CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS UBUNTU: MUSIC AND ARTS OF SOUTH AFRICA A CITYWIDE FESTIVAL EXPLORING SOUTH AFRICAN ARTS & CULTURE October 8 to November 5, 2014

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CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS

UBUNTU: MUSIC AND ARTS OF SOUTH AFRICA

A CITYWIDE FESTIVAL EXPLORING
SOUTH AFRICAN ARTS & CULTURE

October 8 to November 5, 2014

WEEK THREE OF CARNEGIE HALL’S MONTH-LONG CITYWIDE FESTIVAL
FEATURES CONCERTS, FILM, AND VISUAL ART

Soprano Elza van den Heever Makes Her New York Recital Debut on
Friday, October 24 in Weill Recital Hall

David Kramer Band and Young Stars: Traditional Cape Malay Singers
Perform on Saturday, October 25 in Zankel Hall

Paper Music: A Ciné Concert by Philip Miller and William Kentridge Is Presented on
Monday, October 27 in Zankel Hall

A Distant Drum, a New Music & Theater Work from Violinist Daniel Hope and Writer
Christopher Hope Has New York Premiere on Tuesday, October 28 in Zankel Hall

Jazz Group Kesivan and the Lights Makes New York Debut on
Thursday, October 30 in Zankel Hall

Partner Events at Leading Cultural Institutions Extend the Reach of the Festival Citywide

carnegiehall.org/SouthAfrica

William Kentridge and Philip Miller

This fall, Carnegie Hall presents UBUNTU: Music and Arts of South Africa, a month-long festival from October 8 to November 5, 2014, featuring an exciting array of events to be presented at Carnegie Hall and partner venues throughout New York City, inviting audiences to explore the incredibly dynamic and diverse culture of South Africa. Click here for a complete festival press kit.

Week three highlights at Carnegie Hall include a pair of special projects in Zankel Hall. On Monday, October 27 at 7:30 p.m., the Johannesburg-born visual artist William Kentridge and his South African compatriot, composer Philip Miller, collaborate on Paper Music: A Ciné Concert by Philip Miller and William Kentridge. Their artistic partnership dates back to Kentridge’s 1994 film Felix in Exile, part of his celebrated Soho Eckstein series for which Miller wrote the score. Paper Music is part of an ongoing exploration of the different relationship between image and sound, featuring a selection of films by Kentridge with music by Miller performed by vocalists Joanna Dudley and Ann Masina, pianist Idith Meshulam, and Miller performing on electronic sampler and foley.

In another special project, violinist Daniel Hope curates an original music and theater production, A Distant Drum, which has its U.S. premiere on Tuesday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m. Hope joins forces with his father, writer Christopher Hope, founder of South Africa’s Franschhoek Literary Festival, for the work, commissioned by Carnegie Hall, which is a portrait of Nat Nakasa, a brilliant writer and irreverent spirit of his generation, who left behind South Africa’s Apartheid of the 1960s for the United States. The amazing array of artists performing in the work include music director, composer, and keyboardist Ralf Schmid; cellist Vincent Segal; percussionist Jason Marsalis; bassist Michael Olatuja; and actors Nat Ramabulana and Christiaan Schoombie; with music supervisor Andrew Tracey, producer and lighting designer Mannie Manim, digital choir recordings by Themba Mkhize, and director Jerry Mofokeng.

Also during week three of the festival, South African soprano Elza van den Heever makes her New York recital debut with pianist Vlad Iftinca on Friday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Weill Recital Hall. Ms. van den Heever earned rave reviews for her 2013 Metropolitan Opera debut as Elizabeth I in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. For the UBUNTU festival, she performs Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42, and songs by Handel, Fauré, Brahms, Marais, Lemmer, and John K. Pescod.

The following evening, Saturday, October 25 at 9:00 p.m. in Zankel Hall, the fascinating folk music from the Cape region of South Africa is explored by two groups: composer, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and tireless champion of Cape musical traditions David Kramer performs with a lineup of top musicians from Cape Town and the Karoo desert. And New York audiences also have a rare opportunity to hear a Cape Malay choir—the Young Stars: Traditional Cape Malay Singers—a 15-voice male choir led by Moeniel Jacobs. They perform music from Cape Town that combines Dutch folk songs and Afrikaans comic songs with colorful inflections and ornaments from vocal traditions as far afield as Malaysia, Arabia, and East Africa.

