Nick Hallett is a musician and avid curator working in the intersection of sound, moving image, and live performance. Nick’s projects encompass singing various genres of new music (from opera to cabaret to extended vocal technique), composing for film and theater, and staging new media performance. He originated the band PLANTAINS, which from 2000 until 2003 operated as a live multimedia act, incorporating electronic music and video. His New York opera debut was in 2005 at the Kitchen in Susie Ibarra’s Shangri-La at The Kitchen. His has since presented several music-based multimedia concerts at The Kitchen, in addition to singing the music of Arthur Russell there as part of a shared bill in 2008. He has performed selections from Meredith Monk’s cycle, Our Lady of Late, at Performa07 and the New Museum. He is the co-curator of the Darmstadt series, which is regularly recognized in the New York Times and Time Out New York for its innovative programming of new music, in addition to being the producer and music curator for the Joshua Light Show. He has two original music-theater works in development, one with playwright Jessica Blank (The Exonerated, Iraq Refugee Project) and another with video-performance artist Shana Moulton (Whispering Pines). Upcoming concerts for 2009 include a solo recital at The Stone, and another tribute to Arthur Russell (which he is performing in and co-organizing) at Le Poisson Rouge, as part of the Wordless Music Series.
A specialist in the field of contemporary music, Daisy Press, vocalist, was born into a performing family as the daughter of two musicians. In addition to her solo and ensemble vocal work, she also plays the violin and guitar and has appeared as an actor in an upcoming Adam Goldberg independent film. Most recently, she was praised by the New York Times for her “winning subtlety and understatement” in her rendition of George Crumb’s new folk-based song cycle “Unto the Hills” at Miller Theater with the acclaimed group So Percussion. Previously, she has sung with them the works of Steve Reich, including “Music for 18 Musicians” and “Drumming,” which she has also performed as a guest artist at Juilliard.
Additional credits include being the featured soloist for the New York premiere of Phillipe Leroux’s “Voi(rex)” at Miller Theater alongside IRCAM; “Apparition” by George Crumb at the Bang on a Can Marathon, where Ms. Press was for two years singer-in-residence; “Attila-Joszef Fragments” by Kurtag at Symphony Space; and excerpts, with the composer in attendance, for Elliot Carter’s “Of Challenge and of Love.” She has also appeared in Ireland with the Argento Ensemble in Earl Kim’s “Exercises en Route” and was hailed for her “calm naturalness” by The New York Times for her performance of early and late Webern song cycles.
Ms. Press has performed Morton Feldman’s “Three Voices” (the studio recording of which is soon to be released) and has appeared with the renowned VOX vocal ensemble. She is currently on faculty at Manhattan School of Music, where she received her Masters degree. She also holds academic degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and Oxford University, and she has studied voice in the studios of Trish McCaffrey and Hilda Harris, and North Indian ragas with Michael Harrison.