S U N d ay , M AY 5 , 2 0 1 9
“a world class icon ” - The New YorkeR
1 2 3 W e s t 4 3 r d S t N YC 1 0 0 3 6 | T H E T OW N H A L L . o r g
Tod Browning’s
with live accompaniment and original music by
with special guest musicians
Daniel Handler + Pinky Weitzman
Stephin Merritt (of the Magnetic Fields) performs original music for Tod Browning's film, The Unholy Three (1925), starring Lon Chaney. Stephin is joined by accordionist and novelist Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) and violist Pinky Weitzman.
S u n d a y, M AY 5 , 2 0 1 9
THE TOWN HALL PRESENTS
ANOUSHKA SHANKAR Featuring Anoushka Shankar | sitar Ojas Adhiya | tabla Pirashanna Thevarajah | mridangam Ravichandra Kulur | flute Danny Keane | cello & piano Kenji Ota | tanpura
Dennis Fernandez | FOH sound engineer Dylan Bate | tour manager Saloni Thakkar | personal assistant Cover Photo: © Anushka Menon
THE TOWN HALL 123 W 43rd st nyc LARRY ZUCKER, Executive Director
Cindy Byram PR, Publicity
M.A. PAPPER, Artistic Director
CARL ACAMPORA, Production Manager
JEFF MANN, Marketing Director
LEIA-LEE DORAN, Principal Designer
BILL DEHLING, Technical Director
ALEX KOVEOS, Digital Media Manager
THETOWNHALL.ORG | @TownHallNYC
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A L etter from the presi d e n ts
Welcome to The Town Hall. “It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from, you are welcome here….” So said the League of Political Education when they opened Town Hall as a monument to women’s suffrage in 1921. The Hall was built to hold the League’s Town Meetings, those boisterous evenings they hosted to discuss all sides of important issues. They knew that opening minds through life-long learning was required not just with new voters, but for all voters. So everyone was welcomed. It was a young violinist from Spain, Juan Manen, who first brought music to the hall. Later that year, Richard Strauss came from Germany to play piano for a series of recitals. The acoustics McKim, Mead & White had designed for conversation worked equally well for music. Our inclusionary policy welcoming all is the same for music. From day one, Town Hall has welcomed visitors and performers from every walk of life from every corner of the world. And so this weekend we welcome to Town Hall two legendary global icons to the Town Hall stage. Baaba Maal is back in New York after a long absence. An international music ambassador, his music is celebrated throughout the world. Baaba is joined by the Town Hall Ensemble, under the direction of Steven Bernstein. The Ensemble features some of New York’s most renowned musicians who bring with them a broad spectrum of styles and voices, something The Town Hall has embraced for nearly a century. Anoushka Shankar is a singular figure in the Indian classical and progressive world music scenes. Her dynamic and spiritual musicality has garnered several prestigious accolades including six Grammy® Award nominations. We are proud to say that Town Hall has a long history with Anoushka and her family. Her father, Ravi, first performed at Town Hall in 1956. So while this weekend is special, it is not out of the ordinary for Town Hall. From everyone at Town Hall - thank you for coming. Please enjoy the shows.
Tom Wirtshafter President
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Marvin Leffler President Emeritus
Abo u t the progr a m
Photo: © Anushka Menon
Sitarist and composer Anoushka Shankar culminates a celebration of her remarkable 20-year recording career with a concert at the Town Hall on Sunday May 5th. 2019. The event caps her 24-city North American Spring Tour, which highlighted the release of Reflections, a 15-track retrospective just released on the Deutsche Grammophon label. The album, curated by Anoushka, is a testament to her musical curiosity and talent. Drawing from her albums Land of Gold, Traces of You, Breathing Under Water, and Rise, Reflections includes “Jod, Jhala,” based on a raga created by her late father, master sitarist Ravi Shankar. He also is featured on “Pancham Se Gara,” one of the few studio recordings that captured father and daughter playing together. The rest of the selections offer a sampling of Anoushka´s range, which can embrace electronic instruments and dance rhythms, veer into pop, explore flamenco, or revisit classical East-West fusion. “I admire people who push all kinds of boundaries so passionately and with so much skill, and I want that kind of life, and I want that kind of fire,” she told an interviewer in 2007, when asked where she saw herself heading as an artist. “The specifics of what that might be are going to change as I change.” At the Town Hall, Anoushka will be accompanied by her ensemble, featuring Ojas Adhiya on table (paired hand drums); Pirashanna Thevarajah on mridangam (barrel-shaped hand drum); Ravichandra Kulur, flute; Danny Keane, cello and piano; and Kenji Ota, tanpura (long-necked string instrument). Remarkably, she has established her name on stages around the world while remaining true to her legacy. After all, her career has not just continued but expanded the globalization of classical Indian music initiated by her father in the 1950s. @TownHallNYC @TownHallNYC
