PAT METHENY'S ORCHESTRION TOUR

Following a wildly enthusiastic reception to shows around the world last spring, 17-time Grammy Award-winner Pat Metheny brings his Orchestrion Tour to another 19 North American performance halls beginning October 1. The Orchestrion album, which came out in January on Nonesuch Records, has received critical praise from the New York Times, Associated Press, Village Voice, and Billboard, among many other publications. Metheny, whom the New York Times calls "easily one of the most enterprising jazz musicians of his generation," has performed shows to sold-out audiences in some of the world's best-known halls, including the Barbican in London, l'Olympia in Paris, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and two sold-out nights at New York City's Town Hall. London's Telegraph calls the show "a triumph," while the Kansas City Star says, "Metheny's Orchestrion is nothing short of spectacular... Endlessly fascinating and visually dazzling." Orchestrion brings a musical idea from the late 19th and early 20th centuries -- a large mechanical multi-instrument device that utilizes actual orchestral instruments of various types, called an "orchestrion" -- to the technologies of today. Metheny's concept includes a large ensemble of acoustic instruments -- including several pianos, drum kit, marimbas, "guitar-bots," dozens of percussion instruments, and even cabinets of carefully tuned bottles. Through Metheny's guitar and compositional mind, five new original pieces showcase the instruments as they are struck, plucked, and otherwise played via the technology of solenoid switches and pneumatics. Metheny worked for months with a brilliant team of inventors to develop and assemble the "New Orchestrion" for this project.

"As the instruments started to trickle in from the various inventors," Metheny says, "the experience of writing for them and figuring out what might be possible with them provided a self-imposed challenge that proved to be difficult and time-consuming, but absolutely exhilarating. I am excited to share this project. If nothing else, this has turned out to be something unique. And in the process of developing all this music and these instruments and discovering what they can do and what they are good at, I learned so much. It feels like progress and has gotten some notes out of me that I didn't know were there. But the surprise was just how far I was able to go with it all. Within this new environment, I found something in there that took me to some new places."

Over the course of more than three decades, guitarist Pat Metheny has set himself apart from the jazz mainstream, expanding and blurring boundaries and musical styles. His record-setting body of work includes seventeen Grammy Awards in twelve separate categories; a series of influential trio recordings; award winning solo albums; scores for hit Hollywood motion pictures; and collaborations and duets with major artists such as Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich, Charlie Haden, Brad Mehldau, and many others. His band, the Pat Metheny Group, founded in 1977, is the only ensemble in history to win Grammys for seven consecutive releases.

Hear Orchestrion: http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/orchestrion.
See the Orchestrion in action: http://www.nonesuch.com/media/videos/pat-metheny-introduces-orchestrion.

Pat Metheny Orchestrion Performances
Friday, October 1 Birmingham, AL Alys Stephens Center
Saturday, October 2 Louisville, KY Brown Theatre
Sunday, October 3 Munhall, PA Carnegie Library Music Hall
Tuesday, October 5 Burlington, VT Flynn Center
Wednesday, October 6 Peekskill, NY The Paramount
Thursday, October 7 Princeton, NJ McCarter Theatre Center
Friday, October 8 Englewood, NJ Bergen Performing Arts Center
Saturday, October 9 Morristown, NJ Mayo Center for the Performing Arts
Sunday, October 10 Great Barrington, MA Mahaiwe Theatre
Tuesday, October 12 Montreal, Canada Maisonneuve
Wednesday, October 13 Quebec City, Canada Theatre Capitole
Friday, October 15 Bethlehem, PA Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University
Saturday, October 16 Buffalo, NY Univ. of Buffalo Center for the Arts
Sunday, October 17 East Lansing, MI The Wharton Center
Tuesday, October 19 Binghamton, NY Anderson Center for the Arts
Wednesday, October 20 Baltimore, MD Hippodrome Theatre
Thursday, October 21 Northampton, MA Calvin Theatre
Friday, October 22 Brookville, NY Tilles Center
Saturday, October 23 Torrington, CT Warner Theatre