The December 2019 Dandelion Chandelier Luxury Events Calendar for The Arts and Culture is a curated list of ballet and modern dance performances and classical concerts. Plus jazz concerts and art museum exhibits in December 2019. It’s the best in the arts and culture in December 2019. For the full December 2019 Luxury Calendar, click here.
the best in the arts and culture in december 2019
December is a holiday feast for your eyes and ears, thanks to the splendid array of performances and exhibits to see.
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There’s a plethora of holiday vocal and instrumental concerts from which to choose in nearly every city in the world – not to mention there are Nutcrackers galore, like the classic Balanchine at Lincoln Center from the NYC Ballet and the more modern interpretation from Dorrance Dance.
In visual arts, the focus is also contemporary with explorations of street art, photography and surveys of female artists like Käthe Kollwitz, Mickalene Thomas and Ursula Schulz-Dornburg.
performing arts and culture december 2019
1. best dance events in december 2019
Catch George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center all month long – through Jan 5
Top ballet performances in December 2019: New Yrk City Ballet Nutcracker. Courtesy Photo.
Raymonda, Marius Petipa’s quintessential narrative ballet, returns to the Opéra Bastille – Dec 2 – 31
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to City Center with a newly appointed resident choreographer. Jamar Roberts will present the premiere of “Ode,” set to Don Pullen’s jazz composition “Suite (Sweet) Malcolm (Part 1 Memories and Gunshots).” This work for six dancers takes a timely look at the fragility of life amid a wave of gun violence – Dec 4, 2019 – Jan 5, 2020
Top ballet performances in December 2019: Alvin Ailey Dance Theater at City Center. Courtesy Photo.
Pam Tanowitz and Simone Dinnerstein come together at The Joyce in New Work for Goldberg Variations -Dec 10 – 15
Just in time for the holidays the tap dancer and choreographer Michelle Dorrance and Dorrance Dance present their latest work set to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” at the Joyce – Dec 17 – Jan 5
Top arts, ballet and culture concerts and performances in December 2019: Dorrance Dance. Courtesy Photo.
2. best classical music concerts in december 2019
The thoughtful pianist Behzod Abduraimov returns to Carnegie Hall with stalwarts by Chopin, Debussy and Mussorgsky – Dec 10
At just 20, the talented cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason found a worldwide audience playing at the televised wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. The crowd at Weill Recital Hall will be considerably smaller – just over 250 – when he makes his New York recital debut with his sister, the pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, in works by Beethoven, Lutoslawski, Barber and Rachmaninoff – Dec 11
Top classical music festivals and events in December 2019: Sheku Kanneh-Mason makes his New York debut. Courtesy Photo.
In their New York debut at the Americas Society, Eybler Quartet will play the U.S. premieres of Pedro Ximénez de Abrill Tirado’s Quartet, Op.55, written in the 1820s in Arequipa, whose slow movement is based on a traditional Andean yaravi – Dec 12
For a stunning reintroduction to the elemental power of Messiah, head to St. Paul’s Chapel at Trinity Church, where Julian Wachner and Trinity’s orchestra and choir storm through Handel’s score – Dec 20 – 22
The Mariinsky Theatre will host pianists from all over the world for its annual Mariinsky International Piano Festival. Over the course of eleven days the theatre’s venues will play host to both soloists and ensembles alike – Dec 21 – 31
3. best opera performances in december 2019
Having quickly gained a reputation for canny, committed adaptations of classic operas that highlight contemporary social issues, Heartbeat Opera takes on Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz at Baruch Performing Arts Center – Dec 4 – 5
Der Rosenkavalier is at the Metropolitan Opera with star soprano Camilla Nylund as the worldly Marschallin and the outstanding mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená as her exuberant young lover, Octavian – Dec 13 – Jan 4
Top opera festivals and events in December 2019: William Kentridge’s production of Wozzeck. Courtesy Photo.
Orchestre et Choeurs de l’Opéra national de Paris will perform the concert version of Il Pirata – Dec 16 – 19
Richard Eyre’s production of La Traviata is at the Royal Opera House – Dec 17 – Mar 23, 2020
After wowing audiences with his astounding production of Lulu in 2015, South African artist William Kentridge now focuses his extraordinary visual imagination on Berg’s other operatic masterpiece, Wozzeck, set in an apocalyptic pre–World War I environment at the Met – Dec 27 – Jan 22, 2020
4. best jazz and new music concerts this december 2019
So Percussion at Carnegie Hall will present A Century of Percussion featuring Varèse, Chávez, Cage and Xenakis before ending in the present day with the New York premiere of a piece by Julia Wolfe – Dec 7
In one of the best jazz concerts of December 2019, Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center will host the eternally incisive Mary Stallings – Dec 13 – 15
The best jazz concerts and performances in December 2019: Mary Stallings. Courtesy Photo.
