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Tuesday–Wednesday, October 25–26, 2016
Sounds of India Curated by Mark Morris
Page 21 Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali (“Song of the Little Road”) Tuesday, October 25, at 6:15 pm
Page 22 Apu Trilogy: Aparajito (“The Unvanquished”) Tuesday, October 25, at 9:15 pm
Page 23 The River Wednesday, October 26, at 6:15 pm
Page 24 Apu Trilogy: Apur Sansar (“The World of Apu”) Wednesday, October 26, at 8:45 pm
Presented by Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in association with the Film Society of Lincoln Center
The White Light Festival presentation of Sounds of India is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation These screenings are made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Bruno Walter Auditorium, Please make certain all your electronic devices the New York Public Library for the are switched off. Performing Arts WhiteLightFestival.org 19 10-25 Sounds of India.qxp_GP 10/13/16 4:21 PM Page 2
MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center. UPCOMING WHITE LIGHT FESTIVAL EVENTS:
Artist Catering provided by Zabar’s and Zabars.com Sounds of India Thursday, October 27 at 7:30 pm in the American Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College Center Bombay Jayashri , vocals Embar Kannan , violin Nespresso is the Official Coffee of Lincoln Center V.V. Ramanamurthy , mridangam K.V. Gopalakrishnan , khanjira NewYork-Presbyterian is the Official Hospital of Amrit Ramnath , tambura Lincoln Center Sounds of India Friday, October 28 at 7:30 pm; Sunday, October 30 at 5:00 pm in the Gerald Lynch Theater Kerala Kalamandalam Kathakali Troupe Dussasana Vadhom (The Killing of Dussasana) Pre-performance lecture by Lakshmi Vishwanathan on October 28 at 6:15 pm in the Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College
Sounds of India Saturday, October 29; Thursday, November 3; and Saturday, November 5 at 7:30 pm in the Gerald W. Lynch Theater Mark Morris Dance Group Mark Morris , choreographer MMDG Music Ensemble O Rangasayee Serenade The “Tamil Film Songs in Stereo” Pas de Deux Pure Dance Items (World premiere) Pre-performance discussion with Mark Morris on November 5 at 6:15 pm in the Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College
Sounds of India Tuesday, November 1 at 7:30 pm in the Gerald W. Lynch Theater V. Selvaganesh , hybrid drums and khanjira Vikku Vinayakram , chathur ghatam V. Uma Shankar , ghatam and konnakol Swaminathan , khanjira and konnakol A. Ganesan , morsing and konnakol Pre-performance artist discussion at 6:15 pm
For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit WhiteLightFestival.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about pro - gram cancellations or to request a White Light Festival brochure.
Visit WhiteLightFestival.org for full festival listings. Join the conversation: #LCWhiteLight
We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building. 20 10-25 Sounds of India.qxp_GP 10/13/16 4:21 PM Page 3
Tuesday, October 25, 2016, at 6:15 pm
Sounds of India on Film Introduction by Kent Jones, Film Society of Lincoln Center
Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali (“Song of the Little Road”)
Directed by Satyajit Ray 1955 (125 minutes)
CAST Subir Banerjee, Apu Kanu Banerjee, Harihar Karuna Banerjee, Sarbojaya Chunibala Devi, Indir Thakrun Uma Das Gupta, Durga Runki Banerjee, Little Durga Reba Devi, Seja Thakrun Aparna Devi, Nilmoni’s wife Tulsi Chakravarti, Prasanna, school teacher
In Bengali with English subtitles
Presented by Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in association with the Film Society of Lincoln Center
The White Light Festival presentation of Sounds of India is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation This screening is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Bruno Walter Auditorium, Please make certain all your electronic devices the New York Public Library for the are switched off. Performing Arts WhiteLightFestival.org 21 10-25 Sounds of India.qxp_GP 10/13/16 4:21 PM Page 4
Tuesday, October 25, 2016, at 9:15 pm
Sounds of India on Film
Apu Trilogy: Aparajito (“The Unvanquished”)
Directed by Satyajit Ray 1956 (113 minutes)
CAST Smaran Ghosal, Apu (adolescent) Pinaki Sengupta, Apu (young) Karuna Banerjee, Sarbojaya Kanu Banerjee, Harihar Santi Gupta, Ginnima Sudipta Roy, Nirupama Subodh Ganguli, Headmaster Kali Roy, Akhil, press owner
In Bengali with English subtitles
Presented by Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in association with the Film Society of Lincoln Center
The White Light Festival presentation of Sounds of India is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation This screening is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Bruno Walter Auditorium, Please make certain all your electronic devices the New York Public Library for the are switched off. Performing Arts
