"El Primer Contacto con el Arte" To Feature Two Live Musical Performances in February
(New York, January 18, 2005)–The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced two special programs in its weekly series for Spanish-speaking families, El Primer Contacto con el Arte. Classes in the series – which focuses on a different theme and area of the Museum each month – meet on Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and feature discussion and sketching activities for ages six through 12.
The two added attractions – live performances by instrumental ensembles – will take place during February's month-long exploration of the Museum's Department of Musical Instruments. Each concert will feature repertoire drawn from and inspired by the Museum's renowned collection of instruments, and will include actual performances on selected instruments from the permanent collection.
The first performance, on February 5, will present members of The Fula Flute Ensemble, whose music focuses on the traditional flute of the Fulani people of Fouta Djalon highlands of Guinea. Founded in New York City in 1999, the group is composed of some of the finest African and African-oriented musicians in North America. Its jazz-style approach makes an otherwise foreign idiom sound somewhat familiar. Among the West African instruments used will be the tambin, the balafon, and the kora.
European instruments will be featured on February 26, with a performance of works by Giovanni Gabrieli, Tylman Susato, Franz Joseph Haydn, Isaac Albéniz, Victor Ewald, and Miguel Sandoval by The Central Park Brass – a professional brass quintet dedicated to serving the New York community via outreach programs to schools, parks, museums, and other organizations.
Additional programs in February will examine musical instruments in paintings of the 15th to 19th century (February 12), and in ancient and modern sculpture (February 19).
The architecture of the Metropolitan Museum will be explored during the month of March, focusing on the Museum's main entrance (March 5), the Olympics, as depicted in the galleries of Greek and Roman art (March 12), and The Astor Court, known as the Chinese scholar's garden (March 19). No program will be offered on March 26.
April's theme, The Origins of Mythology, will include the following individual sessions: Heroes and Heroines (April 2), Greeks and Trojans (April 9), Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient World (April 16), Visions and Idols (April 23), and Antiheroes (April 30).
The spring season of El Primer Contacto con el Arte will conclude in May with a three-part examination of portraits in the Metropolitan Museum, including those depicting sport, dance, and drama (May 7), works by Seurat and the neo-Impressionists (May 14), and by Matisse and the Fauve artists (May 21). No program will be offered on May 28.
El Primer Contacto con el Arte is made possible, in part, by The Goodman Memorial Foundation, Bloomberg, the Altman Foundation, The Samuel and Rae Eckman Charitable Foundation, Inc., the Thanksgiving Foundation, Inc., and The Murray B. and Beatrice H. Sherman Charitable Trust.
Classes are free with Museum admission, but advance registration is required. For further information, call (212) 650-2833.
The musical instruments collection at the Metropolitan Museum originated with gifts in 1889 of several hundred European, American, and non-Western instruments from private collectors Joseph W. Drexel and Mrs. John Crosby Brown. It now holds 5,000 examples from six continents, dating from prehistory to the present, a scope unsurpassed by any collection in the world. Many of the instruments are playable and can be heard in concerts and on recordings, as well as in lecture-demonstrations.
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