WELCOME
Park Avenue Armory strives to engage audiences with eclectic, immersive, and thought-provoking works that are in direct dialogue with the Armory’s unconventional spaces, whether it is the soaring Wade Thompson Drill Hall or the intimate period rooms. And with its pristine acoustics and austere elegance, the Board of Officers Room is like no other in offering the chance to enjoy the art of the recital and music-making in the most personal of settings.
For the 2024 Season, the Recital Series focuses on the sheer power and beauty of the human voice, with thoughtfully curated programs of lieder, art song, and contemporary works that take the art form in bold new directions in the hands of some of today’s most exciting musical interpreters.
February welcomes Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique to the Armory for a rare New York appearance; joined by pianist Warren Jones, she displays her artistic versatility and endless wealth of color and nuance with a global program of French melodies, American art songs, and folk songs from the Caribbean. One of the most gifted and distinguished lyric tenors of his generation, American tenor Matthew Polenzani comes to the Board of Officers Room in May with pianist Ken Noda for a program of lieder and art songs by Schubert, Finzi, Schumann, and Ives.This fall, soprano Leah Hawkins returns to the Armory to showcase her global journey with a collection of folk songs and proverbs from various cultural and religious traditions, including works by composers and arrangers including Jasmine Barnes, Peter Ashbourne, Robert De Cormier, and a thrilling world premiere. Lebanese American tenor Karim Sulayman brings his inventive programming to the Armory this September; featuring wide ranging works from Monteverdi, Britten, and Purcell to Takemitsu, Layale Chaker, and traditional Sephardic songs, this intimate recital with guitarist Sean Shibe inspects the artists’ own ethnic identities through song that at once was seen to exotify but through playful juxtaposition subverts that narrative into one of celebration. Finally, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan makes her highly anticipated return to the Board of Officers Room to close out the 2024 Recital Series; she will perform a program of works by Scriabin and Messiaen with pianist Bertrand Chamayou that is sure to captivate Armory audiences once again.
Over the past decade of recitals at the Armory, we are proud to have held more than 120 intimate performances by almost 250 internationally renowned musicians, including 16 important North American, US, and New York debuts including the North American recital debuts of pianist Igor Levit and tenor Allan Clayton as well as the US recital debut of soprano Barbara Hannigan. We have also been proud to serve as the locale for 17 premieres by contemporary composers, including works by Michael Hersch, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, John Zorn, Dai Fujikura, Michael Gordon, Jake Heggie, Chris Cerrone, Viet Cuong, and others.
This year’s lineup offers audiences even more chances to enjoy the intimacy of a beautiful range of chamber music experiences performed by artists with a highly distinctive international profile, in one of the only spaces that could provide such a personal encounter—the Board of Officers Room. We hope you join in our excitement for witnessing these magical moments in music.
Rebecca Robertson
Adam R. Flatto Founding President and Executive Producer
Pierre Audi
Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director
SEASON SPONSORS
2024 RECITAL SERIES IN THE RESTORED VETERANS ROOM
KARIM SULAYMAN, tenor SEAN SHIBE,
guitar
tuesday, october 8, 2024 at 7:30pm thursday, october 10, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Recital Series is supported, in part, by the Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.
Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by the Thompson Family Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation, Wescustogo Foundation, 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 Marc Haas Foundation, Mary W. Harriman Foundation, the Reed Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.
Cover image by James Ewing.
PROGRAM
Henry Purcell
John Dowland
Giulio Caccini
Claudio Monteverdi
Traditional Sephardic, arr. Sulayman/Shibe
Trad. Arab Andalusian, arr. Sulayman/Shibe
Sayed Darwish, arr. Sulayman/Shibe
Fairuz/Rodrigo, arr. Sulayman/Shibe
Jonathan Harvey
Layale Chaker
Tōru Takemitsu
Benjamin Britten
“Music for a while” “Praeludium and Fantasie” “Time stands still”
“Dalla porta d’oriente”
“Si dolce è’l tormento” “La mia turca che d’amor”
“La prima vez”
“Lamma bada yetathanna”
“El helwa di”
“Li Beirut”
“Sufi Dance”
“A butterfly in New York” (East Coast premiere)
In the woods, “Wainscot Pond”
Songs from the Chinese
1. The Big Chariot
2. The Old Lute
3. The Autumn Wind
4. The Herd Boy
5. Depression
6. Dance Song
This performance runs approximately 75 minutes with no intermission.
This concert is being recorded by WQXR for future broadcast on 105.9 FM and streaming on wqxr.org.
ARTIST NOTES
I met and started working with Sean a decade ago at the Marlboro Music Festival, the storied chamber music Mecca in southern Vermont. Ever since those days in the confines of a most traditional classical music space, Sean and I frequently discussed making an album together. We released that album in 2022, Broken Branches on Pentatone Records. We are so pleased that we are now able to bring you selections from that album as part of our program here at the Armory.
Over the years, I have often strayed from the well worn footpaths of a career in classical music. It is in these wanderings where so much can be learned about one’s roots and the idea of a home base. For me, music (regardless of genre) will always be my home. I want my storytelling-through-song to resonate with the times we’re living in and how I experience them as an individual artist. As 2020 upended the classical music world in so many ways, an explosion in the port of Beirut occurred and shook every Lebanese household, both in Lebanon and throughout the world. Four days later, my father died from cancer, and I was staring into a void. With my father’s death, a blank calendar, and a world in total chaos, “home,” in all its meanings, was in shambles.
In the weeks and months after this, I rebuilt my home by dreaming up and following through with projects, including this program with my dear friend Sean (who reached out often to offer support in a bleak time—he was one of my many solid oaks, if you will). Broken Branches explores a wide range of repertoire offering its listeners the idea that home can transcend one specific place or time. Referencing the final line of Sinan Antoon’s poetry in the song Layale Chaker wrote for us, the title reflects the many themes amongst this repertoire: the wood of the guitar and its relatives, our own family trees, and the splintering of that history as we examine the diaspora, and the attempt to build “home” separate of physical borders.
—Karim Sulayman
Broken Branches grew from a discomfort at aspects of repertoire generally explored through art song with the guitar; or perhaps more accurately a desire to present certain repertoire in a way that makes uncomfortable aspects of it clearer.
The Japanese composer Dai Fujikura recently tweeted that for many French composer friends, Jonathan Harvey was the “only British composer since Purcell.” Definitely a hot take, but it’s interesting to me that Harvey is—by some markers—neglected in the UK, and I relish that this piece pithily sums up a central plank of the programme. Harvey wrote: “[it] is not really a folk song arrangement, more a memory of a Sufi song heard some time ago and probably incorrectly retained or at least filtered through my own paths of thought.” This conceptual distance is not dissimilar to Britten’s (not to appropriate a Chinese atmosphere, but instead respond to the philosophical underpinnings of the poetry), and (forgive a tangent) almost the same as Henze’s ideas in Kammermusik 1958: “[the Tentos] sound much as I imagine Greek music must have sounded”; a memory or a dream; something imagined.
How to ‘remember’ a new context which bridges the very different genres presented on this program? Settings of problematic poetry need to be examined with good context (satisfying placement of the works), but ideally also a binding idiom with compelling alternative performance practice. I have deliberately muddied the waters of—among others—Monteverdi and Fairuz to create a fictional yet autobiographical origin point, a vaguely poppy folk mashup of a style which pleasingly bastardises stylistic norms and infuriates my lute playing friends. In combination with the pieces on the program that are necessarily classically performed, I hope that a better understanding of the historical narratives around these pieces leads to an improved understanding of what makes them, in some cases, difficult to grapple with—but that puts forward the case that radical interventions can be a part of a potential solutions package.