To conclude week three of the UBUNTU festival, jazz group Kesivan and the Lights makes its New York debut on Thursday, October 30 at 8:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall. Kesivan Naidoo is one of the exciting leaders of the new generation of Cape jazz performers. A composer, drummer, and bandleader, Naidoo leads a fiery quintet that is equally exciting playing a standard or an original work. The group will also play a free Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert at Flushing Town Hall in Queens on Saturday, November 1 at 7:30 p.m. presented by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. WMI will present UBUNTU events at Carnegie Hall and in community venues throughout the festival, inviting families, young musicians, and the community at large to experience a wide range of music from South Africa.

Throughout the UBUNTU festival, an exhibition in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall lobby, entitled Johannesburg in Print, celebrates the expression of South Africa’s visual arts community through the medium of printmaking. The displayed works were created in the city of Johannesburg and highlight the vibrant David Krut Print Workshop, which has fostered a creative community of emerging and established artists in South Africa for more than a decade.

UBUNTU extends throughout New York City, with festival programming at leading partner cultural institutions featuring music, dance, film, visual arts, panel discussions, and more.

Week three partner events include a screening of the film 28 Up South Africa on Saturday, October 25 at 1:00 p.m. at the American Museum of Natural History as part of the Margaret Mead Film Festival. Patterned on the acclaimed British documentary project, this South African documentary series follows a group of people filmed first at age seven and then subsequently every seven years. The work offers a diversity of personal stories which collectively create a unique portrait of the social, cultural, and political history of a country. This fourth installment of the South African series, directed by Angus Gibson, the Oscar-nominated director of Mandela and Yizo Yizo, captures a group of 28-year-olds, first filmed as children living under Apartheid, whose lives reflect the dizzying and complex layers of change their nation has undergone in the two decades since the repressive regime’s fall.

Keyes Art Projects highlights contemporary trends in visual arts in South Africa, coordinating a series of exhibitions at leading galleries in New York City. Openings during the third week of the UBUNTU festival include Marian Goodman Gallery, presenting the work of William Kentridge from October 27 to November 27, and David Krut Projects, presenting the work of Stephen Hobbs, William Kentridge, Senzo Shabangu, and Diane Victor from October 30 to November 15.

The New York Public Library partners with Urban Stages to bring South African cultural programs to young people. In the UBUNTU festival’s third week, these include a Puppet-Making Workshop for Kids on Saturday, October 25 at 2:00 p.m. at the Bronx Library Center and South African Drumming for Teens on Wednesday, October 29 at 3:30 p.m. at the Great Kills Library in Staten Island. Additional workshops during the festival will be held on October 7 and 14 (puppet-making) and October 10, 16, and 21 (drumming).

UBUNTU: Music and Arts of South Africa
With its UBUNTU festival, Carnegie Hall salutes South Africa, a country with its dizzying patchwork of cultures, eleven official languages, and a cultural life like none other. Roughly translated as “I am because you are,” Ubuntu is a philosophy from Southern Africa that emphasizes the importance of community, a way of thinking that has influenced recent moves toward reconciliation and cultural inclusion in South Africa as fostered by South Africa’s former president, the late Nelson Mandela. The spirit of this philosophy is embodied in the festival’s programming, which features a varied lineup of artists representing the many threads that together make up the country’s musical culture.

“In creating the UBUNTU festival, we were inspired by the cultural life of this incredibly diverse country,” said Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director. “It is a nation with a dynamic, often surprising culture like no other—the birthplace of larger-than-life musical presences like Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim, and now, a seemingly endless array of vocal talent from every corner of the country. Our festival also comes twenty years after the first free elections in South Africa, an anniversary made even more resonant by the recent passing of Nelson Mandela. The country’s landscape continues to evolve, and this makes for fascinating explorations throughout the arts.”

