ATLAS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER ANNOUNCES 2012-2013 SEASON

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Marc Bamuthi Joseph/The Living Word Project, DC Sonic Circuits Festival, INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival, B-Fly Entertainment’s Liner Notes

JAZZ

Ben Williams and Sound Effects, John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, Luciana Souza Duo, and

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society

NEW MUSIC

So Percussion, Cornelius Dufallo, Great Noise Ensemble and Maya Beiser/Michael Harrison

The Atlas Performing Arts Center is pleased to announce its 2012-2013 season. The Atlas will host and present some of the most talented and sought after artists from the local, national and international arts scene. The season will include performances from contemporary classical artists So Percussion and Great Noise Ensemble and jazz artists Ben Williams and Sound Effects, John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and vocalist Luciana Souza. The Atlas will again be a featured venue for Amy K. Bormet’s Washington Women in Jazz Festival. Additional highlights of the season include presenting two of hip hop arts activist Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s works Word Becomes Flesh and red, black & GREEN: a blues (rbGb), a multimedia performance work about environmental justice, social ecology and collective responsibility. OneBeat Exchange will bring approximately 50 young musicians and students from around the world to the US to perform alongside their American counterparts. DC’s well-known emerging and established artists including force/collision, B-Fly Entertainment and DC Sonic Circuits Festival, recognized for artistically diverse and innovative programs, will perform at the Atlas for the first time. Programming for families and young children continue with Theatre for the Very Young. The highly successful theatre series for children ages 1-5 has been expanded from four to six productions. Holidays at the Atlas will feature Theatre Alliance’s critically-acclaimed Black Nativity and Step Afrika!’s holiday stepping show. Tickets for the 2012-2013 season will go on sale to the general public on June 1. For a full 2012-2013 season listing, visit www.atlasarts.org or call 202.399.7993 ext 2.

“We are thrilled to present such a high caliber season,” says Atlas Executive Director Sam Sweet. “Being the artistic heart in a thriving neighborhood, it is necessary that the Atlas serves as artistic platform connecting audiences with one another and with artists in a shared experience. Our programming was designed to not only entertain, but also to spark conversation and dialogue. Marc Bamuthi Joseph, force/collision and INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival are examples of this direction in programming. We want audiences to view the Atlas as a unique venue where they will see emerging arts forms, established performers in a new context and be willing to try something new.”

As part of its robust presenting series, the Atlas will continue its partnership with DancePlace to include dance. DancePlace and the Atlas will present Brian Sanders’ JUNK, a Philadelphia based dance company known for using found objects and elaborate inventions to bridge the gap between dance and physical theater. The Atlas is also expanding its presenting series by adding world music artists such as Zimbabwean Afro-pop legend Oliver Mtukudzi to its series later this year.

The Atlas continues its performances partnerships with artists in residence Rorschach Theatre and Great Noise Ensemble. Resident arts partners Joy of Motion, Capital City Symphony, Congressional Chorus, Washington Savoyards, Step Afrika! will continue to program and perform their seasons at the Atlas

2012-2013 Season Highlights

Special Presentations

Originally premiered at the INTERSECTIONS 2012 Festival, B-Fly Entertainment featuring Paige Hernandez returns with an extended run of the well-received Liner Notes, a musical journey through hip-hop’s many intersections when multiple artists including The Corner Store Jazz Trio to breathe life into a fading art– the liner note. Based in Washington, D.C. force/collision is a multi-genre contingent of artists and collaborators whose mission is to create new performance works that spark dialogue and create space for the presentation of new work. The Atlas will again serve as one of the locations for the widely popular DC Shorts Film Festival. OneBeat Exchange (Bang on a Can) will feature more than 50 young professional musicians and advanced students from around the world to the U.S. to create and perform innovative work with their American counterparts. Sonic Circuits Festival, Washington’s promoter for experimental music will expose audiences to cutting edge contemporary music that defies genres, and offer artists new platforms to present their music and opportunities to network and collaborate with artists from around the world. The music moves from the sanctuary to the concert hall with the Campbell Brothers who combine gospel music with electric steel guitar and stirring vocals. The 4th annual INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival will continue to showcase talented artists from DC and beyond creating connections between artist and audiences. Marc Bamuthi Joseph/The Living Word Project will perform two dynamic pieces, Word Becomes Flesh and red, black & GREEN: a blues (rbGB), the latter piece explores society’s most controversial themes within a performance setting.

