Columbia University's Miller Theatre Announces 2012-2013 Season

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts has announced its 2012-13, 24th Season. Including LE POÈME HARMONIQUE IN "VENEZIA," on opening night, eight intriguing composer portraits, featuring John Cage, Jonathan Harvey, Olga Neuwirth, Sofia Gubaidulina, Enno Poppe, Rebeecca Saunders, Oliver Knussen and Julio Estrada. Bach, Revisted, highlights innovators, baroque and modern alike, featuring Jennifer Koh teaming up with mentor Jaime Laredo, harpsichordist Kristian Bezuidenhout and Ensemble Signal playing Bach, Rebel and Michael Gordon, and pianist Christopher Taylor juxtaposing Bach and Rzewski. The theatre also highlights early music ensembles, its jazz series, community programming, and pop-up concerts. See below for full details.

THE 12 / 13 SEASON (All concerts begin at 8:00PM)

Opening Night:

Miller Theatre opens its season for the first time with an early music event, presenting the extraordinary ensemble and frequent guests Le Poème Harmonique in their largest New York production to date. Performed by candlelight, this theatrical presentation builds on the ensemble's eye-opening approach to opera, using historical gesture, vocal ornament, and an imaginative sequence of songs to depict life in 17th-century Venice.

Set in the streets and canals of the city during the time of Carnival, Venezia dalle strade ai Palazzi(Venice: From the Streets to the Palaces) pairs Monteverdi's haunting madrigals on the torments of love with light, witty works by Francesco Manelli, transporting listeners back in time through song. With an enchanting connection between music, movement, and light, Le Poème Harmonique has crafted an evening that "so realistically depicts the lively Venetian spirit, mixing operatic drama with street quarrels, noble love with servants' idylls…in the pleasure of being together and the happiness of bringing delight." (Le Monde)

VENEZIA
LE Poème Harmonique
September 12 & 14

Featuring Claire Lefilliâtre, soprano, Jan Van Elsacker, tenor, Serge Goubioud, tenor Geoffroy Buffière, bass, Johannes Frisch, violin, Lucas Peres, lirone, Françoise Enock, violone Joël Grare, percussion, Jean-Luc Tamby, colascione and guitar, Vincent Dumestre, theorbo, baroque guitar, and music director, Benjamin Lazar, stage director.

Composer Portraits:

The heart of Miller Theatre's programming-its heralded Composer Portraits series-returns for a 13th season with eight Portraits, including eight premieres and a new Miller Theatre commission. While paying tribute to an American icon, John Cage, this season draws its inspiration primarily from abroad, including Britain, Germany, Austria, the former Soviet Union, and Mexico, offering audiences an intimate and rare opportunity to get to know a fascinating array of composers. Offering a prismatic overview of each composer's oeuvre, featuring many premieres and the return of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Signal and the JACK Quartet, Miller's Composer Portraits series continues.

John Cage (1912–1992)
September 20

Miller kicks off this year's series with a 100th birthday celebration of one of the 20th century's most profoundly influential composers and thinkers, whose ideas revolutionized art-making across genres. This unique Portrait, a first at Miller, casts Cage's provocative explorations of chance operations and unorthodox sounds in relief by exploring his at-times explosive correspondence with the iconic French modernist Pierre Boulez. Percussionist and conductor extraordinaire Steven Schick joins the International Contemporary Ensembleand mezzo-sopranoJessica Aszodifor a program pairing Boulez's signature Le marteau sans maître with Cage's seminal works, revealing surprising connections between these two polarizing explorers of sound.

Jonathan Harvey (b. 1939)
October 11

Jonathan Harvey's music has an otherworldly, transcendent quality. The Guardian puts it quite simply: "There is no more consistently wonderful composer than Harvey, no other contemporary music-classical or otherwise-that makes your jaw drop with joy and delight at the sheer voluptuous possibilities." Frequent Miller Theatre collaborators, Ensemble Signal and their conductor Brad Lubman, survey the spectrum of Harvey's spiritual explorations, performing works inspired by a moving Renaissance altarpiece of the crucifixion and the ancient Sanskrit hymns of the Rig Veda. "Most of my works," writes Harvey "are attempts to (dis)locate the spirituality of music...But what one can say is that the most important property of spiritual music, or even perhaps of good music, is that it is ambiguous."

