Avant Garden Party (Benefit for NewMusicWorks)
Guest Artists:
Sheila Willey, soprano; Colin Hannon, piano; songs of Satie
Sarah Cahill & Michael McGushin, four-hand piano, Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear and more
The Great Morgani, Satie, according to the accordion
Bill Walker, atmospheric electric slide guitar
Poplin/Nichols Duo; Stan Poplin (double bass), Cary Nichols (electric guitar)
The Ariose Singers, Francis Poulenc’s Huit Chasons Francaises (selections)
Singing Wood Marimba Ensemble; repertoire from Zimbabwe to Santa Cruz
Music by Erik Satie
Musique d’ameublement (1918)
(Lawn Furniture music)
Gnossienne 1-3 (1890)
Vexations (1893) (garden variety)
Trois morceaux en forme de poire (1903)
(Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear)
Sarah Cahill and Michael McGushin
Sports and Divertissements (1914)
Tribute pieces to Erik Satie:
Cheap Imitation (1969) John Cage
Piano Piece #1, La Monte Young
Savory Satie Satays by Chef Jozseph Schultz


Return with us to the enchanted walkways and breathing bouquets of Robert Eberlee’s luminous gardens!
A ticket to NewMusicWorks’ annual Avant Garden Party leads to a sensory oasis:
- Complimentary Gourmet Dining: Master Chef, India Jozseph Schultz suffuses French and Indonesian cuisines with one-of-a-kind culinary creations.
- No Host Wine bar with beer on tap!
- TEA TOO!! Hidden Peak Teahouse serves serene tea ceremonies in a quiet garden nook.
- A Silent Auction worth talking about: the popular South African Safari, along with unique items of eclectic-to-lavish attributes
- Dag Weiser’s Life-size Cardboard Installation of Satie’s paper castle sketchThe Vexations Marathon: pianists team up for relay performance of 840 – or fewer – runs of Satie’s notoriously dour instrumental chorale.
- On-location sightings of the Eternal Erik Satie!!
- Parisian airs and Dadaism’s incomparable absurdities abound at NMW’s enduringly popular outdoor mix of musical, gastronomical and horticultural realms.

“My name is Erik Satie, like everybody else”

Photographer: Daev Roehr