Alarm Will Sound, Calder Quartet, TEDxMET: ICONS and More Set for the Met, Oct 2013

The Met Museum Presents series has announced its October 2013 events, including: Alarm Will Sound's season-long residency with "The Permanent Collection", the Calder Quartet in three concerts of Bartók, and TEDxMET: Icons. Details below!

Friday, October 11, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Alarm Will Sound: The Permanent Collection

Alarm Will Sound, the 20-member New York group of composer/performers led by Music Director Alan Pierson, is known for bringing vitality, intelligence, and a sense of adventure to a broad variety of musical and theatrical expression. The acclaimed ensemble will perform, work with curators and educators, and conduct talks and workshops in a season-long artist residency at the Met.

For this first event of a four-concert series, as Alan Pierson says, "Alarm Will Sound imagines its own musical version of the Metropolitan Museum's Permanent Collection, developing a canon for the new music ensemble." The program features the ensemble's first performance of a work by Wagner, the Siegfried Idyll, as well as Living Toys by Thomas Adès; Ragtime Dances Nos. 1 and 4 by Charles Ives; and György Ligeti's Chamber Concerto.

Among the residency's succeeding performances are an all-Steve Reich program featuring the New York premiere of Radio Rewrite(Nov. 16, 2013); Twinned, a site-specific dance work created for The Charles Engelhard Court in The American Wing with music by Aphex Twin, Tyondai Braxton, and Edgard Varèse and choreography by John Heginbotham (Feb. 20, 2014); and I Was Here I Was I, a Metropolitan Museum-commissioned music theater work combining narratives surrounding the history of The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing, by Kate Soper (composer) and Nigel Maister (librettist/director) to be performed in the Lila Acheson Wallace Galleries of Egyptian Art and The Temple of Dendur (June 20, 2014).

"Alarm Will Sound brings to their performances a deep-rooted sense of discovery that stems from their creativity as composers and their appetites for all kinds of art," said Limor Tomer, the Met's General Manager of Concerts & Lectures. "Their nimbleness and their work in a variety of media make them wonderful collaborators with the Met."

Alarm Will Sound has established a reputation for performing demanding music with energetic skill. ASCAP recognized their contributions to new music with a 2006 Concert Music Award for "the virtuosity, passion and commitment with which they perform and champion the repertory for the 21st century." Their performances have been described as "equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity" by the Financial Times and as "a triumph of ensemble playing" by the San Francisco Chronicle. The New York Times says Alarm Will Sound is "the future of classical music" and "the very model of a modern music chamber band." www.alarmwillsound.com

New Pre-Concert Cocktails: A menu of limited-edition specialty cocktails celebrating Alarm Will Sound will be available for purchase before performances in either The Petrie Court Café or The Great Hall Balcony Bar. Both inspired by and named in honor of the ensemble's first performance at the Met, "The Permanent Collection" menu will feature an assortment of classic cocktails with a modern twist. This menu will be offered throughout the year, exclusively on evenings when Alarm Will Sound performs.

Tickets: $35

Bring the Kids! $1 tickets for children (ages 7-16) when accompanied by an adult with a full-price ticket (subject to availability).

Saturday, October 12, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Calder Quartet - Bartók Quartet Cycle

The six string quartets of Béla Bartók, composed between 1908 and 1939, are a towering oeuvre of 20th-century chamber music. In this series, the young California-based Calder Quartet, called "superb" by The New York Times and "formidable" by The New Yorker, perform the quartets in three concerts along with music focusing on Bartók's deep debt to the human voice, with the help of two special guest artists.

This first of the three programs features Bartók's String Quartets Nos. 1 and 5, joined on the program by Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös's Korrespondenz (1992), which the composer describes as follows: "[The] string quartet reproduces the dramatic relations between Leopold Mozart and his son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, through excerpts from their correspondence." Eötvös sets this in three connected scenes, complete with stage directions about the attitude of the two characters. The first violin and viola represent Wolfgang Mozart and the second violin and cello give his father's side of the "conversation."

