ABOUT THE BOARD OF OFFICERS ROOM “The restoration of the Park Avenue Armory seems destined to set a new standard, not so much for its scale, but for its level of respect and imagination.” – The New York Times The Board of Officers Room is one of the most important historic rooms in America and one of the few remaining interiors by Herter Brothers. After decades of progressive damage and neglect, the room completed a revitalization in 2013 by the architecture team at Herzog & de Meuron and executive architects Platt Byard Dovell White Architects to transform the space into a state-of-the- art salon for intimate performances and other contemporary art programing. The Board of Officers Room is the third period room at the Armory completed (out of 18) and represents the full range of design tools utilized by the team including the removal of accumulated layers on the surfaces, the addition of contemporary lighting to the 1897 chandeliers, new interpretations of the stencil patterns on areas of loss, the addition of metallic finishes on new materials, new programming infrastructure, and custom designed furniture.
The room’s restoration is part of an ongoing $210-million transformation, which is guided by the understanding that the Armory’s rich history and the patina of time are essential to its character. A defining component of the design process for the period rooms is the close collaboration between architect and artisan. Highly skilled craftspeople working in wood, paint, plaster, and metals were employed in the creation of the building’s original interiors and the expertise – and hand – of similar artisans has been drawn upon for the renovation work throughout.
The renovation of the Board of Officers Room was made possible through the generosity of The Thompson Family Foundation. Cover photo by Da Ping Luo.
wednesday, august 9 at 7:30pm friday, august 11 at 8:00pm
LAWRENCE BROWNLEE, tenor MYRA HUANG & JASON MORAN, piano PART I 2017 Recital Series in the Restored Board of Officers Room with MYRA HUANG, piano PART II 2017 Artists Studio in the Newly Restored Veterans Room with JASON MORAN, piano Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory
The Recital Series is supported in part by The Reed Foundation. The Recital Series is also 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. The Artists Studio is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.. 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.
SEASON SPONSORS
SERIES SPONSORS
PROGRAM PART I Board of Officers Room TORELLI
Tu lo sai
LEGRENZI
Che fiero costume
SCARLATTI
O cessate di piagarmi Giá il sole dal Gange
DONIZETTI
L’amor funesto Il sosprio Me voglio fa ’na casa
BELLINI
Per pieta, bell’idol mio Malinconia, ninfa gentile Ma rendi pur contento La ricordanza
ROSSINI
L'esule La lontananza La danza
Intermission – please proceed to the Veterans Room PART II Veterans Room Program to include spirituals, jazz, standards, and rearrangements of lieder to be announced from the stage This performance is approximately one hour and fifty minutes in length, performed with intermission.
2
armoryonpark.org
ABOUT THE PROGRAM For my Armory recital program, I’ve chosen selections from two very different sides of my musical life. As a bel canto opera singer, much of my repertoire is Italian, and so I’ve always had a great love for the composers Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti. These are songs that I love to sing, and that I feel incorporate many of the best elements of their operatic works. The second half speaks to my heritage as an African-American, growing up with the traditions of musicians like Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Junior, Johnny Mathis, Duke Ellington, and other greats who have contributed so much to music. Jason Moran, with whom I first worked on a video of a spiritual arrangement we filmed in a Harlem Crypt around the Black Lives Matter movement, continues to be an extraordinary partner who challenges and expands my musical world. — Lawrence Brownlee PART I: ITALIAN SONGS Every first-year voice student has to buy a volume of old Italian arias, in order to learn proper breath control, articulation, Italian pronunciation, and many other things that are essential for a good vocal technique. It is therefore all too easy to think of pieces like Tu lo sai or Già il sole dal Gange as being of purely pedagogical interest; it is not until we hear them performed by a consummate artist that we recognize them for the perfect musical gems that they are. Masters such as Giuseppe Torelli of Bologna, Giovanni Legrenzi of Venice, or Alessandro Scarlatti of Naples, had a profound understanding of the human voice, even if Torelli is known mainly for his instrumental music. In fact, one of the most important novelties during the Baroque era was the emergence of a new vocal style that eventually became known as bel canto (“beautiful singing”). A bel canto melody is typically characterized by long legato phrases (their notes connected with no separation between them), a seamless balance between high and low registers, and a smooth and even articulation avoiding any jarring interruptions or rough edges in the vocal line. This new style was cultivated by a new type of singer, whose activities centered mostly on the opera house, yet these singers inspired the composition of many chamber cantatas and stand-alone arias as well. In the course of the 18th century and the early 19th century, bel canto continued to evolve, and culminated in the works of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini, who brought about a golden age in the history of Italian opera. All three also composed numerous solo songs for chamber performances, and Mr. Brownlee selected some of the most beautiful ones for your enjoyment. Whether Baroque or early Romantic, the majority of the songs we are going to hear are about love—that is, more often than not, unrequited love, where a cruel beauty turns a deaf ear to the expression of a young man’s ardent feelings. This inexhaustible
topic can be traced back all the way to medieval troubadour poetry, but it was given new life by the madrigalists of the 16th century and later by the king of opera librettists, Pietro Metastasio, who is represented on our program by two Bellini pieces (Ma rendi pur and Per pietà). In returning so many times to variations on the same basic situation, poets and composers placed the emphasis not so much on the “what” as on the “how.” What matters is the number of ways the poet can tell and retell a story with new metaphors, new and startling rhymes, and word choices; and the number of ways the composer can respond to those poetic “conceits” with beautiful, ingratiating melodies, expressive harmonies, and, as mentioned before, a sensitive and expert handling of the human voice. Of course, not all songs are laments of unhappy lovers. Tonight’s recital includes some exquisite descriptions of nature (Già il sole dal Gange), a paean to patriotism (L’esule), an irresistible picture of a giddy dance party (La danza), a cheerful song in Neapolitan dialect (Me voglio fa ‘na casa), and a blissful aria in the form of a sonnet about a happy love that has been fully consummated (La ricordanza). In the last-mentioned piece, as the narrator recalls an amorous encounter with great tenderness, the vocal line and the harmonies closely