WELCOME Michel van der Aa is a groundbreaking artist and composer, combining composition with film, stage direction, and script writing to bring a new kind of vocabulary to opera—one that embraces technology and transcends what can sometimes be rigid barriers between styles of music. Classical instruments, voices, electronics, actors, video, apps and even web browsers are all seamless extensions of his multifaceted projects. Blank Out is a beautiful example of his work and, through its exploration of grief and motherhood, is both deeply personal and internationally relevant. Since the work premiered at the Dutch National Opera as part of the Opera Forward Festival in March 2016, it has gone on to tour internationally to much acclaim and praise. I am thrilled to be able to host the North American premiere of this remarkable chamber opera with 3D film, a production that so poignantly represents the type of cutting edge artistic vision by world class artists to which the institution lends itself. I am thrilled to welcome Michel to the Armory as well as the incomparable Miah Persson, for whom the piece was originally written. I am also pleased to hear the voices of Roderick Williams, who made his North American Recital debut in the Armory’s austerely elegant Board of Officers Room in February 2016, and the Netherlands Chamber Choir reverberate in our storied space. I am always excited to see how artists reimagine their works within such a dynamic canvas as the Armory, and Michel’s work—with its simultaneous grandness and intimacy and blending of live performance and visually stunning film—is sure to provide an evocative experience unlike any other. I hope you will join me in immersing yourself in Michel’s vivid world. Pierre Audi Artistic Director In 2017, Park Avenue Armory celebrates 10 years as New York’s newest cultural institution. The mission of our not-for-profit entity is to support unconventional works in the performing and visual arts that cannot be performed in a traditional proscenium theater, concert hall, or white wall gallery. With its soaring, column-free, 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall and its Gilded Age period rooms, the Armory enables artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to experience, epic and adventurous work that cannot be done elsewhere in New York. The Armory’s evolution as a major provider of unexpected, immersive, and eclectic cultural productions began as an experiment. It has now become a fixture in the cultural life of New York. Perhaps The New York Times said it best in 2016 when they proclaimed: “…few cultural institutions have been as adept at pushing the cultural FOMO button, triggering that ‘fear of missing out’ that New Yorkers hate.” On behalf of Artistic Director Pierre Audi and the Board of Directors of the Armory, we hope that 2017 continues to push the boundaries even further. Rebecca Robertson President & Executive Producer
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BLANK OUT MICHEL VAN DER AA
North American Premiere September 21-27, 2017 Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory Chamber opera for soprano, baritone, choir and 3D film (2015-2016) Libretto — Michel van der Aa, based upon the work and life of Ingrid Jonker Translated by André Brink and Antjie Krog with Miah Persson — Soprano / Woman film Roderick Williams — Baritone / Man Netherlands Chamber Choir / Conductor - Klaas Stok Michel van der Aa, Composer, film and stage director Sophie Motley, Dramaturg Floriaan Ganzevoort, Lighting Designer A Production of Dutch National Opera Adapted by Park Avenue Armory
SEASON SPONSORS
PRODUCTION SPONSOR
Blank Out is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Altman Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, The Kaplen Brothers Fund, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation.
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PERFORMANCES thursday, september 21 at 8:00pm friday, september 22 at 8:00pm sunday, september 24 at 3:00pm monday, september 25 at 8:00pm wednesday, september 27 at 8:00pm
Running time: Approximately one hour and ten minutes with no intermission By arrangement with Bote & Bock Berlin and Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Blank Out was commissioned by Dutch National Opera, Lucerne Festival, and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. With financial support of Nederlands Kamerkoor, Ammodo, Fonds Podiumkunsten, and Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.
OTHER HAPPENINGS ARMORY AFTER HOURS Join us after evening performances for libations with fellow attendees – and often the evening’s artists – at a special bar in one of our historic period rooms. BLANK OUT: ARTIST TALK Friday, September 22 at 6:00pm Composer and director Michel van der Aa and soprano Miah Persson discuss the creation of his chamber opera with composer Alexandra Gardner.
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PRODUCTION STAFF Siemen van der Werf, Technical Director Marie-josĂŠ Litjens, Stage Manager Ashley Tata, Assistant Director Maarten Warmerdam, Associate Lighting Designer Nik Tenten, Light Operator Thom Stuart, Movement Anne Dechene, Supertitles Operator Tom Gelissen, Sound Designer Mark Grey, Sound Consultant Simon Nathan, Audio Supervisor Jozef Hey / BeamSystems, 3D Projection Technician Niels Otten / BeamSystems, 3D Play-Out Operator Bobby Verbakel, 3D Camera Operator Victoria Bek, Wardrobe Supervisor Sara Donovan, Hair & Makeup Supervisor
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SYNOPSIS A woman, alone onstage, is lost. She sings fragmented texts, recording herself with a video camera. Her sentences gradually become complete and coherent. We learn of a devastating trauma that took place in 1976, when her son was seven years old. From the edge of the dike near their house she watched him swim, then drown. She was paralysed, unable to act. The woman shares memories of her son while slowly building a small model house. She reconstructs and explains her relationship with her son, exploring her emotional displacement from him. As the line between reality and the world of the model begins to blur, a man appears on screen. The man sings a duet with the woman’s recording from earlier in the opera, filling out her story of that day in 1976. He also experienced a trauma: the woman on stage is his mother, who died that day – she drowned saving his life. In taking us back to the accident, the man adds a new perspective to the events. We realize the woman on stage is a reconstruction of his memory. They sing together, dance together. As the piece builds to a climax, the woman drowns in her own words while the man desperately clings to his treasured memories. The woman disappears from stage. The man mourns her. – Michel van der Aa and Sophie Motley Blank Out’s text and characters include elements by the South African poet Ingrid Jonker. The story, however, is not biographical.
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MICHEL VAN DER AA AND HIS CHAMBER OPERA BLANK OUT THE GESAMTKUNSTWERK TRANSLATED INTO THE PRESENT DAY
An Organic Whole Even in Richard Wagner’s idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk – the “total work of art” – there is no lack of precedents. In the three treatises he wrote about art while living in Zurich – Art and Revolution, The Art Work of the Future, and Opera and Drama – Wagner refers to Attic tragedy with its cult of Dionysus as an early ideal. He saw it to represent the unity of myth, action, scenic presentation, and musical realization for which he was striving. Though this unity, in Wagner’s view, had been lost through Christianity, the instrumental music of Romanticism succeeded in making itself directly and emotionally comprehensible to listeners. Music as an “emotional signpost”: it was with this power that Wagner posited creating a through-composed, “organic whole.” In other words, a Gesamtkunstwerk, in which mime and gesture, set design, and lighting are also clearly integral components. It is in these contexts that the work of Michel van der Aa should be understood. The Dutch artist is not afraid to use innovations involving media. In 2015’s The Book of Sand, van der Aa created a digital, interactive vocal cycle by relying on the Internet and smartphone apps. And in the chamber
opera Blank Out, which had its world premiere in March 2016 in Amsterdam, he works with 3D technology. Everything revolves around a traumatic event that is viewed and narrated from different angles. The story is based on the life and work of the South African poet Ingrid Jonker, who committed suicide in 1965 by drowning at a beach near Cape Town. A puzzle is introduced, whose separate components come to make sense only through this traumatic event. At first a woman appears, played by the soprano and the only live performer on stage in this opera. She appears distraught, initially singing only fragments of text, until a coherent whole gradually emerges, which is her story. There is a flashback to 1976, when her son is seven years old. Looking out from her house, which is situated on a dike, she watches him swimming. Suddenly he sinks. She freezes, staring in shock and unable to do anything. On the stage, the woman puts together a small model of the house from that time. She even arranges its miniature furniture as it used to be.
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Seeming or Being? Virtual Reality It seems as though this woman is putting together her own, deeply personal reality: her memory, her identity. A small camera projects her construction of the small model onto a screen live, in real time. Meanwhile, the woman reflects on her relationship with her son as she seems to process this loss and her emotional detachment from him. Or is it all just virtual reality, in which being and seeming become blurred? In fact, reality and the miniature world of the model seem increasingly to rub up against each other, until a second protagonist emerges: a man. He also sings and performs, but not as a live performer, since he appears only on the screen. This man’s trauma also dates back to 1976. His mother has drowned while trying to save him. He was seven years old at the time, and the woman on the stage is his mother. His memory fills out the gaps in the story, and the result is all the more disturbing because it now becomes clear that the woman on the stage, the single “genuine” live performer in the work, basically does not exist. She is nothing more than a reconstruction of the memory of this man who, for his part, does not actually appear on the stage but who has only been pre-recorded and transmitted via a screen. The puzzle is now complete, resulting in the simultaneous reality and volition of Blank Out. That is, van der Aa’s opera continually shifts between perception and reality, constantly treading the fine line between the real world and fiction, the boundaries between them being fluid. It is not only the material that plays with these different levels, shuttling between phantasmagoric abstraction and concrete narrative: the technical aspects and the music, especially the three-dimensional technology, are also to be understood in this sense as clear metaphors. In doing so, the theatrical is at work even before the piece actually begins: in other words, in the moment when the audience members put on their 3D glasses. These are distributed beforehand to the public and are a key tool for the piece: indeed, they are absolutely indispensable to be able to understand Blank Out overall. And this holds true beyond the 3D film inserts themselves.