On November 1, the Calder Quartet performs the Bartók Quartets Nos. 3 and 4, and is joined by David Longstreth, founder of the rock band Dirty Projectors, for performances of his new compositions created specifically for the program, as well as new arrangements of Dirty Projectors songs for voice and string quartet. The series concludes on November 22 with Quartets Nos. 2 and 6, and a collaboration with the Czech singer, violinist, and composer Iva Bittová, featuring music by Janá?ek and Bartók and improvisations for voice and string quartet.

The Calder Quartet performs a broad range of repertoire at an exceptional level. Already the choice of many leading composers to perform their works-including Christopher Rouse, Terry Riley, and Thomas Adès-the group has been praised for their distinctive approach informed by a musical curiosity brought to everything they perform, from Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn to sold-out rock shows with bands such as The National or The Airborne Toxic Event. Known for the discovery, commissioning, and mentoring of some of today's best emerging composers (with over 25 commissioned works to date), the group continues to collaborate with artists across musical genres. Inspired by innovative American artist Alexander Calder, the Calder Quartet's desire to bring immediacy and context to the works they perform creates an artfully crafted musical experience. http://calderquartet.com

Tickets: $40; Three-concert series: $100

Bring the Kids! $1 tickets for children (ages 7-16) when accompanied by an adult with a full-price ticket (subject to availability).

Talks and Conversations:

Wednesday, October 2, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

1913: The World Implodes - Why Europe Committed Suicide

Adam Gopnik, Critic at Large, The New Yorker

In 1913 the world shook and rattled. Europe was on the verge of committing suicide. Africa exploded into European and American consciousness, technology was on a dizzying trajectory, and music was losing its grip on tonality, slipping loudly into entropy. Two path-breaking works were premiered within eight months of each other: Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

1913: The World Implodes, a series of talks and performances, features two concerts that present these works in striking settings, and four conversations curated and hosted by New Yorker Critic at Large Adam Gopnik that put the music of this period in context.

In this first talk, Adam Gopnik offers an overview of the cultural life of Western Europe and America a century ago-at a moment when the modernist movement seemed to reach a new apex of innovation in the visual arts, music, and literature-and then asks how that banquet turned, in a matter of months, into the catastrophic tragedy of World War I. Why did a civilization at a height of confidence and accomplishment become suicidal? And could we fall to a similar fate today?

Tickets: $30; Four-talk series: $100

Thursday, October 3, 2013, at 11:00 a.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

My Met

Keith Christiansen, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman, Department of European Paintings

Why do we respond to some works of art at first encounter while others remain elusive, revealing themselves to us only slowly, over time? Keith Christiansen discusses some of the pictures that have meant the most to him as well as those he has come to love over time. He also talks about the comprehensive reinstallation of the European paintings collection that was inaugurated in May, as well as some important acquisitions that he thinks have taken the collection-and him-in a new direction.

Tickets: $30; Three-talk series: $70

Thursday, October 3, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Grand Central Terminal-A Century of Greatness

Barry Lewis, Architectural Historian

More than 100 years ago, at the same time that the Metropolitan Museum was being built on upper Fifth Avenue, the New York Central Railroad married steel construction and electric train traction with a beaux-arts vision of the city that reimagined New York on a 20th-century scale. Grand Central Terminal is an amalgam of modernist efficiency and neoclassical grandeur; but that very Yankee synthesis created a city within a city of transit hub, skyscraper commercial buildings, and an apartment-house boulevard, Park Avenue, that stretched to 97th Street. This talk provides a look at American urbanism when cities-not suburbs-were on our minds, and our major city, New York, was entering the category of "world-class capital."

Tickets: $30

Wednesday, October 9, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

1913: The World Implodes - Why New Art Mattered

Sebastian Smee, Pulitzer Prize-winning Art Critic, Boston Globe

In 1913, the triumph of Synthetic Cubism in France and the Armory Show in the United States brought modernism to America, thus introducing to the world a new wealth of creative innovation, from the found objects of Duchamp to the hermetic poetry of Picasso and Braque. Sebastian Smee explores the overt and hidden wellsprings of innovation in art that made history, and asks what its true and best legacy is a century later. Adam Gopnik hosts.

