Press Release | << back
Press Room Login / Registration
March 22, 2017
Announcing Lincoln Center Festival 2017, July 10-30
Lincoln Center Festival
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2017
www.lincolncenterfestival.org
PRESS CONTACTS
Aleba Gartner, 212.206.1450
[email protected]
Isabel Sinistore, 212.671.4195
[email protected]
Announcing
Lincoln Center Festival 2017
July 10–30
Pictured (L to R): Compagnie XY, Ornette Coleman, David Grossman’s To the End of the Land, Teshigawara’s Sleeping Water
by innovators and iconoclasts in dance, music, theater and film
Hailing from Syria, Israel, Palestine, Tunisia, Chad, Cape Verde, China, Japan,
England, Germany, France, Poland, Russia, Brazil, Cuba, Canada, USA
Lincoln Center Festival lead support is provided by American Express
Nigel Redden, Lincoln Center Festival Director, today announced the lineup for the 2017 Festival, which runs from July 10 to 30. This summer, in its 22nd season, the Festival continues to accentuate its mission of globalism by inviting to Lincoln Center artists and companies from many parts of the world who are creating audacious, original, and relevant work. Musicians, actors, writers, directors, filmmakers and dancers from a dozen countries and five continents will animate Lincoln Center’s campus venues with bold creations—43 performances packed in a span of three weeks.
Redden notes: “One thing that has emerged as a theme this year—because the world has certainly changed since the 2016 Festival—is that our international festival has become about borders and specifically about crossing them.” Two theatrical productions from Israel and one from Syria offer powerful commentary on the links between place and identity, love and family, hope and despair; a global miniseries, Nomadic Nights, sheds light on an eclectic array of musicians whose art knows no boundaries; and several cross-cultural collaborations create rich dialogues between East and West.
“The point of the Festival has always been to provide perspectives that we wouldn’t have had otherwise,” remarks Redden. Thought-provoking plays such as David Grossman’s To the End of the Land, Amos Gitai’s Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination and Omar Abusaada and Mohammad Al Attar’s While I Was Waiting force the audience to think about how it would deal with the unimaginable, the things life throws at us. A more scientific and psychological quest for understanding what it means to be human reveals startling insight in Opening Skinner’s Box, an Improbable London import.
“American Express is pleased to support the Lincoln Center Festival and help New Yorkers and visitors alike have access to innovative, pioneering productions from across the world,” said Timothy J. McClimon, president, American Express Foundation. “Our long-term commitment to the festival reflects our passion for ensuring arts and culture continue to thrive in our hometown, New York City.”
A much-anticipated highlight of this year’s Festival is the 50th anniversary presentation of George Balanchine’s 1967 masterpiece, Jewels, featuring the Bolshoi Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Paris Opera Ballet on a single stage. “We are celebrating Balanchine, one of the singular creative artists who founded Lincoln Center, in a way that reveals the roots of his ideas and training in Russia, France, and America,” says Redden. Lincoln Center Festival will also offer a special lottery for Jewels with $20 orchestra seats available for each performance (lottery details will be announced at a later date).
A very different 50th anniversary is celebrated on the same day that Jewels kicks off: American electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick’s iconic early techno album Silver Apples of the Moon, which was released by Nonesuch in 1967 and will be reimagined in a landmark live performance by the composer, alongside a world premiere entitled Crowds and Power.
These events reveal yet another thread in this summer’s offerings: artist-heroes who forge their own paths. In addition to Balanchine and Subotnick, there is the Japanese Paris-based choreographer Saburo Teshigawara, an extremely rare appearance by China’s superstar Gong Linna, Brazil’s larger-than-life musician/activist Carlinhos Brown, Poland’s musical archaeologist Maria Pomianowska, and a wide-ranging miniseries devoted to jazz radical and prime innovator Ornette Coleman—organized by his son, Denardo Coleman.
TICKETS
Lincoln Center Festival goes on sale to Friends of Lincoln Center beginning March 22 and to the general public starting March 29. For more information and to buy tickets, visit LincolnCenterFestival.org or the David Geffen Hall Box Office or call CenterCharge at 212.721.6500.
Lincoln Center Festival will offer a special lottery for Jewels: $20 tickets for orchestra seats for each performance of Jewels. Details to be announced later.
***
Lincoln Center Festival lead support is provided by American Express
Endowment support is provided by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Nancy Abeles Marks.
Lincoln Center Festival 2017 is also made possible by The Shubert Foundation, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, The Katzenberger Foundation, Inc., Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., Jennie L. and Richard K. DeScherer, Lepercq Charitable Foundation in Memory of Paul Lepercq, J.C.C. Fund of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Joelson Foundation, Great Performers Circle Producers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center.
Public support for Festival 2017 is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and
New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature
American Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln Center.
Nespresso is the Official Coffee of Lincoln Center.
NewYork-Presbyterian is the Official Hospital of Lincoln Center.
“Summer at Lincoln Center” is supported by Pepsi Zero Sugar.
Programs, artists, and ticket prices are subject to change.
THEATER
OPENING SKINNER’S BOX
July 10–12, Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
North American premiere
Inspired by Lauren Slater’s 2004 book, human nature is revealed in a
rollercoaster ride through fascinating 20th-century psychological experiments.
Co-directed by Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson.
WHILE I WAS WAITING
July 19–22, Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
North American premiere
Syrian playwright Mohammad Al Attar’s chilling family drama about a man
who ends up in a coma after being stopped at a Damascus checkpoint.
Based on a true story, this beautiful portrait of today’s Syria
shows a country caught between hope and despair.
YITZHAK RABIN: CHRONICLE OF AN ASSASSINATION
July 19, Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht Stage
North American premiere
Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai’s elegiac play about the events leading up
to the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Two Israeli women—one Arab and one Jewish—read from the journals of Leah Rabin.
This deeply personal portrait features documentary footage and live music by Bach, Monteverdi, Britten, Nono.
TO THE END OF THE LAND
Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv and Ha’Bima National Theatre
July 24–27, Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
North American premiere
A theater phenomenon that played to sold-out houses in Tel Aviv, this stirring drama is based on
Israeli author David Grossman’s acclaimed novel about a traumatized mother in war-torn Israel.
CIRCUS ARTS
IL N’EST PAS ENCORE MINUIT
July 19–22, Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
New York premiere
The Parisian circus troupe of 22 daredevils performs its latest exhilarating work.
DANCE
SLEEPING WATER
July 13–15, Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
North American premiere
The preeminent Japanese choreographer returns with his latest work,
a beautiful, dreamlike creation featuring his own movement, lighting, scenery, and costume design.
Dancers include Aurélie Dupont, the new Director of Dance at Paris Opera Ballet.
JEWELS
Bolshoi Ballet, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet
July 20–23, David H. Koch Theater
50th anniversary of Balanchine’s 1967 three-act masterpiece with
three of the world’s leading ballet companies sharing the stage.
New York City Ballet Orchestra performs the scores of Fauré, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky
under the baton of newly appointed New York City Ballet Music Director Andrew Litton.
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
July 26–30, David H. Koch Theater
U.S. premiere
Bolshoi Ballet’s effervescent new production of Shakespeare’s comedy.
Choreographed by Jean-Christophe Maillot and set to music by Shostakovich.
Igor Dronov conducts New York City Ballet Orchestra.
MUSIC
ORNETTE COLEMAN: TOMORROW IS THE QUESTION
July 11–16, Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht Stage / Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
Two years after the jazz giant’s passing and 20 years after his debut with Lincoln Center Festival,
this four-part series honors Ornette’s lifelong quest for unrestricted expressive freedom.
Naked Lunch with Live Orchestral Accompaniment
Screening of David Cronenberg’s 1991 film inspired by William S. Burroughs’s hallucinatory novel.
Ensemble Signal—with guests Denardo Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, and Henry Threadgill—
performs the score co-written by Howard Shore and Ornette Coleman.
Filmmaker Shirley Clarke’s celebrated 1985 documentary captures Ornette’s
pioneering originality through music videos, dramatic scenes, and raw footage.
Original members and friends of Ornette’s celebrated rule-breaking
jazz-funk band come together for this musical tribute.
Ornette pushed the envelope of classical as well as jazz,
as seen in this illuminating concert by members of Ensemble Signal.
CLOUD RIVER MOUNTAIN
Featuring Gong Linna & Bang on a Can All-Stars
July 14–15, Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
The enchanting, eccentric Chinese vocal star Gong Linna premieres a new work written for her by
Lao Luo and the Bang on a Can collective, fusing ancient Chinese myths with Western songs.
AN EVENING WITH CARLINHOS BROWN
July 15, David Geffen Hall
The Brazilian superstar returns to Lincoln Center Festival for a rare performance bursting
with his trademark driving percussion, joyful melodies, and colorful theatricality.
SUBOTNICK
Silver Apples of the Moon
Crowds and Power
July 20–22, Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
50th anniversary landmark performance of composer Morton Subotnick’s milestone
album Silver Apples of the Moon (1967), which ushered in the age of electronica
and was the first electronic work commissioned by a record company (Nonesuch).
Subotnick also premieres his media tone poem Crowds and Power,
a collaboration with vocal muse Joan La Barbara and video artist Lillevan.
NOMADIC NIGHTS: MUSIC AT THE CROSSROADS
July 25–29, Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse / Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
This five-part series highlights the Festival’s celebrated globalism with an
eclectic assortment of modern-day troubadours from the far reaches of our world.
U.S. debut
A scholar of early Polish music, she creates mesmerizing
new music for the Bilgoraj suka, a long-lost medieval ancestor of the violin.
The piano, cello, and saxophone of this New York–based trio bring the diverse sounds
and rhythms of Cuba and the Americas to life in an original brand of new music.
U.S. debut
The singer-songwriter from Cape Verde recasts the African griot tradition in a global light,
fusing traditional butuque forms with Brazilian music, Afropop, jazz, blues, and rock.
The Montréal-based band from Chad—comprised of three brothers and a friend—
uniquely blends a modern sound with traditional African music.
Le Trio Joubran: In the Shadow of Words
North American premiere
Three Palestinian brothers from Nazareth—the world’s first oud trio—present this
moving tribute to the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.
THEATER
Opening Skinner’s Box
Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
Monday–Wednesday, July 10–12 at 8:00 pm
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
North American premiere
Improbable
Adapted from the book by Lauren Slater
Directors Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson
Set Design Laura Hopkins
Lighting Design Nigel Edwards
Sound Design Adrienne Quartly
Performers Alan Cox, Stephen Harper, Tyrone Huggins,
Morven Macbeth, Kate Maravan, Paschale Straiton
“A fascinating, if at times alarming, insight into the scientific
quest for understanding what it means to be human.”
—The Times, U.K. (Four-star review)
With its trademark mix of wit, insight, and inventive stagecraft, Britain’s Improbable makes its Lincoln Center Festival debut with Opening Skinner’s Box, a whistle-stop tour of famous 20th-century psychological experiments and the stories of the people who created them, starting with still-controversial behaviorist B.F. Skinner’s notorious rat boxes. Memory, obedience, compulsion, addiction, and fear are some of the issues explored in this “remarkable piece of theater” (The Reviews Hub).