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“Even when the 3D film is not running, the audience members are still wearing the 3D glasses,” van der Aa explains. “Even the live singer is observed through these glasses, and as a result, you see the ‘real’ scenes in a different way. That is very interesting psychologically, because it simultaneously interprets reality. You ask yourself, what is it you are actually seeing right now: is that real or not?” For van der Aa, the use of technology in general is not a formal goal in and of itself but a “tool for narrating.” He says this involves “new perspectives of perception” and that it can be transferred to “our reality”: “We observe ourselves on Facebook and other social media, and so we have different versions of ourselves in circulation – on our screens and monitors. That is a way life gets filtered, just as with the 3D glasses.”
Lost Identities So in Blank Out the “real” woman on the stage and the “unreal” man on the screen sing and dance together in a struggle for identity and reality, while the events continue to intensify. The woman on the stage is seen to drown in her own words, whereas the projected man desperately celebrates the cult of memory. He can and will not let go. At the end, the woman vanishes, sinks, dissolves. The man in the 3D film alone remains behind, grieving over this memory. This is precisely an ageless theme of theater: the hero who observes himself and the world from different angles. It involves the invention of or the search for identity, and this theme runs through Michel van der Aa’s oeuvre like a leitmotif — and a motif of sorrow. Michel van der Aa not only pursues the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk in music theater but also translates it into instrumental music. This is why some of his instrumental works come across as being staged, whether there’s a (spatial-) acoustic and/or a performative dimension. In addition, the natural instrumental sound is often enhanced or defamiliarized with electronics (either taped or live). For van der Aa,
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Poetic Balance electro-acoustics and the use of technology in general provide a modern counterpoint to music. Despite his clearly multidisciplinary approach, Michel van der Aa nevertheless views himself first and foremost as a composer. “I come from music, and I also began as a ‘pure composer,’” he says. “That’s the world I come from, but over time I came to realize that I can no longer make only music: that there are also visual approaches.” Michel van der Aa points out that there are things he wants to narrate for which music and sonic action by themselves no longer would have sufficed. At first he integrated spatial concepts and performative elements into his scores, until he took up an additional course of study at the New York Film Academy in 2002, which he then supplemented with courses in stage direction in 2007. One of the first results of his study of film was the chamber opera One from 2003, which he created with the soprano Barbara Hannigan. Another important work that laid the ground for Blank Out was the 3D opera Sunken Garden from 2011-2013, which featured van der Aa’s first 3D film. His film language is inspired by David Lynch, as well as by Andrei Tarkovsky, Bill Viola, and the Danish group Dogme 95. Additional musical influences include pop, jazz, alternative rock by Radiohead, Johann Sebastian Bach, and György Ligeti, along with the early electro-acoustic works of Karlheinz Stockhausen.
The spherical, noise-like sonorities from the electronic part in Blank Out serve to interrupt the rather catchy music. Van der Aa himself speaks of a “dark world”: “A lot sounds like a pop song, and the electronic sounds establish this aesthetic.” By contrast, the prerecorded choral writing that almost resembles Bach chorales forms a kind of universal voice. “For me, art must always find a balance between form and structure, content and human poetry: emotion. When only one side comes to the fore, I personally feel that to be wrong. Bach is for me the master of this balance. He commands it consummately, to perfection. His music is in fact timeless, and I am always seeking this balance. For me the greatest compliment is when people who have attended a performance later say they hadn’t noticed the technology.” — Marco Frei Translation by Thomas May Printed with kind permission from the Lucerne Festival
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS MICHEL VAN DER AA Michel van der Aa (Composer, film and stage director), 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 – Sunken Garden (2011-2012), The Book of Disquiet (2008), After Life (2005-2006), and One (2002) – have received critical and public acclaim internationally. Staging, film, and music are interwoven into a collage of transparent layers, resulting in works that are part-documentary, part-philosophy. His repertoire also includes concert works and chamber music for small ensemble, soloists, and soundtrack and he collaborated with Sol Gabetta on the cross-media cello concerto Upclose (2010). A hugely successful project, the work has been performed in many cities including Berlin, London, Brussels, and Hamburg and has received excellent reviews. 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. Co-commissioned by English National Opera, Opera de Lyon, Toronto Luminato Festival, and Holland Festival, the work received its world premiere by ENO at the Barbican, London in April 2013. Netherlands-born, van der Aa maintains strong roots in his home country including close ties with the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and the Holland Festival. The Concertgebouw Orchestra announced a long term partnership with van der Aa. The new position of House Composer led to the creation of several major works including a new violin concerto written for Janine Jansen, which was premiered in autumn 2014 by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
international level: by the ASKO|Schoenberg, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, musikFabrik, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Helsinki Avanti Ensemble. In 2010, van der Aa launched Disquiet Media, an independent multimedia label for his own work. In 2015-2016, van der Aa created an interactive digital song cycle, The Book of Sand, a co-commission of the Holland Festival, Sydney Festival, Google Arts Institute, and the BBC’s The Space, that was released as a website and smartphone app at the end of May 2015. His music theater work, The Book of Disquiet, had its Englishlanguage premiere with actor Samuel West as part of Peak Performances, Montclair, New Jersey, and presented by London Sinfonietta at the Coronet Theatre, London. Van der Aa’s latest music theatre work, Blank Out, received its world premiere in March 2016, presented in Dutch National Opera’s Opera Forward Festival. A 3D chamber opera for solo soprano onstage, baritone Roderick Williams on film, and Netherlands Chamber Choir and electronic soundtrack, the world premiere was performed by Miah Persson. Blank Out is a co-production of Dutch National Opera with Lucerne Festival and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and had performances at Beijing Music Festival, Musica Nova Helsinki, Hannover Festival, and Lucerne Festival in 2016-2017. Michel van der Aa was Composer-in-residence at the 2017 Lucerne Summer Festival. The festival program included the Swiss premieres of The Book of Disquiet, Up-close, Hysterisis, and Blank Out.
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 London’s Barbican Centre, Opera de Lyon, Berliner Festspiele, Venice Biennale, Huddersfield Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and Autumn in Warsaw. His compositions have been performed at the highest
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MIAH PERSSON
RODERICK WILLIAMS
Internationally-renowned Swedish soprano Miah Persson (Soprano / Woman) has worked all over the world as a recitalist and concert artist as well as on the operatic stage. Throughout her distinguished career Persson has performed Gretel in Hansel und Gretel, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera; Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Zerlina in Don Giovanni at Covent Garden; the title role in L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Governess in Turn of the Screw at Teatro alla La Scala; Fiordiligi, Sophie, and Susanna at the Wiener Staatsoper; Governess in The Turn of the Screw, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, and Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress at the Glyndebourne Festival; Donna Elvira at the Theatre Champs Elysees and the Liceu Barcelona; Fiordiligi at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Hamburgische Staatsoper, New National Theatre Tokyo, Bayerische Staatsoper in Stockholm, and in concerts and for a Deutsche Grammophon recording at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden; Poppea at Carnegie Hall; and Blank Out, a new opera for solo soprano by Michel van der Aa, for Netherlands Opera with performances in Amsterdam, Rome, Helsinki, Beijing, and Rotterdam.
Roderick Williams (Baritone / Man) 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 also sung world premieres of operas by, among others, David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michael van der Aa, Robert Saxton, and Alexander Knaifel.
Persson’s concert appearances include: Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Bayerischer Rundfunk Munich; the Accademia Santa Cecilia; Simon Bolivar Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel in Salzburg and for the Proms in London (televised and broadcast by the BBC); Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Montreal Symphony Orchestra; a tour of South America with Budapest Festival Orchestra singing Mahler Symphony No.4 and Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Mozart Concert Arias at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam; Mahler Symphony No.2 with the New York Philharmonic, the MDR Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Philharmonia, and London Symphony Orchestra; Bach’s B Minor Mass at La Fenice; Mahler Symphony No.2, Mahler Symphony No.4, and Mozart Arias with Los Angeles Philharmonic; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra; Peer Gynt with the Vienna Symphony at the Wiener Staatsoper and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; as well as recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Spivey Hall, the Schubert Club of St. Paul, Cal Performances at Berkeley, Vancouver Playhouse, and Carnegie Hall. Engagements in 2017-2018 include Blank Out at the Lucerne Festival and at the Park Avenue Armory in New York; Mozart’s Requiem with the LA Philharmonic; Mahler Symphony No.2 at Teatro alla Scala, at the Trondheim Festival and with Philharmonie Luxembourg; Mahler Symphony No.4 with the Orchestre National de Lille; recitals at the Pierre Boulezsaal and Wigmore Hall; Brahms’s Requiem with the Gulbenkian Orchestra; Sunken Garden for Dallas Opera and Countess in Capriccio at Garsington Opera.
