Engaged in explorations of shifts in scale, materials, and techniques, John Chamberlain created a body of work that ranges from monochromatic iron sculptures to experiments in foam, Plexiglas, and paper to large-scale foil works made near the end of his accomplished career. Early in his practice, Chamberlain developed a unique and well-recognized assemblage process, a method he continued to harness in over sixty-years of artistic production. Join us for a lively discussion about the inventive career of the late American artist as Susan Davidson, curator of John Chamberlain: Choices and Senior Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum, leads a conversation with art critic and author Dave Hickey, Distinguished Professor of Criticism in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of New Mexico, and Donna De Salvo, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of Programs at the Whitney Museum of American Art. A reception and exhibition viewing follow.

$10, $7 members, free for students with a valid ID

For more information visit: www.guggenheim.org

 SHATNER’S WORLD: WE JUST LIVE IN IT

 19 PERFORMANCES ONLY

The box office for William Shatner’s Broadway show SHATNER’S WORLD: WE JUST LIVE IN IT opens tomorrow January 31. The Music Box Theatre is located at 239 West 45^th Street. Tickets are also available at www.telecharge.com.

SHATNER’S WORLD: WE JUST LIVE IN IT will play Broadway’s Music Box Theatre for 19 performances only, from February 14 – March 4. Opening night is February 16.

The two hour show will take audiences on a voyage through Shatner’s life and career, from Shakespearean stage actor to internationally known icon and raconteur, known as much for his unique persona as for his expansive body of work on television and film.

TICKETS:

• · Tickets are priced from $126.50 to $39.00.
• · $31.50 Student Rush tickets will be sold “day of” at the box office only. Students must have a valid student ID and can purchase up to two tickets per ID. Subject to availability.
• · VIP tickets are available which include a meet and greet with William Shatner, premium seating, limited edition souvenir poster, and an autograph and photo opportunity.

SHATNER’S WORLD: WE JUST LIVE IN IT is produced by Innovation Arts & Entertainment, Larry A Thompson Organization, Adam Troy Epstein, Larry A Thompson, Seth Keyes, and Josh Sherman.

In SHATNER’S WORLD…a one man force of nature delivers a larger than life performance complete with his laugh-out-loud humor, signature storytelling and select musical selections in his inimitable style.

Through anecdotes, songs, jokes and even some poignant moments, you will experience William Shatner ‘s phenomenal path from classically trained Shakespearean actor to cultural icon, brilliantly creating the larger-than-life and most important character he has ever played, William Shatner.

Three-Week Festival To Explore Historically Informed Approach to Performances Of Six Beethoven Symphonies, Paired with 20th-Century Concertos by
Stravinsky, Barber, and Hartmann Pianist Peter Serkin, Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and Violinist Gil Shaham Are Soloists
The New York Philharmonic will present The Modern Beethoven: A Philharmonic Festival conducted by David Zinman, March 1–20, 2012. The three-week festival will
explore Beethoven’s world from a modern perspective that honors the composer’s original vision, offering performances that use Jonathan Del Mar’s editions of the
symphonies, which revisit Beethoven’s intentions, including original tempo markings, the use of limited vibrato, and other techniques.
The symphonies will be coupled with three 20th-century concertos, each reflecting a different aspect of Beethoven as heard in the symphonies with which they are paired —
his roots in the Classical era and his wit (Stravinsky’s neo-classical Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra); his Romanticism (Barber’s neo-Romantic Cello Concerto); and his ability
to convey drama and pathos (Hartmann’s Concerto funèbre). The concertos will be performed by pianist Peter Serkin, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and violinist Gil Shaham,
respectively.

Mr. Zinman will also conduct a Young People’s Concert on Saturday, March 17, 2012, at 2:00 p.m. The concert’s title is Four Greats: Beethoven, and it will be hosted by
Theodore Wiprud, Director of Education, The Sue B. Mercy Chair. The program will feature selections from Beethoven’s First and Third Symphonies and Haydn’s Symphony
No. 96, and the Philharmonic debut of the Voxare String Quartet.

“David Zinman is one of the most important interpreters of Beethoven working today,” said Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair.
“When I first heard his performances of the symphonies, it taught me something about them that I didn’t know existed. While these works can withstand

differences of approach, I find his to be one of the most dramatic and compelling. After hearing his Beethoven symphonies, it’s hard for me to think
of them in another way.”

