Industry News
Peak Performances@Montclair September 1, 2010 - May 8, 2011
Like Prometheus, who challenged Zeus's power by bringing fire to man, each of the artists, a shaman in his own right, promises to ignite audiences' intellects and imaginations.
Peak Performances Artistic Director Jedediah Wheeler announced that the season is dedicated to Billy Kluver (1927-2004), a founding member of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), which brought artists and scientists together to create a new alchemy of art and technology in the mid-60s, and whose influence burns bright in the 21st century. "The groundbreaking work created by Peak Performances' 2010/11 roster is a testament to his ongoing inspiration," said Wheeler.
While Peak remains committed to the boundary-eluding nature of contemporary art, for purposes of clarity the following information is organized by discipline. Take note of the number of architects participating in the creation of this season's works.
THEATER
JET LAG, SEPTEMBER 23-OCTOBER 3: The Builders Association will present the revival of its 1999-2000 Obie-winning "JET LAG," a 1998 collaboration between the Builders and the award-winning architecture team Diller Scofidio Renfro. Based on two real-life stories in which technology made the impossible, possible, "JET LAG" uses the time-defying magic of multimedia to explore the uses and abuses of technology. The first story tells of an English sailor who tricked the world into believing that he sailed round the globe, and the second of a grandmother who died of jet lag by taking daily flights back and forth from New York to Amsterdam over the course of six months to prevent her grandson's capture by his father. While originally seen in New York during a limited engagement at The Kitchen in 2000, the show has been performed in 13 cities across the globe. The revival was commissioned by Peak Performances.
PROMETHEUS-LANDSCAPE II, JANUARY 20-30: Belgian visual artist, theater director and choreographer Jan Fabre takes on the myth of Prometheus in the world premiere of "Prometheus-Landscape II," a Peak commissioned work. While the work is based on Aeschylus's Greek tragedy of Prometheus, the god who stole fire from Zeus to give to mortals, under Fabre's direction the titan becomes the symbol of the artist, who ignores traditional law and works from his own inspired conviction. "Prometheus" will be performed by Fabre's Antwerp-based company Troubleyn.
PASSPORT, APRIL 16 & 17: The world premiere of Robert Whitman's "Passport," also a Peak commission, will take place in two locations simultaneously--on the Montclair State University campus in Montclair, NJ and on the banks of the Hudson River near the Dia Art Foundation's Dia: Beacon Art Center in Beacon, NY--with each calling upon the other to add meaning and resonance. It is an example of how Whitman, one of the fathers of technology in the arts, re-imagines our ability to be in two places at the same time--with Bell Labs' fiber optic network serving as our passport. Fasten your virtual seatbelts!
DANCE
DOUBLE VISION, OCTOBER 14-17: Carolyn Carlson, one of America's great artist expats, returns home for the first time since 2005 to present "Double Vision," a magical use of multimedia to create a new world. The work was created in collaboration with Electronic Shadow (architect Naziha Mestaoui and media artist Yacine Ait Kaci). Carlson, who has lived in France since 1971, is director of the Centre Choregraphique National Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais and the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson.
DARK MATTERS, OCTOBER 21-24: Crystal Pite's "Dark Matters" begins with a conversation between a Bunraku puppet and its creator before careening into explorations of creation vs. destruction and free will vs. manipulation, using the mysterious qualities of dark matter as inspiration. The work will be performed by Pite's company Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM.
WALKING NEXT TO OUR SHOES... INTOXICATED BY STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM, WE ENTER CONTINENTS WITHOUT KNOCKING..., FEBRUARY 10-20: "Walking next to our shoes... intoxicated by strawberries and cream, we enter continents without knocking..." is a poetic Zulu phrase referring to poverty. This work by Robyn Orlin, performed by City Theatre & Dance Group, exemplifies dance serving as social commentary. The cast features an opera singer, two dancers, a "swanker" (a Zulu man who competes in fancy-dress competitions) and Phuphuma Love Minus, ten singers from a South African isicathamiya choir, a Zulu form of a cappella.
