KATRINA BALLADS, recipient of the 2009 Gaudeamus Prize, is a collection of songs by Ted Hearne. Featuring five singers and a band of eleven instrumentalists, it is set entirely to primary-source texts from the week following Hurricane Katrina - including everything from testimonies of survivors and relief workers to the words of Anderson Cooper, Kanye West, and George W. Bush's infamous "heckuva job." Like American music and New Orleans itself, Katrina Ballads is an omnivorous and multi-stylistic work. It is rhythmic and dramatic music, with an edgy post-minimalist drive and a deep jazz influence. With new work from renowned filmmaker Bill Morrison, Katrina Ballads calls us to reflect upon our own very recent history.

Katrina Ballads was premiered to rave reviews at the 2007 Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. It has since been seen at Chicago's Fine Arts Building, at the New York City Opera's VOX: Showcasing American Composers series and at the 2009 Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam. This performance commemorates the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and accompanies the release of the studio album, produced by Lawson White, on New Amsterdam/Naxos Records.

To stream audio: http://www.newamsterdamrecords.com/#Album/Katrina_Ballads

To read an interview about Katrina Ballads: http://www.indigestmag.com/hearne1.htm

"The Curious Case of Ted Hearne," NewMusicBox article: http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=6316

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TED HEARNE (b. 1982, Chicago) is a composer, conductor and performer of new music. His music has been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Calder Quartet, The Knights, and New York City Opera; heard at the MATA Festival, Carlsbad Music Festival, and LPR'S Sleeping Giant; commissioned by Chicago's Third Coast Percussion, San Francisco's Volti Choral Arts Laboratory, Charleston's New Music Collective, Newspeak, Huntsville Symphony, Albany Symphony; and was recently praised by Allan Kozinn of the New York Times as “fresh and muscular.” Ted is the artistic director of Yes is a World, resident conductor of Red Light New Music, and served as music director for the premiere of David Lang’s opera Anatomy Theatre (performed by ICE, 2005), and the premiere of Michael Gordon’s Lightning at our Feet (BAM Next Wave Festival, 2008). He has recently conducted premieres of works by Bryan Senti and Constantine Koukias, and for five years was composer-in-residence of the Chicago Children’s Choir. Ted has received the 2009 Gaudeamus Prize in composition, 2008 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was an artist in residence at the MacDowell Colony in Fall 2009. Upcoming commissions include works for DITHER Electric Guitar Quartet, Toomai String Quintet, and a new work for Yale Glee Club and Yale Symphony Orchestra to premiered at Carnegie Hall in April 2011.

René Marie is a singer/songwriter/playwright/actress who performs and tours as a vocalist internationally, nationally and locally. Between 2000 and 2004, René recorded four award-winning CDs on the MaxJazz label before deciding to pursue an independent path. Since 2005, she has recorded and produced several CDs on her own label. In 2009, she premiered a one-woman show, Slut Energy Theory - U’Dean, a play about incest and domestic abuse told through original music, spoken word and monologue. The soundtrack of the show was released in December, 2009. www.renemarie.com

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Founded in 2006 to identify and support the work of emerging and established composers and their multi-media collaborators, BETH MORRISON PROJECTS encourages risk-taking, creating a structure for developing new work that is unique to the artist and where artists feel safe to experiment and push boundaries. In three years time, the company’s critically acclaimed work has been seen throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia in some of the world’s premier venues, including Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kitchen, Performance Space 122, the Estates National Theater of Prague, The Seoul Performing Arts Festival, New York Public Library Live!, The Dia: Beacon Museum, The New York Musical Theater Festival, Le Poisson Rouge, Music on McDougal, and The Walker Art Center. BMP has garnered support from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Puffin Foundation, the Goldman Foundation, the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust, the Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, and The Trust for Mutual Understanding, and has received critical acclaim from the New York Times ("Beth Morrison, a producer who specializes in facilitating ambitious avant-garde collaborations..." and... "Ms. Morrison deserves credit for envisioning new possibilities and finding ways to facilitate their realization."), Time Out New York (“The enterprising outfit Beth Morrison Projects…”), Variety, National Public Radio, and New York Magazine. www.bethmorrisonprojects.org

BILL MORRISON's films have been screened at festivals, museums and concert halls worldwide, including the Sundance Film Festival, the Tate Modern, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. He has collaborated with numerous renowned composers, including John Adams, Gavin Bryars, Dave Douglas, Richard Einhorn, Bill Frisell, Michael Gordon, Henryk Gorecki, Vijay Iyer, David Lang, Harry Partch, Steve Reich, Todd Reynolds, and Julia Wolfe. “Decasia”, his feature length collaboration with composer Michael Gordon, is described by J. Hoberman of the Village Voice as “the most widely acclaimed American avant-garde film of the fin-de-siècle.” Morrison is a Guggenheim fellow and has received the Alpert Award. As a projection designer, his work with Ridge Theater has been recognized with two Bessie awards and an Obie award. Recent work includes the world premiere of Wallace Shawn’s “Grasses of a Thousand Colors” at the Royal Court in London.