The Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces December Concerts

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM has announced CONCERTS for DECEMBER 2011 including Patti Smith and Friends , New York Philharmonic's CONTACT!, Homayun Sakhi, and Afghan Rubab Virtuoso. Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert Begins Its Ninth Season. Judy Collins, Paul Winter, Anonymous 4, Vienna Boys Choir, Ebony Ecumenical Ensemble, and More Perform Christmas Concerts. 

For tickets, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets or call 212-570-3949.

Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open Tuesday-Saturday 10-5:00 and Sunday noon-5:00.

Student and group discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.

Tickets include admission to the Museum on day of performance.

Tues.-Thurs., Nov. 29 & 30, December 1, 2011, at 6:30 & 8:30 p.m.- Chanticleer

The renowned vocal ensemble's annual holiday program - of which there are six performances - celebrates the mystery and wonder of Christmas with traditional carols, medieval and Renaissance sacred works, and new holiday music. The two December 1 concerts conclude Chanticleer's six holiday performances of 2011.

The concerts in the Medieval Sculpture Hall are presented in front of the Museum's Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche. The exhibition of the crèche is made possible by gifts to The Christmas Tree Fund and the Loretta Hines Howard Fund.

Chanticleer will return to the Met on May 3, 2012, with a program of new works by living American composers in celebration of the completion of the American Wing's multi-year renovation, highlighted by the January 2012 opening of the New Galleries for American Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts.

Among Chanticleer's season activities are a 10-country tour in early 2012 with return visits to Europe's most renowned concert halls, including the Musikverein (Vienna), Bela Bartok Concert Hall (Budapest), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), and Philharmonic Hall (Vilnius). The season also includes Chanticleer's performance on the soundtrack of the 10th-anniversary release by Microsoft of its legendary video game Halo, the ensemble's first live film score performance. Chanticleer is known for its vivid, a cappella interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to new music. With its blend of 12 male voices ranging from countertenor to bass, the ensemble has earned international renown as "an orchestra of voices." Collaborations between Chanticleer and the Metropolitan Museum include a PBS Great Performances program, "Christmas with Chanticleer," taped in the Metropolitan Museum's Medieval Sculpture Hall. And Chanticleer's 2002 recording of Sir John Tavener's Lamentations and Praises, a work co-commissioned by the Museum, won a Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance. www.chanticleer.org

At the Medieval Sculpture Hall. Tickets are $65.

Friday, December 2, 2011, at 7:00 p.m.- Patti Smith

Patti Smith, Jesse Smith, and friends will consider Alfred Stieglitz and his circle, focusing on his collaborative relationship with Georgia O'Keeffe.

This concert is inspired by Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe, on view through January 2, 2012. It is the first large-scale presentation of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints from Alfred Stieglitz's collection, acquired by the Metropolitan in 1949.

The exhibition is made possible by the Iris & Gerald B. Cantor Foundation.

Patti Smith made her Metropolitan Museum debut in June 2001, when she performed a program in conjunction with the Museum's William Blake exhibition. Her subsequent appearances have included a program devoted to All Saints Day; an evening devoted to Joan of Arc and French cultural heroes; a concert titled "Poems and Songs for the Young at Heart"; "A Clear and Bright Gathering," commemorating All Saints' Day; a program in tribute to photographer Robert Frank in conjunction with the Metropolitan Museum exhibition "Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans"; and, last year, a program devoted to the world of Khubilai Khan and the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. As one of the early pioneers of the dynamic New York City punk scene, Patti Smith has been sharing her unique blend of poetic rock and roll with the public for over a quarter of a century. www.pattismith.net