NEW YORK, April 11, 2024––From April 22—Earth Day—through April 30, Juilliard presents three unique programs that celebrate and consider our changing environment. Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK Lincoln Center and Central Park, a location-based sound art installation, will launch on Earth Day. The following weekend, in partnership with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, John Luther Adams’ Crossing Open Ground takes place on the Josie Robertson Plaza. Directed and choreographed by Pam Tanowitz, the ensemble of 46 musicians and dancers will move across the campus. Both events are curated by Juilliard Arnhold Creative Associate at Large Nadia Sirota (BM ’04, MM ’06, viola; faculty) and produced through Juilliard’s Creative Enterprise department, which has multidisciplinary collaborations at the core of its mission. An additional Earth Month event takes place April 30, when WQXR hosts an interdisciplinary concert featuring Juilliard music and drama students at the Greene Space. And Lincoln Center presents an Earth Day Celebration Concert featuring Juilliard’s Green Club on April 22 at the David Rubenstein Atrium. All performances are free or pay as you wish and highlight public engagement, interdisciplinary work, and partnerships with peer organizations.
Juilliard’s Earth Month festivities begin with the aural public artwork Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK Lincoln Center and Central Park. The location-based sound art is accessed via a free GPS-enabled app that uses original music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and sound artist Ellen Reid to illuminate the natural environment. Juilliard has commissioned a new Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK in Lincoln Center that connects with her existing work in Central Park via Broadway. This expansion includes music by Reid as well as archival recordings from a selection of past performances by Juilliard students. SOUNDWALK is user-guided; the path you choose dictates the music you hear, and no two visits will be the same.
Reid invites participants to explore at their own pace, triggering a dense array of musical cells that are carefully crafted to harmonize with the park’s landscape and attractions. “I encourage everyone to make repeated visits throughout the year to experience how weather, light, and music can change our perception of these landscapes and environments,” she says. “Most of all, I hope people will take a moment away from the bustle of our hyper-connected world to enjoy the beauty of public parks and to spend some quality time immersed in nature.”
Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK Lincoln Center and Central Park is presented by Juilliard and launches on Earth Day. Starting on April 22, 2024 it will be available to download and explore for two years.
Juilliard’s Earth Month programs continue Monday, April 22 at 7:30pm, with Juilliard Green Club Celebrates Earth Day at the David Rubenstein Atrium, presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. This multi-genre, immersive concert asks the audience to consider our collective futures in the face of climate change amid differences in background, class, resources, and geographical location. The program explores art that seeks out the past, present, and future of the Earth to answer the question: How have artists considered their futures in the past? And what can we learn from them in imagining our own future?
On April 27, Juilliard and Lincoln Center present the New York premiere of John Luther Adams’ Crossing Open Ground. An outdoor work composed by Adams for winds, brass, and percussion, Crossing Open Ground is a celebration of nature, life, and art as well as an opportunity to engage with our surroundings. The work is written for multiples of 40 musicians. An ensemble of Juilliard students and alumni musicians and dancers will perform the piece across Lincoln Center’s campus, converging and culminating at the Josie Robertson Plaza. This will be the first time Crossing Open Ground has been presented in an urban environment and is the largest iteration of the work, traversing 16 acres of outdoor space.
The live outdoor performance is directed and choreographed by Pam Tanowitz and coached and co-music directed by Arnhold Creative Associate at Large and faculty member Nadia Sirota as well as percussionist Douglas Perkins, a longtime Adams collaborator.
Adams hopes his music will invite public audiences to “slow down, pay attention, and remember our place within the larger community of life on earth.”
Two performances will take place on Saturday, April 27, at 11am and 4pm. In case of inclement weather, the performances will take place on Sunday, April 28, at 11am and 4pm. This event is free and open to the public.
Juilliard’s Earth Month celebrations culminate on April 30 at 7pm with a concert at the Greene Space at WNYC and WQXR. Hosted by WQXR’s Annie Bergen, music and drama students will perform works that explore themes of nature and the environment in an hourlong concert. It will feature chamber and historical performance ensembles, new works for guitar, select readings by a drama student, and more. It will also be livestreamed by WQXR’s YouTube channel.