mirror the shifting emotions from fervent plea to the girl’s comforting words, all the way to the “dear dying.” The aim [of bel canto] is to evoke a sense of wonder through unusual quality of timbre, variety of color and delicacy, virtuosic complexity of vocal display, and ecstatic lyrical abandon. To achieve this, bel canto...dispenses with realism and dramatic truth, which it regards as banal and vulgar, replacing them with a fairy-tale view of human feelings and of nature. Thus a decisive function is performed by: so-called hedonism, which actually is the expression of the smoothness, pathos, and tenderness of vocal sound;... symbolic, flowery language which underlines the mythical status oft he characters;...the taste for rare, stylized voices and, in contrast, a sort of antipathy towards voices regarded as commonplace and vulgar. — Rodolfo Celletti: A History of Bel Canto. Translated by Frederick Fuller Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001, p. 9. Music is a sublime art precisely because, not possessing ways and means of imitating the truth, it rises above and beyond everyday life into an ideal world...Bear in mind that expression in music is not the same as in painting, and that it consists, not in representing... the external manifestation of inner emotions, but in arousing these in the listener. — Gioachino Rossini, quoted in Antonio Zanolini, Biografia di Gioachino Rossini. Bologna, 1875. Translated in Celletti, p. 136. — Peter Laki
armoryonpark.org
3
ABOUT THE ARTISTS American-born Lawrence Brownlee captivates audiences and critics around the world. In 2017, he received the Male Singer of the Year award from both the International Opera Awards and Bachtrack. His recording of Virtuoso Rossini Arias was nominated for a Grammy Award. Mr. Brownlee has appeared on the stages of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Chicago Lyric Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, Opera National de Paris, Opernhaus Zürich, San Francisco Opera, the Berlin State Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie, Houston Grand Opera, and the festivals of Salzburg and Baden Baden. Broadcasts of his operas and concerts—including his 2014 Bastille Day performance in Paris, attended by the French President and Prime Minister— have been enjoyed by millions.
Brownlee is the fourth of six children and first discovered music when he learned to play bass, drums, and piano at his family’s church in Youngstown, Ohio. He was awarded a Masters of Music from Indiana University and went onto win a Grand Prize in the 2001 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. Alongside his singing career, Brownlee is an avid salsa dancer and an accomplished photographer, specializing in artist portraits of his on-stage colleagues. A diehard Pittsburgh Steelers and Ohio State football fan, Brownlee has sung the National Anthem at numerous NFL games. He is a champion for autism awareness through the organization Autism Speaks, and he is a lifetime member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity Inc., a historically black fraternity committed to social action and empowerment.
He has performed with leading orchestras around the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Academia di Santa Cecila, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra. In addition to his full opera and concert calendar, Brownlee is currently working on a newly-commissioned song cycle about the experience of being a black man in America at the present time. Co-commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Carnegie Hall, the work composed by Tyshawn Sorey with a libretto by Terrance Hayes, will be premiered in 2018 at Opera Philadelphia and will tour the U.S., with a performance in Carnegie Hall, and will also be recorded for commercial release. His critically acclaimed discography and videography is a testament to his broad impact on classical music scene. His opera and concert recordings include Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, Armida at the Metropolitan Opera, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with Academia di Santa Cecilia, and Carmina Burana with the Berlin Philharmonic. He also released a disc of African-American spirituals entitled Spiritual Sketches with pianist Damien Sneed, which the pair performed at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. His newest album, Allegro Io Son, received a Critic’s Choice from Opera News, among numerous other accolades.
4
armoryonpark.org
Pianist Myra Huang regularly performs in recitals and chamber music concerts around the world. She has been a guest artist at notable venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum, the Seoul National Arts Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society Concerts, the University of Chicago Presents Series, the Spivey Hall Concert Series, the Celebrity Series of Boston, the Gilmore Festival, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the Eastman School of Music. In 2014 she made her debut with bass-baritone Eric Owens and soprano Susanna Phillips at Orchestra Hall in Chicago presented by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Series. Ms. Huang has served on the music staffs of the Washington National Opera and New York City Opera (2004-2006). Among the conductors she has worked with are Placido Domingo, Riccardo Frizza, Richard Hickox, Philippe Jordan, Christopher Hogwood, Daniel Oren, Robert Spano, Patrick Summers, and Marco Armiliato. From 2006 until 2008, she was a member of the music staff at the Palau De Les Arts in Valencia, Spain, where she worked closely with the company's artistic director Lorin Maazel and director Zubin Mehta on repertoire such as the entirety of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. She is a staff pianist for the Operalia competition, directed by Placido Domingo, performing in opera houses around the world including the Royal Opera House in London, Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, the Opera House of the National Grand Theater in Beijing, and Teatro Real in Madrid. Ms. Huang served as the full-time Head of Music Staff at New York City Opera from 2011-2013. She was recently presented by the Mariinksy Theater as part of their festival tour in Mexico City and Frutillar, Chile, in recitals of art song with bass Dmitry Grigoriev. She frequently coaches as a guest artist at programs like the Houston Grand Young Artists Studio, the Butler Opera Center at University of Texas in Austin, and the YoungArts Foundation, providing guidance and support to young artists across the country. She recently joined the music staff of the Music Academy of the West, where she coaches rising young opera singers and collaborative pianists who are at the beginnings of their careers. Ms. Huang is a prolific recording artist, with numerous publications, naming her album Winter Words with tenor Nicholas Phan among the best classical recordings of 2011. Their second album, Still Falls the Rain, achieved the same status in 2012. Her album Paysages with soprano Susanna Phillips won the Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist of the Year award in 2011. Her album Gods and Monsters with tenor Nicholas Phan was released in early 2017, and they made their Wigmore Hall debut performing that repertoire shortly thereafter.
Jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran has a rich and varied body of work that is actively shaping the current and future landscape of jazz. Having released 10 of his own albums in addition to over 30 recordings with others, Moran has garnered international acclaim including a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Album in 2014. He has recorded with Cassandra Wilson, Charles Lloyd, Bill Frisell, Sam Rivers, Meshell Ndegeocello, and many others. Moran scored Ava DuVernay’s Oscar-nom¬inated film Selma as well as her film The 13th, and his cross-disciplinary collaborators in¬clude the artists Adrian Piper, Joan Jonas, Glenn Ligon, Stan Douglas, Adam Pendleton, Lorna Simpson, Theaster Gates, and Kara Walker. Commissioning institutions of Moran’s work in¬clude the Walker Arts Center, Chicago Symphony Center, Phil¬adelphia Museum of Art, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Monterey Jazz Festival, among many others. Since 2000, Mr. Moran and his trio The Bandwagon (Tarus Mateen and Nasheet Waits) have dazzled audiences at elite venues worldwide. He also has a longstanding collaborative practice with his wife, the singer and Broadway actress Alicia Hall Moran; as named artists in the 2012 Whitney Biennial, they together constructed BLEED, a five-day series of 30 performances featuring 95 participants. BLEED explored the power of performance to cross barriers and challenge assumptions, and it was widely hailed as groundbreaking in the music and performance realm. Their collaboration Work Songs was commissioned by the 72nd Venice Art Biennial along with his first mixed-media installations STAGED: Savoy Ballroom and Three Deuces. He continues to collaborate with choreographers Alonzo King and Ronald K. Brown, as well as poets Elizabeth Alexander and Yusef Ko¬munyakaa. Moran currently teaches at the New England Con¬servatory in Boston. Mr. Moran was born in Houston, TX in 1975, and earned a degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Jaki Byard. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2010 and is the Artistic Director for Jazz at The Kennedy Center. Recently, he has created his own recording label, Yes Records, and launched a new magazine, LOOP, dedicated to different aspects of jazz culture. Moran holds the Elliott Carter Memorial Residency at the American Academy in Rome for the summer of 2017. In the spring of 2018, Moran will have his first solo museum exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He also serves as the curator of the Artists Studio series in the newly restored Veterans Room at the Armory, inaugurating the reopening of the room with a solo performance and subsequent live recording, titled The Armory Concert, in March 2016.
armoryonpark.org
5
TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS TORELLI Tu lo sai Text by Anonymous
Translated by Peter Laki
Tu lo sai quanto t'amai, Tu lo sai, lo sai crudel! Io non bramo altra mercè, Ma ricordati di me, E poi sprezza un infedel.
You know how much I loved you, You know it, you cruel one! I do not wish for any other thanks, Only that you remember me, And then disdain an unfaithful one.
LEGRENZI Che fiero costume Text by Anonymous
Translated by Peter Laki
Che fiero costume D'aligero nume, Che a forza di pene si faccia adorar! E pur nell' ardore Il dio traditore Un vago sembiante mi fe' idolatrar.
What harsh power Has this winged god, Who makes us adore him by making us suffer! And yet, in my ardor The traitorous god Made me idolize a lovely face.
Che crudo destino Che un cieco bambino Con bocca di latte si faccia stimar! Ma questo tiranno Con barbaro inganno, Entrando per gli occhi, mi fe' sospirar!
What a cruel destiny, That we must bow before a blind child Who is still drinking his mother’s milk! But this tyrant With his savage deceptions, Has entered through my eyes, making me sigh!
SCARLATTI O cessate di piagarmi Text by Niccolò Minato
Translated by Peter Laki
O cessate di piagarmi, o lasciatemi morir! Luci ingrate, dispietate, Più del gelo e più de' marmi fredde e sorde a' miei martir.
Oh, stop wounding me, Oh, let me die! You, eyes ungrateful and vicious, More so than the frost, more so than marble, Cold and deaf to my suffering.
Più d'un angue, più d'un aspe crudi e sordi a' miei sospir, occhi alteri, ciechi e fieri, voi potete risanarmi, e godete al mio languir.
More than a snake, more than an asp, You are cruel and deaf to my sighs, Eyes proud, blind, fierce, You could cure me, And yet you rejoice at seeing me languish.
6
armoryonpark.org
Già il sole dal Gange Text by Anonymous
Translated by Peter Laki
Già il sole dal Gange Più chiaro sfavilla, E terge ogni stilla Dell'alba che piange.
Already, the sun sparkles more brightly over the Ganges, And dries every drop of the weeping dawn.
Col raggio dorato Ingemma ogni stelo, E gli astri del cielo Dipinge nel prato.
With the gilded ray It adorns each blade of grass; And it paints the stars of the sky in the field.
DONIZETTI L’amor funesto Text by Uncertain
Sad Love Translated by Luk Laerenbergh*
Più che non ama un angelo, T'amai nel mio deliro, Mi fusi nel tuo spirito, Vissi nel tuo respiro,
More than an angel loves, I loved you in my delirium, I melted myself into your spirit, I lived in your breath.
Ma un core senza palpiti, Un giuro senza fè, Un riso senza lagrime, Donna, tu desti a me.
But a heart that does not beat, A vow without faith, A laugh without tears, Woman, you gave to me.
Addio, lontano è il tumulo Che accoglierà quest'ossa, Né resterà pei gemiti La traccia della fossa;
Farewell, far away is the grave That will harbor these bones, And there will remain for sorrows Not one trace of the grave;
L'angiol tu fosti e il demone De' miei consunti dì, T'amo, dicesti a un misero, Ed egli ne morì.
You were the angel and the demon Of my past days, I love you, you said to a miserable man, and he died of it.
Il sospiro Text by Carlo Guaita
The Sigh Translated by John Glenn Paton*
Donna infelice, stanca d'amore, l'eterno sonno chiedi all'avel? Deh! non rammenti, che qui v'è un core che, te perduta, perduto ha il ciel?
Unhappy woman, weary of love, are you asking for eternal slumber in the tomb? Don't you know that a heart is there which, having lost you, has lost heaven?
