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Boston Globe
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Already at the top of the opera world, Matthew Aucoin has composed his most audacious piece yet
Now, at 35, Aucoin has produced a singular musical work that is being hailed as revolutionary, an uncategorizable vocal symphony that represents a major departure — not just for Aucoin, but perhaps for operatic music more broadly. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Aucoin will conduct the 70-minute piece, 'Music for New Bodies,' with players from the company he cofounded, the American Modern Opera Company, at Tanglewood on Aug. 7. Advertisement Matthew Aucoin (conducting, bottom center), led instrumentalists and vocalists during the New York premiere of "Music for New Bodies" at the Lincoln Center. Lawrence Sumulong/Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Sellars, who is staging the work at Tanglewood, said Aucoin's composition is closely attuned to the current cultural moment, as many people are distracted, overwhelmed, and apprehensive in their personal lives, while also coping with the existential upheaval brought on by generational challenges such as climate change or artificial intelligence. He compared 'New Bodies' to the work of Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi, a pivotal figure in the creation of what is today called 'opera.' Advertisement 'In the history of music, there's this moment where music has to step in for things that we are still not able to describe because they're too new,' said Sellars, who called it an emergent consciousness. 'Matt's piece is one of those turning-point pieces, which just begins to look forward and resists looking backwards. It's trying to open into a way larger realm of experiences that we all know, and yet we have received inadequate language to describe.' Traveling between the personal, the commercial, the mythic, and the cosmological, 'New Bodies' is musically dense. It pushes performers to the edge of what's technically possible, while also drawing on a wide range of musical traditions, from Gustav Mahler to synth pop. The work grew out of a conversation Aucoin had with Sellars after the director saw a short piece by Aucoin that set to music a poem by Jorie Graham, a Pulitzer-winning poet at Harvard University and one of Aucoin's early mentors. Working without a traditional commission, Aucoin said he was free to develop 'New Bodies' without many of the logistical constraints that follow a commission, when music must carry the opera's narrative, scene changes, and other practical considerations. 'I think what defines this piece is creative freedom,' said Aucoin, who will conduct 'New Bodies' at Tanglewood. 'We basically just made the piece that we wanted to make, and then found people to present it.' Sellars called the creative process 'one of the things you dream of for a composer — not just write music to order, but really to explore with an open-ended sense of searching.' Opera director Peter Sellars, shown working with young musicians during a rehearsal of "Music for New Bodies" in 2024, called the work a "turning point." MERIDITH KOHUT/NYT 'Matt was on his own: He had no deadline, no assignment, and he could write something that was not following anybody's instructions or that needed to respond to anybody's programming needs,' he said. It's a 'piece of music that is appearing spontaneously from something that's on his mind and in his heart.' Advertisement The resulting work sets to music a number of Graham's poems from the past decade or so, when she underwent cancer treatment. Enlisting five singers, a chamber orchestra, and electronics, 'New Bodies' wrestles with questions of mortality, ecological devastation, technology, and the medical industrial complex. The singers frequently shift perspectives, alternately inhabiting the voice of a cancer patient, medical professionals, chatbots, the natural world, and even cancer-fighting pharmaceuticals as they make their way through her body. At a Lincoln Center performance earlier this month, varying hues of light raked the stage as Sellars had instrumentalists play alongside vocalists, forming and re-forming temporary musical clusters to create a dynamic soundscape. At the Lincoln Center performance, Sellars had instrumentalists play alongside vocalists, forming and re-forming temporary musical clusters to create a dynamic soundscape. CREDIT: Lawrence Sumulong/Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Aucoin said one aim of the piece 'was to try to capture what it's like to be alive right now in all of its contradictory, overwhelming intensity.' 'It might feel like a total fever dream to some people because the music and the poetry are our guide,' he said. 