Paul Lewis and Lise de la Salle Continue the PianoForte Recital Series;
Itzhak Perlman Performs with Members of the Perlman Music Program;
Steve Miller Plays Jazz, Classical Guitarist Odair Assad Performs in Recital;
Pacifica Quartet Continues with Shostakovich; and
Chinese Theatre Works Performs Little Red Riding Hood
For tickets, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949, or visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs are available.
Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open
Tuesday-Saturday 10-5:00 and Sunday noon-5:00.
Student and group discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.
Tickets include admission to the Museum on day of performance.
Saturday, February 5, 2011, at 3:00 p.m. - Chinese Theatre Works: Little Red Riding Hood Children's Version
The New York-based company Chinese Theatre Works performs the children's version of this classic fairy tale in a Peking opera adaptation, with English dialogue and Chinese song, dance, and acrobatics. This afternoon performance is a one-hour version of the production, performed entirely in English to a pre-recorded score.
This program is made possible by The Freeman Foundation.
Tickets: $15
Saturday, February 5, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. - Chinese Theatre Works: Little Red Riding Hood
The New York-based company Chinese Theatre Works performs the full-length version of this classic fairy tale in a Peking opera adaptation, with English dialogue and Chinese song, dance, and acrobatics. This performance features live music and a pre-concert talk.
These events are presented in conjunction with "The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City," February 1– May 1, 2011. The exhibition was organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in partnership with the Palace Museum, and in cooperation with World Monuments Fund and has been made possible through generous support from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and American Express. Additional support was provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the Freeman Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and ECHO (Education through Cultural & Historical Organizations).
Chinese Theatre Works, founded in 2001, is a company is made up of classically trained Chinese opera artists and skilled puppeteers, reflecting a commitment to maintaining the highest artistic standards in the Chinese traditional performing arts. CTW was created in 2001 out of the merger of two non-profit institutions with long histories of bringing traditional and contemporary innovative Chinese performing arts to local New York City, national, and international audiences: The Gold Mountain Institute for Traditional Shadow Theatre (founded 1975) and Chinese Theatre Workshop (founded 1990). The current company carries on both its predecessors' missions, as well as their commitments to education as a key part of their work. Chinese Theatre Works has won the highest honor in U.S. puppetry, a Citation of Excellence from UNIMA-USA, for Toy Theater Peony Pavilion. The company has also been featured at many festivals and conferences across the world, including the Puppeteers of America's 2003 National Biennial Festival; the Puppet Power 2003 conference in Calgary, Canada; the American Association of Theater Educators 2003 Conference in New York City; the first and second annual DALA Festivals in Seoul, Korea, the Taipei Children's Theater Association's 2004 festival in Taiwan, and the Puppeteers of America's Northeast Regional Festival. www.chinesetheatreworks.org
Tickets: $30
Saturday, February 12, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. - Steve Miller & Friends:
Celebrating the Jazz Guitar
Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band was great friends with the luthier James D'Aquisto (1935-1995), whose arch top guitars were prized by great jazz artists. In honor of D'Aquisto, one of the featured artists in the exhibition Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York, Miller and friends will perform an evening of jazz.
This concert is presented in conjunction with "Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York," February 9– July 4, 2011. The exhibition is made possible in part by Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Chilton, Jr.
One of rock music's all time greats, Steve Miller fronts the Steve Miller Band, which has sold more than 30 million records in a career spanning more than 40 years. His trademark blues-rock sound made him one of the key artists in classic rock radio. His band plays sold out shows every year across the country. In June 2010, Miller released a new album, Bingo!, on his own Space Cowboy Records, and undertook a summer U.S. tour and a tour of Europe in the fall. www.stevemillerband.com
Tickets: $55
Sunday, February 13, 2011, at 3:00 p.m. - Odair Assad, Guitar
Brazilian guitarist Odair Assad performs a solo guitar program of music by Latin composers, including Barrios' Chôro da Saudade; Villa-Lobos's Estudos Nos. 10 and 12; Piazzolla's Invierno porteño; Gismonti's Memoria e fado; and Seis brevidades, a work by his brother, guitarist Sergio Assad.
Brazilian-born Odair Assad and his brother Sérgio have set new standards in their field for guitar innovation, ingenuity, and expression. Their exceptional artistry and uncanny ensemble playing come from a family rich in Brazilian musical tradition and from studies with the finest guitarists in South America. The Assads have also played a major role in creating and introducing new music for two guitars. Their virtuosity has inspired a wide range of composers to write for them including Astor Piazzolla, Terry Riley, Radamés Gnattali, Marlos Nobre, Nikita Koshkin, Roland Dyens, Jorge Morel, Edino Krieger, and Francisco Mignone. Now Sérgio Assad is adding to their repertoire by composing music for the duo and for various musical partners both with symphony orchestras and in recitals. They have worked extensively with such renowned artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Fernando Suarez Paz, Paquito D'Rivera, Gidon Kremer, and Dawn Upshaw. The Assads's repertoire includes original music composed by Sérgio Assad and his re-workings of folk and jazz music as well as Latin music of almost every style.
www.assadbrothers.com
Tickets: $40
Friday, February 18, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. - Paul Lewis, Piano
This English pianist, who performed at the Metropolitan Museum for the first time in May 2010, returns with two all-Schubert recitals, his only New York appearances of the 2010-2011 season. The first features Piano Sonatas No. 15 in C Major, D. 840, and No.17 in D Major, D. 850; and the Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946. The second recital takes place on April 29.
