At BAM, There’s Much More Than The Sound of Silence

Though its name may imply otherwise, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts space. While there are no music lessons or classes offered in its spacious halls, it houses plenty of cultural events that are both mainstream and not, including independent film showings and modern dance performances. BAM, known for its avant-garde and cutting-edge programming, has branched out in the past few years and added more projects, including self-produced pieces. “We are trying to gain a wider variety of contemporary music programming,” said Nick Schwartz-Hall, a freelance slide producer in the production department. “Paul Simon is one aspect of that.”

This month, Simon is BAM’s artist-in-residence. The Simon residency, the first of its kind at the academy, is one large achievement in BAM’s over 150-year legacy. The academy, which moved from Brooklyn Heights to Fort Greene in 1903, has certainly seen its share of stars, including Enrico Caruso, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Ingmar Bergman, and Ali Khan. However, the Simon residency is a milestone in collaborative performance work. It was facilitated by BAM through a collaborative idea-creating process. “Not only are [we] spending this month with Paul, performing, we have spent much time in the past three months producing it with him,” Schwartz-Hall said.

According to Schwartz-Hall, “Simon came into the residency knowing he wanted to do performances of ‘Songs from the Capeman,’” his ill-fated Broadway production about a young gang-leader, but other than that, he simply allowed the process to take over. After deciding on the “Capeman” theme, which took place April 1-6, Simon decided to do a night of “Graceland/Rhythm of the Saints,” which ran this week. Schwartz-Hall calls Simon a “very collaborative guy with a wide reach of musical colleagues,” and said he often would call to tell them the ideas his friends pitched in about the BAM process.

For the third theme, “American Tunes,” the artistic team and Simon sat down and thought about how they could find “an interesting way to bring together all of the material from Paul’s career without a lot of looking back. It seemed natural to take the rest of the material and put it under the title ‘American Tunes’ because it still allows for surprises and rediscoveries.” “American Tunes,” which features Bacchanal artist Grizzly Bear, will take place April 23-27.

BAM’s vision of supporting ground-breaking and cutting-edge musicians is another important aspect of the residency. “BAM supports visionary artists,” Schwartz-Hall said, adding that “Paul Simon is a visionary artist. Joe Melillo, BAM’s executive producer, sees Paul as a visionary, cutting-edge American artist. People may see him as a pop star, and he’s had a great pop career, but if you look at his influence, at the way he thinks, at the vast amount of experience he’s put together, it’s remarkable, and often ground-breaking.”

BAM is moving forward into a new era of programming, fully utilizing its giant space, which includes a cinema, an opera house, and a theater. Another notable performance this year was the production of Macbeth, starring Patrick Stewart. These Broadway-caliber performances are getting Manhattanites out of their borough as they discover the arts in a different downtown—downtown Brooklyn. Though the trip takes about 40 minutes from Columbia, the ride is worth it. With these kinds of stars, it looks like Brooklyn may be the new Broadway.