Williams has sung concert repertoire with all the BBC orchestras, and many other ensembles including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Abroad he has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rom,e and Bach Collegium Japan, amongst others. His many festival appearances include the BBC Proms (including the Last Night in 2014), Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, and Melbourne. Recent opera engagements include: Oronte in Charpentier’s Medée; Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte and Pollux in Castor and Pollux for English National Opera; 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; Sharpless in Madame Butterfly for the Nederlandse Reisopera; and the title roles of Eugene Onegin for Garsington Opera and Billy Budd for Opera North. Recent and future concert engagements include concerts with the Rias Kammerchor, Seoul Philharmonic, Gabrieli Consort, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Music of the Baroque Chicago, Virginia Arts Festival, BBC Proms, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, as well as many recitals and concerts in the UK and worldwide. 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 in Vienna, and appears regularly on Radio 3 both as a performer and a presenter. In 2017-2018 he will perform all three Schubert Cycles at the Wigmore Hall. He made his North American recital debut in the Board of Officers Room at the Armory in 2016. His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley, and Britten operas for Chandos and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos. Williams is also a composer and has had works premiered at the Wigmore
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and Barbican Halls, the Purcell Room, and live on national radio. He was Artistic Director of Leeds Lieder in April 2016 and won theRPS Singer award in May 2016. He was awarded an OBE in June 2017.
NETHERLANDS CHAMBER CHOIR The Netherlands Chamber Choir has existed for almost 80 year and has been a world-class choir for decades. The choir have been internationally praised by critics for their homogeneous sound and for the soloist quality of the singers. One of the choir’s missions is to keep choral music very much alive as an art form, by looking for new formats, by innovative commissions, and exciting collaborations. It results in concerts that are not only perceived as beautiful to the ears, but that appeal to all senses. Education and participation is a vital part of the choir’s mission. The Netherlands has thousands of amateur choirs and numbers of youth choirs. The Netherlands Chamber Choir provides coaching, workshops, and “adopts” choirs as supporting acts for their own concerts. Besides their own concert series, the choir often collaborates with renowned ensembles such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Concert Köln, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and B’Rock. The choir has recorded over 75 CDs, of which many have been awarded. Since September 2015 Peter Dijkstra has been watching over the unique sound of the Netherlands Chamber Choir. Felix de Nobel served as its first chief conductor, with successors that have incuded Uwe Gronostay, Tõnu Kaljuste, Stephen Layton, and Risto Joost. Each of them gave the choir and choral music in general major impulses.
FLORIAAN GANZEVOORT Floriaan Ganzevoort (Lighting Designer) is a lighting designer for theater, music, dance, and spaces of all kinds. He graduated with a degree in Theatre Studies at the University of Amsterdam on the subject “light as a dramaturgical means.” Since 2000 he has made lighting designs for different companies. Because of his dramaturgical background, the light that he designs is always strongly connected to the contents of the piece, specializing in the consecution of images and the timing thereof. In 2008 Ganzevoort founded the Theatermachine together with lighting designer Maarten Warmerdam. This partnership provides an environment in which light is treated in an analytical way and seen as an important carrier of meaning within the whole of a project. The work is not just for theater projects, but extends to music, public spaces, architecture, as well as light as an independent art form. As a lighting designer and scenographer, he has worked with the Dutch National Opera, Theater Basel, Opéra Montpellier, Ulrike Quade Company, Michel van der Aa, Saskia Boddeke and Peter Greenaway, Swarovski, the Van Gogh Museum, and many others. In 2011 Ganzevoort was awarded together with Rieks Swarte, Jacq. van Eeden, and Carly Everaert, the TIN Wijnberg Scenografieprijs (the Scenography prize of the Dutch National Theatre Institution) for his light design of The Tempest.
SOPHIE MOTLEY Sophie Motley (Dramaturg) is Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre Company. She was co-Artistic Director of WillFredd Theatre and Associate Director of Rough Magic. Directing work includes: Wolves Are Coming For You (Pentabus); Override (White Label); Millions of Years (English National Opera); BEES!, Jockey, CARE, FOLLOW, FARM (WillFredd Theatre); Tejas Verdes, Vincent River (Prime Cut); The Sleeping Queen (Wexford Festival Opera); Everything Between Us, Plaza Suite (Rough Magic); The Gleaming Dark (Old Vic Productions); and Pilgrims of the Night (Rough Magic SEEDS3). As dramaturg: Blank Out (Dutch National Opera). As Associate Director: The Book of Disquiet (Michel van der Aa), Sunken Garden (ENO/Barbican/Opera de Lyon), and The Last Hotel (Wide Open Opera / Landmark). She was Staff Director at English National Opera and Resident Assistant Director at the Abbey Theatre.
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BLANK OUT
SCENE 1
MICHEL VAN DER AA
Loop Woman
(2015-2016) (1970)
… strong… belly button… … at seven…the ridge of the …
Chamber opera for soprano, baritone, choir, and 3D film
I stand on … down.
Libretto Michel van der Aa, based upon the work and life of Ingrid Jonker Translated by André Brink and Antjie Krog
… stones on the corners … … lift it … crimson… …mesmerised …for the stacks… … an overwhelming … I look up … …There … Somersaulting … vertical. His arms … climbing … … are … crashing … I gape … wounded … at the … kissing … I… locked … silently … to the ground. Loop Woman 2 …is strong today. He knows …than your belly button.” … at seven, skirting the ridge of the … well within his …. I stand on …separating our house …. I look down. Meticulous … of stones on the corners … …tries to lift it, it ripples like a crimson … I’m mesmerised …waiting for the stacks … Suddenly, an overwhelming sensation … I look up … There he … Somersaulting in the … Then vertical. His arms sprawl like he’s climbing … …All I hear are … crashing … rocks.
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I gape at my child, wounded … His face at the … kissing … I am locked …Paralysed… He is silently … I am riveted to the ground … Frozen.
SCENE 2 2A
Loop Woman 3 I always wanted to be a mother, for as long as I can remember. The undertow is strong today.
On the other hand I was terrified of having children:
He knows the rule. “No deeper than your
In my experience, mothers can’t cope and then die.
belly button.” He is sensible at seven,
You’ve got to be good…if you’re not good your love is a mess and
skirting the ridge of the sandbank in the water,
your courage a slaughter.
well within his depth. But children give birth to beauty; when he was born he was like I stand on the dyke separating our house from the sea.
a butterfly.
I look down. Meticulous piles of stones on the corners of
His father is a painter, we weren’t together for long. I wasn’t
his towel.
expecting him to stick around.
The wind tries to lift it, it ripples like a
He didn’t.
crimson tongue.
-
I’m mesmerised, waiting for the stacks to tumble.
He fell asleep on the way back home last night. When I lifted him out of the back seat his head flopped onto my shoulder, like
Suddenly, an overwhelming sensation of loss.
a puppy.
I look up from the dike.
I paused, overwhelmed by the intensity
There he is.
of the moment.
Somersaulting in the water. Then vertical.
He was half asleep, his consciousness unravelling from his head like a spiral of yarn.
His arms sprawl like he’s climbing an invisible ladder. Silently.
2B
All I hear are waves crashing against rocks. Woman I gape at my child, wounded by water. His face at the water’s surface, kissing the waves.
When you sleep
I am locked to the ground. Paralysed. Powerless.
your forehead is a mountain
He is silently drowning. I am riveted to the ground.
and your temples
Unable. Frozen.
like lambs on the slopes
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Ingrid Jonker
2C
He loves stones and pebbles, warmed by the sun. He used to put them in his mouth, even up his nose sometimes. When he was four we had to go to the village doctor to have a pebble taken out
Woman
Ingrid Jonker
of his nose. When I asked him why he did it, he looked at me very seriously and said that he wanted to smell the heat.
