Laurie Anderson, Robert Hurwitz and Charlie Hull to Receive The Town Hall 2018 Friend of the Arts Award
The 97th Annual Town Hall Gala Celebration will be held this year on Sunday, October 21, starting at 4:00 p.m.
The event begins with a concert at the Princeton Club in the intimate setting at 4:00pm. The awards presentations, cocktails, and dinner will follow. TheaterWorksUSA co-founder Charles Hull, Nonesuch Records’ long-time president Robert Hurwitz, and multimedia performance artist Laurie Anderson will receive The Town Hall Friends of the Arts Award, which has been presented annually since 1981 to individuals and institutions who, through their talents, efforts, and support of the arts, have contributed to the forward progress of our culture.
Admission to the event is by invitation only to our Town Hall Family of Sustaining Members, other contributors and guests. We hope you will join us in honoring Laurie Anderson, Robert Hurwitz and Charlie Hull by becoming a part of the Town Hall Family of Sustaining Members. Becoming a Sustaining Member of The Town Hall is easy and rewarding. See page 7 for details.
Charlie Hull
is originally from Vienna, Austria, attended Lehigh University on football and academic scholarships, and graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration. While serving in the U.S. Air Force and stationed in England, he accompanied a fellow officer to an audition of Stalag 17 and wound up scoring his first role in a theatrical production. In 1960, Hull moved to New York and was featured in many TV commercials and off-Broadway productions prior to joining the management team at TheaterWorksUSA.
Hull founded TheaterWorksUSA, with Jay Harnick, in 1961. He then became Managing Director in 1969. Under his 39 year tenure, TheaterWorksUSA grew to become America’s largest and foremost Equity theatre for children and family audiences. Its mission is to create imaginative and sophisticated shows that are both entertaining and thought provoking, and to ensure that those shows are accessible to audiences across America. The company has reached over 100 million people in 49 states and Canada, and now performs for over two million young people annually, selecting about ten shows per year from its ever-growing repertoire of 133 plays and musicals.
Hull’s most notable achievements for TheaterWorksUSA include initiating a subscription series in a prestigious off-Broadway theater; and developing a field trip program, initially at Town Hall, and then spreading across the country, reaching millions of kids every year. Hull was also President of the Producers League of Theatre for Young Audiences, President of Producers Association of Children’s Theatre (PACT), and was awarded the Medal of Honor from the Actors’ Fund.
TheaterWorksUSA’s honors include a Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award, the William M. Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence given by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and the Medal of Honor from the Actors Fund of America. Charlie was also President of the Producers League of Theatre for Young Audiences and President of the Producers Association of Children’s Theatre (PACT).
TheaterWorksUSA has a distinguished history of not only providing young audiences with their first taste of the performing arts, but also giving young actors, writers, directors, and designers an early opportunity to work in their field.
After almost 40 years, Hull retired from the company in 2000; TheaterWorksUSA is currently under the direction of Barbara Pasternack (Artistic Director) and Michael Harrington (Managing Director). (For more information or to participate: www.twusa.org)
THIS YEAR’S AWARDEES WERE:
Alexandra Gotovtceva
8TH GRADE - PS 84 BROOKLYN
Teacher: Ms. Iyer
Katheryne Paredes
4TH GRADE - PS 49 BRONX
Teacher: Ms. Goldfine
Joshua Gastelu
5TH GRADE - PS 197 MANHATTAN
Teacher: Ms. Degraffenreid
Fatim Fofana
5TH GRADE - PS 197 MANHATTAN
Teacher: Ms. Degraffenreid
Maya Sandoval
5TH GRADE - PS 197 MANHATTAN
Teacher: Ms. Degraffenreid
Anthony Chichay
3RD GRADE - PS 81 BROOKLYN
Teacher: Ms. Goudy
Town Hall and Con Edison Honored Poster and Essay Contest Winners With May 10th Ceremony
In our 21st year of partnership with Con Edison and with the generous assistance from the Ford Foundation, The Town Hall presented vibraphone virtuoso and jazz historian Stefon Harris on our stage as our featured Black History Month performer. Almost 4,000 New York City public school children attended four performances and learned about jazz’s cultural significance and the importance of creative expression through an art form.
Prior to the performances, classroom teachers were provided study guides curated by The Town Hall staff to give the students an idea about what to expect from the presentation. For many of the children, this was their first time attending a live concert and visiting a historic landmark in the heart of New York City, as well as their first exposure to improvised music. The study guide detailed the instruments in the quartet, including the lesser-known signature piece, the vibraphone.