—Sean Shibe
ROOT SYSTEMS
Edward Said’s landmark book Orientalism outlines the false dichotomy between “West” and “East.” In a critique as relevant now as it was nearly half a century ago, Said argued that the West gained the upper narrative hand and styled itself as the dominant culture, relegating the East to the category of “the Other.” In order to move beyond these flattened stereotypes, he added that we must abandon othering in favor of understanding. This requires us in turn to abandon familiar territory: “The more one is able to leave one’s cultural home, the more easily is one able to judge it, and the whole world as well, with the spiritual detachment and generosity necessary for true vision.”
The idea of a cultural home becomes more complex when you have one foot in both worlds. (Said himself was Palestinian by birth but moved to the United States when he was 15.) On the one hand, being a so-called third culture kid can sharpen that sense of true vision Said extols. On the other hand, it also means that it’s hard to pinpoint what, exactly, home is—hard to untangle the roots of one’s family tree.
It’s a juxtaposition familiar to tenor Karim Sulayman, a first-generation Lebanese American (born in Chicago to parents who fled Beirut during the Civil War), and guitarist Sean Shibe (who was born to an English father and Japanese mother and raised in Scotland). Each of their cultural identities have shaped their approaches to a largely Eurocentric musical genre in ways implicit and explicit.
“Even though classical music is this sort of white Western European thing, we exist in it now,” says Sulayman. Shibe likewise acknowledges that he might have had a different experience as an Anglo-Asian musician had he not chosen an instrument that was also an outlier. “I’ve found very artistically gratifying experiences through embracing that kind of ‘otherness’ that the guitar has on the concert platform.”
This dynamic is also central to their concert program at the Armory. It is based on their 2023 Grammy-nominated album Broken Branches, a name taken from Layale Chaker’s “A Butterfly in New York.” In verse that traces the splintering of family trees into the global diaspora, Iraqi poet Sinan Antoon writes: “I live / like a broken branch.” How to leave home—and how to go home again—when home isn’t a fixed concept?
It’s easy to chart a Said-style history of Asian influences on “western” classical music, and how those cross-cultural connections informed works composed in both bad and good faith. But shoehorning things into a forced binary of “East” and “West” eliminates a spectrum of identities more slippery than settled. “This program examines our own identities, but our identities are complicated,” Sulayman adds. “We actually are Westerners. For better or worse, we are ‘other.’ Even with our own identities, we are ‘other.’”
From this vantage point, both Sulayman and Shibe were interested in how Western composers handled Orientalism and Eastern identity. Early representations of the East were not necessarily polemical—the suffering of Claudio Monteverdi’s narrator in “La mia turca” reads more as sexy cynicism than exotic cautionary tale, wrapped up in the same sweet torment of the composer’s “Sì dolce è’l tormento.” Moreover, both Monteverdi and Giulio Caccini form a link to opera’s Mesopotamian roots: The first surviving notated music, unearthed in present-day Syria in the 1950s, dispelled the previously-held notion that harmony and music theory originated in ancient Greece (a discovery that one musicologist at the time said “revolutionized the whole concept of the origin of western music”). At the time that Monteverdi was living in Venice, the city was in active cultural exchange with the Syrian musical capital of Aleppo, making it a literal “gateway to the East.”
The guitar has a similar peripatetic history, with incarnations as the Arabic oud (a word whose own roots are in the Arabic for “wood”) and Spanish lute (the etymology for which also goes back to “oud”). These cameos across time and space serve as an added link to the works Sulayman and Shibe have corded together. The works don’t move in a linear fashion, but instead create ring after ring around one another as they fold in on themselves.
John Dowland’s 16th-century works for voice and lute find resonance in the legendary Lebanese singer Fairuz’s 1984 ballad, “Li Beirut”—which in turn derives its melody from Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo’s cornerstone of classical guitar repertoire, “Concierto de Aranjuez.” It’s an equal and opposite reaction to Monteverdi’s borrowing of Middle Eastern modalities. Similar threads are found in connections between traditional Sephardic and Arab-Andalusian melodies and singer-composer Sayed Darwish’s “El helwa di.” A contemporary of Rodrigo, Darwish often went back to traditional folk idioms while writing the music that would make him the father of Egyptian popular song.
“I was trying to create something that had a unifying idiom to some extent,” says Shibe who, with Sulayman, arranged several of these melodies for tenor and guitar. He notes the ahistorical folk-music connections that he drew out between Dowland and Fairuz—an approach that, he admits wryly, would make his lute teacher pull out his hair in frustration, but one that he also sees as “not dogmatically adhering to something, but rather reframing it.”
If Shibe keeps going back to folk elements in his arrangements, that too is a bit of home for him as it was the music that filled his childhood. The kind of music, he adds, that his father would often sing. “It’s kind of inescapable,” says Shibe. “But in a way, that kind of biographical element is quite pleasing.”
These biographical elements culminate and collide in the duo’s folkish arrangement of “Li Beirut.” For Shibe, it’s one of the most folkish pieces on the album. For Sulayman, it’s a reminder of his own father (who died in the summer of 2020). “To see how my parents never not wanted to be in Lebanon… a song like ‘Li Beirut’ becomes very heartbreaking to me,” he says. “You don’t know if you’re American or Lebanese, but her music at least centers your emotions around it.” A similar feeling is at the heart of Chaker’s “A Butterfly in New York,” whose narrator is transported to his childhood of chasing butterflies in Baghdad when one of the creatures lands on his shoulder, 30 years and 6,000 miles later in New York. (“Why now?” the narrator wonders. “Does it know that I no longer run after butterflies?”)
A bit of the two musicians’ shared biography also comes together on Broken Branches with Britten’s Songs from the Chinese, a work which also serves as a good example of Orientalism and that nebulous spectrum between good-and-bad-faith cultural sampling. The fault doesn’t lie with Britten’s setting. Written originally for tenor Peter Pears and guitarist Julian Bream, the cycle avoids gilded exoticism in favor of a sparsely luminous tone—somewhere between John Dowland and Peter Grimes.
The texts themselves, however, were waywardly translated from Chinese by Arthur Waley, who was self-taught in the language and never ventured to east Asia. It’s the sort of armchair expertise that Said rallied against, but it also makes for a work worth exploring because of—rather than in spite of—its flaws. Which is exactly what Sulayman and Shibe did when they first met, ten years ago, as students at the Marlboro Music Festival assigned to work on the piece together. In studying both the beauty and the flaws of the Britten cycle, the duo also found that their own lack of one set cultural home became an asset rather than a deficit.
Despite a love for the music itself, they were able to hold it at a distance with a combination of generosity and detachment: What does hearing a work that could be charitably described as “of its time” tell us about our own time? And how might that guide us towards the future? And how much of these chronological elements are—much like the sub-surface root systems of trees—interlocked, intertwined, and even inseparable?
— Olivia Giovetti
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
KARIM SULAYMAN
Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist, praised for his “lucid, velvety tenor and pop-star charisma” ( BBC Music Magazine). The 2019 Best Classical Solo Vocal Grammy Award winner, he continues to earn acclaim for his original and innovative programming and recording projects, while regularly performing on the world’s stages in opera, orchestral concerts, recital and chamber music.
Recently Sulayman was presented by Carnegie Hall for a sold out solo recital debut followed immediately by the world premiere of his own multidisciplinary production, Unholy Wars, a baroque pasticcio centered around the Crusades and the Middle East, at Spoleto Festival USA. He has also made recent debuts Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Stockholm’s Drottningholms Slottsteater, Houston Grand Opera, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and the Chicago, National, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. He debuted at Wigmore Hall in concerts of French chamber music with his frequent collaborators, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, which The Arts Desk named to its “Best Performances of 2022.”