Paul Lewis is internationally recognized as one of the leading pianists of his generation. His many awards have included the Royal Philharmonic Society's Instrumentalist of the Year Award, the South Bank Show Classical Music Award, a Diapason d'or de l'année in France, two successive Edison awards in Holland, the 25th Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, and three Gramophone Awards, including Record of the Year in 2008. Between 2005 and 2007, he performed the complete Beethoven Sonatas at venues throughout Europe and North America to great critical acclaim, and his recordings of the cycle for harmonia mundi have received unanimous praise throughout the world. His recent recording of Schubert's Winterreise with Mark Padmore received a Gramophone Award, and his complete set of the Beethoven piano concertos with Jiri Belohlavek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra was named Recording of the Month in the September 2010 issue of Gramophone, and Record of the Month in the October 2010 issue of Classic FM Magazine.
In summer 2010, Paul Lewis became the first pianist in the history of the BBC Proms to play all of the Beethoven piano concertos in a single Proms season. The complete cycle was broadcast on BBC television. In addition to the Proms, he is a regular guest at many of the world's most prestigious venues and festivals, including the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Roque d'Antheron Piano Festival, and the Klavier Festival Ruhr. He has a particularly strong relationship with London's Wigmore Hall, where he has appeared on more than 40 occasions.
Paul Lewis's schedule for 2010 and beyond includes recitals, appearances with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, and Sao Paolo Symphony Orchestras, a complete Beethoven concerto cycle with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, and lieder recitals with Mark Padmore. In 2011 he embarks upon a two-year Schubert project, performing all the mature piano works from the Wandererfantasie onwards, which will be presented in major cities including London, New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Rotterdam, and Florence, and at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg. Future CD releases include Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, and the completion of the three Schubert song cycles with Mark Padmore. Paul Lewis studied with Ryszard Bakst at Chethams School of Music and Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel. Along with his wife, the Norwegian cellist Bjørg Lewis, he is artistic director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, U.K. (www.midsummermusic.org.uk). www.paullewispiano.co.uk
Tickets: $50 (Series: $80)
Saturday, February 19, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. – Pacifica Quartet
In 2009-2010, the Pacifica Quartet, called "one of the fastest rising ensembles today" by The New York Times, became the Metropolitan Museum's second quartet-in-residence, succeeding the Guarneri String Quartet. After a first season of programs of diverse repertoire, the ensemble is devoting its second season to the complete string quartets of Shostakovich in four programs that progress from early to late works.
This fourth and final program features String Quartets No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 122; No. 13 in B-flat Minor, Op. 138; No. 14 in F-sharp Major, Op. 142; and Nov. 15 in E-flat Minor, Op. 144.
This series is supported in part by the Grace Jarcho Ross and Daniel G. Ross Concert Fund.
Wendy Lesser, author of the book Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets, to be published by Yale University Press in March 2011, will host conversations before each of the concerts. From 6:15 to 6:45 p.m., Ms. Lesser will talk with a member of the Pacifica Quartet about the composer and the string quartets, and the quartet's experiences performing them.
Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often daring repertory choices, the Pacifica Quartet has carved out a compelling and critically lauded musical path. In addition to the Musical America and Grammy wins, the Pacifica Quartet has swept top awards in the U.S. and abroad, including the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2006, making the Pacifica only the second chamber music ensemble ever to be selected. Formed in 1994, the ensemble quickly won top prizes in leading international competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award.
Having given highly acclaimed performances of the complete Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Carter string quartets in recent seasons, the quartet will present the monumental Shostakovich cycle in Chicago and New York during the 2010-2011 season. In the summer of 2011, the quartet will present the complete Beethoven cycle at Tokyo's famous Suntory Hall, in an unprecedented presentation of five concerts in three days. And in 2011-2012, the quartet will take the Shostakovich cycle to London's Wigmore Hall.
