Ecstatic™ Summer

Ecstatic™ Summer

In partnership with Arts Brookfield and River To River, New Amsterdam curated the Ecstatic™ Summer Festival in the summers of 2012 and 2013 - with three free shows taking place in downtown Manhattan.

The first show of summer 2013 featured Merrill Garbus (also known for her work as tUnE-yArDs) will team up once again with the intrepid vocal group Roomful of Teeth and composer William Brittelle for the first time since the 2011 Ecstatic Music Festival. Also joining the fold was Judd Greenstein's ensemble The Yehudim, who performed from Greenstein's work Sh'lomo, in addition to performing collaboratively with Garbus, Brittelle, and Roomful of Teeth. The set included new work by Garbus and Brittelle, along with a performance by Garbus of selections from the tUnE-yArDs catalog with Roomful as backing group.

The second show featured sound artist Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never, who joined with fearless string ensemble A Far Cry to unveil a new interpretation of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang's hour-long work Darker. Lopatin and A Far Cry also performed selections from Oneohtrix Point Never's critically acclaimed albums Returnal and Replica, the latter of which was named the Number Six Album of 2011 by Pitchfork.

Lastly, the last show of summer 2013 featured Darcy James Argue's Secret Society with Brooklyn disco stalwarts Escort, creators of "the best disco album of 2011" (SPIN), and the show included the premiere of a new work for the combined ensembles by Argue.