WELCOME We are delighted to welcome Dutch composer, film and stage director, and librettist Michel van der Aa back to the Wade Thompson Drill Hall for the North American premiere of his groundbreaking new opera, Upload. His extraordinary talent and prescient vision will transform the Drill Hall once again, following his ambitious Blank Out in 2017. Michel van der Aa’s prowess as an opera composer and director has consistently pushed the boundaries of the medium, and Upload exemplifies his standing as one of opera’s leading innovators. In this new work, the exceptional talent of Julia Bullock and Roderick Williams works in tandem with inventive digital imaging and sound mixing to create a wholly original musical and theatrical experience. Upload creates a daring new vision of what our future selves might become in the digital age, with live performance by the finest operatic voices presented through the prism of technology to get at the heart of what makes us human.
Rebecca Robertson Founding President and Executive Producer Pierre Audi Marina Kellen French Artistic Director
2022 SE ASON SPONSORS
Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Cover Image: Marco Borggreve Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street
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PARK AVENUE ARMORY PRESENTS
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE A PARK AVENUE ARMORY COMMISSION
UPLOAD TUESDAY, MARCH 22 – WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022
Michel van der Aa Composer, Librettist, Director Otto Tausk Music Director Theun Mosk Set and Lighting Design Tom Gelissen Sound Design Paul Jeukendrup Sound Design Elske van Buuren Costume Design Madelon Kooijman, Niels Nuijten Dramaturgy Joost Rietdijk Director of Photography Darien Brito Motion Capture and Real-Time Graphics Julius Horsthuis VFX Supervisor and Fractal Artist Simon Hendry Play-Out Operator Pepijn van der Sanden Light Operator, Associate Lighting Designer
Julia Bullock Daughter Roderick Williams Father Film Cast Katja Herbers Psychiatrist Ashley Zukerman CEO Esther Mugambi Scientist Samuel West Brother-in-Law Claron McFadden Childhood Friend David Eeles Friend 1 Tessa Stephenson Friend 2 Ensemble Musikfabrik
Commissioned by and in Co-Production with Park Avenue Armory, Dutch National Opera, Oper Köln, Bregenzer Festspiele, Ensemble Musikfabrik, doubleA Foundation
OTHER HAPPENINGS
Artist Talk: Upload with Michel van der Aa and Marina Abramović Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at 6:00PM 3
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LIVING ON AS A DATA STREAM, DYING AS A CYBORG Martijntje Smits, translated by Robert Vernooy
Should we be afraid of artificial intelligence? On the contrary, thought the American mathematician Marvin Minsky (1929-2016). He was one of the pioneers in AI, the field that aims to simulate and even improve upon the intelligence and learning abilities of man and animal. In combination with robotics, nanotechnology, and neurobiology, artificial intelligence offered a highly
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alluring prospect: it would free us from our physical shortcomings, culminating in the liberation of our hardwired mortality. As Minsky wrote in 1994: “In the end, we will find ways to replace every part of the body and brain, and thus repair all the defects and flaws that make our lives so brief.” Casually he added: “Needless to say, in doing so, we’ll be making ourselves into machines.”
We invite you to use the spaces held in this book to ideate on your own memory anchor for Upload.
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What does “we” mean in this context? According to Minsky we become cyborgs; the distinction between “us” (men) and “them” (machines) will fade. He suggested that we think of those future man-machines as our own “mind children.” In the 1950s, when the first ideas on AI were formulated, they seemed fantasies of unworldly scientists, at best material for science fiction. These days we take AI for granted: refrigerators place orders, self-driving cars brake automatically for children crossing the street, systems for speech recognition answer practical questions, and selflearning soccer robots threaten to beat the physical world champion, as the chess computer Deep Blue already did when playing against chess champion Kasparov in 1997. These forms of AI are child’s play compared to the possibilities of the overarching ideal of “Artificial General Intelligence” or “Strong AI,” in which self-learning and self-replicating machines will eventually take over and perfect every conceivable human task and property. Minsky didn’t shy away from transforming himself into a machine, albeit posthumously. It is said that after his death his body was frozen in an American cryogenics lab. Like a mechanic can get a broken-down car to start, Minsky expected future scientists to reanimate his preserved body. It isn’t known if he thought of a “mind
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upload” as well, although for that he died a bit too early. One of the brains behind this idea, the Dutch American transhumanist Randal Koene, contends that around 2030 computers will be powerful enough for this latest form of immortalization. By converting our analogue thought and consciousness into a digital data stream and downloading that into another carrier, for instance an artificial, robotic body, the contents of our mind could live on apart from our mortal flesh. That’s how we would survive: as a data stream. Not everybody is as enthusiastic about Minsky’s mind children. In 2000 the American computer scientist Bill Joy wrote a high-profile essay in which he cautioned against the transhuman dreams of his colleagues. According to him we should definitely be afraid of AI: “... if we are downloaded into our technology, what are the chances that we will thereafter be ourselves or even human?” For Joy a robotic existence would be nothing like a human existence. He feared that those robots “would in no sense be our children, that on this path our humanity may well be lost.” He wondered: “if our own extinction is a likely, or even possible, outcome of our technological development, shouldn’t we proceed with great caution?” While Minsky wanted to advance energetically, Joy would like to put a stop to these developments, for the sake of humanity’s continued existence.
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“What is Man?” According to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant this is one of the most fundamental questions. From the answer we can derive what we can know, what we can hope for, and what we ought to do. Transhumanists such as Minsky and Koene have a clear-cut answer: man is no more than a special kind of machine, an information processing system. Everything is information. And as a chunk of information, a ghost in the machine, we can shortly be separated from our bodies and be transferred to digital data carriers. Such an upload isn’t just a perfect replica; it’s an embodiment of the essence of our humanity. Their transhuman portrayal of man seems to be a direct successor to the Cartesian view of man as a piece of clockwork or machinery. It doesn’t just describe what we are, but it’s also an ideal of what we should be. People are machines, but as such they are not yet “finished.” According to transhumanists our mortal bodies are an impediment to this ideal. Merging with machines we can perfect ourselves. By becoming machines, we will become who we really are. To Joy this message of liberation is an abomination, a dehumanizing dystopia. His reaction to these developments is to reintroduce a strict separation of man and technology. He asks: “Who will be boss? Can we survive our technology?” His view of man is that of an autonomous being, not a machine but the one that must
operate the machine and must remain in charge, lest he or she will be destroyed by uncontrollable technologies. It seems ironic that this humanistic view, the ideal of man as an autonomous, independently thinking individual, was being fostered by a technological revolution, the invention of printing, as media theorist Marshall McLuhan argued in his Gutenberg Galaxy. Although I can relate to Joy’s objections against a bodiless AI utopia, I think his technophobic stance is just as unsatisfactory as Minsky’s technophilia. While Minsky wants to eliminate our dependence upon our bodies, Joy apparently wants to disconnect us from technology. As a matter of fact, both strive for independence and control; however, for the former new technologies are a useful tool, whereas the latter views them as a threat. Someone who doesn’t fear AI, but also doesn’t expect it to free us, is the American philosopher Donna Haraway. In 1991 she presented her Cyborg Manifesto. Just as Minsky she recognizes that we are cyborgs, hybrids of machines and organic beings. But to her that is not a goal but our fate. Instead of striving for immortality, independence of our body, and control of our fate, as transhumanists do, Haraway thinks that our existence as cyborgs emphasizes our human dependency. It’s exactly that which makes us responsible beings. Therefore, we should actively fashion
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that responsibility. The cyborg is a borderline being, both man and machine, fundamentally unfinished. Where Minsky aspires after perfection and Joy desires control, according to Haraway the dependency on both body and technology is a source of strength. In her view there is no answer to the question “What is Man?” The cyborg eludes every attempt to define an essence.