Mommy is no longer a person just an a
Leaves..
she gets dressed
I take a bath every afternoon. I can sit there for hours in total
she goes to the hairdresser
silence – just me and my cigarettes.
she walks in the streets
There were leaves in the tub today when I ran the water. Where
her feet trip
did they come from? I know he plays outside in the leaves but
she consults the psychiatrist
I’m sure he didn’t bring any in.
just like an ordinary person
2D
she whispers words mon chéri
Woman
it has no sound
Ingrid Jonker
it’s the white whispering of a ghost
I went to seek for the path of my body
it has no colour
and could find only strange scars in the dust
and it bolts
Spoor of blue wildebeest elephants and leopards
it giggles from lifts
trampled over the sure secret of the white path
it peers through spectacles
O I just wanted to know your shadow, small steenbok
it wonders on the sly
and the slight weight of your body in flight
it is disarmed it is naked as an african
I searched for my own heart
it would like to believe in people
and long after I had lost my way
never mind a god
in the days trailing past with their foliage in the aloof sky blue with distance I thought I’d find my heart
Woman
where I’d kept your eyes two brown butterflies When he’s inside the house becomes a jungle, a desert, a fortress.
and I saw the swallow swoop up
Our fortress. I found him standing
and shadow starlings
on the coffee table in our sitting room playing ‘don’t-touch-thefloor’. Jumping deliberately from couch to table to chairs, laughing. His voice is still ringing in my ears –
SCENE 3
quick and decisive. Instrumental
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SCENE 4 Loop Addition Son Woman
The undertow is strong today. He
knows the rule. “No deeper than
your belly button.”
Woman
Suddenly, an overwhelming
sensation of loss.
Man
I thought I’d pop back up.
But I didn’t.
Woman
I look up from the dike.
Man
The current kept flipping and
spinning me.
I thrashed about, not knowing
which way was up.
Woman
There he is.
Man
I opened my mouth to scream and
cold water hit the back of my throat and
nose.
Woman
There he is.
Somersaulting in the water.
Man
Jets of pain.
Man
I was a fakir
Woman
He is sensible at seven,
skirting the ridge of the sandbank in
the water, well within his depth.
Man
I was a fakir, my towel a magic
carpet. Little towers of stones on the
corners, ballast, until it was time to
lift up from the sand.
Woman
I stand on the dyke separating our
house from the sea. I look down.
Meticulous piles of stones on the
corners of his towel.
Woman
Then vertical.
Man
I waded into the sea.
Man
My body slowed and throbbed,
Woman
The wind tries to lift it, it ripples like
a crimson tongue.
Woman
His arms sprawl like he’s climbing
an invisible ladder. Silently.
Man
My shadow passed over the
sand, a wobbly twin.
Man
lungs burst with liquid fire,
Woman
I’m mesmerised,
Woman
All I hear are waves crashing
against rocks.
Man
darkness seeped into the edge
of my vision.
Woman
I gape at my child, wounded
by water.
Man mesmerised Woman
waiting for the stacks to tumble.
Man
Waist-deep, at the edge of the
sandbank, I slipped into deep water
just as a huge wave crashed over me.
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Man Exhausted.
armoryonpark.org
Woman
His face at the water’s surface,
fit into a, a small locket, and, erm, she just laughed and she gave
kissing the waves.
me this big hug, I thought it was really weird at the time.
Man
Shrouded by blackness, We had the radio on and, I re… what was it.. Dancing Queen.
Woman
I am locked to the ground.
She was singing away while she was cooking, she was like,
Paralysed. Powerless.
stirring something on the kitchen stove, and bopping away, err, er I remember she was just so happy that day. It’s great to see
Man
being gently forced
someone relaxed and, just, feeling the music.
Woman
He is silently drowning. I am riveted
Was I upstairs? Maybe I was upstairs looking out, cos the
to the ground. Unable. Frozen.
neighbours, the neighbour’s kid, I used to play with him sometimes, he was outside, I could see him, he was just eating
Man
forced to surrender.
worms out of the ground, and then I could hear Mum downstairs.
Man
Then something grabbed my wrist.
It’s a bit difficult to tell with Mum, sometimes she- had this way
Metallic, soft, jangling, secure.
of putting on a happy face for, maybe for me, I don’t know, but
I clung to it like a limpet,
she – I dunno, sometimes I could see through it. She had this
It turned me over, I could see the sky.
funny thing about mirrors, we had this one particular bathroom
I gasped for air.
mirror and I used to catch her looking at herself in it, and once
Found it.
just, once I asked her about it, and she said it wasn’t anything to
The blackness cleared.
do with the way she looked, it wasn’t vanity or anything, it was
I was alive.
that she needed to know that she – was real.
Staggered back to shore, across the
She said that unless she could see her reflection she didn’t feel
beach, up the dike.
that she really existed. And later on I think I became to realise
No mum.
that somehow she gained validity from seeing her own image.
Searched every room in the house.
No mum.
Actually this in the wrong, this is in the wrong place. I remember
Gone, in the water, green or gold or grey.
how we left it in 1976. It was, this, this would have been, this would have been much closer to the stove.
SCENE 5
Cos I remember, on the morning before I’d been playing my normal game. Id have been up here… well, I mean I call it game, but this is life and death because if you, the thing is if you touch
5A
the floor, that’s the lava, that was where all the.. that was where, you’d fry instantly if you touch the floor, so you had to, ah no,
It was like any other day, it didn’t seem strange at all, I just got
hang on a second, that’s, this must have been much closer.
out of bed in the morning as I normally do, I came downstairs. Mum was…she was doing something.. she had this photograph
-
Like that.
and she was cutting it with a pair of scissors very carefully going
Because then I could get anywhere I wanted to. And I’d live on
round the outline of my, of my face. And, and it was like she was
the furniture. Just going from one to another. And there was
gonna cut the head off, and I said “what are you doing, don’t cut
this time when Mum, she came into the room and she had a
my head off!” And she, it, it turned out she wanted something to
sandwich in her hand, and she was trying to chase me round the
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room, and then, she realised she could only give it to me if she was on the furniture too. So she like, she like, jumped up on the
5C
side there and we were the two of us just – clambering around. The night before the accident. I know, it was all to do with the TV. It caught fire, and the neighbour had to deal with it because,
5B
erm, my mother, she just freaked out, she just couldn’t cope with it. There was fire, we thought it was gonna catch up towards the Ingrid Jonker
Mommy is no longer a person
curtains, so the neighbour had to come in, and put the whole thing out with a blanket.
just an a she gets dressed
Mum was so upset. I mean she couldn’t cook. She couldn’t
she goes to the hairdresser
do anything like that. So she took me out for pizza, and it
she walks in the streets
was the first time I’d ever had a pizza, so I didn’t know what,
her feet trip
what topping to have or anything, and I – I think I just chose
she consults the psychiatrist
everything. Just heaped it up on top of this pizza base, and
just like an ordinary person And then we went home in the car. My mum used to drive this she whispers words
amazing beetle, Volkswagen beetle. She had trouble with the gear
mon chéri
stick – it just, used to make this grinding sound, she, she used to
it has no sound
have to use both hands to move the gearstick, to take her hand of
it’s the white
the steering wheel and just – chunk this thing around.
whispering of a ghost
But I still remember the sound of its engine like a sewing
it has no colour
machine.
and it bolts it giggles from lifts
I was on the back seat, I must have been half asleep, the shadow
it peers through spectacles
of her head, the streetlamps outside the car were making her
it wonders on the sly
head go round and round on the inside of the car it was – it was
it is disarmed
kind of like a – merry-go-round or something.
it is naked as an african it would like to believe in people
I never really got rid of the sound of the sea. I don’t, I don’t like
never mind a god
coming back here. It gets worse, the closer I get, the more I think about it, really. And I’ve never really shaken off the – feeling that – if I’d just listened to her that day, if I’d just kept in my depth, it would never’ve happened. Its just one tiny moment of carelessness and your life changes forever.
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5D
that you will rush from glass to glass and ask: if this is she, by God, who may the other be…? Ingrid Jonker
I repeat you
I went to seek for the path of my body
without beginning or end
and could find only strange scars in the dust
repeat your body
Spoor of blue wildebeest elephants and leopards Insert: excerpts of drowning text in Scene 4
trampled over the sure secret of the white path O I just wanted to know your shadow, small steenbok
Ingrid Jonker
and the slight weight of your body in flight The day has a thin shadow I searched for my own heart
the night yellow crosses
and long after I had lost my way
the landscape has no distinction
in the days trailing past with their foliage
and the people a row of candles Ingrid Jonker
in the aloof sky blue with distance I thought I’d find my heart
plant me an oak tree
where I’d kept your eyes two brown butterflies
so that I can recognise my shape
and I saw the swallow swoop up
make me an open house
so that my windows may discover the day
and shadow starlings
green or gold or grey but well-shaped while you sleep beyond the stars and mirrors of my forehead
SCENE 6 Ingrid Jonker I repeat you
SCENE 7
without beginning or end Ingrid Jonker
repeat your body The day has a thin shadow
To stow myself away like a secret
the night yellow crosses
in a sleep of lambs and of cuttings
the landscape has no distinction
To stow myself away
and the people a row of candles
in the salute of a great ship To stow away
I was amused by our double game
in the violence of a simple memory
the nodding talk, the cheating play
in your drowned hands to stow myself away in my word
One mirror in my room was shiny-smooth, the other cracked Perhaps you think, god-man, you fathomed me; but I’ll confuse and wound you so
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Ingrid Jonker Gleaming ochre and the light breaks from the sea.