Olga Neuwirth (b. 1968)
December 6

An inquisitive explorer of sounds orchestral and electronic, musical and textual, Olga Neuwirth returns to Miller following the premiere of her opera Lost Highway in 2007. A student of Nono and Murail, the Austrian composer first burst onto the international scene at age 22, when her operas premiered at the Vienna Festival; debuts at Salzburg and Lucerne soon followed. Longtime champions, the International Contemporary Ensemble are joined by pianist Corey Smythe and conductor Jayce Ogren in the American premiere of her "inexplicably profound" (Financial Times) music theatre work "…ce qui arrive…" alongside her dramatic piano concerto locus…doublure…solus, whose material Pierre Boulez has described as so "in a state of flux... that the listener's ear is drawn into what can be an intriguingly disorientating experience."

Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931)
February 9

Sofia Gubaidulina has earned her place among the great living composers. Her singular sound is characterized by a love of unusual sonorities and a deep-seated belief in the mystical properties of music. Quietly encouraged by Shostakovich to boldly pursue what the Soviet establishment perceived as the "wrong course" musically, she fled to Germany, where she cultivated her passion for the avant-garde. Ten years following her first Portrait at Miller, after which The New York Times proclaimed she had "taken her place as one of most admired composers now working," this program traces her evolution before and after her relocation to Hamburg. It features several solo works as well as larger spiritual tours-de-force performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, with bassoonist Rebekah Heller and conductor Christian Knapp.

Enno Poppe (b. 1969)
February 23

A sensation on Europe's festival circuit and an established favorite among its leading new-music bands, Enno Poppe is one of Germany's most talked-about composers. The founder and conductor of Berlin's ensemble mosaik, Poppe is as inspired by his experience with and love of chamber ensembles as it is by his theoretical interest in the nearly infinite permutations possible with even the tiniest musical motives. The new piano-percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire make their Miller debut, joining returning favorites the JACK Quartet for this fascinating Portrait.

Rebecca Saunders (b. 1967)
April 4

New York audiences receive their inaugural introduction to composer Rebecca Saunders with a program comprised entirely of premieres. A star pupil of Wolfgang Rihm, Saunders favors a delicate, sparse aesthetic. "From this surface of apparent silence," the composer explains, "I try to draw out and mold sound and color." Finding inspiration in the work of Samuel Beckett, the philosophy of Goethe, and Wassily Kandinsky's writing of spirituality in art, Saunders seems to strip away the extraneous and ornamental in order to uncover the essential within. Her works explore the unique timbres of idiosyncratic solo instruments and chamber ensembles, all performed with thoughtfulness by the members of Either/Or. The Guardian calls Saunders "one of the most intriguing British composers of her generation," and for good reason.

Oliver Knussen (b. 1952)
April 18

The music of British conductor and composer Oliver Knussen is at once entirely accessible and thoroughly modern. A classical wunderkind, Knussen got his start at age 15, when he led the London Symphony Orchestra in performances of his First Symphony, at home and at New York's Carnegie Hall. No stranger to New York's new-music scene, his works have earned repeated accolades in performances at Lincoln Center. This concert traces his long and fruitful career, from his teenage years to more recent music, including many of his best-known and most-loved chamber works. Ensemble Signal and Brad Lubman lead the performance, joined by mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway.

Julio Estrada (b. 1943)
May 16

Born in Mexico City, the child of Spanish refugees, Julio Estrada is a product of cultural crossroads. Influenced in equal part by Xenakis's abstract theories and Mexican music history, by his studies of mathematics and acoustics, Estrada has published widely and been the recipient of numerous awards, including the internationally respected French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Miller closes out the season in much the same way it began with the International Contemporary Ensemble and Steven Schick, performing a kaleidoscopic Portrait that culminates with the world premiere of a new commission.

Composer Portraits in Boston at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum:

Fred Lerdahl (b. 1943)
October 18

Miller takes to the road with a twist on a Portrait from the 2010–11 season: Fred Lerdahl's complete cycle of three string quartets with the Daedalus Quartet

Sofia gubaidulina (b. 1931)
March 21

Following Sofia Gubaidulina's Portrait in New York in February, the International Contemporary Ensemble and conductor Christian Knapp present an encore chamber performance.

Bach, Revisited:

This season Miller Theatre highlights the innovative side of Bach and his Baroque contemporaries by juxtaposing their works with those of 21st-century counterparts. Miller favorites return to the series: a solo piano performance by Christopher Taylor contrasts Bach with a virtuosic set of variations by American composer Frederic Rzewski; violinist Jennifer Koh is joined by mentor Jaime Laredo and musicians from the Curtis Institute for duo concertos by Bach and modern composers. Rounding out the series are Miller regulars Ensemble Signal, who make their Baroque debut in this series after repeat engagements in Composer Portraits.

