(New York, April 25, 2017)—The Met announces the new season of MetLiveArts, the Museum’s performance series that, over the past five seasons, has emerged as a vital part of the contemporary live-arts scene in New York City and a leader in genre-defying performance work. As always, the emphasis on original and site-specific work is at the core of the MetLiveArts vision, led by Limor Tomer, General Manager of Live Arts. The unparalleled Met collection and spaces have catalyzed some of the most ambitious living artists to create and collaborate on evocative works for special one-night-only events as well as durational and multiweek runs.
The 2017–2018 season focuses deeply on dance. Artist in Residence Andrea Miller, the daring choreographer and founder of Gallim Dance, will premiere a range of work, from formal performances to site-specific works, pop-ups, workshops, and open rehearsals, as a way to inhabit the Museum fully through movement. The yearlong residency will emphasize the creative process as well as audience investment.
Dance performances this season will also include the Congolese dancer and choreographer Faustin Linyekula, who will create a new work for the Vélez Blanco Patio, The Met’s sixteenth-century Spanish courtyard; the legendary choreographer and master of intensity Eiko Otake, who will premiere three new pieces specifically for unexpected spaces at The Met’s three locations; and The Museum Workout, the critically acclaimed and sold-out performance by Monica Bill Barnes & Company and Maira Kalman, will return.
This year’s Quartet in Residence is the all-female, quick-fire string ensemble Aizuri Quartet. They will perform thoughtful programs in both the Museum’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium and Veléz Blanco Patio.
“MetLiveArts continues to innovate with powerful performances that animate our collections,” said Daniel H. Weiss, President and interim Chief Executive Officer of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “We are thrilled that this upcoming season will champion living artists with so many commissions.”
A number of highlights throughout the season include Shanghai Peking Opera’s Farewell My Concubine (New York Premiere); Ryoji Ikeda’s supercodex, which melds techno sound and multimedia art; the iconic Charles Lloyd will be back with his newest band, The Marvels; and, following his inspired evening Feast of Jerusalem in 2016, Yotam Ottolenghi returns with fellow chef and author Madhur Jaffrey for a deliciously vibrant Feast of India, in conjunction with the exhibition, Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs.
“The Met is such a boundless repository of ideas, and this season is all about fearless artists who will interrogate the collection and pull us into their creative process,” said Limor Tomer, General Manager of Live Arts. “This season, passive attendance will not be possible: artists such a Monica Bill Barnes, Andrea Miller, Faustin Linyekula, and Eiko Otake command our active participation. This is how we present the unexpected, and the 2017–2018 season will continue to push us beyond our comfort zone.”
Performances will be both ticketed and free with Museum admission, and Bring the Kids for $1 tickets are available for almost every performance.
Farewell My Concubine is a coproduction of MetLiveArts, Shanghai Peking Opera Company, and Cultural Investment Holdings. It is made possible in part by Shanghai HYM Culture & Media Company.
2017–2018 MetLiveArts Artist in Residence: Andrea Miller and Gallim Dance
“Her viscerally physical movement wrings every inch of life from her dancers—and you’ll be holding your breath, too.”—New York Magazine
The first choreographer as Artist in Residence at The Met, Andrea Miller will make her mark with ambitious multidisciplinary works. Miller, choreographer, founder, and artistic director of Gallim Dance, will be creating new works designed to engage with the Museum’s galleries and great spaces, including Stone Skipping—a site-specific work for The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing. This choreographic conversation with the temple explores its multifaceted journey from Egypt to New York City, as well as from temple to artifact, and evokes our own human experience and environmental footprints.
“I am deeply honored to be named Artist in Residence and to be the first within the discipline of dance at The Met,” said Andrea Miller. “It’s very exciting to run my imagination through these great halls. In my work, I’m interested in pursuing the meanings that reside beyond verbal language, mining ideas for their physical roots, and the elusive relationship between performance and truth.”
Stone Skipping [World Premiere]
Fri Oct 27, 7:00 pm, and Sat Oct 28, 2:00 & 7:00 pm, The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing
Tickets start at $65.
Additional performances in Spring 2018
Visit metmuseum.org/gallim
2017–2018 Quartet in Residence: Aizuri Quartet
Miho Saegusa, violin
Ariana Kim, violin
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Karen Ouzounian, cello
The critically acclaimed and fast-rising Aizuri Quartet is a “string sisterhood of Juilliard and Curtis graduates—each one a magnificent musician in her own right … Every note the quartet produces is lovingly crafted and savored” (The Washington Post). During their Met residency, the Quartet takes on the most significant issues of the day: migration, political upheaval, and societal and personal disintegration, and gives these issues a global and historical context.
