Performance

Filming at home in the days after Maurice Berger’s death, Sarah Rothenberg (VLC Fellow 1995) dedicated her March 20th performance of Morton Feldman’s Palais de Mari to Berger. This personal moment and the piece relate to the strange, suspended notion of time during the Covid-19 lockdown as well as to timelessness evoked in the title of Feldman’s 1986 composition that refers to the ancient Babylonian palace of Mari. 

Acting as a coda to the tribute, the piano recital is preceded by video recollections by many of the colleagues in Berger’s expanded sphere of influence. 

Participants
Sarah Rothenberg, pianist, artistic director of DACAMERA, Houston, Texas, and 1995 VLC Fellow

This event is part of the Vera List Center Forum 2020. It is preceded by a protocol-directed performance composed by VLC Fellow Robert Sember as well as a discussion on the impact of Maurice Berger’s work, with Courtney R. Baker, Lonnie G. Bunch III, David Gonzalez, Nona Faustine, and Sarah Lewis, moderated by Kinshasha Holman Conwill. 

You can watch Sarah Rothenberg’s performance of Palais de Mari here on Youtube, courtesy of DACAMERA.

Sarah Rothenberg is a pianist, essayist and creator/director of interdisciplinary productions linking music, art and literature. Performances include Great Performers at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Barbican Centre (London), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam). She has premiered over 80 works and recordings include music of Wuorinen, Carter, Tower, Ran, Tsontakis, Perle, Rouders, as well as Messiaen, Satie, Brahms, Schoenberg, Roslavetz, Mosolov, and Fanny Mendelssohn. Her original productions include A Proust Sonata; The Blue Rider in Performance; and Vienna 1900: In the Garden of Dreams. Writings appear in PN Review (UK), Threepenny Review, Conjunctions, Nexus, The Musical Quarterly, The Crisis of Criticism (ed. Maurice Berger, New Press), Rackstraw Downes (Parrish Museum/Giles London) and Cy Twombly Treatise on the Veil (Menil Collection/Yale University). She received the French medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2000; was co-founder of the Bard Music Festival; and is artistic director of DACAMERA, producer of innovative chamber music and jazz. She lives in Houston and New York.

The Vera List Center Forum 2020 launches the center’s 2020-2022 focus theme, As for Protocols. Curated by Carin Kuoni and Eriola Pira, it is organized with the support of Adrienne Umeh, Heran Abate, Joshua van Biema, and Maryna Arabei.

The Vera List Center Forum 2020 is made possible by major support from Jane Lombard and the Kettering Fund, as well as the Boris Lurie Art Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and The New School as well as members of the Vera List Center’s board and other individuals.

This tribute reflects on the seminal contributions by Vera List Center inaugural fellow Maurice Berger. It is organized by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, with the support of Marvin Heiferman.

The Vera List Center Forum 2020 will be livestreamed with live ASL interpretation and captioning.