In the back yard somewhere between the washing and the pomegranate tree your laugh and the morning sudden and small like a ladybird fallen on my hand Ingrid Jonker On all faces of all people always your eyes the two brothers the event of yourself and the unreality of this world All sounds repeat your name all buildings think it and the posters the typewriters guess it and the sirens echo it every birth cry confirms it and the renunciation of this world My days search for the vehicle of your body my days search for the shape of your name always before me in the path of my eyes and my only fear is reflection that wants to change your blood into water that wants to change your name into a number and to deny your eyes like a memory Ingrid Jonker while you sleep beyond the stars and mirrors of my forehead
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OPERA AND THE DNA OF OUR TIME BLANK OUT ARTS EDUCATION Early in the planning process, members of the Armory’s education staff, including students and teaching artists, met with Michel van der Aa – the creator of Blank Out – to discuss his concept and creative process. Van der Aa spoke about the components of the piece – explaining that the work is a chamber opera with a variety of music based on text by the South African poet Ingrid Jonker; there is only one person (a soprano) on stage, and that there is 3D film with a second singer, Roderick Williams. What resonated perhaps most deeply, however, was van der Aa’s thought process about how his work is received by audiences – particularly young people for whom opera may be new. His assertion that contemporary opera should use the “DNA of our time” in order to connect with new audiences was a central focus to the development of the curriculum for the Blank Out arts education program at the Armory. Arts education is one of the three prime missions of the Armory, along with unconventional arts productions and restoration and design. Offered at no cost to undeserved New York City public schools, students are exposed to the work and creative process of world-class artists; they explore epic works with experienced Armory teaching artists; and they express their own interpretation, using a different art form. Each visual art installation extends exclusive “student only” hours for New York City public schools and there is at least one dedicated student matinee for each performing arts production. The Blank Out arts education program includes an in-school pre-show workshop, attendance at the matinee, and an inschool post-show workshop. In pre-show workshops, students discussed what, if any, prior knowledge they had of opera as well as what they expected from a contemporary opera. As a way of exploring van der Aa’s practice, teaching artists guided students through a process using objects and pairs of people to create images evoking a feeling or telling a portion of a story, then led students in the creation of short, live vocal soundtracks to layer onto the scenes. Students also listened to several passages from Blank Out, providing them with several familiar “sonic sound bites” that they could listen for during the matinee. In post-show workshops, students discuss their reactions to Blank Out and use a second art form – dance, writing, visual art – to create a response. Reflecting on the piece’s use of surreal storytelling and how an artist may use points of view to convey a story in a particular way, some students choreographed movement pieces depicting indelible moments in their lives or in the lives of others, some students explored their memories of loved ones they miss by writing poems or surreal two-perspective stories, and still others constructed found-object installations inspired by a group’s collective memory of a particularly significant contemporary event. The Blank Out arts education program at the Armory is an extraordinary opportunity to gauge if and how opera resonates with young audiences. With the majority of our participating students experiencing opera of any kind for the first time, this program invites them “in” – offering the opportunity to engage with, react to, and reflect on contemporary opera and hopefully – the world around them – with the assurance that their input is an essential part of the “DNA of our time” in Blank Out and beyond.
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ABOUT THE ARMORY Part American palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory is dedicated to supporting unconventional works in the visual and performing arts that need non-traditional spaces for their full realization, enabling artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to consume epic and adventurous presentations that can not be mounted elsewhere in New York City. Since its first production in September 2007, the Armory has organized and commissioned immersive performances, installations, and cross-disciplinary collaborations by visionary artists, directors, and impresarios in its vast drill hall that defy traditional categorization and to push the boundaries of their practice. In its historic period rooms, the Armory presents small-scale performances and programs, including its acclaimed Recital Series in the intimate salon setting of the Board of Officers Room and the Artists Studio series in the newly restored Veterans Room. The Armory also offers robust arts education programs at no cost to underserved New York City public school students, engaging them with the institution’s artistic programming and the building’s history and architecture. Built between 1877 and 1881, Park Avenue Armory has been hailed as containing “the single most important collection of nineteenth century interiors to survive intact in one building” by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The 55,000-squarefoot Wade Thompson Drill Hall, with an 80-foot-high barrel vaulted roof, is one of the largest unobstructed spaces in New York City. The Armory’s magnificent reception rooms were designed by leaders of the American Aesthetic Movement, among them Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, Candace Wheeler, and Herter Brothers. The building is currently undergoing a $215-million renovation designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Platt Byard Dovell White Architects as Executive Architects.
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ARTISTIC COUNCIL
Co-Chairman Elihu Rose, PhD.
Co-Chairs Noreen Buckfire Michael Field Caryn Schacht and David Fox Heidi and Tom McWilliams
Co-Chairman Adam R. Flatto President & Executive Producer Rebecca Robertson Marina Abramović Harrison M. Bains Wendy Belzberg Emma Bloomberg Martin Brand Cora Cahan Peter C. Charrington Hélène Comfort Paul Cronson Emme Levin Deland Sanford B. Ehrenkranz David Fox Marjorie L. Hart Edward G. Klein, Major General NYNG (Ret.) Ken Kuchin Mary T. Kush Pablo Legorreta Ralph Lemon Heidi McWilliams David S. Moross Gwendolyn Adams Norton Joel Press Genie H. Rice Amanda J.T. Riegel Janet C. Ross Joan Steinberg Emanuel Stern Mimi Klein Sternlicht Angela E. Thompson Deborah C. van Eck
Wendy Belzberg and Strauss Zelnick Sonja and Martin J. Brand A. Cary Brown and Steven Epstein Elizabeth Coleman Hélène and Stuyvesant Comfort Emme and Jonathan Deland Krystyna Doerfler Olivia and Adam Flatto Janet Halvorson Anita K. Hersh Wendy Keys Ken Kuchin and Tyler Morgan Almudena and Pablo Legorreta Chad A. Leat Aaron Lieber and Bruce Horten Christina and Alan MacDonald Elizabeth and Frank Newman Janet and David P. Nolan Gwen and Peter Norton Slobodan Randjelović and Jon Stryker Richard and Amanda J.T. Riegel Susan and Elihu Rose Janet C. Ross Susan Rudin Joan and Michael Steinberg Liz and Emanuel Stern Mimi Klein Sternlicht Deborah C. van Eck Mary Wallach
Founding Chairman, 2000-2009 Wade F.B. Thompson #PAABlankOut @ParkAvenueArmory
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NEXT AT THE ARMORY RÉPONS OCTOBER 6–7 “It’s gritty and rigorous, but also sumptuous and fanciful–the sheer visceral excitement of being caught in the middle was like nothing else in music.” — The New York Times Rarely staged in concert halls given its unconventional configuration of the space, Pierre Boulez’s spatial masterwork is written for and realized at the Armory by Ensemble intercontemporain and IRCAM with conductor Matthias Pintscher, who perform this emblematic work twice in succession each evening, with the audience changing seats in between to gain a new sonic perspective. This remarkable presentation marks the first performance in New York of a major work by Boulez since his death in early 2016.
A ROOM IN INDIA (UNE CHAMBER EN INDE) DECEMBER 5–20 “It is a spectacle full of surprises…a joyful, funny, four hour show, even as it collides with the evil of our world…It is theater as Mnouchkine likes it: alive, dynamic, colorful, sung-danced, corporal and stylized” — Le Monde The matriarch of exploratory French theater Ariane Mnouchkine and her visionary theater company Théâtre du Soleil return for the North American premiere of this epic new work, which follows the adventures of a touring French theater company stranded in India without a director while the world around them falls into disarray. Touching on pressing issues that societies around the globe are currently facing from terrorism and religious extremism to climate change and gender equality, the expansive affair is a manifesto of the power of theater to heal a community, as well as an exploration of how to talk about the chaos of a world that has become incomprehensible.
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RECITAL SERIES
ARTISTS STUDIO
Experience enchanting musical moments in the most personal of settings, including the recital debuts of opera greats as well as the next generation of brilliant singers, thoughtfully curated programs of both lieder and contemporary works, and electrifying performances by musical luminaries that take their intrepid artistry in thrilling new directions.
Curated by jazz pianist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Jason Moran, these performances explore the culture of sound that can be visibly seen in the newly reopened Veterans Room, while allowing these creative thinkers to actively explore bold new directions of global influence in contemporary music.
RASHAAD NEWSOME NOVEMBER 7
SABINE DEVIEILHE, soprano ANNA LE BOZEC, piano OCTOBER 1 – 3
Premiering a new work based on musical running, a series of ascending and descending notes in rapid succession
Performing a program of French arts songs in her North American recital debut
PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA, violin JAY CAMPBELL, cello OCTOBER 9 – 10 Performing duos from a wide ranging repertoire that perfectly showcases the pair’s extreme styles of music making, from the early music of Gibbons to classical works by Ravel and contemporary compositions by Xenakis, Ligeti, and a world premiere by Michael Hersch
RAN BLAKE and DOMINIQUE EADE WITH KAVITA SHAH NOVEMBER 21 The influences and improvisational fluidity of jazz take center stage in a thrilling double bill of artists who infuse their sets with unique musical cultures and perspectives.