Music and Mayhem
Sat Oct 21, 7:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
It has been said that all art is political. In this concert, the Aizuri Quartet examines musical compositions written during times of intense political tension. While none of these compositions is necessarily autobiographical, this concert presents Beethoven’s response to the intense turmoil in Vienna in 1809, Steve Reich’s response to the horror of World War II, and Sophia Gubaidulina’s reaction to life under an oppressive regime. All three composers turn to the most intimate, powerful, and intense musical genre, the string quartet, to capture the intensity of the time.
Tickets start at $50.
Music and Isolation
Fri Dec 1, 7:00 pm, Vélez Blanco Patio
This performance is an intimate exploration of music written while sheltered away from community. From Hildegarde von Bingen’s transcendent works, written in cloistered conditions, to Haydn’s, created in forced isolation by his ambitious employer, to Gesualdo’s, written in psychological isolation due to mental breakdown, this concert will delve deeply into the paths of connection that music provides within physical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological isolation.
Tickets start at $75.
Immigration/Migration
Fri Feb 23, 7:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
This program is inspired by the immigrant experience. Composers Bright Sheng (Chinese-American), Lembit Beecher (Estonian-American), Béla Bartók (Hungarian-American), and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh (Syrian-American) all left their homeland for the U.S., thus infusing our culture with their experience.
Tickets start at $50.
For more information visit metmuseum.org/aizuri
New Commissions and Premieres
The Museum Workout [Extended Performances]
Thu–Sun, 8:00 & 9:00 am: Jul 13–16, Aug 10–13, Sep 28–Oct 1, Oct 12–15, Nov 2–5, Dec 7–10, Museum-wide
Choreographed by Monica Bill Barnes & Company
Narration and route created by Maira Kalman
“Madame X, meet Ladies in Sequined Dresses and Sneakers.” —The New Yorker
Part gallery tour, part dance performance, part workout, The Museum Workout is “a tour that leaves its audience-members-slash-participants both sweaty and inspired.” (Dance Spirit). After twenty-six sold-out performances, the work returns for a limited run because, “turns out, a little music and movement really can make you see things differently.” (WNYC).
Tickets start at $75.
metmuseum.org/museumworkout
Bring the Kids for $1 tickets are not available for this event.
Ryoji Ikeda: supercodex [U.S. Premiere]
Wed Sep 6, 7:00 pm, and Thu Sep 7, 7:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
The groundbreaking Japanese visual and sound artist Ryoji Ikeda premieres his new work, supercodex, on The Met’s stage. It explores the relationship between data and sound through rhythmic and raw samplings from his earlier albums and hypnotic visual installations.
Tickets start at $45.
This is presented in collaboration with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) as part of the opening night of FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival 2017.
Faustin Linyekula: New Work [World Premiere]
Sat Sep 9, 2:00 & 7:00 pm; and Sun Sep 10, 12:00 & 3:30 pm, Vélez Blanco Patio
With Faustin Linyekula and Moya Michael
This MetLiveArts commission invites Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula, renowned for his “live-wire intensity,” (The New York Times) to engage with some of the complex but urgent ideas and contradictions that are inherent in the construct of a global museum. Set in the Museum’s Vélez Blanco Patio, Linyekula, who always “packs a powerful punch,” (Time Out New York) will draw inspiration from The Met’s collection of art from the Kingdom of Kongo and the shifting political landscape and tumultuous history of his homeland for a revelatory new work.
Tickets start at $65.
metmuseum.org/linyekula
This is presented in collaboration with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) as part of FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival 2017.
Farewell My Concubine [New York Premiere]
Fri Sep 15, 7:00 pm
Sat Sep 16, 3:00 & 7:00 pm
Sun Sep 17, 12:00 & 3:00 pm
Fri Sep 22, 7:00 pm
Sat Sep 23, 3:00 & 7:00 pm
Sun Sep 24, 12:00 & 3:00 pm
The Astor Court
Featuring Shanghai Peking Opera
The Shanghai Peking Opera, the preeminent performer of the Peking Opera form, presents this classic tale of unwavering yet doomed love, war, sacrifice, and suicide in a dramatic one-hour performance, brilliantly staged in the Astor Court, The Met’s Chinese scholar garden, starring Shi Yihong, the “first lady of Chinese opera.”
