exclusive
A MORE PERFECT UNION
Ted Hearne has explored the persecution of Chelsea Manning and the Supreme Court. In “Colonizing Space,” he’s tackling the evils of gentrification.
TED HEARNE (b.1982, Chicago) is a composer, singer, bandleader and recording artist. He creates multi-dimensional works that are challenging, personal and reflective of the questions we face in the world today.
Pitchfork called Hearne's work "some of the most expressive socially engaged music in recent memory -- from any genre," and Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that Hearne's music "holds up as a complex mirror image of an information-saturated, mass-surveillance world, and remains staggering in its impact." Hearne's Sound From the Bench, a work for choir, electric guitars and drums about corporate personhood setting texts from U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments, was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize.
Ted’s ongoing collaboration with legendary musician Erykah Badu pairs new music with arrangements of Badu’s works for orchestra, most recently presented with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. His album The Source sets the words of former U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning alongside classified documents from U.S. Dept of Defense cables that she was responsible for leaking to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. The New York Times called The Source "a 21st Century masterpiece.”
Upcoming collaborations include a new work with poet Dorothea Lasky and director Daniel Fish to be presented at Carnegie Hall, and a new orchestral project with performance artist and singer-songwriter Taylor Mac. Place, written with poet Saul Williams and director Patricia McGregor, is Hearne’s latest album, released in 2020 on New Amsterdam Records. For more visit: www.tedhearne.com