Congratulations to Laurie Anderson and Nonesuch Records Chairman Emeritus Bob Hurwitz, who will be honored as Friends of the Arts by The Town Hall in New York City, along with TheaterWorksUSA Co-Founder Charles Hull, at the historic venue's 97th Gala Celebration at the Princeton Club in Manhattan on Sunday, October 21, 2018. The Town Hall honors as its Friends of the Arts individuals or organizations whose contributions to the arts enrich New York City's cultural life and help make it a rich and artistically diverse city.

Laurie Anderson's latest album, Landfall, her first collaboration with Kronos Quartet, was released on Nonesuch this past February. Inspired by her experience of Hurricane Sandy in New York, Landfall juxtaposes lush electronics and traditional strings by Kronos with Anderson's powerful descriptions of loss, from water-logged pianos to disappearing animal species to Dutch karaoke bars. The Washington Post calls it "riveting, gorgeous."

In addition to Landfall, Anderson released a new book in February, All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, published by Skira Rizzoli. Two years ago, she began looking through her archive of nearly forty years of work, which includes scores of documentation, notebooks, and sketchbooks. In the process, she rediscovered some of her work and looked at many projects with a fresh eye, leading her to write a collection of essays looking at the way language entered her visual work.

Laurie Anderson is one of America's most renowned—and daring—creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than thirty years. Anderson is best known for her multimedia presentations and musical recordings. Her tours have taken her around the world, where she has presented her work in small arts spaces and grand concert halls, and everywhere in between. She has numerous major works to her credit, along with countless collaborations with an array of artists, from Jonathan Demme and Brian Eno to Bill T. Jones and Peter Gabriel.

Anderson's first single, "O Superman," launched her recording career in 1981, rising to number two on the British pop charts and subsequently appearing on her landmark release Big Science, which Pitchfork recently named the No. 22 Best Album of the 1980s. She went on to record six more albums with Warner Brothers. In 2001, Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records, the critically lauded Life on a String. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002), a reissue of Big Science (2007), and Homeland (2010). Nonesuch most recently released the soundtrack to Anderson's acclaimed film, Heart of a Dog (2015), Uncut called, "'Warm, witty and thought-provoking … her subject is the very stuff of life: grief, love, joy, memory, loss … like listening to a series of short radio plays or a podcast of Anderson's anthropological musings … Anderson's most satisfying and human work." Additionally, Anderson's virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience.

For 32 years, Bob Hurwitz was president of Nonesuch Records. In 1984, when he took over Nonesuch, it was primarily a classical music label and home of the Explorer series. He proceeded to vastly expand the company's catalogue by adding jazz, rock, folk, bluegrass, musical theater, and modern world music.

Among the many composers, musicians, songwriters, and performers he has signed, produced or worked with are: John Adams, Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich, Brad Mehldau, Chris Thile, Caetano Veloso, Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Philip Glass, Randy Newman, The Magnetic Fields, Stephen Sondheim, Adam Guettel, Mandy Patinkin, Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Audra McDonald, Björk, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Josh Redman, Pat Metheny, Natalie Merchant, k.d. lang, Punch Brothers, Lake Street Dive, Bill Frisell, the Gipsy Kings, and Astor Piazzolla. Hurwitz supervised the ten-volume George Balanchine Library video release and produced the 1993 motion picture George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. During his tenure, Nonesuch releases have won forty-two Grammy Awards. In addition to his work at Nonesuch, Hurwitz served on the boards of the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, the New Music Distribution Service, and the Charles Ives Foundation. He has been a speaker at symposiums for National Public Radio, the New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Chamber Music America.

Now, as Chairman Emeritus of Nonesuch Records, Bob Hurwitz remains closely involved with many of the artists he brought to the company, serving as an Executive Producer for a dozen projects a year. In addition, he is the Aaron Copland Chair at the New School College of Performing Arts, where he has taught for the past twelve years, and he has been a Visiting Assistant Professor at UCLA for the last two years.

At this year's Town Hall Gala, the festivities include a concert, cocktails, dinner, and the awards presentation. Admission to the event is open to Town Hall Sustaining Members, contributors, and guests. For more information and to attend, visit thetownhall.org/gala.