American Mavericks
Michael Tilson Thomas, Artistic Director
This revelatory series is your chance to experience the works of these maverick composers, featuring John Cage, Edgard Varèse, John Adams, Steve Mackey, Morton Feldman, Steve Reich, Charles Ives, Meredith Monk, Mason Bates, and more. This vibrant music will turn your concert-going experience on its head, instantly grabbing your attention and inspiring you to learn more about these innovators.
Performances by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony—along with Jessye Norman and Emmanuel Ax—form the backbone of this momentous exploration of American Music, which also includes a new breed of musical interpreters, including Alarm Will Sound, So Percussion, Matmos, Joan La Barbara, Jennifer Koh, Lisa Moore, JACK Quartet, and Jeremy Denk.
The celebration goes city-wide with events at several of New York's leading cultural institutions that explore American iconoclasts—not only in the field of music, but also in dance, film, and the visual arts. Online exhibits, performances, and lectures at these partner organizations around the city provide additional context for the music of the American maverick composers, whose contemporaries were heading in exciting new artistic directions.
Abrons Arts Center | Anthology Film
Archives | Brooklyn Public Library | The Kitchen | LaGuardia Performing Arts
Center | (Le) Poisson Rouge | The New York Public Library | Whitney
Museum of American Art | Q2 Music