'But that felt, in a way, more honest to being alive right now than telling a nice, neat story.' With no explicit plot, 'New Bodies' loosely follows a woman after she learns she has an aggressive form of cancer. It articulates the emotional chaos that follows the initial diagnosis, as the speaker considers nonreligious forms of immortality such as cryofreezing and grows anxious when she struggles to recognize what she sees in the mirror. Advertisement The piece then leaves the human realm, traveling to the bottom of the sea, where it sings of ecological degradation: 'There is nothing in particular you want—you just want.' When the music surfaces, the woman is undergoing a potentially life-saving (or ending) surgery. The score turns synthetic and cheery as she succumbs to the anesthesia, a trippy passage where the voice of the drugs seems to speak from inside her body. As she emerges from this journey, the protagonist can hear a calmer, more powerful voice: the Earth and the forces that created it. 'Our rule was: Let's follow the music,' said Aucoin. 'It felt exciting to locate that question through Jory Graham's poetry, because she's been writing from this predicament of having cancer and wondering what it means to have a body and to be mortal in a moment when we seem really interested as a species in living virtually and surpassing having a body.' Critics have compared 'New Bodies' to Mahler's sprawling 'Das Lied von der Erde' ('The song of the Earth'), but Aucoin, who once played keyboards in an indie band, has channeled a broad range of influences — jazz, percussion, even the quartz action of a clock — that goes far afield of traditional orchestral music. 'A lot of us today grew up playing jazz and improvised music,' said Aucoin, who, like other young composers, is seeking to push the boundaries of the art form. 'We have experience playing various kinds of pop, or at least hearing a huge range' of music. 'It's never made sense to me to say, 'Well, I must brand myself in a narrow way.' ' Aucoin, who is the son of Globe theater critic Don Aucoin, has been on Advertisement "New Bodies" grew out of a conversation Aucoin had with Sellars after the director heard an earlier piece by Aucoin that featured Graham's poetry. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff He first got to know Graham when he took her poetry workshop at Harvard. (Both Sellars and Aucoin graduated from Harvard, and all three artists have received MacArthur 'genius' awards.) The poet gave Aucoin her blessing when he asked to set more of her work to music, giving him free rein to work with the material. 'My work of imagination was already done,' said Graham, who added that 'New Bodies' is a collage that combines portions of multiple poems and books. 'If my words inspire them, that's a contagion: I need them to do whatever they need to do.' Despite the work's range, Sellars said 'New Bodies' retains a feeling of human warmth. 'The beauty of what Matt and Jorie are doing is that it is personal, and it is intimate,' he said, calling it a balm in an era of 'giant, obnoxious public address.' 'It has this sense of a private and unique moment that turned into an immense project.' For Graham, who attended the Lincoln Center performance, the title of the work could not be more apt. 'It made every part of my body have to come into operation,' she recalled, adding the performance engaged not only her intellect, but also the part of the body 'that absorbs and distinguishes between shades of colors and all those instruments and voices.' Advertisement 'It's a music that will give you a new body,' she said, 'and certainly a body, I think, more capable of resistance to some of the ways in which our era wishes to shut it down.' Malcolm Gay can be reached at
The Star
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Cultural event "Shanghai Day" held in New York City
NEW YORK, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Co-presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Center for China Shanghai International Arts Festival, an event themed "Summer for the City-Shanghai Day" brought hundreds of thousands of locals close to Shanghai's culture in New York City on Saturday. More than a dozen cultural events were held here, including the dance production of Lady White Snake, electric street dance performances, jazz music, indoor show, cultural product market, screening of the Monkey King, concert, immersive experience event and more. The opportunity to showcase ballet dancers, video game composers, traditional storytellers and performers who blend traditional and contemporary elements to audiences across New York City is truly extraordinary, said Mariko Silver, president and CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Transatlantic cultural exchanges have truly built bridges of understanding and connections between the people of China and the United States, said Liu Ping, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal government. "Looking ahead, Shanghai is committed to embracing an even more open approach, deepening cultural exchanges with New York and friends across the United States," said Liu. Chinese Consul General in New York Chen Li said that "When we experience another culture, we gain insight into their values and their humanity. And in doing so, we often rediscover our own." Collaboration between New York and Shanghai is crucial in fostering understanding between the people of the two countries, he said.
