June 12, 2012

White Light Festival 2012, October 18 through November 18

White Light Festival

June 12, 2012

Contact: Eileen McMahon, 212-875-5391

emcmahon@lincolncenter.org

LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES

WHITE LIGHT FESTIVAL 2012 TICKETS ON SALE

October 18 – November 18

Festival Highlights

• U.S. premiere of Rian, performed by Ireland’s Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre

• Virtuoso Wang Li plays jaw harps and calabash flute

• N.Y. premiere of choreographer Akram Khan’s Vertical Road

• Cameron Carpenter plays Bach on the Alice Tully Hall organ

• Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, arranged for chamber orchestra, conducted by Matthias Pintscher, and performed by pianist Emanuel Ax, musicians of the New York Philharmonic, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford and tenor Russell Thomas

• Cosmic Pulses, all–Stockhausen program, performed by percussionist Stuart Gerber and sound projectionist Joe Drew

• U.S. debut of the Latvian Radio Choir

• Mary Chapin Carpenter sings from her new album, Ashes and Roses

• Heiner Goebbels’ music/theater work I went to the house but did not enter featuring the Hilliard Ensemble

• Esa-Pekka Salonen leads Philharmonia Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 9

Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director, today announced the programming for Lincoln Center’s third international multi-disciplinary White Light Festival, October 18 through November 18, 2012. Tickets are now on sale. The festival’s focus is music’s unmatched capacity to illuminate the many dimensions of our interior lives. Spanning musical traditions, genres and disciplines the festival will feature 27 performances and events and will take place in nine venues, on and off the Lincoln Center campus. Returning also are the popular post-performance White Light Lounges, where performers and audience members can meet and talk.

Said Ms. Moss, “In a time-constricted and stress-filled urban life, we have planned White Light Festival as an artistic sanctuary that is a reminder of the many dimensions that make up an individual’s life. We hope both new audiences and White Light enthusiasts will discover fresh inspiration in the Festival offerings from around the world.”

Sponsored by Time Warner Inc.

The White Light Festival opens on October 18 with ghazal and Punjabi folk songs performed by Kiran Ahluwalia, noted for the depth of character of her pliable, expressive voice, in a free concert at the David Rubenstein Atrium. The Festival closes on November 18 with Gustav Mahler’s deeply personal contemplation of death, his Ninth Symphony, as interpreted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

The transcendent capacity of the body when inspired by music will be represented by dance companies from Ireland, the U.K. and India. Ireland’s Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre makes its New York debut with the U.S. premiere of Rian, a joyous contemporary dance work featuring traditional Irish music performed by eight dancers and five musicians. London-based choreographer Akram Khan, recent winner of the 2012 Olivier Award for Best Dance Work (for his DESH), brings his company back to Lincoln Center with the N.Y. premiere of his Vertical Road, dedicated to the renowned Sufi mystic and poet Rumi. Acclaimed dancer/choreographer Malavika Sarukkai will offer exquisite interpretations of Bharata Natyam, the classical dance of South India, in the intimate setting of Baryshnikov Arts Center, accompanied by four musicians from Madras, India.

Artistic expressions from many parts of the world will be represented by two outstanding choral ensembles. The acclaimed Latvian Radio Choir from Riga makes its U.S. debut with two programs: the first features contemporary composers from eastern Europe and Scandinavia, led by Sigvards Klava, the choir’s music director, in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin; the other, an all-Arvo Pärt program in collaboration with Sinfonietta Riga, the young Latvian orchestra, led by Tõnu Kaljuste, in Alice Tully Hall.

Ensemble Basiani, whose astonishing U.S. debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2010 demonstrated its mastery of the world’s oldest polyphonic music, returns for a performance of traditional Georgian folk, work and sacred songs. The Festival will feature experimental works by Heiner Goebbels and Analog Arts (percussionist Stuart Gerber and sound projectionist Joe Drew). Visionary director/composer Heiner Goebbels returns to Lincoln Center with I went to the house but did not enter, a concert staged in three tableaus and sung by the Hilliard Ensemble, bringing to life T.S. Eliot’s The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, Maurice Blanchot’s The Madness of the Day, Franz Kafka’s “Excursion in the Mountains,” and Samuel Beckett’s Worstword Ho.

Percussionist Stuart Gerber and sound projectionist Joe Drew of Analog Arts have created an evening exploring the mind-opening power of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. The program starts and ends in Alice Tully Hall lobby with Drew’s re-creation of Stockhausen’s Friday Greeting (N.Y. premiere), an installation designed to erase the stimuli of the outside world. The performance in the concert hall itself will feature the musicians who will give the N.Y. premiere of Stockhausen’s allegorical Heaven’s Door, followed by the rarely-heard Cosmic Pulses, his final electronic piece.

William Christie and his Les Arts Florissants return to Alice Tully Hall with a performance of three of Charpentier’s richly-textured sacred motets, The Prodigal Son, Miseremini mei, and Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr. Pianist Emanuel Ax joins conductor Matthias Pintscher and musicians of the New York Philharmonic, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford and tenor Russell Thomas for a performance of Mahler’s wrenching Das Lied von der Erde, arranged for chamber orchestra.