As a Philosopher of Technology Martijntje Smits is an independent researcher, who worked as an Assistant Professor and Senior Scientist at several universities and research institutes in the Netherlands, the US, and Norway. In her work she reflects on popular visions of the future with regard to technological developments such as robotics, automation, and digitalization.
Thus, Haraway turns out to be the real “transhumanist.” Whoever or whatever “man” is, in our technological culture we have actually become cyborgs, beings that can’t be seen apart from their technology. I myself am inclined to believe that men will remain tragic, playing and experimenting, polyamorous and changeable beings. Like Haraway I think that we will continually reinvent ourselves and our environment in close interaction with technology. As long as we do that, we seem to be on the right track. Rather than fearing that artificial intelligence will permanently strip us of our humanity, we should instead be concerned that we would be reduced to a single specific essence, for instance as Marvin Minsky does in his view of man as an information processing system in a—regrettably—mortal container. People who as cyborgs play the joyous game of blurring boundaries, know that death is not to be avoided at any cost.
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THE OPERATIC STAGE AS LABORATORY Jasmijn van Wijnen
On the relationship between the performing arts and technology Technology and theater... they might seem like two worlds apart, yet the very word “robot” was derived from a play: R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), a 1921 science-fiction play by Czech playwright Karel Čapek. In this play he introduced human-like entities that were not human, but still able to work in factories and offices as well as in the military. These robots—whose name was derived from the Czech word “robota,” also meaning “serfdom,” “drudgery,” and “arduous labor”—were cheap to buy and maintain, ate anything, and did everything they were asked to. Inevitably, the robots from R.U.R. ultimately turned against their “owners.” Cyborg From robots as exotic life forms to robotizing humanity and altering human bodies using new technologies, robots are no longer merely the terrifying Other they once were. New technologies are progressively enabling us to merge the technological Other with our own selves. In his work performance artist Stelarc shows us how our bodies could be customized to achieve a so-called “cyborg”: the product of the physical merging of man and machine. This certainly raises questions as to the boundaries between these two: if we have a pacemaker keeping us alive, are we already a cyborg? To what extent do we really need our organic bodies to be alive at all? And how do we actually understand the concept of “being alive”?
Transhumanism and posthumanism Transhumanist life forms veering between the “human” and “non-human” are increasingly becoming a topic of interest. Far-reaching developments in new technologies require us to develop new ways of looking at the human as the center of our beliefs. The posthumanist movement questions the concept of anthropocentrism and advocates a shift in perspective: just like Copernicus brought about a radical reassessment of the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, posthumanism views non-human (life) forms as equal to man in the general hierarchy. In this vein, French philosopher Bruno Latour developed the Parliament of Things, a political arena where nonhuman actors are also represented. The need for this type of ecological and philosophical movement also lies in the very era we live in, called the Anthropocene, a period where the earthly climate and atmosphere are for the first time in the history of our planet affected by the consequences of human activity. An era, then, where human and non-human are dependent on each other more than ever before. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” Shakespeare famously wrote, but what part do non-humans play on the world’s stage? And what part do they play on the operatic stage? Opera and new technologies Opera as an art form is about technology in the broadest sense. Singing in the operatic style is a technical triumph in itself. It was Wagner who brought theater to an even
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higher level with his new techniques and who compelled the audience to submit itself completely to the piece they were watching through his ideas around darkening the auditorium. He saw his piece as a Gesamtkunstwerk, the ideal theater creation as a harmonic symbiosis of various forms of art. Indeed, where would opera be today if all the technical resources we have behind the scenes were not as advanced as they are now? While for a long time, stage technology consisted merely of the curtain obscuring the man or woman behind The Wizard of Oz, technology is now being used more and more in a visible way on the stage itself. Michel van der Aa is a composer who is well-known for his innovative operas that let various media and technologies play a part. Where else than on the operatic stage would stories about the boundary between the human and non-human be at home? It is precisely this form of art, where dying characters sing their last aria, animals communicate with people, and many a supernatural being passes the revue a-singing. It is the nearly superhuman nature of operatic voices that blurs the boundaries between what is human and non-human, truth and imagination.
Laboratory Who can breathe, lives; who can sing, does so fully. But how important is the human body for us to live on, if we can keep singing even after we have left our corporeal form? In Upload, Michel van der Aa questions our humanity, mortality, and our ability to love, and the role technology has played in our lives, as well as how humanity, mortality, and love will be influenced by it. This way, the operatic stage becomes a kind of test setup to find new life forms and new ways of staging, with the Wade Thompson Drill Hall as the laboratory where the quest for the relationships between technology as opera and opera as technology can take place.
Jasmijn van Wijnen is a dramaturg for the Dutch National Opera and Ballet in Amsterdam. She holds a Masters in Dramaturgy from the University of Amsterdam; her thesis for this degree was titled “Performing the Posthuman. Re-presenting body-voice relationships in posthuman performances.”
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COMPANY MICHEL VAN DER AA (COMPOSER, LIBRETTIST, DIRECTOR) Michel van der Aa, winner of the 2015 Johannes Vermeer Award and 2013 Grawemeyer Award, is one of today’s most sought-after composers and stage directors. A pioneer in the realms of new music and technology, his staged works—incorporating film and sampled soundtrack—are a seamless hybrid of musical theater and multimedia. Van der Aa’s imaginative music theater works Eight (2018-19), Blank Out (2015–16), Sunken Garden (2011–12), The Book of Disquiet (2008), After Life (2005–06), and One (2002) have received critical and public acclaim internationally. His repertoire also includes concert works and chamber music for small ensemble, soloists, and soundtrack. He collaborated with Sol Gabetta on the cross-media cello concerto Up-close (2010), which has been performed in 15 countries. His 3D film opera, Sunken Garden (2013), an “occult-mystery film-opera,” was created in partnership with the English novelist David Mitchell, the author of Cloud Atlas. A winner of numerous awards for his innovative work, Van der Aa is a regular guest of the world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls including the Barbican Centre, Opéra de Lyon, Berliner Festspiele, Venice Biennale, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Festival d’Automne à Paris, LA Philharmonic New Music Series, Lincoln Center Festival, Holland Festival, and Tokyo Suntory Summer Music Festival. In August 2017, Van der Aa was composerin-residence at the Lucerne Festival, which presented a selection of his works, including Blank Out and The Book of Disquiet.
THEUN MOSK (SET AND LIGHTING DESIGN) Following stagecraft studies at the Academy of Theater and Dance in Amsterdam, Theun Mosk began his career as an independent set and lighting designer and installation artist. His work has received numerous awards, including the Charlotte Köhler and Proscenium Prizes. He has worked with composer Michel van der Aa, Dutch choreographer Boukje Schweigman, Robert Wilson, Dutch director Jetse Batelaan, NDT (Nederlands Dans Theater), major Dutch theater company Toneelgroep Oostpool, Antwerp’s Toneelhuis, Theater Rotterdam, English National Opera, the Design Museum in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Ballet VC in Vancouver, the Arnhem State of Fashion Biennial, and the Frisian Museum of Natural History in the context of the 2018 Leeuwarden European Capital of Culture.