BARBARA HANNIGAN, soprano REINBERT DE LEEUW, piano NOVEMBER 16 – 18 Performing an artfully curated program from the Second Viennese School as well as a look at French composer Erik Satie in her U.S. recital debut
#PAABlankOut @ParkAvenueArmory
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OTHER HAPPENINGS AT THE ARMORY INTERROGATIONS OF FORM: CONVERSATION SERIES
ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
Held in our historic period rooms, these insightful conversations throughout the year feature artists, scholars, cultural leaders, and social trailblazers who gather to offer new points of view and unique perspectives on Armory productions, explore a range of themes and relevant topics, and encourage audiences to think beyond conventional interpretations and perspectives of art.
MALKIN LECTURE SERIES Each fall, the popular Malkin Lecture Series presents scholars and experts on topics relating to the Armory and the civic, cultural, and aesthetic life of New York City in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Lecture topics have ranged from history makers like Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt to Gilded Age society’s favorite restaurants and the Hudson River painters.
ARMORY AFTER HOURS Salon culture has enlivened art since the 19th century, when friends gathered in elegant chambers to hear intimate performances and share artistic insights. Join us following select performances for libations with fellow attendees as we revive this tradition in our historic period rooms. You may also get to talk with the evening’s artists, who often greet friends and audience members following their performances.
HISTORIC INTERIORS TOURS
Launched in 2010, the Armory’s artist-in-residence program supports artists across genres in the creation and development of new work. Each artist sets up a studio in one of the Armory’s period rooms, providing a unique backdrop that can serve as both inspiration and as a collaborator in their project development. Residencies also include participation in the Armory’s arts education program with artists working closely with the Armory’s Youth Corps interns. This season’s artists-in-residence include playwright and screenwriter Lynn Nottage, Cuban installation and performace artist Tania Bruguera, composer and guitarist Marvin Sewell, choreographer and flexn dance pioneer Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and his company the D.R.E.A.M. Ring, and photographer and visual artist Carrie Mae Weems. Previous Armory artists-in-residence have included inventive theater company 600 Highwaymen; theater artists Taylor Mac and Machine Dazzle; writer, director, and production designer Andrew Ondrejcak; vocalist, composer, and cultural worker Imani Uzuri; dancer and choreographer Wally Cardona; visual artist and choreographer Jason Akira Somma; soprano Lauren Flanigan; writer Sasha Frere-Jones; Trusty Sidekick Theater Company; vocalist-songwriter Somi; multidisciplinary performer Okwui Okpokwasili; choreographer Faye Driscoll; artist Ralph Lemon; visual artist Alex Dolan; musician Meredith Monk; sound artist Marina Rosenfeld; string quartet ETHEL; playwright and director Young Jean Lee; vocalist and artist Helga Davis; director, designer, and musician Julian Crouch; performance artist John Kelly; and Shen Wei Dance Arts; among others.
Get an insider’s look at the Armory with a guided walking tour of the building with our staff historian. From the soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall to the extraordinary interiors designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, Herter Brothers, and others, and learn about the design plans by acclaimed architects Herzog & de Meuron.
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PARK AVENUE ARMORY STAFF summer 2017 youth corps
Rebecca Robertson, President and Executive Producer Pierre Audi, Artistic Director Matthew Bird, Deputy Director of Development Jenni Bowman, Producer Hanna Brody, Development Assistant David Burnhauser, Collection Manager Courtney F. Caldwell, Venue Events Manager Leandro Dasso, Porter Khemraj Dat, Accountant John Davis, Facilities Director Jordana De La Cruz, Program Manager Mayra DeLeon, Porter Sam DeRubeis, Building Engineer Alexander Frenkel, Controller Lissa Frenkel, Managing Director Melanie Forman, Chief Development Officer Sharlyn Galarza, Education Assistant Pip Gengenbach, Education Coordinator Kirsten Harvey, Production Assistant Reginald Hunter, Building Mechanic Cassidy Jones, Education Director Chelsea Emelie Kelly, Youth Corps Manager Paul King, Director of Production Allison Kline, Director of Foundation and Government Relations Nicholas Lazzaro, Technical Director Jennifer Levine, Director of Special Events Michael Lonergan, Producing Director Wayne Lowery, Security Director Aidan Nelson, Production Assistant Lars Nelson, Technical Director Lori Nelson, Executive Assistant to the President Timothy Nim, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer Drew Petersen, Education Special Projects Manager Anna Pillow, Office Manager Charmaine Portis, Executive Assistant to the Chief Development Officer Morgan Powell, Membership Coordinator Kirsten Reoch, Director of Design and Construction Rachel Risso-Gill, Individual Giving Manager Erik Rogers, Production Coordinator Matthew Rymkiewicz, Tessitura Database Manager William Say, Superintendent Melissa Stone, Manager of Special Events Tom Trayer, Director of Marketing Brandon Walker, Technical Director Jessica Wasilewski, Producer Monica Weigel McCarthy, Associate Director of Education Avery Willis Hoffman, Program Director Nick Yarbrough, Digital Marketing Manager
Fatima Bah, Mosammat Jannat Begum, Eliana Boyd, Alyssa Carde, Chanse Catlyn, Koralys De La Cruz, Zeinebou Dia, Saran Diawara, Luis GonzĂĄlez, Chamonte Greenfield, Rabia Khan Laraib, Oyon Lotif, Alexa Maldonado, Cindy Mendoza, Christian Montan, Anai Ortiz, Nasser Salim
2017-2018 youth corps advisory board
Jonatan Amaya, Katie Burke, Lilia Chunir, Sharlyn Galarza, Nancy Gomez, Terrelle Jones, Oscar Montenegro, Alejandra Ortiz, Mercedes Samuels
teaching artists
Vicki Behm, Kate Bell, Donna Costello, Hawley Hussey, Larry Jackson, Penelope McCourty, Peter Musante, Hector Morales, Drew Petersen, Vickie Tanner
teaching associates
Emily Bruner, Ashley Ortiz, Leigh Poulos, Neil Tyrone Pritchard, Robert Stevenson, Catherine Talton
teaching assistants
Nancy Gomez, Stephanie Mesquita, Biviana Sanchez
staff for blank out
Coral Cohen, House Manager Jonatan Amaya, Lucy Arnerich-Hatch, Assistant House Managers Kara Kaufman, Erik Olson, Box Office Managers
production acknowledgements
Akustiks, LLC – Paul Scarbrough, Acoustic Consultant PRG, Lighting and Sound Equipment
porters
Olga Cruz, Mario Esquilin, Carlos Goris, Victor Lora, Josthen Noboa, Candice Rushin, Antonio Sanders
#PAABlankOut @ParkAvenueArmory
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JOIN THE ARMORY JOIN OR RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP Support Park Avenue Armory as a member and enjoy insider access to what The New York Times has called “the most important new cultural institution in New York City. For more information about membership, please email members@armoryonpark.org or call (212) 616-3958. We are pleased to recognize the generous support of our members with these special benefits, updates as of August 31, 2017:
FRIEND $100
BENEFACTOR $1,000
$70 is tax deductible » Invitation to the opening night preview for visual art installations » Free admission for you and a guest to visual arts installations » Discounts at local restaurants and hotels » 10% discount on merchandise sales » Only at the Armory Member Newsletter » Discount on Armory Guided Tours » Member Viewing Hours during visual art installations » Member only pre-sale access for performance tickets and 20% discount on Members Subscription
CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE $2,500 OR MORE
$780 is tax deductible All benefits of the Associate membership plus: » Recognition in printed programs » No wait, no line 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 select programs in our historic period rooms*
Members of this exclusive group are offered unique and intimate opportunities to experience the Armory, including invitations to private tours and VIP receptions with world-class artists, access to priority seating and the Armory’s concierge ticket service.
SUPPORTER $250 $200 is tax deductible All benefits of the Friend membership plus: » Fees waived on ticket exchanges* » Two free tickets on guided tours*** » Discount on tickets to the Malkin Lecture Series, Artists Talks and Public Programs*
AVANT-GRADE
The Avant-Garde is a forward-thinking group of Park Avenue Armory supporters in their 20s to 30s that offers a deeper, more intimate connection to the unique and creative concepts behind the Armory’s mission. Members receive exclusive benefits throughout the year, including priority ticketing, special receptions, viewings, talks, and VIP events.
