Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, celebrates 25 years this season along with the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum, and is pleased to announce its fall 2009 schedule. In over 300 productions, Works & Process has championed new works, offered audiences unprecedented access to our generation’s leading creators and performers, and hosted post-show receptions for the audiences and artists.
Each 80-minute performance uniquely combines artistic creation and stimulating conversation and takes place in the Guggenheim’s intimate Frank Lloyd Wright–designed 285-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. Described by the New York Times as “a popular series devoted to shedding light on the creative process,” Works & Process is produced by founder Mary Sharp Cronson and consulting producer Charles Fabius.
Lead funding provided by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation with additional support from The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, The Christian Humann Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc.
This program is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
2009 FALL SEASON SCHEDULE - KANDINSKY IN PERFORMANCE:
In conjunction with the full-scale retrospective of Vasily Kandinsky, on view at the Guggenheim from September 18, 2009–January 13, 2010, two programs explore Kandinsky’s aesthetic through the performing arts.
RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER—LEVELS OF NOTHINGNESS
Thu, Sat–Mon, Sep 17 and 19–21, 7:30 pm
Inspired by Kandinsky’s The Yellow Sound, Mexican-born Rafael Lozano-Hemmer creates an installation where colors are automatically derived from the human voice, generating an interactive light performance. Isabella Rossellini will read seminal philosophical texts on skepticism, color, and perception, while her voice is analyzed by computers that control a full rig of rock-and-roll concert lighting. Audience members will have the opportunity to test the color-generating microphone.
THE BLUE RIDER IN PERFORMANCE
Wed and Fri, Sep 23 and 25, 8 pm
Kandinsky’s seminal Blue Rider Almanac of 1912 brought together art, music, and writing from avant-garde movements across Europe, capturing a short-lived moment of international experimentalism that was abruptly halted by the outbreak of World War I. Drawing uponBlue Rider, this production explores the dynamic interaction of music, light, and visual imagery rooted in Kandinsky’s connections to artists in Russia and Germany. Pianist Sarah Rothenberg and soprano Susan Narucki perform music from the era, with light projections. The Brentano String Quartet will perform Schoenberg’s groundbreaking Second String Quartet, a movement of which will be brought to life by Armitage Gone! Dance.
STEVE REICH INTERPRETED, NEW CHOREOGRAPHY BY LARRY KEIGWIN AND PETER QUANZ
Fri, Sep 11, 7:30 pm and Sat, Sep 12, noon, 2 pm, and 7:30 pm
Choreographers Larry Keigwin and Peter Quanz each create a new work set to 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet by Steve Reich. Dancers from Keigwin+Company and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet perform. Steve Reich will participate in the discussion on the evening of September 12.
THE BLUE RIDER IN PERFORMANCE
Wed and Fri, Sep 23 and 25, 8pm
Kandinsky’s seminal Blue Rider Almanac of 1912 brought together art, music, and writing from avant-garde movements across Europe, capturing a short-lived moment of international experimentalism that was abruptly halted by the outbreak of World War I. Drawing uponBlue Rider, this production explores the dynamic interaction of music, light, and visual imagery rooted in Kandinsky’s connections to artists in Russia and Germany. Pianist Sarah Rothenberg and soprano Susan Narucki perform music from the era, with light projections. The Brentano String Quartet will perform Schoenberg’s groundbreaking Second String Quartet, a movement of which will be brought to life by Armitage Gone! Dance.
AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE—THE ART OF ADAPTATION
Sun and Mon, Oct 11 and 12, 7:30 pm
ABT dancers will perform excerpts to illustrate the challenges of creating and presenting ballet for nontraditional dance spaces. Discussions will highlight ABT’s first ever performances on the stage of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and ABT ballet masters and mistresses will talk about the role they play in helping choreographers and dancers adapt to different spaces.
SHEN WEI DANCE ARTS AT 10
Sat and Sun, Oct. 24 and 25, 7:30 pm
Last summer the world watched as Shen Wei’s modern dance took center stage at the 2008 Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. This fall the New York–based company launches its 10th anniversary season and returns to Works & Process to explore Shen Wei’s creative process through performance and discussion.
THE BLUE RIDER IN PERFORMANCE
Wed and Fri, Sep 23 and 25, 8 pm
Kandinsky’s seminal Blue Rider Almanac of 1912 brought together art, music, and writing from avant-garde movements across Europe, capturing a short-lived moment of international experimentalism that was abruptly halted by the outbreak of World War I. Drawing uponBlue Rider, this production explores the dynamic interaction of music, light, and visual imagery rooted in Kandinsky’s connections to artists in Russia and Germany. Pianist Sarah Rothenberg and soprano Susan Narucki perform music from the era, with light projections. The Brentano String Quartet will perform Schoenberg’s groundbreaking Second String Quartet, a movement of which will be brought to life by Armitage Gone! Dance.
CELEBRATING VIRTUOSITY—ELLIOTT CARTER & CHARLES WUORINEN
Mon, Oct 5, 7:30 pm
Rolf Schulte and Fred Sherry perform the world premiere of Elliott Carter’s Duettone. Sherry performs the New York premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s Cello Variations III, and Schulte performs “Rhapsodic Musings” and “Fantasy” from Carter’s 4 Lauds. Join the duo as they present their legendary interpretation of Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello.
STRESS - SEX - MUSIC
Sun and Mon, Dec 6 and 7, 7:30 pm
What do stress, sex, music, and relaxation have in common? Join New York University Professor Max J. Hilz, MD, an international expert on the autonomic nervous system, as he answers this question. During his provocative presentation Hilz will provide a holistic concept of how to cope with the effects of stress while concurrently showing how to regain vitality, sexuality, stamina, joy of life, and longevity.
PETER & THE WOLF
Thu–Mon, Dec 10–14, 4 and 5:30 pm
Isaac Mizrahi narrates Sergei Prokofiev’s children’s classic. New York City Opera’s George Manahan conducts the New Juilliard Ensemble. Explore a newly commissioned set installation created by the renowned New Orleans–based art collective YA/YA (Young Aspirations/Young Artists), under the artistic direction of Rondell Crier and Rontherin Ratliff. Lighting design by Jennifer Tipton brings this story to life.
FREE HOLIDAY CONCERT (Rotunda Performance)
Sun and Mon, Dec 20 and 21, 6 pm
Celebrate the season with the joyous sound of holiday music in the museum’s Frank Lloyd Wright–designed rotunda. The program includes the highly acclaimed Works & Processcommissioned work by Nico Muhly, Senex Puerum Portabat. George Steel conducts the Vox Vocal Ensemble and the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble in what has become a revered annual tradition.
ARIANA REINES
Sun and Mon, Nov 15 and 16, 7:30 pm
Critically acclaimed young poet Ariana Reines will present a new theatrical work, Miss St.’s Hieroglyphic Suffering, starring Birgit Huppuch and directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. Reines’s first play, Telephone, commissioned and produced by The Foundry Theatre, was hailed as “inspired and utterly original” by Ben Brantley in the New York Times and won both Huppuch and Schmoll Obie Awards in 2009. -- www.guggenheim.org
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