Mr. Zinman’s approach to the Beethoven symphonies is to remove the accretions of decades of performance tradition from the symphonies in order to
bring the listener as close as possible to the composer’s original conception as performed by a modern orchestra. “What listeners should know is that they’ll be
hearing a different approach to the Beethoven symphonies,” he says. “Beethoven was breaking ground in his own time, and so the playing style has to
come from his own style rather than from the Romantic era. “My approach to Beethoven is not as an ‘easy listening composer,’” Mr. Zinman
continues. “You’ll hear violence, noise, anger, but also a kind of ethos that has to do with freshness and revolutionary qualities. It’s very important to know
what he actually wrote and what was not changed. Jonathan Del Mar’s edition shows exactly what he wrote and didn’t write.”
The works by Hartmann, Stravinsky, and Barber in the programs represent, he says “a good way of refreshing people’s ears. You need something that sheds
another light. And perhaps Stravinsky or Barber, or Hartmann are another prism through which to look at Beethoven.”
Related Events

• Pre-Concert Talks
Arbie Orenstein, author and professor of music at the Aaron Copland School of
Music at Queens College, will introduce the program on March 1–3 and 6; composer/conductor Victoria Bond will introduce the concerts on March 8, 10,
and 13. And Joelle Wallach, composer and visiting professor at College of Music, University of North Texas, will introduce the concerts on March 15–17 and 20.
Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts available for multiple concerts, students, and groups. They take place one hour before each performance in the Helen Hull Room,
unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org or (212) 875-5656
• Insights Series Event — The Modern Beethoven David Zinman, speaker With Harvey Sachs, The Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence
David Zinman reveals the story behind recreating Beethoven’s sound world with the modern orchestra, and shows how a 21st-century perspective unveils new secrets in
music that has been treasured for 200 years.

Monday, March 5, 2012, 6:30 p.m.
Stanley Kaplan Penthouse, The Samuel B. and David Rose Building 165 West 65th Street, 10th floor. Tickets: $20; $15 for Philharmonic Friends
(Affiliate level and above) and current Subscribers; and $10 for Patrons

• New York Philharmonic Offstage
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein (who performs March 8, 10, and 13) and Philharmonic Assistant Conductor Joshua Weilerstein
Hosted by Jeff Spurgeon of WQXR 105.9 FM
Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 7:00 p.m. (free of charge; first-come, first served) R.S.V.P. up to three days prior to the event to offstage@nyphil.org
The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Street)

• On the Music: The New York Philharmonic Podcast New York Philharmonic Audio Producer Mark Travis is the producer and host of this
program. Formerly with the WFMT Radio Network, he is the producer of the 52- week-per-year nationally and internationally syndicated radio series, The New York
Philharmonic This Week. These award-winning previews of upcoming programs — through musical selections as well as interviews with guest artists, conductors, and
Orchestra musicians — are available at nyphil.org/podcast and from iTunes.

• National and International Radio Broadcast The first program will be broadcast the week of March 19, 2012,* on The New York
Philharmonic This Week, a radio concert series syndicated weekly to more than 300 stations nationally, and to 122 outlets internationally, by the WFMT Radio Network.
The second program will be broadcast the week of March 26, 2012,* and the final program, the week of April 2, 2012.* The 52-week series, hosted by actor Alec
Baldwin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic’s
corporate partner, MetLife Foundation. The broadcast will be available on the Philharmonic’s Website, nyphil.org. The program is broadcast locally in the New
York metropolitan area on 105.9 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.
*Check local listings for broadcast and program information.

PROGRAM I
Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 2 and 7, Coupled with Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, with Peter Serkin The festival’s first program takes place March 1–3 and 6, 2012, beginning with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, which was written in the period when the composer was first acknowledging his increasing deafness. Premiered in Vienna in April 1803, the work is considered to be one of Beethoven’s last “early period” compositions. It is followed by Igor Stravinsky’s 1929 Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, featuring pianist Peter Serkin.

In a reflection of his love of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky composed this three-movement neo-classical concerto for himself to perform — it was another way for the recently
expatriated musician to earn a living — and it is written in a style that emphasizes the composer’s virtuosic strengths at the piano. The concert concludes with Beethoven’s

energetic Symphony No. 7, composed in 1811–12 and premiered at a benefit for soldiers wounded in the battle of Hanau on December 8, 1813. It was one of the composer’s most
successful concerts, given for an enthusiastic Viennese crowd that was overjoyed that the tide of the Napoleonic Wars had turned in their favor.