Tickets start at $140.
metmuseum.org/concubine
This is a coproduction of MetLiveArts, Shanghai Peking Opera Company, and Culture Investment Holdings. It is made possible in part by Shanghai HYM Culture & Media Company.
Odyssey: A Youth Opera [New York Premiere]
Fri Nov 3, 7:00 pm, and Sat Nov 4, 2:00 & 7:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Ben Moore, composer
Kelley Rourke, librettist
Eric Sean Fogel, director/choreographer
Brian Vu, baritone
Meroe Khalia Adeeb, soprano
Members of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City
Francisco Núñez, conductor
From bloodthirsty monsters to enticing sirens, Odysseus faces down every obstacle imaginable as he sails home from war in this one-hour opera retelling Homer’s epic tale. First commissioned by The Glimmerglass Festival, this all-new production features images of Greek works of art in the extensive Met collection.
Tickets start at $65.
metmuseum.org/odyssey
Odyssey: A Youth Opera was commissioned by and premiered at The Glimmerglass Festival in 2015.
Eiko Otake: A Body in Places—The Met Edition [World Premiere]
Sun Nov 5, between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm, The Met Fifth Avenue
Sun Nov 12, between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm, The Met Breuer
Sun Nov 19, between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm. The Met Cloisters
The Met has commissioned the intense Japanese-American activist and movement artist to create three new editions of her time-bending ongoing work, A Body in Places, designed specifically for the most iconic spaces in The Met’s three locations.
Free with Museum admission.
metmuseum.org/eikootake
La Dolce Morte
A monodrama for chamber ensemble and countertenor
Fri Dec 8, 7:00 pm, and Sat Dec 9, 2:00 & 7:00 pm, Vélez Blanco Patio
Suzanne Farrin, composer
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Staging by Doug Fitch
One of the most gifted artists who ever lived, Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, architect—and poet. Written some five hundred years ago, his highly physical, sensual love letters form the libretto for this 2015 MetLiveArts commission, designed for the Museum’s sixteenth-century Vélez Blanco Patio.
Tickets start at $95.
Chamber Music Redefined
Tembembe Ensamble Continuo: Baroque Son
Sat Oct 14, 7:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
The music of Tembembe illustrates an explosive seventeenth-century moment when the Baroque sensibilities and instrumentation dominant in Europe collided with New World colors and rhythms—it is a fascinating hybrid of European Baroque and indigenous Mexican and Latin American sounds. This performance is inspired by the exhibition Cristóbal de Villalpando: Mexican Painter of the Baroque, on view July 25–October 15, 2017.
Tickets start at $45.
This event is part of Celebrate México Now, a citywide festival of contemporary Mexican art and culture. mexiconowfestival.org.
Chiara String Quartet
Sat May 12, 2:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Returning again after a triumphant residency at The Met, the Chiara String Quartet presents a dazzling program featuring music by Beethoven, Muhly, and a New York Premiere of Philip Glass’s Piano Quintet, with guest artist Paul Barnes.
Tickets start at $65.
Sight and Sound Series
Leon Botstein and The Orchestra Now
Three Sundays, 2:00 pm, Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Explore the places where musical and visual expression meet. Conductor and music historian Leon Botstein and The Orchestra Now pair orchestral works with masterpieces from The Met collection. Each event includes a discussion featuring on-screen artworks and orchestral excerpts, a full performance of the piece of music, and an audience question-and-answer session.
Schoenberg, Munch, and Expressionism
Sun Dec 3, 2:00 pm
Schoenberg’s Erwartung (Expectation) and the artwork of Edvard Munch
At the climax of Schoenberg’s compact operatic monodrama, a woman screams upon finding the dead body of her lover. The close connections between Schoenberg’s score and Munch’s symbolism extend beyond the composer’s expressionist music. The composer was also a painter, heavily influenced by Munch. Presented in conjunction with Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed, on view at The Met Breuer November 14, 2017–February 4, 2018.
Shostakovich, Michelangelo, and The Artistic Conscience
Sun Feb 11, 2:00 pm
Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses of Michelangelo and the artwork of Michelangelo
To commemorate the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo’s birth, Shostakovich set eleven poems by the Renaissance master to music. This symphonic song cycle illuminates the timeless struggle of artists across the ages—from Michelangelo to Beethoven and Shostakovich himself—in their quest to remain free.