Stefon gave a very informative lecture on the scientific workings of the vibraphone and how the sound is shaped within the instrument, as well as a discussion of how jazz improvisers communicate with each other through musical phrasing. The audience of youngsters was incredibly engaged. Also outlined in the study guides were the biographies of Stefon and his bandmates (James Francies, Jonathan Barber and Ben Williams), along with the notable jazz artists of the Harlem Renaissance. These artists included Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, all of whom gave memorable performances at or had ties to The Town Hall.
Stefon Harris shared his insights on the notable jazz artists of the Harlem Renaissance
Joshua Gastelu, Ms. Arleen Degraffenreid and Maya Sandoval, of PS 197 in Manhattan.
Keeping with tradition, we encouraged the attending students to submit their work to our poster and essay contest. After pouring over all the submissions, we selected six winners who each received a $50 check and were invited to attend a reception in our Friends of the Arts gallery on May 22, 2018. The students brought their friends, family and teachers, and were given a tour of the hall by our President Tom Wirtshafter. Our commitment to bringing artists of color to perform and inspire the younger generation was made possible with the integral support of Con Edison and the Ford Foundation. Based on the heartfelt response evident in our poster and essay submissions, we are honored and humbled to continue making the The Town Hall a hall for all.
Robert Hurwitz
For 32 years, Robert Hurwitz was president of Nonesuch Records, arguably one of the most diverse and influential record labels in the world.
In 1984, when Bob took over Nonesuch, it was primarily a classical music label and home of the Explorer series. He proceeded to vastly expand the company’s catalogue by adding jazz, rock, folk, bluegrass, musical theater, and modern world music.
Among the many composers, musicians, songwriters, and performers he has signed, produced or worked with are: John Adams, the Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich, Brad Mehldau, Chris Thile, Caetano Veloso, Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Philip Glass, Randy Newman, The Magnetic Fields, Stephen Sondheim, Adam Guettel, Mandy Patinkin, Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Audra McDonald, Björk, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Josh Redman, Pat Metheny, Natalie Merchant, k.d. lang, The Punch Brothers, Lake Street Dive, Bill Frisell, the Gipsy Kings and Astor Piazzolla.
Bob supervised the ten-volume George Balanchine Library video release and produced the 1993 motion picture George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker
During his tenure, Nonesuch releases have won fortytwo Grammy Awards.
In addition to his work at Nonesuch, Bob served on the boards of the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, the New Music Distribution Service, and the Charles Ives Foundation. He has been a speaker at symposiums for National Public Radio, the New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Chamber Music America.
Now, as Chairman Emeritus of Nonesuch Records, Bob remains closely involved with many of the artists he brought to the company, serving as an Executive Producer for a dozen projects a year.
In addition, Bob is the Aaron Copland Chair at the New School College of Performing Arts, where he has taught for the past 12 years and for the last two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at UCLA.
Laurie Anderson
is one of America’s most renowned and daring creative pioneers. As diverse as she is prolific, Laurie has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist.
In the early ‘70s, Laurie burst onto the New York avant-garde/music/art/ performance scene and quickly acquired a fervent following in the underground arts community. In 1978, she performed at the Nova Convention with such counter-culture luminaries as William S. Burroughs, Philip Glass, Frank Zappa, Timothy Leary, John Cage, and Allen Ginsberg.
Her recording career took off in 1981, when her song “O Superman” rose to #2 on the British pop music charts, leading to a seven-album deal with Warner Brothers. A deluxe box set of her Warner Brothers output, Talk Normal, was released in the fall of 2000 on Rhino/Warner Archives. The following year, she released her first record for Nonesuch Records, “Life on a String.” A year later, Live in New York, recorded at Town Hall, was released.
Laurie has toured the United States and abroad numerous times with shows that range from simple spoken word performances to highly elaborate multimedia events like United States I-V (1983), Empty Places (1990), The Nerve Bible (1995), and Songs and Stories for Moby Dick (1999-2000), based on the Herman Melville novel.
Her visual work has been presented in major museums in the United States and Europe.
As a composer, Laurie contributed music to films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme; dance pieces by Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, and Molissa Fenley; a score for Robert LePage’s theater production, Far Side of the Moon; and pieces for National Public Radio, the BBC, and Seville’s Expo ‘92.