ASSOCIATE $500
$200 is tax deductible All benefits of the Supporter membership plus: » Members concierge ticket service » Free admission for two additional guests (a party of four) to Armory visual art installations » Access to VIP lounge in one of the Armory’s historic rooms during performance intermissions » Two complimentary passes to an art fair**
For information on ticketing, or to purchase tickets, please call the Box Office at (212) 933-5812 *Subject to ticket availability **Certain restrictions apply ***Reservations required
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SUPPORTERS 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 Empire State Local Development Corporation Richard and Ronay Menschel New York City Council and Council Member Daniel R. Garodnick New York City Department of
Cultural Affairs
The Pershing Square Foundation Susan and Elihu Rose The Arthur Ross Foundation and
J & AR Foundation
Joan and Joel Smilow The Thompson Family Foundation Wade F.B. Thompson* The Zelnick/Belzberg Charitable Trust Anonymous $500,000 to $999,999 Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz Almudena and Pablo Legorreta The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Assemblymember Dan Quart and
the New York State Assembly
Adam R. Rose and Peter R. McQuillan Donna and Marvin Schwartz Liz and Emanuel Stern $250,000 to $499,999 American Express Citi Michael Field Olivia and Adam Flatto Ken Kuchin and Tyler Morgan The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation Marshall Rose Family Foundation $100,000 to $249,999 The Achelis and Bodman Foundations R. Mark and Wendy Adams Altman Foundation Linda and Earle S. Altman Bloomberg Philanthropies Booth Ferris Foundation Sonja and Martin J. Brand The W. L. Lyons Brown Jr.
Charitable Foundation
Hélène and Stuyvesant Comfort
Emme and Jonathan Deland
Christine & Richard Mack
Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin
Marjorie and Gurnee Hart
Marc Haas Foundation
Rachel and Mike Jacobellis
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
National Endowment for the Arts
William and Elizabeth Kahane
Mary T. Kush
New York State Council on the Arts
Kaplen Brothers Fund
Mr. and Mrs. Peter L. Malkin and
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Erin and Alex Klatskin
Donald Pels Charitable Trust
Suzie and Bruce Kovner
Mr. and Mrs. Lester S. Morse, Jr.
Slobodan Randjelović and Jon Stryker
Jill and Peter Kraus
New York State Assembly
The Reed Foundation
The Leonard and Judy Lauder Fund
David P. Nolan Foundation
Rhodebeck Charitable Trust
Mr. and Mrs. Fernand Lamesch
Gwen and Peter Norton
Genie and Donald Rice
Leon Levy Foundation
Daniel and Joanna S. Rose
Amanda J.T. and Richard E. Riegel
Richard H. Levy & Lorraine Gallard
Janet C. Ross
Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief
Kamie and Richard Lightburn
Caryn Schacht and David Fox
Susan Rudin
Lili Lynton and Michael Ryan
Amy and Jeffrey Silverman
Nicholas and Shelley Schorsch
Andrea Markezin and Joel Press
Harold and Mimi Steinberg
The Shubert Foundation
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund of the
Sydney and Stanley S. Shuman
Joan and Michael Steinberg
Peter and Jaar-mel Sloane / Heckscher
Patty Newburger and Bradley Wechsler
M K Reichert Sternlicht Foundation
Foundation
Elizabeth and Frank Newman
Mr. William C. Tomson
The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels
Northern Bay Contractors, Inc.
Deborah C. van Eck
Foundation
Nancy and Morris W. Offit
Sanford L. Smith
PBDW Architects LLP
Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia
Joan and Joel I. Picket
Sharzad and Michael Targoff
Katharine and William Rayner
Benigno Aguilar and Gerald Erickson
TEFAF NY
Roberto Cavalli
The Avenue Association
Thor Industries, Inc.
Mary Jane Robertson and James A. Clark
Harrison and Leslie Bains
Tishman Construction, an AECOM
Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Rosen
Carolyn S. Brody
Company
May and Samuel Rudin Family
Janna Bullock
Robert Vila and Diana Barrett
The Cowles Charitable Trust
Anonymous (3)
Mr. and Mrs. William Sandholm
The Malkin Fund, Inc.
Charitable Trust
$25,000 to $99,999
Foundation, Inc.
Oscar S. Schafer
Caroline and Paul Cronson Mary Cronson / Evelyn Sharp
National Trust for Historic Preservation
$10,000 to $24,999
Stacy Schiff and Marc de la Bruyere Dr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Sculco
Foundation Ellie and Edgar Cullman
ADCO Electrical Corporation
Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation
Drake / Anderson
Gina Addeo
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher &
Stuart J. Ellman and Susan H.B. Ellman
AR Global Investments, LLC
The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg
Ginette Becker and Joshua A. Becker*
Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and
Foundation
Noreen and Ken Buckfire
Andrew L. Farkas, Island Capital Group
Marco Cafuzzi
Sotheby’s
Flom LLP Howard Solomon
Eileen Campbell and Struan Robertson
Patricia Brown Specter
Mr. and Mrs. Martin Geller
Elizabeth Coleman
Dr. and Mrs. Eugene E. Stark, Jr.
Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation
Con Edison
Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Stevenson
Howard Gilman Foundation
Mrs. Daniel Cowin
Michael and Veronica Stubbs
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Gina and James de Givenchy
Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund
Allen and Deborah Grubman
Jennie L. and Richard K. DeScherer
Tishman Speyer Properties, LP
Agnes Gund
Krystyna Doerfler
Barbara and Donald Tober
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Gundlach
Jeanne Donovan Fisher
Jane and Robert Toll
Anita K. Hersh
William F. Draper
Christopher Tsai and André Stockamp
Josefin and Paul Hilal
Peggy and Millard Drexler
Mary Wallach
Daniel Clay Houghton
Andra and John Ehrenkranz
Mike Weil and Shirley Madhere-Weil
Anna Maria & Stephen Kellen Foundation,
Florence Fearrington
William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
Ella M. Foshay and Michael B. Rothfeld
Foundation
& C-III Capital Partners
Inc. and Marina Kellen French
La Perla
Kiendl and John Gordon
Chad A. Leat
Jeff and Kim Greenberg
Aaron Lieber and Bruce Horten
Janet Halvorson
Christina and Alan MacDonald
Molly Butler Hart and Michael D. Griffin
#PAABlankOut @ParkAvenueArmory
27
$5,000 to $9,999 ABS Partners Real Estate, LLC Jody and John Arnhold Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Abigail Baratta Mr. and Mrs. Victor Barnett Tony Bechara The David Berg Foundation, Inc. Sara Steinhardt Berman Debra and Leon Black Nicholas Brawer Catherine and Robert Brawer Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky Tom and Meredith Brokaw Amy Brown Amanda M. Burden Marian and Russell Burke CBRE Betsy Cohn Sarah and Ronald Collins Margaret Crotty and Rory Riggs Constance and Gregory Dalvito Diana Davenport and John Bernstein Joan K. Davidson (The J.M. Kapla Fund) Antoinette Delruelle and Joshua L. Steiner Liz Diller and Ricardo Scofidio Mary Ellen G. Dundon Eagle Capital Management, L.L.C. David and Frances Eberhart Foundation Karen Eckhoff Ehrenkranz & Ehrenkranz LLP Dr. Nancy Eppler-Wolff and
Mr. John Wolff
Alicia Ernst and John Katzman EverGreene Architectural Arts The Felicia Fund Bart Friedman and Wendy A. Stein Inger McCabe Elliott Barbara and Peter Georgescu The Georgetown Company Mr. and Mrs. Trevor Gibbons Debbi Gibbs Richard Gilder and Lois Chiles Mr. and Mrs. David Golub Sarah Gould and David Steinhardt Jamee and Peter Gregory Gunther E. Greiner Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Hite Nancy Josephson Hon. Bruce M. Kaplan and Janet
Yaseen Kaplan
Jennie Kassanoff and Dan Schulman Adrienne Katz Lazard Sahra T. Lese Gail and Alan Levenstein Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Levine James C. Marlas and
Marie Nugent-Head Marlas
Diane and Adam E. Max Véronique Mazard and Andrew Vogel Joyce F. Menschel Adriana and Robert Mnuchin Christine Moog and Benoit Helluy
28
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Morse
Mr. and Mrs. Tony Coles
Cynthia Hazen Polsky and
Mr. and Mrs. Saleem Muqaddam
Connelly & McLaughlin
Mary Kathryn Navab
Creative Artists Agency
Frank and Kimba Richardson
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Newhouse
The Cultivist
Heidi Rieger
Peter and Beverly Orthwein
Sasha Cutter and Aaron Hsu
Susan and Jon Rotenstreich
Madison J Papp
Joshua Dachs / Fisher Dachs Associates
Jane Fearer Safer
Liz and Jeff Peek
Dr. and Ms. Nathan Saint-Amand
Ron Perelman and Anna Chapman
Virginia Davies and Willard Taylor
Caroline Schmidt-Barnett
Susan Porter
Richard and Barbara Debs
Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Schulhof
Anne and Skip Pratt
Luis y Cora Delgado
Sara Lee and Axel Schupf
Preserve New York, a grant program of
Francesca and Michael Donner
Lise Scott and D. Ronald Daniel
Denise Simon and Paulo Vieira da Cunha
Alan and Sandy Siegel
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pruzan
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Duda
Laura Skoler
David Remnick and Esther Fein
Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz
Stephanie and Dick Solar
Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Ruesch
Alice and David Elgart
Sara Solomon
Michael D. Rhea
Mr. and Mrs. Jared Feldman
Sonnier & Castle
Jonathan F.P. and Diana Rose
Laura Jane Finn
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Spahn
Liz Rosen and Michael Rozen
Edmée and Nicholas Firth
Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Satnick
Ida and William Rosenthal Foundation
Fisher Marantz Stone, Inc.
