Helado Negrois headed to the Queen City…

The Ecuadorian American singer, whose real name is Roberto Carlos Lange, has been added to the lineup for the 14th edition of Cincinnati’s MusicNOW festival.

The event brings together a vast range of musical and performing artists setting up in unique spaces all over downtown Cincinnati. The long-running event will coincide with the second edition of The National‘s Homecoming Festival, with programming taking place in a variety of intimate venues from May 8-10.

The event, founded by National guitarist Bryce Dessner, will include shows at Washington Park, the Transept, First Lutheran Church, Music Hall Ballroomand Memorial Hall.

In addition to Helado Negro, the lineup will include performances by Big 37d03d Machine, Ashley Fure, Leslie Feist, Eighth Blackbird, Moses Sumney, William Brittelle, members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.   

“Over the last 15 years MusicNOW has always been a celebration of our hometown of Cincinnati and place to bring new music and collaborations to life,” said Bryce Dessnerin a statement. “We are so excited to present this year’s lineup in partnership with Homecoming, which features many of our favorite artists taking risks together and premiering new music for the first time. The initial idea we had 15 years ago to create a festival that could be about process and creative residencies, and making room for artists with diverse educations and backgrounds, remains a huge part of why we do this. It’s an honor to do this in the city and in partnership with Homecoming.”   

MusicNOW will host late night events on May 8 and 9 after the full day of Homecoming sets, including a show with Ben Lanz & Kid Millionsdebuting Million Landsand an improv experiment by Alexi Murdoch. Saturday’s late night show will feature a DJ set from Sylvan Esso, while Sunday’s gig will have sets from Ghost Baby, LNZNDRF and Aaron Dessner’s Big 37d03d Machine; all three shows are at the Woodward Theater.

This year’s Homecoming Festival — presented by the National and AC Entertainment— will take place in Smale Parkand feature the National doing a full Friday night performance of 2010’s High Violetalbum (and a career-spanning set on May 9) as well as Friday sets from Sylvan Esso, Local Natives, Phosphorescent, Archives and Triiibeand Saturday shows from Patti Smith and Her Band, Of Monsters and Men, Japanese Breakfast, Hamilton Leithauser, Jay Some, Velvet Negroni, and Wussy.

All MusicNOW tickets and Homecoming one-day tickets will go on saleon Friday (Feb. 7) at 10:00 am EST. MusicNOW’s late night events will be separately ticketed with a limited number of all-inclusive MusicNOW Sunday passes available. Individual tickets will also be available for select MusicNOW Sunday performances as capacity allows.