Sundance ASCAP Music Cafe Presents Lady Antebellum's Charles Kelley, Lissie, R. City, Tift Merritt, Veruca Salt and X Japan Acoustic Set at 2016 Sundance Film Festival

"Bluebird Cafe Series" to Feature Chris DeStefano, Ashley Gorley and Josh Osborne


NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Jan 6, 2016) - ASCAP, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the world leader in performing rights and advocacy for music creators, announces its event lineup for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The 18th annual Sundance ASCAP Music Café -- running during the daytime from January 22 - 29 -- presents a fresh mix of rising and recognized talents, specially curated by ASCAP for the Sundance Film Festival. In addition, an invitation-only ASCAP Composer-Filmmaker Cocktail Party takes place on Tuesday, January 26, where filmmakers and music creators will connect in a warm, fun and intimate setting.

ASCAP Assistant Vice President and Sundance ASCAP Music Café producer Loretta Muñoz commented: "Our longtime partnership with Sundance Film Festival continues to thrive because music will always be essential to a great film. We love seeing our filmmaker friends, discovering new ones, and introducing them to our incredibly talented ASCAP members every year in Park City. Both ASCAP and Sundance Institute are dedicated to developing and supporting great art and the people that create it. The Music Café is always a highlight of our year."

The Music Café will be located at Rich Haines Gallery (751 Main Street, Park City, UT) and is open to all Festival credential holders (21 and older). Performances begin each day at 2:00pm. Featured performers at the Sundance ASCAP Music Café include: Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum, Lissie, R. City, Tift Merritt, Veruca Salt and an acoustic set from Yoshiki and Toshi of X Japan (of the film We Are X). A special "Bluebird Café Series" lineup on January 27 and 28 will include award-winning songwriters Chris DeStefano, Ashley Gorley and Josh Osborne performing their own works made famous by recording artists like Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton, Florida Georgia Line and Kenny Chesney. Also on the schedule are Air Traffic Controller, Green River Ordinance, Other Lives, Billy Raffoul, Motopony, Byron Nicholai (of the film I Am Yup'ik), Walter Schreifels (of Quicksand and Rival Schools), Sibling, Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear and Alicia Witt.

Sundance Institute will announce additional music performances in the coming weeks. To view a complete schedule of performances and hear the music of Café artists, visit ascap.com/sundance.

For the latest information on ASCAP events at the Sundance Film Festival as well as on-site coverage, follow ASCAP on Twitter at #AscapMusicCafe, stay connected through Facebook and visit ascap.com.

The ASCAP Composer-Filmmaker Cocktail Party
On the evening of Tuesday, January 26, ASCAP hosts the ASCAP Composer-Filmmaker Cocktail Party. This is an invite-only, after-show celebration held at the Sundance ASCAP Music Café. The private event is for Festival filmmakers, ASCAP film composers, Sundance ASCAP Music Café artists and music supervisors. Festival filmmakers and film composers who are interested in attending may contact Rachel Perkins (rperkins@ascap.com) for further details.

