Spring '18 Music Series Comes to Baryshnikov Arts Center

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) announces the Spring 2018 Music Series, which runs January through April and features an eclectic lineup of premieres and performances by international musicians. All performances will be held at BAC (450 West 37th Street, Manhattan). Tickets ($20-25) are on sale now at bacnyc.org or 866-811-4111.

The series begins January 16 at 7:30PM in the Jerome Robbins Theater with a World Premiere from pianist and composer Anton Batagov, one of the most significant figures of Russian contemporary music. His Different Things for piano, string quartet, double bass, and four voices was commissioned through BAC's inaugural Cage Cunningham Fellowship. Batagov's new work is paired with Beethoven's String Quartet op. 18 no. 6 performed by the Attacca Quartet, who was in residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art during the 2014-15 season and is praised by The Strad for "maturity beyond its members' years."

Next, a program on February 22 at 7:30PM in the Jerome Robbins Theater brings together an ensemble of heralded instrumentalists (Joshua Rubin, clarinet; Geoff Nuttall, violin; Christopher Costanza, cello; and Sarah Rothenberg, piano) with award-winning lighting designer Jennifer Tipton. Together, they will create a theatrical rendition of the French composer Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time-a "work of transcending beauty" (The Wall Street Journal).

A night of cinema and music in the Jerome Robbins Theater on March 14 features a screening of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and the New York Premiere of Stephen Prutsman's score written for the 1920 silent horror film. Prutsman's colorful composition, performed live by the Puck Quartet, incorporates myriad musical styles from the German expressionist era.

Finally, on April 18 is a BAC Salon with Tarek Yamani, a Lebanese-American pianist who reinvents classical Arabic music through original jazz compositions. The John Cage & Merce Cunningham Studio, with cabaret-style seating and beverages provided, lends itself to the intimacy of a jazz club in two sets, at 7PM and 9PM.

Leadership support for music programming is provided by the Anne and Chris Flowers Foundation and the Thompson Family Foundation.

Additional Spring 2018 performances and residencies will be announced in January.

Tickets for BAC's Spring 2018 Music Series are on sale now and can be purchased online or by phone:

BACNYC.ORG / 866 811 4111. A complete schedule of the BAC Spring 2018 Music Series follows.

BARYSHNIKOV ARTS CENTER SPRING 2018 MUSIC SERIES

Anton Batagov + Attacca Quartet
January 16 / Tuesday at 7:30PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets $25
Running Time: 60 Minutes

Anton Batagov is "a Russian Terry Riley" - Los Angeles Times
Attacca Quartet possesses "a musical maturity far beyond its members' years" - The Strad

Program
Anton Batagov: Different Things for piano, string quartet, double bass, and four voices (2017) (World Premiere)
L. van Beethoven: String Quartet op. 18 no. 6 (1800)

This varied evening of music includes a World Premiere from influential post-minimalist Russian composer and pianist Anton Batagov, paired with a Beethoven masterwork performed by one of America's premier young ensembles.

Anton Batagov's Different Things was commissioned through BAC's Cage Cunningham Fellowship.

Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time
Lighting by Jennifer Tipton
February 22 / Thursday at 7:30PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets $25
Running Time: 60 Minutes

Messiaen's Quartet is "the most ethereally beautiful music of the twentieth century" - The New Yorker

Program
O. Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (1941)

Olivier Messiaen expresses his deep faith in a timeless musical work, which he composed and premiered while in confinement at a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany. An all-star ensemble of instrumentalists and illustrious lighting designer Jennifer Tipton create a theatrical rendition of the iconic work.

Joshua Rubin, clarinet
Geoff Nuttall, violin
Christopher Costanza, cello
Sarah Rothenberg, piano

Screening of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Music by Stephen Prutsman (N.Y. Premiere)
Performed Live by Puck Quartet
March 14 / Wednesday at 7:30PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets $25
Running Time: 60 Minutes

"Caligari creates a mindscape, a subjective psychological fantasy." - Roger Ebert
Composer Stephen Prutsman exhibits "multistyled facility." - The New York Times

Robert Wiene's 1920 silent film is a quintessential example of German expressionist cinema. New York's Puck Quartet accompanies the screening with Stephen Prutsman's inventive score for string quartet, touching on styles of the period ranging from late romantic to cabaret to carnival.

BAC Salon: Tarek Yamani
Afro-Tarab for Two
April 18 / Wednesday at 7PM and 9PM
John Cage & Merce Cunningham Studio
Tickets $20
Running Time: 60 Minutes

"The pianist exploits the most expressive musical idiom of his adopted city (jazz) to explore, transform, transfigure and shed fresh light on the music of his rooted, real homeland." - Time Out
"A magician with his chromatics and disquieting passing tones." - New York Music Daily

Critically acclaimed Lebanese-American composer and pianist Tarek Yamani explores classical Arabic music within the frameworks of African-American jazz. The result, a genre often dubbed as "Afro-Tarab," takes audiences on a journey from late 1800's Egypt and Iraq to contemporary New York.