THE MATTER OF ORIGINS, MARCH 24-27: Like Crystal Pite's "Dark Matters," Liz Lerman's "The Matter of Origins," created in collaboration with members of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, takes inspiration from science. The work is the result of Lerman's fascination with the origins of matter, stimulated by her visits to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The second half of the performance segues into an interactive experience for the audience during which conversations about the origin of ideas are shared over tea and chocolate cake as they had been between J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Los Alamos scientists working on the Manhattan Project.
MUSIC
Experienced as a whole, the Peak music season, which travels back and forth through sonic history, reveals similarities, departures, inspirations and innovations in music composition and instruments over the centuries.
The series opens on September 1 with "Everywhere Is the Best Seat," a sound/light installation by composer/architect Christopher Janney, who has a long history of creating sonic and light environments in existing public spaces. Inspired by John Cage's democratic comment, "Everything you do is music/And everywhere is the best seat," and commandeering the Montclair State University amphitheater, this user-friendly, interactive work invites passersby to create their own sounds and light, thereby giving new, vibrant life to the space. The installation is free, accessible 24 hours a day, every day, and runs through late November.
Working in collaboration with New Amsterdam Records, Peak Performances presents "Here There Be Dragons" on September 11, as members of a trio of new chamber-rock groups join forces: NOW Ensemble (Judd Greenstein), William Brittelle's Television Landscape, and Victoire (Missy Mazzoli). Then, reaching 2000 years back in musical history, the ever-popular Shanghai Quartet will present the world premiere of Lei Liang's "Five Seasons," on September 12. Composed for the pipa, an ancient, lute-like string instrument, "Five Seasons" will be performed by renowned pipa master Wu Man.
On October 10, Young Concert Artists will present a quartet of four of its most talented up and coming musicians--Courtenay Budd (soprano), Jose Franch-Ballester (clarinet), Benjamin Moser (piano) and Wonny Song (piano), in a program of works by Poulenc, Mahler, Strauss, Kovacs, Beethoven and Schubert. SM Percussion, considered America's most innovative percussion ensemble, will present Iannis Xenakis's contemporary polyrhythmic masterpiece "Pleiades" and Cenk Erg?n's "Proximity" on November 6.
Also scheduled in November is "Town and Country: Music of European Royalty and Aristocracy," a program of 18th century music, designed and performed by New York-based Baroque ensemble REBEL and comprising classics by Telemann, Scheiffelhut, Fischer, Schmierer and Handel (November 7). Cellist Carter Brey and pianist Christopher O'Riley will join musical forces in a mixed bill of Bach, Dello Joio and Grieg on February 5.
Palestinian oud player/violinist Simon Shaheen will be a guest artist in the Imani Winds concert that features the world premiere of "Zafir" ("a gentle breath") by Shaheen. The new work is commissioned by Peak Performances to be performed on February 6. The Shanghai Quartet returns to perform works by Bridge, Mozart and Bartok on April 2.
The season concludes May 7 and 8 with a world premiere by jazz composer Fred Hersch with text and direction by Herschel Garfein and multimedia and animation by Sarah Wickliffe. Entitled "My Coma Dreams," the full-evening work, scored for 11 instruments and a speaker/singer, was inspired by dreams Hersch experienced during a two-month-long coma in the summer of 2008.
TICKET, TRANSPORTATION AND DINING INFORMATION
All tickets are $15, and are available at the Alexander Kasser Theater Box Office or by calling 973-655-5112 or online at www.peakperfs.org
Charter bus service is provided from New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal - arcade on 41st Street between 8th and 9th Avenues - to the Alexander Kasser Theater ($10 per person, roundtrip) for all Saturday and Sunday performances. Bus reservations may be made by calling 973-655-5112. For train service, available only on weekdays, go online to www.njtransit.com or call 1-973-275-5555.
For restaurants close to the Alexander Kasser Theater, visit http://www.destinationmontclair.com
Montclair State University is located at 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey 07043.