Inspired by Lauren Slater’s acclaimed 2004 book and spearheaded by Improbable’s co-artistic directors Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson, Opening Skinner’s Box is a time-traveling dialogue with the audacious scientists who set out to unlock the secrets of human behavior. Amidst ethically questionable methods, shocking results, and blinding biases, one thing becomes abundantly clear: Everything we thought we knew about ourselves is wrong.
Commissioned by Wexner Center for the Performing Arts. Co-commissioned by Lincoln Center Festival and the Brisbane Festival. Co-produced by Northern Stage and West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Running Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
While I Was Waiting
Wednesday–Friday, July 19–21 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, July 22 at 2:00 pm
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
North American premiere
Playwright Mohammad Al Attar
Director Omar Abusaada
Set Design Bissane Al Charif
Lighting Design Abdulhameed Khaleifa
Video Reem Al Ghazzi
Music Samer Saem Eldahr (Hello Psychaleppo)
With Hanan Chkir, Mohammad Alrashi, Nanda Mohammad,
Mohammad Alrefai, Reham Kassar, Mustafa Kur
Performed in Arabic with English supertitles
“Western spectators feel like they have a direct line to Syrian society in all its complexity.” —Télérama
Digging into the story of one middle-class Damascus family, the celebrated Syrian team of playwright Mohammad Al Attar and director Omar Abusaada—stars of the newest generation of Syrian theater creators—offer a gripping portrait of a country trapped in a gray area between hope and despair.
While I Was Waiting is a chilling reflection on the aftermath of political upheaval in the Syrian capital through the eyes of the family of Taim, a young man who falls into a coma after being brutally beaten by unknown attackers in Damascus. Throughout the play, Taim can only speak to the audience, but not to the other characters. The audience experiences flashbacks of traumatic events that the family has encountered, witnesses the struggles that his family faces, and hears about changes in the Syrian capital happening while Taim is unconscious. Al Attar wrote, “While I Was Waiting is an attempt to tell the story of a people who are still trying to survive—the story behind the images on screens and in newspapers and beyond the complex political analysis, all of which often ignore the fate of ordinary humans and the deep transformations happening in their lives, thoughts, and beliefs.”
In creating this play, Abusaada met and recorded the stories of real families of coma patients living in Syria at a transitional time. The play is an honest depiction of a family confronting changes in their home country and in their lives, and the fragile hope around which their lives revolve.
“We need to hear a story in a different way than how we hear it in the newspapers,” says Lincoln Center Festival director Nigel Redden. “With so many images, their impact becomes blunted. There may be millions of refugees, yet the story of five of them is more relatable. It reintroduces humanity into the story.”
Made possible in part by FACE Contemporary Theater, a program developed by FACE Foundation and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States with lead funding from the Florence Gould Foundation, Institute Français, and the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.
A co-production of Festival d'Avignon, Napoli Teatro Festival, AFAC Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, Pôle Arts de la scène - Friche La Belle de Mai (Marseille), Theater Spektakel (Zurich), Onassis Cultural Centre (Athens), Vooruit (Gent), La Bâtie Festival de Genève, Les Bancs publics - Festival Les Rencontres à l'échelle (Marseille), and Festival d'Automne à Paris.
With support from La Criée Théâtre national de Marseille, Le Tarmac (Paris), Montévidéo Marseille.
In partnership with RFI, France 24 et Monte Carlo Doualiya.
Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination
Wednesday, July 19 at 8:00 pm
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht Stage
North American premiere
Text Amos Gitai and Marie-José Sanselme
Director Amos Gitai
Lighting Designer Jean Kalman
Producer Laurent Truchot
Music Luigi Nono, Jean-Sébastien Bach, Jürg Frey, Louis Lewandowski
With Hiam Abbass, Sarah Adler
Piano Edna Stern
Soprano Keren Motseri
Violin Alexey Kochetkov
Performed in English
“A beautiful moment of reconstruction and communion.”
—Libération
On November 4, 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the architect of the Oslo Accords, was assassinated, traumatizing his country and sending shockwaves across the world. Acclaimed architect-turned-filmmaker Amos Gitai revisits the political turmoil and violence leading up to this moment in an intimate performance that blends spoken word with live music and visual projections. Two Israeli women seated at either end of a table—one Arab and one Jewish—read from the memoirs of Rabin’s widow, Leah Rabin, accompanied at points by piano, singer, and violin. In weaving these elements into a theatrical whole, Gitai expands upon the subject of his 2015 investigative film Rabin, the Last Day and its companion piece, the film diary Shalom Rabin, creating an experience existing between elegy and lullaby.
Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination premiered at the 2016 Avignon Festival, where it was hailed a poetic fable “reconstructing the past and renewing the conscience of humanity” (Inferno Magazine). Amos Gitai is Israel’s most internationally recognized filmmaker, and some say its most controversial and intrepid. He is most well-known for his prize-winning documentaries and feature films surrounding the Jewish-Arab conflict, which strive to make sense of the endless cycle of violence in the Middle East.
Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
To the End of the Land
Monday–Thursday, July 24–27 at 7:30 pm
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
North American premiere
The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv / Ha’Bima National Theatre
Based on the novel by David Grossman
Adaptation and Direction Hanan Snir
Set Design Roni Toren
Music Ori Vidislavski
Movement Miri Lazar
Costume Design Polina Adamov
Dramaturg Noga Ashkenazi
Lighting Design Roni Cohen
With Efrat Ben Zur, Dror Keren, Amnon Wolf, Daniel Sabbag,
David Bilenca, Guy Messika, Rinat Matatov, Amos Boaron, Harel Morad,
Nir Barak, Eldar Brentman, Vitaly Podlovsky
Performed in Hebrew with English supertitles
“A gripping drama.” —Tablet Magazine
Israel’s leading municipal theater The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv and Ha’Bima National Theatre of Israel—both incubators for playwrights, directors, actors and designers—co-produce To the End of the Land, the phenomenal production that played to sold-out houses last year in Israel. The drama is based on Israeli writer David Grossman’s critically acclaimed and deeply disturbing novel about Israel’s future.
The story explores the intertwining threads of love and family between Ora, Ilan, and Avram, who meet as teenagers in a hospital during the Six-Day War in 1967. Decades later, when Ora’s son volunteers to go to the Lebanese front, she escapes with Avram to the Galilee, clinging to the superstitious hope that if she can’t be found, she can’t be “notified” of her son’s death.
In director Hanan Snir’s poignant staging, the characters’ ultimately aimless journey, with no defined destination and a constant intrusion of the past, becomes a conduit for the unrelenting sense of existential fragility at the heart of the human condition. To the End of the Land is a story not simply of violence and tragedy, but of warmth and love and the strength of families in war-torn Israel.
With support of Israel’s Office of Cultural Affairs in North America
Running Time: 2 hours 30 minutes, including intermission
ADDITIONAL INFO:
CIRCUS ARTS
Il N’est Pas Encore Minuit
Wednesday–Saturday, July 19–22 at 8:00 pm
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
New York premiere
Collective Choreography Compagnie XY
Artistic Collaboration Loïc Touzé, David Gubitch, Valentin Mussou, Emmanuel Dariès
Acrobatics Collaborator Nordine Allal
Lighting Design Vincent Millet
Costume Designer Nadia Léon
Lindy Hop Instructors Aude Guiffes, Philippe Mencia
“A pure marvel conquering the sky.”
—Le Monde
Daredevil feats without safety nets combine with poetic sensibility in this “heart-stopping” new piece (Le Progrès) from renowned French circus collective Compagnie XY. In this collaboration with choreographer Loïc Touzé, the 22 acrobats of XY reflect on the ways in which humanity deals with instability and imbalance.
With its uniquely rhythmic and expressive brand of physical theater, the troupe draws not only gasps of wonder from the crowd, but also meaning and beauty from the ephemeral arrangements that appear and vanish as they catapult through the air. Skillful bodies in motion evoke the full range of human experience, from the uplift and weightlessness of euphoria to the inevitable fall and a new beginning. The sum of it all is an awe-inspiring experience for audiences of all ages.
“There’s no attempt at hiding the feats that they do,” says Nigel Redden. “They do things that leave your stomach in your mouth, because you just don’t think they are possible. They prove it is possible to take anything and make it artful.”
Running Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
DANCE
Sleeping Water
Thursday–Saturday, July 13–15 at 7:30 pm
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
North American premiere
Saburo Teshigawara / KARAS
Choreography, Scenic, Lighting, and Costume Design Saburo Teshigawara
Dancers Saburo Teshigawara, Rihoko Sato,
Maria Chiara Mezzadri, Eri Wanikawa, Rika Kato, Junya Okazaki
Special guest Aurélie Dupont
“Teshigawara appears buffeted by an invisible wind.”
—The New York Times
Japan’s preeminent choreographer-dancer Saburo Teshigawara and his troupe KARAS return to Lincoln Center Festival with his newest work featuring the former étoile and new Director of Dance of the Paris Opera Ballet, Aurélie Dupont. Sleeping Water unfolds in a dreamlike landscape that invites the audience into “a floating world without borders” (RFI Radio France), that inhabits the border zone between wakefulness and sleep. The work is set to a soundtrack of Bach, Schnittke, the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black,” and ambient electronica and incorporates evocative stagecraft, such as transparent furniture, floating set pieces, and shimmering surfaces.
Long a champion of Teshigawara, past Lincoln Center Festivals have featured works including his haunting Bones in Pages, which received accolades at its North American premiere in 2006, and the mesmerizing solo Miroku, which he danced at Festival 2010.
Teshigawara’s finely honed sculptural sensibilities and powerful sense of composition, his command of space, keen interest in music, fascination with contrasts and extremes, and his distinctive dance movements all come together to create a unique world of sight, sound, and movement. As a choreographer and dancer with KARAS (“crow” in Japanese), he continues to experiment with visual art, film, and video, as well as scenic, lighting, and costume design, to create bold and distinctive work.
“You feel with Teshigawara that he is a Japanese artist who has relished traveling the world,” says Redden. “He looks at other ideas, but very much from a Japanese sensibility where sometimes simplicity is the most important aspect of a work.”
Production: Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Aichi Arts Center, Hyogo Performing Arts Center, KARAS
Administration: KARAS
Production, touring: Richard Castelli - Epidemic
Supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in fiscal 2017.
Corporate Support is provided by Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A), Inc., Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, J.C.C. Fund of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York, and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal U.S.A., Inc.
Made possible in part by The Harkness Foundation for Dance.
Running Time: 70 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Jewels
Bolshoi Ballet, Makhar Vaziev, Ballet Director
New York City Ballet, Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief
Paris Opera Ballet, Aurélie Dupont, Director of Dance
New York City Ballet Orchestra
Music Director and Conductor Andrew Litton
Thursday, July 20 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, July 22 at 2:30 and 7:30 pm
Emeralds: Paris Opera Ballet; Rubies: New York City Ballet; Diamonds: Bolshoi Ballet
Friday, July 21 at 7:30 pm; Sunday, July 23 at 2:30 pm
Emeralds: Paris Opera Ballet; Rubies: Bolshoi Ballet; Diamonds: New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust
“The summary of Balanchine's work and life and loves.”