22 10-25 Sounds of India.qxp_GP 10/13/16 4:21 PM Page 5
Wednesday, October 26, 2016, at 6:15 pm
Sounds of India on Film Introduction by Kent Jones, Film Society of Lincoln Center
The River
Directed by Jean Renoir 1951 (99 minutes) In 35mm
CAST Thomas E. Breen, Captain John Patricia Walters, Harriet Radha, Melanie Adrienne Corri, Valerie
In English and Bengali with English subtitles
Presented by Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in association with the Film Society of Lincoln Center
The White Light Festival presentation of Sounds of India is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation This screening is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Bruno Walter Auditorium, Please make certain all your electronic devices the New York Public Library for the are switched off. Performing Arts WhiteLightFestival.org 23 10-25 Sounds of India.qxp_GP 10/13/16 4:21 PM Page 6
Wednesday, October 26, 2016, at 8:45 pm
Sounds of India on Film
Apu Trilogy: Apur Sansar (“The World of Apu”)
Directed by Satyajit Ray 1959 (107 minutes)
CAST Soumitra Chatterjee, Apurba Roy Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Alok Chakravarti, Kajal Swapan Mukherjee, Pulu Dhiresh Majumdar, Shashinarayan Sefalika Devi, Shashinarayan’s wife Dhiren Gosh, Landlord
In Bengali with English subtitles
Presented by Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in association with the Film Society of Lincoln Center
The White Light Festival presentation of Sounds of India is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation This screening is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Bruno Walter Auditorium, Please make certain all your electronic devices the New York Public Library for the are switched off. Performing Arts
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Notes on the Program roaring by after having heard it many times without laying eyes on it, the train’s thun - By Kevin Filipski derous power and movement are con - trasted with Apu running up a hill to catch Apu Trilogy a glimpse. Ray’s genius was to shoot the Directed by Satyajit Ray sequence without cutting between Apu and the train, instead showing them in the Now considered to be among cinema’s frame together, making the small boy’s dis - milestones, Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy— covery even more extraordinary. comprising Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956), and Apur Sansar (1959)— The details that Ray packs into his films are didn’t appear fully formed like Athena from filled with the grace and radiance of ordi - Zeus’s skull. A series of events—meeting nary life and death. Even their relative director Jean Renoir, seeing Vittorio De roughness—the opening sequences of Sica’s Bicycle Thieves while on a visit to Pather Panchali are especially affected by a London, showing director John Huston novice director and colleagues feeling their early footage shot with amateurs, and get - way—works to their advantage. And the ting government money to finish shoot - films’ scores by sitar player extraordinaire ing—allowed Ray to make Pather Panchali , Ravi Shankar—he completed the music for the debut that put Indian cinema decidedly Pather Panchali in one 11-hour marathon on the international scene. session—are filled with the varied rhythms, energy, and emotion that are integral parts Pather Panchali (“Song of the Little Road”) of Apu and his family’s world. won a special prize at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival for Best Human Document, After making the second Apu film, and it is Ray’s humanity that shines through Aparajito (“The Unvanquished”)—which every frame of these three films, which are chronicles an adolescent Apu dealing with based on two novels by Bengali author tragedies at home while becoming a bril - Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay that make liant student—Ray did not think of giving up a Bildungs roman of a Bengali boy’s the saga a final chapter until he was asked coming of age. (Ray designed the cover abo ut it at the Venice Film Festival. He fin - and drew illustrations for a children’s book ished two other films, including the of Pather Panchali, which inspired him to acclaimed The Music Room, then returned adapt it for his debut film.) to Apu’s story with Apur Sansar (“The World of Apu”). With Ray’s customary sensitivity, The first film in the trilogy introduces young this final film in the trilogy follows the adult Apurba Roy and his family: father Harihar, Apu starting his own family. The trilogy can mother Sarbojaya, older sister Durga, and be seen as the apogee of Ray’s cinematic elderly aunt Indir. Ray observes the family artistry, even if he would continue to create, members’ relationships without approach - until his death in 1992, many more portraits ing sentimentality or melodrama. We first of deeply felt humanism. see young Apu through a close-up of his staring from beneath a blanket covering his The River head. Since much of the trilogy is seen Directed by Jean Renoir through Apu’s point of view, this initial shot of the young boy is particularly revealing. After his contract with RKO studio in Hollywood ended prematurely, French direc - In one of many memorable sequences in tor Jean Renoir decided not to stay in Pather Panchali, when Apu sees a train America nor return home to France. Instead,
