This year's 2018 White Light Festival will run from October 16 through November 18. The multidisciplinary festival will feature events presented in six venues across the city, including world, U.S., and New York premieres. The ninth annual international festival will explore transcendence, interior illumination, and the communal impulse as exhibited through artistic expression across continents and centuries.
Framing Time combines music, movement, and light in a performance of Morton Feldman's Triadic Memories for solo piano. For this world premiere production, co-presented with Baryshnikov Arts Center, pianist Pedja Muzijevic performs Feldman's spare, poetic work alongside captivating movement from Spanish choreographer and dancer Cesc Gelabert.
The human voice steps into the light in a concert version of The Creation, Haydn's triumphal oratorio depicting the birth of the universe, presented by Les Arts Florissants under William Christie. In a more intimate a cappella offering, the Latvian Radio Choir pairs transcendent Mahler with contemporary Latvian composers at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin.
Violinist Hilary Hahn revisits Bach's captivating sonatas and partitas in a solo recital at Alice Tully Hall, and the Takács Quartet introduces their new violinist Harumi Rhodes in an exploration of Schubert with guest cellist David Requiro.
The festival closes with the U.S. premiere of Kaija Saariaho's chamber opera Only the Sound Remains, directed by Peter Sellars. Based on two Noh plays, the hypnotic work creates a shimmering world of supernatural encounters, given voice by countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and bass-baritone Davóne Tines, and embodied by dancer Nora Kimball-Mentzos.
Tickets for the 2018 White Light Festival are available online at WhiteLightFestival.org, by calling CenterCharge at 212.721.6500, or at the David Geffen or Alice Tully Hall Box Office (Broadway and 65th Street).
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