L'Eden ridente quaggiù la speme rinnovellata ci può donar. Se implori morte, moriamo insieme, angiol mio caro, non mi lasciar.
Renewed hope can give us smiling Eden down here; if you implore death, let us die together, my dear angel, do not leave me.
Ma se ricusi ch'or teco stretto nel riso eterno debba salir, onde la vita mi resti in petto, dammi l'estremo caldo sospir.
But if you refuse that I should rise Into eternal happiness close to you, while there is still life in my bosom, give me a warm sigh for the last time.
*From www.lieder.net, reprinted by kind permission. Please turn page quietly.
7
Me voglio fa ‘na casa Text by Anonymous
Translated by Luk Laerenbergh*
Me voglio fa 'na casa miez' 'o mare Fravecata de penne de pavune, Tralla la le la...
I'd like to build a house in the middle of the sea Plastered with peacock feathers, Tralla la le la...
D'oro e d'argiento li scaline fare E de prete preziuse li barcune, Tralla la le la...
With stairs of gold and silver And balconies of precious stones, Tralla la le la...
Quanno Nennella mia se va a facciare Ognuno dice "mò sponta lu sole", Tralla la le la...
When my Nennella shows herself Everyone says "look, the sun is rising", Tralla la le la...
BELLINI Per pietà, bell’idol mio Text by Metastasio
Translated by Camilla Bugge*
Per pietà, bell’idol mio, non mi dir ch’io sono ingrato; infelice e sventurato abbastanza il Ciel mi fa.
For pity’s sake, my beautiful idol do not tell me that I am ungrateful; unhappy and unfortunate enough has heaven made me.
Se fedele a te son io, se mi struggo ai tuoi bei lumi, sallo amor, lo sanno i Numi il mio core, il tuo lo sa.
That I am faithful to you, that I languish under your bright gaze, Love knows, the gods know, my heart knows, and so does yours.
Malinconia, ninfa gentile Text by Ippolito Pindemonte
Translated by Antonio Giuliano*
Per pietà, bell’idol mio, non mi dir ch’io sono ingrato; infelice e sventurato abbastanza il Ciel mi fa.
For pity’s sake, my beautiful idol do not tell me that I am ungrateful; unhappy and unfortunate enough has heaven made me.
Se fedele a te son io, se mi struggo ai tuoi bei lumi, sallo amor, lo sanno i Numi il mio core, il tuo lo sa.
That I am faithful to you, that I languish under your bright gaze, Love knows, the gods know, my heart knows, and so does yours.
Ma rendi pur contento Text by Pietro Metastasio
Translated by Barbara Miller*
Ma rendi pur contento della mia bella il core, e ti perdono, amore, se lieto il mio non è.
Only make happy The heart of my beautiful lady, And I will forgive you, love, If my own heart is not glad.
Gli affanni suoi pavento più degli affanni miei, perché più vivo in lei di quel ch’io vivo in me.
Her troubles I fear More than my own troubles, Because I live more in her Than I live in myself.
*From www.lieder.net, reprinted by kind permission. 8
armoryonpark.org
La ricordanza Text by Carlo Pepoli
Translated by Antonio Giuliano*
Era la notte, e presso di Colei Che sola al cor mi giunse e vi sta sola, Con quel pianger che rompe la parola, Io pregava mercede a martir miei.
It was night, and beside Her Who alone reached my heart and there remains alone, With those tears that impede words I pleaded for pity on my anguish.
Quand' Ella, chinando gli occhi bei, Disse (e il membrarlo sol me, da me invola): Ponmi al cor la tua destra, e ti consola: Ch'io amo e te sol' amo intender dei,
When She, lowering her lovely eyes, Said (the mere memory of it makes my head whirl): "Place your right hand on my heart, and be consoled: You should know that I love you and you alone,"
Poi fatta, per amor, tremante e bianca, In atto soavissimo mi pose La bella faccia sulla spalla manca.
This said from love, pale and trembling, In the sweetest of acts she leaned Her lovely face on my left shoulder.
Se dopo il dolce assai più duol l'amaro, Se per me nullo istante a quel rispose, Ah! quant' era in quell' ora il morir caro!
Even if, after this bliss, grief was far more bitter, If, for me, no moment could ever match this one, Ah! how dear was dying in that hour!
ROSSINI L’esule Text by Giuseppe Torre
The Exile Translated by Dennis Gotkowski*
Qui sempre ride il cielo, qui verde ognor la fronda, qui del ruscello l'onda dolce mi scorre al piè; ma questo suol non è la Patria mia.
Here the sky is always laughing, here the bough is ever green, here the brook's wave sweetly flows over my feet; but this soil is not my homeland.
Qui nell'azzurro flutto sempre si specchia il sole; i gigli e le viole crescono intorno a me; ma questo suol non è la Patria mia.
Here the sun is always reflected in the blue wave, the lilies and the violets grow around me; but this soil is not my homeland.
Le vergini son vaghe come le fresche rose che al loro crin compose amor pegno di fè; ma questo suol non è la Patria mia.
The virgins are pretty, like the fresh roses from which they make for their hair tokens of their faithful love; but this soil is not my homeland.
Nell'Itale contrade è una città Regina; la Ligure marina sempre le bagna il piè. La ravvisate, ell'è la Patria mia.
In the Italian countryside there is a queen among cities; the Ligurian coast always bathes your feet. You recognize it, it is my homeland.
*From www.lieder.net, reprinted by kind permission. Please turn page quietly.
9
La lontananza Text by Giuseppe Torre
Absence Translated by Dennis Gotkowski*
Quando dal tuo verone, fra l'ombre della sera, la flebile canzone sciorrà la capinera ed una pura stella nel suo gentil passaggio la fronte tua sì bella rischiarerà d'un raggio, quando il ruscel d'argento gemere udrai vicino e sospirar il vento e sussurare il pino, deh! ti rammenta, o sposa, che quello è il mio saluto. Donami allor pietosa di lacrime un tributo e pensa, o Elvira mia, che il povero cantor per mezzo lor t'invia sempre più fido il cor.