Very special instrumental soloists will make their White Light debuts. Pianist Paul Lewis will perform a recital of Schubert’s last three sonatas, considered to be the composer’s most transcendent works. The new superstar of the organ, Cameron Carpenter, offers his unique interpretation of selected works by Bach on the Alice Tully Hall organ. Wang Li, a master of the jaw harp and calabash flute, who made his N.Y. debut sensationally at Globalfest 2012, will give a program intertwining these two deceptively humble instruments to create a futuristic, multilayered and deeply meditative sound.

Late-Night Elegies, the popular hour-long performances at 10:30 PM in the Kaplan Penthouse, return this year. Rian music director Liam Ó Maonlaí, a founding member of the Irish rock group Hothouse Flowers, will join with friends for Céilí, a recreation of the lively musical environment of his youth in Dublin. Pianist Alexei Lubimov returns to Lincoln Center with a program of short, transformative works by a range of composers, including Pärt, Ustvolskaya, Mozart, and Mahler.

In addition to the song recital by Ms. Ahluwalia, who opens the festival, female vocalists make important statements in this season’s festival. Also appearing is five-time Grammy Award winner Mary Chapin Carpenter, who made her Lincoln Center’s American Songbook debut in 2011. She combines folk, country, acoustic, rock and blues to craft songs that speak to life’s most personal details as well as their most universal. She will sing her own compositions from Ashes and Roses, her newest recording. Mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink joins with pianist Anthony Spiri for a program of songs by Schumann, Dvorák, and Mahler on the theme of loss, which she selected expressly for the Festival.

The closing weekend of the festival will be the setting for two panels led by New York Public Radio’s John Schaefer, who will lead discussions on The Body & The Self and The Self & Music.

Tickets for White Light Festival are available online at WhiteLightFestival.org, by calling CenterCharge, 212-721-6500, or at the Avery Fisher or Alice Tully Hall box offices, Broadway and 65th Street. Note: Programs, artists, and ticket prices are subject to change.

More about White Light Festival artists and ensembles (in chronological order):

FREE OPENING EVENT

Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 8:30

David Rubenstein Atrium (61 W. 62nd St.)

Without Shadows

Kiran Ahluwalia, vocals

Rez Abbasi, acoustic and electric guitar

Nikku Nayar, electric bass

Nitin Mitta, tabla

Rob Curto, accordion

Through ghazals and Punjabi folk songs, Kiran Ahluwalia explores the language of the heart with beautiful artistry and smoldering intensity. Born in India, raised in Canada, and now living in New York City, her enchanting and seductive music has garnered glowing praise from critics around the world.

Kiran has long been on a path to mastering singing and composing ghazals ¬ the sensual and highly literary poetry about unrequited love and passion for all things. Kiran immersed herself in Indian classical music and ghazals from the time she was seven. She spent a decade of intense deep study with her guru, Vithal Rao, starting in the early 1990s. Finally, in 2001, she recorded her JUNO nominated debut CD, Kashish-Attraction. This was followed by the JUNO Award–winning Beyond Boundaries in 2003, then a self-titled compilation that was released worldwide on the Triloka label in 2005 followed by JUNO–nominated, Wanderlust (Time Square/World Connection) released in North America in 2007 and in Europe in 2008.

Kiran has made a career of transcending the boundaries often imposed on artists from outside the mainstream. Her compositions and arrangements have contributed to the evolution of the ghazal genre through the subtle use of a multitude of sounds and styles from other cultures – including: Portuguese fado guitarra, sub Saharan percussion, Celtic fiddle, Pakistani qawwali vocals, the rhubab of Afghanistan and most recently, African blues.

In live performance she has also been a keen collaborator. Kiran has performed her compositions with the 33-piece Winnipeg Chamber Orchestra and the larger Chicago sinfonietta. She has also collaborated with jazz guitarist Rez Abbasi, Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq and electronica groups Delerium and Eccodeck. Her compositions and arrangements are a reflection of an ongoing quest to create timeless music in a modern and global context that looks to the future while still maintaining a vital through line to its storied past.

Her latest album is an inspiring step forward in the evolution of an artist firmly rooted in an Indian genre who is continually embracing influences from around the world. http://www.kiranmusic.com/

Friday, October 19, 2012 at 7:30

Alice Tully Hall (Broadway at 65th St.)

Pre-concert lecture by Benjamin Sosland at 6:15, Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse (165 W. 65th St., 10th floor) and post-performance White Light Lounge, at65 (Alice Tully Hall)

Les Arts Florissants

William Christie, conductor

Élodie Fonnard, soprano

Rachel Redmond, soprano

Virginie Thomas, soprano

Violaine Lucas, mezzo-soprano

Marcio Soares Holanda, high tenor

Reinoud Van Mechelen, high tenor

Benjamin Alunni, tenor

Thibaut Lenaerts, tenor

Pierre Bessière, bass

Geoffroy Buffière, bass

All-Charpentier program

Caecilia virgo et martyr, H.413 (“Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr”)

Motet pour les trépassés à 8: Plainte des âmes du purgatoire, H.311 (“Miseremini mei”)

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Filius prodigus, H.399 (“The Prodigal Son”)

This renowned European vocal and instrumental ensemble was founded in 1979 by Franco-American harpsichordist and conductor William Christie. The ensemble specializes in Baroque music on original instruments and has played a pioneering role in the resurgence of interest in the French musical world for a repertoire which had previously been neglected.

