New Album Gamak Receives a Wide Range of Award Nominations and Press Accolades
Mahanthappa Continues to Tour in
Support of Project Through Spring and Summer
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Photo Credit: Jimmy Katz
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Alto saxophonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa has been honored by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation as a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award recipient,
one of only twenty indivduals to receive the award in the fields of
contemporary dance, jazz and theatre. The purpose of the award is to
empower, invest in and celebrate artists by offering flexible,
multi-year funding in response to financial and funding challenges. Each
recipient receives an unrestricted, multi-year cash grant of $225,000, plus as much as $25,000 more in targeted support for audience development and as much as $25,000 more for
personal reserves or creative exploration during what are commonly
retirement years for most Americans. Artists are able to access their
awards over a three to five year period under a schedule set by each
recipient.
"It's
an immense honor to receive this award and to keep company with this
highly esteemed cast of fellow awardees," says Mahanthappa. "The Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards allows me to breathe a bit easier financially while pursuing my artistic goals with continued vim and vigor." To
qualify for the grant, the artists must have won grants, prizes, or
awards on a national level for at least three different projects over
the last ten years, with at least one project receiving support from a
DDCF-funded program. Mahanthappa qualified with his Guggenheim
fellowship (2007) and has received multiple grants from Chamber Music
America, as well as the MAP Fund.
Creative
Capital, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's primary partner in the
Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards, also offers their recipients the
opportunity to get involved in professional development activities,
financial and legal counseling, and grantee gatherings, all designed to
help personalize and maximize the use of their grants. These annual
awards are part of a larger $50 million, ten-year commitment above their
existing performing arts funding and is available to artists and
innovators who push and reinvent the boundaries of their fields,
creators who create cross-cultural influences into their work, and
masters who dive deep into the rich tradition of their forms, much like
Mahanthappa has done on his latest release, Gamak.
Other Recent Nominations, Awards & Grants:
In recent months, Mahanthappa has received a number of prestigious nominations, awards, and grants. Mahanthappa won a 2013 Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) Jazz Award for "Alto Saxophonist of the Year", his fifth consecutive JJA win. He was also honored with a nomination for a 2013 ECHO Award in the "Live Act of the Year" category. Voting is still open to the public and a winner should be announced on May 23.
Mahanthappa recently earned a MAP Grant to complete his work with the Ragamala
dance group in Minneapolis. The program, which will take place in May
2014 at the Walker Art Center, is a new dance work conceived by Aparna
Ramaswamy and created in collaboration with Mahanthappa - the pair
received the grant as a team. The program, titled "Song of the Jasmine,"
will demonstrate how two first-generation Indian-Americans have been
influenced by their cultural identities in two different ways.
Additionally, Mahanthappa has been commissioned by PRISM, one of America's foremost chamber ensembles with six master saxophonists/composers, for Music for Saxophones: a project which employs the saxophone's dual heritages in classical music and jazz. Funded by the PEW Center for Arts & Heritage and the Presser Foundation,
the project will feature a creation of work that fuses compositional
and performance practices. Set for Spring 2014, Music for Saxophones
enables the creative process by commissioning, presenting, and recording
music that consciously blends both classical and jazz.
Press Accolades for Gamak:
Since its release on January 29 via ACT Music, Gamak has received a wide range of critical acclaim nationally/internationally.
"Bracing
and physical, it [Mahanthappa's band, Gamak] dislodged the realest
crowd roars I'd heard at an improvised music concert in a while." - The New York Times
"A
daring outing that blurs genres, Gamak needs to be listened to multiple
times to get some of the superb nuances that are presented." - The Huffington Post
"Rudresh
Mahanthappa's Gamak skewed more math-rock than fusion, with thrillingly
machinelike rhythms and locked-in unison runs and counterpoint." - JazzTimes
"Gamak,
the latest disc from Mahanthappa, is so enthralling because the
saxophonist, 41, is so well supported by sympathetic musicians of a
similar calibre." - Ottawa Citizen
See features and reviews in these media outlets as well:
Winnipeg Free Press, Point of Departure, among many others
Additionally, NPR will feature Mahanthappa on two additional programs during the month of May: All Things Considered (run date TBA) and Piano Jazz Rising Stars (slated for air nationally the week of May 14).
Upcoming Spring/Summer Tour Highlights for Rudresh Mahanthappa:
May 26 / Atlanta Jazz Festival / Atlanta, GA
June 8 / Pittsburgh Jazz Live International Festival / Pittsburgh, PA
June 17 / TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival / Manitoba, Canada
June 27 / Rochester International Jazz Festival / Rochester, NY
June 29 / Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival / Saratoga Springs, NY
August 31 / Chicago Jazz Festival / Chicago, IL
For more information on Rudresh Mahanthappa, please visit: rudreshm.com
Information and press materials (including album covers, promotional photos
and bios) on all DL Media artists can be found at our new website: dlmediamusic.com
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