When from your balcony, in the shadows of the evening, you hear a faint song let out by the warbler, and a pure star, in his gentle passage, your brow, so beautiful, lights up with his ray, when the silver brook you hear groaning nearby, and the sighing of the wind, and the whispering of the pine, oh! you are reminded, O bride, that that is my greeting. Give me then, compassionately, a tribute of tears, and think, O my Elvira, that this poor singer by means of them sends you, ever more faithful, his heart.
*From www.lieder.net, reprinted by kind permission. 10
armoryonpark.org
La danza Text by Carlo Pepoli
The Dance Translated by Johann Gaitzsch*
Già la luna è in mezzo al mare, mamma mia si salterà, l'ora è bella per danzare chi è in amor non mancherà.
Already the moon dips into the sea, My goodness, she'll jump right in; The hour is pleasant for dancing, and no one in love would want to miss.
Presto in danza a tondo a tondo, donne mie venite quà, un garzon bello e giocondo a ciascuna toccherà. Finchè in ciel brilla una stella e la luna splenderà, Il più bel con la più bella tutta notte danzerà.
Swiftly dancing round and round, My dear ladies, come to me, Each will find a handsome smiling fellow Who will dance with her. While the evening star shines in the sky And the moon glows brightly, The most handsome with the fairest Will dance the night away.
(Mamma mia, mamma mia, già la luna è in mezzo al mare, mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia si salterà. Frinche frinche frinche frinche mamma mia, si salterà, La la ra la ra...) Salta, salta, gira, gira, ogni coppia a cerchio va, già s'avvanza si ritira e all' assalto tornerà.
Jump, jump, turn and turn, Every couple circling round, Back and forth and over again And return where you began.
Serra, serra colla bionda Colla bruna va quà e là, colla rossa va a seconda colla smorta fermo sta! Viva il ballo a tondo a tondo sono un Rè, sono un Bascià, è il più bel piacer del mondo la più cara voluttà.
Hold on tightly to the blonde, Take the brunette here and there, take the redhead for a turn, the wallflower you better don't touch. Hooray for dancing round and round, I'm a king, a pasha too, This is the greatest pleasure on earth, And the dearest passion? !
(Mamma mia, mamma mia, già la luna è in mezzo al mare, mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia si salterà. Frinche frinche frinche frinche mamma mia, si salterà, La la ra la ra...)
Mamma mia, my goodness...
*From www.lieder.net, reprinted by kind permission. armoryonpark.org
11
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 Wade Thompson 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-square-foot 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 $210-million renovation designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Platt Byard Dovell White Architects as Executive Architects.
PARK AVENUE ARMORY STAFF 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 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 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 Jason Lujan, Operations Manager Lori Nelson, Executive Assistant to the President Timothy Nim, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer Drew Petersen, Education Special Projects Manager
12
Maxine Petry, Director of Major Gifts 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 Jennifer Smith Culbertson, Associate Director of Corporate Relations 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 Olga Cruz, Mario Esquilin, Carlos Goris, Victor Lora, Josthen Noboa, Candice Rushin, Antonio Sanders, Porters Jonatan Amaya, House Manager Kara Kaufman, Erik Olson, Box Office Managers Summer 2017 Youth Corps Fatima Bah, Mosammat Jannat Begum, Eliana Boyd, Alyssa Carde, Chanse Catlyn, Koralys De La Cruz, Zeinebou Dia, Saran Diawara, Luis González, Chamonte Greenfield, Rabia Khan Laraib, Oyon Lotif, Alexa Maldonado, Cindy Mendoza, Christian Montan, Anai Ortiz
armoryonpark.org
NEXT IN THE RECITAL SERIES SABINE DEVIEIHLE, soprano ANNA LE BOZEC, piano
BARBARA HANNIGAN, soprano REINBERT DE LEEUW, piano
“irresistibly good…expressive and incisive, Devieilhe is in command of everything…” —The Guardian (UK)
“Barbara Hannigan sings the songs of Erik Satie as if she’s sitting next to you, whispering and cooing across the kitchen table with sufficient breathiness, soft edges and exquisite spaciousness to match Reinbert de Leeuw’s sweetmelancholy piano chords.” —The Guardian (UK)
october 1–3
november 16–18
Coloratura soprano Sabine Devieilhe is quickly making a name for herself as one of the most exciting young voices around, making lauded debuts at opera houses throughout Europe including Dutch National Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Aix-en-Provence Festival, and the Glyndebourne Festival. She makes her North American recital debut with a program of French art songs that perfectly showcases the sheer beauty of her vocal virtuosity in one of the most elegant and intimate spaces—the Board of Officers Room.
PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA, violin JAY CAMPBELL, cello october 9–10
“…there is astonishing artistry to complement her creativity. She plays most of the time barefoot onstage. Her body and her instrument and the music she makes all seem one. She is ever thrilling alive to the moment.” — Los Angeles Times Born into a Moldavian family of musicians, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja is a bundle of energy known as much for the passion and virtuosity of her playing as for the fact that she often performs barefoot. The natural phenomenon comes to the Board of Officers Room with cellist Jay Campbell to perform 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.