Dedicated to Mr. Mandela’s legacy, the UBUNTU festival features Carnegie Hall performances by artists representing different musical traditions, including concerts paying tribute to notable South African icons and milestones. In addition to showcasing world-renowned South African musicians who are beloved the world over, festival programming will also provide a window for audiences into many kinds of South African music that may be less well-known: the powerful spirituality and dynamism of the maskandi music of the Zulu people, music from the Cape region including a Cape Malay choir and folk musicians from remote regions of the Karoo desert, and two thrilling generations of South African jazz artists. In addition, two critically-acclaimed South African classical vocalists will make their New York recital debuts as part of the festival. Looking beyond performances at Carnegie Hall, the UBUNTU festival will extend citywide through events at prestigious partner organizations, with programming showcasing visual art, film, and dance, as well as panel discussions featuring leading social and political voices on the significant cultural issues.

UBUNTU partners include: African Film Festival Inc.; Anna Zorina Gallery; Apollo Theater; David Krut Projects; Flushing Town Hall; Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture; Jazz at Lincoln Center; The Julliard School; Keyes Art Projects; Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History; Marian Goodman Gallery; Mark Borghi Fine Art; The New Victory Theater; New York City Center; The New York Public Library; The Paley Center for Media; Queens College, City University of New York; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Ubuntu Education Fund; Weeksville Heritage Center; and the World Music Institute.

Carnegie Hall has launched a special UBUNTU festival website, carnegiehall.org/SouthAfrica, which will feature information on festival events, interviews with artists, videos introducing the music being performed, and other content designed to illuminate festival offerings. For a video overview of the festival, please click here.

UBUNTU: Music and Arts of South Africa
WEEK THREE

Friday, October 24, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.
Weill Recital Hall
ELZA VAN DEN HEEVER
, Soprano
New York Recital Debut
VLAD IFTINCA, Piano

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL “Mio caro bene” from Rodelinda
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL “Ah! crudel, Il pianto mio” from Rinaldo
ROBERT SCHUMANN Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42
GABRIEL FAURÉ “Les roses d’Ispahan,” Op. 39, No. 4
GABRIEL FAURÉ “Après un rêve,” Op. 7, No. 1
GABRIEL FAURÉ “Clair de lune,” Op. 46, No. 2
GABRIEL FAURÉ “Fleur jetée,” Op. 39, No. 2
JOHANNES BRAHMS “Wie Melodien zieht es mir,” Op. 105, No. 1
JOHANNES BRAHMS “O Komme, holde Sommernacht,” Op. 58, No. 4
JOHANNES BRAHMS “Die Mainacht,” Op. 43, No. 2
JOHANNES BRAHMS “Von ewiger Liebe,” Op. 43, No. 1
JOHANNES BRAHMS “Botschaft,” Op. 47, No. 1
STEPHANUS LE ROUX MARAIS “Heimwee”
STEPHANUS LE ROUX MARAIS “Geboorte van die Lente”
STEPHANUS LE ROUX MARAIS “Mali, die Slaaf se Lied”
JOHN K. PESCOD “Oktobermaand”
PETRUS JOHANNES LEMMER “My Siel is siek van Heimwee”

Tickets: $43
___________________________________

Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 1:00 p.m.
American Museum of Natural History
Film Screening
28 UP SOUTH AFRICA

Angus Gibson, Director

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street | Manhattan
amnh.org/mead | 212-769-5200

Tickets: $12 (available in mid-September)

Presented by the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History.
___________________________________

Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 2:00 p.m.
Bronx Library Center

310 East Kingsbridge Road | Bronx
PUPPET-MAKING WORKSHOPS FOR KIDS

Other dates:
Tuesday, October 7 at 4 p.m.
Washington Heights Library
1000 St. Nicholas Avenue | Manhattan

Tuesday, October 14 at 4 p.m.
Melrose Library
910 Morris Avenue | Bronx

nypl.org

Free

Presented by The New York Public Library in partnership with Urban Stages.
___________________________________

Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 9:00 p.m.
Zankel Hall
DAVID KRAMER BAND
YOUNG STARS: TRADITIONAL CAPE MALAY SINGERS