The members of the Pacifica Quartet live in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, where they were appointed to the faculty of the University of Illinois in 2004 and serve as Faculty Quartet in Residence. They are also resident performing artists at the University of Chicago and the Longy School in Boston. Reflecting its dedication to musicians and music lovers of the next generation, the Pacifica Quartet was instrumental in creating the Music Integration Project, an innovative program that provides musical performances and teacher training to inner-city elementary schools. Originating on the West Coast, where it played its earliest concerts together, the quartet takes its name from the Pacific Ocean. Throughout their journey as a string quartet, its members continually strive to be Distinct as the billows/yet one as the sea (James Montgomery). www.pacificaquartet.com
Tickets: $45
Sunday, February 20, 2011, at 3:00 p.m. - Lise de la Salle, Piano
This young French pianist returns to the Metropolitan Museum with an all-Liszt program for her only New York recital of the season: Funérailles; Transcendental Etudes; Mazeppa, Nuages Gris; "Fantaisie quasi Sonate" from La Deuxième Année de Pèlerinage; transcription of the "Lacrimosa" from Mozart's Requiem, K. 626; and interpretations after Schubert's "Ave Maria," "Ständchen," and "Erlkönig," and the Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
Twenty-two-year-old French pianist Lise de la Salle has emerged as one of the most acclaimed artists of her generation, praised for inspired performances of virtuosity and depth. The Washington Post wrote, "For much of the concert, the audience had to remember to breathe...the exhilaration didn't let up for a second until her hands came off the keyboard." Ms. de la Salle began playing piano at the age of four and gave her first concert at nine in a live broadcast on Radio-France. At 13, she made her concerto debut with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 in Avignon and her Paris recital debut at the Louvre before going on tour with the Orchestre National d'Ile de France.
Lise de la Salle's 2010-2011 season opened with a performance of Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich and Simon Gaudenz. Additional orchestral highlights include Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and the Dresdner Philharmoniker; a return to the Minnesota Orchestra under the baton of Osmo Vanska, who engaged her for three consecutive seasons; debut performances with Colorado Symphony and Peter Oundjian and the Quebec Symphony with Yoav Talmi. She closes the season performing Mozart's Jeunehomme with Lorin Maazel and the London Philharmonia. In addition to her concert at the Metropolitan Museum, recitals in Vienna's Konzerthaus, the Paris Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Hamburg's Ladiszhalle, Chicago's Mandel Hall, and at the Ansbach Bach Week, among others, will feature works by Bach, Liszt, Chopin, and Schumann.
This season also brings the release of her fifth CD – a Chopin disc including a live recording of the Piano Concerto 2, Opus 2, with Fabio Luisi conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden as well as the Four Ballades. Ms. de la Salle's recording of works by Bach and Liszt, made when she was only 16, was selected as The Gramophone Recording of the Month and, in 2008, she was given that honor again for her Naive recording of first concertos of Liszt, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich – a remarkable feat for someone only 20 years old. In this and recent seasons, Ms. de la Salle's appearances include recitals in New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Montreal, Vancouver, St. Paul, and Seattle, as well as in Paris, London (Wigmore Hall), Lucerne Festival Piano Series, engagements with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Dresden Staatskapelle, and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. She won the 2003 European Young Concert Artists Auditions in Paris and the 2004 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. www.lisedelasalle.com
Tickets: $45
Thursday, February 24, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. - Itzhak Perlman and Members of the Perlman Music Program
For the fourth consecutive season, the famed violinist returns to the Metropolitan Museum with a program showcasing the exceptionally gifted young musicians of the program founded and guided by Toby Perlman. Violinist Itzhak Perlman's long association with the Metropolitan Museum Concerts series began more than four decades ago.
This program features Mozart's Divertimento String Trio K. 563 in E-Flat Major; Golijov's Last Round(1996); and Brahms's String Quintet No. 2 in G Major Opus 111. Mr. Perlman will perform in the Mozart and Brahms works.
This concert is generously supported by the Brodsky Family Foundation.
The Perlman Music Program encompasses both chamber music workshops and an intensive six-week summer residency program, serving approximately 38 exceptionally gifted students, ages 12 to 18, from all over the world. Under the dedicated guidance of Toby and Itzhak Perlman and an outstanding faculty of teachers of violin, viola, cello, bass, piano, and chorus, the program offers instruction, coaching, and mentoring, with a faculty-student ratio of nearly one to three. At the summer program on Shelter Island, students practice their instruments four hours a day, take private lessons and group classes, play in chamber groups and orchestra, and sing in chorus. They discuss performance skills, examine performance anxiety, and perform throughout the summer. In addition, students develop social skills and learn to share the spotlight with others in this non-competitive environment.
Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys a superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. In January 2009, Mr. Perlman was honored to take part in the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, premiering a piece written for the occasion by John Williams and performing with clarinetist Anthony McGill, pianist Gabriela Montero, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He marked an important milestone during the 2008-2009 season, the 50th anniversary of his American debut. In September 2009, he helped inaugurate the Barvikha Concert Hall outside Moscow with a reprise of his acclaimed Klezmer program, "In the Fiddler's House."
In fall 2010, Mr. Perlman traveled to Chile and Brazil for both orchestral and recital performances and to six cities in Japan and South Korea with pianist Rohan De Silva. He joined the New York Philharmonic for their opening subscription week under Music Director Alan Gilbert. Other highlights include performances with the Toronto Symphony at Carnegie Hall, and with the Chicago Symphony to benefit the Rotary Foundation's End Polio Now campaign. Mr. Perlman also appears with students and alumni from the Perlman Music Program in Washington, D.C., and Princeton, as well as at the Metropolitan Museum. Mr. Perlman also performs as conductor with leading orchestras; this season marks his third as Artistic Director of the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra.
www.perlmanmusicprogram.org
Tickets: $70
January 18, 2011
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