Family Day 2014 – Press Release

DAN ZANES AND FRIENDS TO HEADLINE INAUGURAL FAMILY DAY AT OZ, NASHVILLE’S NEW CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER, AUGUST 9

Performance by GRAMMY Winners Will Anchor Day of Indoor and Outdoor 
Arts Activities for Young People and Their Families

“Zanes’ kids music works because it is not kids music; it’s just music—music that’s unsanitized, unpasteurized, that’s organic even.”— The New York Times Magazine

“Dan Zanes is enriching the field with his dance-party, hootenanny for the 21st century.”—The Los Angeles Times

NASHVILLE, TENN. – OZ will conclude its highly successful inaugural season as Nashville’s first contemporary arts center with OZ Family Day, featuring a performance by GRAMMY-winner Dan Zanes and Friends, pioneering creators of handmade, independent, age-desegregated music. The concert will be the centerpiece of OZ’s inaugural Family Day, which will include a variety of indoor and outdoor arts activities for young people and their families.

OZ Family Day will take place 12-4 p.m. on Saturday, August 9. Dan Zanes and Friends will perform at 2 p.m. for 70 minutes. Tickets, $25 for people age 13 and up (free for those 12 and under), can be purchased online at www.oznashville.com. OZ is located at 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle in Nashville, Tenn.

Dan Zanes and Friends will perform songs spanning their celebrated discography, which has received multiple GRAMMY nominations and has featured collaborations with artists including Sheryl Crow, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Andrew Bird, Philip Glass and Natalie Merchant, to name a few.

The band occupies a unique place in American music where North American and West Indian folk music, sea shanties, English music hall, Mexican son jarocho, the spirit of early rock-and-roll and soulful originals collide. In addition to introducing new songs, they have reconnected people to songs that have always been there, and still are—it’s just that people forgot about them.

Dan Zanes and Friends have toured the world, sharing their 21st century social music with enthusiastic crowds of kids and kid sympathizers. Their music has also been featured on Sesame Street, Playhouse Disney, Nickelodeon and, most recently, on HBO Family and Sprout.

At OZ, Zanes will perform with band mates Colin Brooks (drums); Elena Moon Park (violin), originally from Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Sonia De Los Santos (vocals, guitar & mandolin); and Yoshi Waki (bass). As always, the group invites the audience to sing along and join in the dance party.

About OZ

As the first contemporary arts institution in the region, the arrival of OZ transforms the cultural landscape of Nashville. Through a year-round program of performing and visual arts events, OZ supports the creative explorations of leading artists from around the world and inspires curious audiences of all ages. Nashville’s Ozgener family established the non-profit OZ in the building that once housed their cigar company, C.A.O. Under their leadership, OZ has been transformed into a column-free, 10,000 square-foot performance and installation venue nestled amidst artfully landscaped grounds.

In addition to presenting celebrated national and international artists, OZ serves as a catalyst for local creativity. The organization provides a platform for local artists through the monthly TNT (Thursday Night Things) series.

OZ’s first season is programmed by Artistic Director Lauren Snelling, who came to the organization following posts at the Park Avenue Armory in New York and the Melbourne International Arts Festival in Australia. She has engaged the artists in collaboration with one of the world’s foremost curators, Kristy Edmunds, executive and artistic director of the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA and previously the consulting artistic director for the Park Avenue Armory, the artistic director for the Melbourne International Arts Festival, and the founding executive & artistic Director of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) and the TBA Festival (Time-Based Art) in Portland, Oregon.

For more information or tickets, please visit www.oznashville.com

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Nashville Media Contact:

For more information, please contact Amy A. Atkinson at Amy Atkinson Communications,
615-305-8118 or via email at amy@amyacommunications.com .