2017 Season

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PREVIOUSLY THIS SEASON

Artists Studio

February 18–November 21

“…it was a block of music that made you think, as the room does: Take note. Listen deeply. The rest of the world is not like this.” — The New York Times

Hear performances by a diverse mix of artists that infuse their own work with a multitude of various references and source material, from Japan, India, and West Africa to the American South and Harlem. Curated by jazz pianist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Jason Moran, these interventions explore the culture of sound that can be visibly seen in the newly reopened Veterans Room, while allowing these creative thinkers to actively explore bold new directions of global influence in contemporary music.

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Recital Series

February 1–November 18

“One of the many enjoyable aspects of concerts…like the Park Avenue Armory’s recently renovated Board of Officers Room is the chance to enjoy the intimacy of the music making and to see the players up close.” — The New York Times

Experience enchanting musical moments in the most personal of settings, including the recital debuts of opera greats as well as the next generation of brilliant singers, thoughtfully curated programs of both lieder and contemporary works, and electrifying performances by musical luminaries that take their intrepid artistry in thrilling new directions.

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Manifesto

December 7, 2016–January 8, 2017

“It is both a confirmation of Blanchett’s sheer presence and acumen as an actor and Rosefeldt’s shrewdness and intellect as an artist.” — Sydney Morning Herald

Drawing on more than 50 manifestos by artists, architects, choreographers, and filmmakers, this highly theatrical cinematic installation by cinematographer and video artist Julian Rosefeldt reinterprets these famous texts as poetic monologues that are brought to life on 13 massive screens by Academy Award-winner Cate Blanchett.

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The Hairy Ape

March 25–April 22

“Superb…a rare and exhilarating revival of a play that shows the ability of expressionism to pin down the encaged isolation of the eternally oppressed.” — The Guardian (UK)

Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O’Neill’s iconic piece of expressionist drama gets a thrilling new life in a production by visionary director Richard Jones, who boldly reimagines his acclaimed staging at the Old Vic for the soaring Wade Thompson Drill Hall. Bobby Cannavale stars as Yank, whose journey literally revolves around the audience like the conveyer belt of a larger machine in an inventive approach that rattles the cages of capitalism.

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FLEXN Evolution

May 18–21

“…[a] searing example of dance as protest” — The Boston Globe

FLEXN testifies and bears witness to a surging movement in America that will not be turned back and cannot be ignored. With power, grace, soul, and sheer exhilaration, love and justice are explored in a variety of electrifying flex dance techniques and powerful personal narratives. After dazzling audiences in 2015, this thrilling group of dance innovators returns to the Armory with an evolved version of their original production that showcases the unquenchable energy and blazing focus of this contemporary dance form.

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Hansel & Gretel

June 7–August 6

“[Herzog & de Meuron] are always dedicated to enlarging experience where others would flatten it ... They are champions of nuance” — Architectural Review

“…it is the essence of Ai's activism:…work that unleashes the political power of art.” — The Guardian (UK)

In a new commission that is both object and environment, this spectacular installation by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron with artist/activist Ai Weiwei explores the meaning of public space in our surveillance-laden world, referencing the story of Hansel and Gretel in which the children lose their way and feel a sense of menace in a space they know and trust.

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Blank Out

September 21–25 & 27

“A wonderfully fluent and effective piece of music theatre” — The Guardian (UK)

Based on the life and work of South African poet Ingrid Jonker, this groundbreaking work by innovative composer and creator Michel van der Aa combines live action, innovative techniques of interactive film, and inventive music to consider the ways in which we reconstruct and deal with traumatic life events. Soprano Miah Persson sings live, combined with replayed loops of herself and the voice of baritone Roderick Williams in 3D film to create haunting musical passages and ensembles and, in the process, an entirely new form of opera.

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Répons

October 6–7

“It’s gritty and rigorous, but also sumptuous and fanciful–the sheer visceral excitement of being caught in the middle was like nothing else in music.” — The New York Times

Rarely staged in concert halls given its unconventional configuration of the space, Pierre Boulez’s spatial masterwork is written for and realized at the Armory by Ensemble intercontemporain and conductor Matthias Pintscher, who perform this emblematic work twice in succession each evening, with the audience changing seats in between to gain a new sonic perspective. This remarkable presentation marks the first performance in New York of a major work by Boulez since his death in early 2016.

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A Room in India (Une chambre en Inde)

December 5–20

“it is a spectacle full of surprises…a joyful, funny, four hour show, even as it collides with the evil of our world…It is theater as Mnouchkine likes it: alive, dynamic, colorful, sung-danced, corporal and stylized” — Le Monde

Ariane Mnouchkine and her visionary theater company, Théâtre du Soleil, return for the North American premiere of this landmark work, which follows the adventures of a touring French theater company stranded in India without a director while the world around them falls into disarray.

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2017 Season Sponsors:

Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Altman Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, The Kaplen Brothers Fund, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation.

The Recital Series is supported in part by The Reed Foundation. The Recital Series is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

The Artists Studio is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.