In addition to 17th century French repertoire, it performs European music of the 17th and 18th centuries. In recent years it has become most well-known for its work in opera, particularly because of a successful 1987 production (with a 2011 revival) of Lully’s Atys at the Opéra Comique in Paris.

Les Arts Florissants has collaborated with many prestigious directors and choreographers, including Jean-Marie Villegier, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Adrian Noble, Deborah Warner, Luc Bondy, Trisha Brown, Jiri Kylian, Francine Lancelot, and many more. Its discography includes over 40 recordings for Harmonia Mundi and about 30 for the Warner Classics/Erato label. For over 20 years, the ensemble has been artist-in-residence at Theatre de Caen and tours extensively throughout France and is an ambassador of French culture abroad.

William Christie, esteemed for producing new interpretations of neglected or forgotten repertoire, is a harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist, and teacher. He was born in Buffalo and studied at Harvard and Yale Universities, but has been in France since 1971. He has guest conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Metropolitan Opera, Zurich Opernhaus, and Opéra National de Lyon. Additionally, he created the academy for young singers in Caen called Le Jardin des Voix, a favorite with Lincoln Center audiences and audiences wherever they perform. www.arts-florissants.com

Saturday, October 20, 2012 at 7:30

Alice Tully Hall (Broadway at 65th St.)

Post-performance White Light Lounge, at65 (Alice Tully Hall)

Poet of the Piano

Paul Lewis, piano

All-Schubert program

Sonata in C minor, D.958

Sonata in A major, D.959

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Sonata in B-flat major, D.960

One of the leading pianists of his generation, Paul Lewis is in the midst of a two-year project to perform all of the mature works from the last six years of Schubert’s life. His latest Schubert CD was chosen as Gramophone’s Recording of the Month for February 2012, displaying the “confidence and sureness of Lewis’s playing, combined with the finesse and musicality that he has always displayed.”

A former student of Alfred Brendel, Paul Lewis has garnered awards and acclaim from around the world including the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year, a Limelight Award in Australia, and three Gramophone awards including Record of the Year in 2008. In 2010, Lewis became the first pianist in the history of the BBC Proms to perform all five Beethoven Concertos in a single season. Lewis is the artistic director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival in Buckinghamshire, UK that he founded with his wife, Norwegian cellist Bjørg Lewis. www.paullewispiano.co.uk

Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at 7:30

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at 7:30

Rose Theater (Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th St.)

White Light Lounges, David Rubenstein Atrium (61 W. 62nd St.)

Vertical Road (N.Y. premiere)

Akram Khan Company

Akram Khan, artistic director and choreographer

Nitin Sawhney, composer

Jesper Kongshaug, lighting design

Kimie Nakano, costume design

Set conceived by Akram Khan, Kimie Nakano, and Jesper Kongshaug

One of Britain’s leading contemporary artists, Akram Khan blends elements of his modern dance and kathak dance training to create works that cross boundaries and challenge conventional ideas of traditional dance forms. Vertical Road brings together performers from across Asia, Europe and the Middle East to create “an evening of rare intelligence and artistry” (Financial Times). Set against a commissioned score by Nitin Sawhney, a long-time collaborator, Vertical Road is inspired by the works of the Persian philosopher Rumi and Sufi traditions. Vertical Road was awarded The Age Critic’s Award for “Best New Work” at the Melbourne Arts Festival in 2010 and recently won the UK’s 12th Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for “Best Modern Choreography.”

The critically-acclaimed Akram Khan Company tours extensively at the leading festivals and venues around the world, performing a diverse range of programs from classical kathak solos to ensemble productions. Mr. Khan is currently an Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells in London and he is participating in the production of the Opening Ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. www.akramkhancompany.net

This presentation of Vertical Road is made possible in part by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 8:00

The Allen Room (Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th St.)

White Light Lounge, Atrium, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th St.

Higher Vibrations

Wang Li, jaw harps and calabash flute

Hailing from Tsinghao, China, a coastal city on the Yellow Sea, Wang Li is a virtuoso of the jaw harps, thought to be one of the oldest instruments in the world. Of a recent performance, The New York Times wrote: “The rhythms of sharply pinging, clicking notes sometimes suggested electronic dance music; ghostly overtone melodies sighed up above. It was deeply solitary music, quietly spellbinding.”

Li discovered the bass in college before taking a surprising turn after graduation, and moving to an austere French monastery. In his four years there, Li discovered a new, intimate vision for the jaw harp. He then went on to study jazz at the Paris Conservatory, which inspired his interest in improvisational techniques. Li incorporates those techniques along with his mastery of circular breathing and throat singing to create a “dark and dreamy almost acoustic dubstep sound” (The Wild Magazine). http://www.zamanproduction.com/en/artist/wang-li

Friday, October 26, 2012 at 7:30

Alice Tully Hall (Broadway at 65th St.)

