Soundcheck Live! Festival

WNYC’s Soundcheck Live! Festival starts tonight (Oct 23) at The Winter Garden at the World Financial Center. If you can’t make it in person, the shows will be streamed live on Q2 Music, which is operated by WQXR.

The “Soundcheck Live!” festival will be broadcast live from October 23-25th, starting at 8pm EST. Over three very special nights, the festival will feature live music sets from renowned performers and on-stage interview with Soundcheck’s host John Schaefer.

The line-up for “Souncheck Live!” features:

Tuesday, October 23: Antibalas with opening act Ted Leo performing the music of Hugh Masekela
Wednesday, October 24: Vijay Iyer with opening act Victoire featuring Missy Mazzoli.
Thursday, October 25: The Brooklyn Philharmonic with special guests

In addition, people can attend the shows as they are free and open to the public. No ticket required.

Full press release after the jump.

(OCT. 23-25) ANTIBALAS, VIJAY IYER, BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC HEADLINE

FREE CONCERT SERIES AT WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER WINTER GARDEN

“Soundcheck Live!” and Arts Brookfield present wide-ranging three-night series curated by
WNYC music host John Schaefer; special guests include Ted Leo, Missy Mazzoli’s Victoire

New York, NY (September 29, 2012) – The celebrated WNYC music program Soundcheck will kick off its second decade with “Soundcheck Live!,” three nights of free live show tapings at the World Financial Center Winter Garden with a selection of preeminent New York City-based artists.

Presented by Arts Brookfield and curated by Soundcheck producer and host John Schaefer, the three-night series will feature free shows by Afrobeat legends Antibalas (October 23), Grammy-nominated jazz piano sensation Vijay Iyer (October 24), and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, which will present a preview of its upcoming season (October 25). The lineup will feature an exceptional array of special guests including indie-rock icon Ted Leo, rising new-music star Missy Mazzoli, and more.

Schaefer, who also hosts WNYC’s popular New Sounds program, will host all three performances and conduct on-stage interviews with the artists. Each show will be taped for subsequent broadcast on Soundcheck.

The series will kick off on October 23 with Antibalas, the 12-piece ensemble credited with introducing Afrobeat to a global audience and influencing countless musicians in the process. Born in a Brooklyn warehouse in 1997, the group has brought its legendary live shows to NYC venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to Rikers Island, and has shared a stage globally with the likes of Public Enemy, Paul Simon, The Roots, and Medeski Martin & Wood, among others. Following several members’ participation on the hit musical FELA!, Antibalas recently released the band’s first album in five years on Daptone Records, the groundbreaking label founded by member Gabriel Roth.

The show will open with indie-punk icon Ted Leo performing an intimate performance of the music of Hugh Masekela. This tribute may come as a surprise to some, but as the leader of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Leo is known to incorporate political themes into his diverse catalog that stretches from punk and indie rock to new wave and folk.

On October 24th, Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Vijay Iyer will take the stage. Lauded byThe Village Voice as “the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years” and by The New Yorker as one of “today’s most important pianists… extravagantly gifted,” Iyer’s recent honors include an unprecedented win in five categories of the 2012 Down Beat International Critics’ Poll, including Jazz Artist of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year, Jazz Group of the Year (for the Vijay Iyer Trio), Pianist of the Year, and Rising Star Composer – a “quintuple crown” unmatched in the poll’s 60-year history. Iyer is the winner of the 2012 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and the 2012 Greenfield Prize, and was selected as 2012 Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists’ Association, an honor he also earned in 2010. Iyer’s latest album, Accelerando, was tagged by The New York Times as an “early front-runner for jazz album of the year.”

Opening for Iyer will be Victoire. Helmed by renowned composer/keyboardist Missy Mazzoli, this “all-star, all-female band” (Time Out New York) of strings, keyboards, clarinets and electronics performs Mazzoli’s hypnotic blend of dreamy chamber pop, minimalism and rich romanticism. Their 2010 debut album,Cathedral City, envelopes the listener in a tapestry of classical influences, distorted guitars, multi-layered vocals, vintage keyboard sounds and stuttering samples. Cathedral City, was named one of 2010′s best classical albums by the New York Times, Time Out New York, the New Yorker and NPR, and Pitchfork praised the group for “condensing moments of focused beauty and quiet conviction from the pandemic distractions of modern life.“

The series goes out with a bang on October 25th with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the 155-year-old orchestra that’s been described as “feisty and provocative” by the New York Times and hailed as“vital” and “inspired” by Rolling Stone. The Brooklyn Phil will offer Winter Garden audiences a sneak preview of its 2012-2013 season, celebrating the music that permeates the lives of Brooklynites every day both in and outside the concert hall. The Brooklyn Phil Chamber Players will play works by Brooklyn composers Matt Marks, Tim Fite and Ted Hearne and will be joined by the steel-pan band Pan Sonatas Steel Orchestra, a 41-year-old Brooklyn institution, to play new compositions by Chris Cerrone and Kendall Williams.

“We’re honored to be partnering with Soundcheck Live! to present a trio of free concerts that together exemplify the unique musical melting pot that is New York City,” said Debra Simon, Vice President and Artistic Director of Arts Brookfield. “From an inventive take on Afrobeat to a jazz pianist influenced by electronic and pop music to one of America’s oldest living orchestras, this series captures the city’s innovative spirit and embodies the energy and diversity that are a hallmark of Arts Brookfield’s programming.”

About Arts Brookfield
Since 1988 more than 3.5 million people have enjoyed over 2,500 cultural events at the World Financial Center presented by Arts Brookfield, one of the largest free, year-round, privately funded performing and visual arts programs on the east coast.

As an initiative of Brookfield Office Properties, the owner, developer and manager of premier office properties in the United States, Canada and Australia, Arts Brookfield animates public spaces in major cities across North America including New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver and Toronto. Brookfield’s portfolio is comprised of interests in 110 properties totaling 78 million square feet in the downtown cores of New York, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, Denver, Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, making it the global leader in the ownership and management of office assets.