BIG EARS FESTIVAL EXPANDS TO 4 DAYS INITIAL 2017 FESTIVAL LINEUP REVEALED Composers GAVIN BRYARS, JÓHANN JÓHANNSSÓN, MEREDITH MONK Jazz legends CARLA BLEY, HENRY GRIMES, HENRY THREADGILL Experimental pioneers MUSICA ELETTRONICA VIVA (Alvin Curran / Frederic Rzewski / Richard Teitelbaum) + Norway’s enigmatic sonic explorers SUPERSILENT (Arve Henriksen / Helge Sten / Ståle Storløkken) American alternative rock torchbearers WILCO STEPHIN MERRITT AND THE MAGNETIC FIELDS present 50 Song Memoir BLONDE REDHEAD presents Misery Is a Butterfly THE CROSSING perform GAVIN BRYARS and DAVID LANG RACHEL GRIMES premieres The Way Forth with Joan Shelley & Nathan Salsburg MATMOS performs ROBERT ASHLEY’s Perfect Lives (Private Parts) JACE CLAYTON presents Julius Eastman Memorial Dinner COLIN STETSON presents Sorrow: a reimagining of Gorecki’s 3 rd Symphony SARAH KIRKLAND SNIDER: Unremembered with Shara Nova (My Brightest Diamond) Plus MAYA BEISER, DEERHOOF, TORTOISE, JUNUN, OLIVER COATES, MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND, XIU XIU, MICHAEL HURLEY, and many more NEARLY 100 PERFORMANCES BY OVER 60 EXTRAORDINARY ARTISTS, plus expanded film program, installations, exhibitions, discussions, and more surprises still to come TICKETS ON SALE NOW! October 5, 2016 – Knoxville, TN – Described as “one of the most quietly earth-shattering, subtly luminous festivals the world over ” by the Oxford American, the Big Ears Festival will return to Knoxville, Tennessee’s historic downtown for the weekend of March 23 – 26, 2017, expanding to 4 days and new venues, including two beautiful downtown churches, with nearly 100 performances from over 60 of the world’s most extraordinary musical creators – coming from classical music, jazz, rock, electronica, folk, bluegrass, and beyond. GA and VIP Weekend Passes, along with the newly announced “Premier Weekend Pass,” are on sale now at BigEarsFestival.com. This year’s Big Ears Festival lineup is a rich and diverse musical feast. Several of the most highly regarded and influential artists of the past half-century will perform: jazz pianist / composer Carla Bley (performing twice, once with her trio and once with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra); British composer Gavin Bryars (astonishingly performing for the first time ever in the USA with his own ensemble); the great jazz bassist Henry Grimes with his quartet; eccentric American folksinger Michael Hurley; “magician of the voice” Meredith Monk with her