Laurie is recognized worldwide as a groundbreaking leader in the use of technology in the arts. In the late ’90s, as a collaborator with Interval Research Corporation—a laboratory founded by Paul Allen and David Liddle—she created the Talking Stick, a six-foot-long MIDI controller that she used in the MobyDick tour. In 2002, she was appointed the firstever artist-in-residence at NASA, a stint that yielded her 2004 solo piece, The End of the Moon
In 2007 she received the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for her outstanding contribution to the arts. In 2011, she was awarded Pratt Institute’s Honorary Legends Award. Her Habeas Corpus exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory in 2016 garnered Yoko Ono’s annual Courage Award for the Arts.
Laurie’s film and visual projects include numerous videos, the high definition film Hidden Inside Mountains, a series of audio-visual installations, Heart of a Dog which was an official selection of both the 2015 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals and Chalkroom a virtual reality collaboration with HsinChien Huang which received Best VR Experience at the Venice Film Festival 2017. Her virtual reality work is represented in many arts institutions, festivals and in the new wing at MassMoCa.
Laurie has performed at The Town Hall over four decades.
Laurie originally hails from Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She graduated from Barnard College (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) with a B.A. in art history and in 1972, earned an M.F.A. in sculpture from Columbia University.
In 2008, she married singer/songwriter/musician Lou Reed, with whom she collaborated on several works. She lives in New York City.
Susan Zohn Becomes the Town Hall Foundation’s Executive Vice President
At its annual meeting in January, The Town Hall Foundation Trustees elected Susan Zohn as its Executive Vice President. The Trustees established the role of Executive Vice President many years ago as that individual who would assume the role and duties of the President in the event the President was no longer able to perform those duties.
Susan is a partner of Ernst & Young, having worked in its global headquarters for the past 18 years. She is EY’s Global Director of Business Ethics. In addition, she is the secretary to the EY Global board and the EY Global Governance Council, and, as such, much of her work consists of special projects, often in the areas of governance and compliance. Susan became a Town Hall Trustee in 2015.
“I am delighted to be a part of Town Hall at this time in its glorious New York history,” says Susan, “and to help set the stage for its next century.”
Town Hall Welcomes Jeff Mann, New Director of Marketing
Jeff Mann, our new Director of Marketing, comes to us with a seasoned background in marketing and promotion for concerts and artists from a wide range of genres. Prior to joining The Town Hall, Mr. Mann worked in marketing at the Blue Note Entertainment Group where he focused on the marketing and promotion of concerts at Highline Ballroom and Subrosa in NYC, the Blue Note Jazz Festival, and The Howard Theatre in DC. During his time at Blue Note, he was responsible for the marketing of nearly 500 concerts a year, ranging from Pop, Rock and Hip-hop, to many eclectic audiences of Jazz, World, Latin, and Brazilian music. In the years leading up to Blue Note, he held various positions in Strategic Marketing, Video Promotion and Radio Promotion departments at notable record labels such as Interscope Geffen A&M, RCA Music Group, J Records, MCA Records, and Universal/Republic Records. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Music Business from New York University and a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Piano Performance from West Chester University.
Mr. Mann says, “I am excited to be a part of an institution such as The Town Hall which has played a significant role in New York City’s culture. I look forward to working with everyone as we prepare for the our 100th anniversary celebration.”
UPCOMING EVENTS
Mon, Jul 16
THE TOWN HALL PRESENTS BROADWAY’S RISING STARS
Tue, Jul 17
THE TOWN HALL PRESENTS THE ADVENTURE ZONE Graphic Novel live!