TOM GELISSEN (SOUND DESIGN) Tom Gelissen is an international sound designer, recording and mix engineer, and producer across musical genres, including classical music, location-specific music-theater productions, and large-scale cross-over projects. Recording sessions and live concert work includes the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC, Eurovision Song Contest, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Heiner Goebbels, Michel van der Aa, The Metropole Orchestra, Robbie Williams, The New Power Generation, Giorgio Moroder, and The Heritage Orchestra, among others. He has collaborated with artists such as Goldie, Anna Calvi, Antony and the Johnsons, and The Sparks on festivals such as the London Meltdown Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Roskilde, Tomorrowland, and Montreux Jazz. Currently Gelissen is working with the French video director and music producer Yoann Lemoine (Woodkid), British Electronic Music Icon Pete Tong, and Quincy Jones.
OTTO TAUSK (MUSIC DIRECTOR)
PAUL JEUKENDRUP (SOUND DESIGN)
Otto Tausk is a Dutch conductor who currently serves as Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Advisor of the VSO School of Music, and Chief Conductor Phion of the Orkest van Gelderland & Overijssel. He was previously Chief Conductor of the Holland Symfonia (Netherlands) and the Theater und Orchester Sankt Gallen (Switzerland), where he conducted numerous operas including the world premiere of Annas Maske by Swiss composer David Philip Hefti, the Swiss premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, and Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt, among other titles. He has guest conducted with orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Los Angeles Philharmonic (opening the Green Umbrella series), and the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Paul Jeukendrup is a sound designer specializing in the field of new music. He has designed and directed sound for Salzburger Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, Berliner Festwochen, and Lincoln Center; for composers Karlheinz Stockhausen (world premiere HelikopterStreichkwartett), Louis Andriessen, Heiner Goebbels, and Peter Eötvös; for Ensemble Musikfabrik, Arditti String Quartet, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and Hilliard Ensemble; for conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Ingo Metzmacher, Peter Rundel, and Reinbert de Leeuw; for The Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He is head of the Art of Sound department of the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague.
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ELSKE VAN BUUREN (COSTUME DESIGN) Elske van Buuren calls herself a “lifestyle designer.” Creativity, design, and bringing about connections between people are her passions. After her studies at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, she started her career in the film industry and has since been working as a high-end fashion stylist and costume designer for film, television, opera, and theater productions. She also creates concepts for interior design, commercials, and photography. She has demonstrated her penchant for kaleidoscopic creations with vivid colors, new materials, and one-of-a-kind silhouettes in her work for Elle Magazine, Philips, Mercedes, Lexus, actor Kevin Hart, and numerous film and theater engagements.
Joost Rietdijk finished his studies at the Netherlands Film Academy in 2000. Since then, he has directed several films, including Skin, Dusk, and De Punt, and has collaborated on several TV series such as drama De 12 van Schouwendam (The 12 of Schouwendam) and crime series Bureau Raampoort (Police Station Raampoort). For his short film Contact, he won the Golden Bear at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival and in 2015 earned an Emmy Award Kids for Everything Goes. He previously collaborated closely with Michel van der Aa on The Book of Disquiet and Sunken Garden.
MADELON KOOIJMAN (DRAMATURGY)
DARIEN BRITO (MOTION CAPTURE AND REAL-TIME GRAPHICS)
Madelon Kooijman works as a freelance dramatist for opera and theater productions and became a permanent member of the artistic team of major Dutch theater company Toneelgroep Oostpool in 2020. Apart from her work with young theater directors like Char Li Chung, she has also contributed to the development of ITS Festival, a theater festival for newly graduated directors. Opera credits include Zauberflöte Requiem (an adaptation of The Magic Flute and Requiem by Mozart), an adaptation of Swan Lake, and King Lear at Holland Opera. She previously worked with Michel van der Aa on Eight at the 2019 Holland Festival. Kooijman studied Dramaturgy at the University of Amsterdam.
Darien Brito is a creative coder and audiovisual artist working with sound, image, and algorithms, building multi-sensory experiences. His practice is a continuous effort to form an interdependent dialogue between audio and image in real-time, operating in the cross section between computer code and art. With formal studies as a classical violinist and composer, he is constantly involved in interdisciplinary collaborations, building bridges across generative computer graphics, light, and music.
NIELS NUIJTEN (DRAMATURGY) Niels Nuijten studied Dramaturgy at the University of Amsterdam. Before Upload, he worked with Michel van der Aa on Eight. In the summer of 2020, he collaborated with German stage director Christof Loy on a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte for the Salzburg Festival in Austria. He collaborates closely with Dutch director Lisenka Heijboer Castañón and has contributed to her productions Over Orpheus (NJO muziekzomer and Grachtenfestival), Parsifal (Bochumer Symphoniker), VROUWENSTEMMEN (Women’s Voices) (Grachtenfestival), and FAUST [working title] at the Dutch National Opera. Recently he also worked on the Dutch National Opera’s Missa in tempore belli, and he is resident dramatist at Theater Basel in Switzerland.
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JOOST RIETDIJK (DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY)
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JULIUS HORSTHUIS (VFX SUPERVISOR AND FRACTAL ARTIST) Julius Horsthuis grew passionate about film early on as a digital artist and studied video. He has worked on the visual effects for numerous films, including the Academy Award-winning Manchester by the Sea. His work, which is often inspired by fractal or algorithmic art, has attracted attention from far and wide. His film Fractal Times was even listed in Forbes’ “Top 35 Extended Reality Works of 2019.” He exhibits in galleries and at festivals, including ARTECHOUSE NYC, in Manchester, United Kingdom, and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California.
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SIMON HENDRY (PLAY-OUT OPERATOR) Simon Hendry is a British sound designer specializing in contemporary classical music, opera, and theater. Credits for the London Contemporary Orchestra include designing 2018 and 2019 BBC Proms, The Phantom Thread live screenings (Paul Thomas Anderson/Jonny Greenwood), and varied programs with Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Terry Riley. Associate Design credits for Sound Intermedia include collaborations with the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, BBC Concert Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, and London Sinfonietta. Theatrical Design credits include Broken Wings (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Umm Kulthum (Palladium), and Rumi (Coliseum). Hendry is a professional member of the Association of Sound Designers.
PEPIJN VAN DER SANDEN (LIGHT OPERATOR AND ASSOCIATE LIGHTING DESIGNER) Pepijn van der Sanden has worked in theater in numerous positions since 1996. Since 2006, he toured the Dutch theaters with productions such as Hair, Grease, and Spirit of the Dance. Since 2016, his focus has been on the creation process of productions and events. This includes opera’s like Orfeo and Euridice at Paleis Soestdijk, Tristan et Isolde in Beijing, and events such as the Tina Turner Experience, Edison Popgala, and concerts of The Analogues. With the right lighting, the intention of a performance is enhanced. Touching people with light is therefore the passion of Pepijn van der Sanden.
RUTH BECKER (ASSISTANT DIRECTOR) Ruth Becker (Germany) studied rhythmic-musical education at the Conservatorium of Stuttgart and modern dance at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam. She performed dance productions in the Netherlands and abroad (St. Mark’s Church, New York) and produced youth theater performances with her own theater group. She has worked at De Nationale Opera, doubleA Foundation, Punto Arte (Amsterdam), De Nederlandse Reisopera (Enschede), Opera Zuid (Maastricht), and with the Dutch broadcasting company at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. She is also a German language coach for opera companies. In her spare time, she sings in vocal ensemble Musa (Peter Dijkstra) and plays trumpet in the fanfare.