PROGRAM II
Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 8 and 4, Coupled with Barber’s Cello Concerto with Alisa Weilerstein The second program, March 8, 10, and 13, 2012, begins with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, a tighter work written during the composer’s third period. Composed primarily at a countryside spa and completed in Linz, it was premiered in Vienna on February 27, 1814; lighter and more humorous, it reflects a more Classical style. Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto, composed in 1945, was premiered in 1946 by Raya Garbousova — for whom it was written — and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. “It is one of his best pieces,” commented Mr. Zinman about this technically demanding work, which won the 1947 New York Music Critics’ Circle Award and is considered by many to be one of the masterworks of the genre. The program closes with the leastperformed of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, the Symphony No. 4. Dedicated to Count Franz von Oppersdorff — at whose palace Beethoven was staying while composing the work — it was premiered in March 1807, in a private performance at the palace of Prince Lobkowitz in Vienna. Although originally well received, it has historically been eclipsed by the enormous popularity of Beethoven’s Third and Fifth Symphonies.

This program will also be presented at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Friday, March 9, 2012.

PROGRAM III
Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 Coupled with Hartmann’s Concerto funèbre, with Violinist Gil Shaham The final program, March 15–17 and 20, 2012, begins with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, which the composer wrote at the age of 29, late in the first period of his career. Premiered in 1800, it was immediately praised for its originality and masterful composition, essentially becoming a game-changer that set a new stage for the genre.
Next on the program is Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Concerto funèbre, composed during the first months of World War II. Hartmann was an underground dissident; he wrote the
concerto, which reflects his horror at the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, to protest the deaths of millions during the war. The soloist will be violinist Gil Shaham, who has performed the Hartmann work as part of his “Violin Concertos from the 1930s” project, which explores pieces composed during one of Europe’s most destructive decades of upheaval. The Festival concludes with one of Beethoven’s most famous works, the Symphony No. 3, Eroica. Regarded as a turning point — many historians use its 1803

premiere to mark the change of eras, from the Classical to the Romantic — it shows a
new direction for Beethoven, and continues to be a significant influence on the musical
community two centuries later.

David Zinman’s career has been distinguished by his programming of a broad repertoire,
his strong commitment to the performance of contemporary music, and his introduction of
historically informed performance practice. He is in his 17th season as music director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. He has conducted all of the leading North American orchestras, including the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, The Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, as well as the New York Philharmonic. In Europe he performs with the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He also has relationships with the Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Orchestre National de France. His most recent opera performance was a production of Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann at
Geneva Opera in March 2010, to be revived in late 2011.

David Zinman’s extensive discography of more than 100 recordings has earned him
numerous international honors, including five Grammy awards, two Grand Prix du Disque,
two Edison Prizes, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, and a Gramophone Award. He was also
the 1997 recipient of the Ditson Award from Columbia University in recognition of his
commitment to the performance of works by American composers. David Zinman and the
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich recently completed a highly acclaimed Mahler symphony cycle
(the Mahler Symphony No. 8 disc receiving a 2011 ECHO Award), which followed similarly praised Beethoven, Strauss, and Schumann cycles. A recording of all the Schubert symphonies is their current project for Sony/BMG; the most recent release is a cycle of Brahms symphonies.

David Zinman studied conducting with Pierre Monteux, and made his first major
conducting debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1967. Previous positions include
music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and principal conductor of the Netherlands
Chamber Orchestra. He was also music director of the Aspen Music Festival and
School, and the American Academy of Conducting for 13 years.
In 2000 the French Ministry of Culture awarded David Zinman the title of Chevalier de
l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in October 2002 he received the City of Zurich Art
Prize for his outstanding artistic efforts, making him the first conductor and the first non-Swiss recipient of this award. He last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in May 2009.

Tickets
Tickets for the March 1–3 and 6 performances start at $46; for March 8, 10, and 13,
$45; for March 15–17 and 20, $41. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $18. Pre-Concert
Talks are $7; discounts are available for multiple concerts, students, and groups (visit
nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). All other tickets may be purchased online at
nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through
Saturday, and 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the
Avery Fisher Hall Box Office or the Alice Tully Hall Box Office at Lincoln Center,
Broadway at 65th Street. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday,
and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour
after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. A limited number of $12.50
tickets for select concerts may be available through the Internet for students within 10
days of the performance, or in person the day of. Valid identification is required. To
determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at
(212) 875-5656. [Ticket prices subject to change.]