Barbara Hannigan has made a name for herself as a muse and collaborator with a number of legendary composers, creating roles on leading opera stages around the world by adding a kind of virtuosity that contemporary music has rarely seen before. The soprano comes to the Board of Officers Room to make her U.S. recital debut with programs that showcase her versatility and superb musicianship. She opens her residency with an artfully curated look at the Second Viennese School, where new musical language was developed through the extraordinary collaboration between composers, painters, writers, and other artists in the city’s salons and cafes at the turn of the century. She then looks to Paris to explore the work of Erik Satie, from art songs written in his early career to his magnum opus Socrate, in a unique program performed with renowned Satie interpreter Reinbert de Leeuw. Second Viennese School (November 16): Program to include works by Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Zemlinsky, Alma Mahler, Wolf All-Erik Satie (November 18): Program to include art songs, solo piano works, and Socrate
armoryonpark.org
13
NEXT IN THE ARTISTS STUDIO RASHAAD NEWSOME
JO LAWRY & KAVITA SHAW
“[Newsome’s] work is irreverent and brazen. It is deeply referential. It is decisive. It is disruptive. It is king.” — Forbes
“[Lawry is] an Australian jazz singer with a spring-like tone, a nimble technique and a grasp of shading and pacing…” — The New York Times
november 7
november 21
Rashaad Newsome is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is deeply invested in how images used in media and popular culture communicate distorted notions of power and status. Whether it be in his series of compositions created by “throwing shade” or his various works documenting the dance form known as vogue, his interests lie in critiquing the popular appropriation of the dance, music, and vernacular expression developed in Harlem’s queer ballroom scene of the 1970s. He brings these cultural sensibilities to the Veterans Room for a site specific work that that brings together video installation, collage, sculpture, and live performance to create a truly interdisciplinary experience in his ongoing exploration of questions around pedigree, gender, and race.
14
“Shah’s music reflects the insatiably curious mind of an ethnographer, the soul of a poet, and the eye of a painter.” — WNPR Born into a Moldavian family of musicians, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja is a bundle of energy known as much for the passion and virtuosity of her playing as for the fact that she often performs barefoot. The natural phenomenon comes to the Board of Officers Room with cellist Jay Campbell to perform 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.
armoryonpark.org
NEXT AT THE ARMORY BLANK OUT
A ROOM IN INDIA (UNE CHAMBER EN INDE)
“A wonderfully fluent and effective piece of music theatre” —The Guardian (UK)
“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
december 5–20
september 21–27 Based on the life and work of South African poet Ingrid Jonker, this groundbreaking work by innovative composer and creator Michel van der Aa combines live action, innovative techniques of interactive film, and inventive music to consider the ways in which we reconstruct and deal with traumatic life events. Soprano Miah Persson sings live, combined with replayed loops of herself and the voice of baritone Roderick Williams in 3D film to create haunting musical passages and ensembles, and in the process, an entirely new form of opera.
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
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.
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 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.
armoryonpark.org
15
OTHER HAPPENINGS AT THE ARMORY INTERROGATIONS OF FORM: CONVERSATION SERIES
HISTORIC INTERIORS TOURS
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.
16
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.
ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
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-inresidence 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; and Shen Wei Dance Arts; among others.
armoryonpark.org
PARK AVENUE ARMORY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Co-Chairman Elihu Rose, PhD. Co-Chairman Adam R. Flatto President 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 Founding Chairman, 2000-2009 Wade F.B. Thompson
PARK AVENUE ARMORY ARTISTIC COUNCIL Co-Chairs Noreen Buckfire Michael Field Caryn Schacht and David Fox Heidi and Tom McWilliams
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 and Mikel Halvorson Anita K. Hersh Wendy Keys Ken Kuchin and Tyler Morgan Almudena and Pablo Legorreta Chad A. Leat Aaron Lieber and Bruce Horten
armoryonpark.org
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
17 17
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 Adams Altman Foundation Linda and Earle S. Altman Bloomberg Philanthropies Emma Bloomberg Booth Ferris Foundation Sonja and Martin J. Brand The W. L. Lyons Brown Jr. Charitable Foundation Hélène and Stuyvesant Comfort Emme and Jonathan Deland Marjorie and Gurnee Hart Kirkland & Ellis LLP Mary T. Kush Mr. and Mrs. Peter L. Malkin and The Malkin Fund, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Lester S. Morse, Jr. New York State Assembly 18 18
David P. Nolan Foundation Gwen and Peter Norton Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Janet C. Ross Caryn Schacht and David Fox Amy and Jeffrey Silverman Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust Joan and Michael Steinberg M K Reichert Sternlicht Foundation Mr. William C. Tomson Deborah C. van Eck $25,000 to $99,999 Benigno Aguilar and Gerald Erickson The Avenue Association Harrison and Leslie Bains Carolyn S. Brody Janna Bullock The Cowles Charitable Trust Mary Cronson / Evelyn Sharp Foundation Caroline and Paul Cronson Ellie and Edgar Cullman Drake / Anderson Stuart J. Ellman and Susan H.B. Ellman The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation Andrew L. Farkas, Island Capital Group & C-III Capital Partners Mr. and Mrs. Martin Geller Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation Howard Gilman Foundation Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Allen and Deborah Grubman Agnes Gund Anita K. Hersh Josefin and Paul Hilal Daniel Clay Houghton Rachel and Mike Jacobellis Anna Maria & Stephen Kellen Foundation, Inc. and Marina Kellen French Donald Pels Charitable Trust La Perla Chad A. Leat Aaron Lieber and Bruce Horten Christina and Alan MacDonald Christine & Richard Mack Marc Haas Foundation National Endowment for the Arts New York State Council on the Arts Stavros Niarchos Foundation Slobodan Randjelović and Jon Stryker The Reed Foundation Rhodebeck Charitable Trust Genie and Donald Rice Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief Susan Rudin The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation Stacy Schiff and Marc de la Bruyere Nicholas and Shelley Schorsch The Shubert Foundation Sydney and Stanley S. Shuman armoryonpark.org
