Tippet Rise Art Center Sets Inaugural Performance Schedule

Tippet Rise Art Center, a new cultural destination dedicated to a uniquely resonant experience of classical music and contemporary sculpture under the big sky of Montana's Beartooth Mountains, today announced the schedule for its inaugural concert season, June 17 - August 21, 2016. Programmed to create synergies between compositions and performers and the Art Center's outstanding vistas and exceptional venues, the season's 20 concerts will be performed at sites throughout Tippet Rise's 11,500 acres, in intimate and picturesque settings that include the 150-seat Olivier Barn, the open-sided Tiara band shell, and the sculptural, open-air Domo, as well as at the site of select sculptures. All tickets are priced at $10, with revenues dedicated to the Art Center's education programs.

As distinctive as Tippet Rise itself, the inaugural season, curated by music director Christopher O'Riley, will include a series of solo recitals by pianists known for their thoughtful, emotive, and individualistic musicianship. Among the virtuosos scheduled to perform are Nikolai Demidenko (in a rare U.S. appearance), Stephen Hough, and Konstantin Lifschitz. The season will also feature rising international stars: 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition laureates George Li and Lucas Debargue (in his first U.S. concert), as well as Alessandro Deljavan, Yevgeny Sudbin, and Jenny Chen. Anne-Marie McDermott, music director of Bravo! Vail, will perform a duet program with Christopher O'Riley. These performances will showcase Tippet Rise's growing collection of extraordinary pianos, which includes the recently acquired CD-18, the concert piano of Vladimir Horowitz and Eugene Istomin.

Tippet Rise promises special musical experiences in settings that blur the lines between nature, art, and architecture. As an exceptional event, confirming the marriage of music and nature at Tippet Rise, the season will include a performance of John Luther Adams's monumental outdoor composition Inuksuit, played by 45 percussionists including members of the Billings Symphony, the Excelsis Percussion Quartet, and others, to be named at a later date, coordinated by Douglas Perkins.

The world premiere of a newly commissioned song cycle by the distinguished Spanish composer Antón García-Abril, Tippet Rise Songs, will be performed by soprano Emily Helenbrook at Domo, a 98-foot-long, 16-foot-tall, sculptural concrete structure created especially for Tippet Rise. Domo is one of several such structures commissioned from the composer's son, also named Antón García-Abril, principal architect for the cutting-edge practice Ensamble Studio.

Tippet Rise also features outdoor sculptures and commissioned artworks by artists Mark di Suvero, Patrick Dougherty, and Stephen Talasnik. To celebrate these works and their creators, the season will feature open-air, on-site concerts that include performances of John Adams's Shaker Loops, Aaron Jay Kernis's Musica celestis, Fauré's violin sonata in A major, Poulenc's cello sonata, Ravel's piano trio in A minor, and Beethoven's string quartet in A minor, opus 132.

Among the chamber music highlights will be an outdoor all-Messiaen program, including Quatuor pour la fin du temps, with artists including pianist Svetlana Smolina and violinist Caroline Goulding; an evening of sonatas for cello and piano by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff performed by Matt Haimovitz and Christopher O'Riley; a performance of the Brahms C minor piano quartet by members of the Ariel String Quartet and Nikolai Demidenko; and an all-Scriabin program with performers including Yevgeny Sudbin and trumpeter Elmer Churampi.

Plans for the 2017 season at Tippet Rise are already underway. A three-year commissioning program with Aaron Jay Kernis will result in a solo piano work in 2017; a string quartet for the Borromeo Quartet in 2018; and a piece for a small chamber ensemble and voice in 2019.

Peter Halstead, co-founder of the Art Center, said, "There are moments in music when we are figuratively struck by lightning, when suddenly the gap between a sound and an emotion is bridged. At Tippet Rise, we hope to provide the kind of atmosphere, and the kind of performers, that make such moments possible. The musicians we are presenting reveal, innovate, and discover, embodying a sense of vision and a freedom from standard interpretations. We are thrilled by the range and sensitivity of the programming for our first season, which is shaped to Tippet Rise as our sculptors and architects have merged their creations into our mountain ridges and rolling fields."

