ETHEL presents the world premiere of landmark work Documerica at BAM, Oct 2—5 Piece features new commissions from Mary Ellen Childs, Ulysses Owens, Jr., Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, and James Kimo Williams Documerica ETHEL Directed by Steve Cosson Music by Mary Ellen Childs, Ralph Farris, Kip Jones, Dorothy Lawson, Ulysses Owens Jr., Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Tema Watstein, and James Kimo Williams  Projection design by Deborah Johnson Set design by Adrian W. Jones Lighting design by Christopher Kuhl Sound design by Dave Cook Concept by MZ Smith American Express is the BAM 2013 Next Wave Festival sponsor

 BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St) Oct 2—5 at 7:30pm Tickets: Start at $20 Brooklyn, NY/Aug 21, 2013—BAM presents pioneering string quartet ETHEL’s most ambitious undertaking to date, Documerica—a dynamic piece inspired by the US government’s Documerica Project, a program sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency to "photographically document subjects of environmental concern" in the US from 1972 to 1977. The work pairs ETHEL’s dynamic virtuosity with evocative imagery presenting a transcendent reflection of our nation’s collective soul—a synthesis of score and projections that explore America’s complicated relationship to its land.  A multimedia meditation interweaving over 3,000 vintage photographs from an astonishing trove of images from the National Archive, ETHEL commissioned the composer Mary Ellen Childs, Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr., Chickasaw Nation’s Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, and James Kimo Williams to create a work that seamlessly fuses contemporary composition with stunning projections by renowned artist Deborah Johnson (Planetarium, 2013 Winter/Spring Season) of big sky vistas, ghost towns, mountains, and slices of urban environments. “ETHEL’s Documerica invites audiences to contemplate and respond to the environmental and social challenges that are revealed in this piece,” says ETHEL cellist Dorothy Lawson. “It’s dramatic and beautiful and very exciting.”    The Documerica Project features the work of approximately 70 well-known photographers contracted by the EPA including Danny Lyon, Gene Daniels, Marc St. Gil, Anne LaBastille, Bill Strode, Charles O'Rear, Jack Corn, Tomas Sennett, Yoichi

Okamote, Ken Hayman, and John H. White. Like the earlier Federal photographic project of the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression, some of the Documerica Project photographers interpreted their mission rather broadly, and sometimes artistically. Many preserve a distinct visual record of time and place. Some of the subjects photographed are cityscapes, everyday life in small towns, scenes of natural beauty including beaches and mountains, urban areas including junk yards, streets, buildings, and traffic; Amtrak; air and water pollution; waterfronts; mining scenes; and people. Geographical areas included are National Parks and Forests, Lake Tahoe, the Great Lakes, the Alaskan Pipeline, Hawaii, Washington, D.C. and cities throughout the United States. Digital scans of over 15,000 of the original 35mm color slides and black and white negatives and prints are available through the National Archives and Records Administration's Archival Research Catalog. They can also be seen on the US National Archives’ Flickr page.  About the artists: The string quartet ETHEL has been a pioneering post-classical ensemble since it was founded in 1998. ETHEL invigorates contemporary concert music with exuberance, intensity, imaginative programming, and exceptional artistry. With an eye on tradition and an ear to the future, ETHEL is a leading force in concert music’s reengagement with musical vernaculars, fusing diverse traditions into a vibrant sound that resonates with audiences the world over. The New York City- based quartet comprises Ralph Farris (viola), Dorothy Lawson (cello), Kip Jones (violin) and Tema Watstein (violin). Their appearances at BAM include Everywhere (2005 Next Wave) and TruckStop™: The Beginning (2008 Next Wave). Coined as an “avatar of ‘post-classical’ music” (The New Yorker), ETHEL invigorates contemporary concert music with exuberance, intensity, imaginative programming, and exceptional artistry. Steve Cosson is a writer and director specializing in the creation of new theater work and a free-lance director of new plays, musicals, and classics. He is the founding artistic director of the New York-based investigative theater company The Civilians. Cosson won an Obie award in 2004 for his work with The Civilians and his play (I Am) Nobody's Lunch won a coveted First Fringe award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2006. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Colombia, a MacDowell Fellow, twice participated in the Sundance Theatre Lab, and is a Resident Director at New Dramatists. His plays have been published by Oberon Books in the UK, Dramatists Play Service, and an anthology of his plays with The Civilians was published by Playscripts Inc. Mary Ellen Childs is known for creating both rhythmic, exuberant instrumental works and bold, kinetic compositions that integrate music, dance and theater in fresh and unexpected ways. Childs has received commissions from the Kronos Quartet, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Dale Warland Singers, The Kitchen, the Walker Art Center, two commissioning grants from Lila Wallace/Meet the Composer (1992, 1996), and three commissions from the prestigious Rockefeller Multi-Arts Fund (1998, 2003, 2006). Her recent full-length works include Dream House for string quartet (written for ETHEL)—a multimedia work, and Wreck, created for the Black Label Movement Company, for which she won a 2008 Sage Award. Her current projects include a new opera, Propeller, commissioned by Nautilus Music Theater with funds from MAP and Opera America. She has received performances at the Bang On A Can Festival, Lincoln Center, New Music America, and elsewhere around the U.S. Her music has been performed in Europe, Japan, Australia, and Russia where full evenings of her percussion compositions were presented. She has received artists fellowships from the McKnight Foundation and the Bush Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Albums of her work include Kilter (XI label), Dream House (innova recordings) and a remix of Dream House, titled Chamberhouse (Sugarfoot Recordings). She was recently named a USA Friends Fellow, an award given annually to “America’s finest artists.” Multiple Grammy Award winning drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. is a native of Jacksonville, Florida and a Juilliard graduate. He has performed with world-class musicians including Patti Austin,