—The New Yorker
Legendary choreographer George Balanchine’s Jewels was created for the New York City Ballet in 1967 and is considered a pivotal masterpiece of 20th-century dance, a beloved and essential staple of the repertory. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its landmark premiere, which took place on April 13, 1967, at Lincoln Center’s New York State Theater (now the David H. Koch Theater), Lincoln Center Festival presents an unprecedented, international tribute. For the occasion, three of the world’s leading ballet companies—Bolshoi Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Paris Opera Ballet—will share the stage for five historic performances in the theater where Jewels was first performed.
In what is known as the first three-act, plotless ballet, Balanchine’s choreography for Jewels is inspired by precious gems—Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds—each showcasing a different international style of ballet. Emeralds, with music by Fauré, represents the French style and evokes dreamy romanticism; Rubies, with music by Stravinsky, conjures the Jazz Age in America with its wit, energy, and exuberance; and Diamonds, with music by Tchaikovsky, epitomizes the grandeur of the Russian style.
The New York City Ballet Orchestra, under the direction of NYCB Music Director Andrew Litton, will perform for the complete engagement. New York City Ballet’s original production featured set designs by Peter Harvey, who redesigned NYCB’s current production in 2004; lighting by Ronald Bates; and costumes by Karinska. For Lincoln Center Festival, Jewels will be performed with the sets from the current NYCB production by Peter Harvey, lighting by NYCB’s Resident Lighting Director Mark Stanley, and costumes from each company’s current production, with the Bolshoi Ballet wearing costumes by Elena Zaitseva, the New York City Ballet wearing Karinska’s original costume designs, and the Paris Opera Ballet wearing costumes by Christian Lacroix.
Casting will be announced at a later date.
Made possible in part by the members of the Producers Circle. Major support provided by the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust. Additional support provided by Jennie L. and Richard K. DeScherer, Lepercq Charitable Foundation in Memory of Paul Lepercq, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, and The Joelson Foundation.
Bolshoi Ballet gratefully acknowledges the support of its General Sponsor, Credit Suisse.
Travelers is the global sponsor for New York City Ballet.
Running Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
The Taming of the Shrew
Ballet in two acts by Jean-Christophe Maillot
Wednesday–Friday, July 26–28 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, July 29 at 2:30 and 7:30 pm
Sunday, July 30 at 2:30 pm
David H. Koch Theater
U.S. premiere
Bolshoi Ballet, Makhar Vaziev, Ballet Director
Music Dmitri Shostakovich
Choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot
Set Design Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Costume Design Augustin Maillot
Lighting & Video Projection Dominique Drillot
Dramatist Jean Rouaud
New York City Ballet Orchestra
Conductor Igor Dronov
“Furiously funny battle of the sexes…bold and fast-witted.”
—Guardian (U.K.)
The Bolshoi Ballet will dance the U.S. premiere of The Taming of the Shrew by French choreographer and Director of Ballets de Monte-Carlo Jean-Christophe Maillot. The full-evening ballet in two acts premiered in Moscow in July 2014. Based on the Shakespearean comedy, the critically acclaimed ballet is set to musical selections from film scores composed by Shostakovich, including Moscow, Cheryomushki; Counterplan; Alone; Hamlet; Pirogov; The Gadfl;, Sofia Perovskaya; and The Great Citizen, as well as excerpts from Symphony No. 9, Op. 70, and String Quartet No. 8. At its premiere, Agence France-Presse called Shrew “scintillating” and said Maillot “has devised a sensual and modern version of the comedy.”
For his ballet, created as a commission for the Bolshoi, Maillot recasts the tempestuous lovers Katherina and Petruchio as equals in a witty battle of the sexes. Returning to his classical roots, Maillot shapes a virtuosic and fast-paced work that fully exploits the company’s signature strengths—technical brilliance and character development.
Reviewing performances by the Bolshoi this past summer at the Royal Opera House, the Guardian (U.K.) described the ballet as “a bold rethinking of Shakespeare” and hailed Maillot for “reclaiming the Shrew in this funny, fast-witted version for the Bolshoi…a smartly arranged patchwork of Shostakovich extracts, splendidly performed, which highlight the satire, playfulness, and very Russian grotesquerie that he brings to the material.”
Made possible in part by The Harkness Foundation for Dance
Bolshoi Ballet gratefully acknowledges the support of its General Sponsor, Credit Suisse.
Running Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
MUSIC
Ornette Coleman: Tomorrow is the Question
July 11–16
“One of the most powerful and contentious innovators in the history of jazz.”
—The New York Times
“It’s not that he thought outside the box. He didn’t accept that there were any boxes.”
— Denardo Coleman, drummer and Ornette Coleman’s son
By 1967, the groundbreaking composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman had already established himself as a disruptor of the established order of jazz. In 1997 Lincoln Center Festival, in collaboration with Ornette and his son Denardo, presented a multipart series celebrating the jazz legend’s work as a composer, innovator and performer. Twenty years later, with this four-part music and film series, Lincoln Center Festival reunites with Denardo Coleman to celebrate the life and legacy of Ornette Coleman, who passed away in 2015.
Ornette wrote and played in a way that seemed intuitive, but which was grounded in his deep knowledge of all the rules of classical harmony and the blues. To him, each key on the piano was a distinct “color.” He talked about the “grammar” of his particular music, freed from a tonal center. He gave his theory of things the name “harmolodics.”
In the words of Nigel Redden: “Ornette is a quintessentially American artist in the sense that he explored, tried out new ideas, broke boundaries not just in jazz but in the classical world too, and truly believed in what he was doing. We’re still digesting his music, and it’s time to hear it again.”
***
Ornette Coleman Series
Naked Lunch with Live Orchestral Accompaniment
Tuesday, July 11 at 7:30 pm
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht Stage
Film by David Cronenberg
Based on the novel by William S. Burroughs
Score by Ornette Coleman and Howard Shore
Ensemble Signal
Saxophones Ravi Coltrane and Henry Threadgill
Bass Charnett Moffett
Drums Denardo Coleman
“A fascinating, demanding, mordantly funny picture.”
—Variety
David Cronenberg’s 1991 film inspired by William S. Burroughs’s hallucinatory novel owes much of its surrealist mood to its famous score—a collaboration between Howard Shore and Ornette Coleman that originally featured Ornette and the London Symphony Orchestra.
In this screening and live performance, saxophone legends Ravi Coltrane and Henry Threadgill summon Ornette’s spirit in otherworldly riffs and fevered tangents while Ensemble Signal evokes Shore’s shadowy orchestral textures.
Burroughs’s novel—an experimental, nonlinear set of vignettes about a junkie known sometimes as William Lee—was released in 1959, the same year as Coleman’s album The Shape of Jazz to Come, and the two artists both inhabited the same fringes. In the film score, one can even detect Coleman’s composition “Midnight Sunrise” from the album Dancing in Your Head (Burroughs was at the 1973 recording session).
Running Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
***
Ornette Coleman Series
Ornette: Made in America (1985)
Wednesday, July 12 at 6:00 pm
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
Documentary film by Shirley Clarke
“A movie that captures the rhythms, images, and myths
of the America that gave birth to Ornette Coleman”
—San Francisco Chronicle
True to the spirit of its subject, Shirley Clarke’s celebrated 1985 portrait of Ornette Coleman defies traditional documentary formats. Complementing documentary footage of the musician’s triumphant return to his home city of Fort Worth, Texas, the film includes reconstructed dramatic scenes and early music videos that highlight Ornette’s originality and the soft-spoken confidence that endeared him to those who knew him personally. William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Buckminster Fuller, Don Cherry, Yoko Ono, Charlie Haden, Robert Palmer, Jayne Cortez, and John Rockwell are all featured in this kaleidoscopic portrait of an American genius.
Running Time: 2 hours
ADDITIONAL INFO:
***
Ornette Coleman Series
Prime Time: A Reunion
Friday, July 14 at 8:00 pm
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht Stage
Special guests to include:
Trumpet Wallace Roney
Saxophone Kidd Jordan, David Murray, Joshua Redman
and more!
Prime Time band members to include:
Guitar Charlie Ellerbe, Kenny Wessel
Tablas Badal Roy
Bass Al Macdowell, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Chris Walker
Drums Calvin Weston, Denardo Coleman
Keyboards Dave Bryant
“A renewing jolt of pure energy.” —The New York Times
“Dense, cubist interpretations of funk and soul.” —FACT magazine
Original members and friends of Ornette Coleman’s celebrated jazz-funk fusion band, Prime Time, come together for a one-night-only musical tribute. With 1976’s Dancing in Your Head, the first album featuring the set of musicians that would become Prime Time, Ornette Coleman broke through to an entirely new realm of imagination. With two electric guitarists, two drummers, one (sometimes two) electric bassists, and Coleman’s horn in the center, Prime Time would later become Ornette’s primary vehicle for exploring how his system of “harmolodics” could fit into groove-based music.
This performance is dedicated to Bern Nix, an original member of Prime Time who passed away May 31, 2017.
Running Time: 2 hours 40 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
***
Ornette Coleman Series
Ornette: Chamber Music
Sunday, July 16 at 2:00 pm
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
Ensemble Signal
Conductor Brad Lubman
Trinity (Fantasy for Solo Violin), 1986
Forms and Sounds, 1967
In Honor of NASA and the Planetary Soloists, 1986
Oboe: Jackie Leclair
The Sacred Mind of Johnny Dolphin, 1984
Trumpet: Seneca Black
“An extended tone painting, meant to portray a meeting of
revolutionaries in which everyone makes a speech”
—The New York Times
Even as he pushed the boundaries of improvisation, Ornette was also focused on capturing what he heard in his head in through-composed works. His orchestral piece Skies of America, performed at Lincoln Center Festival in 1997, and numerous chamber works earned him accolades from many classical music innovators, including Virgil Thomson and Leonard Bernstein, who often invited Ornette to performances and rehearsals at Lincoln Center. Members of Ensemble Signal will illuminate this intriguing corner of Coleman’s artistry.
Running Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Cloud River Mountain
Friday and Saturday, July 14–15 at 8:00 pm
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
Featuring Gong Linna
Bang on a Can All-Stars
Composers Lao Luo, Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe
“Whether belting, keening or murmuring, insinuating or girlish, Ms. Gong is a star.”
—The New York Times
A spectacular journey into Chinese myths and ancient poetry, Cloud River Mountain combines the stories of the past with the sounds of the future. In a rare U.S. appearance, Chinese vocal star Gong Linna joins New York's electric Bang on a Can All-Stars in a brilliantly staged new work co-composed by Lao Luo and Bang on a Can co-artistic directors Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe. Weaving together ancient Chinese storytelling and Western songwriting, Cloud River Mountain honors the sound worlds of China and the West, fusing texts sung in both Mandarin and English with sophisticated chamber music, rock, folk, and jazz. Cloud River Mountain is inspired by the tales of gods, spirits, and the world of the shamans from the Chu Ci anthology (also known as Songs of the South) by the famous Chinese poet Qu Yuan. It offers an inspiring, poignant, and ultimately contemporary answer to the question of what a new and authentic collaboration of Chinese and American art music may provide.
The “extraordinary” and charismatic Gong Linna (The New York Times) is a classically trained Chinese singer from Beijing, passionate about creating a new “Chinese Art Music” but who is also a very recognizable pop star in China. In 2010, her performance of the song “Tan Te” on Chinese national television to billions of viewers made her an overnight sensation, vaulting her to celebrity status. Her stratospheric vocalizations and adventurous artistic range that embraces Chinese folk, pop, and avant-garde music has drawn comparisons to Björk. In recent years, she has starred on television in China—but she is virtually unknown to the Western world.
Bang on a Can co-founder and composer Michael Gordon became mesmerized by Gong Linna during visits to China, originally having seen her on Chinese television and then having subsequently met her and her partner, composer Lao Luo. The disparate compositional styles of Lao Luo, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and David Lang as interpreted by Gong Linna and the Bang on a Can All-Stars meld together in this unique new work.
Cantaloupe Music releases a recording of Cloud River Mountain on July 21, 2017.
Running Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
An Evening with Carlinhos Brown
Saturday, July 15 at 8:00 pm
David Geffen Hall
“I believe that my music will cross borders, because it is a
music open to the world, open to everyone.”
—Carlinhos Brown
"These fusions, musical and visual, feel fresh; they come off as impulsive ideas that only the rare musician has the bravery to enact...a complete world unto itself, both messy and brilliant."
—The New York Times
In a rare New York performance, Brazilian superstar Carlinhos Brown returns to Lincoln Center Festival for another joyous global party. Coming of age just a generation after Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, the songwriter, percussionist, and record producer from Salvador, Bahia is one of today’s most prominent torchbearers of the Bahian sound. He is considered a pioneer in Tropicalia, an artistic movement that combines Brazilian and African rhythms with rock and roll, folkloric music with pop. Thirty of his songs have topped the Brazilian charts, he has won two Latin Grammys, and he was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Original Song Category, for Real in Rio.
His famously electrifying stage show features virtuosic percussion, a full band that includes electric guitars and brass, colorful costumes, and non-stop dance that inevitably get audiences on their feet. Deeply committed to improving lives in his hometown of Candeal, Brown and his artistry also glows with generosity, creating ecstatic moments of community and celebration wherever he goes.
In the 1980s, Brown began to gather people in Candeal and taught them to play percussion patterns. This project evolved into the formation of his band Timbalada, which grew in popularity and recorded several successful albums, with proceeds going towards repairing roads and homes in Candeal. Following Timbalada’s success, Brown released numerous solo albums and has collaborated with artists such as Sergio Mendes, Bonga, Marisa Monte, Los Van Van, Shakira, and others. He was also featured in the kick-off song for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Brown is recognized for his efforts in rebuilding the cultural life of Brazilian communities; he established the Pracatum Music School in Candeal, which is dedicated to music education and community assistance and development programs near his hometown.
Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Subotnick
Silver Apples of the Moon (50th anniversary)
Crowds and Power (World premiere)
Thursday–Saturday, July 20–22 at 8:30 pm
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
Composer/Live Electronics Morton Subotnick
Live Imagery Lillevan
Actor/Singer Joan La Barbara
“Almost 50 years on, Silver Apples of the Moon still sounds arrestingly contemporary.” —Guardian (U.K.)
One of the most inventive minds in music—Morton Subotnick, the pioneering American composer of electronic music—performs two works that bookend 50 continuous years of avant-garde vision. First, Subotnick presides over his onstage studio, performing his 1967 technological and artistic masterpiece Silver Apples of the Moon live. A crucial milestone in early electronic music, Silver Apples of the Moon was instantly iconic when it was released by Nonesuch Records 50 years ago, influencing generations of artists including Paul McCartney, Kraftwerk, and Daft Punk. “As this was the first electronic album ever commissioned by a classical record label, it was a radical departure from tradition; I felt programming it would give us a sense of that time,” Nigel Redden says. This landmark live performance will be performed on a modern-day version of the first Buchla synthesizer (the original is now in the Library of Congress).
Then out of complete darkness emerges Crowds and Power, a “media tone poem” for voice, electronic sound, and live imagery inspired by Elias Canetti’s troubling and eternally relevant book. Intrepid vocalist Joan La Barbara—a diva of the avant-garde—performs the central character and Berlin-based video artist Lillevan provides a live and striking visual environment in this world premiere performance.
Subotnick was one of the first composers to work with the Buchla modular synthesizer—one of the earliest synthesizers—and his music is believed to be among the early influences on techno. Subotnick was a champion of the distinctive expressivity of electronic music; while other early electronic composers focused on the abstract constructions of sine waves and oscillations, Subotnick discovered rhythm and groove in his music that elicited the characteristics of acoustic instruments while still highlighting the timbres, textures, and pitch manipulations that are unique to electronic media.
Commissioned by Lincoln Center Festival and the Harvestworks Artist in Residency Program.
Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Nomadic Nights: Music at the Crossroads
A five-part series featuring musical snapshots from the far reaches of our world.
July 25–29
Nomadic Nights Series
Maria Pomianowska
Tuesday, July 25 at 8:00 pm
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
U.S. debut
Suka Maria Pomianowska, Aleksandra Kauf
Patrycja Napierala, Iwona Rapacz
“The performances are exemplary and the instruments
themselves are fascinating… a feast for the ears.”
—WorldMusic.co.uk
In the 1990s, with only a 19th-century painting as a guide, classically trained Polish musician, composer and teacher Maria Pomianowska painstakingly reconstructed the Bilgoraj suka, a lost medieval ancestor of the modern violin. Since then, she has been crafting a new repertoire for the instrument, blending the plaintive melodies of Polish folk music with the flavors she has absorbed in her musical travels across North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. With earthy vocals and a small instrumental ensemble, she will spin a hypnotic musical experience that invokes powerful ancient spirits.
Pomianowska has released over 20 recordings and is celebrated for her ability to revive ancient traditions as inspiration for music of our time. Whether interpreting Chopin’s folk tunes with instrumentalists from a variety of cultures or composing a piece commissioned by Yo-Yo Ma for cello and suka, there is no limit to her imagination and ability to plumb the depths of musical history to uncover new inspiration for the 21st century.
Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
***
Nomadic Nights Series
Bohemian Trio
Wednesday, July 26 at 8:00 pm
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
Piano Orlando Alonso
Cello Yves Dharamraj
Saxophone Yosvany Terry
“Together, these musicians honor heritages that blur more than reinforce borders…
grounded more in creativity than genre.”
—The Wall Street Journal
The piano, cello, and saxophone of New York–based Bohemian Trio bring the diverse sounds and rhythms of Cuba and the Americas to life in an original brand of new music. With roots in Cuba, France, Trinidad, and the U.S., the trio shifts intuitively between classical, jazz, and world music. At the heart of their collaboration are Yosvany Terry’s original works, which are driven by Afro-Cuban rhythms, sweeping classical melodies, and a touch of improvisation. In this intimate performance, these “talented and innovative musicians with an ear open to the world” (Post and Courier) will perform works from their newly released album Okónkolo (on Innova) as well as recently commissioned pieces by the Trio.
Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
***
Nomadic Nights Series
Tcheka
Thursday, July 27 at 8:00 pm
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
U.S. debut
“One of the world’s greatest ‘pop-griots’ or storytellers.” —Pop Matters
This solo show features one of today’s most engaging torchbearers of the African griot tradition of musical storytelling. Tcheka is a Cape Verdean singer, songwriter, and guitarist who is part of a growing group of post-colonial Cape Verdean artists reclaiming traditional musical styles. He has built a distinctly 21st-century catalog of songs influenced by batuku and other indigenous genres, Brazilian music, Afropop, jazz, blues, and rock. With expressive vocals and dynamic guitar style, he draws audiences into universal themes of love, loss, beauty, social justice, and what it means to be home. Tcheka’s fifth album will be released in 2017.
In addition to this Lincoln Center Festival appearance, Tcheka will present two concerts for Lincoln Center Education, as part of its Summer Forum professional development labs.
Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
***
Nomadic Nights Series
H’Sao
Friday, July 28 at 8:00 pm
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
Vocal/Guitar Caleb Rimtobaye
Vocal/Keyboard Israel Rimtobaye
Vocal/Bass Moss Rimtobaye
Vocal/Drums Dono Ledjebgue
"Mix of multilingual a cappella singing, expert musicianship and stunning dance…
the euphoric high the band clearly gets from performing was infectious." —The Coast (Canada)
Growing up singing the distinctive a cappella harmonies of their native Chad (which shares land borders with six countries), the three Rimtobaye siblings and childhood friend Dono Bei Ledjebgue have been immersed in the new world gospel, soul, R&B, reggae, and jazz of Montréal, their adoptive home for the past 15 years. Those bright vocals, along with joyful choreography and charismatic showmanship, will fuel H’Sao’s vibrant live performance.
Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
***
Nomadic Nights Series
Le Trio Joubran
In the Shadow of Words
Saturday, July 29 at 8:00 pm
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
North American premiere
Oud Samir Joubran, Wissam Joubran, Adnan Joubran
Percussion Youssef Hbeisch
“Quietly epic.” —Guardian (U.K.)
“Among the most inventive musicians in the Arab world” (Guardian, U.K.), the three Palestinian brothers Samir, Wissam, and Adnan Joubran each play the oud, a pear-shaped string instrument that has been crafted and played by their family for generations. They seamlessly blend traditional Arabic music with inflections derived from jazz, rock, and flamenco. Originally from Nazareth, the brothers now record and perform all over the world and were featured in the soundtrack of the award-winning film The Last Flight (2009). At this intimate performance, Le Trio Joubran pay tribute to one of their most influential collaborators—the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish who died in 2008. Reading his poem “The Dice Player,” among others, Darwish’s recorded voice floats over the trio’s winding melodies while images and the poem’s words are projected, sparking a soulful dialogue between worlds.
Running Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
ADDITIONAL INFO:
BIOS: OPENING SKINNER’S BOX
Improbable
Improbable is one of the UK’s most inventive companies. Led by Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson, it uses improvisation to create remarkable shows, support and nurture artists, and facilitate social change. Improbable believes that art is for everyone and that society needs a cultural shift that puts creativity at the heart of everyday life.
Improbable creates an astonishing breadth of work, from intimate, small-scale works, such as improvised puppetry piece Animo, to the pioneering and hugely influential Lifegame, and massive outdoor spectacles like Sticky. Its work also includes a number of operas, including several collaborations with Philip Glass.
The company has worked extensively in the United States, from the Olivier and International Opera Award–nominated Akhnaten at LA Opera to the acclaimed Panic at the Wexner Centre, Ohio. Opening Skinner’s Box marks Improbable’s seventh production in New York, where previous shows include the 1998 OBIE-award winning 70 Hill Lane at Performance Space 122 and Satyagraha at the Metropolitan Opera. Improbable returns to the MET in Spring 2018 with Cosi Fan Tutte.
Phelim McDermott
Phelim McDermott is a founding member of Improbable. He has won various awards such as an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment, TMA Awards for Best Touring Production and Best Director, and a Critics Circle Best Designer Award. He was awarded a National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts fellowship and an honorary doctorate from the Middlesex University.
Lee Simpson
Lee Simpson is a founding member of Improbable, a Comedy Store Player, and one of Paul Merton's Impro Chums. He has also been a croupier, cinema projectionist, and breakfast show DJ. Simpson has written plays, appeared in sitcoms and in some films, participated on Radio 4 panel shows, and once did a very poor poodle act at the London Palladium. He feels this lack of direction is the essence of his work.
***
BIOS: ORNETTE COLEMAN: TOMORROW IS THE QUESTION
Ornette Coleman
Since the late 1950s, when Ornette Coleman burst onto the New York jazz scene with his legendary engagement at the Five Spot, Coleman has been teaching the world new ways of listening to music. In 1958, with the release of his debut album Something Else, it was clear that Coleman had ushered in a new era in jazz history. With core musical partners trumpeter Don Cherry, double bass player Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins, their music, freed from the prevailing conventions of harmony, rhythm, and melody, transformed the art form. From 1959 through the rest of the 60s, Coleman released more than twenty critically acclaimed albums on the Atlantic and Blue Note labels, most of which are now recognized as jazz classics.
In the classical realm, Coleman studied trumpet and violin, expanding the scope of his repertoire to include string quartets, woodwind quintets, and symphonic works. Coleman recorded his symphony Skies of America with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, released on Columbia in 1972.
After Coleman’s journeys to villages in Morocco and Nigeria in the 1970s, he created a new sound that was full of his trademark musical theory “Harmolodics,” which led to the creation of his electric band Prime Time. In the next decade, more surprises included trendsetting albums such as Song X with guitarist Pat Metheny, and Virgin Beauty featuring the late Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia, as well as works on the soundtracks for the films Naked Lunch and Philadelphia.
In 1994, Ornette Coleman was named a MacArthur Fellow and in 1997, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2007, Coleman’s recording Sound Grammar was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Coleman has been given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and The Shape Of Jazz To Come was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015, the same year he passed away.
Denardo Coleman
Denardo Coleman made his debut on drums at the age of ten on The Empty Foxhole, an album with his father Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden, released on Blue Note in 1966. He began touring with his father by the mid 1980s, and he also became his manager. Denardo went on to produce several Ornette Coleman recordings, including the historical double recording In All Languages featuring Prime Time along with Ornette Coleman’s groundbreaking original quartet with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. Denardo has been involved with many other projects—none more enriching than the work he has done with his mother Jayne Cortez, one of America's pre-eminent contemporary poets. With the Jayne Cortez and the Firespitters group, he collaborated on five recordings, including Taking the Blues Back Home. Denardo has just launched Song X Records and Films; its first release is "Celebrate Ornette,” a box set that includes multiple DVDs, CDs, and LPs, including the last performance by Ornette Coleman, who passed away in 2015.
Shirley Clarke
Born October 2, 1919 in New York, Shirley Brimberg Clarke started out as a dancer, studying with such innovative choreographers as Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, and Doris Humphrey. Eventually Clarke turned her talents to cinema, becoming an esteemed filmmaker at a time when few women worked in the field. Her early shorts reflected her lifelong love of dance along with a growing mastery of the new medium. In her award-winning films, Clarke captured movement on film in a new way, eschewing close-ups in favor of long takes and innovative editing. An active member and advocate of New York’s independent film community, Clarke later turned her attention to social-issue filmmaking. Despite the success of her fourth feature, the 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason, Clarke found it increasingly difficult to get financing for her films. From 1975 to 1985, she redirected her talents to teaching film and video production at UCLA. Clarke’s fifth and final feature, Ornette: Made in America was a well-received portrait of the eccentric musical genius and a cinematic comeback for Clarke. Once again, she was on the cutting edge of film style, weaving documentary footage, video art, music videos, and architecture into a vibrant collage that mirrored Coleman’s groundbreaking jazz. She died of a stroke in Boston in 1997.
Ensemble Signal
Ensemble Signal, described by The New York Times as “one of the most vital groups of its kind,” is a New York–based ensemble dedicated to offering broad audiences access to a diverse range of contemporary works. Since its debut in 2008, the Ensemble has performed over 100 concerts, has given the world, U.S., or New York premieres of more than 20 works, and co-produced eight recordings. Signal has performed at Lincoln Center Festival, Big Ears Festival, Zankel Hall, Tanglewood Music Festival of Contemporary Music, Ojai Music Festival, Miller Theatre, (le) Poisson Rouge, Cleveland Museum of Art, the Wordless Music Series, and the Bang on a Can Marathon. Signal has worked with artists and composers including Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Irvine Arditti, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Oliver Knussen, Hilda Paredes, and Charles Wuorinen. Recent highlights have included the performance of Steve Reich’s video opera Three Tales, as well as David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe’s video opera Shelter and a headliner performance of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians and Radio Rewrite at the 2014 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Ensemble is currently premiering a new work by Steve Reich at venues across the country.
***
BIOS: SLEEPING WATER
Saburo Teshigawara & KARAS
Dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and visual artist Saburo Teshigawara began his professional career in 1981 in his native Tokyo after formal studies in fine arts, sculpture, and classical ballet. He formed his company KARAS (which means “crow” in Japanese) in 1985 and with co-founder, dancer Kei Miyata, began creating visionary, contemporary dance-art works. His stated mission was to search for a “new form of beauty” by ignoring conventions and strict categorization in dance and to create a new language of expression fusing movement, visual arts, and music.
His work came to prominence in Japan in the late 1980s. Since the early ’90s, he and KARAS have appeared regularly in Europe, Canada, and Oceania, touring major theaters and festivals around the world. Teshigawara has created more than 45 dance works with KARAS, as well as work for the Bavarian State Ballet, Ballet Frankfurt, Nederlands Dans Theater, Paris Opera Ballet, the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, and other companies.
Teshigawara started S.T.E.P. (Saburo Teshigawara Education Project) in 1985 in partnership with the London International Festival of Theatre and The Place, to work with students and young artists on yearlong projects that culminate in formal performances. In Japan, ongoing workshops with middle- and high-school students have evolved into the “Dance of Air” performance series, which has received wide attention and critical acclaim. The year 2013 marked the opening of KARAS APPARATUS in Tokyo. The compact three-floor space, consisting of a hall, rehearsal studio, and gallery was designed specifically for creating and realizing Teshigawara's philosophy and vision.
A professor at Japan’s Rikkyo University since 2006, Teshigawara teaches movement theory and conducts workshops for the Department of Expression Studies. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Purple Ribbon prize in 2009, one of Japan’s highest honors given to artists.
***
BIOS: CLOUD RIVER MOUNTAIN
Gong Linna
Even today, with China being omnipresent in the world, Chinese superstar Gong Linna is still relatively unknown to the rest of the world. Gong Linna’s music, though steeped in Chinese tradition, defies categorization in any musical genre. Her vocal style encompasses traditional vocal techniques from Chinese opera and folk song traditions, sophisticated art songs based on classical Chinese lyrics, highly experimental songs with vocal acrobatics, and an art-pop style that is unique to Gong Linna. Born in Guizhou, a largely ethnic minority province in China known for its flamboyant singing culture, Gong Linna first performed onstage at the age of five. This led to seven years of vocal education at the Chinese Conservatory of Music, eventually a position as soloist at China’s renowned Central Chinese Orchestra, and numerous awards and prizes. After intense studies of Chinese traditional vocal techniques, Gong Linna developed her own unique style and became the most important innovator of contemporary Chinese vocal music. Today, Gong Linna is respected throughout all musical genres in China and is adored by fans who often comprise three generations of a family. Several of Gong Linna’s songs broke the mark of 100 million views, and her appearances on television are enormously popular. Gong Linna performs extensively with her own chamber music ensemble, as well as with many major Chinese orchestras, including the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Beijing Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. Besides her career on stage, Gong Linna has created a modern academic teaching system for Chinese vocal techniques, with the aim of leading more Chinese singers to find a new yet tradition-based vocal style.
Bang on a Can All-Stars
bangonacan.org/bang_on_a_can_all_stars
Formed in 1992, the Bang on a Can All-Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today’s most innovative music and have been called “the country’s most important vehicle for contemporary music” (San Francisco Chronicle). Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world, and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories. Together, the All-Stars have worked in unprecedented close collaboration with some of the most important and inspiring musicians of our time, including Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Burmese circle drum master Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Tan Dun, DJ Spooky, and many more. The group’s celebrated projects include its landmark recordings of Brian Eno’s ambient classic Music for Airports and Terry Riley’s In C, as well as live performances with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Don Byron, Iva Bittová, Thurston Moore, Owen Pallett, and others. Recent project highlights include the premiere performances and recording of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Anthracite Fields for the All-Stars and guest choir; the record release of Wolfe’s acclaimed Steel Hammer, featuring Trio Mediaeval, plus a brand new staged collaboration with SITI Company and director Anne Bogart; Field Recordings, a major new multimedia project and CD/DVD featuring over 30 commissioned works by Tyondai Braxton, Mira Calix, Anna Clyne, Bryce Dessner, Florent Ghys, Michael Gordon, Jóhann Jóhannsson, David Lang, Christian Marclay, Steve Reich, Todd Reynolds, Julia Wolfe, and more; and the world premiere performances and recording of Steve Reich’s 2x5, including a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall. With a massive repertoire of works written specifically for the group's distinctive instrumentation and style of performance, the All-Stars have become a genre in their own right. The All-Stars record on Cantaloupe Music and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal, and Nonesuch.
***
BIOS: AN EVENING WITH CARLINHOS BROWN
Carlinhos Brown
Born in 1963 in Bahia, Brazil, Carlinhos Brown has become one of the most important figures to arise from Bahia's music scene. As a songwriter, bandleader, producer, and percussionist, he mixes Afro-Brazilian music with many different styles in idiosyncratic and rhythmically rich tunes. The list of musicians he has worked with ranges from Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, Carlos Santana, and Daniela Mercury to the heavy metal band Sepultura. Famed Spanish director Fernando Trueba shot the movie El Milagro de Candeal with Brown and Bebo Valdez. His fame spread quickly after appearing on Sergio Mendes’s Grammy-winning album Brasileiro and on Bahia Black (both from 1992). Brown’s long-awaited first solo album Alfagamabetizado, released in 1996 by Virgin France, was highly successful. It was followed by Omelete Man (1998) and Bahia do Mundo – Mito e Verdade (2001). Tribalistas, a CD that he composed, produced, and played together with Marisa Monte and Arnaldo Antunes, achieved huge sales in Brazil and throughout the world, reaching No. 2 on the Italian album charts (2003). For his album Carlito Marrón (the first album released by Sony BMG Spain), Brown experimented with the Latin sound, mixing Brazilian and Cuban music. The album was honored as Best Brazilian Contemporary Pop Album at the Latin Grammy Awards 2004. He released A gente ainda nao sonhou in 2007. Since then, he brought a full Trio Elétrico to Barcelona in 2004 to celebrate the carnival of Bahia, and with Carlito Marrón, Carlinhos Brown has become a star in Spain where he now plays huge indoor and outdoor concerts.
***
BIOS: WHILE I WAS WAITING
Mohammad Al Attar
A Syrian writer and playwright born in Damascus in 1980, Mohammad Al Attar has written for many magazines and newspapers, focusing recently on the Syrian uprising. He met Omar Abusaada in 2007, which led to their first experience with a form of documentary theater. Alongside his activity as a playwright, he uses theater to lead projects with minority groups throughout the Arab world. His plays have been performed in Damascus, London, New York, Seoul, Berlin, Brussels, Edinburgh, Tunis, Athens, and Beirut. Several of them have been translated into English.
Omar Abusaada
Omar Abusaada studied at the Drama School of Damascus, his hometown. Spurred on by his professors, who were then developing new methods based on international creations, he built his own vision of a politically and socially conscious theater. Working as a playwright and director, he co-founded in 2002 the group Studio Theatre, whose first show, Insomnia, premiered in 2004. His directing credits include El affich (2006); Forgiveness, based on improvisations with a group of inmates from a youth detention center, Almirwad wa almikhala (2009); Look at the streets … this is what hope looks like (2011); Could You Please Look into the Camera? (2012); Intimacy and Syria Trojan Women (2013); and Antigone of Shatila (2014). He spent years travelling the remotest regions of Syria, Egypt, and Yemen, performing at marketplaces as a way to talk with the villagers, who sometimes joined the actors onstage. Since then, he has created shows that combine Syrian dramatic tradition and new practices, incorporating contemporary writing and documentary theater.
***
BIOS: IL N’EST PAS ENCORE MINUIT
Compagnie XY
Il N’est Pas Encore Minuit… is Compagnie XY’s latest work and follows Le Grand C (2009) and Laissez-Porter (2005)—three shows crafted by a collective of artist-acrobats unique in their field. With more than 500 performances worldwide, the company and the success of its first two shows has enabled the group to challenge acrobatic technique from a creative perspective working with large numbers of artists. Growing its ranks from six to seventeen artists in 2008, XY paved the way for an exploration of physical language and the world which it creates for its audience. It has progressively honed and refined the codes, rhythms, and styles which shape its aesthetic, and regards the creative act as a collection of ‘acrobatic phrases’—phrases which give rise to the development of skills and engagement of the body without making that its sole focus. Openness, sharing, and solidarity are all values which are as central to this process of collective writing as they are to the functioning of the company itself.
***
BIOS: YITZHAK RABIN: CHRONICLE OF AN ASSASSINATION
Amos Gitai
In 1973, when the Yom Kippur War broke out, Amos Gitai was an architecture student. The helicopter that carried him and his unit of emergency medics was shot down by a missile, an episode he alludes to years later in Kippur (2000). After the war, he started directing short films for Israeli public television, which is no longer in operation. In 1980, his first documentary, Bayit (The House), a portrait of Israelis and Palestinians who had lived in the same Jerusalem house, was censored. Two years later, the controversy created by Field Diary, shot before and during the invasion of Lebanon, drove the filmmaker to exile, a situation that inspired his first fiction features, Esther Forever (1985), Berlin-Jerusalem (1989), and Golem, the Ghost of Exile (1991). Amos Gitai returned to Israel in 1993, the year that the Oslo I Accord, promoted by Yitzhak Rabin, was signed in Washington, D.C. That marked the beginning of a period of intense activity during which he directed documentaries and fiction films—creating an erudite aesthetic dialogue between the two genres—as well as plays and supervised exhibitions. For the past 40 years, Amos Gitai has been building a body of work that is at once universal, politically conscious, and optimistic, intrinsically marrying the intimate, the political, and the poetic to pursue a deep quest for hope, without losing his critical edge.
***
BIOS: JEWELS
The Bolshoi Ballet
One of the oldest and largest ballet companies in the world, the Bolshoi Ballet, now celebrating its 241st season, is renowned for its unique style, characterized by true virtuosity and incredible stage presence, and for combining great classical tradition with a fresh approach. Known throughout its illustrious history for championing new work, the Bolshoi Ballet was the first company to stage Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Minkus’s Don Quixote and continues to expand its repertory in current times with new works such as The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, and A Hero of Our Time. The hallmark of the company is the dancers, whose range and artistic virtuosity harken back to legends such as Galina Ulanova, Vladimir Vasiliev, Maya Plisetskaya, and Ekaterina Maximova. Much of the Bolshoi’s legacy can be attributed to Yuri Grigorovich, who was the artistic director for more than 30 years and who will celebrate his 90th birthday this season. Today’s Bolshoi artists, Svetlana Zakharova, Maria Alexandrova, Ekaterina Krysanova, Vladislav Lantratov, Artem Ovcharenko, Semion Tchudin, Denis Rodkin, and others—coached by Liudmila Semeniaka, Marina Kondratieva, Svetlana Adyrchayeva, Nikolai Fadeechev, Boris Akimov, Alexandr Vetrov, and others—ensure that under the leadership of Makhar Vaziev the Bolshoi’s standards are held as high as ever. The Bolshoi last performed in New York in 2014 as part of Lincoln Center Festival when it danced Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and Spartacus. This will be the company’s first U.S. appearance since Vaziev, former director of the Mariinsky Ballet and La Scala Ballet, was appointed Ballet Director in 2016.
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is one of the foremost dance companies in the world, with an unparalleled repertory of ballets—most of them created for NYCB—many of which are considered modern masterpieces. The company was founded in 1948 by arts patron Lincoln Kirstein and legendary choreographer George Balanchine, who served as Ballet Master of NYCB from its inception until his death, in 1983, and created a company of dancers known for their speed and musicality. In 1949, Jerome Robbins joined the company as associate artistic director. In 1964 NYCB moved to its current home at Lincoln Center’s New York State Theater (now the David H. Koch Theater), which was built especially for Balanchine and NYCB. Now under the direction of Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins and Executive Director Katherine Brown, the company has more than 90 dancers, a 62-member orchestra, an official school (School of American Ballet), an institute for choreography (New York Choreographic Institute), and an annual 21-week season in New York City. Widely acknowledged for its enduring contributions to dance, NYCB is committed to promoting creative excellence and nurturing a new generation of dancers and choreographers.
Paris Opera Ballet
OperaDeParis.fr/en/artists/ballet
The origins of the Paris Opera Ballet date to 1661 when Louis XIV established the Royal Academy of Dance and merged it with the Royal Academy of Music in 1669. It was here that theatrical dance flourished and evolved during the 18th and early 19th centuries, and the forms and techniques of classical ballet emerged, to be shaped and honed by generations of virtuoso dancers and choreographers. While maintaining its great historic traditions and classical ballets by such eminent dancers and choreographers as Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, along with 20th-century works by innovators such as Maurice Béjart, Serge Lifar, and Rudolf Nureyev, the company has over the last 20 years built a large repertory of works created for it by celebrated contemporary choreographers, including Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Jirí Kylián, Susanne Linke, Édouard Lock, Wayne McGregor, Benjamin Millepied, Angelin Preljocaj, Alexei Ratmansky, Saburo Teshigawara, and Sasha Waltz, to name a few. The Paris Opera Ballet is composed of 154 dancers, drawn, for the most part, from the Paris Opera Ballet School directed by Elisabeth Platel. The average age is around 25, making this one of the most youthful of today’s companies. Aurélie Dupont, a former étoile who retired in 2015, officially became Paris Opera’s Director of Dance in August 2016. The festival performances will mark the company’s first U.S. appearance since she assumed the directorship.
***
BIOS: SUBOTNICK
Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick is one of the pioneers in the development of electronic music and an innovator in works involving new media, including interactive computer music systems. The work that brought Subotnick celebrity was Silver Apples of the Moon (1966–7), commissioned by Nonesuch Records, marking the first time an original large-scale composition had been created specifically for the disc. It has become a modern classic, and in 2009, it became one of only 400 recordings entered into the National Recording Registry of Works at the Library of Congress. Subotnick’s current projects involve developing innovative musical creative tools for young children, including an iPad app, Pitch Painter, a series of CD-ROMs, and an online K–6 curriculum in musical creativity and Ear Training. Morton Subotnick’s Music Academy (http://www.msmusicacademy.com) has just been launched. He tours extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe as a composer/performer and lecturer.
Lillevan
Lillevan is an animation, video, and media artist. He is perhaps best known as a founding member of the visual/music group Rechenzentrum (1997–2008). He has performed and collaborated with many artists from a wide array of genres, from opera to installation, minimal electronic experimentalism to dance and classical music. Lillevan has performed and exhibited all over the globe and at major media festivals. Since the mid-’90s he has investigated non-narrative facets of film, which has led to completely abstract works, collage explorations of film history, interactive works for dance groups, and more. His focus is often on the musicality of his imagery, thus defining it as an instrument in its own right, as opposed to accompanying music. In Lillevan’s world, intensity and texture are more important than narrative and figure. He explores the relationships between an image’s elements and the viewing eye, between the eye, the mind and the soul.
Joan La Barbara
Composer/performer Joan La Barbara is renowned for her unique vocabulary of experimental and extended vocal techniques (her “signature sounds”: multiphonics, circular singing, ululation, glottal clicks), influencing generations of composers and singers. Her awards and prizes include the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award (2016); DAAD-Berlin and Civitella Ranieri Artist-in-Residencies; Guggenheim Fellowship; and seven NEA awards plus numerous commissions for chamber ensembles, orchestra, chorus, interactive technology, soundscores for dance, video, and film, including an electronic/vocal score for Sesame Street. Her multi-layered textural compositions have premiered at Festival d'Automne à Paris, Brisbane Biennial, MaerzMusik Berlin, Warsaw Autumn, and many other international venues. Exploring ways of immersing the audience in her music, La Barbara placed the American Composers Orchestra around and among the audience in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall to build her sonic painting “in solitude this fear is lived”, inspired by Agnes Martin’s minimalist art. La Barbara is an artist faculty member of NYU and Mannes/The New School.
***
BIOS: TO THE END OF THE LAND
David Grossman
David Grossman was born in Jerusalem in 1954. His books have been translated into more than 35 languages. He is the author of nine internationally acclaimed novels, three powerful works of non-fiction, and a short-story collection, as well as more than a dozen children's books, a children's opera, and a play. Grossman has been presented with numerous awards including Chevalier de l’Ordre des Artes et des Lettres (France), Prix Eliette Von Karajan (Austria), The Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation (UK), the Buxtehuder Bulle (Germany), the Sapir Prize (Israel), the Premio per la Pace e l'Azione Umanitaria 2006 (City of Rome/Italy), Onorificenza della Stella Solidarietà Italiana 2007, Premio Ischia—International Award for Journalism 2007, the EMET Award 2007 (Israel), and the Albatros Prize, awarded by the Gunter Grass Foundation. Grossman was also the recipient of the prestigious Peace Prize of the German Booksellers Association in Frankfurt 2010 and France's Prix Medicis for translated literature in 2011, as well as the Brenner Prize (Israel) in 2012. In 2013, he received the French Point Award for most beloved book by readers and critics (To the End of the Land) and the Italian Fundazione Calcari for Lifetime Achievement. His new novel, A Horse Walks into a Bar, is being published internationally, in more 35 languages, throughout 2016–17.
Hanan Snir
Hanan Snir is one of Israel's most prominent directors. Born in 1943 in Tel Aviv, he is a graduate of the Department of Theatre Arts at Tel Aviv University and Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London. Snir was a trainee director at the Royal Shakespeare Company under the acclaimed director Peter Brook (1970) and directed at RADA, London (1970-1972). Between 1974-1976, Snir was a resident director at the Beer Sheva Municipal Theatre. Between 1977 and 1982, he was Associate Director at The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv. Since 1984, Snir has been Associate Director at Ha'bima National Theatre (Artistic Director 1992-1993). His production of Sophocles’s Antigone received the Israeli Academy prize award for best production, best director, best translator, and best actress in 2007, and he won best play and best director in 2015 for Tedeus Slobodjanek's Our Class. Snir is a certified psychotherapist, and he also holds a diploma in family therapy, psychodrama and cognitive behavioral therapy, and an MA from Boston University in Counseling Psychology. He has received numerous awards for his productions in Israel and around the world, most recently The Israeli Theatre Life Achievement Award in 2015.
The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv
The Cameri Theatre, Tel Aviv Jaffa Municipal Theatre, was founded in 1944. It is considered the largest and most prolific theater in Israel. Each year, the Cameri stages up to 12 new productions, together with 20 productions in repertoire that are performed before audiences totaling 1,200,000 people. So far, the Cameri has produced some 500 productions on its various stages, with more than 2,000 performances every year. The Theatre’s company includes 80 of Israel’s finest actors, and its plays are directed by celebrated directors from Israel and abroad. The Theatre is located in the center of Tel-Aviv Jaffa. All the productions run there in its five auditoriums as well as travelling nationally and internationally.
Over the years, The Cameri Theatre has been invited to leading theaters and theater festivals worldwide, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Barbican in London, Hannover Expo, Washington Shakespeare Festival at The Kennedy Center, Gdansk Shakespeare Festival, National Center for the Performing Arts (The Egg) in Beijing, Moscow Theatre of Nations, and to more than 100 other international venues.
The Cameri Theatre hosts yearly international theater festivals that recently included: Robert Wilson's Three Penny Opera and Arturo Ui from the Berliner Ensemble, The Volksbuhne, The Schaubuhne, The Deutsches Theatre from Berlin, The National Theatre of Norway, The National Theatre of The Czech Republic, The Public Theatre in New York, the National Theatre from China, The Globe Theatre from the UK and more than 70 other theaters from all over the world.
The Cameri's productions have garnered more than 120 awards, including the most coveted Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Special Contribution to Society and the State of Israel. This year, The Cameri Theatre received an Honorary Fellowship of Tel Aviv University for its singular contribution over seven decades to enhancing Israeli culture, for its rich repertory, and for nurturing excellence in all aspects of theatrical performance.
Ha’Bima National Theatre of Israel
This avant-garde theater gives expression to the spirit of the Jewish people through the revival of Hebrew culture and language. Maxim Gorki wrote "from poverty, hunger, and frost, this miracle was conceived… This small and beautiful baby will grow into a glorious giant."
The origins of the Ha’Bima Theatre go back to 1917, when a theater company of Jewish zealots—all Hebrew teachers—was formed. At the time, when studies of the Hebrew language were forbidden, they were determined to found, not simply a highly professional avant-garde theater, but to give expression to the revolutionary spirit of the Jewish people through the revival of Hebrew culture and language. They soon attracted the attention of the high priest of Russian theater, Constantin Stanislavski, who agreed that the Ha’Bima would become one of the studios attached to the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1945, the Ha'Bima opened its new venue in Tel Aviv. Today, it provides a home for creativity and an incubator for playwrights, directors, actors, and designers, to grow their talents, gain experience, and develop ideas. At the same time, the Ha’Bima welcomes artists from abroad and has represented Israel in a variety of prestigious theater festivals around Europe.
***
BIOS: MARIA POMIANOWSKA
Maria Pomianowska
Maria Pomianowska is a multitalented artist who has single-handedly resurrected two forgotten Polish instruments: the suka and the Plock fiddle. As Assistant Professor of Musical Arts at the Music Academy in Warsaw, she has now taught a new generation of players the suka and recently released a new CD called Reborn in celebration of this centuries-old instrument.
Pomianowska’s interest in stringed instruments dates back to her college days when she was awarded a scholarship to study the sarangi in India with maestro P. Ram Narayan. What started as a fascination with the sarangi evolved to include the study of a variety of Asian stringed instruments. Her travels have taken her to China, Mongolia, Japan, Central Asia, and the Middle East where she has studied instrumental techniques and engaged in collaborations with local musicians. She spent five years living and working in Japan and via a fortuitous meeting with Yo-Yo Ma while there, performed a piece he commissioned her to write featuring the cello and the suka.
Pomianowska has collaborated with outstanding artists such as Anna Maria Jopek with Gil Goldstein and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Ian Gilan (Deep Purple), Stanislaw Soyka (Polish jazz artist), and Boris Grebenshchikov (the Russian “Bob Dylan”).Her effervescent musicality spans not only performance and teaching, but also curatorial practice in her role as director of Warsaw’s Cross-Culture Festival.
In 2010, she recorded Chopin on 5 continents, with unique arrangements of Chopin’s masterpieces written for ethnic instruments from all over the world. This CD placed No. 5 on the World Music Charts Europe organized by EBU. In 2010 she also opened the first Ethnic Music Department at the Academy of Music in Cracow (a first for Poland). In 2011 she created the inaugural Suka & Fidel Orchestra, which consists of her students (fidel is how one spells fiddle in Polish). Beginning in 2011, she has travelled throughout the Middle East and Africa creating multicultural projects in Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey, Algeria, and Morocco. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Silver Merit Award from the Polish government and the Chopin’s Passport Award, given to an outstanding artist participating in the jubilee celebration of Chopin’s birth.
***
BIOS: BOHEMIAN TRIO
Bohemian Trio
Despite being immersed in different cultural and musical backgrounds, Yosvany Terry (saxophone and chékere), Orlando Alonso (piano), and Yves Dharamraj (cello) formed Bohemian Trio in 2013. The three musicians were drawn to the idea that their blend of traditions would speak to the true voice of the Americas: a cacophony of cultures that, together, forges a new identity that transcends Old World boundaries. Bohemian Trio intertwines earthy, Afro-Cuban rhythms with the sweeping melodies of classical, the improvisation of jazz, and the celebration of Latin dance to transport its audiences. These musical narratives, deftly woven into original and commissioned works, simultaneously evoke joy, passion, and a longing for a bygone era. Invited by Tania León and the Composers Now Festival to make its debut on the Music of Now Marathon at Symphony Space in New York City, the trio has since appeared at prominent music series such as Pocantico, Wave Hill, Jazz Gallery, Deer Isle Chamber Music, Spoleto Festival USA, Bargemusic, Make Music New York Festival, and more recently at National Sawdust. Bohemian Trio released its critically acclaimed debut album Okónkolo on Innova Records in February 2017.
***
BIOS: TCHEKA
Tcheka
Tcheka was born in a small, remote spot on the island of Santiago, Cape Verde. He has created a unique and exquisite style that is a testament to the global influences he has embraced. Tcheka’s essence is impossible to pin down—he is neither modernist nor traditionalist, and his music resists any easy categorization or comparison. While referencing multiple genres from Cape Verde (batuku, funaná, finason, tabanka, morna, and coladera), Tcheka’s music is also a busy intersection of Brazilian and African pop, traditional forms, folk, jazz, blues, rock, literature, anthropology, and film. It is never just Cape Verdean, and it is never just music, but it’s always captivating. Tcheka’s much-anticipated fifth album, due for release in 2017, will consist of solo pieces that highlight his inimitable form and mastery on guitar and unmistakable vocals.
***
BIOS: H’SAO
H’Sao
This Montréal-based band from Chad, H’Sao has been capturing the hearts of audiences since 2001 with its unique blend of modern sound and traditional African musical influences. H’Sao has traveled the world, delivering electrifying performances, launching four innovative albums, and most of all, developing a musical signature that spans several genres that transcend the “world music” category.
At first, voices were their only instrument. Then, brothers Caleb (guitar), Moss (bass), and Israel (keyboard) along with their childhood friend Dono (drums) added musical instruments to their rich and inspired compositions. Today, the self-taught musicians continue to weave impressive a cappella harmonies into their powerful live performances, punctuated by catchy choreography and warm interactions with the audience. These seasoned musician-singers have stayed true to their roots, drawing from gospel, soul, R&B, reggae and Chadian music. Whether its style is labeled Afro-fusion or Afro-jazz, H’Sao is defined by the strength of its voices and vocal harmonies, its rhythms and its authenticity.
H’sao has appeared at prominent festivals such as WOMAD (New Zealand), Brisbane Festival (Australia), Queensland (Australia), Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Montréal’s Francofolies, Luminato Festival (Toronto), Montréal International Jazz Festival, Nuits d’Afrique, Festival d’été de Québec, Coup de cœur francophone, Awesome Africa (South Africa), and FrancoFête (Moncton). H’Sao notably played before the Queen of England on Canada Day, at the Francophonie games, with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, at Québec City’s 400th anniversary, and at the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Gala. The band will tour Canada, the United States, and Europe throughout 2017 and 2018.
***
BIOS: LE TRIO JOUBRAN
Le Trio Joubran
Le Trio Joubran is three brothers, natives of Nazareth: Samir, Wissam, and Adnan. Its repertoire is filled with magnificent improvisations and rich melodies, composed with a virtuosic knowledge of the oud (Arabic lute), an instrument that holds deep meaning in Palestinian culture. In their compositions, each brother contributes without overshadowing the other two. For them, music only has meaning as a trio. The brothers hail from a long line of luthiers, and their music is about the perpetuation of a tradition—a tradition they have also deeply revitalized with their innovations.
Since 2002, the trio’s reputation has continued to grow: from the Olympia in Paris to Carnegie Hall in New York to the United Nations, it has played to sold-out crowds. Accompanied onstage by compatriot and percussionist Youssef Hbeisch, its compositions leave room for exceptional improvisations. In addition to a number of recordings, Le Trio Joubran has composed scores for films such as Nassim Amaouche’s Adieu Gary, for which it won the Best Composer Award at the Dubai Festival in 2009, and for Karim Dridi’s Le Dernier Vol, starring Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet. The Trio Joubran also celebrate its country by setting the words of preeminent poet Mahmoud Darwish to music (À l’Ombre des Mots/In the Shadow of Words).
***
BIOS: THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
The Bolshoi Ballet
Jean-Christophe Maillot
balletsdemontecarlo.com/en/jean-christophe-maillot
Over a 30-year career, French choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot has created some 80 works, 40 of them for Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo where he has served as Director-Choreographer since his appointment by H.R.H., the Princess of Hanover in 1993. Born in 1960, he studied dance and piano at the Conservatoire National de Région de Tours, before joining the Rosella Hightower International School of Dance in Cannes. After winning the Prix de Lausanne in 1977, he joined the Hamburg Ballet, where he danced in principal roles as a soloist for five years before an accident ended his dance career.
In 1983, Maillot was appointed choreographer and director of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Tours, which later became a National Centre of Choreography. He created 20 ballets for the company. His first work for Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, in 1987, Le Mandarin Merveilleux, met with great success. Under his guidance for the past 25 years, the company of 50 dancers has reached new levels of excellence. Works created for the company are currently in the repertoires of major international companies including Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Royal Swedish Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. In 2011, in a major development for dance in Monaco, a single organization designated the Ballets de Monte-Carlo was created to incorporate the Ballets de Monte-Carlo Company, the Monaco Dance Forum, and the Princess Grace Academy.
Maillot has also staged operas (Faust and Norma), and created the films Cinderella and Le Songe. He is the recipient of numerous awards and commendations including France’s Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur and Commandeur of the Ordre du Mérite Culturel de la Principauté de Monaco. In 2015, The Taming of the Shrew received Russia’s prestigious Golden Mask Award.
Lincoln Center Festival has received worldwide attention for presenting some of the broadest and most original performing arts programs in Lincoln Center’s history. The festival has presented some 1,465 performances of opera, music, dance, theater, and interdisciplinary forms by internationally acclaimed artists from more than 50 countries. To date, the festival has commissioned more than 44 new works and offered some 145 world, U.S., and New York premieres. It places particular emphasis on showcasing contemporary artistic viewpoints and multidisciplinary works that challenge the boundaries of traditional performance. LincolnCenterFestival.org
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community engagement, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 16 series, festivals, and programs, including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Career Grants and Artist program, David Rubenstein Atrium programming, Great Performers, The Performing Arts Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center at the Movies, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, Midsummer Night Swing, Mostly Mozart Festival, White Light Festival, the Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS, and Lincoln Center Education, which is celebrating 40 years enriching the lives of students, educators, and lifelong learners. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, School of American Ballet, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Lincoln Center has become a leading force in using new media and technology to reach and inspire a wider and global audience. Reaching audiences where they are – physically and digitally – has become a cornerstone of making the performing arts more accessible to New Yorkers and beyond. The re-imagination of David Geffen Hall will play an important part in these efforts. For more information, visit LincolnCenter.org.
Lincoln Center is committed to providing and improving accessibility for people with disabilities. For information, call the Department of Programs and Services for People with Disabilities at 212.875.5375.
PHONE NUMBERS/CONTACT INFORMATION:
CenterCharge: 212.721.6500
Lincoln Center general website: LincolnCenter.org
Lincoln Center Festival page: LincolnCenterFestival.org
Lincoln Center Customer Service: 212.875.5456
Lincoln Center Information Line: 212.875.5766
Additional information, photos and videos available at Lincoln Center Press Room:
http://AboutLincolnCenter.org/Press-Room
Login or register for access
FOLLOW LINCOLN CENTER ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook: facebook.com/LincolnCenterNYC
Twitter: @LincolnCenter #LCFestival
Instagram: @LincolnCenter #LCFestival
Tumblr: lincolncenter.tumblr.com/
# # #
High Resolution Images Return to Top
Improbable Theatre
Improbable Theatre
Caption: Opening Skinner's BoxPhoto Credit: © Topher McGrillis Size: 4924x3277 |
Improbable Theatre
Improbable Theatre
Caption: Opening Skinner's BoxPhoto Credit: © Topher McGrillis Size: 4924x3277 |
Improbable Theatre
Improbable Theatre
Caption: Opening Skinner's BoxPhoto Credit: © Topher McGrillis Size: 4800x3195 |
Scene from WHILE I WAS WAITING By Mohammed Al Attar
Photo Credit: © Stravos HabakisSize: 2250x1500 |
Director Omar Abusaada; WHILE I WAS WAITING
Size: 2700x3824 |
Scene from WHILE I WAS WAITING By Mohammed Al Attar
Photo Credit: © Didier NadeauSize: 3600x2407 |
(l-r) Hiam ABBASS and Sarah ADLER
Caption: Yitzhak Rabin CHRONICLE OF AN ASSASSINATIONPhoto Credit: © Christophe Raynaud de Lage Size: 5642x3761 |
(l-r) Hiam ABBASS and Sarah ADLER
Caption: Yitzhak Rabin CHRONICLE OF AN ASSASSINATIONPhoto Credit: Still from video courtesy of Festival d'Avignon Size: 3600x2262 |
Director Amos Gitai
Caption: Yitzhak Rabin CHRONICLE OF AN ASSASSINATIONPhoto Credit: Courtesy of the artist Size: 2847x3900 |
Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv / HaBima National Theatre
Caption: To The End of The LandPhoto Credit: © Gérard Allon Size: 3300x2200 |
Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv / HaBima National Theatre
Caption: To The End of The LandPhoto Credit: © Gérard Allon Size: 3200x2133 |
Company XY
Caption: Il N'est Pas Encore MinuitPhoto Credit: Company XYChristophe Raynaud de Lage Size: 4000x2666 |
Company XY
Caption: Il N'est Pas Encore MinuitPhoto Credit: Company XYChristophe Raynaud de Lage Size: 2667x4000 |
Company XY
Caption: Il N'est Pas Encore MinuitPhoto Credit: Company XYChristophe Raynaud de Lage Size: 1950x2700 |
Saburo Teshigawara /Karas SLEEPING WATER
Caption: Saburo Teshigawara and Rihoko SatoPhoto Credit: © Jean Michel Blasco Size: 5120x3840 |
Saburo Teshigawara /Karas SLEEPING WATER
Caption: Rihoko SatoPhoto Credit: © Jean Michel Blasco Size: 3623x4831 |
Bolshoi Ballet
Caption: Bolshoi Ballet's production of Diamonds from JEWELS. Choreography George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: Damir Yusupov Size: 3300x2200 |
Bolshoi Ballet in DIAMONDS to music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Caption: JEWELS Ballet by George Balanchine in three parts; choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: © Damir Yusupov Size: 4500x3000 |
Bolshoi Ballet in RUBIES to music by Igor Stravinsky.
Caption: JEWELS Ballet by George Balanchine in three parts; choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: Damir Yusupov/Bolshoi Theatre Size: 4500x3000 |
Bolshoi Ballet in RUBIES to music by Igor Stravinsky.
Caption: JEWELS Ballet by George Balanchine in three parts; choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: Damir Yusupov/Bolshoi Theatre Size: 4500x3000 |
Teresa Reichlen and Russell Janzen in New York City Ballet's...
Caption: JEWELS Ballet by George Balanchine in three parts; choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: © Paul Kolnik Size: 2850x2250 |
Teresa Reichlen and Russell Janzen in New York City Ballet's...
Caption: JEWELS Ballet by George Balanchine in three parts; choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: © Paul Kolnik Size: 2250x2850 |
Sterling Hyltin and Andrew Veyette in New York City Ballet's...
Caption: JEWELS Ballet by George Balanchine in three parts; choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: © Paul Kolnik Size: 2250x2850 |
New York City Ballet
Caption: Gonzalo Garcia, Teresa Reichlen, and Megan Fairchild with ensemble in New York City Ballet's production of Rubies from JEWELS. Choreography George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: © Paul Kolnik Size: 3600x2400 |
Ashley Bouder, Gonzalo Garcia, and Teresa Reichlen in New York...
Caption: JEWELS Ballet by George Balanchine in three parts; choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: © Paul Kolnik Size: 4896x3264 |
Paris Opera Ballet
Caption: The Paris Opera Ballet's production of Emeralds from JEWELS. Choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: Francette Levieux Size: 2400x1238 |
Paris Opera Ballet; Laëtitia Pujol and Karl Paquette in EMERALDS...
Caption: JEWELS Ballet by George Balanchine in three parts; choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.Photo Credit: Se´bastien Mathe´ Size: 3600x2400 |
Bolshoi Ballet; Ekaterina Krysanova as Katerina and Vladislav...
Caption: The Taming of the ShrewPhoto Credit: © Jack Devant Size: 5857x3905 |
Bolshoi Ballet; Ekaterina Krysanova as Katerina and Vladislav...
Caption: The Taming of the ShrewPhoto Credit: Mikhail Logvinov/Bolshoi Theatre Size: 1600x2400 |
Ornette Coleman
Photo Credit: Jimmy KatzSize: 3195x3615 |
Ornette Coleman
Photo Credit: © Stephanie BergerSize: 1097x1436 |
Ensemble Signal
Photo Credit: Ryan JenkinsSize: 4800x3200 |
Gong Linna, vocals; Bang on a Can All-Stars
Caption: The Lord in the CloudsPhoto Credit: © Stephanie Berger Size: 2700x1797 |
Bang on a Can
Caption: The Lord in the CloudsPhoto Credit: Peter Serling Size: 3000x2240 |
Gong Linna, vocals; Bang on a Can All-Stars
Caption: The Lord in the CloudsPhoto Credit: © Stephanie Berger Size: 2400x1602 |
Carlinhos Brown
Photo Credit: Cristiano MadureiraSize: 3600x2400 |
Carlinhos Brown
Photo Credit: Caio GallucciSize: 3733x2100 |
Carlinhos Brown
Photo Credit: Caio GallucciSize: 3000x2400 |
Morton Subotnick
Caption: SUBOTNICK Crowds and Power + Silver Apples of the MoonPhoto Credit: Adam Kissick Size: 1950x1299 |
Joan La Barbara
Caption: SUBOTNICK Crowds and Power + Silver Apples of the MoonPhoto Credit: Aleksandar Kostic Size: 4500x3000 |
Morton Subotnick
Caption: SUBOTNICK Crowds and Power + Silver Apples of the MoonPhoto Credit: Steve Gunther Size: 1500x2100 |
Bohemian Trio
Photo Credit: © Laura RazzanoSize: 2760x3682 |
Bohemian Trio
Photo Credit: © Laura RazzanoSize: 1802x1142 |
Le Trio Joubran
Photo Credit: Marc GinotSize: 4508x3000 |
Le Trio Joubran
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artistSize: 2725x3850 |
H'SAO
Photo Credit: Laetitia JourdanSize: 4323x2882 |
Maria Pomianowska (Face of Suka)
Photo Credit: Aleksander Wyszyn´skiSize: 4608x3456 |
Tcheka
Photo Credit: Sara MatosSize: 6988x4659 |