NEW HAVEN, Conn., August 29, 2024—Celebrating themes of illumination, site-specific work and artists who collaborate across disciplines, Executive Director Rachel Fine and Associate Artistic Director Jennifer Harrison Newman today will announce the fall 2024 programming at Yale Schwarzman Center. With most performances free and open to the public, the Schwarzman Center’s fall line-up offers diverse and unique opportunities to experience vibrant and immersive programs that provoke discussion, encourage community connection, evoke joy, and stir new thoughts and feelings that extend well beyond the performance. See https://schwarzman.yale.edu
Fine said, "Our third season underscores the major influences of the Schwarzman Center's distinctive architecture and non-traditional performance spaces on our artistic programs. These programs blend cultures, strengthen communities, and evoke joy by cross-pollinating art forms, blurring boundaries and taking full advantage of our multiuse flexible venues. The Schwarzman Center continues to feature both emerging and established artists - from near and far - whose commitment to exploration and experimentation shapes how their work is created and shared with the Yale and New Haven communities."
Highlights of the fall 2024 season include:
Trajal Harrell
Switzerland-based American dancer Trajal Harrell returns to New Haven for a rare U.S. appearance — his first at Yale since graduating from the university in 1990—with two tender, personal and emotionally charged performances, a moderated talk, and a public workshop led by a member of Trajal’s dance company. The first performance, held at the Schwarzman Center, presents Harrell’s interpretation of Keith Jarrett’s best-selling, gospel-infused jazz piano performance, The Köln Concert. Music of Joni Mitchell sets the stage before The Köln Concert as Harrell and seven dancers showcase a way for people to meet despite different languages, world views, life stations and identities. The second performance, held at the Yale School of Art’s 32 Edgewood Gallery, is Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure) / Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church, a series of work that examines a conversation between two very different kinds of dance both with roots in 1960s New York. A talk at the Yale University Art Gallery moderated by Curator Mark Mitchell explores Trajal’s career and inspirations as a dancer and choreographer. The appearance closes with a workshop, “The choreographic world of Trajal Harrel,” which introduces participants to the artist’s choreographic and performative practice as part of the Schwarzman Center’s EveryBody Dances masterclass series. Each performance showcases Harrell’s masterful storytelling, eclectic range and influence—from voguing and post-modern to ancient Greek mythology and Japanese butoh dance—earning him the acclaim as “the next Martha Graham.” (HuffPost). September 21-24
Brooklyn Rider
Launching its 20th anniversary season, Brooklyn Rider draws on some of its nascent days as master interpreters of composer Philip Glass and brings the first-ever performance of Glass's complete works for string quartet to the Schwarzman Center. “As we play Glass,” describes the ensemble, “we are pulled into a world where our sensitivities blend, are transparent and our tone takes on a heightened color based on the synergistic combination of interlocking patterns and elemental harmonies.” The work blends the gossamer-like voices of classical music and the pulsating energy of New York with the drone-base textures of world music to create a stimulating performance. The quartet has performed in venues from New York City’s Jazz at Lincoln Center to Mexico City’s Deco masterpiece, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and earned praise from classical and rock fans alike as “the future of chamber music” (Strings). October 8 & 9
Keegon Schuett, Yale Drama Series Prize and Artistic Congress
“There’s a lot of magic that happens in our world if you know how to really see it,” said Keegon Schuett, winner of the 2024 Yale Drama Series Prize, for the new play, this dry spell. This deeply personal new work celebrates trans identity at a time when many places would like to erase it. this dry spell confronts the difficulty of existing in modern life as well as the magic it takes to define yourself. Is the desert a place for love to finally grow or are they both just waiting for rain? this dry spell aims to provide nourishment to those hiding in the shadows and for understanding and recognition that creates space for all. A world premiere professional staged reading will be featured as part of The Artistic Congress, presented by Long Wharf Theatre in partnership with the Schwarzman Center. Schuett will also be honored by the David Charles Horn Foundation with the Prize. October 25
Jeremy Denk
Jeremy Denk, one of the world’s foremost pianists is, proclaims The New York Times, “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs.” In this solo recital, Denk—who is well known for his interpretations of the music of Connecticut composer Charles Ives—celebrates Ives’s 150th birthday with an eclectic program featuring Ives’s Concord Sonata. One of America’s most quintessential sonatas, the Concord is known for its extreme technical difficulties making it a great challenge for any pianist. In addition, Denk will perform a variety of other fantastic works, ranging from Scott Joplin to Nina Simone. This recital is presented in partnership with the Yale School of Music. Tickets are free and open to the public, but reservations are required. October 26
MƆɹNIŊ [Mourning//Morning]