Arabian Post
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Arabian Post
'Shanghai Day' Lights Up Lincoln Center in New York – Art as a Bridge: A Transpacific Cultural Resonance
Lady White Snake Premieres in the U.S., Presented by Shanghai Grand Theatre SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 28 July 2025 – Co-presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Center for the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, Summer for the City's Shanghai Day ignited a cultural wave in New York City. From afternoon until late at night, a vibrant array of performances and interactive experiences—fusing classics with innovation, fashion with tradition, and youth with passion—took place across the Lincoln Center campus, drawing an estimated audience of thousands. This spectacular artistic exchange opened a vivid window for New Yorkers to experience the diverse vitality of Shanghai-style culture. Li Ming, President of Center for the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, stated: 'We are honored to bring Haipai (Shanghai-style) culture to this global stage at the invitation of Lincoln Center. Through this unique artistic celebration, we hope to showcase the charm of Shanghai and the creativity of Chinese artists to a worldwide audience.' Mariko Silver, President and CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, said: 'We invite New Yorkers and visitors to explore different cultures and deepen their connection to creativity from across the globe here at Lincoln Center. Today's events are such a beautiful example of cross-cultural exchange and artistic discovery for audiences of all ages. We are so glad to be working with the Center for the China Shanghai International Arts Festival.' ADVERTISEMENT Shanghai Day marked a world-class presentation of Haipai culture. Innovative interpretations of traditional Chinese arts offered immersive and interactive experiences that reshaped global perceptions. Inside the David H. Koch Theater, the Shanghai Grand Theatre premiered its original dance Lady White Snake to U.S. audiences for the first time. Drawing from the Chinese solar terms for musical inspiration, the performance blended traditional Chinese instruments with Western orchestration and electronic sounds. Visually symbolic elements such as clocks and geometric forms illustrated spatial shifts and emotional depth. The performance integrated ballet, classical Chinese dance, and modern dance into a fluid cross-genre dialogue. Artistic director Tan Yuanyuan led an elite team to deliver a stunning fusion of ballet grace, flowing water sleeves, and poetic stage aesthetics inspired by Jiangnan, presenting an ancient legend in an entirely renewed form. In the lobby of the David Rubenstein Atrium, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio's classic The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven captivated audiences with vivid colors and Chinese mythological charm. In the family zone, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra presented Stories of Chinese Zodiac using suona, pipa, and other folk instruments, accompanied by water ink animation from Zhang Lelu that delighted children and invited them to engage with traditional instruments. As night fell, the garden transformed into a 'Shanghai Cultural Pavilion.' Intangible heritage booths offered hands-on experiences: papercutting, knot buttons, calligraphy, traditional qipao, handmade cotton crafts, vegetarian treats from Longhua Temple, and dazzling cloisonné candy boxes from Lao Feng Xiang. A 'Guochao Punk' Peking Opera makeup booth was particularly popular, with New Yorkers lining up for custom opera face designs. Nearby, Zi-Ka-Wei Library showcased Shanghai-themed creative products that condensed cultural meaning into modern design. At Damrosch Park, the Arknights Concert—produced in collaboration with globally renowned composers like Gareth Coker—offered an electrifying mix of electronic, folk, and symphonic sounds. Audiences were transported into immersive game worlds through high-impact musical storytelling. ADVERTISEMENT Meanwhile, the Dance Floor transformed into a summer dance stage. China's new generation of dancers energized the crowd with breaking, popping, and locking. Their specially choreographed global hit Spread Your Wings sparked spontaneous dancing among the audience. Jazz trumpeter Li Xiaochuan bridged East and West with original compositions reflecting the evolving 'Chinese sound.' As the evening deepened, a 'Silent Disco' allowed hundreds of attendees to dance freely in isolated headphone worlds—blending erhu, pipa, and electronic bass. China's New Generation of Dancers Electrified the Stage at Lincoln Center Throughout the event, the Lincoln Center was imbued with 'Shanghai'—from the Lujiazui skyline to Yuyuan Garden silhouettes. 'Today felt like being transported to the other side of the world,' said Fromm, a New Yorker who had never been to Shanghai. 'Every sense—from sight and sound to taste—was immersed in a city that is both historic and modern, Eastern and global.' As the lights dimmed at Lincoln Center, the cultural resonance of 'Shanghai Day' lingered. From elegant pointe work and traditional music to intangible heritage and immersive beats, this celebration became an invisible bridge connecting hearts across the Pacific. Through the power of art and culture, a moving new chapter was written in the story of U.S.-China cultural exchange and mutual understanding. Hashtag: #ShanghaiEye The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
News18
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Nita Ambani & Chef Vikas Khanna Curate Unique Culinary Experience For New York's NMACC India Weekend