Last season saw performances of his acclaimed program with guitarist Sean Shibe, Broken Branches, at Ravinia Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, CAP-UCLA, Boston Celebrity Series, and the Phillips Collection, and debuts at Opera Philadelphia (Unholy Wars) and New World Symphony (Britten’s Nocturne). He made his role debut as Grimoaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda (Hudson Hall), created the role of Crow in the world premiere of Layale Chaker/Lisa Schlesinger’s Ruinous Gods (Spoleto Festival USA), and debuted at the Royal Opera House, reprising the title role of Giant, a role he created the previous year for the
Aldeburgh Festival. This season and future engagements include the protagonist in the world premiere of David T. Little’s highly anticipated monodrama What Belongs to You (based on Garth Greenwell’s acclaimed novel), written for Sulayman and Alarm Will Sound and directed by Mark Morris, his role debut as Pelléas in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, a reprisal of his celebrated portrayal of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, and concerts at Park Avenue Armory, Wigmore Hall, and Hong Kong’s Premiere Performances.
Sulayman won the 2019 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for his debut solo album, Songs of Orpheus (Avie Records), his original program of early Italian Baroque songs and arias. His second solo album, Where Only Stars Can Hear Us (Avie Records), a program of Schubert Lieder with fortepianist Yi-heng Yang, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart and has received international critical acclaim, including being named “Critic’s Choice” by Opera News and included in the New York Times’ Best Classical Music of 2020. His third album, Broken Branches (Pentatone) with Sean Shibe, was named one of the Best Classical Music Albums of 2023 by The New York Times, and was nominated for the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal album.
Sulayman has been featured on PBS Great Performances, and he appeared on the second season of Dickinson on Apple TV+. In November 2016, he created a social experiment/performance art piece called I Trust You, designed to build bridges in a divided political climate. A video version of this experiment went “viral” on the internet and was honored as a prize winner at the My Hero Film Festival.
SEAN SHIBE
A former BBC New Generation Artist, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship 2012 winner, Royal Philharmonic Society 2018 Young Artist Award winner and recipient of the 2022 Leonard Bernstein Award, Sean Shibe continues to prove himself a truly original mind at the frontier of contemporary classical music. This season sees him premiere new concertos by Cassandra Miller and Oliver Leith, as well as tour Thomas Adès’s first work for a non-keyboard solo instrument. He also appears in recital at iconic venues across Europe including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris, Konzerthaus Wien, and Wigmore Hall as he takes up the title of ECHO Rising Star. Further highlights comprise a US tour with tenor Karim Sulayman, performances with mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, and the UK premiere of Francisco Coll’s Turia, for guitar and large orchestra with Delyana Lazorova and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Recent seasons have seen Shibe perform at 92NY, Southbank Centre, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Liszt Academy, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Musashino City Hall, and regularly at Wigmore Hall. He has also played at numerous festivals such as Aldeburgh Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Mozartfest Würzburg, and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.
Ever keen to explore new cooperative dynamics, Shibe regularly collaborates with soloists and ensembles alike. In recent years, he has worked with the Hallé, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, BBC Singers, Manchester Collective, Dunedin Consort, Quatuor Van Kujik, Danish String Quartet, LUDWIG, Krzysztof Urbański, Christoph Eschenbach, Taavi Oramo, Catherine Larsen-Maguire, flautist Adam Walker, singers Allan Clayton, Ben Johnson, Robert Murray, Robin Tritschler, and performance artist Marina Abramović.
Shibe is an ardent supporter of contemporary music, regularly taking a hands-on approach to new commissions and programmes and working with composers to experiment with and expand the guitar repertoire. Premieres to date include works by Daniel Kidane, David Fennessy, Shiva Feshareki, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Freya Waley-Cohen, and Sasha Scott. He is equally committed to traditional repertoire, regularly pairing bold, new pieces with his own transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s lute suites and seventeenthcentury Scottish lute manuscripts.
Often praised for his original programming, Shibe’s discography continues to garner recognition from critics and audiences all over. Most recently, his solo album Lost & Found was awarded the OPUS Klassik 2023 Award for Solo Instrument, adding to his OPUS Klassik 2021 Award for Chamber Music Recording, 2019 Gramophone Concept Album of the Year Award and 2021 Gramophone Instrumental Award for softLOUD and Bach respectively. His discography continues to expand in new directions with the release of his latest album Broken Branches, a kaleidoscopic exploration of everything from seventeenth-century lute to Arabic oud in collaboration with Karim Sulayman. Shibe is currently signed to Pentatone.
Born in Edinburgh in 1992, Shibe studied at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under Allan Neave. He studied further at Kunst-Universität Graz in Austria, in Italy under Paolo Pegoraro, and is now a Guitar Professor at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS
HENRY PURCELL (1659–1695)
“Music for a While” (1692)
Text by John Dryden (1631–1700)
Music for a while
Shall all your cares beguile.
Wond’ring how your pains were eas’d And disdaining to be pleas’d Till Alecto free the dead From their eternal bands, Till the snakes drop from her head, And the whip from out her hands. Music for a while
Shall all your cares beguile.
JOHN DOWLAND (1563–1626)
“Time stands still” (1603)
Text by Anonymous
Time stands still with gazing on her face, Stand still and gaze, for minutes, hours and years, to her give place: All other things shall change, but she remains the same, Till heavens changed have their course and Time hath lost his name.
Cupid doth hover up and down blinded with her fair eyes. And Fortune captive at her feet contemn’d and conquer’d lies. When Fortune, Love, and Time attend on, Her with my fortune, love and time I honour will alone. If bloodless Envy say: Duty hath no desert, Duty replies that Envy knows herself his faithful heart. My settled vows and spotless faith no fortune can remove. Courage shall show my inward faith, and faith shall try my love.
GIULIO CACCINI (1551–1618)
“Dalla porta d’oriente” (1614)
Text by Maria Menadori
Dalla porta d’oriente
Lampeggiando in ciel usciva
E le nubi coloriva
L’ alba candida e lucente,
E per l’aure rugiadose
Apria gigli e spargea rose.
Ch’a sgombrar l’oscuro velo
Più soave e vezzosetta,
Una vaga giovinetta
Accendea le rose in cielo, E di fiamme porporine
Feria l’aure matutine.
Era il crine a l’aria sparso
Onde l’oro apria suo riso,
E la neve del bel viso
Dolce porpora havea sparso,
E su’l collo alabastrino
Biancheggiava il gelsomino.
Da le labbra innamorate,
Muov’ Amor con novi strali,
E di perle orientali
Se ne gian l’alme fregiate, Et ardeva i cor meschini
Dolce foco di rubini.
Di due splendide facelle
Tanta fiamma discendea,
Che la terra intorno ardea
Et ardeva in ciel le stelle;
E se’l sole usciva fuora, Havrebb’arso il sole ancora.
L’alba in ciel s’adira e vede
Che le toglie il suo splendore
Questa nova alba d’amore, E già volge in dietro il piede, E stillar d’amaro pianto Già comincia il roseo manto.
From the gateway to the East English translation by Calvin BW. Cooper and Francesca Mariani
From the gateway to the East she rose shimmering in the sky, colouring the clouds, the shining and pure dawn; and with her dewy breezes she opened lilies, scattered roses. To clear the veil of darkness a beautiful young maiden, she was so delicate, so lovely, kindled roses in heaven; and with purple flames she pierced the morning air.
It was with her hair flowing in the air
Where the gold opened her laughter, And on the snow the pretty face
Sweet purple shed, And the neck of alabaster
Whitened with jasmine.
From the lover’s lips, Love moved with new darts, and all souls went adorned with oriental pearls; and in every miserable heart burned a sweet fire of rubies.
Of two splendid faces
So much flame descended, That the earth around was burning And the stars burned in the sky; And if the sun came out, The sun would have burned again. The dawn in heaven sees with rage how this new dawning of love robs her of her splendour; she turns her steps away and her rosy mantle starts to drip with bitter tears.