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP Peter and Jaar-mel Sloane / Heckscher Foundation Sanford L. Smith Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia Sharzad and Michael Targoff Amanda J.T. and Richard E. Riegel TEFAF NY Thor Industries, Inc. Tishman Construction, an AECOM Company Barbara and Donald Tober Robert Vila and Diana Barrett Anonymous (3) $10,000 to $24,999 ADCO Electrical Corporation Gina Addeo AR Global Investments, LLC Abigail Baratta Ginette Becker and Joshua A. Becker* Noreen and Ken Buckfire Marco Cafuzzi Eileen Campbell and Struan Robertson Elizabeth Coleman Con Edison Mrs. Daniel Cowin Gina and James de Givenchy Jennie L. and Richard K. DeScherer Krystyna Doerfler Jeanne Donovan Fisher William F. Draper Peggy and Millard Drexler Andra and John Ehrenkranz EverGreene Architectural Arts Florence Fearrington Ella M. Foshay and Michael B. Rothfeld Kiendl and John Gordon Jeff and Kim Greenberg Mr. and Mrs. Mikel Halvorson Molly Butler Hart and Michael D. Griffin Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin William and Elizabeth Kahane Kaplen Brothers Fund Erin and Alex Klatskin Suzie and Bruce Kovner Jill and Peter Kraus The Leonard and Judy Lauder Fund Leon Levy Foundation Richard H. Levy & Lorraine Gallard Kamie and Richard Lightburn Lili Lynton and Michael Ryan Andrea Markezin and Joel Press Diane and Adam E. Max Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Patty Newburger and Bradley Wechsler Elizabeth and Frank Newman Northern Bay Contractors, Inc. Nancy and Morris W. Offit Joan and Joel I. Picket PBDW Architects LLP
Susan Porter Katharine and William Rayner Roberto Cavalli Mary Jane Robertson and James A. Clark Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Rosen May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. William Sandholm Oscar S. Schafer Dr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Sculco Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation Lea Simonds Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon Sotheby's Patricia Brown Specter Dr. and Mrs. Eugene E. Stark, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Stevenson Michael and Veronica Stubbs Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund Tishman Speyer Properties, LP Jane and Robert Toll Christopher Tsai and André Stockamp Mary Wallach Mike Weil and Shirley Madhere-Weil William Morris Endeavor Entertainment Foundation $5,000 to $9,999 ABS Partners Real Estate, LLC Jody and John Arnhold Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation 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 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. Kaplan 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 Inger McCabe Elliott Dr. Nancy Eppler-Wolff and Mr. John Wolff Alicia Ernst and John Katzman The Felicia Fund Fisher Marantz Stone, Inc. Amandine and Steve Freidheim Bart Friedman and Wendy A. Stein 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 Mindy and Jon Gray 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 Mr. and Mrs. Fernand Lamesch Lazard Sahra T. Lese Gail and Alan Levenstein Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Levine James C. Marlas and Marie Nugent-Head Marlas Véronique Mazard and Andrew Vogel Joyce F. Menschel Adriana and Robert Mnuchin Christine Moog and Benoit Helluy Mr. and Mrs. Robert Morse Mr. and Mrs. Saleem Muqaddam Mary Kathryn Navab Mr. and Mrs. Michael Newhouse Peter and Beverly Orthwein Liz and Jeff Peek Ron Perelman and Anna Chapman Anne and Skip Pratt Preserve New York, a grant program of Preservation League of New York Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pruzan David J. Remnick and Esther B. Fein Michael D. Rhea Jonathan F.P. and Diana Rose Liz Rosen and Michael Rozen Ida and William Rosenthal Foundation Chuck and Stacy Rosenzweig Deborah and Chuck Royce Valerie Rubsamen and Cedomir Crnkovic H.O. Ruding and Renee Ruding-Hekking Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Ruesch Jeanne Ruesch Bonnie J. Sacerdote Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Sagansky Susan and Charles Sawyers Claude Shaw and Lara Meiland-Shaw Stephanie and Fred Shuman Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Soros Daisy M. Soros Mr. and Mrs. Tom Strauss Elizabeth Stribling and Guy Robinson The Jay and Kelly Sugarman Foundation Bill and Ellen Taubman Michael Tuch Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Ulrich Liliana Vaamonde and Richard Pretsfelder Anastasia Vournas and J. William Uhrig Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Weingarten Valda Witt and Jay Hatfield Mr. and Mrs. David Wolf Cynthia Young and George Eberstadt Richard and Franny Heller Zorn Anonymous (3)
armoryonpark.org
$2,500 to $4,999 Ark Restaurants Corp. Patrick Baldoni, Femenella & Associates, Inc. Mr. and Ms. Jonathan Berger Judy and Howard Berkowitz Mr. and Mrs. Robert Birnbaum Cathleen P. Black and Thomas E. Harvey Allison M. Blinken Amy Brown Veronica Bulgari and Stephan Haimo Mr. and Mrs. Donald Calder Cartier S.A. Alexandre and Lori Chemla Mr. and Mrs. David Cohen Emy Cohenca Mr. and Mrs. Tony Coles Connelly & McLaughlin Creative Artists Agency The Cultivist Sasha Cutter and Aaron Hsu Joshua Dachs / Fisher Dachs Associates Theatre Planning and Design Virginia Davies and Willard Taylor Richard and Barbara Debs Luis y Cora Delgado Francesca and Michael Donner Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Duda Cheryl and Blair Effron Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Alice and David Elgart Mr. and Mrs. Jared Feldman Laura Jane Finn Edmée and Nicholas Firth Megan Flanigan Claudia Fleming & George Bitar Teri Friedman and Babak Yaghmaie Sylvia Golden Marjorie and Ellery Gordon Elizabeth and David Granville-Smith Great Performances Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Greene Marieline Grinda and Ahmad Deek Susan Gutfreund John Hargraves Roger and Susan Hertog Augusta Hoffman and Jonathan Swygert Mr. and Mrs. Morton Janklow Paul Kanavos and Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos Nancy Kestenbaum and David Klafter Diana King / The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation Knickerbocker Greys Phyllis L. Kossoff Justin Kush Lagunitas Brewing Co. The Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder Foundation Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lehrman Phyllis Levin Lisson Gallery Heather Lubov Luhring Augustine Gallery Judith and Michael Margulies Angela Mariani Nina B. Matis Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Mayberry, Jr. 19 19
