Opera, Music & More on Tap for Park Avenue Armory's 2016 Season

Encompassing Opera, Music, Visual and Performance Art, Engagements Include World and North American Premieres, Major Site-Specific Commissions, and Intimate Artistic Encounters:

· The North American stage premiere of Dutch composer Louis Andriessen's De Materie, reconceived by visionary director Heiner Goebbels and featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble

· A new site-specific absurdist installation by visual artist and musician Martin Creed, commissioned by the Armory, that takes over the entire first floor of the building

· A major commission and world premiere by multidisciplinary artist Taryn Simon that incorporates performance, sculpture, architecture, and sound

· Circle Map, two evenings of composer Kaija Saariaho's immersive music performed by the New York Philharmonic and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen

· The launch of The Artist's Studio, an intimate artistic series presenting concerts across a range of genres in the newly renovated Veterans Room, curated by jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran

· The expansion of the Armory's acclaimed recital series in the Board of Officers Room

New York, NY-December 7, 2015-Park Avenue Armory announced today its 2016 spring-fall lineup of programming, a diverse array of world and North American premieres, commissions, and multi-disciplinary collaborations that reflect the institution's ongoing dedication to providing artists with opportunities to create work that defies traditional categorization and demands audience participation. Engagements will be presented in the Armory's historic interiors, and include programs in the soaring Wade Thompson Drill Hall as well as two of the Armory's most opulent historic reception rooms: an expansion of the recital series in the Board of Officers Room, and a new series in the revitalized Veterans Room, which will reopen to the public in February 2016.

The acclaimed recital series in the Board of Officers Room will kick off the spring-fall offerings, with British soprano Sally Matthews in a concert of rarely performed art songs from the 18th to 20th centuries. Programs in the drill hall include the North American stage premiere of Louis Andriessen's De Materie, directed by composer Heiner Goebbels and featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble in a visually dramatic production incorporating music, dance, and spoken word; a new commission by visual artist and musician Martin Creed that marks his largest installation in the U.S. to date and reimagines the Armory's drill hall and period rooms in a surprising meditation on existence; a monumental multifaceted new performance work by artist Taryn Simon that explores the ways grief is programmed through a blend of sculpture, performance, sound, and architecture; and Circle Map, a program of ambitious spatial works by composer Kaija Saariaho that features the New York Philharmonic. Additional recital programs include the Grammy Award-winning Roomful of Teeth in a performance exploring vocal music of the 21st century, and a recital by the JACK Quartet performing the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Roger Reynolds' FLiGHT.

The Armory will also launch the Artist's Studio, a series of intimate concerts curated by Grammy-nominated jazz musician and MacArthur "Genius" Jason Moran presented within the Veterans Room. The Room will join the Board of Officers Room as one of the city's premier cultural salons when it reopens in February, following a renovation and restoration by Herzog & de Meuron. Additional details on the Artist's Studio engagements will be announced in the coming months.

"With the reopening of the Veterans Room, the Armory is activating one of the most important historic interiors in the country and adding a new platform for artistic presentations that will become integral to our programming," said Rebecca Robertson, President and Executive Producer of Park Avenue Armory. "With the expansion of our intimate performance series, together with an exciting lineup of large-scale productions in our drill hall, our spring-fall 2016 lineup will see the Armory challenging artists to push the boundaries of their practice ever further, and use our historic building in dynamic new ways."

The Armory's upcoming recital series performances mark an expansion of the celebrated series, with 10 intimate programs by a range of rising and renowned talent in the Board of Officers Room. The Under Construction series will also continue, which showcases works-in-progress created by the Armory's Artists in Residence.

"The Armory strives to provide its audiences with the opportunity to experience masterful and thought-provoking works that are in dialogue with the sweep of the Armory's unique spaces," said Artistic Director Pierre Audi. "Our upcoming programming truly exemplifies this mission-from the dreamlike and grandiose De Materie, to the immersive compositions of Kaija Saariaho, who has always wanted to perform these works at the Armory, to the launch of The Artist's Studio in the Veterans Room, a new artistic series in a cabaret-style setting curated by Jason Moran. We are thrilled to present such a spectacular breadth of artists and performers from around the globe."