Baryshnikov Arts Center Announces Inaugural Cage Cunningham Fellow

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) announces the successful completion of its two-year, $1M Cage Cunningham Campaign to establish the Cage Cunningham Fund for artist fellowships, named for legendary artistic partners John Cage and Merce Cunningham. BAC's Artistic Director Mikhail Baryshnikov announced the inaugural Cage Cunningham Fellow, Alexei Lubimov, at an event on Monday, December 14, held at the Center. The event also served as the official naming of BAC's Studio 6A the John Cage and Merce Cunningham Studio. The Studio is the first physical space honoring Cage and Cunningham's unparalleled contribution to 20th century art and culture.

The Cage Cunningham Fund is designed to directly support artists who are continuing Cage and Cunningham's commitment to artistic innovation. Beginning in 2016, the Cage Cunningham Fellowship will be awarded annually to an artist reflecting Cage and Cunningham's commitment to collaboration, experimentation, and rigor. Fellows will receive $50,000, distributed over two years, in support of new works and collaborations.

The first Cage Cunningham Fellow is a creative visionary who has had a profound influence on the advancement of contemporary composers and the avant-garde: Russian pianist Alexei Lubimov. A strikingly original musician, Lubimov is renowned for his unusual, dual aptitude and passion for 20th century works, as well as Baroque music, particularly played on early instruments. He performs an enormous variety of repertoire on stages around the world. In the 1960's, Lubimov gave the Soviet premieres of many western compositions, including pieces by John Cage, Charles Ives, Arnold Schönberg, Anton Webern, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Despite consequences of censorship and limits to his personal freedom at the time, Lubimov remained-and has continued to be throughout his career-a courageous, active proponent for pushing and redefining boundaries within cultures and across art forms. Among his many projects and collaborations, Lubmiov is founder of the Alternativa Festival in Moscow, providing a platform for contemporary composers to explore a broad stylistic and ideological range.

In accord with BAC's intention for the Cage Cunningham Fellowship to support development of new work, Lubimov will apply his entire $50,000 award to commission five composers that he has identified as being at the forefront of music innovation. They include Russian composers Anton Batagov, Pavel Karmanov, and Sergei Zagny, and American composers Bryce Dessner and Julia Wolfe. Lubimov's use of his Cage Cunningham Fellowship to advance voices of artists based both in New York City and abroad aligns with BAC's role as a locus of international cultural exchange and expression, and as an American home for artists and work from Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to cash resources, BAC will provide the composers with significant administrative and technical support for project development. Beyond the 2016-17 Fellowship period, the Center will look to possibilities for presenting the completed works at BAC.

BAC Artistic Director Mikhail Baryshnikov said: "Alexei Lubimov is an ideal fit for the inaugural Cage Cunningham Fellow. Not only does he demonstrate extraordinary breadth of musical appreciation and expertise, but he is also a champion of risk-taking and an advocate for freedom of expression and creativity. The Fellowship will provide Alexei with resources to enact his unique vision for the creation of new work by composers who embody both the diligence and the daring of John Cage and Merce Cunningham."

BAC reached the Cage Cunningham Campaign thanks to the inspirational support of over 80 donors. BAC Board Member Suzanne Weil and Mikhail Baryshnikov made initial leadership gifts to the Campaign. New and additional funds were raised thanks to a $100,000 matching gift in 2014 from BAC Board Member Diana DiMenna and her husband, Joe DiMenna. In 2015, the Merce Cunningham Trust contributed a tremendous leadership gift of $250,000 in support of the Campaign.

The Cage Cunningham Campaign was launched with the encouragement of the John Cage and Merce Cunningham Trusts. The Campaign Advisory Committee includes: Charles Atlas, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Frank Cordasco, Tony Creamer, Molly Davies, Deborah Eisenberg, John Guare, Colleen Keegan, Garrison Keillor, Laura Kuhn, Liz LeCompte, Harvey Lichtenstein, Benedicte Pesle, Georgiana Pickett, Judith Pisar, Kirk Radke, Liz Gerring Radke, Peter Sellars, Wallace Shawn, Allan Sperling, David Vaughan, Suzanne Weil, Lynn Wichern, and Robert Wilson.