In 1913 the world shook and rattled. Europe was on the verge of committing suicide. Africa exploded into European and American consciousness, technology was on a dizzying trajectory, and music was losing its grip on tonality, slipping loudly into entropy. Two path-breaking works were premiered within eight months of each other: Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. 1913: The World Implodes, a series of talks and performances, features two concerts that present these works in striking settings, and four conversations curated and hosted by New Yorker Critic at Large Adam Gopnik that put the music of this period in context.

Tickets: $30; Four-talk series: $100

Thursday, October 10, 2013, at 11:00 a.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Patriots, Pashas, and Peasants: French Painting from Delacroix to Courbet

Kathryn Calley Galitz, Associate Museum Educator

The 1820s witnessed the birth of Romanticism, as Delacroix, Ingres, and other French artists embraced new subjects, inspired by cross-Channel exchanges and the lure of the exotic. The Paris Salon of 1824 launched the battle between the Romantics and the Classicists, an aesthetic struggle that defined a generation of French artists. By mid-century, the modern-life subjects of Courbet and Manet threatened to subvert the artistic establishment, setting the stage for the Impressionist revolution.

The subject of this first event of a six-part series is "Drawing Lines: Classicism versus Romanticism." Subsequent talks in the series will take place October 17, November 20, and December 5, 11, and 19.

Tickets: $30; Six-talk series: $160

Thursday, October 10, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Masterworks from the Met

Three Masterpieces from the Age of Empires: Caravaggio, Velázquez, and Rubens

Jerrilynn Dodds, Dean, Sarah Lawrence College

The Baroque period yielded some of the most vital and brilliant artists of all time. Opulent courts, powerful patrons, colliding cultures, strengthening religions, and increasingly complex politics provided the backdrop for painting to become a potent expression of the moment. This series explores a work from the Met's collection by each of three monumental figures of this remarkable age. From different corners of Europe, these great masters provide three different interpretations of Baroque art.

October 10: Caravaggio (The Denial of Saint Peter, 1571-1610)

October 24: Velázquez (The Supper at Emmaus, 1622-23)

November 7: Rubens (Venus and Adonis, mid- or late 1630s)

Tickets: $30; Three-talk series: $75

Wednesday, October 16, 2013, at 2:30 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Dr. Albert Barnes and The Barnes Collection

Marlene Barasch Strauss, Art Historian

Having developed eyedrops for newborns in the first decade of the 20th century, Dr. Albert Barnes amassed a fortune, which he used to build the greatest private collection of Post-Impressionist and early modern art in the world. Paintings by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Seurat, Matisse, and Picasso, among others-cherished names of 19th- and 20th-century French painting-were installed in the limestone mansion he established as a school, not a museum, for the purpose of study. How Barnes assembled that collection during the Great Depression and the subsequent removal of the collection from Merion, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia are the subjects of this lecture.

Tickets: $30

Wednesday, October 16, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

1913: The World Implodes - How Proust Changed Our Minds

Alain de Botton, Writer

Alain de Botton, the much-celebrated author of How Proust Can Change Your Life and one of the leaders of London's The School of Life, celebrates the centenary of the publication of the first volume of Marcel Proust's masterpiece In Search of Lost Time with a lecture on the story and ultimate spell cast by a book publication that, baffling to so many on its first appearance, has improbably become one of the most beloved books of our time. Adam Gopnik hosts.

In 1913 the world shook and rattled. Europe was on the verge of committing suicide. Africa exploded into European and American consciousness, technology was on a dizzying trajectory, and music was losing its grip on tonality, slipping loudly into entropy. Two path-breaking works were premiered within eight months of each other: Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. 1913: The World Implodes, a series of talks and performances, features two concerts that present these works in striking settings, and four conversations curated and hosted by New Yorker Critic at Large Adam Gopnik that put the music of this period in context.