The culinary experience, described as 'Flavors of India, served with love in NYC', will be part of the event at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts from September 12-14, 2025 Reliance Foundation chairperson Nita Ambani and Michelin-starred Chef Vikas Khanna have collaborated to curate a unique culinary experience for the NMACC India Weekend, which is set to take place in New York City this September. Ahead of this grand cultural celebration, Nita Ambani visited Chef Khanna's Bungalow restaurant. The culinary experience, described as 'Flavors of India, served with love in NYC", will be part of the NMACC India Weekend at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts from September 12-14, 2025. Chef Khanna expressed his honour at hosting Nita Ambani. This special presentation of cuisines and flavours, ranging from ancient to modern India, will be featured on the opening night, September 12, following an invite-only red carpet event. This event will feature the US premiere of The Great Indian Musical: Civilisation to Nation at the David H Koch Theatre, a theatrical production showcasing India's history from 5000 BC to 1947 through dance, art, fashion, and music. The musical, conceived and directed by Feroz Abbas Khan, will include a cast of over 100 performers, opulent costumes designed by Manish Malhotra, and a collaboration of notable artists like Ajay-Atul for music and Mayuri Upadhya, Vaibhavi Merchant, Samir, and Arsh Tanna for choreography. The opening night on September 12 will begin with an invite-only red carpet event, the Grand Swagat, featuring the Swadesh Fashion Show Curated by Manish Malhotra, highlighting traditional Indian weaves. Chef Vikas Khanna will present a special culinary experience, offering cuisines and flavours from ancient to modern India. Additionally, the NMACC India Weekend will extend to Damrosch Park from September 12-14, hosting a Great Indian Bazaar that will showcase Indian fashion, textiles, food, dance, yoga, and music.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lincoln Center Unveils Renderings For $335 Million Project That Includes New Outdoor Theater And Removal Of Much-Hated Block-Length Wall
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts today announced the preliminary design for a $335 million transformation of the west side of its Manhattan campus, a project that will include the creation of a new outdoor performance space, community park spaces and the removal of a long-hated wall that separates the cultural institution from its westernmost neighborhood. The project, designed by Hood Design Studio (Landscape Architect), Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism (Design Architect) and Moody Nolan (Architect of Record), creates what Lincoln Center describes as 'a new, world-class performance venue that will greatly improve artist and audience experiences.' More from Deadline Pedro Almodóvar Blasts Donald Trump As "The Greatest Mistake Of Our Time" As Director Accepts Lincoln Center Award Lincoln Center's $550 Million David Geffen Hall To Open In October, Ahead Of Schedule New York Film Festival Sets Main Slate For Mostly In-Person 59th Edition See before and after images below. Other key elements of the project, as described by Lincoln Center: A community park featuring a lawn, water feature, tree groves, and garden for public enjoyment; A welcoming entrance that dramatically opens up Lincoln Center's Amsterdam Avenue face to neighbors approaching from the west The latter element – the 'welcoming entrance' – addresses what has long been seen as something of a neighborhood blight: A block-long wall that's as unattractive as it is ostracizing, a cold-shoulder to its neighbors across Amsterdam Avenue, including public housing complex known as Amsterdam Houses, LaGuardia High School, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Complex. In its announcement today, Lincoln Center officials said the project is a response to 'local communities' desire' to remove the wall that runs along the campus' Damrosch Park. The wall will be replaced with 'a series of welcoming transition spaces from the street into Lincoln Center's iconic campus.' The new design incorporates extensive community feedback from an ongoing participatory process that began in 2023, which Lincoln Center says includes feedback from local neighbors, New York City Housing Authority residents, community groups, students, and New Yorkers in general. 'The design balances the interventions made to the east side of Lincoln Center's campus more than a decade ago,' the announcement says, 'which created more welcoming outdoor spaces on the north and east of campus needed to deliver on its founding mission of the arts for all.' The $335 million capital campaign has raised 65% to-date, including support from the Lincoln Center of Performing Arts Board of Directors, as well as a $10 million commitment from the State of New York. According to Lincoln Center, construction is expected to begin next spring and be completed by spring 2028. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is a Founding Partner with a $75 million grant that includes their initial support when the project began and builds upon their support of free programming throughout Summer for the City and the ongoing Legacies of San Juan Hill initiative. A lead gift from The Starr Foundation provides 'invaluable support, anchoring the project which aligns with its longstanding support of the arts, culture, and vital New York communities.' The project is being undertaken in coordination with NYC Parks and NYC Department of Transportation. Damrosch Park is mapped city parkland maintained and operated by LCPA. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