###
Peak Performances acknowledges the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Discover Jersey Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, The Jim Henson Foundation, Meet The Composer, Chamber Music America, The Honorable Mary Mochary and Alison and James T. Cirenza.
Peak Performances Artistic Director Jedediah Wheeler announced that the season is dedicated to Billy Kluver (1927-2004), a founding member of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), which brought artists and scientists together to create a new alchemy of art and technology in the mid-60s, and whose influence burns bright in the 21st century. "The groundbreaking work created by Peak Performances' 2010/11 roster is a testament to his ongoing inspiration," said Wheeler.
While Peak remains committed to the boundary-eluding nature of contemporary art, for purposes of clarity the following information is organized by discipline. Take note of the number of architects participating in the creation of this season's works.
THEATER
JET LAG, SEPTEMBER 23-OCTOBER 3: The Builders Association will present the revival of its 1999-2000 Obie-winning "JET LAG," a 1998 collaboration between the Builders and the award-winning architecture team Diller Scofidio Renfro. Based on two real-life stories in which technology made the impossible, possible, "JET LAG" uses the time-defying magic of multimedia to explore the uses and abuses of technology. The first story tells of an English sailor who tricked the world into believing that he sailed round the globe, and the second of a grandmother who died of jet lag by taking daily flights back and forth from New York to Amsterdam over the course of six months to prevent her grandson's capture by his father. While originally seen in New York during a limited engagement at The Kitchen in 2000, the show has been performed in 13 cities across the globe. The revival was commissioned by Peak Performances.
PROMETHEUS-LANDSCAPE II, JANUARY 20-30: Belgian visual artist, theater director and choreographer Jan Fabre takes on the myth of Prometheus in the world premiere of "Prometheus-Landscape II," a Peak commissioned work. While the work is based on Aeschylus's Greek tragedy of Prometheus, the god who stole fire from Zeus to give to mortals, under Fabre's direction the titan becomes the symbol of the artist, who ignores traditional law and works from his own inspired conviction. "Prometheus" will be performed by Fabre's Antwerp-based company Troubleyn.
PASSPORT, APRIL 16 & 17: The world premiere of Robert Whitman's "Passport," also a Peak commission, will take place in two locations simultaneously--on the Montclair State University campus in Montclair, NJ and on the banks of the Hudson River near the Dia Art Foundation's Dia: Beacon Art Center in Beacon, NY--with each calling upon the other to add meaning and resonance. It is an example of how Whitman, one of the fathers of technology in the arts, re-imagines our ability to be in two places at the same time--with Bell Labs' fiber optic network serving as our passport. Fasten your virtual seatbelts!
DANCE
DOUBLE VISION, OCTOBER 14-17: Carolyn Carlson, one of America's great artist expats, returns home for the first time since 2005 to present "Double Vision," a magical use of multimedia to create a new world. The work was created in collaboration with Electronic Shadow (architect Naziha Mestaoui and media artist Yacine Ait Kaci). Carlson, who has lived in France since 1971, is director of the Centre Choregraphique National Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais and the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson.
DARK MATTERS, OCTOBER 21-24: Crystal Pite's "Dark Matters" begins with a conversation between a Bunraku puppet and its creator before careening into explorations of creation vs. destruction and free will vs. manipulation, using the mysterious qualities of dark matter as inspiration. The work will be performed by Pite's company Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM.
WALKING NEXT TO OUR SHOES... INTOXICATED BY STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM, WE ENTER CONTINENTS WITHOUT KNOCKING..., FEBRUARY 10-20: "Walking next to our shoes... intoxicated by strawberries and cream, we enter continents without knocking..." is a poetic Zulu phrase referring to poverty. This work by Robyn Orlin, performed by City Theatre & Dance Group, exemplifies dance serving as social commentary. The cast features an opera singer, two dancers, a "swanker" (a Zulu man who competes in fancy-dress competitions) and Phuphuma Love Minus, ten singers from a South African isicathamiya choir, a Zulu form of a cappella.
