Neues Kabarett presents:Shahzad Ismaily Concert and Workshop

*Saturday, December 6, 2008** 9:00 pm*

*$10*

*Workshop*

*Sunday, December 7, 2008*

*2pm to 5pm*

*$30 *

*advance registration required*

*Purchase advance concert tickets and register for the workshop here: *

*www.brechtforum.org/nk*

* Both events at The Brecht Forum 451 West Street Manhattan, between Bank and Bethune Streets

www.brechtforum.org www.myspace.com/neueskabarett 212-242-4201 Neues Kabarett music series is delighted to present *Shahzad Ismaily* on December 6th and December 7th. On Saturday, December 6th, Shahzad will perform a special concert of original works. On December 7th, he will conduct a special workshop for artists across different media.

Shahzad Ismaily will premiere two sets of new work on December 6th. The first set will be comprised of solo works, including compositions for electric guitar, moog synthesizer, banjo, percussion and electric bass. The second set will feature collaborative pieces utilizing text and music, written together with *Dr. Jenni Quilter* (author) and performed by *Shelley Hirsch* (vocalist).

For the workshop on December 7th, Shahzad will demonstrate, explore, advocate and question various methods of cross-platform collaboration. How should we alter/magnify our approach to music making, to composing, to improvising when we collaborate with visual artists? textual artists? theatre? dance? performance art? movement? He will be drawing on his background and work experiences with dancers (Min Tanaka --- famed Butoh dancer, the Frankfurt Ballet, Shinichi Momo Koga), authors (Shelley Hirsch ---performance author, Dr. Jenni Quilter --- picnic lightning press, Rick Moody ---

The Ice Storm), theatre (Balinese Opera Troupe), and others.

Shahzad will bring in special guests as secret weapons (some famous, some less so). He will expect a great deal of participation from workshop attendees in the form of discussion and attempts to try our hands at various techniques/concepts, so please bring your work materials with you (i.e. instruments, texts, sketchpads, etc.). He would like to see attendance from as many diverse fields as possible, including "non-artistic" ones.

Shahzad Ismaily is a composer and performer, living in New York City. He plays regularly in town and abroad. He was recently an artist-in-residence at Headlands Center for the Arts, the Sundance Institute (film composer's lab) and UC Berkeley. Having just completed the score for the film Frozen River

(Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury prize), Shahzad is now working on three upcoming films, *Eventual Salvation*, *Disturbing the Universe: Radical Lawyer William* *Kunstler*, and *El General*. Shahzad also performs and records regularly with Marc Ribot, Jolie Holland, Laurie Anderson, Will Oldham, John Zorn, Raz Mesinai, Yoko Ono, and Icelandic people.

The Brecht Forum is a place for people who are working for fundamental social change and a new culture that puts human needs first. The Brecht Forum offers a year-round program of classes, lectures, seminars, art exhibitions, performances, popular education workshops and language classes in its new, beautifully renovated home looking out over the Hudson River.

* Made possible by Meet The Compose's Creative Connections Program and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts.*

* *

*Upcoming Concerts Include:*

January 31, 2009 Carl Maguire performing with Floriculture.

February 28, 2009 Ned Rothenberg's works for string quartet and quintet March 14, 2009 Hans Tammen's Third Eye Orchestra, premiering a new work

April 25, 2009 Laura Andel Orchestra

May 23, 2009 Marc Ribot and Italy's Ensemble Dissonanzen's Scelsi Project - part of Ribot's week-long, city-wide 55th birthday retrospective.

June 6, 2009 Okkyung Lee premieres new works for string quartet.