The MusicNOW Festival celebrated it’s tenth year this weekend in Cincinnati. Founded by Bryce Dressner of The National in 1996 to invite contemporary musicians and risk-taking artists to develop new work in a collaborative and intimate setting, previous artists include Sufjan Stevens, Philip Glass, Andrew Bird, Justin Vernon and St. Vincent to name a few. This year the festival spread the music out over 5 nights and expanded to 3 locations, included the recently renovated Woodward Theatre, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s home – Music Hall, and the beautiful gem of a theatre in Memorial Hall. For the second year, MusicNOW has teamed up with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and debuted two newly commissioned pieces by Caroline Shaw and Daniel Bjarnason.
Highlights from this year’s festival include concert:nova’s peformance with Jeffrey Zeigler, The National performing with the CSO, selections of the Planetarium Suite performed by Sufjan Sevens, Nico Muhly, and Bryce Dessner, and the closing night’s performances by Mina Tindle, Perfume Genius, and Lone Bellow.
Here are a selection of my photos from the event. Visit CincyGroove.com for the entire gallery from Day 01, Day 02, Day 03, Day 04, and Day 05.
