David Byrne’s Contemporary Color Goes To Barclays

BAM and Barclays Center present:

Contemporary Color, Conceived by David Byrne

David Byrne, Nelly Furtado, How to Dress Well, Devonté Hynes, Kelis, Lucius, Money Mark + Ad-Rock,

Nico Muhly + Ira Glass, St. Vincent, tUnE-yArDs and 10 color guard teams from North America all perform LIVE

David Byrne, Lucius, How to Dress Well, tUnE-yArDs to conduct Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) April 18 at 9-11AM EST

Art Direction & Design by Doyle Partners; photo by Julieta Cervantes

Contemporary Color marks BAM’s first production partnership with Barclays Center, a historic pairing

of performing arts institution and major arena

June 27 & 28 at Barclays Center for BAM 2015 Winter/Spring Season

June 22 & 23 at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre for Luminato Festival

Bloomberg Philanthropies is the 2014/2015 Season Sponsor

BAM and Barclays Center Present Contemporary Color Conceived by David Byrne

Barclays Center (620 Atlantic Ave)

Jun 27 & 28 at 7:30PM

Tickets start at $25

BAM and Barclays Center present Contemporary Color, a performance event created by music icon David Byrne, co-commissioned by BAM and Toronto’s Luminato Festival, and inspired by the high school phenomenon of color guard, known as “the sport of the arts.”

Ten 20-40 person color guard teams from the US and Canada will perform at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, alongside an extraordinary array of musical talent performing live. Artist and team parings can be found below. Contemporary Color is the artistic culmination of Byrne’s interest in color guard as a piece of Americana and a competitive art form.

When Byrne agreed to lend a composition to a high school performance team back in 2008, he knew little about the color guard phenomenon, which is wildly popular in high schools across the North American continent. Modern color guard has evolved out of military tradition, stepping outside of the marching band to become an independent competitive sport known as one of the “marching arts.” Color guard can be found in most American high schools, colleges, and universities, and uses props like flags, rifles, and sabers, along with movement and dynamic music, to express a conceptual motif.

At the time, Byrne’s only request was to see for himself how his music was used. Upon viewing an electrifying DVD of the Winter Guard International’s World Championship, the creative seed for Contemporary Color was planted. “I was stunned at what I was seeing,” Byrne recalls, “and being a musician I naturally wondered to myself: what if these performances had really great live music? Wouldn’t that lift it to another level?”

With the support of BAM and Luminato Festival, Byrne began reaching out to some of his favorite artists-as well as an array of northeast regional color guard teams-and the epic, arena-scale artistry of Contemporary Color began to take shape. Byrne’s directive to artists as diverse as Devonté Hynes and Nelly Furtado is to work alongside the creative heads of each team to produce a mind-blowing meld of original music and routine, promising New York and Toronto audiences “the biggest glitter cannon show of your life.”

The engagement marks BAM’s first production partnership with Barclays Center. Located just two blocks from each other, BAM and Barclays Center anchor one of the most vibrant and unique cultural districts in the US.

“Contemporary Color is a perfect example of the kind of artistic partnership that has emerged out of the Brooklyn cultural district, enabling us to deliver extraordinary programming to our audiences in a way that would not have been possible even several years ago,” notes BAM Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo.

Barclays Center owner Bruce Ratner adds: “Our goal when we opened Barclays Center was not only to bring world class sports and entertainment to Brooklyn, but to differentiate the building by tapping into BAM’s expertise in the global arts scene,” Barclays Center majority owner Bruce Ratner said. “We are delighted to join with BAM in bringing such an artistically driven event to Barclays Center and to continue to build on Brooklyn’s dynamic cultural offerings.”

David Byrne, Lucius, How To Dress Well, and Tune-Yards will be participating in a Reddit AMA on April 18th at 9-11AM EST together from Dayton, OH at the Winter Guard International Championships. They’ll be answering questions about Contemporary Color, collaborating together, and more. This will be on www.reddit.com/r/iama and everyone is welcome to participate!

The composer and team pairings are:

David Byrne and Les Eclipses

Nelly Furtado and Ventures

How To Dress Well and Mechanicsburg High School

Devonté Hynes and Black Watch

Kelis and Brigadiers

Lucius and Shenendehowa High School

Money Mark + Ad-Rock and Somerville High School

Nico Muhly + Ira Glass and Alter Ego

St. Vincent and Field of View

tUnE-yArDs and Emanon

Commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music and Luminato Festival (Toronto)