Six-Hour Guitar Marathon to Take Over The Met Cloisters' Stunning Spaces

The Met teams up with the New York Guitar Festival for an unprecedented six-hour guitar marathon exploring the stunning sonic possibilities of The Met Cloisters' interior spaces and outdoor gardens.

This event -- Audible Cloisters: Guitar Marathon -- will feature sixteen of today's most distinctive and influential artists, spanning repertoire from the early 16th century to the music of today. Classical guitarists, lutenists, electric guitarists, and virtuoso performers on the guitar's ancestors such as the Chinese pipa and middle eastern oud will create musical conversations with one of the world's finest collections of Medieval art.

Hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer, curated by the New York Guitar Festival's Artistic Director David Spelman, and presented in collaboration with the 2016 New York Guitar Festival.

Visit www.metmuseum.org/guitarfest. All performances take place at The Met Cloisters on Saturday, May 14, 2016 from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and are subject to change. Free with museum admission.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:

Fuentidueña Chapel:
10:30-11:30 am: Colin Davin, guitar
11:30 am-12:30 pm: Nigel North, lute
1-2 pm: Gyan Riley, guitar
2:30-3:30 pm: Ryley Walker, guitar & Anton Hatwich, bass
4 pm: Derek Gripper, guitar

Langon Chapel:
12:30-1 pm: Simon Shaheen, oud
2-2:30 pm: Alberta Khoury, guitar
3:30-4 pm: Marija Temo, guitar

Pontaut Chapter House:
1-2 pm: Ben Monder, guitar
4-5 pm: Dylan Carlson, guitar

Early Gothic Hall:
2-2:30 pm: Min Xiao-Fen, pipa
3-4 pm William Tyler, guitar

The Trie Café:
11:30 am-12:30 pm: Vernon Reid, guitar & Laraaji
4 pm: Noveller, guitar/electronics

MUSICIANS:

Dylan Carlson: Lead guitarist and singer of the Seattle-based drone-metal band Earth. His solo project Drcarlsonalbion draws on inspirations found in British folklore and occult legends.

Colin Davin: Currently on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Colin Davin studied classical guitar with Sharon Isbin. His repertoire encompasses Rodrigo, Britten, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Derek Gripper: A South African making his first New York performance, Derek Gripper transcribes works for the 21-string kora to six-string guitar. His 2012 album One Night on Earth: Music for the Strings of Mali has been extolled for its "depthless beauty" and "dream-like improvisatory nature."

Alberta Khoury: Senior at Juilliard, Ms. Khoury is getting to be known for the spiciness of her Bach interpretations. She studies guitar with Sharon Isbin.

Min Xiao-Fen: Chinese folk songs, Beijing operas, the jazz of Monk and Basie, all infuse Min Xiao-Fen's approach to the pipa, a four-stringed lute that dates back centuries. A native of Nanjing, she composes, improvises, sings, and continually expands the pipa repertoire.

Ben Monder: A jazz artist equally at home in ethereal sonic structures and "noise," Ben Monder has performed with iconic drummer Paul Motian, the singer Theo Bleckmann, and on the late David Bowie's final album Blackstar.

Nigel North: Master of an instrument that gained popularity across Europe in Medieval times, Nigel North has recorded the complete lute works of English Renaissance composer John Dowland as well as transcribed Bach's cello suites and solo violin works for the lute.

Noveller: The cinematically conceived one-woman project by ambient guitarist Sarah Lipstate. Noveller begins where Brian Eno and Vini Reilly end, creating "chill" soundscapes that have a fierce emotional core.

Vernon Reid: Co-founder of the Black Rock Coalition and auteur of the metal-funk band Living Colour. Reid will play duets with the celestial multi-instrumentalist Laraaji.

Gyan Riley: Composer/guitarist Gyan Riley erases the boundaries between jazz, world music, and contemporary classical. He's one-half of the chamber-folk duo Probosci, and has performed with Zakir Hussain, Dawn Upshaw, and his dad, the pianist/composer Terry Riley.

Simon Shaheen: A Palestinian virtuoso of the oud (an ancient Middle Eastern instrument that pre-dates even the lute) Simon Shaheen plays traditional Arabic music as well as jazz fusion.

Marija Temo: An adherent of traditional flamenco even as she pushes the genre in new directions, guitarist, singer, dancer, and rule-bender Marija Temo frequently performs with chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras. She appears in Sobre las Olas, a documentary on flamenco in the US.

William Tyler: An Appalachian otherworldliness permeates the music of Nashville's William Tyler. Through intimate yet sonically cavernous structures, Tyler's incantatory fingerstyle suggests John Fahey playing ragas.

Ryley Walker: With his 1970s-inspired debut album Primrose Green, young singer-songwriter Ryley Walker evokes the moody Brit pop vibe of Van Morrison, Nick Drake, and Tim Buckley.

Laraaji: Philadelphia born multi-instrumentalist and the creator of the globally recognized, Laughter Meditation Workshops. Laraaji caught the attention of Brian Eno in the late 1970s resulting in the album Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, his first of many releases.

Anton Hatwich: An active musician on the Chicago music scene, Anton Hatwich has performed at renowned jazz festivals worldwide, and collaborated with numerous artists and improvisers.

The groundbreaking live arts series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art explores contemporary performance through the lens of the Museum's exhibitions and unparalleled gallery spaces with singular performances and talks. MetLiveArts invites artists, performers, curators, and thought-leaders to explore and collaborate within The Met, leading with new commissions, world premieres, and site-specific durational performances that have been named some of the most "Memorable" and "Best of" performances in New York City by the New York Times, New Yorker, and BroadwayWorld.