Dana Lyn’s Animal Revenge

Dana Lyn is a Baisley Powell Elebash Artist in Residence as part of Greenwich House Music School’s Uncharted

Thursday, May 4

Doors at 7:30 pm, Show at 8:00pm

$20 – Tickets on Sale Now and Include Free Wine/Beer Bar

Tickets / Website / Instagram / Soundcloud

Brooklyn-based visual artist and composer Dana Lyn has received commissions from Brooklyn Rider, the National Arts Council of Ireland, the Apple Hill String Quartet, violinist Johnny Gandelsman, violist Nicholas Cords, A Far Cry, Palaver Strings, and the New Orchestra of Washington. She has made eight albums as a bandleader or co-bandleader; her musical projects include collaborations with actor Vincent D’Onofrio, guitarist Kyle Sanna, and poet Louis de Paor; and a string trio with cellist Marika Hughes and violinist Charlie Burnham that was scheduled as part of the 2022 Uncharted series. She has written music for short films, New York Times’ audio stories, and for dance, and her contributions to the Ken Burns documentary American Holocaust were called “sublime” by The Boston Globe. As a visual artist, Lyn has made stop-motion animations for her own music as well as for performance artist Taylor Mac, Slim Bone Head Volt (her collaboration with Vincent D’Onofrio), children’s artist Elena Moon Park, her duo with Sanna, and acclaimed woodwind players Ben Goldberg and Mike McGinnis. She has performed with Ethan Hawke, D’Angelo, Bruce Springsteen and Natalie Merchant, among others, and regularly performs with Stew, avant cellist Hank Roberts, and Taylor Mac. Lyn currently plays in the band of the Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical, Hadestown and is also a well-versed fiddle player in the Irish tradition.

Dana Lyn’s Mother Octopus – which includes Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, Noel Brennan on drums, Mike McGinnis on clarinet, Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon and Gary Wang on bass – is a hybrid-genre instrumental collective that showcases Lyn’s original compositions. The group’s new project is inspired by true stories of “animal revenge,” conflicts initiated by human aggression towards animals in which the animals fight back.

One such story concerns Floridian Marvin Hajos, who was breeding a cantankerous flock of cassowaries for their eggs; he was subsequently killed when he tried to steal an egg from under one of the birds. Not only did British colonialists decimate the grasslands and destroy the ecosystem that sustained the infamous man-eating Champawat Tiger, they also shot out its front canines, leaving it no choice but to prey on humans for its survival. There are numerous documented cases of elephants and lions enacting revenge on poachers. Any form of zoonotic disease, derived from animals and borne from our mistreatment of them, carries the venom of animal revenge. Lyn explains, “I’m fascinated by these stories, probably from a secret desire for the animals to win… or at least for humans to consider changing their relationship to the natural world. These are soundtracks to cautionary fables intended for the next generation in the hopes that they might choose to change their behavior and attitudes towards non-human life on the planet.”

The Uncharted residency and concert series, now in its ninth year at Greenwich House Music School, provides a much-needed resource for New York-based musicians to develop original material, foster new collaborations, and premiere first-look projects in an intimate concert setting. 100% of all ticket sales go directly to the artist.

About Greenwich House

Greenwich House Music School is a part of Greenwich House. Founded in 1902 as a settlement house, Greenwich House today offers innovative programs and services in arts and education, older adult services, behavioral and mental health, and workforce development. Greenwich House responds to evolving community needs by taking thoughtful risks, piloting new models and approaches, and implementing effective solutions. The Greenwich House Music School is proud to be part of this caring community of friends and neighbors in New York. For more information, visit www.greenwichhouse.org.

About Greenwich House Music School

Website: GreenwichHouseMusicSchool.org

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For additional information and up-to-the-minute performance updates, call 212-242-4770 or visit the Greenwich House website at greenwichhouse.org.

Uncharted is made possible by the generous support of the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund.

Uncharted is also supported, in part, by NYU, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.