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“I think the goal of musical dialogue is to open people’s minds, because they take in music in a way that they may not take in a news story,” Anoushka Shankar has said. “If people are exposed to new sounds, they end up gaining a respect for it that affects the whole cultural dialogue. In that sense, collaboration across cultures is extremely important. The other side is a much more personal one, where musicians like me are engaging in various forms of music, making sense of ourselves and the world around us. We live in a multicultural world, and artists are going to reflect that.” She later expanded on these ideas when discussing her cross-cultural collaborations. “I think cross-cultural dialogue is something that has hugely impacted the richness of the culture of our world,” she told the British online newspaper The Independent. “It’s a central current in my life, and I can’t imagine not having been able to have access to multiple cultures and being able to draw and learn from them.” Born in London, Anoushka Shankar spent her childhood between London and Delhi and her teenage years in Los Angeles, California. “For me, my father was Ravi Shankar before he was my father because I lived in London with my mother and my parents only got married when I was 7 years old,” she once said. “I didn’t become a Shankar until then.” It was then that she started playing sitar, studying with her famously strict and demanding father. She once recalled, “I lived with my teacher and he was my father, and he practiced every day so I practiced every day and we practiced every day together.” She was 13 when she made her public debut as a classical sitarist in a concert celebrating her father’s 75th birthday; at 15 appeared on her father’s album Chants of India, produced by George Harrison, and two years later she released her self-titled debut album. Since, she has earned six Grammy nominations for Anoushka Shankar: Live At Carnegie Hall (2002); Rise (2005); Traveller (2012); Traces Of You (2014); Home (2015), and Land Of Gold (2016). She has also written a book about her father titled Bapi: The Love of my Life. Over the years, Shankar’s work has increasingly come to reflect her passionate engagement in women’s rights and social justice. Following the horrific gang rape of a young woman in Delhi in 2012, she threw her weight behind the campaign One Billion Rising on Change.org. Other recent projects include hosting a radio show about gender equality to promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and, beginning in 2015, coordinating a call-toaction to the U.K. government in response to the European refugee crisis. She was also the narrator of Stolen Innocence, a documentary film about human sex trafficking which premiered in 2017.
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For her Town Hall show, Anoushka will be performing selections from throughout her career, highlighting the just-released retrospective album, Reflections (Deutsche Grammophon), while previewing selections from her unreleased score for the 1928 Indian silent film classic Shiraz.
Photo: Š SimonNYC
@TownHallNYC | 5
T H E T O W N H A L L F O UNDA T I O N The Town Hall’s mission is to provide affordable world-class entertainment by new and established artists to a diverse audience; to inspire the youth of our community to appreciate and participate in the arts at The Town Hall and in schools through our Educational Outreach Program; and to preserve and enhance The Town Hall as a historic landmark venue for the enjoyment and cultural enrichment of generations to come.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
WARNING
President
Vice President
Tom Wirtshafter
Alfred H. Horowitz Vice President
President Emeritus
Bruce S. Leffler
Marvin Leffler Treasurer Executive Vice President
Andrew T. Miltenberg
The photographing or sound recording of any performance or the possession of any device for such photographing or sound recording inside the theatre without the written permission of the management is prohibited by law. Violators may be punished by ejection and violations may render the offender liable for monetary damages.
Susan Zohn Secretary Trustees
Phyllis Putter Barasch Robert E. Evanson Anne Frank-Shapiro Alfred H. Horowitz Henry Johansson Ted Lambert Bruce S. Leffler Marvin Leffler David McCarthy Andrew T. Miltenberg Rita Robbins Madhu Southworth Nevin Steinberg Tom Wirtshafter Susan Zohn LIFE TRUSTEES
Leona Chanin Mary Dettling-Wright Eugene J.T. Flanagan Claire G. Miller
Phyllis Putter Barasch Advisory Council
Kathleen Rosenberg, Chair Nancy Berman Shauna Denkensohn Sandy Horowitz Elizabeth Iannizzi Zita Rosenthal Rhoda Rothkopf Arts in Education
The exit indicated by a red light and sign nearest to the seat you occupy is the shortest route to the street. In the event of fire or other emergency please do not run, WALK TO THAT EXIT. Thoughtless persons annoy patrons and endanger the safety of others by lighting matches or smoking in prohibited areas during the performances and intermissions. This violates a city ordinance and is punishable by law.