White Light Lounge, at65, Alice Tully Hall

Ashes and Roses

Mary Chapin Carpenter

After her “quietly spellbinding concert” (The New York Times) in January 2011 for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter returns with a program of songs from her latest album, Ashes and Roses. The follow-up to her Grammy-nominated album The Age of Miracles (2010), and blending pop, folk and country, it reunites Carpenter with long-time collaborator Matt Rollings. Mary Chapin Carpenter has recorded 12 albums and sold over 13 million records, garnering 15 Grammy nominations and winning five Grammy Awards, two CMA and two Academy of Country Music awards. A native of Princeton, N.J., she lived in Japan for two years before moving to Washington, D.C. where she honed her musical chops playing guitar in local bars and clubs before signing a deal with Columbia Records. She has performed at the White House, Superbowl XXXI and the Grand Ole Opry. Carpenter was recently honored with The Americana Association’s esteemed “Spirit of Americana Free Speech in Music Award.” http://www.marychapincarpenter.com/

Saturday, October 27, 2012 at 7:30

Church of St. Mary the Virgin (145 W. 46th St.)

White Light Lounge, Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Transcending Time

Ensemble Basiani

All-traditional program

Mravalzhamier

Imeruli Mkhedruli

Chona

Adila

Khokhbis Kelivit Lamazi

Cheka Ramsa

Guruli perkhuli

Shen Khar Venakhi

Kvertkhi Ieses Dzirisagan

Angelosi Ghaghadebs

Ganatldi, Ganatldi

Ghirs Ars Cheshmaritad

Gvtismshobelo Kaltsulo

Dagatsatu Nebsit Tvisit

Shen Gigalobt

Odoia

Khasanbegura

Chela

Chakrulo

Naduri, Shemokmedura

The New York Times hailed the ensemble’s North American debut at the 2010 Mostly Mozart Festival as “stellar” with songs that “sounded cutting-edge, certainly to Western ears.” The all-male ensemble returns to Lincoln Center to perform folk, work, and sacred songs highlighting Georgian choral music—the world’s oldest polyphonic music tradition.

Named after one of the regions in southwest Georgia (part of modern-day Turkey), Ensemble Basiani was created in 2000 as part of the Tbilisi Holy Trinity Cathedral Church choir. In its 12 years of activity, Ensemble Basiani has given over 200 concerts in 20 countries around the world. Now considered one of Europe’s most exquisite vocal groups, the young singers hail from various parts of Georgia, home to one of the world’s most fascinating musical cultures. At once ancient and modern, this rich and evolving polyphonic choral heritage is inextricably bound to church, folk traditions, and national identity. Restless harmonies combine with unexpectedly abrupt shifts in mood to create an unforgettably distinctive language—this is emotive, passionate music of seemingly boundless variety, invention, and sophistication. This incomparable musical legacy melding musical and sacred traditions is one of the greatest and most ancient examples of the art of the song.

Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 5:00

Alice Tully Hall (Broadway at 65th St.)

White Light Lounge, at65 (Alice Tully Hall)

Immortal Bach

Cameron Carpenter, organ

Bach: Toccata in F major, BWV 540

Bach (arr. Carpenter): Violin Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006

Bach: Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542

Bach/Busoni (arr. Carpenter): Chorale Prelude “Nun freut euch, lieben Christen,” BWV 734

Bach: Prelude and Fugue No. 15 in G major, BWV 860, from the Well-tempered Clavier, Book I

Bach: Prelude and Fugue No. 5 in D major, BWV 874, from the Well-tempered Clavier, Book II

Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A major, BWV 536

Bach/Carpenter: Free Ramble on the Bourrée from Cello Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009

Bach/Busoni (arr. Carpenter): Chaconne, BWV 1004

In an unusual departure for an artist known for his eclectic programmatic choices that push the boundaries of organ repertoire, Cameron Carpenter will present an all-Bach program featuring seminal works like the Toccata in F Major, BWV 540; the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542; and selections from the Well-tempered Clavier. Carpenter’s prodigious compositional skill will be on display in his own arrangements of Bach’s Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major and the Bach/Busoni Chaconne, among others. An artist on the forefront of re-imagining the possibilities of organ performance, “no other musician of his generation has more adeptly fused shrewd showmanship, dazzling technique and profound thinking about this instrument and his place in the musical cosmos” (San Francisco Chronicle).

A keyboard prodigy, Carpenter performed Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier at age 11 and later studied at The North Carolina School of the Arts, where he transcribed over 100 major works for the organ including Mahler’s complete Symphony No. 5. Carpenter graduated with a Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School in 2006 before beginning his worldwide organ concert tours and recording his first commercial albums. His outrageous fashion sensibilities and his exceptional virtuosity have elevated Carpenter to levels of acclaim and exposure unprecedented for an organist. Carpenter is the first organist to ever be nominated for a Grammy Award for a solo album. http://www.cameroncarpenter.com

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 7:30

Alice Tully Hall (Broadway at 65th St.)