Douglas C. Steiner
Chuck and Stacy Rosenzweig
Megan Flanigan
Diane and Sam Stewart
Deborah and Chuck Royce
Claudia Fleming and George Bitar
Angeline Straka
Valerie Rubsamen and Cedomir Crnkovic
Amandine and Steve Freidheim
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Strauss
H.O. Ruding and Renee Ruding-Hekking
Teri Friedman and Babak Yaghmaie
Bill and Ellen Taubman
Jeanne Ruesch
Sylvia Golden
Lindsey Turner
Bonnie J. Sacerdote
Marjorie and Ellery Gordon
Jan and Cynthia van Eck
Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Sackler
Elizabeth and David Granville-Smith
Herbert P. Van Ingen
Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Sagansky
Great Performances
Ambassador and Mrs. William
Susan and Charles Sawyers
Marieline Grinda and Ahmad Deek
Claude Shaw and Lara Meiland-Shaw
Susan Gutfreund
Susan and Kevin Walsh
Stephanie and Fred Shuman
John Hargraves
Diana Wege
Lea Simonds
Roger and Susan Hertog
Mati Weiderpass
Daisy M. Soros
Augusta Hoffman and Jonathan Swygert
Jacqueline Weld Drake
Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Soros
Mr. and Mrs. Morton Janklow
Katherine Wenning and Michael Dennis
Elizabeth Stribling and Guy Robinson
Nancy Kestenbaum and David Klafter
Kate R. Whitney and
The Jay and Kelly Sugarman Foundation
Diana King / The Charles & Lucille King
Michael Tuch Foundation
Michael Woloz
Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Ulrich
Elizabeth Kivlan
Amy Yenkin and Robert Usdan
Liliana Vaamonde and Richard Pretsfelder
Knickerbocker Greys
Zubatkin Owner Representation, LLC
Anastasia Vournas and J. William Uhrig
Phyllis L. Kossoff
Anonymous
Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation, Inc.
Justin Kush
Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Weingarten
Lagunitas Brewing Co.
David Reed Weinreb
The Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder
Valda Witt and Jay Hatfield
Foundation
Marina Abramović
Mr. and Mrs. David Wolf
Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg
Ian and Lindsey Adelman
Cynthia Young and George Eberstadt
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lehrman
Mr. and Mrs. John Argenti
Richard and Franny Heller Zorn
Phyllis Levin
Rebecca Lynn Bagdonas
Anonymous (3)
Lisson Gallery
Steve Bakunas
Elizabeth Lubnina
Joslyn Barnes and Anita Nayar
Heather Lubov
Norton Belknap
Judith and Michael Margulies
Kristine Bell
Ark Restaurants Corp.
Angela Mariani
Dale and Max Berger
Patrick Baldoni, Femenella &
Nina B. Matis
Katherine Birch
Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Mayberry, Jr.
Hana Bitton
Mr. and Ms. Jonathan Berger
Constance and H. Roemer McPhee
Bluestem Prairie Foundation
Judy and Howard Berkowitz
Mr. and Mrs. William Michaelcheck
Dr. Suzy and Mr. Lincoln Boehm
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Birnbaum
Sergio and Malu Millerman
Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon Bonovitz
Cathleen P. Black and Thomas E. Harvey
Claire Milonas
Barbara Brandt
Allison M. Blinken
Sally Minard and Norton Garfinkle
Mr. and Mrs. Louis Brause
Marc Brodherson and Sarah Ryan
Barbara and Howard Morse
Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Butler
Stacey Bronfman
Stephanie Newhouse
Cora Cahan and Bernard Gersten
Veronica Bulgari and Stephan Haimo
Kathleen O’Grady
Chanda Chapin
Mr. and Mrs. Donald Calder
David Orentreich, MD / Orentreich Family
Shirin and Kasper Christoffersen
Cartier S.A.
Foundation
Alexander Cooper
Alexandre and Lori Chemla
Mario Palumbo
Jessica and David Cosloy
Mr. and Mrs. David Cohen
George Petrides
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Crisses
Emy Cohenca
Joseph Piacentile
Austen and Ernesto Cruz
Preservation League of New York
$2,500 to $4,999
Associates, Inc.
Theatre Planning and Design
Family Foundation
armoryonpark.org
Leon B. Polsky
J. vanden Heuvel
Franklin A. Thomas
$1,000 to $2,499
Boykin Curry
Melissa Meeschaert
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Daniels
Mr. and Mrs. Berk Mesta
Jiggs Davis
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Meyer
Christina R. Davis
Laura Michalchyshyn and
Suzanne Dawson
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas de Neufville
Abby and Howard Milstein
Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Deane
Sandra Earl Mintz
Jeffrey Deitch
Valerie Mnuchin
Diana Diamond and John Alschuler
Whitney and Andrew Mogavero
Jacqueline Didier and Noah Schienfeld
Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Mordacq
Mr. and Mrs. Marty Eisenberg
Sue Morris
Amy Grovas Elliott
Leslie and Curt Myers
Leland and Jane Englebardt
Nicholson & Galloway, Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas N. Farmakis
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Numeroff
Amy Fine Collins and Bradley Collins
Ellen Oelsner
Ann Fitzpatrick Brown
Robert Ouimette and Lee Hirsch
Dr. and Mrs. Walter Flamenbaum
Will Palley
Paul and Jody Fleming
Mr. and Ms. Joseph Patton
Scott Fulmer and Susan
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Petrocelli
Mr. and Mrs. Brian Pfeifler
Mr. and Mrs. Scott Gerber
Mr. and Mrs. Lyon Polk
Kathleen and David Glaymon
Prime Parking Systems
Nina Gorrissen von Maltzahn
Martin and Anna Rabinowitz
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Greenleaf
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Reiss
Mr. and Mrs. George Grunebaum
Diana and Charles Revson
Jessica Guff
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Roberts
Harvey and Kathleen Guion
Mr. and Mrs. David Rogath
Cheryl Haines
Marjorie P. Rosenthal
Robert H. Haines
Jane Royal and John Lantis
Stephanie Hessler
Kathy Ruland
Maria Hidrobo Kaufman and
Pat Schoenfeld
Francesca Schwartz
Gabriel Kaufman
William T. Hillman
Marshall Sebring and Pepper Binkley
Susanna Hong
Kimia Setoodeh
Patrick Janelle
Nadine Shaoul and Mark Schonberger
Jennifer Joel
Gil Shiva
Mr. and Mrs. David Johnson
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Shuman
Christopher and Hilda Jones
Mary Snow
Hattie K. Jutagir
Ted Snowdon
The Kandell Fund / Donald J. Gordon
Jeremy Snyder and Maggie Nemser
Jeanne Kanders
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Spies
Drs. Sylvia and Byram Karasu
Squadron A Foundation
Margot Kenly and Bill Cumming
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Steiner
Hadley C. King
Colleen Stenzler
Major General Edward G. Klein,
Tricia Stevenson
Leila Maw Straus
NYNG (Ret.)
Kate Krauss
Dorothy Strelsin Foundation
Kathryn Kremnitzer
Katherine Kwei
Summit Security Services, Inc.
Polly and Frank Lagemann
Joseph Vance Architects
Nanette L. Laitman
Mr. and Mrs. John Vogelstein
Barbara Landau
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander von Perfall
Judith Langer
Amanda and John Waldron
Kate Lauprete
Caroline Wamsler and DeWayne Phillips
Mark and Taryn Leavitt
Claude Wasserstein
Lexi Lehman
Lauren and Andrew Weisenfeld
Ralph Lemon
Christina Westley
Brenda Levin
Ruth Wilson
Donna and Wayne Lowery
Reva Wurtzburger
Liz MacNeill
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Young
Alexander Maldutis and
Michel Zaleski
Mr. and Mrs. Adam Zurofsky
Reena Russell Nasr
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Mansour
/ Enid Nemy
Anonymous (5)
Christophe W. Mao Match 65 Brasserie
List as of August 31, 2017
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick McClymont
* Deceased
#PAABlankOut @ParkAvenueArmory
Cover Photo: Priska Ketterer/Lucerne Festival
Kittenplan Fulmer
Richard Gilbert