Tickets: $30; Four-talk series: $100

Wednesday, October 16, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. in the Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall

Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800

Amelia Peck, Marica F. Vilcek Curator of American Decorative Arts, and Manager, The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art

Melinda Watt, Associate Curator, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

John Guy, Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art

Joyce Denney, Independent Scholar of Asian Art

Marika Sardar, Research Associate, Department of Islamic Art

Amy Bogansky, Research Assistant, The American Wing

The Met Salon Series offers opportunities to engage with Met curators, artists, and guests in an intimate and informal setting, over coffee and light refreshments.

In an unprecedented museum-wide collaboration, curators and scholars from across the Met have come together to create an exhibition with a global scope. In this conversation, the team converges to discuss its investigation into the relationship between the textile trade, industry, and world economics, and the emergence of what can be considered the first global visual language.

This event is in conjunction with the exhibition Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800, which will be on view at the Museum September 10, 2013-January 5, 2014. The exhibition is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Diane W. and James E. Burke Fund, The Coby Foundation, Ltd., The Favrot Fund, the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund, and the Quinque Foundation.

Tickets: $30

Thursday, October 17, 2013, at 11:00 a.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Patriots, Pashas, and Peasants: French Painting from Delacroix to Courbet

Kathryn Calley Galitz, Associate Museum Educator

The 1820s witnessed the birth of Romanticism, as Delacroix, Ingres, and other French artists embraced new subjects, inspired by cross-Channel exchanges and the lure of the exotic. The Paris Salon of 1824 launched the battle between the Romantics and the Classicists, an aesthetic struggle that defined a generation of French artists. By mid-century, the modern-life subjects of Courbet and Manet threatened to subvert the artistic establishment, setting the stage for the Impressionist revolution.

The subject of this second event of a six-part series is "Channel Crossings: British Influences in French Painting, 1820-1840." Subsequent talks in the series will take place November 20, and December 5, 11, and 19.

Tickets: $30; Six-talk series: $160

Saturday, October 19, 2013, 10:00 a.m.--6:00 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

TEDxMet: Icons

The Met presents its first TEDx conference: a daylong celebration of signature buildings, singular stories, modern lives, and medieval beliefs, featuring speakers and performers from a range of disciplines. These "ideas worth spreading" from writers, scientists, musicians, and Met curators, will be presented in the signature full-throttle TED style.

This independent TEDx event is curated and planned by Met Museum Presents. Created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading," the TEDx program will feature a hugely colorful and diverse roster of artists, scientists, and thought leaders who will take on the notion of icons, and how we make them, break them, and become them.

Check the website for the schedule of speakers.

Tickets: $100

Wednesday, October 23, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

1913: The World Implodes - Africa and the West

Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University

Yaëlle Biro, Assistant Curator, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Mr. Appiah and Ms. Biro join Adam Gopnik to untangle the moment when America and Europe became keenly and irrevocably aware of Africa as a generative force, and reveal how this intercontinental awareness continues to inform us. Adam Gopnik hosts.

In 1913 the world shook and rattled. Europe was on the verge of committing suicide. Africa exploded into European and American consciousness, technology was on a dizzying trajectory, and music was losing its grip on tonality, slipping loudly into entropy. Two path-breaking works were premiered within eight months of each other: Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. 1913: The World Implodes, a series of talks and performances, features two concerts that present these works in striking settings, and four conversations curated and hosted by New Yorker Critic at Large Adam Gopnik that put the music of this period in context.

Tickets: $30; Four-talk series: $100

Thursday, October 24, 2013, at 11:00 a.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

My Met

Keith Christiansen, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman, Department of European Paintings

See October 3, above.

Thursday, October 24, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Masterworks from the Met

Three Masterpieces from the Age of Empires: Caravaggio, Velázquez, and Rubens

Jerrilynn Dodds, Dean, Sarah Lawrence College

See October 10, above.

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 Monday-Saturday 11-3:30. Tickets include admission to the Museum on day of performance.

30 & Under Rush: $15 tickets for ticket buyers 30 years and younger, with proof of age, the day of the event on select performances (subject to availability). For more information, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets call 212-570-3949, or visit the box office.

Bring the Kids!: $1 tickets for children (ages 7-16) for select performances when accompanied by an adult with a full-price ticket (subject to availability). For more information, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets call 212-570-3949, or visit the box office.