑʊd/ (2022, Props + Scenic).

Composer, vocalist, and performing and recording artist Tamar-kali presents performance excerpts from The Swann — an opera she is developing about the life and times of William Dorsey Swann, the first known person to identify as a “queen of drag.”

On the occasion of Harlem Stage’s 40th Anniversary milestone season, we are pleased to offer a series of livestream performances this Winter/Spring 2024, available to our donors. As part of our $40 for 40 campaign, your donation of at least $40 to Harlem Stage will give you access to livestream these amazing performances. Learn more at harlemstage.org/40for40

Eternal Spirit:

Vijay Iyer & Friends Celebrate the Music of Andrew Hill

Saturday, March 2 | 7:30PM

Uptown Nights

An Evening of Chamber Music presented with Sugar Hill Salon & Concert Artists Guild

Friday, March 8 | 7:30PM

E-Moves

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company

Saturday, April 20 | 7:30PM

WaterWorks Established Artist Commission

Tamar-kali—The Swann Carl Hancock Rux, Libretto

Saturday, May 4 | 7:30PM

CALENDAR

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

ON & ON: JOSÉ JAMES SINGS BADU

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

UPTOWN NIGHTS

LATIN MUSIC SERIES

PABLO MAYOR’S FOLKLORE URBANO ORCHESTRA

OCTOBER 13 – 14, 2023

E-MOVES

RONALD K. BROWN/ EVIDENCE

OCTOBER 20 – 21, 2023

CRAIG HARRIS

TONGUES OF FIRE (in a harlem state of mind)

OCTOBER 27, 2023

UPTOWN NIGHTS

LATIN MUSIC SERIES

DAFNIS PRIETO

FEATURING LUCIANA SOUZA CANTAR

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

IN THE COURT OF THE CONQUEROR BY GEORGE EMILIO

SANCHEZ IN

COLLABORATION WITH VISUAL ARTIST PATTY ORTIZ

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

UPTOWN NIGHTS

LATIN MUSIC SERIES +

CARNEGIE HALL CITYWIDE FLOR DE TOLOACHE

DECEMBER 1, 2023

UPTOWN NIGHTS

LATIN MUSIC SERIES

YASSER TEJEDA & DJ SABINE BLAIZIN (OYASOUND)

