Guest Performance
(Cancelled) Talea Ensemble: Love & Diversity

04/02-04/20
Baruch Performing Arts Center

Love & Diversity is an immersive, intimate, and unique music theater performance piece by Manos Tsangaris that is more like a social event than a concert. The audience takes an active role; rather than sitting in the concert hall, the audience interacts individually with each of seven performers from Talea Ensemble, moving from encounter to encounter around the theater. After hearing each musician up close, the listener proceeds to the balcony, where they hear the piece in its entirety from a more recital-like vantage point. 

The evening begins in a social setting having a drink. Audience members are given a questionnaire about music, art, love, and friendship. They enter the performance space in small groups, visiting one of seven tables. At each table sits a musician/actor. In a sequence of interactions, the audience is immersed in the performance – first encountering each musician individually and finally, experiencing the piece as a whole. Love and Diversity breaks down the barriers between individual audience members and performers thereby allowing all of the evening's 'participants' to mingle and interact more freely than during a traditional concert, putting the audience in the middle of a social and artistic experience.

Please note the special nature of the performance is ongoing with an average running time of 60 minutes. There are 3 entry times to choose from. 

Manos Tsangaris (Düsseldorf, 1956) is a composer, drummer and installation artist, one of the most important representatives of experimental music theatre. Since the 1970s, he has repeatedly taken performance conditions to be an essential theme of his compositional work, expressed in different artistic formats. His compositions are internationally acclaimed and have been performed at several renowned festivals and theatres. He has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber, Dresden, and at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He is a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin, the Sächsische Akademie der Künste, and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. Since October 2012 he has been artistic director for the Munich Biennale for Music Theatre (together with Daniel Ott). Tsangaris founded the Internationale Institut für Kunstermittlung (www.iike.de). 

Talea Ensemble is comprised of nineteen of New York City’s finest classically-trained musicians, with a mission to champion musical creativity, cultivate curious listeners, and bring visionary new works to life with vibrant performances that remain in the audience’s imagination long after a concert. Recipient of the 2014 Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, Talea has brought to life more than 30 commissions of major new works since it was founded in 2008. Recent festival engagements include performances at Lincoln Center Festival, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, the Fromm Concerts at Harvard University, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Wien Modern, Chicago’s Contempo series, Royaumont Voix Nouvelles, Vancouver New Music, and many others. Talea assumes an ongoing role in supporting a new generation of composers, and has undertaken residencies in music departments at Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, New York University, and many others.

Love & Diversity is presented with the friendly support of Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung