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Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham

WINTER/SPRING SEASON ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Jan 19–22 Silencio Blanco Chiflón, El Silencio del Carbón ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Feb 11–12 MCA Cunningham Event ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Feb 18–19 CCN—Ballet de Lorraine Works by , and Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Feb 25–26 Music for Merce ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Mar 11 Spektral Quartet, String Quartet No. 2 ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Mar 23–25 Charles Atlas/ Rashaun Mitchell/ Silas Riener ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Apr 5–8 Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne Battlefield ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Apr 23 Matthew Duvall and guests Whisper(s) MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– February 25–26, 2017 FEBRUARY 25 FEBRUARY 26

CHRISTIAN WOLFF GEORGE LEWIS Or 4 People (1994) Shadowgraph, 5 (1977) Christian Wolff, George Lewis, , George Music for , and John King Lewis, , , Quinta, JOAN LA BARBARA and Fast Forward Solitary Journeys of the Mind (2011) Joan La Barbara ZEENA PARKINS Merce Captiva Pieces for Acoustic Harp PHILIP SELWAY/QUINTA and Processing (2016–ongoing) Yaasholl (2014) Zeena Parkins and Philip Selway, Quinta, David Behrman and Ikue Mori Curated by John King DAVID BEHRMAN ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– One Note Arpeggio (2014) Long Throw (2007–ongoing) FULL ENSEMBLE Philip Selway and Quinta David Behrman, Christian Wolff, John King, George Lewis, DAVID BEHRMAN Live electronics and percussion Of Course I Do (2014) Zeena Parkins, and Quinta FAST FORWARD Frame drum, percussion, and objects Philip Selway, Quinta, JOHN KING Electric guitar and live electronics and John King IKUE MORI JOAN LA BARBARA Voice Solo GEORGE LEWIS Trombone and live electronics Ikue Mori IKUE MORI Live electronics Fontana Mix with Aria with ZEENA PARKINS Harp and objects Indeterminacy (1958–ongoing) Duo QUINTA Piano, saw, and violin Performed simultaneously by Ikue Mori and Christian Wolff PHILIP SELWAY Xylosynth and Prophet Joan La Barbara (Aria), –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– CHRISTIAN WOLFF Piano Fast Forward (Indeterminacy), INTERMISSION and Ikue Mori, David Behrman ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– (Fontana Mix) –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Merce Cunningham: Common –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Time, on view through April 30, 2017. INTERMISSION December 1952 and November 1952 (1952) Merce Cunningham: Common Time is organized by the Walker Art Center with major support –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Performed simultaneously by provided by the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation Zeena Parkins, Joan La Barbara, for the Visual Arts. Generous support is also provided by Agnes Gund and the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. Untitled (1975/1994) (1994) Quinta, George Lewis, Philip John King Selway, and Christian Wolff Lead support for Merce Cunningham: Common Time is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris: Caryn and King Harris, Katherine Harris, Toni and Ron Paul, Pam and Joe Szokol, Linda and Bill Friend, and Stephanie and John Harris; Cari and Michael JOHN KING FAST FORWARD Sacks; and Helen and Sam Zell. petite ouverture en forme de Octopoda (2017) Major support is provided by the Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation, Abby McCormick mErCE CunninGHAm (2009) For four pairs of arms O’Neil and D. Carroll Joynes, anonymous, and the Nancy Lauter McDougal and Alfred L. McDougal Exhibition Fund. Christian Wolff, David Behrman, Fast Forward, Ikue Mori, George Lewis, Quinta, and Philip Selway, and George Lewis Additional generous support is provided by the Irving Harris Foundation, Joyce E. Chelberg, NIB Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, Jennifer and Alec Litowitz, and Carol Prins and John King –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Hart/The Jessica Fund. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– EVENT

Special thanks to the exhibition chairs, Sara Albrecht and Anne L. Kaplan. EVENT Full ensemble Full ensemble The MCA is proud to partner with the Harris Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance, and the Joffrey Ballet. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Running time is approximately 120 Running time is approximately 120 minutes including one intermission. minutes including one intermission. ARTISTS UP CLOSE Mar 11, 2017 MCA Stage’s series of artist-centered talks, workshops, and open at MCA Stage studios engages the public with the artists in intimate settings and provides a closer look at the creative process. Join us today. MCA Talk SPEKTRAL QUARTET Feb 26, 2 pm Audiences are invited to join John King, Philip Selway, and other composers performing on Sunday for a talk about their distinctive music, as well as their collaborations with Merce Cunningham, celebrated in this historic convening. ABOUT MERCE CUNNINGHAM: COMMON TIME FEB 11–APR 30, 2017

The MCA and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis—institutions dedicated to multidisciplinary programming—are simultaneously presenting the largest surveys ever of work by the influential choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham and from his multidisciplinary collaborations. This immersive exhibition shows how Cunningham’s groundbreaking practice changed the course of modern dance in the twentieth century and continues to influence generations of artists, composers, and choreographers. The core of the exhibition is drawn from the Walker’s Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) Collection, which includes costumes, backdrops and décor, and sets, and is accompanied by works by Jasper Johns, Rei Kawakubo, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Ernesto Neto, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, and many others. These artworks illuminate the contemporaneous practice of these artists as well as the influence of Cunningham’s collaborations on pivotal art movements and transformational moments of artistic reinvention across more than six decades of creation. The MCA’s and Walker’s exhibitions, which showcase a series of commissioned performances, open with events by international touring companies and former Spektral Quartet dancers with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Photo: Drew Reynolds Morton Feldman: String Quartet No. 2

Tickets at mcachicago.org Making for Merce celebrates Collaborating with Merce and FROM THE ARTISTS the magical indeterminacy of the John taught me so much about moment. the magic of simultaneities and I moved to City from Minneapolis in 1976, and the —Quinta indeterminacy. following year attended my first Merce Cunningham Dance —Joan La Barbara Company (MCDC) concert at the Minskoff Theater on Broadway, Merce and John were my earliest which included Merce’s Sounddance and David Tudor’s Untitled (1950, I was 16) direct education It opened up my ear and mind to (1975/1994). and experience in doing experimental the horizon of musical sounds. work. I’m still (2017) thinking —Ikue Mori Still within me today is that visceral, powerful performance. MCDC about it. shows were always attended by many composers and musicians as —Christian Wolff well as dancers and supporters from the New York dance scene. We were there to experience their consistently new, groundbreaking work. In 1982, I sent MCDC Music Director John Cage a cassette tape recording of my music for “prepared violin,” which would result in him commissioning a new piece for MCDC, the first of four commissions that I created for the company. In addition, I actively toured with the company, performing music for Events around the world from 1985 to 2011. The Merce and John collaborative spirit was ever-expansive, open, friendly, trusting, and full of laughter and life. The concerts presented at the Walker Art Center and the MCA are meant to encapsulate and embrace as many musicians as possible who worked in that inspiring atmosphere—those who were there at the very beginning, those touched along the great trajectory, and those who were there for the last brilliant years. Merce and John had a lifelong practice of exploring the new, of constantly “beginning again,” working with different strategies, concepts, technologies, and collaborators. That spirit of freedom and experimentation is at the heart of this program. The spirit nurtured by Merce and John is kept alive by those Cunningham and John Cage perform A Dialogue, 1974 present here, performers and audiences alike. I thank all the Photo: Courtesy of Walker Art Center Archives participating composer/performers for their great energy, adventurousness, and imagination, as well as for remembering all Working with Merce allowed me We were never given directions by those others, some no longer with us, some far away, who have artistic self-responsibility in an Merce on what to do—these been part of this collective creative ethos. environment of respect. unconventional conditions —Fast Forward communicated to us musicians a John King warm message of trust and respect. Curator of Music for Merce Merce and John gave to me —David Behrman as composer, and to all their audiences as well, a great Deeply inspired by Merce and gift—the gift of freedom. John’s lifelong devotion and —John King engagement with the making of dance + sound in space-time Working with Merce’s choreo- and working in tandem, they graphy has consistently laid stepping stones with their turned the way I make music invention of a new kind of on its head. collaborative process. . —Philip Selway —Zeena Parkins ABOUT THE ARTISTS MERCE CUNNINGHAM (1919–2009) was a leader of the American avant-garde throughout his sixty-plus-year career and is considered one of the most important choreographers of our time. With an artistic career distinguished by constant experimentation and collab- oration with groundbreaking artists from every discipline, Cunningham expanded the frontiers of dance and contem- porary visual and performing arts. Cunningham’s lifelong passion for innovation also Joan La Barbara made him a pioneer in applying Photo: Cahill Connolly new technologies to the arts. Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award; Following a six-year tenure as DAAD- Artist-in-Residency; a soloist in the Martha Graham Civitella Ranieri, Guggenheim; Dance Company, Cunningham and seven NEA Fellowships. formed the Merce Cunningham She has also received numerous Dance Company in 1953 commissions for chamber as a forum to explore his ideas. ensembles, theater, orchestra, Together with John Cage, chorus, interactive technology, his partner in life and work, and soundscores for dance, Cunningham proposed a video, and film, including an number of radical innovations, electronic/vocal score for chief among them that dance Sesame Street. Her compositions and music could occur in have premiered at Festival the same time and space while d’Automne a Paris; Brisbane being created independently Biennial, Australia; Lincoln Merce Cunningham and John Cage, 1963 of one another. They also Center, New York; MaerzMusik, Photo: Jack Mitchell © Jack Mitchell/Getty Images made extensive use of chance Berlin; and Warsaw Autumn, procedures, abandoning Poland, as well as many musical forms, narrative, and other international venues. other conventions of dance La Barbara is an artist faculty composition. member of NYU and Mannes/ The New School. JOAN LA BARBARA (b. 1947) is a composer/performer/ DAVID BEHRMAN (b. 1937) sound artist renowned for has been active as a composer her unique vocabulary of and artist since the 1960s. Over experimental and extended the years, he has made sound vocal techniques. Her awards and multimedia installations, as and prizes include the 2016 well as compositions for David Behrman extensively with the Merce John King Mannheim Ballet. He has Photo: Maria Ludovici Cunningham Dance Company Photo: Jean Le Roi written several operas, performance in concerts. My under the musical direction of tank of water in which including ping and what is the Dear Siegfried, Leapday Night, Takehisa Kosugi from 1995 to instruments are played on the word, with texts by Samuel On the Other Ocean, Interspecies 2011. He composes large scale surface of the water). His Beckett; impropera, using Smalltalk, and Open Space with music-theater works for diverse recognitions include the DAAD randomly selected text messages Brass are among Behrman’s instrumentation, in works such Artist Residency Program in from the singers’ cell phones; works for soloists and ensembles. as Feeding Frenzy, a culinary Berlin, an Asian Cultural Council and herzstuck/heartpiece, with His sound and multimedia concert for musicians, cooks, Artist Residency in Osaka, a texts by Heiner Muller. King was installations include Cloud Music waiters, and the audience, and New York Foundation for the the codirector of the Music (a collaboration with Robert Covalent Bond, a collaboration Arts Grant, an NEA and Meet Committee for the Merce Watts and Bob Diamond), Pen with Miami filmmaker Barron the Composer grants. He Cunningham Dance Company Light (2002), and View Finder Sherer, which utilizes a custom has also been commissioned for from 2003 until its closing in (2005). Together with Robert made “pool table” (a 100-gallon numerous musical works. 2011. He is the recipient of Ashley, , and Fast Forward’s work has been the 2009 Alpert Award in the , he was a performed by musicians such Arts for Music and the 2014 founding member of the as David Behrman, Takehisa Foundation for Contemporary . He had a long Kosugi, , Fred Arts Award for Sound/Music. association with the Merce Frith, George Lewis, Joan La Recently, King was awarded Cunningham Dance Company Barbara, , Blue a Rockefeller Foundation/ and worked with John Cage on , and Min Xiao Fen. Bellagio Residency for March a number of projects. He was 2016, in addition to residencies a recipient of the John Cage JOHN KING (b. 1953) at the MacDowell Colony, Award from the Foundation is a composer, guitarist, and New Hampshire, and the Emily for Contemporary Arts and the violinist who has worked Harvey Foundation in Venice, Inge Maren Otto composer’s collaboratively with and been Italy. fellowship in 2016 at the commissioned by Kronos Quartet, American Academy in Berlin. Ethel, the Bang on a Can All- GEORGE LEWIS (b. 1952) Stars, Avant Media, and the is the Edwin H. Case Professor FAST FORWARD (b. 1954) Belgrade Philharmonic, as well of American Music at Columbia is a New York–based composer/ as the Merce Cunningham University and a fellow of musician who makes music Dance Company, the American Academy of Arts Fast Forward with almost anything. He toured Photo: Lucienne Vidah Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and and Sciences and the British George Lewis Photo: Chris Randle Mar 23–25, 2017 at MCA Stage Charles Atlas / Rashaun Mitchell / Silas Riener

Academy. Lewis’s other honors was premiered at the Museum include a 2002 MacArthur of Contemporary Art Chicago Fellowship and a 2015 in 2015. Guggenheim Fellowship. Lewis, a member of the Association IKUE MORI (b. 1953) for the Advancement of moved to New York in 1977 and Creative Musicians since 1971, began playing drums, forming has created works in electronics the seminal “no wave” band and computer music, computer- DNA with . In the based multimedia installations, mid-1980s, Mori employed and notated and improvisational drum machines in the unlikely forms that are documented context of improvised music, on more than 150 recordings, and forged her own signature and have been presented by style. Subsequently, Mori has the BBC Scottish Symphony collaborated with numerous Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, International Contemporary Ensemble, and others. His book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American received the American Book Award and the American Musicological Charles Atlas/Rashaun Mitchell/Silas Riener, Tesseract. Pictured from left to Society’s Music in American right: Rashaun Mitchell, Cori Kresge, Melissa Toogood, Silas Riener, Kristen Culture Award. Lewis is the Foote, and David Rafael Botana. Photo: © Mick Bello/EMPAC coeditor of the two-volume Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies (2016), TESSERACT and his opera Afterword (2015), commissioned by the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at Tickets at mcachicago.org Ikue Mori the University of Chicago, Photo: Scott Irvine recorded nine studio albums and has toured extensively around the world. It was with Radiohead that Selway first worked with the Rambert Dance Company, on the piece Split Sides in 2003. He then collaborated with John King and Robin Rimbaud at a Cunningham Event at the Barbican Centre in London in 2005. Most recently, together with Quinta and Adem, he wrote the music for the Cunningham Event staged by the Rambert Dance Company in 2014. He has also released two albums of his solo material. QUINTA (b. 1975) Zeena Parkins musicians and artists including Philip Selway is a London-based multi- Photo: Jeff Priess Björk, Ikue Mori, , Fred Photo: Alex Lake instrumentalist performer, improvisers in the , Frith, , Elliott Distinguished Visiting Artist at improviser, and experimental Europe, and Asia, while Sharp, , Nate in Oakland, composer. She has collabo- continuing to produce and Wooley, , Kim California. rated with a range of critically record her own music. Mori Gordon, , Lee acclaimed artists, including won the Distinctive Award for Ranaldo, , , PHILIP SELWAY (b. 1967) Bat for Lashes, Patrick Wolf, Prix Ars Electronics Digital Yasunao Tone, ROVA Saxophone composes music for film and Scanner, Lou Rhodes, Penguin Music, and received a grant Quartet, , Miya dance, and has been a member Café, Marques Toliver, The from the Foundation for Masaoka, and Green Dome of the British band Radiohead Paper Cinema, and the flagship Contemporary Arts in 2006. In with Ryan Sawyer and Ryan since it started in 1985, when contemporary dance company addition, Mori has been Ross Smith. She has received the members were in high Rambert, with which she was commissioned by Tate Modern commissions from the Whitney school. Since then, the band has the 2015/16 composer-in- and SWR German radio. Museum, New York; Tate Quinta Modern, London; Sharjah Art Photo: Rebecca Waterworth ZEENA PARKINS (b. 1956) Foundation, United Arab is originally from Detroit and is Emirates; Ne(x)tworks Ensemble, now based in Brooklyn. She is a New York; Either/Or Ensemble, composer, multi-instrumentalist, New York, and Ensemble improviser, and pioneer of Son, Stockholm; Donaueschinger contemporary harp practice Musiktage, Germany; and performance. She has Sudwestrundfunk, Stuttgart; and mastered and extended the Bang on a Can Spit Orchestra, language of the acoustic harp, New York. Her awards include and through a series of a Doris Duke Artist Award innovative electric models, and three Bessie Awards for exploded the instrument her work for dance. Her new through playing techniques, release, Three Harps Tuning preparations, and custom- Forks & Electronics, is based on designed electronic processing. a commissioned score for Neil She has performed, recorded, Greenberg’s Really Queer Dance and collaborated with with Harps. Parkins is a Apr 23, 2017 at MCA Stage MATTHEW DUVALL + GUESTS

Christian Wolff CHRISTIAN WOLFF (b. 1934) Photo: Chiyoko Slvanics is a composer, teacher, and residence. Next year, Quinta sometimes performer who was will travel to China as one of born in Nice, France, and has the three 2016/17 British lived in the United States since Council/PRS China musicians 1941. He studied piano with in residence. Since 2010, Grete Sultan and composition Quinta has worked with briefly with John Cage, in Radiohead’s Philip Selway, whose company—along with collaborating on the musical Morton Feldman, David Tudor, score for Rambert’s Merce and Earle Brown—his Cunningham Event and co- work found inspiration and producing and performing encouragement, as it would on Selway’s 2015 release, subsequently from Frederic Weatherhouse. Quinta is a Rzewski and Cornelius Cardew. member of the all-female Wolff’s long association with experimental arts collective Merce Cunningham and MCDC Collectress, which released began in 1953. As an improviser their first album, Mondegreen, he has played with the English in 2014. She plays a variety group AMM, Christian Marclay, of instruments, including the Takehisa Kosugi, John King, Matthew Duvall, Whisper(s) violin, piano, and musical saw. David Behrman, Keith Rowe, Photo: Elliot Mandel With a background in third- Steve Lacy, Larry Polansky, Kui sector activism, Quinta is co- Dong, Michael Pisaro, and Ikue founder of Music in Detention, Mori. Academically trained as a and spent formative years classicist, Wolff has taught WHISPER(S) working with Music in Prisons at Harvard and, from 1971 to and participatory filmmakers 1999, at Dartmouth College in Living Lens. music, comparative literature, Tickets at mcachicago.org and classics. The MCA’s newest ENACT MEMBERS THANK YOU affinity group,Enact , Dr. Bruce and Sally Bauer Leigh and Henry Bienen Lead support for the 2016–17 season of MCA Stage is provided by is a group of MCA Ms. Shawn M. Donnelley* Elizabeth A. Liebman. Circle Donors dedicated and Dr. Christopher M. Kelly Lois and Steve Eisen and Generous support for MCA Dance is provided by David Herro and to supporting the The Eisen Family Foundation Jay Franke. renowned programs Ginger Farley and Bob Shapiro David Herro and Jay Franke Additional generous support is provided by Caryn and King Harris, Ms. of MCA Stage. Join Cynthia Hunt and Philip Rudolph Shawn M. Donnelley and Dr. Christopher M. Kelly, Lois and Steve Eisen and today for opportunities Anne L. Kaplan The Eisen Family Foundation, Ginger Farley and Bob Shapiro, the Martha Anne and John Kern Struthers Farley and Donald C. Farley Jr. Family Foundation, Mary E. Ittelson, to meet artists, Elizabeth A. Liebman Sharon and Lee Oberlander, Maya Polsky, Carol Prins and John Hart/The gain behind-the-scenes Abby McCormick O’Neil and Jessica Fund, Ellen Stone Belic, Amphion Foundation, Inc., Leigh and Henry D. Carroll Joynes Bienen, Melynda Lopin, D. Elizabeth Price and Lou Yecies. access, and discuss Sharon* and Lee Oberlander groundbreaking Karen Peters and Charles Frank The MCA is a proud member of the Museums in the Park and receives Elizabeth Price and Lou Yecies major support from the Chicago Park District. directions with leading Carol Prins and John Hart/ curators—all while The Jessica Fund Mr. and Mrs. John Seder providing vital support. Ellen Stone Belic Linda and Michael Welsh BENEFITS OF ENACT MEMBERSHIP INCLUDE:

� Members-only programming throughout the MCA Stage season � Pre and post-performance discussions with artists Foundation � Behind-the-scenes access Season Sponsor to select rehearsals � Invitation to Season Reveal, an annual preview of the upcoming season � Opportunities for complimentary Preferred Hotel drinks and tickets Partner � All benefits of Circle Donors (see mcachicago.org/circle)

Circle Donor membership is required to join Enact. Enact dues are an additional $1,000 annually.

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

For more information, contact 220 E Chicago Ave us at [email protected]. *Enact Cochair Chicago, IL 60611 As of February 2017 As an internationally renowned institution Anne L. Kaplan, Chair devoted to contemporary culture, the Museum of the Board of of Contemporary Art Chicago presents the Trustees most thought-provoking visual art and Madeleine Grynsztejn, performing arts of our time. MCA Stage is a Pritzker Director vibrant series presenting theater, dance, and Teresa Samala music by leading artists from the US and de Guzman, Deputy around the world in the MCA’s three-hundred- Director seat Edlis Neeson Theater. Michael Darling, James W. Alsdorf MCA Stage’s groundbreaking performances Chief Curator are an integral part of MCA Chicago’s artist-activated, audience-engaged program- PERFORMANCE ming. Along with the museum’s exhibitions Yolanda Cesta Cursach, and educational initiatives, they encourage a Curator broad and diverse community to experience John Rich, Manager and discuss the work and ideas of living artists. Richard Norwood, Theater Production PARKING Manager Validate your ticket at coat check for $12 Phill Cabeen, Curatorial parking in the MCA garage (220 East Chicago Assistant Avenue) and the Bernardin garage (747 North Yingci Wei, Intern Wabash). The $12 parking is limited to six Kori Whitby, Intern hours on the date of performance. HOUSE MANAGEMENT LOST AND FOUND Kevin Brown, Associate To inquire about a lost item, call the museum Megan Cline, Associate at 312-280-2660. Unclaimed articles are held Quinlan Kirchner, for thirty days. Associate SEATING BOX OFFICE Please switch off all noise-making devices Matti Allison, Manager while you are in the theater. Phongtorn Phongluantum, Assistant Manager Patrons are seated at the management’s Molly Laemle, discretion. Food and open beverage containers Coordinator are not allowed in the seating area. Lucas Baisch, Associate Arion Davis, Associate REPRODUCTION Wright Gatewood, Unauthorized recording and reproduction of Associate a performance are prohibited. Peyton Lynch, Associate GENERAL INFORMATION Program notes compiled 312-280-2660 by Yolanda Cesta Cursach BOX OFFICE 312-397-4010 VOLUNTEER FOR PERFORMANCES 312-397-4072 [email protected]

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