•• Moeniel Jacobs, Music Director

Tickets: $39, $48
___________________________________

Monday, October 27 to Thursday, November 27
Marian Goodman Gallery
Exhibition
WILLIAM KENTRIDGE

Marian Goodman Gallery
24 West 57th Street | Manhattan
mariangoodman.com | 212-977-7160

Free

Coordinated by Keyes Art Projects.
___________________________________

Monday, October 27, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.
Zankel Hall
PAPER MUSIC: A CINÉ CONCERT BY PHILIP MILLER AND WILLIAM KENTRIDGE

Introduction by William Kentridge
Joanna Dudley, Voice
Ann Masina, Voice
Idith Meshulam, Piano
Philip Miller, Electronic Sampler and Foley

An evening of short-film screenings by William Kentridge with live music by Philip Miller

Tickets: $44, $52
___________________________________

Tuesday, October 28, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.
Zankel Hall
A DISTANT DRUM

Daniel Hope, Artistic Director and Violin
Christopher Hope, Libretto
Ralf Schmid, Music Director, Composer, and Keyboards
Vincent Segal, Cello
Jason Marsalis, Percussion
Michael Olatuja, Bass
Andrew Tracey, Music Supervisor
Nat Ramabulana, Actor
Christiaan Schoombie, Actor
Themba Mkhize, Digital Choir-Recordings, South Africa
Mannie Manim, Producer and Lighting Design
Jerry Mofokeng, Director

A Distant Drum (US Premiere, commissioned by Carnegie Hall)

Tickets: $44, $52
___________________________________

Wednesday, October 29, 2014 at 3:30 p.m.
Great Kills Library

56 Giffords Lane | Staten Island
SOUTH AFRICAN DRUMMING FOR TEENS

Other dates:
Friday, October 10 at 3:30 p.m.
Baychester Library
2049 Asch Loop North | Bronx

Thursday, October 16 at 4 p.m.
Edenwald Library
1255 East 233rd Street | Bronx

Tuesday, October 21 at 3:30 p.m.
Parkchester Library
1985 Westchester Avenue | Bronx

nypl.opg

Presented by The New York Public Library in partnership with Urban Stages.
___________________________________

Thursday, October 30 to Saturday, November 15
David Krut Projects
Exhibition
STEPHEN HOBBS, WILLIAM KENTRIDGE, SENZO SHABANGU, DIANE VICTOR

David Krut Projects
526 West 26th Street, #816 | Manhattan
davidkrut.com | 212-255-3094

Free

Coordinated by Keyes Art Projects.
___________________________________

Thursday, October 30, 2014 at 8:30 p.m.
Zankel Hall
KESIVAN AND THE LIGHTS

•• Kesivan Naidoo, Drums and Composer
•• Feya Faku, Trumpet
•• Justin Bellairs, Alto Saxophone
•• Kyle Shepherd, Piano
•• Reza Khota, Guitar
•• Shane Cooper, Double Bass

The Shape of Jazz series is made possible by The Joyce and George Wein Foundation in memory of Joyce Wein.

Tickets: $39, $48

*********
Lead funding for UBUNTU: Music and Arts of South Africa is provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Additional support is provided by the Mai Family Foundation, South African Tourism, and South African Airways.

UBUNTU is held in collaboration with the South African Consulate General in New York in celebration of South Africa’s 20 years of freedom and democracy.

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.

Breguet is the Exclusive Timepiece of Carnegie Hall.

MasterCard is a Proud Supporter of Carnegie Hall.

United® is the Official Airline of Carnegie Hall.

Ticket Information
Tickets for all UBUNTU: Music and Arts of South Africa festival events events taking place at Carnegie are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org.

For tickets to UBUNTU partner events, please contact the specific venue.

For Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.

In addition, for all Carnegie Hall presentations in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage a limited number of partial view (seats with obstructed or limited sight lines or restricted leg room) will be sold for 50% of the full price. For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit carnegiehall.org/discounts. Artists, programs, and prices are subject to change.

For more information and updates, please visit carnegiehall.org/SouthAfrica or call CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800.

Miller and Kentridge photo Courtesy of Carnegie Hall; Photo of Daniel Hope by Harald Hoffman

 

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