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
(1567–1643)
“Sì dolce è’l tormento,” SV 332 (1624)
Text by Carlo Milanuzzi (1590–1647)
Si dolce è’l tormento
Ch’in seno mi sta, Ch’io vivo contento
Per cruda beltà.
Nel ciel di bellezza
S’accreschi fierezza
Et manchi pietà:
Che sempre qual scoglio
All’onda d’orgoglio
Mia fede sarà.
La speme fallace Rivolgam’ il piè,
Diletto ne pace
Non scendano a me,
E l’empia ch’adoro
Mi nieghi ristoro
Di buona mercè:
Tra doglia infinita, Tra speme tradita
Vivrà la mia fè.
Se fiamma d’amore
Già mai non sentì
Quel rigido core
Ch’il cor mi rapì,
Se nega pietate
La cruda beltate
Che l’alma invaghì:
Ben fia che dolente, Pentita e languente
Sospirimi un dì.
“La mia turca che d’amor,” SV 310 (1624)
Text by Carlo Milanuzzi (1590–1647)
La mia turca che d’amor non ha fè, torce il piè s’io le narro il mio dolor, ond’al doppio mio martoro, languendo, moro.
Poi rornita se ne sta e non vol che del sol goda di sua pur beltà, ond’al doppio mio martoro, languendo, moro.
Prendi l’arco invitto Amor, per pietà in lei fa che non sia tanto rigor, ond’al doppio mio martoro, io più non moro.
So sweet is the torment English translation by Calvin B. Cooper and Francesca Mariani
So sweet is the torment that fills my heart I can gladly live with her cruel beauty. In beauty’s heaven vanity increases and pity gets lost; but always my faith will be a rock against the wave of pride. False hope leads me onward, neither pleasure nor peace descends on me and the cruel woman I adore denies me the relief of her favour: amid infinite pain amid betrayed hopes, my faith stays alive.
If the fire of love Has never been felt By the hard heart That’s stolen mine, If I’m denied mercy By the cruel beauty That’s charmed my soulSo let her suffer, Repenting and forlorn, And sigh for me one day.
My Turkish girl
English translation by Calvin B. Cooper and Francesca Mariani
My Turkish girl, who has no faith in love, walks away if I tell her of my pain, so, my suffering doubled, languishing, I die.
Then she stands alone, refusing even the sun the enjoyment of her beauty, so, my suffering doubled, languishing, I die.
Take the mighty bow, Love, for pity’s sake, make her less cruel, so, my suffering doubled, no longer I die.
TRADITIONAL SEPHARDIC
“La prima vez”
Anonymous text
La prima vez ke ti vidí De tus ojos me enamorí Da kel momento te ami Fina la tomba te amaré. Aserkate mi kerida Salvadora de mi vida Deskubrite y hablame Sekretos de la tu vida.
SAYED DARWISH (1892–1923)
“El helwa di”
Text by Badea Khairy
The first time English translation by Calvin B. Cooper and Francesca Mariani
The first time I saw you I fell in love with your eyes from that moment, I loved you and will love you to my tomb. Come closer, my beloved, savior of my life. Discover yourself and tell me secrets of your life.
The beautiful one English translation Karim and Aida Sulayman
The beautiful one goes to make bread in the morning And the rooster cries “kukukuku” at dawn.
Let’s go, with the grace of God, oh workers;
May your morning be beautiful, oh Master Ateya
Our morning is lovely; God permits it.
Our pockets are empty — not even one penny —
But our mood is peaceful and serene.
We put our hope in the hands of God; If we are patient, all will change for the better. Oh, you who have wealth, Even the poor man has a generous God.
My hand is in yours, oh Abu Salah;
As long as you rely on God, From my heart you’ll live in comfort. Leave it all to the powerful one.
Let’s go to work, time is running out!
FAIRUZ (b. 1934), AFTER JOAQUÍN RODRIGO (1901–1999)
“Li Beirut”
Text by Joseph Harb
For Beirut
English translation by Karim and Aida Sulayman
For Beirut
From my heart, a greeting to Beirut
And kisses to the sea and the houses,
To a rock shaped like the face of an old fisherman.
She is wine from the spirit of the people,
Made from their sweat, she is bread and jasmine.
How then has it come to taste like fire and smoke?
For Beirut
Glory from the ashes for Beirut
From the blood of a boy carried on her hand
My city has extinguished her lamp
She has closed her door
She is in the sky alone ...
Alone with the night
You are mine, you are mine.
Ah! Embrace me!
My banner, the stone of tomorrow, And the waves of my travel.
The wounds of my people have blossomed
The tears of mothers have blossomed ...
You, Beirut, are mine.
Ah! Embrace me.
LAYALE CHAKER (b. 1990)
“A Butterfly in New York” (2022)
Text by Sinan Antoon (b. 1967), translated from the Arabic by the author
I chased it so often in our Baghdad garden
But it would always fly away
Today
Three decades later
In another continent
It perched on my shoulder
Blue
Like the sea’s thoughts
Or the tears of a dying angel Its wings two leaves falling from heaven Why now?
Does it know that I no longer run after butterflies?
Just watch them in silence
That I live
Like a broken branch
Text reprinted with kind permission by the author
BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913–1976)
Songs from the Chinese, op. 58 (1957)
Texts translated from the original Chinese by Arthur Waley (1889–1966)
1. The Big Chariot From The Book of Songs
Don’t help-on the big chariot; You will only make yourself dusty.
Don’t think about the sorrows of the world; You will only make yourself wretched.
Don’t help-on the big chariot; You won’t be able to see for dust.
Don’t think about the sorrows of the world; Or you will never escape from your despair.
Don’t help-on the big chariot; You’ll be stifled with dust.
Don’t think about the sorrows of the world; You will only load yourself with care.
2. The Old Lute
Original text by Bai Juyi Of cord and cassia-wood is the lute compounded; Within it lie ancient melodies. Ancient melodies weak and savourless, Not appealing to present men’s taste. Light and colour are faded from the jade stops; Dust has covered the rose-red strings. Decay and ruin came to it long ago, But the sound that is left is still cold and clear. I do not refuse to play it if you want me to; But even if I play people will not listen. How did it come to be neglected so?
Because of the Ch’iang flute and the zithern of Ch’in.
3. The Autumn Wind
Original text by Wu-ti, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Autumn wind rises; white clouds fly, Grass and trees whither; geese go south. Orchids all in bloom; chrysanthemums smell sweet. I think of my lovely lady; I never can forget. Floating pagoda boat crosses Fen river. Across the mid-stream white waves rise. Flute and drum keep time to sound of rower’s song; Amidst revel and feasting sad thoughts come. Youth’s years how few, age how sure.
4. The Herd-boy Original text by Lu Yu
In the southern village the boy who minds the ox With his naked feet stands on the ox’s back. Through the hole in his coat the river wind blows; Through is broken hat the mountain rain pours. On the long dyke he seemed to be far away; In the narrow lane suddenly we were face to face. The boy is home and the ox is back in its stall, And a dark smoke oozes through the thatched roof.
5. Depression
Original text by Bai Juyi
Turned to jade are the boy’s rosy cheeks; To his sick temples the frost of winter clings. Do not wonder that my body sinks to decay; Though my limbs are old, my heart is older yet.
6. Dance Song
From The Book of Songs
The unicorn’s hoofs!
The duke’s sons throng. Alas for the unicorn!
The unicorn’s brow!
The duke’s kinsmen throng. Alas for the unicorn!
The unicorn’s horn!
The duke’s clans-men throng. Alas for the unicorn!
NEXT AT THE ARMORY
MAKING SPACE AT THE ARMORY CANTO DE TODES OCTOBER 19
Singer and performance artist Dorian Wood (she/they) exhibits a 12-hour composition and installation inspired by a lyric written by the late Chilean singer and songwriter Violeta Parra Divided into three movements, this durational work features two hour-long chamber pieces separated by a 10-hour pre-recorded, multi-channel composition mixing a genre-defying canon of folk, pop, and experimental music of Central and Latin America. This Armory commission spotlights timely issues of migration and emphasizes the urgency of folk music as a vessel for social change. The event also includes a film program, poetry work, and series of panels in collaboration with the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present.