Pre- and post-concert performance begins at 6:45, Alice Tully Hall Lobby (Morgan Stanley Lobby)

White Light Lounge, at65, Alice Tully Hall

Cosmic Pulses

Analog Arts

Stuart Gerber, percussion

Joe Drew, sound projection

All-Stockhausen program

Friday Greeting (New York premiere) – begins at 6:45 in the Alice Tully Hall lobby and concludes there following Cosmic Pulses.

Heaven’s Door (New York premiere)

Cosmic Pulses

Analog Arts’ (percussionist Stuart Gerber and sound projectionist Joe Drew) live performance/sound installation explores the music of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, considered one of the most important yet controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. His experiments in electronic music and compositional techniques influenced musicians from Stravinsky to the Beatles. Friday Greeting is the opening from Stockhausen’s opera Freitag aus Licht, the fifth opera of Light, the composer’s cycle of seven operas written for each day of the week. Heaven’s Door is the fourth hour from the composer’s subsequent Sound cycle, written for the 24 hours in the day, which Gerber premiered in 2006. Cosmic Pulses, the thirteenth hour, is the last piece of completely electronic music that Stockhausen composed. Analog Arts is a non-profit collective of artists living on three continents and engaged in a wide range of work. Established in Omaha, Nebraska, in 2004, Analog runs a variety of projects, including a new music festival (ARTSaha!), and a composition contest (Iron Composer). http://analogarts.org/

Hailed by The New York Times for his “consummate virtuosity,” Stuart Gerber is an expert in the works of Stockhausen and an active performer of new music, working with notable composers such as Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, and John Luther Adams. He has performed extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia and Mexico. Gerber is an Assistant Professor of Percussion at Georgia State University, the founder of the Atlanta-based new music group Bent Frequency and a frequent extra percussionist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. www.stuartgerberpercussion.com

Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 8:30

Friday, November 2, 2012 at 8:30

Saturday, November 3, 2012 at 8:30

Baryshnikov Arts Center (450 W. 37th St.)

White Light Lounges Baryshnikov Arts Center

The Spirit of the Body

Malavika Sarukkai, choreographer and dancer

Chitrambari Krishnakumar, vocals

Srilatha Shamshuddin, nattuvangam

Balaji Azhwar, mridangam

Sai Shravanam Ramani, tabla

Srilakshmi Venkataramani, violin

Co-presented with Baryshnikov Arts Center

Malavika Sarukkai, one of the most popular classical dancers of India, is known for her emotional expressiveness, purity of line and innovative choreography. A leading exponent of Bharata Natyam, an Indian devotional dance that dates back more than 2,000 years and a multidimensional performance form deriving from the southeastern province of Tamil Nadu that seamlessly integrates music, movement and gesture, Sarukkai describes the movement impulses of the dance as arising from the center of the body and flowing outward through the extremities, only to return to the center. Steps are woven together in complex patterns and the fast footwork requires years of study and a thorough knowledge of the Indian movement vocabulary.

Sarukkai began her dance training at age seven, studying in both Bombay and Madras, India; although a specialist in Bharata Natyam, she is well-versed in all major Indian dance forms. http://www.malavikasarukkai.com/index.html

This presentation of The Spirit of the Body is made possible in part by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

Sunday, November 4, 2012 at 5:00

Rose Theater (Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th St.)

White Light Lounge, David Rubenstein Atrium (61 W. 62nd St.)

Song of the Earth

Emanuel Ax, piano

Matthias Pintscher, conductor

Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano

Russell Thomas, tenor

Musicians of the New York Philharmonic

Bach: Prelude and Fugue, from the Well-tempered Clavier

Schoenberg: Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (chamber version)

Co-presented by Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival and the New York Philharmonic

Emanuel Ax is the New York Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence

Pianist Emanuel Ax joins members of the New York Philharmonic, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford and tenor Russell Thomas for a chamber orchestra arrangement of Mahler’s wrenching Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth), a work of surpassing beauty, depth, and sadness, whose last song provides a “spiritual release unprecedented in music” (NPR).

After discovering a German translation of The Chinese Flute, a collection of 8th century Chinese poems, Mahler began sketching musical settings for six of the poems that comprise Das Lied von der Erde and together present an impassioned contemplation of the transience of life. Although he completed the score in 1908, the composer never lived to hear it performed. Ten years later, Arnold Schoenberg, an admirer of Mahler’s work, undertook an arrangement for chamber ensemble, which remained unfinished until German composer Rainer Riehn completed the arrangement in 1983.