Renowned blues-rock guitarist, multi-platinum-selling singer/songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Steve Miller returns to Jazz at Lincoln Center – Dec 13 – 14
The New York Philharmonic celebrates the season with its annual Holiday Brass – Dec 15
visual arts and culture in december 2019
1. best art museum exhibits in europe, middle east and africa in december 2019
The Musée d’Orsay is raising the curtain on a little-known figure: Joris-Karl Huysmans, a 19th century writer and art critic in the exhibition Huysmans Art Critic – Dec 3 – Mar 2
Ursula Schulz-Dornburg The Land In Between at Maison européenne de la Photographie explores Schulz-Dornburg’s 50 year career and its critique of how power, conflict, weather and decline disrupt and transform the landscape around us – Dec 4 – Feb 16
Can’t make it to the beach this winter? Explore the tropical landscape of Guatemala through Vivian Suter‘s immersive installation of hanging paintings at the Tate Liverpool- Dec 13 – Mar 15, 2020
The best in the world of the arts and culture in December 2019: Vivian Suter at the Tate Liverpool. Courtesy Photo.
BOZAR Brussels will present a major retrospective of the legendary American artist, Keith Haring who seen a lot of attention this year via an auction of one of his famous murals, an exhibition at the Tate and a collection of Adidas Sneakers made in honor of Pride – Dec 16 – Apr 19
2. best art museum exhibits in north and south america in december 2019
The New York-based collagist and painter Mickalene Thomas will transform galleries into an apartment, furnished with her own work and that of others, that evokes her artist mother’s place in New Jersey in Better Nights at Miami’s The Bass – Dec 1 – September 27, 2020
Mickalene Thomas Better Nights at The Bass in Miami.
Käthe Kollwitz: Prints, Process, Politics at LA’s Getty Research Institute will show rare preparatory drawings, working proofs and trial prints, shedding light on Kollwitz’s creative process and her social and political engagement – Dec 3 – Mar 29
The nonprofit Artists Space returns to its roots in Tribeca, inaugurating its new home on Cortlandt Alley with an adventurous show of works by Danica Barboza, Jason Hirata, Yuki Kimura and Duane Linklater – Dec 6
The São Paulo Museum of Art is hosting a retrospective of the modernist sculptor Gego (née Gertrud Goldschmidt), who fled Nazi Germany for Venezuela and used thin steel rods to make spindly, fragile, deeply poetic drawings in space – Dec 13 – Mar 1
The best art museum exhibits in December 2019: modernist sculptor Gego (née Gertrud Goldschmidt) at the MASP Brazil.
Kent Monkman has been selected to create two monumental paintings for The Met’s Great Hall Commission. Monkman is a Cree artist who explores themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience across a variety of mediums, including painting, film, performance and installation – Dec 19 – Apr 12
3. best art museum exhibits in asia in december 2019
The Singapore Biennale continues through December and into the new year. This year’s theme is Every Step in the Right Direction and focuses on the imperative of making choices and taking the steps to consider current conditions and the human endeavour for change – through Mar 22
The best art museum exhibits to see in December 2019: the Singapore Biennale at the Singapore Art Museum. Courtesy Photo.
The Body Politic and the Body at the Singapore Art Museum examines the socio-political body of contemporary society alongside the individual, subjective body – Dec 8 – Apr 12, 2020
the best in the arts and culture in December 2019
That’s it. Some of the top ballet performances, jazz concerts in August 2019. Our top picks for the best new events in the world of the arts and culture in December 2019. Have a dazzling month.
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For access to insider ideas and information on the world of luxury, sign up for our Dandelion Chandelier newsletter here. And see luxury in a new light.
Jillian Tangen is the Head of Research at Dandelion Chandelier and a former 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 New York and is married with three young children. She loves cross-country skiing, the New York Rangers, reading, travel and discovering new brands.
Join our community
For access to insider ideas and information on the world of luxury, sign up for our Dandelion Chandelier newsletter. And see luxury in a new light.