FERGUS MCALPINE (ASSISTANT MUSIC DIRECTOR) Fergus McAlpine (b. 1994, Newcastle, UK) is a recent graduate of the prestigious Dutch National Orchestral Conducting Masters Program. He has conducted the Noord Nederlands Orkest, TonhalleOrchester Zürich, Netherlands Philharmonic, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, and has assisted the Dutch National Opera, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Symphoniker, and the Ulster Orchestra. In 2017 McAlpine was the recipient of the James Conlon Conducting Prize at the Aspen Music Festival. Aside from conducting, he also arranges music, through which he enjoys ongoing collaborations with the Nederlandse Reisopera and Ensemble Kontraste. His arrangements are currently being published by Universal Edition and Schott Music.
JULIA BULLOCK (DAUGHTER) One of Musical America’s 2021 “Artists of the Year,” Julia Bullock is an American classical singer who “communicates intense, authentic feeling, as if she were singing right from her soul” (Opera News). Combining versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence, she has headlined productions and concerts at preeminent arts institutions around the world. An innovative curator in high demand from a diverse group of organizations, her notable positions have included collaborative partner of Esa-Pekka Salonen and 2019-20 Artist-in-Residence at the San Francisco Symphony, 2020–22 Artist-in-Residence of London’s Guildhall School, and 2018-19 Artistin-Residence at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bullock’s opera debuts include San Francisco Opera in the world premiere of Girls of the Golden West, Santa Fe Opera in Doctor Atomic, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Dutch National Opera in The Rake’s Progress, the English National Opera, Teatro Real and Bolshoi Theatre in the title role of The Indian Queen; and premieres at Dutch National Opera and Bregenzer Festspiele in Michel van der Aa’s Upload. In concert, she has collaborated with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, London’s Philharmonia and London Symphony Orchestras, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, while her recital highlights include appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Celebrity Series, Washington’s Kennedy Center, and the Mostly Mozart and Ojai Music festivals. Her growing discography features Grammy-nominated accounts of West Side Story and Doctor Atomic, and she also appears on the soundtrack of Amazon Prime Video’s 2021 The Underground Railroad composed by Nicholas Britell. Committed to integrating community activism with her musical life, Bullock is also a prominent voice for social consciousness and change.
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RODERICK WILLIAMS (FATHER)
ENSEMBLE MUSIKFABRIK (ORCHESTRA)
Baritone Roderick Williams encompasses a wide repertoire, from baroque to contemporary music, in the opera house, on the concert platform, and in recital. He enjoys relationships with all the major UK opera houses and has sung world premieres of operas by, among others, David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michel van der Aa, Robert Saxton, and Alexander Knaifel. Williams has sung concert repertoire with all BBC orchestras and many other ensembles, including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Abroad, he has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, among others. His many festival appearances include the BBC Proms (including the Last Night in 2014), Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, and Melbourne. Past opera engagements include Van der Aa’s Blank Out at Park Avenue Armory; the title roles of Eugene Onegin for Garsington Opera and Billy Budd for Opera North; Oronte in Charpentier’s Medée; Toby Kramer in Van der Aa’s Sunken Garden in the Netherlands, Lyon, and London; Van der Aa’s After Life at Melbourne State Theatre; and Sharpless in Madam Butterfly for the Nederlandse Reisopera. Recent and future concert engagements include concerts with the Tonkünstler Orchester at the Musikverein, Cincinnati Symphony, Music of the Baroque Chicago, and Virginia Arts Festival. He is also an accomplished recital artist who can be heard at venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall; Kings Place; LSO St Luke’s; the Perth Concert Hall; Oxford Lieder Festival; London Song Festival; the Musikverein, Vienna; and on Radio 3, where he has participated on Iain Burnside’s Voices program. Williams made his North American recital debut at Park Avenue Armory as part of their Recital Series in the Board of Officers Room. Williams was Artist-in-Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2020-21 season and serves as “singer-in-residence” for Music in the Round. He was awarded an OBE for services to music in June 2017.
Ever since its formation in 1990, Ensemble Musikfabrik has had the reputation of being one of the leading ensembles for contemporary music. Following the literal meaning of its name, Ensemble Musikfabrik is particularly dedicated to artistic innovation. New, unknown, and often personally commissioned works in unusual media are typical of their productions. The results of their extensive work, usually taking place in close collaboration with the composers, are presented by the Cologne-based international soloist ensemble in about 80 concerts a year in both Germany and abroad, at Festivals, in their own series “Musikfabrik in WDR” and in regular radio recordings and CD productions.
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Helen Bledsoe Flute Carl Rosman Clarinet Christine Chapman Horn Marco Blaauw Trumpet Dirk Rothbrust Percussion Ulrich Loeffler Keyboard Hannah Weirich Violin 1 Juditha Haeberlin Violin 2 Axel Porath Viola Dirk Wietheger Cello John Eckhardt Double Bass
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PRODUCTION STAFF Djoere de Jong Production Manager | ProductieCollectief Siemen van der Werf Technical Director | doubleA Foundation Martijn van Nunen Stage Technician | Ruimtetijd Carl Whipple Production Carpenter Stephen Pucci Production Rigger Jozef Heij Video Technician | BeamSystems Jos Dijkstra Video Operator | BeamSystems Daniel Santamaria Production Video Ruth Becker Assistant Director Pieter Loman Stage Manager Fergus McAlpine Assistant Music Director Sam Cortez Company Manager Rachel Baumann Production Assistant, Production Andrew Lulling Audio Supervisor Max Helburn Production Sound Dave “Tater” Polato Production Electrician Victoria Bek Wardrobe Supervisor Charles Hagaman Supertitle Operator
PRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS BNW Rigging Five OHM Productions Mind the Gap Premier Stagehands Lighting and Video Equipment by 4Wall Entertainment Audio Equipment by Masque Sound Video Equipment by BeamSystems NL
SPECIAL THANKS Upload is produced with the kind support of BeamSystems, “experimente#digital–eine Kulturinitiative der Aventis Foundation,” Performing Arts Fund NL, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Gieskes-Strijbis Fonds, Ammodo, and Société Gavigniès. Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street
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MEMORY ANCHORS 15
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ABOUT PARK AVENUE ARMORY Part palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory fills a critical void in the cultural ecology of New York, supporting unconventional works in the performing and visual arts that cannot be fully realized in a traditional proscenium theater, concert hall, or white wall gallery. With its soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall and an array of exuberant period rooms, the Armory enables a diverse range of artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to experience epic, adventurous, relevant work that cannot be done elsewhere in New York. Programmatic highlights from the Wade Thompson Drill Hall include Ernesto Neto’s anthropodino, a magical labyrinth extended across the Drill Hall; Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s harrowing Die Soldaten, in which the audience moved “through the music”; the event of a thread, a site-specific installation by Ann Hamilton; the final performances of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company on three separate stages; an immersive Macbeth set in a Scottish heath with Kenneth Branagh; WS by Paul McCarthy, a monumental installation of fantasy, excess, and dystopia; a radically inclusive staging of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion staged by Peter Sellars and performed by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker; eight-time Drama Desk-nominated play The Hairy Ape, directed by Richard Jones and starring Bobby Cannavale; Hansel & Gretel, a new commission by Ai Weiwei, Jacques Herzog, and Pierre de Meuron that explored publicly shared space in the era of surveillance; FLEXN and FLEXN Evolution, two Armorycommissioned presentations of the Brooklyn-born dance activists group the D.R.E.A.M. Ring, created by Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray and Director Peter Sellars; Simon Stone’s heralded production of Yerma starring Billie Piper in her North American debut; The Let Go, a site-specific immersive dance celebration by Nick Cave;
Satoshi Miyagi’s stunning production of Antigone set in a lake; Sam Mendes’ critically acclaimed production of The Lehman Trilogy; the Black Artists Retreat hosted by Theaster Gates, which included public talks and performances, private sessions for the 300 attending artists, and a roller skating rink; Deep Blue Sea by Bill T. Jones and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Companies; and The Shape of Things, a multi-work installation, convening, and performance series by Carrie Mae Weems. Productions in the Armory’s Social Distance Hall included works by Bill T. Jones; David Byrne, Christine Jones, and Steven Hoggett; Laurie Anderson and Jason Moran; and Robert Icke. In its historic period rooms, the Armory presents more intimate performances and programs, including its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe within the intimate salon setting of the Board of Officers Room; the Artists Studio series curated by MacArthur “Genius” and jazz phenom Jason Moran in the newly restored Veterans Room, which features a diverse array of innovative artists and artistic pairings that reflect the imaginative improvisation of the young designers and artists who originally conceived the space; and Interrogations of Form, a public talks program that brings diverse artists and thought-leaders together for discussion and performance around the important issues of our time. Among the performers who have appeared in the Recital Series and the Artists Studio in the Armory’s restored Veterans Room or the Board of Officers Rooms are: Christian Gerhaher; Ian Bostridge; Jason Moran; Lawrence Brownlee; Barbara Hannigan; Lisette Oropesa; Roscoe Mitchell; Conrad Tao and Tyshawn Sorey; Rashaad Newsome; and Krency Garcia (“El Prodigio”).
