Nick Hallett

Nick Hallett (born August 12, 1974)[1] is a composer, vocalist, and cultural producer.[2][3]

Not to be confused with Nick Hallett (Canadian football).

Biography

Hallett trained at Oberlin Conservatory under singing pedagogy authority, Richard Miller.[3]

In New York during the year 2000, he formed the Plantains with Ray Sweeten/The Mitgang Audio, a band uniting cabaret and Electroclash music with video projection and performance art. Hallett’s songs were written from the perspective of a fake British alter ego named Nick L. Cat.[4] Plantains shared bills with Le Tigre and Scissor Sisters[3] before disbanding in 2003.[5] In 2004, Hallett and Sweeten recorded a cover of the song "I Feel Love" for a student film by Matt Wolf,[5] which resulted in the duo’s only commercial release from this period.[6]

Hallett transitioned into experimental music and contemporary art, as both performer and curator.[4] In 2004, he co-founded the Darmstadt series with Zach Layton.[7] Originally conceived as a casual listening event of avant-garde recordings, Darmstadt quickly began hosting informal, modern-classical music concerts in nightclubs,[8] and within a few years had evolved into a presenter of festivals and large-scale performances of repertory from the experimental music canon.[9] In 2014, for Darmstadt’s 10th anniversary, Hallett curated, co-produced, and performed in a new staging of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Originale at The Kitchen, recognizing the 50th anniversary of the work’s storied New York premiere,[10] and cast predominantly with artists who identify as female, queer, transgender, and of color.[11] Darmstadt also presents an annual concert of Terry Riley’s In C.[12]

In 2007, Hallett formed a creative relationship with multimedia artist Joshua White, founder of the Joshua Light Show, an oft-referenced psychedelic concert lighting company, originally active from 1967 to 1970,[13] whose contributions to the fields of expanded cinema and light art have since been recognized in an art historical context.[14] After programming a concert of the Joshua Light Show at The Kitchen, which re-established the group, Hallett became White’s music director, positioning the project within experimental rock and electronica.[15] In 2011, Hallett produced the soundscore to Fulldome, a performance by the Joshua Light Show at the Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History.[16]

Hallett composed the music and libretto for Whispering Pines 10, an opera collaboration with artist Shana Moulton, based on her video art serial. This was originally staged in 2010 at The Kitchen, sung by Hallett and vocalist Daisy Press, and featuring Moulton as the sole actor, performing within an environment of multichannel video projection. The work, which also featured interactive technology and wearable musical instruments designed by Moulton and Hallett,[17][18] toured art museums and performance festivals across the United States.[19][20][21] In 2013, the duo received a Creative Capital grant to adapt Whispering Pines 10 for the internet.[22] In 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the full work premiered as a website.[23]

In 2014, Hallett began a collaboration with the choreographer and director Bill T. Jones, as the composer of a trilogy of scores for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company: Analogy/Dora: Tramontane (2015), Analogy/Lance aka Pretty aka The Escape Artist (2016), and Analogy/Ambros: The Emigrant (2017). Hallett has toured with the company as vocalist and multi-instrumentalist in the performances of the Analogy trilogy, and an additional work featuring his music, A Letter to My Nephew.[24][25][26][27] Hallett’s scores for dance also include the Bessie-award-winning Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and other works by John Bernd (2016), directed by Ishmael Houston-Jones and Miguel Gutierrez, based upon original choreography and music by John Bernd.[28][29]

Awards

References
  1. "Nick Hallett". Art21. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  2. "5 questions to Nick Hallett (singer, composer, producer)". I Care if You Listen. 2014-09-17. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  3. Polyak, Michelle. "OC Alumnus Counsels Students on Art, Post-Oberlin Careers – The Oberlin Review". oberlinreview.org. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  4. "Plantains – Career Retrospective". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  5. "Self-made man". Time Out New York. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  6. "Men, Women & Children (Music From the Motion Picture) – Original Soundtrack". AllMusic. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  7. "Brooklyn's Darmstadt: Zach Layton and Nick Hallett". WQXR. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  8. Ross, Alex (2007-04-09). "Club Acts". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  9. "How thinking both big and small made the Darmstadt music festival indispensable to New York". Politico PRO. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  10. "The Kitchen: Karlheinz Stockhausen's Originale". thekitchen.org. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  11. Vogel, Wendy (February 2015). "Karlheinz Stockhausen's Originale" (PDF). Modern Painters: 69.
  12. Kozinn, Allan (2007-12-01). "Darmstadt: Classics of the Avant-Garde". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  13. "Inside Joshua Light Show's 50-Year Quest to Make Rock & Roll Visual". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  14. Cotter, Holland (2007-05-25). "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  15. "Rhizome". Rhizome. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  16. "Joshua Light Show presents Fulldome the Museum of Natural History (and other museum stuff)". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  17. "The Kitchen: Shana Moulton and Nick Hallett: Whispering Pines 10". thekitchen.org. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  18. "Shana Moulton & Nick Hallett Stage An Opera — Art21". Art21. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  19. "Shana Moulton and Nick Hallett: Whispering Pines 10". SFMOMA. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  20. "The Works: Whispering Pines 10". Portland Mercury. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  21. "Off the Wall 2013: Shana Moulton and Nick Hallett: Whispering Pines 10 – The Andy Warhol Museum". www.warhol.org. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  22. "Creative Capital – Investing in Artists who Shape the Future". www.creative-capital.org. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  23. "A Soap Opera About Solitude Indoors: Whispering Pines 10 Launches Online For Free". Creative Capital. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  24. "Analogy/Dora: Tramontane". New York Live Arts. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  25. "Analogy/Lance: Pretty aka the Escape Artist". New York Live Arts. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  26. "Analogy/Ambros: The Emigrant". New York Live Arts. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  27. "Subscribe to read". Financial Times. Retrieved 2018-02-01. Cite uses generic title (help)
  28. "Platform 2016: Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and other works by John Bernd – Danspace Project". www.danspaceproject.org. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  29. "2017 awards". The Bessies. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
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