Pianist Emanuel Ax studied at Juilliard under the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. He captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv; in 1975, he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists followed four years later by the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. He has received Grammy awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn's piano sonatas, and has made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. The pianist has also premiered works by 20th century composers John Adams, Christopher Rouse, Krzysztof Penderecki, Bright Sheng, and Melinda Wagner. http://www.emanuelax.com/

Mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, made her Met debut as Laura in Luisa Miller, and has since appeared in productions of Rigoletto, Ariadne auf Naxos, Il Trittico, Parsifal, Idomeneo, Cavalleria Rusticana, Nixon in China, The Queen of Spades, the complete Ring Cycle, and The Magic Flute. Mumford has also performed with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Glimmerglass Opera and at the BBC Proms, among others. An active concert performer and recitalist, Ms. Mumford recently made her debuts at the Hollywood Bowl with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at Grand Teton Festival with Donald Runnicles, and at the La Jolla Music Society SummerFest and Carnegie Hall. http://www.tamaramumford.com/

Tenor Russell Thomas is quickly establishing himself as one of the most exciting vocal and dramatic talents on the international opera and concert scene, most recently taking first prize in the Ricardo Viñas Competition and the Competizione dell'Opera in Dresden. Mr. Thomas is an alumnus of The Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. 2012-2013 season highlights include roles with Opera Rara, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Municipal Santiago de Chile, Gran Teatre de Liceu and the Royal Opera Covent Garden. http://www.russell-thomas.com

Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 7:30

Friday, November 9, 2012 at 7:30

Saturday, November 10, 2012 at 7:30

Gerald W. Lynch Theater (at John Jay College, 524 W. 59th St., between 10th and 11th Avenues)

White Light Lounges, Gerald W. Lynch Theater Lobby

Rian (U.S. premiere)

Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre (New York debut)

Michael Keegan-Dolan, choreographer

Liam Ó Maonlaí, music director

Adam Silverman, lighting design

Sabine Dargent, set design

Doey Lüthi, costume design

Denis Clohessy, sound design

Philip Feeney, assistant music director

Co-produced by Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre and Sadler’s Wells, London

The international touring of Rian by Fabulous Beast is supported by Culture Ireland

Described as “one of the most daring and highly original dance theatre companies in the world” (The Times), Ireland’s Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre presents ground-breaking work that blends narrative and physical theater with dance, speech and song. The group’s latest piece, Rian, fuses contemporary dance with traditional Irish music in a plot-less, evening-length work that suggests a communal pub gathering. “Rian,” which means “trace” in Irish, was named after musical director Liam Ó Maonlaí’s 2005 album and features a multicultural cast of musicians and dancers.

Under the leadership of director and choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan, Fabulous Beast’s repertory includes three Olivier Award-nominated productions: The Rite of Spring (2009), The Bull (2005) and Giselle (2003). The company has gained wider recognition through performances at major international festivals including the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas, USA; the Festival Dialog Wroclaw, Poland; the Perth International Arts Festival and the Sydney Festival, Australia; and Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. http://fabulousbeast.net

Rian is made possible in part by endowment support from the American Express Cultural Preservation Fund

Additional support provided by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 10:30

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse (165 W. 65th St., 10th floor)

The Unanswered Journey

Alexei Lubimov, piano

Liszt: Schlaflos, Frage und Antwort, S.203

Chopin: Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45

Arvo Pärt: Partita, Op. 2

Liszt: Nuages gris, S.199

Ustvolskaya: Piano Sonata No. 5

Mozart: Adagio in C major, K.617a

Mahler (arr. Singer): Trauermarsch, from Symphony No. 5

Liszt: Sursum corda, from Années de pèlerinage, troisième année

Esteemed Russian pianist Alexei Lubimov’s “unusually broad range of specialties” (The New York Times) will be on display in a program titled “The Unanswered Journey,” featuring works from Liszt to Pärt, Chopin to Ustvolskaya.

Born in Moscow, Lubimov early on developed a dual passion for Baroque music and 20th–century composers, while studying under Heinrich Neuhaus at the Moscow Conservatory. Lubimov plays the piano, fortepiano and harpsichord and maintains a remarkable facility with classical and Romantic repertoire. Lubimov performed the Moscow debuts of works by John Cage and Terry Riley in 1968 and later went on to found the Moscow avant-garde festival “Alternativa.” Lubimov has played with noted conductors, ensembles and orchestras around the world including the Helsinki, Israel, Los Angeles and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras.

http://www.linnrecords.com/artist-alexei-lubimov.aspx

Friday, November 9, 2012 at 10:30

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse (165 W. 65th St., 10th floor)

Céilí: Liam Ó Maonlaí and Friends

Liam Ó Maonlaí, piano and vocals

Irish folk rock musician Liam Ó Maonlaí steps away from his duties as Music Director for Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre’s production of Rian to perform an intimate hour-long concert. Hailed by U2’s lead singer Bono as “the best white boy soul singer on the planet,” Ó Maonlaí is best known as the lead singer/pianist of the Celtic band Hothouse Flowers. Ó Maonlaí is deeply committed to incorporating his Irish heritage with rock, pop, soul and world music influences. He considers his solo performances as spaces for story-telling, where he reveals the songs and sounds that have been an integral part of his growth and culture.