Two x Four

March 14

Two great violinists, Jennifer Koh and Jaime Laredo, team up to perform four double-concertos, starting with Bach's beloved Concerto for two violins in D minor. The program is balanced by Philip Glass's tranquil Echorus and two newly commissioned pieces by David Ludwig and Anna Clyne, inspired by Bach and written especially for Koh and Laredo. The orchestra features exceptional young players from the Curtis Institute of Music, the violin duo's alma mater, and the institution where they first played the Bach double together as teacher and student. "The ovation was so ardent that Ms. Koh, who had been visibly engrossed in her performance, wiped away tears," wrote The New York Times after Koh's Bach Partita performance at Miller Theatre's Lunchtime Concerts.

The Baroque Vanguard
April 27

Previously heard in Miller's new-music series, Ensemble Signal returns with crackerjack harpsichordist Kristian Bezuidenhout to explore the vanguard of a different era. Jean-Féry Rebel's daringly dissonant Chaos depicts the emergence of the universe from the turbulent cosmos. Familiar and lesser-known works by the Bach family follow, including J.S.'s famous Harpsichord Concerto in D minor. A modern work inspired by Vivaldi's canons and fiery string writing concludes the program-Michael Gordon's Weather 1, another piece inspired by the chaotic nature of the elements.

Keyboard Practice
May 11

Whether tackling Bach's Goldberg Variations on a dual-manual piano or playing a Messiaen magnum opus from memory, Christopher Taylor has consistently wowed Miller Theatre audiences with his smart, bold performances. This time, he pairs selections from Bach's Clavier-Übung ("Keyboard Practice") with Frederic Rzewski's virtuosic and politically charged variations on The People United Will Never Be Defeated! for an unforgettable night of pianistic fireworks.

Early Music:

Lauded for its "great instincts for early-music programming" (The New York Times), Miller has long played host to some of the world's leading early music ensembles and young upstarts alike. This year, the legendary Tallis Scholars and rapidly rising New York Polyphony return once again to the series with concerts at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin (affectionately known as Smoky Mary's). Distinguished Canadian ensemble Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra brings an imaginative multimedia concert to New York for the first time with a performance uptown at the American Academy of Arts & Letters, while Cleveland-based French baroque specialists Les Délices explore lesser-known works in their Miller debut.

Masterpieces for Double Choir
December 1, 8:00PM
Church of St. Mary the Virgin (145 W. 46th Street)

Miller darlings The Tallis Scholars return with a program framed by two brilliant double choir settings of the Magnificat-one Spanish, the other German. A highlight of the program is Lassus' unforgettable setting of Osculetur me, an evocative and at-times erotic text taken from the Song of Songs. Additional works by Tallis, Praetorius, and Pärt take the listener from the chromatic harmony and disjointed rhythms of the late Renaissance to the excitement of the early Baroque era. The Church of St. Mary the Virgin is the ideal setting in which to showcase the ensemble The New York Times calls "the rock stars of Renaissance vocal music."

Tallis & Byrd: Masses for Uncertain Times
January 26, 8:00PM
Church of St. Mary the Virgin (145 W. 46th Street)

New York Polyphony returns to Miller's series with a performance of Tallis and Byrd's uniquely intimate masses for four voices. Written during a time of religious turbulence in England, these settings of the traditional Latin mass text were intended for modest forces and favor a beautifully simple, straightforward style. Composed late in the 16th century, Byrd's mass was an act of courage, written for secret use by fellow Catholics forced underground by the prevailing monarchy. The program is rounded out with a handful of brief sacred works from the 15th century to the present.

House of Dreams
March 3, 3:00PM
American Academy of Arts and Letters (632 W. 156th Street)

An imaginative multimedia concert, Tafelmusik's House of Dreams takes the audience on a journey through five homes in five European cities where, in the 17th and 18th centuries, exquisite works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Marais were performed in intimate settings against a backdrop of private collections of paintings by Vermeer, Canaletto, and Watteau. With narration, projected images of the paintings and homes, and music dynamically performed from memory, the program highlights Tafelmusik's ability, as noted by The New York Times, to mix "insight, assurance and visceral engagement in works to show stylistic cross-pollination among Baroque composers." Their only concert in New York next season, and the opening of their spring tour that will see the program travel to Disney Hall, Tafelmusik's House of Dreams recreates the concert experience at the intersection of Baroque music and art.