WORLD PREMIERE, AN ARMORY COMMISSION DEAR LORD, MAKE ME BEAUTIFUL DECEMBER 3 – 14
MacArthur Fellow Kyle Abraham unleashes his signature style—a unique blend of modern dance techniques ranging from ballet to hip hop—in the world premiere of a new evening-length work in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall. Featuring a large ensemble of dancers with whom he has collaborated from across the country, plus Abraham himself, this Armory commission includes an innovative visual design created by Cao Yuxi (JAMES) and an Armory-commissioned score composed and performed live by the critically acclaimed new music ensemble yMusic to explore the growing sensitivities of life and transition, and nature and humanity, in our chaotic world. The underlying choreography employs layers of counterpoint to find intimacy and evoke ideas of empathy and constant change, fueling an evocative new dance work that migrates through the fragility of time and an ever-changing ecology.
ABOUT THE RECITAL SERIES
Park Avenue Armory presents more intimate performances and programs in its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe in an intimate salon setting. Performed in the restored Board of Officers Room—which The New York Times has called “one of the most intimate and ideal spaces for vocal recitals”—these enchanting musical moments utilize the pristine acoustics and intimate scale intended by many composers while invoking the Salon culture of the Gilded Age. The 2024 Recital Series focuses on the sheer power and beauty of the human voice, with thoughtfully curated programs of lieder, art song, and contemporary works that take the art form in bold new directions in the hands of some of today’s most exciting musical interpreters. Since its inception in 2013, the series has held the debuts of many world-class artists, including: the North American recital debuts of pianist Igor Levit, soprano Sabine Devieilhe, tenors Ilker Arcayürek and Allan Clayton, baritones Benjamin Appl and Roderick Williams, clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer, and cellist István Várdai; the North American solo recital debuts of tenor Michael Spyres and mezzo soprano Emily D’Angelo; the US Recital debuts of sopranos Barbara Hannigan and Anna Lucia Richter and baritone Thomas Oliemans; and the New York debuts of pianist Severin von Eckardstein and the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam
The Recital Series has programmed the world premieres of: Roger Reynolds’ FLiGHT, performed by the JACK Quartet; Michael Hersch’s “…das Rückgrat berstend,” performed by violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and cellist Jay Campbell; and Chris Cerrone’s Ode to Joy, performed by Sandbox Percussion and commissioned by the Armory. Actor Charlotte Rampling and cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton gave the US premiere of The Night Dances on the series in 2015, which brought together Benjamin Britten’s suites for solo cello and poetry by Sylvia Plath; WiederAtherton returned to the Armory in 2017 for the North American premiere of Little Girl Blue, a program that reimagined the music of Nina Simone. New York premieres include: Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s In the Light of Air and Shades of Silence performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble; Dai Kujikura’s Minina, John Zorn’s Baudelaires, and a new arrangement of
NEXT IN THE SERIES
BARBARA HANNIGAN & BERTRAND CHAMAYOU
DECEMBER 12
Messiaen’s Chants de terre et de ciel, also performed by ICE; Michael Gordon’s Rushes performed by the Rushes Ensemble; Michael Harrison’s Just Constellations performed by Roomful of Teeth; David Lang’s depart, Gabriel Jackson’s Our flags are wafting in hope and grief and Rigwreck, Kile Smith’s “Conversation in the Mountains” from Where Flames A Word, Louis Andriessen’s Ahania Weeping, Suzanne Giraud’s Johannisbaum, David Shapiro’s Sumptuous Planet, Benjamin CS Boyle’s Empire of Crystal, and Ted Hearne’s Animals (commissioned by Park Avenue Armory), all performed by The Crossing under conductor Donald Nally; John Zorn’s Jumalatteret sung by soprano Barbara Hannigan with pianist Stephen Gosling; and Viet Cuong’s Next Week’s Trees, performed by Sandbox Percussion.
Additional notable programs include performances by: baritone Christian Gerhaher with pianist Gerold Huber; the Flux Quartet ; tenor Ian Bostridge with pianist Wenwen Du ; pianist David Fray; soprano Lisette Oropesa with pianist John Churchwell countertenor Andreas Scholl with harpsichordist Tamar Halperin; soprano Kate Royal with pianist Joseph Middleton; pipa player Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet; tenor Lawrence Brownlee with pianists Myra Huang and Jason Moran; mezzo soprano Isabel Leonard with pianist Ted Sperling; soprano Nadine Sierra with pianist Brian Wagorn; soprano Rosa Feola with pianist Iain Burnside; cellist Nicolas Altstaedt; tenor Paul Appleby with pianist Conor Hanick; baritone Will Liverman with pianist Myra Huang; mezzo soprano Jamie Barton with pianist and composer Jake Heggie; new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound; French period choir and chamber orchestra Ensemble Correspondances under the direction of harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé; baritone Justin Austin and pianist Howard Watkins; soprano Ying Fang with pianist Ken Noda; baritone Stéphane Degout with pianist Cédric Tiberghien; pianist Pavel Kolesnikov in a two-night residency featuring Bach’s Goldberg Variations and a program entitled Celestial Navigation, inspired by Joseph Cornell’s orrery of the same name; soprano Julia Bullock with pianist John Arida; and mezzo soprano Kate Lindsey with pianist Justina Lee
Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan makes her highly anticipated return to the Board of Officers Room with another dazzling program with pianist Bertrand Chamayou that beautifully spotlights her standing at the forefront of creation, embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility and adding a kind of virtuosity and artistry that contemporary music has rarely seen before.
ABOUT PARK AVENUE ARMORY
Part palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory supports 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—reminiscent of 19th-century European train stations—and an array of exuberant period rooms, the Armory provides a platform for artists to push the boundaries of their practice, collaborate across disciplines, and create new work in dialogue with the historic building. Across its grand and intimate spaces, 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.
The Armory both commissions and presents performances and installations in the grand Drill Hall and offers more intimate programming through its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe within the salon setting of the Board of Officers Room; its Artists Studio series curated by Jason Moran in the restored Veterans Room; Making Space at the Armory, a public programming series that brings together a discipline-spanning group of artists and cultural thought-leaders around the important issues of our time; and the Malkin Lecture Series that features presentations by scholars and writers on topics related to Park Avenue Armory and its history. In addition, the Armory also has a year-round Artists-in-Residence program, providing space and support for artists to create new work and expand their practices.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chairman Emeritus
Elihu Rose
Co-Chairs
Adam R. Flatto
Amanda J.T. Riegel
President
Rebecca Robertson
Vice Presidents
David Fox
Pablo Legorreta
Emanuel Stern
Treasurer
Emanuel Stern
The Armory’s creativity-based arts education programs provide access to the arts to thousands of students from underserved New York City public schools, engaging them with the institutions artistic programming and outside-the-box creative processes. Through its education initiatives, the Armory provides access to all Drill Hall performances, workshops taught by Master Teaching Artists, and in-depth residencies that support the schools’ curriculum. Youth Corps, the Armory’s year-round paid internship program, begins in high school and continues into the critical post-high school years, providing interns with mentored employment, job training, and skill development, as well as a network of peers and mentors to support their individual college and career goals.
The Armory is undergoing a multi-phase renovation and restoration of its historic building led by architects Herzog & de Meuron, with Platt Byard Dovell White as Executive Architects.
Marina Abramović
Abigail Baratta
Joyce F. Brown
Cora Cahan
Hélène Comfort
Paul Cronson
Jonathan Davis
Tina R. Davis
Jessie Ding
Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
Roberta Garza
Kim Greenberg
Samhita Jayanti
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Edward G. Klein, Brigadier
(Ret.)