Debussy and French Painting: Beyond Realism
Sun May 20, 2:00 pm
Debussy’s Nocturnes and the artwork of the French Impressionists
Debussy’s Nocturnes have been celebrated for their ability to evoke imagery, light, and color. But is he really music’s answer to Impressionist painting? His works and those of Manet, Degas, and Whistler—who created his own series of atmospheric, tonal scenes that he labeled “nocturnes”—illuminate how the artistic response to nature differs in music and painting. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence, on view at The Met March 6–July 29, 2018.
Tickets start at $30/Series: $75.
metmuseum.org/sightandsound
Masters at The Met
Abhishek Raghuram
Sun Sep 24, 2:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
The award-winning Abhishek Raghuram is a Carnatic vocalist, deeply rooted in the traditions of southern Indian classical music, taught by masters on both sides of his musical family. Presented as a colorful complement to the exhibition Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs, on view at The Met Breuer October 11, 2017–January 2, 2018, celebrating the work of the Indian photographer.
Tickets start at $50.
Thelonious Monk at 100
Fri Oct 20, 7:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Thelonious Monk, one of America’s greatest composers, we celebrate with a uniquely global perspective: from Min Xiao-Fen’s Blue Pipa to Arturo O’Farrill’s Latin-inflected approach, artists from around the world pay unexpected homages to this American genius.
Tickets start at $40.
metmuseum.org/theloniousmonk
Charles Lloyd and The Marvels
Fri Jan 26, 7:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Charles Lloyd, saxophone and flute
Greg Leisz, pedal steel guitar
Reuben Rogers, bass
Eric Harland, drums
The iconic Charles Lloyd—jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, and arranger—celebrates his 80th birthday in 2018 riding high on a second wave of popularity and innovation. The 2015 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master’s latest offerings, with his ace ensemble, The Marvels, include traditional hymns, antiwar protest songs, and reenvisioned originals.
Tickets start at $65.
Exhibitions Amplified
Feast of India with Yotam Ottolenghi and Madhur Jaffrey
Fri Oct 13, 7:00 pm, and Sat Oct 14, 7:00 pm, Petrie Court Café
Yotam Ottolenghi, chef, author, and restaurateur
Madhur Jaffrey, chef and author
Menu created and executed by Chef Floyd Cardoz
Following the delicious success of his 2016 Feast of Jerusalem, the lionized chef, restaurateur, author, and now The New York Times food writer Yotam Ottolenghi returns with another lavish banquet inspired by the vibrant and evocative colors of India. The menu is curated by celebrated chef Floyd Cardoz (Tabla, Paowalla) with the legendary Madhur Jaffrey, global authority on Indian cuisine. In conjunction with the exhibition, Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs on view at The Met Breuer October 11, 2017–January 2, 2018.
Tickets start at $175.
Bring the Kids for $1 tickets are not available for this event.
Holiday Performances 2017
For more information visit: metmuseum.org/holidayconcerts
Byzantine Pop-Ups
Fri Dec 15, 4:00, 6:00, & 8:00 pm, Medieval Sculpture Hall
Featuring Axion Estin Foundation Chanters
A Met holiday tradition, these pop-up concerts feature hymns and carols of the Byzantine Empire. Antiphonal works, with musicians alternating parts in multiple languages, weave a sonic tapestry in the Medieval Sculpture Hall, with our magnificent Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche as the centerpiece.
Free with Museum admission.
The Robert Glasper Trio
Fri Dec 15, 7:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
For Glasper’s debut at The Met, he takes on Christmas with his characteristic fire and versatility. This beacon of hip-hop jazz is not to be missed.
Tickets start at $65.
American Boychoir
Sat Dec 16, 3:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
America’s most popular boy singers warm audience hearts with their annual program of holiday hymns and carols. These delightful choristers embody the pure spirit of Christmas music with their floating, angelic voices.
Tickets start at $65.
New York Baroque Incorporated: Baroque Holiday Music and Dance
Wed Dec 20, 7:00 pm, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Grammy Award–winning early music specialist and string player Robert Mealy leads the young and vibrant historical performance ensemble New York Baroque Incorporated for a dance program featuring suites by Rameau, Lully, Purcell, and Handel. Two great Baroque dancers, Caroline Copeland and Carlos Fittante, take center stage.
Tickets start at $65.