The Age of Indulgence
April 6, 8:00PM
Miller Theatre

Cleveland-based French Baroque specialists Les Délices make their Miller debut, recreating the opulent sound world of a 1750s Paris salon. Featuring works that pushed the boundaries of harmony and technical virtuosity, the program revels in the decadence of the era while embracing the Enlightenment values of individuality, originality, and experimentation. Les Délices deftly make accessible little-known works by Philidor, Dauvergne, Mondonville, and Rameau.

Jazz:

In a city so heavily steeped in jazz music, Miller Theatre continues to shift attention uptown and distinguish itself not only with a sharp focus on great jazz artists but with an artfully curated and diverse season series. Collaborating closely with its jazz artists in crafting a concert in much the same way as its Composer Portraits, this season's varied jazz offerings include luminary Christian McBride and his quintet Inside Straight, the Indo-jazz innovations of Rudresh Mahanthappa, a new generation of jazz master Stefon Harris and Blackout, and a charming and inventive holiday-inspired concert with trombonist extraordinaire Wycliffe Gordon.

Christian McBride and Inside Straight
October 6

Known for his high energy and staggering versatility, Grammy winner Christian McBride is one of the most recorded musicians of his generation. He has performed and recorded with jazz giants including Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, and Diana Krall, and with well-known popular artists including Sting, The Roots, Carly Simon, and JAmes Brown. He returns to Miller for the first time since 2007 with his quintet Inside Straight, comprised of some of jazz's most outstanding musicians, bringing what NPR calls "straight-ahead, hard-swinging jazz."

Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition
November 3

Guggenheim fellow and Downbeat Critics Poll winner Rudresh Mahanthappa is one of the most innovative voices in jazz today. Drawing inspiration from the musical traditions of his Indian heritage and the African-American roots of jazz, Mahanthappa sets out to create something entirely new-and undeniably funky. Joined by Pakistani-American guitarist Rez Abbasi and tabla expert Dan Weiss, Mahanthappa shatters preconceptions of Indo-jazz fusion, "heralding," according to DownBeat, "a new reality in jazz."

Wycliffe Gordon QUINTET
December 15

Miller favorite Wycliffe Gordon returns with a special concert for the holidays. Coming to jazz from a childhood steeped in gospel music, Gordon has played with the Wynton Marsalis Septet and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He is an undisputed master of his instrument, a six-time recipient of Trombonist of the Year from the Jazz Journalists Association. Joined for this concert by special guests, he captures the spirit of the season, putting an inventive spin on traditional Christmas favorites.

Stefon Harris And Blackout
February 16

Led by classically trained and forward-thinking vibraphonist Stefon Harris, Blackout is a collaborative outfit of brilliant musicians from a variety of backgrounds, all of whom contribute to both the performance and composition of original works. NPR calls Blackout "a troupe of music mercenaries adept in the language of jazz, the strut of soul music, and the raucous ruckus of breakbeats, go-go and new-jack rhythms…This is what the next generation of jazz masters sounds like today."

Special Event:

On the heels of its outdoor production of Inuksuit in Morningside Park in 2011, Miller continues to strengthen its ties with the Columbia campus and community, partnering this fall with Columbia University's Arts Initiative to help create a new fall tradition, inviting neighbors to help design, construct, and lead an artistic procession of large-scale puppets and other mobile artworks through Morningside Park and the surrounding neighborhood. Working with Processional Arts Workshop (PAW), the artists behind the Village's incredible annual Halloween parade, Miller invites local residents to collaborate in animating the campus and the neighborhood with a family-friendly parade like no other. Watch this video to see PAW in action.

PROCESSIONAL ARTS WORKSHOP AT COLUMBIA
September 23–29, 2012

Details to be announced late summer 2012 at www.millertheatre.com.

Pop-Up Concerts:

Small in scale but big on ideas, Miller Theatre's new series, Pop-Up Concerts, returns for a second season of free informal hour-long concerts. These fun early-evening performances offer a fresh take on the concert experience, putting the audience on stage, right in the middle of the action, and featuring great and daring chamber music-plus beer provided by the Harlem Brewing Company. Last season's performers included pianist Jacob Greenberg, Curtis Institute of Music's ensemble39, composer Jean-Baptiste Barrière, cellist Lauren Radnofsky, and the JACK quartet. Onstage seating is first-come, first-served.

POP-UP CONCERTS
Select Tuesdays Throughout the Season
Mingling at 5:30 p.m., music at 6 p.m.
Dates and Performers TBA

Photo © O. Matsura

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