Ralph Lemon Jason Moran Janet C. Ross
Stephanie Sharp
Joan Steinberg
Dabie Tsai
Avant-Garde Chair
Adrienne Katz
Directors Emeriti
Harrison M. Bains
Angela E. Thompson*
Wade F.B. Thompson* Founding Chairman, 2000-2009
Pierre Audi
Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director
PARK AVENUE ARMORY STAFF
Rebecca Robertson Adam R. Flatto Founding President and Executive Producer
Pierre Audi Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director
ARTISTIC PLANNING AND PROGRAMMING
Michael Lonergan Senior Vice President and Chief Artistic Producer
Kevin Condardo General Manager, Programming
Rachel Rosado Producer
Samantha Cortez Producer
Darian Suggs Associate Director, Public Programming
Kanako Morita Company Manager/Associate Producer
Oscar Peña Programming Coordinator
ARTISTIC PRODUCTION
Paul E. King Director of Production
Claire Marberg Deputy Director of Production
Nicholas Lazzaro Technical Director
Lars Nelson Technical Director
Mars Doutey Technical Director
Rachel Baumann Assistant Production Manager
ARTS EDUCATION
Cassidy L. Jones Chief Education Officer
Monica Weigel McCarthy Director of Education
Aarti Ogirala Associate Director of Education, School Programs
Biviana Sanchez School Programs Manager
Nadia Parfait Education Programs Manager
Ciara Ward Youth Corps Manager
Bev Vega Youth Corps Manager
Milen Yimer Youth Corps Assistant
Drew Petersen Education Special Projects Manager
Emily Bruner, Donna Costello, Alexander Davis, Asma Feyijinmi, Hawley Hussey, Larry Jackson, Drew Petersen, Leigh Poulos, Neil
Tyrone Pritchard, Vickie Tanner Teaching Artists
Shar Galarza, Daniel Gomez, Nancy K. Gomez, Maxim Ibadov, Amo Ortiz Teaching Associates
Arabia Elliot Currence, Victoria Fernandez, Sebastian Harris Teaching Assistants
Shatisha Bryant, Delisha James, Melina Jorge, Oscar Montenegro, Adriana Taboada Teaching Apprentices
Joeseph Balbuena, Eden Battice, Teja Caban, Koralys De La Cruz, Fatou Diallo, Melina Jorge Youth Corps Advisory Board
Phee Acevedo, Ivy Alban, Habib Apooyin, Mariama Bah, Terry Beaupierre, Britney Carryl, Marc Chaudry, Issbel Collado, Janneurys Colon, Isayya Dail, Zeinebou Dia, Andy Duer, Adonai Fletcher-Jones, Terrelle Jones, Mia Kokilashvili, Sabre Lee, Giovanni Luke, Taylor Maheia, Nephthali Mathieu, Maver Mendez Garabito, Kylo Meng, Alan Munoz, Yanitza Ordonez, Blue Price, Jason Quizhpi, Denivia Rivera, Kedesia Robinson, AJ Volkov, Nassim White Youth Corps, Armory Art Together
BUILDING OPERATIONS
Karen Quigley Vice President of Capital Projects and Facilities
Marc Von Braunsberg Director of Operations and Security
Samuel Denitz Director of Facilities
Xavier Everett Security/Operations Manager
David Burnhauser Collection Manager
Emma Paton Administrative and Office Coordinator
Williams Say Superintendent
Leandro Dasso, Mayra DeLeon, Jeferson Avila, Felipe Calle, Jose Campoverde, Branden Fell, Jacob Garrity, Jonathan Mays, Tyrell
Shannon Castillo Maintenance Staff
Jason Moran Curator, Artists Studio
Tavia Nyong’o Curator, Public Programming
DEVELOPMENT
Patrick Galvin Chief Development Officer
Alan Lane Director of Development
Caity Miret Executive Assistant to the Chief Development Officer
Jessica Pomeroy Major Gifts Officer
Chiara Bosco Manager of Individual Giving
Angel Genares Director of Institutional Giving
Hans Rasch Manager of Institutional Giving
Margaret Breed Director of Special Events
Séverine Kaufman Manager of Special Events
Michael Buffer Director of Database and Development Operations
Maeghan Suzik Development Coordinator
EXECUTIVE OFFICE
Lori Nelson Executive Assistant to the President
Nathalie Etienne Administrative Assistant, President’s Office
Simone Elhart Rentals and Project Manager
FINANCE, HR, AND IT
Judy Rubin Chief Financial Officer
Tejal Patel Controller
Khemraj Dat Accounting Manager
Zeinebou Dia Junior Accountant
Oku Okoko Director of IT
Jorge Sanchez IT Helpdesk Administrator
MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS, AND AUDIENCE SERVICES
Tom Trayer Chief Marketing Officer
Nick Yarbrough Associate Director of Digital Marketing
Dileiny Cruz Digital Marketing Coordinator
Allison Abbott Senior Press and Editorial Manager
Mark Ho-Kane Graphic Designer
Joe Petrowski Director of Ticketing and Customer Relations
Monica Diaz Box Office Manager
John Hooper Assistant Box Office Manager
Jordan Isaacs Box Office Lead
Victor Daniel Ayala, Fiona Garner, Meghan Lara Hrinkevich, Sarah Jack, Matthew Kamen, Emma Komisar, Michelle Meged, Caleb Moreno, Arriah Ratanapan, Ester Teixeira Vianna, Miciah Wallace
Box Office Associates
Caitlin O’Keefe, Anne Wolf Tour Guides
Natasha Michele Norton Director of House Management
Clayton McInerney House Manager
Becky Ho, Cody Castro Assistant House Managers
Aiyana Greene, Beth Miller, Christina Johns, Christine Lemme, Eboni Greene, Eileen Rourke, Glori Ortiz, Jacqueline Babek, Joseph Balbuena, Kin Tam, Mariel Mercedes, MJ Ryerson, Naomi Santos, Naz Black, Neda Yeganeh, Raven Garcia, Regina Pearsall, Sarah Gallick, Sebastian Harris, Yanitza Chan, Yao Adja, Zoë Rhinehart Ushers
Resnicow + Associates Press Representatives
PRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Sarah Billinghurst Solomon Consultant for Vocal Recitals
JOIN THE ARMORY
Become a Park Avenue Armory member and join us in our mission to present unconventional works that cannot be fully realized elsewhere in New York City. Members play an important role in helping us push the boundaries of creativity and expression.
FRIEND $100
$64 is tax deductible
• 10% discount on tickets to all Armory tours and performances*
• 20% discount on member subscription packages*
• Invitations to member preview party for visual art installations
• Complimentary admission for two to visual art installations
• Discounts at local partnered restaurants
SUPPORTER $250
$194 is tax deductible
All benefits of the Friend membership plus:
• Fees waived on ticket exchanges*
• Two free tickets to Armory Public Tours***
• Invitation to annual Member event
ASSOCIATE $500
$348 is tax deductible
All benefits of the Supporter membership plus:
• Complimentary admission for two additional guests (total of four) to visual art installations and member preview party
• Two free passes to annual fairs held at the Armory, such as TEFAF, The Art Show, Salon Art + Design, etc.**
• Access to the Patron Lounge at select productions
BENEFACTOR $1,000
$824 is tax deductible
All benefits of the Associate membership plus:
• Recognition in the Armory printed programs
• Access to the Membership Hotline for ticket assistance
• No-wait ticket pick up 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 Malkin Lecture Series*
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 are provided 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 adventurous art enthusiasts in their 20s to early 40s. Members enjoy an intimate look at Armory productions, as well as invitations to forward-thinking art events around New York City.
*Subject to ticket availability **Certain restrictions apply ***Reservations required
For information on ticketing, or to purchase tickets, please contact the Box Office at (212) 933-5812 or visit us at armoryonpark.org.
