RIVER TO RIVER FESTIVAL®

THE NATION’S LARGEST FREE SUMMER-LONG ARTS FESTIVAL – KICKS OFF SEVENTH SEASON May 28 – June 1

 Highlights of The Launch Weekend Include:

·        The Buglisi Dance Theatre World Premiere Outside The New York Stock Exchange

• An Al Fresco Evening of Arias Featuring Metropolitan Opera soprano Leah Partridge and tenor Norman Reinhardt
• An All-Star Acoustic Quartet Led By Abigail Washburn with Béla Fleck
• Pioneering British Art-Punk Band Wire
• The Twelve Hour, Boundary-Crossing Bang On A Can Marathon
• The Brilliantly Transformative Three-Part Sound and Light Show, She Wolves From the Tiber to the Hudson

New York, NY – May 6, 2008 – The River To River® Festival presented by American Express, the nation’s largest free summer-long arts festival, kicks off its 2008 season with an ambitious launch series that reflects the variety, quality and creativity for which this annual cultural extravaganza has come to be known. Now in its seventh year, the Festival has evolved into one of the greatest vehicles anywhere for bringing the arts to new audiences and new artists to public attention.

The launch series – from May 28 – June 1 – includes the following events:

• The world premiere of Under the Buttonwood Tree.com by the Buglisi Dance Theatre, praised for its “dramatic commitment” and “larger than life Graham-style passion.” The performance takes place outside the New York Stock Exchange, set to live music by the Aeros Wind Quintet;

• An elegant feast of arias, by the critically-acclaimed soprano virtuoso Leah Partridge, applauded for her “precise high notes” and called “a singular triumph,” with rising tenor Norman Reinhardt, presented al fresco at the scenic South Cove of Battery Park City;

• An “unplugged” jam session by the Sparrow Quintet featuring banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck led by Fleck’s musically dazzling girlfriend Abigail Washburn, a major star because her songs straddle continents; and indie-rock maven Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn;

• An evening of rumpled art-punk, featuring pioneering Brit band Wire and New Zealand ambassadors Die! Die! Die!, at South Street Seaport;

• A global stream of mind-boggling, genre-bending music as the12-hour Bang on a Can Marathon presents the work of groundbreaking international composers, including Bang On A Can Artistic Director David Lang , recipient of a 2008 Pulitzer Prize; and

• She Wolves from the Tiber to the Hudson, an electric display of light, projected animation and musical composition celebrating the natural gift of water and the importance of saving the environment. 

Since its inaugural 2002 season, the River To River Festival has presented over 2600 performances and events to more than 6 million people in picturesque Lower Manhattan venues, such as the South Street Seaport, Battery Park and the World Financial Center.

For more information and a complete schedule of RiverTo River Festival programming, please visit www.RiverToRiverNYC.com.  Additional Festival events will be announced and added to the website as they are confirmed.

The River To River launch
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