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Highlights from the public programs include: symposiums such as Carrie Mae Weems’ day-long event called The Shape of Things, whose participants included Elizabeth Alexander, Theaster Gates, Elizabeth Diller, and Nona Hendryx; a day-long Lenape Pow Wow and Standing Ground Symposium held in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, the first congregation of Lenape Leaders on Manhattan Island since the 1700s; salons such as the Literature Salon hosted by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whose participants included Lynn Nottage, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Jeremy O. Harris, and a Spoken Word Salon co-hosted with the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; and most recently, 100 Years | 100 Women, a multi-organization commissioning project that invited 100 women artists and cultural creators to respond to women’s suffrage.
singer and composer Sara Serpa; Tony Award-winning set designer and director Christine Jones and choreographer Steven Hoggett; and Mimi Lien, the first set designer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. The Armory also supports artists through an active commissioning program including such artists as Bill T. Jones, Lynn Nottage, Carrie Mae Weems, Michel van der Aa, Tyshawn Sorey, Raashad Newsome, Julian Rosefeldt, Branden JacobsJenkins, and others. The Armory also offers creativity-based arts education programs at no cost to thousands of underserved New York City public school students, engaging them with the institution’s artistic programming and outside-the-box creative processes.
Current Artists-in-Residence at the Armory include two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage; Obie winner and Pulitzer short-listed playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Carmelita Tropicana; Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring;
The Armory has undertaken an ongoing $215-million renovation and restoration of its historic building designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, with Platt Byard Dovell White as Executive Architects.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman Emeritus Elihu Rose, PhD Co-Chairs Adam R. Flatto Amanda J.T. Riegel President Rebecca Robertson
Vice Presidents Ken Kuchin Pablo Legorreta Emanuel Stern Directors Emeriti Harrison M. Bains, Jr. Angela E. Thompson
Vice Chair Wendy Belzberg Wade F.B. Thompson Founding Chairman, 2000–2009 17
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Marina Abramović Sir David Adjaye OBE Abigail Baratta Martin Brand Joyce F. Brown Cora Cahan Hélène Comfort Paul Cronson Tina R. Davis Marc de La Bruyère Emme Levin Deland Sanford B. Ehrenkranz David Fox Roberta Garza Andrew Gundlach Marjorie L. Hart
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Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Edward G. Klein, Major General NYNG (Ret.) Ralph Lemon Heidi McWilliams Jason Moran Joel Press Janet C. Ross Joan Steinberg Mimi Klein Sternlicht Deborah C. van Eck Peter Zhou Pierre Audi Marina Kellen French Artistic Director
PARK AVENUE ARMORY STAFF Rebecca Robertson Founding President and Executive Producer Pierre Audi Marina Kellen French Artistic Director
Jason Moran Curator, Artists Studio Tavia Nyong’o Curator, Public Programming
ARTISTIC PLANNING & PROGRAMMING
Emily Bruner, Sharlyn Galarza, Nancy Gomez, Stephanie Mesquita, Ashley Ortiz, Catherine Talton Teaching Associates
Michael Lonergan Chief Artistic Producer Kevin Condardo General Manager Jenni Bowman Producer Melanie Milton Producer Darian Suggs Associate Director, Public Programming Sam Cortez Associate Producer/Company Manager Oscar Peña Programming Coordinator
Wilson Castro, Daniel Gomez, Maxim Ibadov, Paola Ocampo Teaching Assistants
ARTISTIC PRODUCTION Paul King Director of Production Claire Marberg Deputy Director of Production Nicholas Lazzaro Technical Director Lars Nelson Technical Director
ARTS EDUCATION Cassidy L. Jones Chief Education Officer Monica Weigel McCarthy Director of Education Aarti Ogirala Associate Director of Education, School Programs Chelsea Emelie Kelly Director of Youth Corps Drew Petersen Education Special Projects Manager Kate Bell, Donna Costello, Alexander Davis, Asma Feyijinmi, Hawley Hussey, Larry Jackson, Hector Morales, Peter Musante, Drew Petersen, Leigh Poulos, Neil Tyrone Pritchard, Vickie Tanner Teaching Artists
Zeinebou Dia, Oscar Montenegro, Jason Quizhpi, Lucille Vasquez, Milen Yimer Youth Corps
BUILDING & MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS Jenni Kim Chief Operating Officer Marc Von Braunsberg Director of Operations Aurelio Roman Director of Facilities Patricia English Security Director Chris Sperry Facilities Manager Darrell Thimoleon Office Manager William Say Superintendent Leandro Dasso, Mayra DeLeon, Mario Esquilin, Jeferson Avila, Olga Cruz, Justin DeLeon Nieto, Jazmin Dominguez, Howard Johnson, Cristina Moreira, Tyrell Shannon Castillo Maintenance Staff Oku Okoko Director of IT Bobby Wolf Senior House Manager Daniel George House Manager Alejandra Ortiz Assistant House Manager
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Jacqueline Babek, Brett Borman, Emma Buford, Catie Carlisle, Sarah Gallick, Daniel Gomez, Eboni Green, Nariah Green, Maxim Ibadov, Sandra Kitt, Christine Lemme, Beth Miller, Drew O’Bryan, Jon Ovadia, Regina Pearsall, Shimel Purnell, Eileen Rourke, Michael Simon, Kin Tam, Kathleen White, Neda Yeganeh Ushers
Liz Bickley Covid Compliance Team Manager Sheree Campbell, James Clements, Matt Crabtree, Allie Posner, Caileigh Potter Covid Compliance Team
FINANCE Susan Neiman Chief Financial and Administrative Officer Christy Kidd Controller Khemraj Dat Accountant
MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS & BOX OFFICE
Kirsten Reoch Director of Capital Planning, Preservation, and Institutional Relations David Burnhauser Collection Manager
Tom Trayer Chief Marketing Officer Nick Yarbrough Senior Digital Marketing Manager Allison Abbott Press and Editorial Manager Joe Petrowski Director of Ticketing and Customer Relations Monica Diaz Box Office Manager Jordan Brammer, Sara Salt Box Office Shift Lead Anne Amundson, Mary McDonnell, Janel Ridley, Sienna Sherman, Danielle Shubsda Box Office Associates
DEVELOPMENT
PRESS REPRESENTATIVES
Melanie Forman Chief Development Officer Charmaine Portis Executive Assistant to the Chief Development Officer Sam Cole Director of Development Rachel Risso-Gill Senior Director of Individual Giving Billy Fidler Director of Institutional Giving Jennifer Ramon Associate Director of Individual Giving Breanna Foister Associate Director of Special Events Michael Buffer Database Manager Kaitlin Overton Manager of Institutional Giving Yejin Kim Special Events Coordinator Adithya Pratama Individual Giving Coordinator
Resnicow + Associates, Inc.
