William Christie Conducts Juilliard415 in 'The Genius of Monteverdi'

William Christie, artist in residence in Juilliard's Historical Performance program, returns for his annual concert with Juilliard415 on Thursday, October 5, 2017, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall. "The Genius of Monteverdi," which opens the Juilliard Historical Performance season, features Juilliard415 and Juilliard singers and dancers. The program includes Claudio Monteverdi's Altri canti di Marte and Lamento della ninfa; Carlo Farina's Pavana Seconda; Monteverdi's Ohimé, ch'io cado and Gira il nemico; Dario Castello's Sonata XVI; and Monteverdi's Il ballo delle ingrate, which will be staged by Zack Winokur with new choreography by Juilliard dancer Peter Farrow.

Singers from Juilliard's Marcus Institute are Tamara Banjesevic, Shaked Bar, Joshua Blue, Kady Evanyshyn, Natalia Kutateladze, Kelsey Lauritano, Andrew Munn, John Chongyoon Noh, Alex Rosen, and Onadek Winan. Juilliard dancers are Matthew Gilmore, Zachary Gonder, Alysia L. Johnson, Alex Soulliere, and My'Kal Stromile. Tickets for the Juilliard415 concert with William Christie are $20 and available at juilliard.edu/calendar. Tickets are free for Juilliard students; full-time non-Juilliard students may purchase tickets for $10. Juilliard's full-scholarship Historical Performance program was established and endowed in 2009 by the generous support of Bruce and Suzie Kovner.

Meet the Artists
William Christie, Conductor

Harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist, and teacher William Christie has spearheaded the reintroduction of French Baroque music to a wide audience. Born in Buffalo, and educated at Harvard and Yale, Mr. Christie has lived in France since 1971. The turning point in his career came in 1979, when he founded Les Arts Florissants. As director of this vocal and instrumental ensemble, he made his mark in both the concert hall and the opera house. Major public recognition came in 1987 with the production of Lully's Atys at the Opéra Comique in Paris, which then went on to tour internationally. Mr. Christie has also led many acclaimed performances of works by such Italian Baroque masters as Monteverdi, Rossi, and Scarlatti, as well as works by Purcell, Handel, Mozart, and Haydn. Highlights in the last decade include Atys at the Opéra Comique and the Brooklyn Academy Of Music in 2010, La Didone at the Théâtre de Caen and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in 2011-12, Charpentier's David et Jonathas at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2012, and Rameau, Maître à Danser, which premièred in Caen in 2014 before touring internationally, including performances at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater.

As a guest conductor, Mr. Christie often appears at opera festivals including Glyndebourne (notably Hippolyte et Aricie in 2013) and at such opera houses as the Metropolitan Opera, Zurich Opera, and Opéra National de Lyon. Between 2002 and 2007, he regularly appeared as a guest conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic. His discography includes more than 100 recordings. His most recent were released by Les Arts Florissants: Belshazzar and Music for Queen Caroline by Handel, as well as Le Jardin de Monsieur Rameau.

Since 2007 he has been artist in residence at Juilliard, where he gives master classes twice a year accompanied by the musicians of Les Arts Florissants. In 2002, Mr. Christie created a biennial academy for young singers in Caen, the Jardin des Voix, whose winners tour with Les Arts Florissants in France, Europe, and the U.S. Zack Winokur, Stage Director Stage director, choreographer, and dancer Zack Winokur's current season includes a new production of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Cincinnati Opera, an immersive pairing of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and Matthew Aucoin's Orphic Moment at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, and Sondheim's A Little Night Music at Amsterdam's Royal Theatre Carré. He choreographs Rossini's IL Barbiere di Siviglia at the Dutch National Opera in a new production by Lotte de Beer, returns to Juilliard in April to choreograph a new production of Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie directed by by Stephen Wadsworth, remounts Ana Sokolovic's Svadba at Slovenia's Festival Ljubljana, and gives master classes at the Dutch National Opera Academy. His highly praised production of Cavalli's La Calisto for Juilliard in 2016 received a nomination for best production of the year in Opernwelt, the only American production to be nominated. He is a graduate of Juilliard (BFA '12, dance) and in 2014-15 was the Marcus Institute Opera Directing Fellow at the school.

Peter Farrow, Choreographer

Peter Farrow began dancing in 2005 in Richmond, Va., with Richmond Ballet's youth outreach program Minds In Motion. This allowed him to perform throughout Virginia and in New York City with the National Dance Institute and Rosie's Broadway Kids. He began his formal training two years later with Rebecca Hodal and in 2010 began attending Virginia's Appomattox Regional Governor's School for the Arts and Technology. He was also a trainee with Richmond Ballet for the 2013-14 season. Over the years Mr. Farrow has performed works by choreographers including Emery LeCrone, Ohad Naharin, José Límon, Jerome Robbins, Menghan Lou, Nacho Duato, and Maxine Doyle, among others. He has also attended summer programs at Juilliard, Arts Umbrella, Nederlands Dans Theater, and Springboard Danse Montreal. This is his fourth year at Juilliard and second time working with Historical Performance.

About Juilliard415

Since its founding in 2009, Juilliard415, the school's principal period-instrument ensemble, has made significant contributions to musical life in New York and beyond, bringing major figures in the field of early music to lead performances of both rare and canonical works of the 17th and 18th centuries. The many distinguished guests who have led Juilliard415 include Harry Bicket, William Christie, the late Christopher Hogwood, Ton Koopman, Nicholas McGegan, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Jordi Savall, and Masaaki Suzuki and artist in residence Monica Huggett.

Juilliard415 tours extensively in the U.S. and abroad, with notable appearances at the Boston Early Music Festival, Leipzig Bachfest, and Utrecht Early Music Festival (where Juilliard was the first-ever conservatory in residence). With its frequent musical collaborator, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, the ensemble has played throughout Italy, Japan, Southeast Asia, the U.K., India, and New Zealand.

Juilliard415 has performed major oratorios and fully staged Baroque operas every year since its founding. Recent performances include Handel's Agrippina and Radamisto, Bach's Matthew and John Passions, Cavalli's La Calisto, Charpentier's Actéon with William Christie, and performances in the U.S. and Holland of Bach's Mass in B Minor conducted by Ton Koopman (a collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague). The ensemble's most recent international engagement was a 10-concert tour throughout New Zealand with Bach specialist Masaaki Suzuki.

The 2017-18 season is notable for the Juilliard debuts of the rising conductor JoNathan Cohen and the Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis, a side-by-side collaboration with Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco, as well as return visits by Rachel Podger in a program of Telemann, William Christie leading Monteverdi's Il ballo delle Ingrate, a concert of music from Handel's London under the direction of Robert Mealy, an all-Bach concert for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation with Masaaki Suzuki, and the rare opportunity to see a fully staged production of Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie with Stephen Stubbs conducting.