SUNDANCE ASCAP MUSIC CAFÉ RETURNS

SUNDANCE ASCAP MUSIC CAFÉ RETURNS TO 2021 VIRTUAL FESTIVAL WITH NEW TALENT ADDED INCLUDING CAFÉ PERFORMANCES FROM MIKEL JOLLETT (AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT), PEDRITO MARTINEZ AND HAILEY WHITTERS; AN INTERVIEW WITH RON AND RUSSELL MAEL (SPARKS) AND THE SPARKS BROTHERS DIRECTOR EDGAR WRIGHT PLUS VIDEO EXCLUSIVES FROM THE CAFÉ ARCHIVES 23rd Annual Event Takes Place in Online Sundance Film Festival Village Jan. 29 - Feb. 1

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2021 - Joining this year’s virtual version of the Sundance Film Festival, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) adds Mikel Jollett (Airborne Toxic Event), Pedrito Martinez, Hailey Whitters, Ron and Russell Mael (SPARKS) and The Sparks Brothers director Edgar Wright to the lineup at its reimagined Annual Sundance ASCAP Music Café. The festival favorite is now accessible in a way it has never been before at www.bit.ly/ASCAPMusicCafe21 with new content added at 5:00 PM ET/ 3:00 PM MT/ 2:00 PM PT each day from January 29 to February 1. (A free account is required.) At its brand-new, virtual venue in the Festival Village, The Sundance ASCAP Music Café will feature a dynamic mix of musical performances from acclaimed talent and rising stars on January 29 and 30; special ASCAP Screen Time editions of VERSED: The ASCAP Podcast, featuring conversations with top ASCAP composers and their collaborators on January 31; and a final day showcasing a handpicked selection of performances from the Sundance ASCAP Music Café archives on February 1. Musical performances include newly added Airbone Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett; Grammy-nominated percussionist and co-founder of the Grammy-nominated Afro-Cuban/Afro-Beat band Yerba Buena Pedrito Martinez; singer-songwriter Hailey Whitters (Little Big Town, Alan Jackson); indie folk quartet Darlingside; soul singer-songwriter Devon Gilfillian, whose album Black Hole Rainbow was Grammy-nominated as Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical; and founding member of acclaimed roots groups Our Native Daughters and Birds of Chicago Allison Russell. VERSED: The ASCAP Podcast will host a Screen Time session with Ron and Russell Mael (SPARKS) and director Edgar Wright. Their film The Sparks Brothers is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Also scheduled are conversations with two-time Emmy-nominated This Is Us composer Siddhartha Khosla and Emmy-nominated composer Amanda Jones(Home, Twenties); and with Passing composer Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange) and the film’s director Rebecca Hall. "This unique opportunity to showcase the music and composers that bring stories to life across global screens makes this event so special to ASCAP,” said Loretta Muñoz, ASCAP Assistant Vice President, Membership. “In our 23rd year, the Sundance ASCAP Music Café continues its dedication to shining the spotlight on the magical relationship of music and film. Though we can’t all be together in person this time, we are super excited to once again share performances from some of our favorite new talents with an even wider audience, engage some of our leading composers in conversation and also share an entertaining look back on the Cafe’s incredibly rich history of stunning and unforgettable performances.” The Sundance ASCAP Music Café virtual venue can be found in the Festival Village portal on the Main Street homepage and is accessible for free by creating an account at https://festival.sundance.org/create-account. To view a complete schedule of performances and get to know the Café artists, visit www.ascap.com/sundance2021. For the latest information on ASCAP events at the Sundance Film Festival, follow ASCAP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and through the event hashtag, #ASCAPMusicCafe. Music in Film The 2021 Sundance Film Festival includes many films and audio/visual projects that prominently feature the music of ASCAP's composer and songwriter members. ASCAP composers and foreign affiliates who have scored Festival films and audio/visual projects this year include: Aaron Dessner & Bryce Dessner (Jockey), Devonté Hynes (Passing), Questlove (Summer Of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)), Sparks (The Sparks Brothers), Celia Stroom (Taming the Garden), Joe Trapanese(Prisoners of the Ghostland), Alex Somers (Together, Together), Owen Pallett (On the Count of Three), Caterina Barbieri (John & the Hole), Tim Kiefer (Marvelous & The Black Hole), John Carroll Kirby (Cryptozoo), Diana Salier (Try Harder!), Ryan Miller (How It Ends), Nathan Halpern (In The Same Breath), René Boscio (R#J), Time for Three (Land), Uno Helmersson (Flee), Amanda Glover (Wiggle Room), Andrea Boccadoro (Violation), Adrian Quesada (At the Ready), Alex Zhang Hungtai (I Was A Simple Man), Barrett Slagle (KKUM), Caio Amon (The Pink Cloud), Charli Circus (The Criminals), Christophe Lamarche-Ledoux (Like the Ones I Used to Know), Colin Stetson (Mayday), Craig Sutherland(This is the Way We Rise), Cristóbal MarYán (Son of Monarchs), Danny Fox (Searchers), Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch(Censor), Gavin Brivik (Wild Indian), Jamie Finlay (To Miss the Ending), Jeremy Ashbourne (Black Bodies), John Gibson (Coming Home in the Dark), Jon Natchez (Luzzu), Jonas Colstrup (President), Jules Wucherer (GNT), Julien Painot (Hive), Kaethe Hostetter (Faya Dayi), Kevin Kentera (First Date), Kwaku Konadu (Dear Philadelphia), Len Calvo (Excuse Me, Miss, Miss, Miss), Manuel Crosby (First Date), Marcin Macuk (Nightsss), Marisa Cornford (The Fire Next Time), Marius De Vries (Coda), Mark Kilian (Five Tiger), Martin Dirkov (Knocking), MasterClass (BJ's Mobile Gift Shop), Nakul Tiruviluamala (Forever), Nick Foster (Misha and the Wolves), Nicholas Poss (Ghost Dogs), Nicolau Domingues (Unliveable), Noah Lowdermilk (First Date), Olivier Alary (Night of the Kings), Philipp Schlotter (Little Miss Fate), Pierre Guerineau (I Was A Simple Man), Robert Ouyang Rusli (Bambirak), Sasha Lee (Misery Loves Company), SonX (The Unseen River), Teoniki Rożynek (Prime Time), Vince Warren (Bruiser), Weronika Lewandowska (Nightsss), XNYWOLF(Prison X - Chapter 1 : The Devil and The Sun). For more information on individual ASCAP composers featured in this year’s Sundance Film Festival, visit www.ascap.com/sundancecomposers2021. About ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP's mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world's best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business - from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With more than 790,000 members representing more than 11.5 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. Learn more and stay in touch at www.ascap.com, on Twitter and Instagram @ASCAP and on Facebook.