Issue link: http://floodesign.uberflip.com/i/727458
T his jam-packed festival celebrates the richness of string quartet composition and performance, featuring four of the world's most diverse and celebrated quartets performing works by classic and modern composers. What binds this audacious, ambitious program together? The work of Pulitzer Prize–winning American composer William Bolcom and the stellar playing of the Shanghai Quartet are featured at every performance. The Harlem Quartet opens the festival with an evening of classic and jazzier quartet fare, performing works by Mozart, Dizzy Gillespie, Rafael Hernández Marín, Abelardo Valdés, William Bolcom, and Osvaldo Golijov. The brilliant young Chiara String Quartet, known for playing without sheet music, performs works by Jefferson Friedman, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Bolcom. In a rare US appearance, the famed Arditti Quartet performs Bolcom's String Quartet no. 8, Elliott Carter's String Quartet no. 5, and with Eliot Fisk on guitar, the NY/NJ Premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's Guitar Quintet. The festival con- cludes with the Shanghai Quartet performing the world premiere of William Bolcom's String Quartet no. 12, commissioned by Peak Performances. American Premiere CULLBERG BALLET CHOREOGRAPHY AND DIRECTION Deborah Hay COMPOSER Laurie Anderson SET AND LIGHTING DESIGN Minna Tiikkainen Co-commissioners: Zodiak, Center for New Dance, Helsinki, Finland; Peak Performances @ Montclair State University, (NJ); Balletto di Roma, Rome, Italy; Centro per la Scena Contemporanea – Comune di Bassano del Grappa, Bassano del Grappa, Italy; CCAP, Stockholm, Sweden. Supported by the Italian Cultural Institute, Stockholm. The US tour is made possible with support by the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, DC and the Swedish Arts Council. DATES October 6 & 7 @ 7:30 p.m. October 22 @ 8:00 p.m. October 23 @ 3:00 p.m. RUNNING TIME 60 minutes, no intermission ENGAGEMENT Sneak Peek Thursday, October 6 @ 6:00 p.m Join us for good conversation and good food as artists, writers, and thinkers offer insight and a behind-the-scenes peek into Figure a Sea. Guest to be announced. Free and open to the public. C elebrate Cinco de Mayo with Mexican cabaret artist Astrid Hadad's Tierra Misteriosa, a sassy and tuneful jaunt through Mexico's tumultuous history. Carried by slaves, Hadad takes us from the ancient Mexico of Tenochtitlan, through the forgotten women of history like La Malinche, the beautiful woman who acted as Cortes's interpreter and later bore his children, to the Mexican heroine of the future. Tierra Misteriosa is part telenovela, part vaudeville and concert. Hadad shimmies in gorgeous, over-the-top costumes and soulfully sings us through the historical contradictions of her beloved homeland. We'll hear some of the great Mexican banda classics and some of Hadad's own pungent music. The colors are rich, the music is hot, and the drama is real, but it is Hadad's insightful and irreverent commentaries that really provide the oxygen. American Premiere ASTRID HADAD TIERRA MISTERIOSA LIMITED DATES May 5 @ 7:30 p.m. May 6 @ 8:00 p.m. Program Consultant: Isabel Soffer/Live Sounds " My style is syncretic, aesthetic, pathetic, and diuretic, which demonstrates, without shame, the attitudes of machismo, masochism, nihilism, and 'I-could-give-a- damn' inherent in all cultures. " —Astrid Hadad Photo: Fernando Trejo www.peakperfs.org 51