Music in Film
The 2016 Sundance Film Festival includes many films that prominently feature the music of ASCAP's composer and songwriter members. ASCAP composers and foreign affiliates who have scored Festival films this year include: Neel Adhikari (The Land of the Enlightened), Alexis and Sam (Equity), Maica Armata (Dark Night), Lesley Barber (Manchester by the Sea), Danny Bensi (Christine; Complete Unknown; The Fits; Frank & Lola), Will & Brooke Blair (Green Room), Olivia Block (The Illinois Parables), Billy Bragg (Walking and Talking), Paul Brill (The New Yorker Presents; Trapped), Michl Britsch (Trash Fire), Michael Brook (Tallulah), Luke Buda (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Carter Burwell (Behind the Scenes of Anomalisa), Sean Callery (Newtown), Shane Carruth (The Girlfriend Experience), James Clements (The Blackout Experiments), Denis Clohessy (The Land of the Enlightened), Gavin Cullen (Under the Shadow), Mason Daring (City of Hope), Moritz Denis (Sonita), DJ Mike Q (Kiki), Christopher Drake (Yoga Hosers), Rob Duncan (Newtown), James Ewers (Notes on Blindness), Raymond C. Fabi (The Settlers), Jeff Grace (Certain Women), T. Griffin (Life, Animated), Nathan Halpern (Hooligan Sparrow; The Lovers and the Despot), Tim Hecker (The Free World), Alex Heffes (11.22.63; Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang), Leonardo Heiblum (Plaza de la Soledad), Grégoire Hetzel (Agnus Dei), Patrick Higgins (As You Are), John Hill (River of Grass), Dickon Hinchliffe (Little Men), Michał Jacaszek (The Bad Kids), Henry Jackman (The Birth of A Nation), Jóhann Jóhannsson (Lovesong), John 5 (31), Miles Joris-Peyrafitte (As You Are), James Lavino (Unlocking the Cage; Wiener-Dog), Okkyung Lee (The Illinois Parables), Jacobo Lieberman (Plaza de la Soledad), Deborah Lurie (Newtown), Dario Marianelli (Ali & Nino), Sune Martin (Land of Mine), Jay McCarrol (Operation Avalanche), Ryan Miller (The Fundamentals of Caring), Giona Ostinelli (Carnage Park), Owen Pallett (Suited), Dave Patterson (The Girlfriend Experience), Sara Quin (The Intervention), J. Ralph (Jim; The New Yorker Presents), Kristen Reilly (Affections), Stephen Rennicks (Viva), Graham Reynolds (Richard Linklater: Dream is Destiny), Josh Ritter (The Hollars), Michael Rohatyn (Maggie's Plan), Dan Romer (Gleason), Thomas Rutishauser (Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper), Sam Scott (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Ryan Shore (The Rose and I), Dylan Stark (Life, Animated), David Steinberg (Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures), Colin Stetson (Outlaws and Angels), Garth Stevenson (Resilience), Jozef van Wissem (Uncle Howard), Jay Wadley (Indignation), Julian Wass (Other People), Conrad Wedde (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Yoshiki (of X Japan) (We Are X).

About Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades, including Boyhood, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Twenty Feet from Stardom, Life Itself, The Cove, The End of the Tour, Blackfish, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Super Size Me, Dope, Little Miss Sunshine, sex, lies, and videotape, Reservoir Dogs, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious and Napoleon Dynamite. The New Frontier initiative, celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2016, has showcased groundbreaking media works by artists and creative technologists including Chris Milk, Doug Aitken, Palmer Luckey, Klip Collective and Nonny de la Peña. The Festival is a program of the non-profit Sundance Institute®. 2016 Festival sponsors to date include: Presenting Sponsors -- Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Acura, SundanceTV, Chase Sapphire Preferred®, and Canada Goose; Leadership Sponsors -- Adobe, Airbnb, DIRECTV, Tequila Don Julio™, Samsung, and YouTube; Sustaining Sponsors -- BROOKSIDE Chocolate, Canon U.S.A., Inc., Dropbox, GEICO, The Hollywood Reporter, Kickstarter, LUNA Bar/Clif Bar & Company, Omnicom, Stella Artois®, and Uber. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development, and the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations helps offset the Festival's costs and sustain the Institute's year-round programs for independent artists. sundance.org/festival

About Sundance Institute
Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that provides and preserves the space for artists in film, theatre, and new media to create and thrive. The Institute's signature Labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences to artists in igniting new ideas, discovering original voices, and building a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Sundance Institute has supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Sin Nombre, The Invisible War, The Square, Dirty Wars, Spring Awakening, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Fun Home. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

About ASCAP
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 over 550,000 members representing more than 10 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the world leader in performance royalties, advocacy and service for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. ascap.com

Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum will perform at the 2016 Sundance ASCAP Music Cafe.