Dan Flavin: Drawing

February 17–July 1, 2012

Best known for his fluorescent light installations, Dan Flavin was also an avid draftsman. This first retrospective of his drawings will include over one hundred sheets representing every phase of his career: early abstract expressionist watercolors of the 1950s, studies for light installations, portraits and landscape sketches, and pastels of sailboats from the 1980s. In addition, the exhibition will feature nearly fifty works from Flavin’s personal collection of drawings, including nineteenth-century American landscapes by Hudson River School artists, Japanese drawings, and twentieth-century works by artists such as Piet Mondrian, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt.

This exhibition is supported in part by the Dedalus Foundation, Inc. and Nancy Schwartz, with additional assistance from The Aaron I. Fleischman Foundation.

Major funding for the catalogue is provided by Lannan Foundation.
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street
New York, NY 10016

www.themorgan.org

Brooklyn Museum to Present Exhibition Keith Haring: 1978-1982
On View March 16 through July 8, 2012 

 
Keith Haring: 1978-1982, the first large-scale exhibition to explore Haring’s early career, will be presented at the Brooklyn Museum from March 16 through July 8, 2012. Tracing the development of the artist’s extraordinary visual vocabulary, the exhibition includes 155 works on paper, seven experimental videos, and over 150 archival objects, among them rarely seen sketchbooks, journals, exhibition flyers, posters, subway drawings, and documentary photographs.

“We are delighted to have this exceptional opportunity to present this groundbreaking exhibition of these dynamic works created by one of the most iconic and innovative artists of the late twentieth century as his formidable talents emerged,” comments Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman. “The works of art and the accompanying documentary material place in new perspective the development of this unique talent.”

The Brooklyn presentation of the exhibition, which was organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Kunsthalle Wien, Austria, will feature approximately thirty-one additional works on paper, of which thirty are black-and-white subway drawings, as well as a 1978 scroll Everyone Knows Where the Meat Comes From. It Comes From the Store.

The exhibition chronicles the period in Keith Haring’s career from the time he left his home in Pennsylvania to attend New York’s School of Visual Arts, through the years when he started his studio practice and began making public and political art on the city streets. Immersing himself in New York’s downtown culture, he quickly became a fixture on the artistic scene, befriending other artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Scharf, as well as many of the most innovative musicians, poets, performance artists, and writers of the period. Also explored in the exhibition is how these relationships played a critical role in Haring’s development as a facilitator of group exhibitions and performances and as a creator of strategies for positioning his work directly in the public eye.

Included in Keith Haring: 1978-1982 are a number of very early works that had previously never before been seen in public, twenty-five red gouache works on paper of geometric forms assembled in various combinations to create patterns; seven video pieces, including his very first, Haring Paints Himself into a Corner, in which he paints to the music of the band Devo, and Tribute to Gloria Vanderbilt; and collages created from cut-up fragments of his own writing, history textbooks, and newspapers that closely relate to collage flyers he created with a photocopy machine.

In 1978, when he enrolled in the School of Visual Arts, Keith Haring began to develop a personal visual aesthetic inspired by New York City architecture, pre-Columbian and African design, dance music, and the works of artists as diverse as Jean Dubuffet, Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. Much influenced by the gestural brushwork and symbolic forms of the Abstract Expressionists, his earliest work investigated patterns made of geometric forms, which evolved as he made new discoveries through experimentation with shape and line as well as media. He meticulously documented his aesthetic discoveries in his journals through precise notes and illustrations. In 1980 he introduced the figurative drawings that included much of the iconography he was to use for the rest of his life, such as the standing figure, crawling baby, pyramid, dog, flying saucer, radio, nuclear reactor, bird, and dolphin-all enhanced with radiating lines suggestive of movement or flows of energy.

The exhibition also explores Haring’s role as a curator in facilitating performances and exhibitions of work by other artists pursuing unconventional locations for shows that often lasted only one night. The flyers he created to advertise these events remain as documentation of his curatorial practice. Also examined is Haring’s activity in public spaces, including the anonymous works that first drew him to the attention of the public, figures drawn in chalk on the black paper used to cover old advertisements on the walls of New York City subway stations.