THE MATTER OF ORIGINS, MARCH 24-27: Like Crystal Pite's "Dark Matters," Liz Lerman's "The Matter of Origins," created in collaboration with members of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, takes inspiration from science. The work is the result of Lerman's fascination with the origins of matter, stimulated by her visits to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The second half of the performance segues into an interactive experience for the audience during which conversations about the origin of ideas are shared over tea and chocolate cake as they had been between J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Los Alamos scientists working on the Manhattan Project.
MUSIC
Experienced as a whole, the Peak music season, which travels back and forth through sonic history, reveals similarities, departures, inspirations and innovations in music composition and instruments over the centuries.
The series opens on September 1 with "Everywhere Is the Best Seat," a sound/light installation by composer/architect Christopher Janney, who has a long history of creating sonic and light environments in existing public spaces. Inspired by John Cage's democratic comment, "Everything you do is music/And everywhere is the best seat," and commandeering the Montclair State University amphitheater, this user-friendly, interactive work invites passersby to create their own sounds and light, thereby giving new, vibrant life to the space. The installation is free, accessible 24 hours a day, every day, and runs through late November.
Working in collaboration with New Amsterdam Records, Peak Performances presents "Here There Be Dragons" on September 11, as members of a trio of new chamber-rock groups join forces: NOW Ensemble (Judd Greenstein), William Brittelle's Television Landscape, and Victoire (Missy Mazzoli). Then, reaching 2000 years back in musical history, the ever-popular Shanghai Quartet will present the world premiere of Lei Liang's "Five Seasons," on September 12. Composed for the pipa, an ancient, lute-like string instrument, "Five Seasons" will be performed by renowned pipa master Wu Man.
On October 10, Young Concert Artists will present a quartet of four of its most talented up and coming musicians--Courtenay Budd (soprano), Jose Franch-Ballester (clarinet), Benjamin Moser (piano) and Wonny Song (piano), in a program of works by Poulenc, Mahler, Strauss, Kovacs, Beethoven and Schubert. SM Percussion, considered America's most innovative percussion ensemble, will present Iannis Xenakis's contemporary polyrhythmic masterpiece "Pleiades" and Cenk Erg?n's "Proximity" on November 6.
Also scheduled in November is "Town and Country: Music of European Royalty and Aristocracy," a program of 18th century music, designed and performed by New York-based Baroque ensemble REBEL and comprising classics by Telemann, Scheiffelhut, Fischer, Schmierer and Handel (November 7). Cellist Carter Brey and pianist Christopher O'Riley will join musical forces in a mixed bill of Bach, Dello Joio and Grieg on February 5.
Palestinian oud player/violinist Simon Shaheen will be a guest artist in the Imani Winds concert that features the world premiere of "Zafir" ("a gentle breath") by Shaheen. The new work is commissioned by Peak Performances to be performed on February 6. The Shanghai Quartet returns to perform works by Bridge, Mozart and Bartok on April 2.
The season concludes May 7 and 8 with a world premiere by jazz composer Fred Hersch with text and direction by Herschel Garfein and multimedia and animation by Sarah Wickliffe. Entitled "My Coma Dreams," the full-evening work, scored for 11 instruments and a speaker/singer, was inspired by dreams Hersch experienced during a two-month-long coma in the summer of 2008.
TICKET, TRANSPORTATION AND DINING INFORMATION
All tickets are $15, and are available at the Alexander Kasser Theater Box Office or by calling 973-655-5112 or online at www.peakperfs.org
Charter bus service is provided from New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal - arcade on 41st Street between 8th and 9th Avenues - to the Alexander Kasser Theater ($10 per person, roundtrip) for all Saturday and Sunday performances. Bus reservations may be made by calling 973-655-5112. For train service, available only on weekdays, go online to www.njtransit.com or call 1-973-275-5555.
For restaurants close to the Alexander Kasser Theater, visit http://www.destinationmontclair.com
Montclair State University is located at 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey 07043.
###
Peak Performances acknowledges the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Discover Jersey Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, The Jim Henson Foundation, Meet The Composer, Chamber Music America, The Honorable Mary Mochary and Alison and James T. Cirenza.
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