The Dandelion Chandelier Luxury Events Calendar for The Arts showcases our top picks for the best events in arts and culture this April 2019. These are the April events we’re most excited about in ballet, modern dance, classical music concerts, opera and jazz. Plus the new art museum exhibits we can’t wait to see. For the rest of the Luxury Calendar, click here.
the best new events in the world of the arts in april
The April arts and culture calendar provides a shower us of dance performances, concerts, operas and art exhibitions a-plenty.
To start, there’s the epic celebration of Merce Cunningham’s 100th birthday. There will be three performances of Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event in three different cities on the same day.
The in New York, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will celebrate George Crumb with American Icon: George Crumb at 90. Meanwhile, France hosts its annual music festival, Le Printemps de Bourges in Bourges.
On the visual arts front, Madrid’s Reina Sofia highlights the late Japanese artist Tetsuya Ishida’s robust collection of work. And New York City will see the opening of its latest cultural events space: The Shed at Hudson Yards.
For this kind of April shower, at least, you can leave your umbrella at home.
events in the visual arts and performing arts in april 2019
performing arts
1. ballet and modern dance
Dance Theatre of Harlem celebrates its 50th birthday and commemorates the life of its founder, the dance legend Arthur Mitchell. The 50th Anniversary Vision Gala Dinner & Dancing is at the Ziegfeld Ballroom- Apr 10
On the occasion of Merce Cunningham’s 100th birthday, the artist’s namesake Trust has put together an epic program of solos. They’ll be performed across three cities on the same night. Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event takes place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York; the Barbican in London; and at U.C.L.A.’s Center for the Art of Performance in LA – Apr 16
First time guests Paul Lightfoot and Sol León bring two pieces into the Paris Opera Ballet repertoire. Witness alternating fixed poses, rapidity of movement and theatrical devices in León Lightfoot/Van Manen – Apr 18 – 23
New York City Ballet kicks off its spring season with 21st Century Choreographers. The program will feature three of today’s leading choreographers.
First, Alexi Ratmansky‘s multi-hued ballet inspired by Mussorgsky’s celebrated piano suite. Second, Mauro Bigonzetti‘s Oltremare, a dramatic rumination on the immigrant experience. Finally, Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes, Justin Peck‘s ballet set to the famous Aaron Copland score. His production is distinctive for its all-male corps de ballet – Apr 23 – 27
Dance Theater of Harlem
2. classical music concerts
The Knights will perform a chamber symphony by Thomas Adès at Carnegie Hall – Apr 3
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will celebrate George Crumb with American Icon: George Crumb at 90. Highlights include the Vietnam War-torn string quartet “Black Angels.” And “Vox Balaenae,” in which masked musicians use electric piano, flute, and cello to evoke the deep sea and the ancient lineage of whales – Apr 14 and 16
The London Symphony Orchestra will perform three works from Spanish composer Ravel Boléro: a ballet, opera and symphonic rhapsody. François-Xavier Roth conducts – Apr 25
The Malta International Music Festival will feature numerous concert events, masterclasses and competitions in all branches of instrumental music – Apr 29 – May 10
The Knights
3. opera performances
Giacomo Puccini’s opera Manon Lescaut is at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. The opera is conducted by Riccardo Chailly, under the direction of David Pountney – Mar 21 – Apr 27
BAM will host the US premier of Diary of One Who Disappeared. The work documents Czech composer Leoš Janáček’s romantic obsession with a married woman 40 years his junior – Apr 4 – 6
Georges Bizet’s Carmen is at the Opéra Bastille in Paris – Apr 11 – May 23
For the first time in six seasons, you can see Wagner’s infamous Ring at The Metropolitan Opera. Each of the four pieces that comprise the work can be booked individually. Or combine them as part of a larger cycle – Apr 13 – May 11
The Diary of One Who Disappeared at the BAM
4. jazz and new music concerts
Jazz at Lincoln Center presents McCoy Tyner and Charles McPherson at 80. The two living legends will join the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis to play brand-new big band arrangements of their iconic compositions – Apr 5 – 6
