* Philip Glass at 75: Two Events at the Met Museum: In Conversation with Chuck Close, and Performing with Tim Fain at The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing
* Mark Morris Leads a Private Gallery Tour of the New American Wing
* Pianist/Composer Fazil Say Performs in Conjunction with the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia
* Thomas L. Friedman & Curator Helen Evans Talk About “Globalization in the Middle East: Then & Now”
Sunday, April 1, 2012, at 3:00 p.m. - Dan Zanes Family Concert
New York’s celebrated family performer invites the audience to sing and dance to drums, upright bass, mandolin, electric guitar, trumpet, fiddle, and spoons.
Zanes is a self-described 21st-century version of the guy who in the old days used to conduct the town band from the gazebo, though instead of a gazebo he’s playing places like Carnegie Hall and the Melbourne International Arts Festival. He is a ringmaster, introducing new songs and reconnecting people to songs that have always been there, and still are – it’s just that people forgot about them.
One of Zanes’ favorite recording projects is ¡Nueva York!, or what he is often heard calling his “pro-immigration CD.” While the debate about who is eligible to live in the United States rages on, Zanes has been having a rocking time with new musical friends from the Latino world, celebrating some of the vibrant culture that comes with immigration. The result: a collection of songs from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and other parts of the Spanish-speaking Americas which was released in the summer of 2008. www.danzanes.com
Tickets: $15
Monday, April 2, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. - Private Gallery Tour: Mark Morris in the New American Wing
Choreographer Mark Morris leads an intimate tour of the New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts in which he will share his favorite pieces. Luncheon in The Charles Engelhard Court with Mark Morris follows the tour, at 12:15 p.m.
This event is presented in conjunction with the opening of the New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts.
Mark Morris formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980, and has since created more than 130 works for the company. Morris is also much in demand as a ballet choreographer and has created eight works for the San Francisco Ballet since 1994 and has received commissions from many others. Morris is noted for his musicality and has been described as “undeviating in his devotion to music.” He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, English National Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. He is the subject of a biography, Mark Morris, by Joan Acocella (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and Marlowe & Company published a volume of photographs and critical essays entitled Mark Morris’ L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: A Celebration. Morris is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 2007, he received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival lifetime achievement award. In 2010, he received the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn provides a home for the Mark Morris Dance Group, rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children, and a school offering dance classes to students of all ages.
www.markmorrisdancegroup.org
Tickets: $350
Philip Glass at 75: Two Events at the Met Museum
The Metropolitan Museum celebrates the 75thbirthday of Philip Glass with two events: a conversation with his longtime friend the artist Chuck Close, and a chamber music concert with Glass at the piano with violinist Tim Fain at the Museum’s fabled Temple of Dendur.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. - Philip Glass and Chuck Close: A Conversation
Friends and allies for decades, composer Philip Glass and artist Chuck Close come together to talk about artistic intimacy, collaboration, notions of an artistic community, geographic proximity, and the fluidity of creative energy.
Philip Glass, who is celebrating his 75th birthday (January 31) this year, has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times. www.dunvagen.com
The remarkable career of artist Chuck Close extends beyond his completed works of art. More than just a painter, photographer, and printmaker, Close is a builder who, in his words, builds “painting experiences for the viewer.” Highly renowned as a painter, Close is also a master printmaker, who has, over the course of more than 30 years, pushed the boundaries of traditional printmaking in remarkable ways.
This event is supported by the Mrs. Joseph H. King Fund.
Tickets: $25
*30 & Under Rush $15 tickets subject to availability
Saturday, April 21, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. - Philip Glass at 75: Glass Chamber Works at The Temple of Dendur
Philip Glass at the piano with violinist Tim Fain performing an evening of Glass’s chamber music in the dramatic setting of The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing: a rare opportunity to hear the composer perform some of his recent compositions.
Philip Glass will perform the solo piano works Two Etudes (1999) and Metamorphosis (1989); Tim Fain will play the Partita for Solo Violin in Seven Movements (2011); and the two will perform Music from The Screens (a. The Orchard, b. France, c. The French Lieutenant), Glass’s music for Jean Genet’s last stage work, composed for a production directed by Jo Anne Akalaitis in 1989; and Pendulum, an arrangement for violin and piano of a work for violin, cello, and piano commissioned for the American Civil Liberty Union’s 40th Anniversary in 2010.