Thu, Jul 19 + Fri, Jul 20
ANImAl cOllEcTIVE performiNG SUNG TONGS With lARAAjI
Tue, Aug 28
KONSTANTIN RAIKIN iN heaveN aBove the chaoS
Wed, Sep 5
RUPAUl’S DRAG RAcE: WERq THE WORlD
Tues, Sep 11
THE TRUTH HAS cHANGED By jOSH fOx
Fri, Sep 21
cESAR lOZANO
Mon, Sep 24
BYRDS co-foUNDerS ROGER mcGUINN & cHRIS HIllmAN
Sat, Sep 29 ADIR mIllER
Mon, Oct 1
cBS SUNDAY mORNING lIVE
Fri, Oct 5
jAcKIE GREENE aND THE mODERN lIVES BAND iN coNcert W/ Sp. GUeSt SAmANTHA fISH
Sat, Oct 6
SUIcIDE GIRlS: BlAcKHEART BURlESqUE
Sun, Oct 14
SUDDEN DEPARTURE DAY mUSic of THE lEfTOVERS
Fri, Oct 26
fElIx cAVAlIERE & GENE cORNISH’S RAScAlS W/ Sp. GUeSt RONNIE SPEcTOR & THE RONETTES
Sat, Oct 27
THE TOWN HALL PRESENTS PHIlIP GlASS ENSEmBlE mUSIc IN 12 PARTS
Sun, Nov 4 | 2 Shows RAffI
Tue, Nov 13 jIm jAmES | Solo ShoW
Wed, Nov 14
BOZ ScAGGS: OUT Of THE BlUES TOUR 2018
Thu, 15 Nov
THE TOWN HALL PRESENTS BElA flEcK, ZAKIR HUSSAIN & EDGAR mEYER
Sat, Nov 17 ÓlAfUR ARNAlDS
Sun, Jan 13 cOmEDY clUB
Sat, Jan 26
EmIN lIVE
THE TOWN HALL PRESENTS BROADWAY BY THE YEAR 2019 SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE!
Mon, Feb 25 • 2019
BROAdWAy By THE yEAR: 1928 & 1935
Mon, Mar 25 • 2019
BROAdWAy By THE yEAR: 1943 & 1951
Mon, May 20 • 2019
BROAdWAy By THE yEAR: 1965 & 1978
Mon, Jun 17 • 2019
BROAdWAy By THE yEAR: 1987 & 2015
Mon, Jul 22 • 2019
BROADWAY RISING STARS
MEMBERSHIPS
Since 1921, Town Hall has been New York’s gathering place where people from all walks of life can come together to engage in the arts. Our Sustaining Memberships offer exclusive benefits including:
n Advance ticket access
n Access to the best seats in the Hall
n Complimentary and discounted tickets
n Invitations to special events, artists’ meet and greets and our Annual Friends of the Arts Gala
By becoming a Sustaining Member, you are helping Town Hall continue our rich tradition of bringing the widest range of voices and performers from all over the world to New York City audiences. Your support helps us preserve and keep our century-old building in good working order and present our arts education programming in the New York City public schools, here at the Hall, and throughout our community.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Tom Wirtshafter, President
Marvin Leffler, President Emeritus
Susan Zohn, Executive Vice President
Alfred H. Horowitz, Vice President
Bruce Leffler, Vice President
Andrew T. Miltenberg, Treasurer
Phyllis Putter Barasch, Secretary
TRUSTEES
Phyllis Putter Barasch
Robert E. Evanson
Anne Frank-Shapiro
Alfred H. Horowitz
Stephen C. Jacobs
Henry Johansson
Ted Lambert
Bruce S. Leffler
Marvin Leffler
Andrew T. Miltenberg
Rita Robbins
Madhu Southworth
Nevin Steinberg
Tom Wirtshafter
Susan Zohn
For more information on how to join, contact:
Helen Morris
Director of Administration, Memberships, and Subscriptions
212.997.1003 ext. 10
hmorris@thetownhall.org
All Members Receive Special Recognition in the Town Hall Programs
SUSTAINING MEMBERSHIPS
LIFE TRUSTEES
Leona Chanin
Eugene J.T. Flanagan
Claire G. Miller
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Kathleen Rosenberg, Chair
Nancy Berman
Shauna Denkensohn
Sandy Horowitz
Elizabeth Iannizzi
Claire Miller
Melody Sawyer Richardson
Zita Rosenthal
Rhoda Rothkopf
ARTS IN EDUCATION
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Dr. Charlotte K. Frank, Chair
Dr. Sharon Dunn
Michael Fram
Gary Hecht
Ernest Logan
Dr. Lisa Mars
Dr. Pola Rosen
Manuel Urena
George Young
THE TOWN HALL STAFF
Lawrence C. Zucker, Executive Director
M.A. Papper, Artistic Director
Helen A. Morris, Director of Administration, Subscriptions & Membership
Jacqueline Maddox, Director of Development
Jeff Mann, Marketing Director
Sara Minisquero, Project Manager
Carman Napier, Development Associate
Britni Montalbano, Administrative Assistant
Alex Koveos, Digital Media Manager
Angel Rodriguez, Box Office Manager
Richard Looney, House Manager
William Dehling, Technical Director
Steven M. Franqui, Chief Engineer
Princeton Club. Sunday, October 21. Concert at 4:00 p.m. followed by cocktails, dinner & awards presentations at 5:00 p.m.
