Works & Process, the Performing Arts Series at the Guggenheim, Announces 2012 Spring Season

Works & Process at the Guggenheim is pleased to announce its 2012 spring season. Since 1984 and in over 350 programs, New Yorkers have been able to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed artists in the world, in an intimate setting unlike any other. Each 80-minute-long program informs artistic creation through stimulating artist discussion and performance and is presented in the Guggenheim’s Frank Lloyd Wright–designed 285-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. Each season Works & Process champions new works and offers unprecedented access to leading creators and performers. After most programs, the artists continue the discussion at a reception in the rotunda of the museum. 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.

A Works & Process preview video and past performance highlight videos can be viewed at youtube.com/worksandprocess. 

New York City Opera
Prima Donna by Rufus Wainwright
Sun, Jan 22, 7:30 pm
New York City Opera will perform excerpts from Prima Donna, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright’s first foray into opera, before its highly anticipated U.S. premiere. Prima Donna has been described by the Times (London) as “a love song to opera, soaked in the perennial operatic themes of loss, betrayal, delusion and nostalgia, and saturated in the musical styles of opera’s golden age.” NYCO’s George Steel will moderate a discussion with Wainwright and members of the creative team. 

A live broadcast of this performance will be streamed at ustream.tv/worksandprocess. 
Follow the conversation on Twitter with @WorksandProcess and #WPlive.

New York Theatre Workshop
An Iliad
Sun, Feb 5, 7:30 pm
This performance previews An Iliad prior to its New York premiere at New York Theatre Workshop. Lisa Peterson will direct Tony Award–winning actors Denis O’Hare (Assassins, Take Me Out) and Stephen Spinella (Angels in America) in this tale of gods and goddesses, undying love, and endless battles. O’Hare and Spinella will share the role of the poet in this sweeping account of humanity’s unshakable attraction to violence, destruction, and chaos.

New Music Co-Commission & New York Premiere
It Happens Like This by Charles Wuorinen
Poetry by James Tate
Sun and Mon, Feb 19 and 20, 7:30 pm
Works & Process presents the New York premiere of composer Charles Wuorinen’s humorous and dramatic cantata on seven poems by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet James Tate, staged by Ken Rus Schmoll. The work will be performed by Ensemble Signal conducted by Brad Lubman, and will feature the original Tanglewood cast, described by the New York Times as “superb” and “dramatically astute.” Co-commissioned by Tanglewood, with additional support by Southwest Chamber Music.

Columbia Professor Robert Klitzman
"Am I My Genes? Mixing Species in Science and Art"
Sun, Mar 4, 7:30 pm
Columbia University Professor Robert Klitzman will give an illustrated lecture that will explore the history of combining species and genes in science and visual art. As scientists experiment with genetically modified species to improve human life, we are faced with fundamental questions about what it means to be “natural.” Klitzman will reveal his insights into this dilemma by surveying human-animal depictions in art through time, from ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology to Northwest Pacific Indian totem poles, Rubens, Picasso, and even Spiderman, showing how art can help us move forward into a brave new world.

American Ballet Theatre
A Cast of Characters
Sun and Mon, Apr 29 and 30, 7:30 pm
American Ballet Theatre’s 2012 Metropolitan Opera season will feature a cast of characters, including pirates, evil sorcerers, a tractor driver, and even a donkey. ABT’s creative team and company dancers will explore the process and journey of bringing the diverse characters of ABT’s repertoire to life.  

A live broadcast of this performance will be streamed at ustream.tv/worksandprocess. 
Follow the conversation on Twitter with @WorksandProcess and #WPlive.

Pacific Northwest Ballet
After Petipa
Sun and Mon, May 13 and 14, 7:30 pm
Many ballets are credited with choreography “after Petipa,” but what does that mean? Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Education Programs Manager and dance historian Doug Fullington and company dancers look at three famous classical duets—the BLACK SWAN pas de deux from Swan Lake, and the Blue Bird pas de deux and Grand pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty—to explore how they have evolved over time. With assistance from Arlene C. Cooper. 

A live broadcast of this performance will be streamed at ustream.tv/worksandprocess. 
Follow the conversation on Twitter with @WorksandProcess and #WPlive.

Chamberlain in Performance
The following programs are presented in conjunction with the major retrospective John Chamberlain: Choices, on view at the Guggenheim Feb 24–May 13, 2012, and include a viewing of the exhibition.

New Music Commissions
The World of John Chamberlain
Sun and Mon, Apr 22 and 23, 7:30 pm
This program will explore the poetic and musical influences on artist John Chamberlain’s work with Senior Guggenheim Curator Susan Davidson. The evening will feature a guest appearance by jazz great Bill Charlap, Morton Feldman’s 1962 work For Franz Kline, and newly commissioned works by composers Drew Baker and Jason Eckardt. Audience members are invited to view the exhibition prior to the performance from 6-7:30 pm.

A Festival of Israeli Jazz & World Music Opening Night
Omri Mor Trio
Mon, May 7, 8 pm – Museum Rotunda
Jerusalem-based jazz pianist Omri Mor and his Trio will offer an experience of Israel’s thriving jazz scene for one night only in the museum’s Frank Lloyd Wright–designed rotunda. On this opening night of the Festival of Israeli Jazz & World Music (Roberto Rodriguez, curator), Mor will enrapture the audience by melding Andalusian music with jazz through improvisation of Andalusian melodies as if they were jazz standards. To celebrate the artist and jazz fan John Chamberlain, audience members are invited to view the exhibition throughout the concert. A Festival of Israeli Jazz & World Music will take place in New York May 7–18. With thanks to our friends at the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York, for their support.

Location: Peter B. Lewis Theater, unless otherwise noted
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street
Subway: 4, 5, 6 train to 86th Street
Bus: M1, M2, M3, or M4 bus on Madison or Fifth Avenue

Tickets: $30/$25 Members/$10 Students under 25 with valid ID, unless otherwise noted
Tickets for New York City Opera on sale now; season tickets on sale January 9.
212 423 3587, Mon–Fri, 1–5 pm or visit worksandprocess.org.