Of the violin partita, Philip Glass says, “I met Tim Fain during the tour of ‘The Book of Longing,’ an evening based on the poetry of Leonard Cohen. In that work, all of the instrumentalists had solo parts. Shortly after that tour, Tim asked me to compose some solo violin music for him. I quickly agreed. Having been very impressed by his ability and interpretation of my work, I decided on a seven-movement piece. I thought of it as a Partita, the name inspired by the solo clavier and solo violin music of Bach. The music of that time included dance-like movements, often a chaconne, which represented the compositional practice. What inspired me about these pieces was that they allowed the composer to present a variety of music composed within an overall structure. I set to work almost at once and began with the first three pieces. I divided the chaconne into two parts separated by several other movements. In this way, themes could be introduced, set aside, and reintroduced in the work. I was looking for a structure that was both expansive and tightly knit.
Of the partita, Tim Fain says, “I think it’s really some of his best writing – so dark, lyrical, and melodic.”
Philip Glass, who is celebrating his 75th birthday (January 31) this year, has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times. www.dunvagen.com
With his adventuresome spirit and vast musical gifts, violinist Tim Fain has emerged as a mesmerizing new presence on the music scene. The “charismatic young violinist with a matinee idol profile, strong musical instincts, and first rate chops” (Boston Globe) was most recently seen on screen and heard on the soundtrack of the new hit film Black Swan, and heard as the sound of Richard Gere’s violin in Fox Searchlight’s feature film Bee Season. Selected as one of Symphony and Strad magazines’ “Up-and-Coming Musicians,” Fain has won an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Young Concert Artists International Award. As The Washington Post recently raved, “Fain has everything he needs for a first-rate career.” www.timfain.com
The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing
Tickets: $50
Friday, April 20, 2012, at 7:00 p.m.- Fazil Say, Piano
This recital by pianist Fazil Say is presented in conjunction with the recent opening of the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia.
The acclaimed Turkish pianist and composer, known for his work with jazz as well as classical repertoire, performs a program featuring, in addition to Janáček’s Piano Sonata and Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7, a number of his own works: Black Earth, Three Ballades, Paganini Jazz Variations, Inside Serail, Alla Turca Jazz, and Summertime Variations.
Fazil Say was born in Ankara and studied piano and composition at the state conservatory of his home city. As a 17-year-old student, he was awarded a scholarship enabling him to work for five years with David Levine at the Robert Schumann Institute in Düsseldorf. He then went on to pursue his studies at the Berlin Conservatory. France’s Le Figaro states, “He is not merely a pianist of genius; undoubtedly he will be one of the great artists of the twenty-first century.” His newest recording, Pictures, which includes Pictures at an Exhibition, received France’s “Choc de Classic” prize.
In 2010 Fazil Say completed his five-year residency at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, marked with a four-day festival and with the world premiere of his first symphony, Istanbul Symphony, commissioned by Konzerthaus Dortmund and WDR Cologne in connection with Ruhr 2010. At the Baden-Baden Festival he played, a “Fazil Say Night” with four piano concertos by Ravel, Mozart, Gershwin, and Say, accompanied by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He again appeared as guest artist at the Salzburg Festival with four concerts, and played at the Benedetti Michelangeli Festival in Italy, the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, the Abu Dhabi Classics, and many others.
Equally renowned as a composer, he has produced his Concerto for Piano and Violin, followed by his Second Piano Concerto, Silk Road. His oratorio, Nazim, was first performed in Ankara and was closely followed by more compositions, including two more piano concertos; an oratorio, Requiem for Metin Altiok; and a violin concerto, 1001 Nights in the Harem. In 2010, the Salzburg Festival commissioned a piece for piano and orchestra, Nirvana Burning. He has also composed for films, and the city of Vienna commissioned a ballet score, Patara. www.fazilsay.com
Tickets: $40
*Bring the Kids! $1 tickets available
*30 & Under Rush $15 tickets subject to availability
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE LECTURES IN APRIL 2012:
Wednesday, April 11, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. - “Globalization in the Middle East: Then & Now” with Thomas L. Friedman & Helen Evans
Author, reporter, and columnist Thomas L. Friedman discusses his personal experiences and perspectives on the history of transformation, conflict, influence, and power in the Islamic world. He is then joined by exhibition curator Helen Evans, the Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator of Byzantine Art, in a conversation exploring the region’s art and politics, both past and present, to help elucidate the meanings and relevance of the diverse traditions. They will examine the complex interplay of religions and cultures, and how the adaptation, exchange, and conflict that accompanied this transformation continue to influence current events.
This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition.
This program is made possible by Martha Fling.
Major support for the exhibition has been provided by Mary and Michael Jaharis, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.
Additional support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Tickets: $25
*30 & Under Rush $15 tickets subject to availability
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February 29, 2012
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