Called “part scientific exposition, part imaginative flight of fancy” by The Wall Street Journal, MƆɹNIŊ [Mourning//Morning] is an experimental, linear, and fast-paced opera set in a world in which all humans have disappeared from Earth. An ensemble of five vocalists/instrumentalists bear witness and guide the audience through the changes on Earth as it moves through its life cycle over thousands, millions, and even billions of years, in this fantastical and playful exploration into the political and ethical contradictions that structure current human relations with nature. This Yale Schwarzman Center program will be the first theatrical event held in the newly renovated and reopened Yale Peabody Museum. November 4
Abdullah Ibrahim Trio
The Schwarzman Center partners with the Shubert Theater to present the Abdullah Ibrahim Trio, led by South Africa’s most distinguished pianist and composer now on a world tour at the age of 90. Known for his colorful jazz compositions with international flair, this brilliant pianist blends jazz with Muslim and Christian spirituals to create the harmonies, textures, colors, and rhythms that have distinguished his compositions throughout his long career, distinguishing him as one of the world’s jazz greats. November 12
The Streetcar Project
Infused with rawness and nakedness, The Streetcar Project delivers an intimate production of Tennessee Williams’s haunting and iconic A Streetcar Named Desire with just four actors—Lucy Owen, Brad Koed, Mallory Portnoy, and Will Rogers—directed by Nick Westrate in a series of site-specific performances on the Yale campus, with the complete, unabridged text, and no costumes, props, or sets. Public performances will be held at Jonathan Edwards College and The Well. November 13-16
Hub New Music
Hub New Music—hailed as “contemporary chamber trailblazers” (Boston Globe)—brings its fresh take on familiar and new composers. With its unique mix of strings and woodwinds (flute, clarinet, violin and cello) Hub marked its tenth anniversary in 2023 with new commissioned works by an esteemed cohort of composers, whose work gives a snapshot of the music being written today. The culturally relevant body of work tailor-made for this distinct new music ensemble featured in Hub’s Schwarzman Center performance include composers Angélica Negrón, Nico Muhly, Donnacha Dennehy and Tyshawn Sorey. December 4 & 5
Soles of Duende
Bonded by their deep love of music, their crafts, and true connection, Soles of Duende is on a lifelong mission to elevate the joy and music of true collaboration across disciplines and the celebration of the forms they practice. Based in the sounds of tap (New Haven’s own Amanda Castro), flamenco (Arielle Rosales) and Kathak dance (Brinda Guha), Soles of Duende’s fire is the spirit that lives within each of these women to celebrate their connection given their beautiful differences and to uplift the forms that made them. Soles of Duende performs with a live band to create an infectious, inspiring, and stirring performance. December 14
A look ahead to the spring 2025 season:
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Singer, composer, storyteller, and visual artist Cécile McLorin Salvant is a unique voice “that radiates authority and delivers a set with almost a dramatic arc” (The New York Times). Though rooted in jazz, Salvant delivers hidden gems that span vaudeville, blues, global folk traditions, theater, jazz, and baroque. Salvant is an eclectic curator, unearthing rarely recorded, forgotten songs with strong narratives, interesting power dynamics, unexpected twists, and humor. Her recordings have won three GRAMMY® Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album and have been nominated for three more. In 2020, Salvant received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Doris Duke Artist Award. January 20, 2025
Beyond performances:
The Schwarzman Center continues its widely-popular lunch series, Schwarzman Sessions—peer-led gatherings where conversations generate collaborations and move ideas to action. Some of this season’s featured guests include American journalist and photojournalist Ann Curry (September 27), host of La Brega podcast Alana Casanove-Burgess (October 3), and Pakistani-American visual artist Shazia Sikander (October 10).
EveryBody Dances @ Yale Schwarzman Center brings local and visiting dance artists to the Center’s Dance Studio to teach public masterclasses in jazz, hip hop, salsa, fosse, krupp, butoh, majorette precision dance, and more. This season’s featured artists include Ondrej Vidlar of Trajal Harrell’s dance company (September 22) and Soles of Duende (December 15) among many local and national artists.
Venue and Ticket Information:
Performances and events in the Schwarzman Center’s 2024-25 season are free, except as noted on the registration pages. More details about the 2024-25 season, including a full listing of performance dates can be found at https://schwarzman.yale.edu. For the most current information on all ticket releases and the full season line-up, subscribe to the Yale Schwarzman Center newsletter.
Spring programming will be announced in January 2025.
About Yale Schwarzman Center
Based in New Haven, Connecticut, and located in the historic heart of the Yale University campus, Yale Schwarzman Center is a commons for university life where art, culinary, and wellness experiences converge to build bridges, nurture creativity, and foster kinship and belonging. Positioned at the crux of social cohesion, creativity, and self-expression, the Center includes several flexible spaces in which members of the Yale and New Haven communities engage through free, public programming that ranges from the intimate to the grand. The Center’s iconic building—constructed in 1901, rebirthed in 2022 following a renovation by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, and recognized for excellence by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art—has recently been the site for world premieres and commissions by Nathalie Joachim, Bryce Dessner, and Ash Fure, to name a few. The Center’s impact extends well beyond its walls through programming and programmatic partnerships within its home city and across the country. https://schwarzman.yale.edu