As a solo performer and with his band, Ó Maonlaí’s free spirit has led to many collaborations with distinguished Irish musicians and artists around the world, from the Aboriginal singers of the White Cockatoo to Def Leppard and the Indigo Girls. He has shared the stage with music greats like Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle and has worked on film, television and special projects dedicated to Irish musical heritage.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 7:30

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 7:30

Rose Theater (Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th St.)

White Light Lounge on Tuesday, November 13, David Rubenstein Atrium (61 w. 62ND St.)

White Light Lounge on Wednesday, November 14, at65, Alice Tully Hall

I went to the house but did not enter

The Hilliard Ensemble

Heiner Goebbels, conception, music, and director

Klaus Grünberg, lighting design and staging

Florence von Gerkan, costume design

Willi Bopp, sound design

Texts by T.S. Eliot, Maurice Blanchot, Franz Kafka, and Samuel Beckett

Heiner Goebbels: I went to the house but did not enter

Originally produced by Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne

Since premiering at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival, Grammy-nominated German composer and director Heiner Goebbels’ extraordinary music and theater work I went to the house but did not enter has toured the world, garnering critical acclaim and recognition. Richard Morrison of The Times (London) wrote: “I’ve rarely seen anything that melds music, staging, texts and performance so perfectly into a meditation on humanity’s 20th (and 21st) century blues.” Incorporating four works by T.S.Eliot, Maurice Blanchot, Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett, Goebbels explores the disappointment and melancholy of aging. Although mournful and tinged with dissonant harmonies, “it wears its seriousness lightly but very, very well, the poetry is crsip and clear, as though heard for the first time” (The Independent).

Heiner Goebbels is one of today’s most important exponents of the contemporary music and theater scene. His compositions for ensembles and orchestras are performed worldwide and his music theater works and staged concerts are regularly produced by Théâtre Vidy Lausanne and the Ensemble Modern. Goebbels is a professor at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen (Germany) and President of the Theatre Academy Hessen. From 2012 to 2014, he will serve as the artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts, Ruhrtriennale. http://www.heinergoebbels.com/

Unrivalled for its formidable reputation in the fields of both early and new music, the Hilliard Ensemble (countertenor David James, tenor Rogers Covey-Crump, tenor Steven Harrold, and baritone Gordon Jones) is one of the world's finest vocal chamber groups. The group’s standing as an early music ensemble dates from the 1980s and it has established long-standing relationships with many composers and orchestras, performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and the London, New York, and Dresden Philharmonic Orchestras, among others. http://www.hilliardensemble.demon.co.uk/

This presentation of I went to the house but did not enter is made possible in part by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 7:30

Alice Tully Hall (Broadway at 65th St.)

White Light Lounge, at65, Alice Tully Hall

Earthly and Heavenly Life

Bernarda Fink, mezzo-soprano

Anthony Spiri, piano

Schumann: Six Songs from von N. Lenau und Requiem, Op. 90

Mahler: Frühlingsmorgen

Mahler: Das irdische Leben

Mahler: Das himmlische Leben

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Dvorák: Oblak a mrákota jest vukol Neho (“Clouds and Darkness”), from Biblické písne

Dvorák: Slyš, ó Bože, slyš modlitbu mou (“Give ear to my prayer”), from Biblické písne

Dvorák: Hospodin jest muj pastýr (“The Lord is my shepherd”), from Biblické písne

Dvorák: Pri rekách babylonských (“By the rivers of Babylon”), from Biblické písne

Dvorák: Zpívejte Hospodinu písen novou (“O sing unto the Lord a new song”), from Biblické písne

Mahler: Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft, from Rückert-Lieder

Mahler: Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder, from Rückert-Lieder

Mahler: Liebst du um Schönheit, from Rückert-Lieder

Mahler: Um Mitternacht, from Rückert-Lieder

Mahler: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, from Rückert-Lieder

Describing a 2010 concert at Lincoln Center, The New York Times praised Bernarda Fink’s “warm tone, ample range and textual insight,” and Spiri’s “stylish, keenly responsive” playing. Born in Argentina to Slovenian parents, Bernarda Fink moved to Europe after winning First Prize at the Nuevas Voces Liricas competition in 1985. Since then, she has sung with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, I Solisti Veneti, the London Philharmonic and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, among others. Fink has performed in numerous opera productions including Così fan tutte in Barcelona and Salzburg and La Cenerentola in Rennes, and has made over 50 recordings of repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Bruckner.

Pianist Anthony Spiri is one of the most versatile and highly-regarded of today’s lied accompanists, chamber music pianists and soloists. A frequent collaborator of Ms. Fink, Spiri has also performed as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Camerata Academica Salzburg and the Basel Chamber Orchestra. Spiri is a professor of piano chamber music at the Musikhochschule in Cologne.

www.anthony-spiri.com

Friday, November 16, 2012 at 7:30

Church of St. Mary the Virgin (145 W. 46th St.)