Keith Haring died in 1990 from AIDS-related complications. His goal of creating art for everyone has inspired the contemporary practice of street art, and his influence may be seen in the work of artists such as Banksy, Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, and SWOON, as well as in fashion, product design, and in the numerous remaining public murals that he created around the world.

Keith Haring: 1978-1982 is curated by Raphaela Platow. The exhibition is co-organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati and the Kunsthalle Wien, Austria. The Brooklyn presentation is organized by Tricia Laughlin Bloom, Project Curator, and Patrick Amsellem, former Associate Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum.

This exhibition was supported in part by the Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia Contemporary Art Exhibition Fund

www.brooklynmuseum.org

Bolstered by its recent political independence, economic prosperity, and maritime supremacy, the Dutch Republic witnessed an artistic flourishing during the seventeenth century, known as the Dutch Golden Age. The Morgan Library & Museum presents over ninety drawings by some of the preeminent artists of the period—among them Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn and his followers Ferdinand Bol and Gerbrand van den Eeckhout; Abraham Bloemaert; Aelbert Cuyp; and Jan van Goyen—in Rembrandt’s World: Dutch Drawings from the Clement C. Moore Collection. 

The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street
New York, NY 10016

www.themorgan.org

Exhibition Presents Major Trends in Postwar American Art from Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, to Minimalism, Conceptual Art, and Photorealism.

From February 7 through May 6, 2012, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Italy, will present Guggenheim Collection: The American Avant-Garde 1945–1980, an exhibition of some 60 iconic works from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s permanent collection. Showcasing the museum’s superb holdings of abstract expressionism, pop art, minimalism, post-minimalism, conceptual art, and photorealism, the exhibition will examine a period marked by radical challenges to established tradition. Comprising paintings, sculptures, photographs, and installations, the works included in this exhibition represent key moments in the history of American art, from the 1940s through the 1970s, and were culled from the Guggenheim’s global network of museums, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection,Venice, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

In the period represented by the works in this exhibition, the Guggenheim developed from its roots as a small, distinctive showcase focused on European abstract painting into an international center for contemporary art. Through forward-thinking exhibitions and bold collecting practices, the Guggenheim, along with its main supporters and patrons, not only acquired important contemporary artworks for posterity, but also actively fostered some of the most innovative—and frequently controversial— aesthetic movements of the second half of the twentieth century.

According to Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, “It is fitting that this exhibition takes place in Italy, home to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which has provided many of the works in this presentation. As an institution of cultural excellence in Italy, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni is an ideal location for an exhibition of avant-garde art of the American postwar years. With its classical galleries and magnificent vistas, the Palazzo offers a new context and unique setting for experiencing iconic works by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, and Chuck Close, among others. We hope that Guggenheim Collection: The American Avant-Garde 1945–1980 provides audiences with new insight into one of the most intriguing periods in the history of American art. ”

The exhibition is organized by Lauren Hinkson, Assistant Curator, Collections, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, in collaboration with the staffs of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and Azienda Speciale Palexpo, and in particular, Mario De Simoni, Director General of Azienda Speciale Palexpo, and Matteo Lafranconi, Head of Cultural Programs at the Palazzo delle Espozioni.

About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. Currently the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation owns and operates the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on the Grand Canal in Venice, and provides programming and management for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin is the result of a collaboration, begun in 1997, between the Guggenheim Foundation and Deutsche Bank. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Frank Gehry on Saadiyat Island, adjacent to the main island of Abu Dhabi city, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is currently in progress. More information about the foundation can be found at guggenheim.org.

featuring Socalled
with Maria Bachmann and Geoffrey Burleson

Part of DK55 – a concert series celebrating David Krakauer’s 55^th Birthday

Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 9pm
Joe’s Pub | 425 Lafayette Street | NYC
Tickets: $20 at (212) 539-8778 or www.joespub.com

David Krakauer: www.davidkrakauer.com
Watch David Krakauer on YouTube: www.youtube.com/davidkrakauermusic

“a breathtakingly flamboyant clarinetist, racing through every octave of his instrument and turning trills into laughs or cries of anguish” – The New York Times

photo by Neda Navee

NEW YORK, NY— Clarinetist David Krakauer, praised internationally for his astounding ability to play in a myriad of music genres with “prodigious chops” (The New Yorker) and “soulfulness and electrifying showiness” (The New York Times), along with musical pioneer cellist Matt Haimovitz, will present Akoka: The End of Time featuring beat architect Socalled, with violinist Maria Bachmann and pianist Geoffrey Burleson, at 9pm on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette Street, NYC). Akoka: The End of Time comprises Krakauer’s own composition Akoka, Messiaen’s masterwork Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time), and Socalled’s astonishing coda Meanwhile. This is the second concert of DK55, in a series of concerts in New York celebrating Krakauer’s 55^th birthday. Further concerts to be announced.

