Timur and the Dime Museum
The dark glam opera band Timur and the Dime Museum presents a galactic multimedia show for the first time on the East Coast in HERE’s intimate Dorothy B. Williams Theatre. Fusing avant-garde, pop & vaudeville sounds, Timur and the Dime Museum creates a rich amalgam of sensibilities with Bjork fierceness, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins theatricality. Led by the rising opera singer from Kazakhstan Timur Bekbosunov, profiled in LA Weekly’s BEST OF LA People Issue 2011, the band’s stunning intensity brings songs to cure the new depression with a post-punk bohemian attitude. Interactive multimedia, conceptualized and designed by World Technology Network fellow Jesse Gilbert, along with striking cinematic images by experimental LA filmmaker Sandra Powers, will further enhance this macabre evening of musical performance.
Formed as a result of collaboration with the Klaus Nomi songwriter Kristian Hoffman, dark glam band Timur and the Dime Museum, described by Los Angeles Times as “punk-operatic spectacle”, has appeared at the prestigious ALOUD series; on America’s Got Talent; opened for Tiger Lilies, The Red Paintings, DeVotchKa, Prince Poppycock; Un-cabaret (Margaret Cho); premiered operas “Zoophilic Follies” by Daniel Corral at Redcat Theater’s NOW festival, and “Crescent City” by Anne LeBaron. Led by “stratospheric tenor” (LA Times) Timur Bekbosunov, recently featured in LA Weekly’s BEST OF LA 2011, the band embraces multi-disciplinary collaboration as part of their ongoing work with composers and songwriters.
Immediately following their successful debut at the ALOUD series at the Mark Taper Auditiorium in LA, Timur and the Dime Museum established a strong following of fans, and received endorsements from artists, such as Amanda Palmer, DeVotchKa and Sondre Lerche. The band performed in numerous venues around LA and beyond, including Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle. The band creates unconventional and fascinating sounds, combining Timur’s “charismatic tenor” (LA Times) with electric guitar, upright bass, accordion, bass clarinet, viola, and drums. Embracing the notion of multi-disciplinary contemporary projects, T&DM began a series of collaborations, directly working with composers on their music. Timur, a noted interpreter of contemporary and cross-cultural music, and the members of the band, all are graduates of California Institute of the Arts, and individually, have performed in countless major projects, productions, festivals and venues around the world.
Photos by Jill Steinberg.