Terence Blanchard, Benny Golson, Russell Malone, Wynton Marsalis, Mulgrew Miller, Maceo Parker, Nicholas Payton and Dianne Reeves to name a few. Ulysses received Grammy Awards for his performances on Kurt Elling's Dedicated To You in 2010 and Christian McBride's The Good Feeling in 2012. His 2009 debut recording It's Time For U was followed by Unanimous released in 2012 on European jazz label Criss Cross, and was hailed by critics selling out performances at Dizzy's Coca Cola Club/Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Exodus to Jazz Series. Currently, Ulysses is touring as the drummer for Christian McBride, Nnenna Freelon, and Ted Nash. In addition to performing, composing and teaching, Ulysses is producing for artists including Matthew Rybicki, Mike Cottone, and Jeremiah Abiah.

Ulysses is the co-founding artistic director of Don't Miss A Beat, his family's nonprofit organization whose mission is to blend music and art with focus on academic achievement, civic engagement, inspiring and empowering inner city students toward success. Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate was born in 1968 in Norman, Oklahoma and is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition, Mr. Tate received his BM in Piano Performance from Northwestern University and received his MM in Piano Performance and Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Tate has received numerous commissions and his works have been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Colorado Ballet, The New Mexico Symphony, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Dale Warland Singers, the New Jersey Chamber Music Society and the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, to name a few. Mr. Tate is Artistic Director of the Chickasaw Chamber Music Festival. He is composer-in-residence for the Chickasaw Nation and the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy and was composer-in-residence for the Grand Canyon Music Festival’s Native American Composer Apprentice Project in 2004 and 2005. In 2006, Mr. Tate received the Joyce Award, which supported the commission of Nitoshi’ Imali, which premiered in 2007. His work Iholba’ (The Vision), was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2007, he was composer-in-residence for The Joyce Foundation/American Composers Forum, teaching composition to American Indian high school students in Minneapolis. In 2009, Mr. Tate spearheaded the project Oshtali: Music for String Quartet which consists of original compositions by his students from the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy and is the first professional recording in history of works by young American Indian composers. Also in 2009, his work Lowak Shoppala’ (Fire and Light), premiered in celebration of the new Chickasaw Cultural Center in Oklahoma. In 2011, he received an Emmy Award for his work in the documentary The Science of Composing. Mr. Tate’s middle name, Impichchaachaaha’, means “high corncrib” and is his inherited traditional Chickasaw house name. James Kimo Williams is an American composer, musician, and professor who has performed with a number of ensembles including his own Kimotion and the Lt. Dan Band which he co-founded with actor Gary Sinise in 2003. Williams’ numerous artistic endeavors include award-winning photography, music recording and production, writing stageplays, and crafting an opera based on the first black graduate of West Point. His compositions include works for chamber ensembles and orchestras, and have been performed by groups worldwide including the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta. After joining the Army and serving in Vietnam, Kimo graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1976 with a BA in composition. He then spent a year on the Berklee faculty before departing for Chicago where he established a music publishing company (One Omik Music), and a record company (Little Beck Music). In 1987 he began teaching at Chicago’s Sherwood Conservatory of

Music, and Columbia College—where he is currently an associate professor of music. His two albums War Stories (1991) and Tracking (2001) were released on Little Beck Music, both of which received national critical acclaim praising Kimo's arrangements and composition. He was tapped to write the music for the Steppenwolf Theater’s A Streetcar Named Desire in 1997 leading to his partnership with Gary Sinise. In that same year, Kimo directed the Goodman Theater’s production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Honoring his contribution to American music, The Lancaster Symphony Orchestra named him “Composer of Year” in 1999 and in 2008, Kimo's Fanfare for Life was performed during the Alabama Symphony's annual tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. He is a Fulbright Specialist and was featured as “Chicagoan of The Year” by Chicago Magazine in 2006. For press information contact Sarah Garvey, sgarvey@BAM.org, 718.724.8025.  Credits American Express is the BAM 2013 Next Wave Festival sponsor Viacom is the BAM 2013 Music Sponsor Major support for music at BAM provided by The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Programming in the BAM Harvey Theater is endowed by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation BAM 2013 Next Wave Festival supporters: Brooklyn Community Foundation; Robert Sterling Clark Foundation; Con Edison; The Irene Diamond Fund; The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation; Leon Levy Foundation; McKinsey & Company, Inc.; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; MetLife Foundation; Stavros Niarchos Foundation; The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; The SHS Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; The Skirball Foundation; Viacom, Inc.; Time Warner Inc.; The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation; The Wall Street Journal; and The Winston Foundation, Inc. Stevia In The Raw and Monk Fruit In The Raw is the Official Zero Calorie Sweetener of the Next Wave Festival. Pepsi is the official beverage of BAM. Sovereign Bank is the BAM Marquee sponsor. Yamaha is the official piano for BAM. New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge is the official hotel for BAM. Your tax dollars make BAM programs possible through funding from the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts. The BAM facilities are owned by the City of New York and benefit from public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with support from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin; the New York City Council including Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Finance Committee Chair Domenic M. Recchia Jr., Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Jimmy Van Bramer, the Brooklyn Delegation of the Council, and Councilwoman Letitia James; and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. BAM would like to thank the Brooklyn Delegations of the New York State Assembly, Joseph R. Lentol, Delegation Leader; and New York Senate, Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Delegation Leader. General Information BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn’s only movie house dedicated to first-run

independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, is open for dining prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a special BAMcafé Live menu available starting at 6pm. Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater)

D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue Train: Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal – Barclays Center Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.

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