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he worked with author Rumer Godden on scouted locations for The River in 1949; adapting her 1946 novel about a British fam - the veteran director encouraged the young ily in India, The River . The resulting 1951 Ray in his ambition to become a filmmaker. drama—the first color film for both Renoir and his cinematographer (and nephew) Still, Ray was disappointed at what he saw Claude Renoir—has been called by director onscreen: “I was looking forward with Martin Scorsese one of the most gorgeous great eagerness to the prospect of a great films ever made. Indeed, its ravishing color director tackling the Indian scene. I could palette encompasses the bluish-grey not help feeling that it was overdoing it a Ganges River, the reddish soil surrounding bit, coming all the way from California it, and the deep green lawns and foliage of merely to get the topography right.” the riverbank villages. For his part, Renoir was unapologetic Although ostensibly about how the appear - about making a film set in India but not ance of a wounded young American soldier about Indians: “[The] book was not con - (Captain John) affects the lives of a trio of cerned with living conditions in India. What teenagers (Valerie, Melanie, and Harriet), [Godden] and I tackled in our script was The River also contains sequences that the story of an English family, the symbol approach a documentary realism, in which that should be described by future histori - Renoir shows the people of India living ans (if historians are there to remain in cen - their ordinary lives in the fertile lands turies to come) as the end of an era.” around the endlessly flowing river. An era also ended for Renoir: Following Although Renoir has an outsider’s perspec - his India experience, his films traded tive that never lowers itself to Western dark, satirical wit for a more benign, ethe - condescension—the slight plot is no real spirit. match for the glimpses of India itself as both location and metaphor—some criti - Kevin Filipski has written about the arts for cisms were raised that Renoir concen - such publications as the New York Times trated on European characters at the and Time Out New York. expense of the Indians who lived and worked in the film’s actual locations. One such critic was none other than Satyajit —Copyright © 2016 by Lincoln Center for the Ray, who met Renoir when the latter Performing Arts, Inc.
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White Light Festival (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presen - I could compare my music to white light, ter of artistic programming, national leader which contains all colors. Only a prism can in arts and education and community rela - divide the colors and make them appear; tions, and manager of the Lincoln Center this prism could be the spirit of the lis - campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 tener. —Arvo Pärt. Now in its seventh free and ticketed events, performances, year, the White Light Festival is Lincoln tours, and educational activities annually, Center’s annual exploration of music and LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and fes - art’s power to reveal the many dimensions tivals including American Songbook, Great of our interior lives. International in scope, Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, the multidisciplinary festival offers a broad Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer spectrum of the world’s leading instrumen - Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, talists, vocalists, ensembles, choreogra - and the White Light Festival, as well as the phers, dance companies, and directors Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln complemented by conversations with Center , which airs nationally on PBS. As artists and scholars and post-performance manager of the Lincoln Center campus, White Light Lounges. LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 res - Lincoln Center for the Performing ident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a Arts, Inc. $1.2 billion campus renovation, completed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in October 2012.