DECEMBER 9, 2023

WATERWORKS EMERGING ARTISTS SHOWCASE

FEATURING SHANTELLE COURVOISIER JACKSON, HANNAH LEMMONS AKA

LEMMONS, BOBBY MORGAN, MARY PRESCOTT & KALÍ RODRÍGUEZ-PEÑA

JANUARY 11–13, 2024

E-MOVES

URBAN BUSH WOMEN’S HAINT BLU

JANUARY 26, 2024

UPTOWN NIGHTS

IAN ISIAH + KIMBERLY NICHOLE

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

UPTOWN NIGHTS: CONVENT TO WYTHE yuniya edi kwon + SUN HAN GUILD

MARCH 1 – 2, 2024

ETERNAL SPIRIT: VIJAY IYER & FRIENDS

CELEBRATE THE MUSIC OF ANDREW HILL

MARCH 8, 2024

UPTOWN NIGHTS

AN EVENING OF CHAMBER

MUSIC PRESENTED WITH SUGAR HILL SALON & CONCERT ARTISTS GUILD

MARCH 9, 2024

UPTOWN NIGHTS: CONVENT TO WYTHE

BORA YOON & R. LUKE DUBOIS AT NATIONAL SAWDUST

MARCH 22 – 23, 2024

STEW

HIGH SUBSTITUTE FOR THE DREAD LECTURER: BARAKA JONES IN DUB

MARCH 29 – 30, 2024

WATERWORKS ESTABLISHED ARTIST COMMISSION

AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE banyan seed

APRIL 19 – 20, 2024

E-MOVES

BILL T. JONES/ ARNIE ZANE COMPANY

APRIL 26, 2024

PIANOS FOR DUKE REIMAGINED: FEATURING

JASON MORAN, ABDULLAH IBRAHIM & FRIENDS

APRIL 27, 2024

PIANOS FOR DUKE REIMAGINED: FEATURING

JASON MORAN, ABDULLAH

IBRAHIM & FRIENDS BENEFIT CONCERT

MAY 3 – 4, 2024

WATERWORKS ESTABLISHED ARTIST COMMISSION

TAMAR-KALI THE SWANN

MAY 17 – 18, 2024 E-MOVES

nora chipaumire ShebeenDUB

JUNE 3, 2024

HARLEM STAGE

40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA

JUNE 14 – 15, 2024

E-MOVES

CAMILLE A. BROWN & GUESTS: BLACK JOY

FEATURING WORKS BY CAMILLE A. BROWN, CHLOE DAVIS, JUEL D. LANE, MAYTE NATALIO, RICKEY TRIPP & MALEEK WASHINGTON

Lead support for Harlem Stage’s 40th Anniversary Season is provided by the Mellon Foundation.

ABOUT HARLEM STAGE

Harlem Stage is the performing arts center that bridges Harlem’s cultural legacy to contemporary artists of color and dares to provide the artistic freedom that gives birth to new ideas.

For 40 years our singular mission has been to perpetuate and celebrate the unique and diverse artistic legacy of Harlem and the indelible impression it has made on American culture. We provide opportunity, commissioning, and support for artists of color, make performances easily accessible to all audiences, and introduce children to the rich diversity, excitement, and inspiration of the performing arts.

We fulfill our mission through commissioning, incubating, and presenting innovative and vital work that responds to the historical and contemporary conditions that shape our lives and the communities we serve.

Board of Directors

Courtney F. Lee-Mitchell, President

Jamie Cannon, Vice President

Michael Young, Secretary

Mark Thomas, Treasurer

Angela Glover Blackwell

Jenna Bond

Jamila Ponton Bragg

Staff

Patricia Cruz, Artistic Director & CEO

MANAGEMENT

Eric Oberstein, Managing Director

DEVELOPMENT

Shamar Hill, Director of Development

Shanté Skyers, Associate Director of Development

Julianna Friedman, Development Manager

PROGRAMMING

Carl Hancock Rux, Associate Artistic Director/ Curator-in-Residence

Sarah McCaffery, Programming Manager and Associate Curator

Maurice Ivy, Programming Associate

MARKETING

Deirdre May, Senior Director of Digital Content and Marketing

Andre Padayhag, Marketing Manager and Graphic Designer

Adrienne Gomez, Box Office Manager

EDUCATION

Jordan Carter, Education & Community Engagement Manager

Bethany Cintron, Education & Community Engagement Associate

PRODUCTION

Amanda K. Ringger, Director of Production

Jeff Davolt, Stage Coordinator

Clarence Taylor, Lighting Operator

Julio Collado, Audio Engineer

David Barrett, Deck Crew

JoAnn K. Chase

LaChanze

Patricia Cruz

Hugh Dancy and Claire Danes

Jenette Kahn

Rebecca Robertson

Tamara Tunie

OPERATIONS

Rodney Bissessar, Director of Operations

Lamont Askins, Operations Associate

Acey Anderson Sr., Maintenance

FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

NCheng LLC, Accountants/Advisors

Jake Lee, Partner

Aaron Lam, Supervising Senior Accountant

CONSULTANTS

Aon/Albert G. Ruben Company (NY)/ Claudia Kaufman, Insurance

Arts Education Consultants: Sobha Kavanakudiyil, Sierra Ray & Wendy Rojas

Blake Zidell & Associates, Public Relations

Briguel, Digital Video Services

DAS, IT Consultant

Derrick Saint Pierre/Snugg Studios, Digital Video Services

Intrepid Digital, SEO Services

JCA, Inc.: Database Consulting

Jess Medenbach, Digital Video Services

LCM/247, Digital Video Services

Lutz & Carr/Chris Bellando, Accountants

Madison Consulting Group, Matthew Laurence

Manchester Benefits, Greg Martin

Marc Millman, Photography

Robyn L. Stein, Rl Stein Group, Development Consultant

Charles Whelan, The Whelan Group Incorporated

USHERS

Toma Carthens, Andy Garcia, Julian Norales, Nobar De leon, Fabian Franco, Zarif Shabazz