Le Printemps de Bourges, the annual music festival held in Bourges, France, has proven to be a great venue to spot emerging talent – Apr 16 – 21
This year marks the 50th edition of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival – Apr 25 – May 5
Pianist Kenny Barron returns to Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Praised endlessly for both his sensitivity and his virtuosity, Barron is undisputedly one of the top jazz pianists in the world – Apr 26 – 28
Kenny Barron
visual arts
1. art museum exhibits: europe, middle east and africa
Sheela Gowda receives her first exhibition in Italy at Milan’s Pirelli HangarBicocca. Sheela Gowda: Remains will present new work alongside art made over the past two decades. The show will include watercolors, prints and site specific installations – Apr 4 – Sept 15
Maria Lassnig, the inventive Austrian painter who died in 2014 at the age of 94, will be the subject of a retrospective for the first time. The Stedelijk Museum in the Netherlands will exhibit Maria Lassnig: Ways of Being. Her bright-hued portraits and self-portraits celebrate the body as absurd, strong and uncannily beautiful – Apr 6 – Aug 11
In collaboration with Oslo’s Munch Museum, the British Museum presents Edvard Munch: love and angst. The exhibition will be the largest show of his prints in the UK for 45 years – Apr 11 – Jul 21
Tetsuya Ishida: Self-Portrait of Other at Madrid’s Reina Sofia highlights the late Japanese artist’s robust collection of work exploring the hardships that everyday Japanese faced during his lifetime – Apr 12 – Sept 8
Sheela Gowda
2. art museum exhibits: north and south america
In the survey T.C. Cannon: At the Edge of America, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian augments Cannon’s colorful, pop inflected canvases with a selection of his prints, drawings, poems and musical recordings. Cannon is considered one of the most influential, innovative, and talented Native American artists of the 20th-century – Apr 6 – Sept 16
The Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco has organized Early Reubens. The show includes more than 30 paintings and 20 works on paper from Peter Paul Rubens from 1609-1621. Notably, it includes some of his notable large scale paintings, which are on loan from institutions across Europe and the US – Apr 6 – Sept 8
The Shed at Hudson Yards opens. The initial programming includes works by filmmaker Steve McQueen, artist Trisha Donnelly and a collaborative effort by Gerard Richter, Steve Reich and Avrö Part – Apr 5
Loophole of Retreat at the Guggenheim presents a new body of work by Simone Leigh, winner of the Hugo Boss Prize 2018. The Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based sculptor will also enliven the neighborhood near the new Hudson Yards. Her her sixteen-foot-tall bronze Brick House will be installed on the High Line at 13th Street. The artist’s work records the long-suppressed histories of black women’s labor and the African diaspora – Apr 19 – Aug 4
Simone Leigh Brick House
3. art museum exhibits: asia
Hong Kong’s Opera Gallery is showcasing twelve paintings by British artist David Kim Whittaker. Whittaker is a self-taught artist inspired by gender dysphoria. His paintings explore the dual states of calm and conflict. Plus strength and fragility, the conscious and the subconscious, and the masculine and the feminine – through Apr 25
Singapore’s Asian Civilizations Museum invites visitors to delve deeper into the life of the founder of modern Singapore at Raffles in Southeast Asia: Revisiting the Scholar and Statesman – through Apr 28
Alexander Calder: Radical Inventor at The National Gallery of Victoria is the first large-scale exhibition of Calder’s art in motion in Australia. The exhibit features many of the artist’s best-known works, showcasing his love of shape, light and movement – Apr 5 – Aug 4
Alexander Calder
That’s it. Our top picks for the best new events in the world of the arts this April 2019. Have a brilliant month.
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Jillian Tangen is the Head of Research at Dandelion Chandelier. Formerly, she was a Senior Research Analyst at McKinsey & Co and Analyst at Shearman & Sterling. She is an avid fan of Nordic design, having owned an independent lifestyle store and sales agency focused on emerging Scandinavian design. Jillian lives in NYC and is married with three young children. She loves cross country skiing, the New York Rangers, reading, travel and discovering new brands.
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