This innovative program is centered around Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, which was composed and premiered in a prisoner of war camp during World War II in the midst of tremendous upheaval. Henri Akoka was the Jewish clarinetist in the prison camp who performed the world premiere. This program has a musical focus on Akoka’s story, bringing out the human aspect of this composition as seen from the perspective of someone caught in terrifying events beyond his control. Quartet for the End of Time will be performed in its entirety between two new works – an opening piece by Krakauer called Akoka (a raw improvisation that takes as its point of departure some of the musical gestures of the Messiaen) and a closing piece by Socalled called Meanwhile (sequences and samples of the acoustic recording of the Messiaen combined with sound images that illustrate the violence and turbulence of the piece). Akoka: The End of Time lifts Messiaen’s original work out of the polite context of a chamber music concert and places it in a dramatic setting that drives home the gravity and impact of the work, while bringing it into the 21^st century.

About David Krakauer:
Clarinetist David Krakauer occupies the unique position of being both one of the world’s leading exponents of Eastern European Jewish klezmer music, plus a major voice in classical music and avant-garde improvisation. His klezmer sound has been described by RootsWorld as “an electrifying amalgam of cozy Eastern European traditions, free-form jazz, and dissonant howls of rage and pain … a bittersweet statement of personal and collective race memory.”

In recent years, Krakauer has emerged as a compelling soloist, introducing his distinctive sound to symphonic audiences in the US and Europe. Throughout his career, he has enjoyed major ongoing artistic collaborations with a diverse group of the world’s foremost performers and composers including the Kronos Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, pianist Uri Caine, Aspen Wind Quintet, the Orion String Quartet, and many more. Krakauer and his band Klezmer Madness! have performed around the world since 1996, forging alliances between his branch of world music and a multitude of musical genres including jazz, funk and most recently, electro. While firmly rooted in traditional klezmer folk tunes, the band “hurls the tradition of klezmer music into the rock era” (The New York Times). In 2006, Krakauer co-founded the multi-genre super group Abraham Inc. with legendary funk trombonist and arranger Fred Wesley and Jewish hip-hop renegade and beat architect Socalled. Abraham Inc. heralds a time when boundaries are eroding, mutual respect is presumed, and musical traditions can hit with full force without concession or appropriation.

In addition to Abraham Inc.’s Tweet Tweet, Krakauer’s discography contains some of the most important clarinet recordings of recent decades on the Label Bleu, Nonesuch, Tzadik, and Deutsche Grammophon labels. Krakauer makes his home in New York, and is managed by Bernstein Artists, Inc. He is an artist and clinician for the Selmer, Conn-Selmer and Rico companies. For more information, visit www.davidkrakauer.com.

About Matt Haimovitz:
Renowned as a musical pioneer, cellist Matt Haimovitz has inspired classical music lovers and countless new listeners by bringing his artistry to concert halls and clubs, outdoor festivals and intimate coffee houses, any place where passionate music can be heard. He brings a fresh ear to familiar repertoire, champions new music and initiates groundbreaking collaborations, all while mentoring an award-winning studio of young cellists at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music in Montreal.

Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as a soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, and at 17 he made his first recording for Deutsche Grammophon (Universal Classics) with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Haimovitz made his Carnegie Hall debut when he substituted for his teacher, the legendary Leonard Rose, in Schubert’s String Qu

Haimovitz’s recording career encompasses more than 20 years of award-winning work on Deutche Grammophon and his own Oxingale Records. His recent release Meeting of the Spirits was nominated for a GRAMMY® for Best Classical Crossover Album and won a GRAMMY® for Best Producer of the Year (Classical). A new recording with pianist Christopher O’Riley, Shuffle.Play.Listen, blurring the boundaries between Classical and Pop is due for release in Fall 2011.

The solo cello recital is a Haimovitz trademark, both inside and outside the concert hall. In 2000, he made waves with his Bach “Listening-Room” Tour, for which, to great acclaim, Haimovitz took Bach’s beloved cello suites out of the concert hall and into clubs. He was the first classical artist to play at New York’s infamous CBGB club, in a performance filmed by ABC News for “Nightline UpClose.”