Jazz

Curated by Brad Linde, the 2012-2013 Jazz at the Atlas season features performances from the best emerging and established jazz artists. Composer and saxophonist Steve Coleman, known for his innovative compositional and improvisational style opens the jazz series. Six time Grammy award winner Gary Smulyan in a new project by Mark Masters will play the Duke Ellington Sax Section. Hailed by The Revivalist as “the baddest new bassist on the block,” Washington, D.C. native, Ben Williams makes his Atlas debut with Sound Effects. Additional performances in the fall include Alan Blackman Trio with Donald McCaslin, vocalist Rebecca Martin with Larry Grenadier, Joel Harrison String Choir featuring the music of Paul Motian, drummer’s John Hollenback Large Ensemble and the Mary Halvorson Quintet. Jazz meets hardcore metal in Jerseyband where three saxophones and a trumpet come together in what has been described as lungcore metal. The full season continues in the winter with jazz trumpeter’s Carol Morgan Quartet and Shakers ‘n’ Bakers featuring Jeff Lederer, Mary LaRose, Miles Griffith, Jamie Saft, Chris Lightcap and Allison Miller. Amy K. Bormet’s Washington Women in Jazz Festival will feature DC favorite Geri Allen. Ethan Iverson returns to the Atlas this time with his trio The Bad Plus in the spring. Three well-known faces in jazz, Allison Miller, Ohad Talmor and Dan Tepfer, have joined forces for a trio totally rooted in free-form improvisation. The Luciana Souza Duo consists of Brazilian vocalist and Grammy winner Luciana Souza, one of jazz’s leading singers and interpreters and Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo. After a highly successful performance during the inaugural Jazz at the Atlas season, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society returns for another rousing performance featuring his 22-piece steampunk band.

New Music

Curated by Armando Bayolo, the 2012-2013 season of New Music at the Atlas opens with guitarist Tim Brady, chamber ensemble Prism Saxophone Quartet and performances from Atlas Artist-in-Residence Great Noise Ensemble. Newspeak combines the elements of a rock band with classical music, creating lasting and compelling performances. Sō Percussion explores all the extremes of emotion and musical possibility through collaborations with noted composers including Steve Reich and Arvo Parts and their own compositions. Called one of the “new faces of music,” violinist Cornelius Dufallo, a member of the world-renowned amplified string quartet, ETHEL, brings his unique and critically-acclaimed solo performance to the Atlas. Pictures on Silence, a harp and saxophone chamber duo, explores the diversity of their instrumental combination through compelling programming and a dedication to excellence in performance. The vocal octet, Roomful of Teeth, re-imagines singing for 21st century audiences showcasing vocal works from non-classical traditions. Cellist Maya Beiser has captivated audiences worldwide with her eclectic repertoire, and relentless quest to redefine her instrument’s boundaries. Together with composer and pianist Michael Harrison, the two set a high performance standard closing out the series.

Theatre for the Very Young

The theatre series for young audiences ages 1-5 will increase its productions from four to six in the 2012-2013 season. The series features performances from Washington based theatre companies and artists experienced in making quality theatre accessible to the youngest audiences. Through song, simple stories, movement and imagination, the interactive performances introduce young children and their families to theatre in a playful, ideal environment that promotes learning and cognitive development. Theatre for the Very Young features a full season of performances from Northern Virginia based Arts on the Horizon, and the dynamic Imagination Stage.

About the Atlas

The Atlas Performing Arts Center is located in a historic movie theatre complex on H Street, NE. H Street had been a bustling retail corridor for decades before the 1968 riots. In 2003, spurred by Jane Lang’s vision and commitment to restore the Atlas as a performing arts center, the city adopted a plan to rebuild the corridor and identified the Atlas as central to the revitalization. Vacant for years, the Atlas movie theatre re-opened in November, 2006 following an extensive four-year renovation. In addition to its theatres and dance studios, the Atlas also has administrative offices, dressing rooms, lobbies, a café and production and rehearsal spaces. The center is home to a diverse group of locally renowned theatre and dance companies, symphony orchestras, choral groups and arts education programs.

Through its programs and service to the community, the Atlas seeks to honor and maintain the history and traditions of H Street NE while also fostering the changes taking place to renew the H Street corridor. The Atlas has become the artistic heart of a community struggling uneasily with its transformation, and it seeks to be a center for community conversation, where a range of artistic and individual expressions can come together to be shared and celebrated.

The mission of the Atlas Performing Arts Center is to foster the artistic growth of professional and aspiring performing artists throughout the region; to create a new model for collaborative arts management; to establish a unique community-centered venue for training and education in the performing arts and stagecraft; and to energize and sustain the revitalization of H Street, NE and the surrounding community.

For information on the Atlas and the 2012-2013 Season, visit www.atlasarts.org.

Follow the Atlas Performing Arts Center on Facebook and on twitter @AtlasPACDC.