CAPITAL PROJECTS & ARCHIVES
EXECUTIVE OFFICE Lori Nelson Executive Assistant to the President Nathalie Etienne Administrative Assistant, President’s Office Simone Elhart Project Manager
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NEXT AT THE ARMORY HAMLET
May 31 – August 13 Following sold-out runs at London’s Almeida Theatre and West End, award-winning director Robert Icke brings his acclaimed production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet to Park Avenue Armory, reimagined for the majestic Wade Thompson Drill Hall. Icke, known for his intelligent and accessible productions and his ability to bring fresh, new perspectives to old texts and pulling Shakespearean language into the present, makes this Hamlet a revelation not to be missed. With powerful staging, Icke’s Hamlet is vividly brought to the stage by the multi-award-winning creative team behind Icke’s The Doctor and Oresteia. Hamlet plays in repertory with Aeschylus’ Oresteia, adapted by Robert Icke.
ORESTEIA
June 9 – August 13 The Olivier Award-winning Oresteia is an electrifying adaptation by Robert Icke of Aeschylus’ seminal trilogy that played to sold-out houses at the Almeida and in London’s West End. Icke has condensed and modernized the Greek trilogy into a single performance that presents a bold family drama that “flows by like a waking dream” (Time Out London). Recognized as one of the greatest theater directors working today, Icke became the youngest winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director for his direction of Oresteia. Lia Williams returns to play the enthralling Klytemnestra, for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress.
RECITAL SERIES ALARM WILL SOUND April 14 & 15
N E W YO R K P R E M I E R E
New music ensemble Alarm Will Sound will take over the Armory’s historic rooms and the Wade Thompson Drill Hall to perform Grammy and Pulitzer Prizewinning composer John Luther Adams’ Ten Thousand Birds, based on the songs of birds that are native to or migrate through New York.
ENSEMBLE CORRESPONDANCES May 17
The “musically exquisite” (The New York Times) Ensemble Correspondances presents a program of period music from the Plaisirs du Louvre, Music for the Chamber of Louis XIII, under the direction of harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé.
JUSTIN AUSTIN & HOWARD WATKINS
May 24
Justin Austin brings his “mellifluous baritone” (The Wall Street Journal) to the Board of Officers Room for a program of music to showcase the power of his voice with pianist Howard Waktins.
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ARTISTS STUDIO JOAN JONAS April 2
A pioneer of performance and video art, multimedia artist Joan Jonas works in video, performance, installation, sound, text, sculpture, and drawing, collaborating with musicians and dancers on improvisational works for both museums and theatrical stages. Jonas was a central figure in the performance art movement of the late 1960s, and her work continues to inspire development in many contemporary art genres, from performance and video to conceptual art and theater.
JASON MORAN May 20 & 21
Pianist and composer Jason Moran returns to the Armory’s Artists Studio series for a night of solo piano and jazz, his first solo program at the Armory since the series’ inception in 2016.
MAKING SPACE AT THE ARMORY QUEER HIP HOP CYPHER WITH KRUDXS CUBENSI AND SHANTÉ PARADIGM SMALLS May 15
Astraea award-winning duo Krudxs Cubensi headlines Mas Alla del Tiempo / Beyond Time, a queer Afro-Cuban hip hop cypher featuring dance, drumming, projections, procession, and celebration of BIPOC vegan foodways. CLAGS award-winning hip hop scholar and dharma teacher Dr. Shanté Paradigm Smalls leads a roundtable unearthing the queer aesthetic origins of New York hip hop, drawing from their book Hip Hop Heresies.
ARCHER AYMES RETROSPECTIVE: A JUNETEENTH EXHIBITION June 19
Audiences explore the story of Juneteenth through a critical fabulation of what freedom might have felt like to the emancipated. Carl Hancock Rux creates an art installation of newly discovered works by Archer Aymes, protagonist of Rux’s Obie-award winning play Talk, which had its premiere at the Joseph Papp Public Theater.
SKILLSHARE August 21
Artists-in-Residence activate the Armory as a space for mutual aid through skill share, maker spaces, and master classes.
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JOIN THE ARMORY
Support Park Avenue Armory as a member and join us in our mission to enable artists to create, students to explore, and wide audiences to experience epic and adventurous presentations that cannot be fully realized in a traditional proscenium theater, concert hall, or white wall gallery.
FRIEND $100 $28 is tax deductible » Members-only pre-sale or preferred access for performance tickets » Free admission for you and a guest to visual art installations » Invitations to visual art VIP preview parties, plus admission to installations for two » Discount on Historic Interiors Tours** » Discounts at local partnered restaurants » 20% discount on Members Subscription Packages*
SUPPORTER $250
$148 is tax deductible All benefits of the Friend membership plus: » Fees waived on ticket exchanges* » Two free tickets to Historic Interiors Tours*** » Discount on tickets to the Malkin Lecture Series, Artists Talks, and Public Programs*
CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE STARTING AT $2,500 Chairman’s Circle members provide vital support for the Armory’s immersive arts and education programming and the restoration of our landmark building. In grateful appreciation of their support, they receive unique and exclusive opportunities to experience the Armory and interact with our world-class artists.
AVANT-GARDE STARTING AT $350 The Avant-Garde is a group for individuals from their 20s to 40s. An Avant-Garde membership offers a deeper, more intimate connection to the unique and creative concepts behind the Armory’s mission.
