Juilliard x Lincoln Center Present the New York Premiere of John Luther Adams’ Crossing Open Ground

Juilliard x Lincoln Center Present the New York Premiere of John Luther Adams’ Crossing Open Ground

Featuring Students and Alumni of Juilliard’s Dance, Music, and Preparatory Divisions With Guest Artists

Composed by John Luther Adams
Directed by Pam Tanowitz, Nadia Sirota, and Douglas Perkins
Music directed by Nadia Sirota and Douglas Perkins
Choreographed by Pam Tanowitz

On Saturday April 27, in celebration of Earth Month, Juilliard and Lincoln Center present Crossing Open Ground, an outdoor work by John Luther Adams for winds, brass, and percussion. The piece, written for multiples of 40 musicians, will be performed across Lincoln Center’s 16-acre campus by an acoustic ensemble of Juilliard student and alumni musicians and dancers with guest artists.

The event will be directed and choreographed by Pam Tanowitz and coached and co-music directed by Juilliard chamber music faculty member and Creative Associate at Large Nadia Sirota as well as Adams’ longtime collaborator percussionist Douglas Perkins.

Adams hopes his music will invite people to “slow down, pay attention, and remember our place within the larger community of life on earth.” Crossing Open Ground is a celebration of nature, life, and art as well as an opportunity to be present and engage with our surroundings.

In addition to Crossing Open Ground, Juilliard celebrates Earth Month throughout April with concerts, sponsored ecosystem restorations, and a new expansion of Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK Central Park that includes Lincoln Center and is presented by Juilliard.

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.

Image: Premiere of John Luther Adams’s “Sila: The Breath of the World” in Lincoln Center’s Hearst Plaza, 2014.
​Photo by Kevin Yatarola, courtesy of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Know before you go! Read the digital program.