White Light Lounge, Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Baltic Voices

Latvian Radio Choir (U.S. debut)

Sigvards Klava, conductor (U.S. debut)

Knut Nystedt: Immortal Bach

Lasse Thoresen: Ombres et images

Anders Hillborg: muo:aa:yiy::oum

Eriks Ešenvalds: Légende de la femme emmurée

Ligeti: Lux aeterna

Arvo Pärt: …which was the son of…

Peteris Vasks: Ziles zina (“Message of a Bird”)

Saturday, November 17, 2012 at 7:30

Alice Tully Hall (Broadway at 65th St.)

White Light Lounge, at65 (Alice Tully Hall)

Adam’s Lament

Latvian Radio Choir

Sinfonietta Riga

Tõnu Kaljuste, conductor

All-Arvo Pärt program

Berliner Messe

Te Deum

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Trisagion

Adam’s Lament

The Latvian Radio Choir makes its U.S. debut with two White Light Festival concerts.

Under conductor Sigvards Klava, the first performance (November 16) features a diverse program of works including Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen’s Ombres et images, György Ligeti’s Lux aeterna—immortalized in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey—and Swedish composer Anders Hillborg’s minimalist muo:aa:yiy::oum. On the 17th of November, renowned Estonian conductor Tõnu Kaljuste leads the Choir with the Sinfonietta Riga in an all-Arvo Pärt program that features the Berliner Messe, Te Deum, Trisagion, and Adam’s Lament.

Founded in 1940 and regarded as one of the top professional chamber choirs in Europe, the Latvian Radio Choir performs over sixty concerts a year in Latvia and abroad, regularly appearing in both theatrical and multimedia events.The Choir actively works to popularize the music of Latvian composers around the world, commissioning about ten new works each year. The group is regularly invited to perform in prestigious international music festivals including the Venice Biennale, the Baltic Sea Festival and the Klangspuren Festival, and has collaborated with guest conductors such as Heinz Hollinger, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and James Wood. http://www.radiokoris.lv/index.php?&15

Saturday, November 17, 2012 from 4:30 to 6:00

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse (165 W. 65th St., 10th floor)

Panel: The Body & The Self

John Schaefer, moderator

and

Sunday, November 18, 2012 from 3:00 to 4:30, Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

Panel: The Self & Music

John Schaefer, moderator

Sunday, November 18, 2012 at 5:00

Avery Fisher Hall (Broadway at 65th St.)

Philharmonia Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D major

White Light Festival closes with Mahler’s exquisite expression of the struggle between life and death, his Ninth Symphony. Composed during a time in his life fraught with personal tragedies, including the death of his daughter, his resignation, under pressure, from the directorship of the Vienna Opera, and the discovery of a heart defect, the work struggles with the specter of death until it is resolved in its intensely moving closing Adagio. Mahler did not live to hear its first performance, which was given in Vienna in 1912.

Conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen’s relationship with the Philharmonia goes back more than 25 years. He made his London conducting debut at the age of 25 with the Philharmonia, stepping in at the last minute for a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. Salonen is Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, following a 17-year tenure as Music Director there. As a composer Salonen’s work includes: Floof, LA Variations, Foreign Bodies, Wing on Wing, and his 2007 Piano Concerto. His 2009 Violin Concerto, composed for Leila Josefowicz and premiered during his last weeks as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was recently awarded this year’s prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. www.esapekkasalonen.co.uk

The Philharmonia Orchestra has collaborated with the world’s greatest conductors and musicians and since 1945 it has also commissioned more than 100 new works. During the 2011-2012 season, the Orchestra performed more than 36 concerts at its home, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and toured Europe, China and the United Arab Emirates. Highlights include a season-long Bartók retrospective that travels to nine European cities; a Beethoven symphony series led by Maestro Salonen; and the summer 2012 premiere of Universe of Sound: The Planets, an immersive, interactive digital installation that will be part of London’s cultural celebrations for the Olympics. A pioneer in disseminating its music to the widest possible audience through webcasts, podcasts, downloads, and computer games through its interactive music education website, The Sound Exchange, and its 2009 digital virtual orchestra project, RE-RITE, the Philharmonia this season launched a new production company, Philharmonia Digital. www.philharmonia.co.uk

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White Light Festival is sponsored by Time Warner Inc.

Additional support provided by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

Endowment support provided by the American Express Cultural Preservation Fund

MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center

Movado is the Official Sponsor of Lincoln Center

United Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln Center

WABC-TV is the Official Broadcast Partner of Lincoln Center

William Hill Estate Winery is the Official Wine of Lincoln Center

White Light Festival is a presentation of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. (LCPA), which serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 5,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA’s series include American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, White Light Festival, and the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations. In addition, LCPA is leading a series of major capital projects, now nearly complete, on behalf of the resident organizations across the campus.

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.

Programs, artists and prices are subject to change.

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Video

• White Light Festival Trailer 2012
• Cameron Carpenter, Being in the Moment
• Cameron Carpenter, On Style and Sexuality
• Cameron Carpenter, Dancers Make Better Organists
• Cameron Carpenter, Sets the Player Free
• Cameron Carpenter, What Is Transcendence

Documents

• The Rest is Noise: White Light 2012
• Theater Mania: Lincoln Center Announces Programming for White Light Festival 2012

Web Links

• White Light Festival

High Resolution Images