# # #
JUILLIARD EARTH MONTH EVENTS
Monday, April 22 (ongoing)
Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK Lincoln Center and Central Park, presented by Juilliard
FREE: Download the app here
[Starting April 22, install the free app; download SOUNDWALK; put on your headphones; press ‘start’; and explore!]
Monday, April 22 at 7:30PM
Earth Day Celebration Concert by the Juilliard Green Club
David Rubenstein Atrium
Presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with Juilliard
FREE. No tickets required.
Saturday, April 27 at 11AM and 4PM
Juilliard x Lincoln Center: John Luther Adams’ Crossing Open Ground
Composed by John Luther Adams
Directed and choreographed by Pam Tanowitz
Music directed by Nadia Sirota and Douglas Perkins
Lincoln Center, Josie Robertson Plaza
Rain date, April 28 at 11AM and 4PM
FREE. No tickets required.
Tuesday, April 30 at 7PM
WQXR Celebrates Earth Month With Juilliard
WQXR’s Greene Space, 44 Charlton St, New York, NY
Tickets are required—pay what you wish. This performance will also be livestreamed.
Juilliard’s creative enterprise programming, including the Creative Associates program, is generously supported by Jody and John Arnhold and the Arnhold Foundation.
Crossing Open Ground was co-commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Barry Lopez Foundation for Art & Environment.
About Juilliard Creative Enterprise
Housed in the Office of the President, Creative Enterprise amplifies Juilliard’s unique multidisciplinary focus with a range of collaborative opportunities taking place throughout the school. Creative Enterprise programming, including Creative Associates, is sponsored by Jody and John Arnhold and the Arnhold Foundation. President’s Initiatives are supported by the Joseph W. Polisi Artist as Citizen Fund.
About The Juilliard School
Founded in 1905, The Juilliard School is a world leader in performing arts education. The school’s mission is to provide the highest caliber of artistic education for gifted musicians, dancers, and actors, composers, choreographers, and playwrights from around the world so that they may achieve their fullest potential as artists, leaders, and global citizens. Juilliard is led by Damian Woetzel, seventh president of the school, who has prioritized affordability and access to the highest level of artistic education while championing Juilliard’s tradition of excellence.
Located at Lincoln Center in New York City, Juilliard offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, drama (acting and playwriting), and music (classical, jazz, historical performance, and vocal arts). More than 800 artists from 42 states and 50 countries and regions are enrolled in Juilliard’s College Division, where they appear in more than 700 annual performances in the school’s five theaters; at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and David Geffen halls and at Carnegie Hall; as well as at other venues around New York City, the U.S., and the world. The continuum of learning at Juilliard also includes nearly 400 students from elementary through high school enrolled in the Preparatory Division—Pre-College and Music Advancement Program (MAP); MAP serves students from diverse backgrounds often underrepresented in the classical music field. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in Juilliard Extension, the flagship continuing education program taught both in person and remotely by a dedicated faculty of performers, creators, and scholars. Beyond its New York campus, Juilliard is defining new directions in performing arts education for a range of learners and enthusiasts through a global K-12 educational curricula and preparatory and graduate studies at The Tianjin Juilliard School in China.
juilliard.edu @juilliardschool
About Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) is a cultural and civic cornerstone of New York City. The primary advocate for the entire Lincoln Center campus, our strategic priorities include fostering collaboration and deepening impact across the Lincoln Center resident organizations; championing inclusion and increasing the accessibility and reach of Lincoln Center’s work; and nurturing innovation on stage and off to help ensure the arts are at the center of civic life for all. LCPA presents hundreds of programs each year, offered primarily for free and choose-what-you-pay, including many specially designed for young audiences, families, and those with disabilities.
CONTACTS:
Allegra Thoresen
[email protected]
Image: Premiere of John Luther Adams’ Sila: The Breath of the World in Lincoln Center’s Hearst Plaza, 2014
Photo by: Kevin Yatarola
# # #