{"id":142,"date":"2018-06-29T11:04:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T11:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevillagetrip.com\/blog\/?p=142"},"modified":"2019-08-22T09:24:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T09:24:48","slug":"the-village-trip-is-honored-to-announce-david-amram-as-artist-in-residence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevillagetrip.com\/the-village-trip-is-honored-to-announce-david-amram-as-artist-in-residence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Village Trip is honored to announce David Amram as Artist-in-Residence"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Amram \u2013 whose distinguished seventy-year career embraces every sphere of music and who has collaborated with such diverse figures as Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Miller, Charles Mingus, Hunter S Thompson and Willie Nelson \u2013 is to be Artist-in-Residence at The Village Trip.<\/p>\n

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\"DavidA multi-instrumentalist, composer, conductor, band-leader and multi-lingual narrator who invented jazz\/poetry, Amram began composing in 1948 for the Howard University Theater Company in Washington DC. Two years later he joined the city\u2019s National Symphony Orchestra as a French Horn player. He has been Composer-in-Residence for Joseph Papp\u2019s New York Shakespeare Festival, as well as the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Centre.
\nIn 1957, he created and performed in the first ever jazz\/poetry readings in New York City with novelist Jack Kerouac, a moment he will revisit during The Village Trip. As well as making his own unique contributions to the festival, Amram will also \u201cbe on hand to add spice wherever I am needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will be \u201cin residence\u201d at the Washington Square Hotel, home base and principal partner of The Village Trip, a new festival which will celebrate the history and heritage of Greenwich Village, its rich and diverse music, literature, drama and \u2013 in due course \u2013 much besides.<\/p>\n

David Amram, whose myriad achievements include the score for the 1960s screen classics The Manchurian Candidate<\/em> and Splendor in the Grass<\/em> and, more recently, the symphonic composition THIS LAND: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie<\/em>, commissioned by Nora Guthrie to mark the 75th anniversary of a song that\u2019s regarded as America\u2019s second national anthem, said: \u201cAs an old Villager, this will be a crowning achievement for me and hopefully encourage all young people attending to work hard and pursue what they love to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amram\u2019s many awards include Folk Alliance International\u2019s Lifetime Achievement Award and New York\u2019s Highlights in Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award. The New York Times<\/em> hailed him as “A One-Man Folk Festival,” and a musician who was “multi-cultural before multi-culturalism existed!” For the Boston Globe<\/em> he is simply \u201cThe Renaissance Man of American Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"David-Amram,
David Amram photo by Smelter Mountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Describing The Village Trip as \u201ca joyous celebration,\u201d he continued: \u201cI\u2019ll be there for everything<\/em> and, as the Artist-in-Residence, play whenever needed and try to spread some good cheer and welcoming spirit to all who attend. That\u2019s the way people were to each other when I first came and fell in love with the Village back in the forties as a kid hoping to be some kind of artist myself,\u00a0 and it is still a magical place today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think your festival is a really important way to let people know what a treasure the legacy of the Village is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liz Thomson, co-founder and Executive Producer of The Village Trip said: \u201cTo have David Amram as Artist-in-Residence \u2013 well, the honor is all<\/em> ours. He is a great polymath and a wonderful man whose creativity is as boundless as his energy. We are truly thrilled.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Village Trip \u2013 which Amram describes as \u201ca joyous celebration\u201d \u2013 takes place from September 27 -30, with events in and around Washington Square. The program will be announced shortly, and more details can be found at www.TheVillageTrip.com<\/p>\n