For more information about membership, please contact the Membership Office at (212) 616-3958 or members@armoryonpark.org. Each membership applies to one household, and one membership card is mailed upon membership activation.
ARTISTIC COUNCIL
The Artistic Council is a leadership group that champions and supports groundbreaking “only at the Armory” productions.
Chair Lisa Miller
Anne-Victoire Auriault/Goldman Sachs
Gives
Abigail and Joseph Baratta
Noreen and Ken Buckfire
Jeanne-Marie Champagne
Hélène and Stuyvesant Comfort
Caroline and Paul Cronson
Courtney and Jonathan Davis
Jessie Ding and Ning Jin
Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
The Lehoczky Escobar Family
Adam R. Flatto
LEGACY CIRCLE
Roberta Garza and Roberto Mendoza
Lorraine Gallard and Richard H. Levy
Barbara and Peter Georgescu
Kim and Jeff Greenberg
Lawrence and Sharon Hite
Samhita and Ignacio Jayanti
Wendy Keys
Irene Kohn
Fernand Lamesch and Maria Pisacane
Almudena and Pablo Legorreta
Christina and Alan MacDonald
Andrew Martin-Weber and Beejan Land
John and Lisa Miller
Lily O’Boyle
Valerie Pels
Amanda J.T. and Richard E. Riegel
Ben Rodriguez-Cubeñas
Susan and Elihu Rose
Janet C. Ross
Caryn Schacht and David Fox
Stephanie and Matthew Sharp
Brian S. Snyder
Joan and Michael Steinberg
Emanuel Stern
Slobodan Randjelović and Jon Stryker
Merryl and James Tisch
Mary Wallach
Saundra Whitney
Anonymous (2)
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 out-the-box artistic programming, Arts Education Programs, and historic preservation into the future.
Founding Members
Angela and Wade F.B. Thompson*
Co-Chairs
Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
Marjorie and Gurnee Hart
PATRONS
Members
The Estate of Ginette Becker
Wendy Belzberg and Strauss Zelnick
Emme and Jonathan Deland
Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
Adam R. Flatto
Roberta Garza
Marjorie and Gurnee Hart
Anita K. Hersh*
Ken Kuchin
Heidi McWilliams
Michelle Perr
Amanda J.T. Riegel
Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief
Susan and Elihu Rose
Francesca Schwartz
Joan and Michael Steinberg
Angela and Wade F.B. Thompson*
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 +
Charina Endowment Fund
Citi
Empire State Local Development Corporation
Adam R. Flatto
Marina Kellen French
Barbara and Andrew Gundlach
Anita K. Hersh Philanthropic Fund
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*
Sanford L. Smith*
The Thompson Family Foundation
Wade F.B. Thompson*
The Zelnick/Belzberg Charitable Trust
Anonymous (3)
$500,000 to $999,999
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
Almudena and Pablo Legorreta
Adam R. Rose and Peter R. McQuillan
Marvin and Donna K Schwartz
Emanuel Stern
Anonymous
$250,000 to $499,999
American Express
Abigail and Joseph Baratta
Courtney and Jonathan Davis
Jessie Ding and Ning Jin
Michael Field and Doug Hamilton
Roberta Garza
Kim and Jeff Greenberg
Samhita and Ignacio Jayanti
Ken Kuchin and Tyler Morgan
The Rockefeller Foundation
Marshall Rose Family Foundation
Mrs. Janet C. Ross
Anonymous
$100,000 to $249,999
The Achelis and Bodman Foundations
R. Mark and Wendy Adams
Linda and Earle Altman
Blavatnik Family Foundation
Booth Ferris Foundation
Hélène and Stuyvesant Comfort
Caroline and Paul Cronson
Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
Marjorie and Gurnee Hart
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Lester Morse
New York State Assembly
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
The Pinkerton Foundation
Slobodan Randjelović and Jon Stryker
Amanda J.T. and Richard E. Riegel
Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Daniel and Joanna S. Rose
Caryn Schacht and David Fox
Matthew and Stephanie Sharp
The Shubert Foundation
Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust
Joan and Michael Steinberg
Mr. William C. Tomson
Peter Zhou and Lisa Lee
Anonymous
$25,000 to $99,999
Amy and David Abrams
Jody and John Arnhold
Sarah Arison
The Avenue Association
Melanie Bouvard and Matthew Bird
Jeanne-Marie Champagne
The Cowles Charitable Trust
Dalio Philanthropies
Cora and Luis Delgado
Andrew L. Farkas & Island Capital Group LLC
Lorraine Gallard and Richard H. Levy
Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation
Barbara and Peter Georgescu
John R. and Kiendl Dauphinot Gordon
Mindy and Jon Gray Agnes Gund
Janet Halvorson
Robert and Monica Hanea
Howard Gilman Foundation
The Keith Haring Foundation
Suzie and Bruce Kovner
Fernand Lamesch and Maria Pisacane
The Lehoczky Escobar Family
Christina and Alan MacDonald
Christine and Richard Mack
Marc Haas Foundation
Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation
Andrew Martin-Weber and Beejan Land
John and Lisa Miller
National Endowment for the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
Katharine Rayner
Rhodebeck Charitable Trust
Genie and Donald Rice
The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation Orville Schell
Sydney and Stanley S. Shuman
Amy and Jeffrey Silverman
Denise Littlefield Sobel
TEFAF NY Terra Foundation for American Art
Tishman Speyer
Barbara D. Tober
Jane Toll and Robert Toll*
Wallach Wescustogo Foundation
Anonymous (5)
$10,000 to $24,999
AECOM Tishman
Anne-Victoire Auriault / Goldman Sachs Gives
Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation
Gabrielle S Bacon Foundation
Harrison and Leslie Bains
Agnieszka and Witold Balaban
Mercedes Bass
Noreen and Ken Buckfire
Amanda M. Burden
Mary and Brad Burnham
Sergey G. Butkevich
Tim Cameron
Betsy and Edward Cohen
Con Edison
Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation
Antoinette Delruelle and Joshua L. Steiner
Jeanne Donovan Fisher
William F. Draper
Bart Friedman and Wendy A. Stein
Elliot Friman
Sarah Jane and Trevor Gibbons
Harkness Foundation for Dance
Lawrence and Sharon Hite
Claire King
Judy and Leonard Lauder
Leon Levy Foundation
May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc.
Danny and Audrey Meyer
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Lily O’Boyle
O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation
Michael Peterson
Joan R. and Joel I. Picket
Kathryn Ploss
Susan Porter
The Reed Foundation
Fiona and Eric Rudin
Mrs. William H. Sandholm
Christine Schwarzman
Cynthia and Tom Sculco
Denise Simon and Paulo Vieira da Cunha
Brian S. Snyder
Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation
Dabie Tsai
Susan Unterberg
Deborah C. van Eck
Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg
Saundra Whitney
Maria Wirth
Anonymous (4)
$5,000 to $9,999
Donald Allison and Sumiko Ito
Barbara Goldstein Amster
Gina Argento
Page Ashley
Stephanie Bernheim
The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation
Nicholas Brawer
Dr. Joyce F. Brown and Mr. H. Carl McCall
David Bruson
Trevor Buchanan
Cindy and Tim Carlson
Arthur and Linda Carter
Orla Coleman and Rikki Tahta
Judith-Ann Corrente
David L. Klein, Jr. Foundation
David Schwartz Foundation, Inc.
