Cincinnati’s MusicNOW Festival 2020 Lineup Announced

Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner’s Big 37d03d Machine, Ashley Fure, Leslie Feist, Eighth Blackbird, Moses Sumney, William Brittelle, Helado Negro, Members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra & Many More to Perform in Unique Spaces Around Cincinnati for MusicNow Festival during the Weekend of The National’s Homecoming Festival

May 8, 9 & 10, Cincinnati, OH

MusicNOW, the renowned contemporary music festival founded by Bryce Dessner, is proud to announce the lineup for 2020. Now in its 14th edition, MusicNOW will be taking place May 8, 9 & 10 throughout downtown Cincinnati, including intimate, unique spaces.

Presented in association with Homecoming, the hometown celebration curated by The National in partnership with AC Entertainment (May 8 & 9 at Smale Park), MusicNOW will host late-night events on Friday and Saturday, May 8 & 9 following Homecoming, with a full-day Music Marathon on Sunday, May 10 beginning with a free event at noon in Washington Park. MusicNOW’s late-night events will be separately ticketed with a limited number of all-inclusive MusicNOW Sunday passes available. Individual tickets will also be available for select MusicNOW Sunday performances as capacity allows.

In the week leading to the festival, many of the MusicNOW artists will participate in a 37d03d residency to collaborate and refine their work. The programming will include Bryce Dessner – who released four albums this year, El Chan, Tenebre, When We Are Inhuman and the soundtrack to The Two Popes – Aaron Dessner’s Big 30d03d Machine will be fresh off a European tour with Bon Iver, and Ashley Fure & Lilleth Glimcher will present their work High Rise, in development for Berghain/Berlin.

William Brittelle’s I Will Call You Master is a brand-new project centered around poetry, ignited at November’s 37d03d residency in Eaux Claires HIVER, and cellist Gyda Valtysdottir will work with a local choreographer Taylor Carrasco, who was nominated to participate in the residency by the Cincinnati Ballet. Alexi Murdoch will be debuting new music and Moses Sumney, will perform ahead of his new album Græ (out May 15). The lineup also includes Eve Owen, Helado Negro, Leif Vollebekk, Lilleth Glimcher, LNZNDRF and Mina Tindle.

Leslie Feist will perform Odyssey Project with Shahzad Ismaily and Todd Dahlhoff and develop a MusicNOW Chorus on the ground in Cincinnat. The project was born of a series of improvisations made by Feist, Todd Dahlhoff and Shazad Ismaily, during the 37d03d residency in Berlin, August 2018, and developed at Sounds from a Safe Harbour in September 2019 in Cork, Ireland. Based on Emily Wilson’s lucid and remarkable translation of Homer’s Odyssey, the trio experimented with reframing the text as well as manipulating electric, electronic, and acoustic instruments.

In a rare one-off performance, Eighth Blackbird and members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra will perform Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians (Reich is one of Bryce Dessner’s mentors). “We were all grad students in Cincinnati are thrilled to be able to come back and perform one of our favorite pieces of music with the fantastic Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra,” says Lisa Kaplan of Eighth Blackbird. “Music for 18 is one of Reich’s most influential and an utter joy to perform. We are so looking forward to sharing it.”

MusicNOW and Homecoming present special late-night events:

Friday, May 8, 11pm EST @ Woodward Theatre, Cincinnati
Ben Lanz & Kid Millions debut Million Lands
37d03d presents FLUKES, an improv experiment led by Alexi Murdoch

Saturday, May 9, 11pm EST @ Woodward Theatre, Cincinnati
Sylvan Esso DJ set

Sunday, May 10, 11pm EST @ Woodward Theatre, Cincinnati
Ghost Baby
Ashley Fure & Lilleth Glimcher present Hive Rise
LNZNDRF
Aaron Dessner’s Big 37d03d Machine

MusicNOW presents:

Sunday, May 10 @ venues in and around Washington Park

12:00pm @ Washington Park Bandstand – FREE TO THE PUBLIC
Eve Owen
Mina Tindle
Leif Vollebekk

2:00pm @ Transept
La Force
Alexi Murdoch

4:00pm @ First Lutheran Church
I Will Call You Master by William Brittelle, with Shahzad Ismaily & Gyda Valtysdottir
Gyda Valtysdottir with Taylor Carrasco

5:00pm @ Transept
Helado Negro

6:30pm @ Music Hall Ballroom
Moses Sumney

8pm @ Memorial Hall
Odyssey by Leslie Feist, Todd Dahlhoff, Shahzad Ismaily, Andrew Barr and the MusicNOW Chorus

10pm @ Music Hall Ballroom
Members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Eighth Blackbird present Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians