Introducing the Met Museum Presents 2015–16 Season

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This morning Met Museum Presents announced our new season of performance and talks at the Met. Because we call the Met home, we get to reinvent what performance means at the Museum each season, and we are continuing to lead with curiosity and innovation through powerful performances, new commissions, and fearless artists, all taking the many spaces across the Metropolitan Museum as inspiration for a vibrant season. Next season we continue to present "only at the Met" experiences—singular performances and events that entice you to take in the "where" as well as the "what." The upcoming season pretty much proves that there is no normal, no static model, and no predetermined series.

I'm excited to share a few highlights of our upcoming programs, and I hope that you will join us for an incredible 2015–16 season.»

Artist in Residence: Vijay Iyer

A highlight of the past three seasons is the Artist in Residence series, a year-long, multidisciplinary exploration of the Museum by a visionary artist. This upcoming season the renowned jazz pianist Vijay Iyer will step into the residency and inhabit the Museum creatively, and differently, than ever before.

I couldn't have invented a more complete artist if I tried, and Iyer will definitely bring his encyclopedic breadth of artistic practice to this ambitious residency, expanding the role of performance in museums beyond that of public programs and further into the realm of cutting-edge live arts. Iyer will be performing his groundbreaking Holding It Down: The Veterans' Dreams Project, curating performances in The André Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments on the Met's 1830 Thomas Appleton pipe organ, and leading other thrilling collaborative works and commissions.

Above: Vijay Iyer © Stephanie Berger

Reid Farrington's The Return

From July 11 through August 2, in the new Venetian sculpture gallery, The Return will celebrate the groundbreaking restoration of Tullio Lombardo's Adam, one of the greatest sculptures of the Venetian Renaissance. Reid and his team have created a revolutionary interactive work that invites visitors to consider the statue's fall from its pedestal in parallel to the biblical Adam's fall from grace.

Through hidden cameras, speakers, and microphones, and by using gaming technology, the sculpture will come alive via a digital "window" displaying Adam's avatar. This event is free with Museum admission and will occur throughout Museum hours, so stop by and experience both this gallery and this sculpture in an entirely new way!

Right: Video capture from The Return. Photo © Reid Farrington

The Met's Asian Art Centennial 2015

In celebration of the centennial year of the Department of Asian Art here at the Met, Met Museum Presents will offer a number of site-specific performances in the galleries, as well as new commissions and collaborations featuring artists such as Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tan Dun, Lee Mingwei, and others.

In November, Tan Dun's Water Passion will be staged in The Temple of Dendur, featuring an orchestra along with seventeen transparent, illuminated bowls of water (so stunning!).

Performance of Tan Dun's Water Passion. Photo courtesy of Parnassus Productions, Inc.

Our Grand Tour, an event we've presented over the past two years, travels to Asia this season, with gallery-based performances by amazing musicians who will be performing classical and contemporary music from Asia. And, in late October, we will present a performance installation entitled Sonic Blossom by the artist Lee Mingwei, which will be on view during Museum hours.

There will also be a compelling and comprehensive series of talks in the fall, led by our Asian Art curators, which will examine one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of Asian art in the world.

Quartet in Residence: Chiara String Quartet

Chiara String Quartet © Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

We welcome the Chiara String Quartet next season, the latest group in our Quartet in Residence program. The bold and enthusiastic musicians of Chiara have established themselves as one of the most passionate practitioners within the string quartet genre. Throughout the residency, they will perform diverse works that stretch beyond the traditional offerings of string quartets—not to mention a program where they perform all three of Johannes Brahms's string quartets, entirely from memory.

TEDxMet Returns

We are also happy to announce the return of one of the most focused and exhilarating explorations: TEDxMet! In September 2015, we will host a daylong celebration of what isn't. Yet.

The architectural masterpiece at 75th and Madison becomes The Met Breuer on September 1, 2015. The transitional raw space of the building provides the backdrop for an unprecedented daylong celebration of gray areas and liminal spaces. From buildings in transition to lives in flux, ties that bind to connections that go unnoticed, singular stories from writers, scientists, performers, and Met curators are presented in the signature full-throttle TED style. Presenters and details will be announced at a later date.

There's so much more ahead in the 2015–16 season that I could write on forever, but it's all in our season brochure and online: all of the groundbreaking and edgy productions, commissions, premieres, and free-with-Museum-admission experiences.

To purchase tickets to any Met Museum Presents event, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets; call 212-570-3949; or stop by the Great Hall Box Office, open Monday–Saturday, 11:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.