Lorelei Ensemble
Thu Dec 21, 6:30 pm (Members only)* & 8:30 pm, Medieval Sculpture Hall
The enduringly elegant and inventive Lorelei Ensemble returns to The Met with a program of a cappella holiday treasures spanning the Medieval, Baroque, and modern eras. “Serenely pure, sweetly distant, and ineluctably graceful” (The Boston Globe).
Tickets start at $65.
*The 6:30 pm performance is for Members only. Please call 212-570-3753 for details on becoming a Member.
Little Match Girl Passion
Fri Dec 22, 7:00 pm, Medieval Sculpture Hall
In this edition of the Pulitzer Prize–winning holiday classic by David Lang, the emphasis is on the Passion aspect of the work: the audience is the congregation and is invited to participate in the performance, contributing interstitial hymns and songs that are familiar to all, and that bind us as a community.
Tickets start at $65.
For tickets and information, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets or call 212-570-3949. Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open Monday–Saturday, 11 am–3:30 pm
Tickets include admission to the Museum on day of performance.
Prices are subject to change.
Bring the Kids for $1 tickets for children (ages 7–16) are available for all performances (unless specifically noted) when accompanied by an adult with a full-price ticket. For more information, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, call 212-570-3949, or visit the box office.
For evening concerts that take place in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, audiences can enjoy a pre-performance drink in the theater. Doors will open approximately one hour prior to the event.
About MetLiveArts:
The groundbreaking live arts series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art explores contemporary performance through the lens of the Museum’s exhibitions and unparalleled gallery spaces with singular performances and talks. MetLiveArts invites artists, performers, curators, and thought leaders to explore and collaborate within The Met, leading with new commissions, world premieres, and site-specific durational performances that have been named some of the most “memorable” and “best of” performances in New York City by the New York Times, New Yorker, and Broadway World.
Exhibition Credits:
Cristóbal de Villalpando: Mexican Painter of the Baroque
on view July 25–October 15, 2017
The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in collaboration with Fomento Cultural Banamex.
Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs
on view October 11, 2017–January 2, 2018
The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art with the cooperation of Succession Raghubir Singh.
Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
on view November 21, 2017–January 7, 2018
The exhibition of the crèche is made possible by gifts to The Christmas Tree Fund and the Loretta Hines Howard Fund.
Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed
on view November 14–February 4, 2018
The exhibition is made possible by Leonard A. Lauder.
It is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Munch Museum, Oslo.
Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings
on view January 29–May 13, 2018
The exhibition is made possible by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
It is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The National Gallery, London.
Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence
on view March 20–July 22, 2018
The exhibition is made possible by The Florence Gould Foundation and the Janice H. Levin Fund.
Leadership support for MetLiveArts provided by:
Adrienne Arsht
Brodsky Family Foundation
Isabel C. Iverson and Walter T. Iverson
The Kaplen Brothers Fund
Mrs. Joseph H. King Fund
Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Fund
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Mrs. Donald Oenslager Fund
Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky
Grace Jarcho Ross and Daniel G. Ross Concert Fund
The Giorgio S. Sacerdote Fund
Shanghai HYM Culture & Media Company
The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation
Sarah Billinghurst Solomon
Estate of Kathryn Walter Stein
Xerox Foundation
Dirk and Natasha Ziff
Additional major supporters:
Jody and John Arnhold
Chester Dale Fund
Cyril F. and Marie O'Neil Foundation
Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art
The Isaacson-Draper Foundation
The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.
Friends of MetLiveArts: Firebirds
The Arthur Gillender Fund
The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation
Janet and Howard Kagan
Lavori Sterling Foundation, Inc.
William S. Lieberman Fund
Tom and Leslie Maheras
New York State Council on the Arts
Kelly and Gerry Pasciucco
Samuel White Patterson Lecture Fund
The Jerome Robbins Foundation
The Evelyn Sharp Foundation
The C.F. Roe Slade Foundation
The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust
Doris & Stanley Tananbaum Foundation in memory of Doris Tananbaum
Nicki and Harold Tanner
Ann G. Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee
Douglas Dockery Thomas
TOMS Capital & Positive Prescription
Clara Lloyd-Smith Weber Fund
Beth and Leonard Wilf
Anonymous (3)
Gifts of $10,000 and above, as of 4/15/17
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Updated May 4, 2017
Contact:
Meryl Cates
meryl.cates@metmuseum.org; T 212 650 2684
Communications
communications@metmuseum.org; T 212 570 3951
Image: Faustin Linyekula. Photo by Agathe Poupeney