LEGACY CIRCLE
ASSOCIATE $500 $266 is tax deductible All benefits of the Supporter membership plus: » Access to concierge ticket service » Free admission for two additional guests (a party of four) to Armory visual art installations » Two free passes to an art fair**
BENEFACTOR $1,000 $766 is tax deductible All benefits of the Associate membership plus: » Recognition in Armory printed programs » No-wait, no-line ticket pickup at the patron desk » Handling fees waived on ticket purchases* » Invitation for you and a guest to a private Chairman’s Circle event » Two complimentary tickets to the popular Malkin Lectures Series*
The Armory’s Legacy Circle is a group of individuals who support Park Avenue Armory through a vitally important source of future funding, a planned gift. These gifts will help support the Armory’s outside-of-thebox artistic programming, Arts Education Programs, and historical preservation into the future. Members of the Legacy Circle are invited to special behind-thescenes events and intimate receptions to enrich their Armory experiences. Each membership applies to one household, and one membership card is mailed upon membership activation. For more information about membership, please contact the Membership Office at (212) 616-3958 or members@armoryonpark.org. For information on ticketing, or to purchase tickets, please contact the Box Office at (212) 933-5812 or solutions@armoryonpark.org. *Subject to ticket availability **Certain restrictions apply ***Reservations required
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PARK AVENUE ARMORY PATRONS ARTISTIC COUNCIL Anonymous Anne-Victoire Auriault/Goldman Sachs Gives Abigail and Joseph Baratta Wendy Belzberg and Strauss Zelnick Sonja and Martin J. Brand Noreen Buckfire Elizabeth Coleman Hélène and Stuyvesant Comfort Caroline and Paul Cronson Emme and Jonathan Deland Jennie L. and Richard K. DeScherer Krystyna Doerfler Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz The Lehoczky Escobar Family
Adam R. Flatto Roberta Garza Kim and Jeff Greenberg Barbara and Andrew Gundlach Anita K. Hersh Wendy Keys Ken Kuchin and Tyler Morgan Almudena and Pablo Legorreta Christina and Alan MacDonald Jennifer Manocherian Kim Manocherian Heidi and Tom McWilliams Lily O’Boyle Valerie Pels Amanda J.T. and Richard E. Riegel
Susan and Elihu Rose Janet C. Ross Caryn Schacht and David Fox Stacy Schiff and Marc de La Bruyère Joan and Michael Steinberg Emanuel Stern Mimi Klein Sternlicht Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović Merryl and James Tisch Deborah C. van Eck Bob Vila and Diana Barrett Mary Wallach Peter Zhou and Lisa Lee
Ginette Becker Wendy Belzberg and Strauss Zelnick Emme and Jonathan Deland Adam R. Flatto Ken Kuchin Heidi McWilliams
Amanda Thompson Riegel Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief Susan and Elihu Rose Francesca Schwartz Joan and Michael Steinberg
LEGACY CIRCLE Founding Members Angela and Wade F.B. Thompson Co-Chairs Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz Marjorie and Gurnee Hart 23
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PATRONS
Park Avenue Armory expresses its deep appreciation to the individuals and organizations listed here for their generous support for its annual and capital campaigns.
$1,000,000 +
$100,000 to $249,999
Charina Endowment Fund Citi Empire State Local Development Corporation Marina Kellen French Barbara and Andrew Gundlach Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Peter L. Malkin and The Malkin Fund, Inc. Richard and Ronay Menschel New York City Council and Council Member Daniel R. Garodnick New York City Department of Cultural Affairs New York State Assemblymember Dan Quart and the New York State Assembly The Pershing Square Foundation Susan and Elihu Rose The Arthur Ross Foundation and J & AR Foundation Joan Smilow and Joel Smilow* The Thompson Family Foundation Wade F.B. Thompson* The Zelnick/Belzberg Charitable Trust Anonymous
The Achelis and Bodman Foundations R. Mark and Wendy Adams Linda and Earle Altman Abigail and Joseph Baratta Booth Ferris Foundation Sonja and Martin J. Brand Hélène and Stuyvesant Comfort Caroline and Paul Cronson Roberta Garza Howard Gilman Foundation Marjorie and Gurnee Hart The Hearst Foundations Kirkland & Ellis LLP Mary T. Kush Leonard & Judy Lauder Fund Meta Open Arts Mr. and Mrs. Lester Morse National Endowment for the Arts New York State Assembly New York State Council on the Arts Stavros Niarchos Foundation Gwendolyn Adams Norton and Peter Norton Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Mrs. Arthur Ross The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation Caryn Schacht and David Fox Stacy Schiff and Marc de La Bruyère Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust M K Reichert Sternlicht Foundation Mr. William C. Tomson Deborah C. van Eck The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Peter Zhou and Lisa Lee
$500,000 to $999,999 Bloomberg Philanthropies Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz Almudena and Pablo Legorreta The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Adam R. Rose and Peter R. McQuillan Donna and Marvin Schwartz Emanuel Stern $250,000 to $499,999 American Express Michael Field and Doug Hamilton Adam R. Flatto Ford Foundation Ken Kuchin and Tyler Morgan The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation Marshall Rose Family Foundation
$25,000 to $99,999 The Avenue Association The Cowles Charitable Trust Emme and Jonathan Deland Jennie L. and Richard K. DeScherer Krystyna Doerfler Andrew L. Farkas, Island Capital Group & C-III Capital Partners Lorraine Gallard and Richard H. Levy
Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Janet Halvorson Anita K. Hersh Kaplen Brothers Fund The Lehoczky Escobar Family George S. Loening Christine and Richard Mack Kim Manocherian Marc Haas Foundation Andrea Markezin Press and Joel Press Slobodan Randjelović and Jon Stryker Katharine Rayner The Reed Foundation Rhodebeck Charitable Trust Genie and Donald Rice Amanda J.T. and Richard E. Riegel Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief The Shubert Foundation Sydney and Stanley S. Shuman Amy and Jeffrey Silverman Sanford L. Smith Joan and Michael Steinberg TEFAF NY Tishman Speyer Robert and Jane Toll Christine van Itallie VIA Art Fund Bob Vila and Diana Barrett Mary Wallach Anonymous (4)
$10,000 to $24,999 AECOM Tishman Judy Hart Angelo Jody and John Arnhold Anne-Victoire Auriault / Goldman Sachs Gives Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Harrison and Leslie Bains Emma Bloomberg The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation Noreen and Ken Buckfire Marian and Russell Burke Elizabeth Coleman Con Edison Peter Cummings Luis y Cora Delgado DHR Global
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PATRONS
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William F. Draper Caryl S. Englander Teri Friedman and Babak Yaghmaie Barbara and Peter Georgescu Sylvia Golden and Warren Friedman Kiendl and John Gordon Kim and Jeff Greenberg Allen and Deborah Grubman George and Patty Grunebaum Agnes Gund Cornelia and Ralph Heins Karen Herskovitz Lawrence and Sharon Hite Peter Huntsman Jack Shainman Gallery Kekst The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation The Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation Suzie and Bruce Kovner Bill Lambert Fernand Lamesch Leon Levy Foundation Christina and Alan MacDonald Steve and Sue Mandel Danny and Audrey Meyer Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation The Donald R. Mullen Family Foundation, Inc. Nardello & Co. Lily O'Boyle Michael Peterson Joan and Joel I. Picket Anne and Skip Pratt Deborah and Chuck Royce Fiona and Eric Rudin May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc. Mrs. William H. Sandholm Lise Scott and D. Ronald Daniel Dr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Sculco Claude Shaw and Lara Meiland-Shaw Brian S. Snyder Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation Dr. and Mrs. Eugene E. Stark, Jr. Michael and Veronica Stubbs Allen and Meghan Thorpe Merryl and James Tisch Barbara D. Tober L.F. Turner Susan Unterberg Cristina Von Bargen and Jonathan McHardy 25
Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation, Inc. Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg Samuel and Kathryn Weinhoff Wescustogo Foundation Maria Wirth Anonymous (5) $5,000 to $9,999 Amy and David Abrams Katie Adams Schaeffer Louis and Gabrielle Bacon Jay Badame Franklin and Marsha Berger Tim and Amy Berkowitz Sara and Mark Bloom Nicholas Brawer Catherine and Robert Brawer Patricia Brown Specter James-Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach Dr. Joyce F. Brown, President, Fashion Institute of Technology Arthur and Linda Carter Betsy Cohn Sissel Cooper and Peter Bos Joyce B. Cowin Jessie Ding and Ning Jin Jeanne Donovan Fisher Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation Leland and Jane Englebardt Dr. Nancy Eppler-Wolff and Mr. John Wolff The Felicia Fund Andrew and Theresa Fenster Edmée and Nicholas Firth Candia Fisher Diane Fogg Mary Ann Fribourg Bart Friedman and Wendy A. Stein The Georgetown Company Great Performances Cecilia Greene and Paul Verbinnen Mimi and Peter Haas Fund Molly Butler Hart and Michael D. Griffin Peter Imber and Ali Zweben Imber Steve Jensen and Mark Grace Cynthia and Stephen Ketchum The David L. Klein, Jr. Foundation Kameron Kordestani Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley
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Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder Chad A. Leat Denise Lefrak Robert Lehman Foundation Gail and Alan Levenstein Jane Lombard Lili Lynton and Michael Ryan Linda Macklowe Shelly and Tony Malkin James C. Marlas and Marie Nugent-Head Marlas Constance and H. Roemer McPhee Joyce F. Menschel Moncler USA Inc. Beth and Joshua Nash Enid Nemy, Dorothy Strelsin Foundation Liz Neumark Jesse and Stéphanie Newhouse Michael and Elyse Newhouse Valerie Ohrstrom David Orentreich, MD / Orentreich Family Foundation PBDW Architects Marnie Pillsbury Susan Porter Preserve New York, a grant program of Preservation League of New York Richenthal Foundation Ida and William Rosenthal Foundation Chuck and Stacy Rosenzweig Seymour and Robyn Sammell Eva Sanchez-Ampudia Susan Savitsky Susan and Charles Sawyers Carol and Chuck Schaefer Hillary Schafer and Mark Shafir Stephanie and Fred Shuman Dan Simkowitz and Mari Nakachi Lea Simonds Anne-Sophie Stern Beatrice Stern Michael and Marjorie Stern The Jay and Kelly Sugarman Foundation Robert Suiter and Debra Shuwarger The Annenberg Foundation Dave and Karen Thomas Michael Tuch Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Jan F. van Eck Anastasia Vournas and J. William Uhrig Saundra Whitney Michael Weinstein Gary and Nina Wexler Lynne Wheat Brian and Jane Williams
PATRONS
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Francis H. Williams and Keris A. Salmon W. Weldon and Elaine Wilson Lisa and David Wolf Cynthia Young and George Eberstadt Judy Francis Zankel Bruce and Lois Zenkel Zubatkin Owner Representation, LLC Anonymous $2,500 to $4,999 Abigail Kirsch Catering Allen Adler and Frances Beatty Susan Heller Anderson Jeff Arnstein and Michael Bellante Francesca Beale Catherine Behrend Mr. Lawrence B. Benenson Jonathan and Marjaleena Berger Stephanie Bernheim Carolyn S. Brody Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Brown Annabel Buckfire Amanda M. Burden Mary and Brad Burnham Joel and Ulrika Citron Margaret Conklin Colin Cowie and Danny Peuscovich Dominick Coyne and Michael Phillips Ellie and Edgar Cullman Joshua Dachs / Fisher Dachs Associates Charles and Norris Daniels Antoinette Delruelle and Joshua L. Steiner Peggy and Millard Drexler Family Foundation Christopher Duda Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Jamshid and Mashid Ehsani Deborah and Ronald Eisenberg Foundation Jared Feldman Edmée and Nicholas Firth Megan Flanigan Ella M. Foshay and Michael B. Rothfeld Gwen and Austin Fragomen Jill and Michael J. Franco Eleanor Friedman and Jonathan J. Cohen The Garcia Family Foundation
Emanuel E. Geduld Martin and Lauren Geller Mr. and Mrs. Andrew S. Georges Alexandra Giniger Rosalind and Eugene Glaser Elizabeth Granville-Smith Robert S. Gregory Ian and Lea Highet Barbara Hoffman Johanna Hudgens and Matthew Wilson James Ingram Jeff and Hollye Jacobs Judith Jadow Ann Jones Jeanne Kanders Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation Adrienne Katz Nancy Kestenbaum and David Klafter Zachary Kline Douglas and Judith Krupp Lizbeth & George Krupp John Lambert and Ramona Boston Barbara and Richard Lane Suydam Lansing Lazarus Charitable Trust Elliot Levenglick Phyllis Levin Gina Giumarra MacArthur Charles and Georgette Mallory Iris Z. Marden Judith and Michael Margulies Joanie Martinez-Rudkovsky Bonnie Maslin Nina B. Matis Diane Max Peter and Leni May Claudia and Eduardo Mazzi Dennis McNeill and Robin Burns McNeill Constance and H. Roemer McPhee Claire Milonas Barbara and Howard Morse Saleem and Jane Muqaddam Aida Murad Nancy Newcomb and John Hargraves Peter and Susan Nitze Susan Numeroff Nancy and Morris W. Offit Kathleen O'Grady Peter and Beverly Orthwein Robert Ouimette and Lee Hirsch Robin and Carlos Palomares
Madison J. Papp Lee and Lori Parks Louis and Barbara Perlmutter Richard and Rose Petrocelli Pistachio Culinary Studio & Experiences Geri Pollack Phyllis Posnick and Paul Cohen Jennifer Reardon Mr. and Mrs. Michael and Kalliope Rena Diana and Charles Revson Diana and John Rice Richenthal Foundation Alexandra Robertson Laura and Gerald Rosberg Rose Brand Deborah Rose Marisa Rose and Robin van Bokhorst Marjorie P. Rosenthal Susan Rudin Jane Fearer Safer Paul H. Scarbrough, Akustiks, LLC. Sabina and Wilfred Schlumberger Caroline Schmidt-Barnett Louisa Serene Schneider Benjamin Schor & Isabel Wilkinson Schor Nicholas and Shelley Schorsch Sara Lee and Axel Schupf Douglas Schwallbe and Nancy Lorenz Uma Seshamani and Jason van Itallie Jack Shainman Emilia Sherifova Denise Simon and Paulo Vieiradacunha Laura Skoler Shelley Sonenberg Daisy M. Soros Stephen and Constance Spahn Leila Maw Straus Stella Strazdas and Henry Forrest Ellen and Bill Taubman Union Square Events Andrew E. Vogel and Véronique Mazard Robert Warshaw and Debbie Schmidt Kate Whitney and Franklin Thomas Andrea Winter and Daniel Mintz Amy Yenkin and Robert Usdan Toni Young Freya Zaheer and Whit Bernard Anonymous (5)
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$1,000 to $2,499 Diane and Arthur Abbey Marina Abramovic´ Ellen Abrams Eric Altmann Diane Archer and Stephen Presser Ms. Regula Aregger Dr. Lora Aroyo Assouline-Lichten Foundation Diana Barco Howard and Jane Barnet Fabrizio and Enrica Bentivoglio D’arengi Stephen Berger and Cynthia Wainwright Deborah Berke and Peter McCann Judy and Howard Berkowitz Reid Berman Elaine S. Bernstein Katherine and Marco Birch Boehm Family Foundation Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Melanie Bouvard Mark and Anne Brennan Spencer Brownstone Hugh Burns and Molly Duffy Matthew Buten and Beth Brownstein Cora Cahan Michael Carlisle and Sally Peterson Thomas and Ann Charters Orla Coleman and Rikki Tahta Bradley A. Connor Alexander Cooper Krista and James Corl Sophie Coumantaros Andrew and Mimi Crawford Mimi Ritzen Crawford Abby and Andrew Crisses L. Jay Cross Austen and Ernesto Cruz Charles and Norris Daniels Richard and Peggy Danziger Tina R. Davis Richard and Barbara Debs Thomas and Elizabeth Dubbs David and Frances Eberhart Foundation Karen Eckhoff Frederick & Diana Elghanayan Patricia Ellis Barry Ellsworth and Nathalie Pierrepont Femenella & Associates, Inc. Robert and Kimia Finnerty Walter and Judith Flamenbaum 27
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