VIVID LIVE Festival Launches at the Sydney Opera House This Weekend

Curated by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, the Sydney Opera House's VIVID Festival is all set to launch this Friday, the 28th of May. With unique performances by names as varied as The Blind Boys of Alabama, Emily Haines (Metric), Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Los Lobos) and the curators themselves, it proves to be one of the most interested programs the festival has seen to date.

 From May 27 – June 21, the Sydney Opera House annual festival of light, music and ideas, Vivid LIVE, will see the next generation of musicians mingle with the masters under the soaring white sails.

With nine Australian premieres to date, the two-week festival will feature large-scale solo concerts, small intimate evenings, a talks program, free events and lighting of the iconic Opera House sails. Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed – two very different artists with a shared passion for originality – have assembled an astonishing body of work over the course of their careers but as individuals they remain focussed on finding new forms of creativity and confounding expectations.

Two of Vivid LIVE’s centrepiece collaborations will come from opposite ends of the musical spectrum but share the curators’ ongoing investigation into the possibilities of audio immersion, harmonics, technology and improvisation.

Noise Night in the Opera Theatre on May 31 will journey to the outer limits of music with the turbulent, spaced-out sonic explorations of abstract Japanese noise rockers Boris and Melt-Banana and the psychedelic sounds of Philadelphia’s Bardo Pond, plus more to be announced.

While Slow Music Night (Concert Hall, June 4) is a celebration of musical intimacy and reflective beauty with performances by Anderson, Metric’s Emily Haines, The Blind Boys of Alabama, My Brightest Diamond, Holly Miranda, Doveman, Chirgilchin and other artists to be announced.

With tickets to Transitory Life almost sold out, Anderson has announced a third concert in the Drama Theatre on June 3. Joined onstage by musicians Eyvind Kang, Colin Stetson and Doug Weiselman – who have worked with artists as diverse as Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio and Tom Waits – Anderson brings to life the remarkable music from her acclaimed new work Delusion which premiered at the Cultural Olympiad of the Winter Games in Vancouver.

Emily Haines returns to Sydney at the request of Anderson and Reed for a special concert in the Opera Theatre on June 1.  Known for combining elements of synth pop, new wave, dance rock, and electronic music, Haines and a string quartet will perform an evening of Metric and Emily’s own songs in a unique arrangement for piano and strings.

Five-time Grammy Award winners The Blind Boys of Alabama return to Australia after performing at the White House for President Obama alongside Bob Dylan, Natalie Cole, John Mellencamp and Smokey Robinson. In this unique concert the Blind Boys will be joined by special guests, including our curator Lou Reed and many more to be announced.

Joining the already announced line-up of Bardo Pond, Boris, Chirgilchin, King Khan & BBQ Show and My Brightest Diamond will be the exquisitely tender singer-songwriter Doveman, Japanese noise rockers Melt-Banana and the Australian debut of ethereal indie-folk songstress Holly Miranda.

All tickets to The Studio are $35 or $30 concession. A special multi-pack is available with 3 shows for $79 or 4 shows for $99. Tickets to extra Studio shows (more to be announced) are an additional $20 to multi-pack purchasers.

Festival musicians will also perform a series of informal lunch time and late night concerts followed by artist talks in the Playhouse.

With further programming and details about Lighting of the Sails to be announced early May, Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House will give Sydneysiders and visitors to the festival a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the pioneering spirit and sense of adventure of two seminal figures of American culture.

One of five anchor events in the NSW Master Events Calendar developed by the NSW Government through Events NSW, Vivid celebrates Sydney as the creative hub of the Asia Pacific with large scale light installations and projections; music performances and collaborations; creative ideas, discussion and debate.