Lincoln Center Programming Department Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming Jill Sternheimer, Director, Public Programming Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming Mauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary Programming Andrew C. Elsesser, Associate Director, Programming Regina Grande Rivera, Associate Producer Nana Asase, Assistant to the Artistic Director Luna Shyr, Senior Editor Olivia Fortunato, House Seat Coordinator Gabe Mizrachi, Program Content Coordinator
For the White Lights Festival Janet Rucker, Company Manager
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Arts in the Middle r o l y a T
n a e J Students from South Bronx Academy for Applied Media everal studies have examined how term effectiveness of the program, Sexposure to the arts in middle has documented increased parent school strongly impact a student’s engagement, which can have an impact social skills and development as well as on student success. Some schools have likelihood to graduate from high school. also noted that students are becoming In 2013, Lincoln Center Education vibrant and vocal participants when launched a pilot program in partnership the arts are integrated into classrooms. with the New York City Department of If results continue in this direction, Education aimed at this specific issue. Lincoln Center Education hopes to Called Arts in the Middle, it focuses on develop an adaptable model of the arts education as a potential catalyst program that can be disseminated for improved student engagement and nationally to bring arts education to success in and out of school, as well as underserved communities. parent engagement, teaching practices, “As our partnership with the New and school and community culture. York City Department of Education Through Arts in the Middle, Lincoln continues to grow, so, too, does our Center Education is working with more commitment to supporting whole than a dozen underserved New York communities by providing thoughtful City middle schools that have little to programs for students and families no arts programs. LCE is supporting around New York City’s five boroughs,” schools with efforts to hire a part-time said Russell Granet. “Arts in the Middle or full-time arts teacher, in addition is just one of many ways Lincoln to deploying its own roster of skilled Center Education is leveraging high- teaching artists to help in the classroom quality arts programs to improve the and provide professional development lives of all New Yorkers.” for teachers and family engagement. Early results of these efforts to support educators and students are showing positive results. Metis Associates, hired by LCE to evaluate short- and long- 4 decades of thinking like an artist
Learn more about Lincoln Center Education and its work at home and abroad: LincolnCenterEducation.org
10-25 Sounds of India.qxp_GP 10/13/16 4:21 PM Page 11 Accessibility at Lincoln Center
eflecting a quote by Lincoln Center venues. Another major R Center’s first president John D. component of Accessibility is its Rockefeller III that “the arts are not for longstanding “Passport to the Arts.” the privileged few, but for the many,” The program annually distributes to Lincoln Center has had as a central children with disabilities thousands mission from its start making the of free tickets to a variety of Lincoln arts available to the widest possible Center performances, including audiences. In 1985, that led to the New York City Ballet and the New establishment of the Department of York Philharmonic—a welcoming Programs and Services for People with introduction to the arts. A parent who Disabilities to ensure full participation participated in a recent “Passport” in the thousands of events presented event commented “It allowed my annually across the Lincoln Center family and I to enjoy and learn along campus. It was the first such program with everyone else. The accessibility… at any major performing arts center made it easier for our family to “relax” in the U.S. and has long- and truly enjoy the served as a model for experience.” other arts institutions Accessibility is around the country. expanding the Celebrating its 30th ways it serves anniversary with a new adults with name, Accessibility disabilities. It at Lincoln Center, introduced and the program oversees American continues to provide Sign Language- exceptional guest led official tours care to all visitors, of Lincoln Center, as well as training and offers live in accessibility to audio description colleagues at Lincoln for select Lincoln Center’s resident Center Festival organizations, including performances. the Film Society of Accessibility Lincoln Center, the looks forward to growing its inclusive New York Philharmonic, and Jazz programs in the years to come. at Lincoln Center. Accessibility oversees the production To learn more about Accessibility of large-print and Braille programs at Lincoln Center, please contact for hundreds of performances taking [email protected] or call place each year at various Lincoln 212.875.5375.