FX and Natasha de Mallmann
Jennie L. and Richard K.* DeScherer
The Felicia Fund
Andrew and Theresa Fenster
Nicholas Firth and Sophie de Brignac
Ella M. Foshay and Michael B. Rothfeld
Jill and Michael J. Franco
Amandine Freidheim
Mary Ann Fribourg
Buzzy Geduld
Melissa Stewart
Michael and Veronica Stubbs
Marjorie P. Rosenthal
Peter van Egmond Rossbach
George Wang and Shanshan Xu
Michael Weinstein
Gary and Nina Wexler
Cynthia Young and George Eberstadt
Toni Young
Elham Yousefi
Samiah Zafar and Minhaj Patel
Zubatkin Owner Representation, LLC
Anonymous (4)
$2,500 to $4,999
Allen Adler and Frances Beatty
Fabrizio and Enrica Arengi Bentivoglio Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Ashley
Atema
College
Bechara
Behrend
Berger Katherine and Marco Birch Clemence Boissonnas
Mr. and Mrs. Richard* Braddock
Barbara Brandt
Jordan and Blythe Brock
Stacey Bronfman
Elaine Brownstein
James Buresh
Michael Carlisle and Sally Peterson
Lori and Alexandre Chemla
The Clarence Westbury Foundation
David and Peri Clark
Sana Clegg Betsy Cohn Margaret Conklin
Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany New York Ellie and Edgar Cullman
and David Domina Jason Drucker and Joseph Ortiz Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Deborah and Ronald Eisenberg Foundation
Ember Dr. Nancy Eppler-Wolff and Mr. John Wolff
Dasha Epstein
Fiona Morgan Fein
Gwen and Austin Fragomen
Eleanor Friedman and Jonathan J. Cohen
Judith Garson and Steven Rappaport
Heather & Andrew Georges
Phillip Roland Gulley
and Brian Hainline Kathleen D. Hale Barbara Hoffman
Johanna Hudgens and Matthew Wilson
Phyllis Hyde
Shujaat Islam and Fay Sardjono
Adrienne Katz
James and Stephanie Kearney
Lee Kern
Jana and Gerold Klauer Meghan Klopp
Kameron Kordestani
Douglas and Judith Krupp
Lizbeth & George Krupp
and Dennis LaBarre
Laffont
Sophie Laffont
Julia Ledda
Harrison LeFrak
Kim Lovejoy, EverGreene Architectural Arts
Stephen Ludwig
Jeffrey and Tondra Lynford
Robert S. MacDonald
Arielle & Ian Madover
Nancy Maruyama
Bonnie Maslin
Nina B. Matis
Peter and Leni May
Mr. and Mrs. Matthew McLennan
Ryan McNaughton and Anastasia Antoniev
Constance and H. Roemer McPhee
Israel Meir & Steve Rivera
Joyce F. Menschel
Virginia A. Millhiser
Saleem and Jane Muqaddam
New England Foundation for the Arts
Anthony Napoli and Gary Newman
Susan and Peter* Nitze Gwendolyn Adams Norton and Peter Norton
Stephen Novick
Susan Numeroff
Ellen Oelsner
Kathleen O’Grady Arlena Olsten
Patsy Orlofsky
Peter and Beverly Orthwein
Gregory Ostling and Angela Tu
Robert Ouimette and Lee Hirsch
Ji Park Kwak
Lee and Lori Parks
Sanjay and Leslie Patel
Dennis Paul
Louis and Barbara Perlmutter
Stan Ponte
Jennifer Reardon
Diana and Charles Revson
Dale Riedl and Adam Dworkin
Susan Rudin
Danielle Ryan
Kevin and Pascaline Ryan
Leslie Rylee
Sana Sabbagh Sadler’s Wells
Susan and Charles Sawyers
Benjamin Schor & Isabel Wilkinson Schor
Lisa Schultz
Shelley Sonenberg
Stephen and Constance Spahn
Squadron A Foundation
Michael and Marjorie Stern
Leila Maw Straus
Stella Strazdas and Henry Forrest
Levine
Linda Lindenbaum
Catherine Lipkin and Danae Oratowski
Bill Luby
and Jane Macan
Diane L. Max
Larry and Mary McCaffrey
Charles McDonald Whitney and Andrew Mogavero
Julia Moody David and Casey Moore D. and Roseline Neveling
Stephanie Neville & Alan Beller
Nancy Newcomb and John Hargraves
Lynn Nottage and Tony Gerber
Dr. Catherine Orentreich
Harlan Peltz
Marc Alexander Perruzzi
John and Marie-Noëlle Pierce
Candace Platt
Robert A Press MD
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David and Leslie Puth
Constanza Quezada
Pierre-Antoine Raberin Martin and Anna Rabinowitz Joseph Risico
David Ritter Allen and Heidi Roberts
John and Lizzie Robertshaw
Thomas Rom
Richard and Elisa Rosen
Chuck and Stacy Rosenzweig
Jaclyn and Dan Rottenstreich
Whitney Rouse
Julia and John Ryan
Will W. Sachse and Carolyn M. Hazard
John and Shelby Saer
Alexander and Sarah Saint-Amand
David and Elizabeth Saltzman
Andres and Lauren Santo Domingo
Herbert A Satzman
Paul H. Scarbrough, Akustiks, LLC. Benjamin and Louise Schliemann
Pat Schoenfeld
Victoria Schorsch
Halsey Schroeder
David and Whitney Schwartz
Laura Schwartz and Arthur Jussel
The Binkley-Sebring Fund
He Shen & Michelle Mao
Lauryn Siegel
Adrianne and William Silver
Esther Simon Charitable Trust
Brooke and William Sinclair
Mary and Alok Singh
Laura Skoler
Ileene Smith and Howard Sobel
Charlotte Snyder
Andre Spears and Anne Rosen
ABOUT THE VETERANS ROOM
“In a sense, the Veterans Room, of all the Armory’s opulent reception rooms, has the deepest spiritual kinship with a work of contemporary art.”
—The New York Times
The Veterans Room is among the most significant surviving interiors of the American Aesthetic Movement, and the most significant remaining intact interior in the world by Louis C. Tiffany and Co., Associated Artists. The newly formed collective led by Tiffany included some of the most significant American designers of the 19th century at early stages of their very distinguished careers: Stanford White, Samuel Colman, and Candace Wheeler among them. The design of the room by these artists was exotic, eclectic, and full of experimentation, as noted by Decorator and Furnisher in 1885 that “the prepondering styles appear to be the Greek, Moresque, and Celtic, with a dash of Egyptian, the Persian, and the Japanese in the appropriate places.”
A monument of late 19th-century decorative arts, the Veterans Room is the fourth period room at the Armory completed (out of 18). The revitalization of the room responds to the original exuberant vision for the room’s design, bringing into dialogue some of the most talented designers of the 19th and 21st centuries – Associated Artists with Herzog & de Meuron, Platt Byrd Dovell White Architects, and a team of world-renowned artisans and experts in Tiffany glass, fine woodworking, and decorative arts.
The revitalization of the Veterans Room follows Herzog & de Meuron’s design approach for the Armory building, which seeks to highlight the distinct qualities and existing character of each individual room while interweaving contemporary elements to improve its function. Even more so than in other rooms at the Armory, Herzog & de Meuron’s approach to the Veterans Room is to amplify the beauty of the room’s original vision through adding contemporary reconstructions of lost historic materials and subtle additions with the same ethos and creative passion as the original artisans to infuse a modern energy into a harmonious, holistic design. The room’s restoration is part of an ongoing $215-million transformation, which is guided by the understanding that the Armory’s rich history and the patina of time are essential to its character, with a design process for the period rooms that emphasizes close collaboration between architect and artisan.
The restoration and renovation of the Veterans Room was made possible by The Thopson Family Foundation, Inc., Susan and Elihu Rose, Charina Endowment Fund, Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz, Almudena and Pablo Legorreta, Assemblymember Dan Quart and the New York State Assembly, Emanuel Stern, Adam R. Flatto, Olivia Tournay Flatto, Kenneth S. Kuchin, R. Mark and Wendy Adams, American Express, Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief, Amy and Jeffrey Silverman, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Anonymous (2).