Constance and H. Roemer McPhee Mr. and Mrs. William Michaelcheck Sergio and Malu Millerman Claire Milonas Sandra Earl Mintz Barbara and Howard Morse Kathleen O'Grady David Orentreich, MD / Orentreich Family Foundation Mario Palumbo Madison J Papp George Petrides Joseph Piacentile Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky Eileen and Tom Pulling Frank and Kimba Richardson Heidi Rieger Susan and Jon Rotenstreich Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Sackler Jane Fearer Safer Dr. and Ms. Nathan Saint-Amand Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Satnick Mr. Paul Scarbrough / Akustiks, LLC. Caroline Schmidt-Barnett Sara Lee and Axel Schupf Lise Scott and D. Ronald Daniel Alan and Sandy Siegel Denise Simon and Paulo Vieiradacunha Laura Skoler Stephanie and Dick Solar Sara Solomon Sonnier & Castle Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Spahn Douglas C. Steiner Diane and Sam Stewart Angeline Straka Lindsey Turner Jan and Cynthia van Eck Herbert P. Van Ingen Ambassador and Mrs. William J. vanden Heuvel Susan and Kevin Walsh Diana Wege Mati Weiderpass David Reed Weinreb Jacqueline Weld Drake Katherine Wenning and Michael Dennis Kate R. Whitney and Franklin A. Thomas Michael Woloz Amy Yenkin and Robert Usdan Zubatkin Owner Representation, LLC Anonymous $1,000 to $2,499 Marina Abramović Ian and Lindsey Adelman Mr. and Mrs. John Argenti Rebecca Lynn Bagdonas MD Steve Bakunas Joslyn Barnes and Anita Nayar Norton Belknap Kristine Bell Dale and Max Berger Katherine Birch Hana Bitton Bluestem Prairie Foundation Dr. Suzy and Mr. Lincoln Boehm Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon Bonovitz 20
Barbara Brandt Mr. and Mrs. Louis Brause Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Butler Cora Cahan and Bernard Gersten Chanda Chapin Shirin and Kasper Christoffersen Alexander Cooper Jessica and David Cosloy Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Crisses Austen and Ernesto Cruz Boykin Curry Mr. and Mrs. Charles Daniels Jiggs Davis Suzanne Dawson Mr. and Mrs. Thomas de Neufville Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Deane Jeffrey Deitch Diana Diamond and John H. Alschuler Jacqueline Didier and Noah Schienfeld Mr. and Mrs. Marty Eisenberg Amy Grovas Elliott Leland and Jane Englebardt Amy Fine Collins and Bradley Collins Ann Fitzpatrick Brown Dr. and Mrs. Walter Flamenbaum Paul and Jody Fleming Scott Fulmer and Susan Kittenplan Fulmer Mr. and Mrs. Scott Gerber Kathleen and David Glaymon Nina Gorrissen von Maltzahn Mr. and Mrs. Peter Greenleaf Mr. and Mrs. George Grunebaum Jessica Guff Cheryl Haines Robert H. Haines Stephanie Hessler Maria E. Hidrobo Kaufman and Gabriel Kaufman William T. Hillman Susanna Hong Patrick Janelle Jennifer Joel Mr. and Mrs. David Johnson Christopher and Hilda Jones Hattie K. Jutagir The Kandell Fund / Donald J. Gordon Jeanne Kanders Daniel and Renee Kaplan Drs. Sylvia and Byram Karasu Margot Kenly and Bill Cumming Hadley C. King Major General Edward G. Klein, NYNG (Ret.) Kate Krauss Katherine Kwei Polly and Frank Lagemann Nanette L. Laitman Barbara Landau Judith Langer Kate Lauprete Mark and Taryn Leavitt Julia Ledda Lexi Lehman Ralph Lemon Brenda Levin Donna and Wayne Lowery Liz MacNeill Alexander Maldutis and Reena Russell Nasr Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Mansour armoryonpark.org
Christophe W. Mao Match 65 Brasserie Mr. and Mrs. Patrick McClymont Melissa Meeschaert Mr. and Mrs. Berk Mesta Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Meyer Abby and Howard Milstein Valerie Mnuchin Whitney and Andrew Mogavero Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Mordacq Sue Morris Leslie and Curt Myers Nicholson & Galloway, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Numeroff Ellen Oelsner Robert Ouimette and Lee Hirsch Will Palley Mr. and Ms. Joseph Patton Mr. and Mrs. Richard Petrocelli Mr. and Mrs. Brian Pfeifler Mr. and Mrs. Lyon Polk Prime Parking Systems Martin and Anna Rabinowitz Mr. and Mrs. Richard Reiss Diana and Charles Revson Mr. and Mrs. David Rogath Marjorie P. Rosenthal Jane Royal and John Lantis Kathy Ruland Pat Schoenfeld Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Schulhof Marshall Sebring and Pepper Binkley Kimia Setoodeh Nadine Shaoul and Mark Schonberger Gil Shiva Mr. and Mrs. Michael Shuman Ted Snowdon Jeremy Snyder and Maggie Nemser Mr. and Mrs. Michael Spies Squadron A Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Steiner Colleen Stenzler Tricia Stevenson Leila Maw Straus Dorothy Strelsin Foundation / Enid Nemy Summit Security Services, Inc. Joseph Vance Architects Mr. and Mrs. John Vogelstein Mr. and Mrs. Alexander von Perfall Amanda and John Waldron Caroline A. Wamsler and DeWayne N. Phillips Claude Wasserstein Lauren and Andrew Weisenfeld Christina Westley Ruth Wilson Reva Wurtzburger Mr. and Mrs. Michael Young Michel Zaleski Mr. and Mrs. Adam Zurofsky Anonymous (5) List as of July 21, 2017 * Deceased
ABOUT THE VETERANS ROOM “...the Armory, a once-crumbling landmark, has transformed itself into one of the world’s most sought-after venues for performance, music, and supersized art projects. And 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 feel of an installation by a young collective whose members were reacting to one another and making it all up as they went along.” – 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. This 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 artisans 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 Byard 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 material 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 $210-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 Thompson 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, Liz and Emanuel Stern, Olivia and Adam 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).