In 1996, he received a B.A. magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University. Matt Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller. For more information, visit www.matthaimovitz.com.

About Socalled:
Klezmer-hip hop maestro Socalled is a musician, producer, composer, arranger, magician, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist based in Montreal. Born in Ottawa and raised just north of there, in Chelsea, Quebec, he grew up taking piano lessons and loving funk and hip hop. When Socalled first heard klezmer music on an old Yiddish record, he was fascinated by the cool sounds he could sample to make hip hop beats. Then he realized that integrating this Jewish music from the 1930s into his songs was a way of representing himself and his cultural heritage. It enabled him bring something of his own to funk and hip hop, giving him what he calls “a real reason to make music.”

Known for his genre-bending approach and his collaborations with musical giants of funk, klezmer, hip hop, lounge and classical music, Socalled has performed all over the world. He has released three CDs: Socalled Seder; and HipHopKhasene; and most recently, Ghettoblaster, recorded with Yiddish singer Theodore Bikel, lounge pianist Irving Fields, musician and producer Gonzalez, master clarinetist David Krakaeur, country singer Katie Moore, rapper C-Rayz Walz, and funk trombone legend Fred Wesley, among others. All of these wonderful lunatics, and so many more, appear in the Reframe Films/NFB
The Socalled Movie,” available for exclusive download on Youtube. For more information, visit www.socalledmusic.com.

About Maria Bachmann:
Violinist Maria Bachmann combines outstanding musicianship with dazzling technical command, a tone of exceptional purity and a magnetic stage presence. The New York Times has hailed her as “a violinist of soul and patrician refinement,” and The Boston Globe similarly praised Bachmann as being “astonishing in every musical and technical regard.”

Her numerous CDs include Glass Heart (2010), music of Glass (Sonata for violin and piano written for her), Schubert, Bach and Ravel, The Red Violin, chosen by BBC Music Magazine as “North American CD of the Month”, and Beethoven and Mendelssohn Violin Concertos released on Sony Classics in 2010. As the violinist of Trio Solisti, she has recorded numerous CDs and maintains an active touring schedule.

An eminent proponent of new music, Bachmann performed the world premiere of Philip Glass’s Double Concerto with the Orchestra of The Hague in The Hague, Netherlands in 2010 and Paul Moravec’s Violin Concerto at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. She has performed as soloist with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, with orchestras in Japan, China, Taiwan, and Hungary, and worked with conductors Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, and Marin Alsop. She has given performances over the world in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, The Opera Comique in Paris, The Musikverein in Vienna, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

Bachmann is the Artistic Director of Telluride MusicFest, an annual music festival in Telluride, Colorado. She studied at The Curtis Institute of Music with Ivan Galamian and Szymon Goldberg, and performs on a 1782 violin by Nicolo Gagliano. For more information, visit www.mariabachmann.com.

About Geoffrey Burleson:
Geoffrey Burleson has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America, and is equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and jazz performer. The New York Times has hailed Burleson’s solo performances as “vibrant and compelling,” furthermore praising his “rhythmic brio, projection of rhapsodic qualities, appropriate sense of spontaneity, and rich colorings.” Burleson’s solo recordings include Roy Harris: Complete Piano Works, released in 2010 by Naxos, and Vincent Persichetti: Complete Piano Sonatas (New World Records), a 2-CD set on which all twelve of Persichetti’s piano sonatas are united on one release for the first time. The Persichetti recording was accorded high acclaim from the BBC Music Magazine (“BBC Music Choice”; 5/5 stars), a laudatory feature review in Gramophone, and was listed among the best recordings released in 2008 by Fanfare and the American Record Guide. Another recent release is Odd Couple (Oxingale), a duo CD of American works with cellist Matt Haimovitz. Upcoming projects include Saint-Saëns: Complete Works for Solo Piano, on 4 CDs, for Naxos. Volume 1 of the project, Saint-Saëns: Complete Piano Études, will be released in February 2012.

Burleson is a core member of The New York Art Ensemble, the Boston Musica Viva, and The Pittsburgh Collective, and Impetus. He holds the DMA degree from SUNY-Stony Brook, where he studied with Gilbert Kalish. He teaches piano at Princeton University, and is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Piano Studies at Hunter College-City University of New York. For more information, visit www.geoffreyburleson.com.

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