The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Announces Fall 2020 Performance Season

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The Met has announced a series of performances that will include MetLiveArts premieres from countertenor John Holiday and singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash inspired by current exhibitions. There will also be digital debuts of past concerts that took place at the Museum. All performances will be presented virtually and can be streamed on The Met’s  YouTube channel and Facebook. All performances are free, and the videos will remain online indefinitely.

Limor Tomer, Lulu C. and Anthony W. Wang General Manager of Live Arts, said: “While the Museum was closed, the Department of Live Arts mined its rich archives, offering digital premieres of such masterpieces as the suffragist opera, The Mother of Us All, and unique performances by artists like Rhiannon Giddens at The Temple of Dendur. Over the past few months, it has been thrilling to stage such singular live work, filmed right in the empty galleries for an online audience. While we can’t come together physically, MetLiveArts continues to engage and challenge living artists and present powerful, complex contemporary works of art at the Museum.”

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2020 Performance Schedule

MetLiveArts Premieres

John Holiday: Hold On! Freedom Is Coming!

Tuesday, October 27, 7 p.m.
John Holiday is an ascendant countertenor whose programs weave together opera and traditional African American music. His voice has been praised as “a thing of astonishing beauty” (New Yorker) and as “arrestingly powerful, secure, and dramatically high” (Wall Street Journal). Inspired by the exhibition of Jacob Lawrence’s narrative series Struggle: From the History of the American People, Holiday creates an urgent program that juxtaposes classical Italian opera with Civil Rights-era songs by African American composers including Margaret Bonds and H. Leslie Adams.
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Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue through November 1, 2020.

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Rosanne Cash and A. M. Homes: Eye of the Collector

Tuesday, November 17, 7 p.m.
A moving tribute to the exhibition Photography’s Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection, this film, directed and edited by the acclaimed film maker Phyllis Housen, braids together performances by Rosanne Cash and A. M. Homes with images from the exhibition. The film reflects on the layers of meaning that emerge through the images and themes found in works by Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Edward Ruscha, and others from Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee’s uniquely personal photography collection.
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Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Photography’s Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue through November 30, 2020.

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Digital Premieres

The Seasons Guitar Quartet: Anthony Wilson featuring Steve Cardenas,

Chico Pinheiro, and Julian Lage
Tuesday, December 1, 7 p.m.
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Between 2002 and 2006, master luthier John Monteleone created a quartet of guitars he dubbed “The Four Seasons.” Conceived as a complete musical ensemble, each beautifully crafted instrument suggests a time of the year. Designed visually and sonically to reflect the mood of one of the seasons, the guitars are decorated with precious materials such as gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, and coral stones. In this MetLiveArts digital premiere, four of today’s finest jazz guitarists—Anthony Wilson, Julian Lage, Chico Pinheiro, and Steve Cardenas—premiere Seasons: A Song Cycle for Guitar Quartet, created especially for these exceptional instruments by guitarist/composer/arranger Wilson. Monteleone’s “The Four Seasons” guitars were acquired by The Met’s Department of Musical Instruments in 2017. This performance was recorded on April 10, 2011.
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Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Making The Met, 1870–2020, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue through January 3, 2021.

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Handel and Haydn Society: Monteverdi Vespers of 1610

Tuesday, December 15, 7 p.m.
Boston’s famed period instrument ensemble Handel and Haydn Society along with conductor Harry Christophers perform Monteverdi’s sublime, polyphonic tour de force in the powerful setting of The Met’s Temple of Dendur. This sold-out performance was originally recorded on April 8, 2017.
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Prior Livestreamed Performances

Throughout the Museum’s temporary closure and following the reopening of The Met last August, MetLiveArts has presented a monthly digital premiere and also streamed live performances. On June 21, a streamed concert by South African cellist Thapelo Masita was recorded in the empty galleries of The Met Cloisters. After the Museum reopened on August 29, MetLiveArts staged the world premiere of the site-specific iteration of Taiwanese-American artist Lee Mingwei’s durational performance work OUR LABYRINTH in collaboration with legendary American dancer, choreographer, and Artistic Director of New York Live Arts Bill T. Jones. Live from The Met Fifth Avenue and for an online audience only, the performances were broadcast on The Met’s YouTube and Facebook on September 16, 23, and 30.

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Program Credits
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John Holiday: Hold On! Freedom Is Coming!
This program is made possible by Beth and Gary Glynn. Additional support is provided by The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.
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Rosanne Cash and A. M. Homes: Eye of the Collector
This program is made possible in part by Douglas Dockery Thomas. Additional support is provided by The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.
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The Seasons Guitar Quartet: Anthony Wilson featuring Steve Cardenas, Chico Pinheiro, and Julian Lage
This presentation is supported by The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.
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This concert features Anthony Wilson, a 1986 alumnus of the National YoungArts Foundation.
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Handel and Haydn Society: Monteverdi Vespers of 1610
This presentation is supported by The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.
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Exhibition Credits 
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Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle is made possible by the Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore Foundation. 
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It is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. 
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Making The Met, 1870-2020 is made possible by the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.

Lead corporate sponsorship is provided by Bank of America. 

Photography’s Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection is made possible by Joyce Frank Menschel and the Alfred Stieglitz Society. 

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www.metmuseum.org

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028

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AAQ / Resource: Bruce Nagel + Partners Architects

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