Cathy Halstead, co-founder of the Art Center, said, "In a way, the meeting of music, landscape and sculpture at Tippet Rise returns us to the experience of performances and celebrations at the ancient Greek amphitheaters or Stonehenge. It's as if the cubicles of our cities had slowly dissolved, to let us step into a much older and deeper engagement with the stars above us and the human realities within. We hope that Tippet Rise will bring out dimensions of music and art that might not be immediately obvious, but that nevertheless connect us emotionally to the beautiful places of the world."

Christopher O'Riley said, "For this inaugural season, we have selected music inspired by the environment, in keeping with the Art Center's goal of restoring the profound, felt connection between the power of nature and the deep patterns of art. We are proud to offer immersive concerts of works by Scriabin and Messiaen; music celebrating the extraordinary artworks installed at Tippet Rise; and musical artists, especially pianists, who are distinguished by their probity, insight, and individuality. We believe this is a season in which music will ring true from the mountaintops. "

VENUES

Concerts will take place in the Olivier Barn and the Tiara, with design concept and acoustics developed by Tippet Rise director Alban Bassuet in collaboration with a team of engineers from Arup, and under Domo, designed by Ensamble Studio.

Alban Bassuet said, "During my years of working as a venue designer, I have seen a change in sensibility and aspiration in the concert world. Musicians, audiences, architects, and acousticians have all started to look for alternatives to physical configurations and performance formats. At Tippet Rise, we are meeting this desire by offering intimate, multi-sensory, and immersive performances in a range of indoor and outdoor performance venues matched with distinctive performers and spectacular natural settings. We hope this will create experiences that are deeply meaningful and utterly unique."

The scale and proportions of the Olivier Barn were inspired by the powerful performance spaces where Haydn and Mozart expected their works would be performed. A contemporary innovation-a high ceiling suspended above the boxlike space-lends an elevated, ethereal character to the deeply resonant acoustics, but is designed to mimic the pitched roof of a traditional wood barn. The rustic modesty of this design helps to establish an informal atmosphere and dissolve the barrier between performers and audience. The 100-seat Tiara serves as a moveable acoustic shell without walls, featuring a partial ceiling whose corners re-direct sound toward the audience, creating vibrant and enveloping acoustics. The design allows for 360° views of the rolling hills, with the Beartooth Mountains above. Local timber craftsmen Gunnstock Timber Frames have served as lead architect for the projects. Domo is one of Ensamble Studio's quasi-architectural gateway structures and shelters for Tippet Rise, constructed of raw-surfaced concrete cast from the land, which rear up from the earth like primitive markers.

Tippet Rise 2016 Inaugural Season

Concert Schedule

Friday, June 17, at 6:30 pm

Nikolai Demidenko, piano

Two-part recital to include a selection of waltzes and mazurkas by Chopin and the Ballade No. 1 and B minor Sonata of Liszt

Saturday, June 18, at 2:00 pm

Stephen Talasnik Celebratory Concert

Ariel String Quartet

Aaron Jay Kernis, Musica celestis

John Adams, Shaker Loops

Saturday, June 18, at 6:30 pm

Ariel String Quartet with Nikolai Demidenko

Program to include Brahms, C Minor Piano Quartet

Friday, June 24, at 6:30 pm

Jenny Chen, piano

Mozart, Sonata K.576 in D Major

Debussy, Feux d'artifice

Schumann, Allegro

Liszt, Feux Follets

Liszt, Spanish Rhapsody

Bach, Partita No.1

Mendelssohn, Rondo capriccioso, Op.14

Stravinsky, Petrushka

Saturday, June 25, at 2:00 pm

Ensamble Studio Commission Celebratory Concert at the site of Domo

Emily Helenbrook, soprano and Christopher O'Riley, piano

Suite of seven songs and piano solos to include:

World Premiere of Tippet Rise Songs, a cycle by Antón García-Abril based on poetry by Peter Halstead

Saturday, June 25, at 6:30 pm

Alessandro Deljavan, piano

Chopin, Trois Nouvelles Etudes; Etudes, Op. 10; and Etudes, Op. 25

Friday, July 1, at 6:30 pm

Yevgeny Sudbin, piano

Program to include sonatas by Scarlatti

Beethoven, Bagatelles, Op. 126

Mozart, Lacrimosa

Ravel, Gaspard de la nuit

Saturday, July 2, at 2:00 pm

Matt Haimovitz, cello

Complete Bach Suites for Solo Cello with commissioned overtures to each suite

Friday, July 8, at 6:30 pm

George Li, piano

Haydn, Sonata Hob. XVI: 50 in C major

Chopin, Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 35

Rachmaninoff, Variations on a theme of Corelli, Op. 42

Liszt, Consolation Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (cadenza by Rachmaninoff)

Saturday, July 9, at 2:00 pm

Patrick Dougherty Celebratory Concert

Eunice Kim, violin; John-Henry Crawford, cello; Christopher O'Riley, piano

Fauré, Violin Sonata in A Major

Poulenc, Cello Sonata

Ravel, Piano Trio in A Minor

Saturday, July 9, at 6:30 pm

All-Scriabin concert at the site of Domo to include:

Fantasy in B minor, Op. 28

Sonata No. 4 in F-sharp major, Op. 30

Svetlana Smolina (piano)

Le poème de l'extase, Op. 54

Christopher O'Riley, Svetlana Smolina (piano) and Elmer Churampi (trumpet)

Sonata #5, Op. 53

Yevgeny Sudbin (piano)

Vers la flame, Op. 72

Christopher O'Riley

Prometheus: Poem of Fire, Op. 60

Svetlana Smolina, Christopher O'Riley and Elmer Churampi

Friday, July 15, at 6:30 pm

Matt Haimovitz, cello and Christopher O'Riley, piano

Cello and Piano Sonatas of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff

Saturday, July 16, at 2:00 pm

Mark di Suvero Celebratory Concert

Dover String Quartet and Matt Haimovitz, cello

Beethoven, String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132

Schubert, Cello Quintet

Saturday, July 16, at 6:30 pm

All-Messiaen concert at Domo

Svetlana Smolina and Christopher O'Riley, pianos; Caroline Goulding, violin; Matt Haimovitz, cello; and John Bruce Yeh, clarinet

Visions de l'amen for two pianos

Quatuor pour la fin du temps

Friday, July 22, at 6:30 pm

Konstantin Lifschitz, piano

Bach, Goldberg Variations

Saturday, July 23, at 2:00 pm

John Luther Adams, Inuksuit

Ensemble to include the Excelsis Percussion Quartet and percussionists from the Billings Symphony and others, to be named at a later date

Douglas Perkins, coordinator

Saturday, July 23, at 6:30 pm

Stephen Hough, piano

Schubert, Sonata in D Major, D 784

Franck, Prelude, Chorale and Fugue

Hough, Sonata III (Trinitas)

Liszt, Valses Oubliées nos. 1 and 2

Liszt, Transcendental Etudes nos. 11 (Harmonies du soir) # 10

Saturday, August 20, at 2:00 pm

Anne-Marie McDermott & Christopher O'Riley

Two-piano recital to include works by Philip Glass, David Lang, Paul Lansky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sunday, August 21, at 6:30 pm

Lucas Debargue, piano

Scarlatti, 4 Sonatas: G Major Adagio, C Major Presto, C Major Andante, and D Minor Toccata

Beethoven, Sonata No. 7, Op.10, No. 3

Chopin, Ballade No. 4, Op.52

Ravel, Gaspard de la Nuit

Liszt, Mephisto Waltz

Tickets for all concerts are $10 for adults, and free for anyone 18 or younger. For additional information and tickets, please visit: www.tippetrise.org

To post a comment, you must register and login.