Advisory Council
Dr. Charlotte K. Frank, Chair Michael Fram Dr. Sharon Dunn Gary Hecht Ernest Logan Dr. Lisa Mars Dr. Eloise Messineo Dr. Pola Rosen Leona Shapiro George Young
THE TOWN HALL STAFF Executive Director
Technical Director
Lawrence C. Zucker
Bill Dehling
Artistic Director
Chief Engineer
M.A. Papper
Steve Franqui
Director of Administration, Subscriptions & Membership
House Manager
Richard Looney
Helen Morris Box Office Manager Director of Development
FIRE NOTICE
-FIRE COMMISSIONER
DIRECTORY OF THEATRE SERVICES ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES: 212.997.1003 Mon-Fri 9:30 am to 5 pm, for rental & membership info BOX OFFICE: 212.840.2824 Mon-Sat 12 noon to 6pm. 24/7 Recording TICKETMASTER: 800.982.2787 to charge tickets by phone.online Ticketmaster.com LOST AND FOUND: 212.997.0113 CELL PHONE POLICY Cell phones should be silenced prior to the performance as a courtesy to the performers and audience. Lobby Refreshment by Theatre Refreshment Company of NY
Angel Rodriguez
Jacqueline Maddox Director of Education
Institutional Giving Associate
Lauren Noble
Barbara Matovu
Director Of Marketing
Assistant Artistic Director / Archivist
Jeff Mann
Melay Araya
123 WEST 43RD ST NYC 10036 THETOWNHALL.ORG
Digital Media Manager
Alex Koveos
Education Assistant
Lauren Extrom
Principal Designer
Leia-lee Doran
Administrative Assistant
Britni Montalbano Connect @TownHallNYC
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M A J O R G I F T S , C O R P O R A T E , F O UNDA T I O N & GOVERNMENT SUPPORT This program is supported, in part by public funds from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. We would like to thank the following foundations, corporations, and government institutions for their support: Acción Cultural Española
The Hearst Foundations, Inc.
The Achelis and Bodman Foundation
Jewish Communal Fund
Office of the President, Borough of Manhattan, Gale A. Brewer
The Actors Fund
JP Morgan Chase
The Pinkerton Foundation Pamela and Richard Rubinstein Foundation
Affiliated Advisors
Jujamcyn Theaters
Apple Inc.
Edythe Kenner Foundation
Bank of America
The Jacob & Valeria Langeloth Foundation
Bruce Weber and Nan Bush Foundation
Pricewaterhouse Cooper The Reed Foundation
Consolidated Edison Company of New York
Lewis QVC Trust
The Rudin Foundation
Local One
S&P Global
Daryl and Steven Roth Foundation
The Mansfield Family Foundation
The Shubert Foundation
Robert Evanson
Morgan Stanley
The Shubert Organization, Inc.
Ford Foundation
Nederlander Organization
Theatre Refreshments
Dr. Charlotte K. Frank
Nesenoff & Miltenberg, LLP
Ticketmaster
Garber Atlas Fries & Associates
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council
Wenner Foundation
John Gore/Key Brand Entertainment William T. Grant Foundation
Zegar Family Foundation
Henry Nias Foundation
T H E T O W N H A L L ’ S Y O UN G P A T R O N S C I R C L E Join the next generation of Town Hall supporters! Town Hall’s Young Patrons Circle is a special membership group, ages 21-40, that engages in social and educational activities through exciting events, performances, and programming. We are brought together by a shared love of the arts, a deep interest in social change, civic engagement, and a desire to become part of a growing group of like-minded individuals that support Town Hall. For more information about the Young Patrons Circle, please contact Jacquie Maddox, Director of Development - development@thetownhall.org
Y O UN G P A T R O N S C I R C L E M E M B E R S Jesse Axelrod* Julia Bates Kevin Costello Jenna Clark Embrey Kate Estes* Kathleen French Mark Garner*
Edward Garrity* Vincent Iannuzzi Marley Lewis, Yevgeny Vilensky Greg Minogue* Sheila O’Donoghue Anna Pappa Katherine McCollom Pooser
Joseph Reigadas* Margaret Schultzberg Jonathan Tulman* Veronica Underhill Benjamin Wirtshafter* *Young Patrons Circle Executive Committee
TOUR THE HISTORIC TOWN HALL Town Hall has played an integral part in the electrifying cultural fabric of New York City for more than 90 years. A group of Suffragists’ fight for the 19th Amendment led them to build a meeting space to educate people on the important issues of the day. During its construction, the 19th Amendment was passed, and on January 12, 1921 The Town Hall opened its doors and took on a double meaning: as a symbol of the victory sought by its founders, and as a spark for a new, more optimistic climate. In 1921, German composer Richard Strauss performed a series of concerts that cemented the Hall’s reputation as an ideal venue for musical performances. Since, Town Hall has been home to countless musical milestones: The US debuts of Strauss, and Isaac Stern; Marian Anderson’s first New York recital; in 1945, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker introduced bebop to the world; Bob Dylan’s first major concert in ‘63; and much much more. Learn more. Visit thetownhall.org/tours @TownHallNYC | 7
