Mission

Performing Artservices, Inc. is a non-profit organization whose mission is to produce, present and facilitate the endeavors of artists working in contemporary forms of music, theater and dance.

     
 

HISTORY

Performing Artservices, Inc. was founded in 1972 to provide professional management, producing and administrative services to a collective of performing artists in dance, theater and music whose developing careers required staff. All facets of the artists/companies careers were handled by Artservices' staff: business and fiscal management, fund raising, booking and contract negotiation, tour management, publicity and promotion and local production.

 

Artservices Staff
Artservices staff circa 1978. Clockwise from lower left: Mimi Johnson, Jed Wheeler, Becky Renaud, Jane Yockel, Beth Rectanus, June Goldberg, Barbara Mayfield, Liza Lorwin, and George Ashley.

 
         
 

Among these first artists were John Cage, David Tudor, Richard Foreman/Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Mabou Mines, The Sonic Arts Union (Ashley, Behrman, Lucier, Mumma), The Grand Union (Rainer, Gordon, Paxton, Dunn, Brown, Lewis), The Viola Farber Dance Company and the Philip Glass Ensemble.

Grand Union
The Grand Union (Barbara Dilley, David Gordon, Nancy Lewis, Trisha Brown, Douglas Dunn and Steve Paxton) (1973)

 

 


Foreman-Vertical Mobility
Richard Foreman's "Vertical Mobility" (1975)

 
         
 

Sonic Arts Union
The Sonic Arts Union (Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, David Behrman with Katharine Morton, May 1972.

 

Philip Glass Ensemble
Philip Glass Ensemble: Kurt Munkacsi, Michael Riesman, Iris Hiskey, Richard Peck, Dickie Landry and Philip Glass. 1970s.

 
 

During its first year of operations, Artservices booked and managed an eight-week concert tour of European Festivals for John Cage and David Tudor. Some of Artservices' major productions since have included the Childs/Glass/Lewitt collaboration, "Dance"; a four-concert series of Glass' music at Town Hall; "Lovely Music Live", a five-week series of concerts by American composers at Marymount Manhattan Theater in New York; Karole Armitage's first large scale European tour and collaboration with composers Rhys Chatham and Jeffrey Lohn. Artservices produced Robert Ashley’s opera tetralogy, “Now Eleanor’s Idea,” and, more recently, his operas, "Dust", “Celestial Excursions" and "Made Out of Concrete."

 


 
 

In 1978 Artservices founded Lovely Music, the record company which is devoted to recording American experimental/avant-garde music.

 

On the Other Ocean Lovely Little Records

 
 

From 1989 to 1994 Artservices co-produced, with the World Music Institute, the "Interpretations" series, a concert series exploring the relationships between creative artists and their interpreters, featuring leading figures in contemporary American music and multimedia arts. Artservices has also assisted with the production of thirty-five seasons of Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater, and the production of multiple New York seasons for choreographer Molissa Fenley (the most recent, December 2008 at The Joyce Theater).

 

 

 
         
 

Current Roster of Artists and Projects:

Robert Ashley Opera Productions
Molissa Fenley and Dancers
Richard Foreman/Ontological-Hysteric Theater

Lovely Music Ltd

Performing Artservices, Inc.
260 West Broadway
New York, NY 10013
Tel: 212-941-8911

Mimi Johnson, Executive Director