S U S TA I N I N G M E M B E R S Peggy Van Raalte & Barry Abbott Shari Acebedo** Patricia Adell & Jeffrey Sussman* Pam Africk** Mr. & Mrs. Louis Aidala* Emerson Allen* Phyllis Barasch** Justine Barrett Laurie Bauman William Beck Kathleen Begala & Yves-Andre Istel Howard F. Berman** Nancy & Evan Berman Jane Eisner Bram* Pat Brown* Colin A. Burns* Ralph Buultjens** Claudio Cafengiu Karen & Alexander Callender** Marcy & Leona Chanin Foundation** Dr. Stuart Chassen* James P. Coffey* Gloria & Irwin Cohen* Mindy A Cohen* Leah Cooper Jamie Delio** Shauna & Michael Denkensohn* Susan and Rick Derrickson Mary Dettling-Wright** Greg Diamond Sharon Dunn Robert Dwyer, Jr.* Hon. Betty W. Ellerin* Robert Evanson** Diane Fairbank** Hazel & Russel Fershleiser** Caryl Field Nancy Fisher Joe Flanagan* Valerie Fontaine Kempner* Anonymous Dr. Charlotte Frank & Marvin Leffler** Dori Fromer & Harley Frank* Matthew Frank** Donna Frankel Michael & Anne Frank-Shapiro* Bobby & Vicki Freeman Adrienne Frosch* David Fuchs* Susan & Michael Furman Carmen Gaito Pete Ganbarg* Mary Ganzenmuller Simone Garcon Kathleen Germann Michele Gerstel Matthew Ginsburg* Goldfarb & Fleece Roanne Goldfein 8 | @TownHallNYC
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*$500-999 **$1,000 +
Catherine Randolph* Michael Reidy Robert Rene Rita Robbins** Elaine Roman A. Jeffrey Rosen Kathleen Rosenberg** Zita Rosenthal* Rhoda Rothkopf** Michael Rotter** William Berndt & Shima Roy* Nancy Rubin Fiona Howe Rudin* Robert & Lynda Safron** Barbara Salmanson* Sherry & Alan H. Salzman** Roberta Schechter* Joan Schiavone Roberta Schleicher* David Schmid Robert and Heidi Schwartz Robert Score* Alan Shabot* Patricia & Brian Shea** Susan & Victor Shedlin** Anthony Shepherd Constance Silver* Melanie Sloan* Kimberly A. Smith** Hansel Smyth & Caitlin Freeman Erik Sonsteby Madhu R Goel Southworth** Rich Stanton Nevin Steinberg & Paige Price** Judy & Michael Steinhardt** Charlotte Stewart Raymon F. & Carolyn A. Strecker Jason Stull & Steve Avery Kartik Subramanian & Sireesha Baljepalli** Lara Taubman Abbe Tiger Tom Toce & Liz Portland Steven Trigoboff Lawrence Unger** Kara Unterberg* Bruce Van Dusen Jeffry VonWald* Daniel R. Wacks* Susan Jordan Wayne* Weston Wellington* Richard Winn Karen Winslow & Michael McGovern Carol Marks & Tom Wirtshafter** Matt Howard & Melissa Wohlgemuth* Merryl & Charles Zegar** Susan Zohn** Anita Jaffe & Lawrence C. Zucker** Sloan Zuckerman Gary Zych*
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We invite you to support the Hall at any level, and enjoy the exclusive benefits of becoming a Town Hall Member.
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S U STA I N I NG M E M B E RSH I P S *
$100
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Member Discounts at local restaurants Access to PATRON CIRCLE SEATS Reserved Seats to Town Hall Presents concerts and other select events (with special pricing, when available)
Complimentary Tickets to select Town Hall Presents Shows & Events Complimentary Tickets to Town Hall Gala Special Invitations to Sound Check or Dress Rehearsal
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Invitations to an Artist Meet & Greet after a select Town Hall Presents Concert
All Members Receive Special Recognition in Town Hall Programs All tickets are subject to availability, tickets do not include Broadway by the Year® *More Sustaining Membership levels available at thetownhall.org/membership
T h eT o w n Ha l l . o r g / M E M B E R S H I P Photo: © Sachyn Mital
@TownHallNYC | 9
Bank of America applauds The Town Hall for bringing the arts to all When members of the community support the arts, they help inspire and enrich everyone. Artistic diversity can be a powerful force for unity, creating shared experiences and a desire for excellence. Bank of America recognizes The Town Hall for its success in bringing the arts to performers and audiences throughout our community. Visit us at bankofamerica.com/arts Life’s better when we’re connected® ©2018 Bank of America Corporation | SPN-126-AD | ARMWTPSR