March Brings Piano Virtuoso, Independent Music Maverick to Cleveland Museum of Art's VIVA! & Gala Performing Arts Series

CLEVELAND (March 4, 2010) – The Cleveland Museum of Art's (CMA) VIVA! & Gala performing arts series heats up in March with performances by piano virtuoso Frederic Rzewski on Friday, March 19, and groundbreaking composer/musician John Zorn and his Masada Sextet on Friday, March 26. Both performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the museum's newly renovated Gartner Auditorium.

A composer and performer, Frederic Rzewski has been described by The New York Times as "a formidable pianist with a touch and attack sometimes eerily reminiscent of Glenn Gould." Rzewski has always been a classical force, dating to his experimentation in collective improvisation during the 1960s and his 1970s chamber music, which imbued elements from both written and open-ended forms. Rzewski never abandoned the masterworks, and for this special event, he'll bring the best of both worlds. The program includes Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, as well as his own best-known work, The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, a set of piano variations based on a Latin American revolutionary chant, which The New York Times called "magisterial" and "an instant classic."

Other well-known pieces from Rzewski's large body of compositions, which is especially notable for his works for piano, include De Profundis, Coming Together and North American Ballads. He has written for many soloists and ensembles, including Zeitgeist and Eighth Blackbird. Rzewski is a former professor of composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liege, Belgium, who also has taught at the Yale School of Music, University of Cincinnati and California Institute of the Arts. Tickets for the performance are $29 for the general public and $28 for CMA members.

John Zorn has been described by The New York Times as "a chameleonic New York composer whose work has fruitfully touched on everything from chamber music to death metal." An artist whose work is both far-reaching and uncompromisingly diverse, Zorn embodies New York's musical "downtown scene." He first emerged as a virtuoso jazz saxophonist, but his experimentation with tradition and form soon altered the musical landscape and shattered existing boundaries.

Today, Zorn is a MacArthur "genius grant" winner, maverick, Jewish culture proponent and independent music hero. He is well known for collecting around him players of the highest caliber across all disciplines, evidenced during his CMA performance by the introduction of his new Masada Sextet, which includes Dave Douglas, trumpet; Uri Caine, piano; Greg Cohen, bass; Cyro Baptista, percussion; and Joey Baron, drums. According to Pitchfork magazine, Masada "has remained the most consistently interesting and almost supernaturally imaginative work of American jazz in the last decade." Tickets for the performance are $34 or $33 for CMA members.

Group and student rates are available. For tickets to VIVA! & Gala performances, visit the CMA Online Box Office at www.clevelandart.org/tickets or call 888-CMA-0033.

VIVA! & Gala 2009-2010 Season
In February, the museum's VIVA! & Gala series returned to Gartner Auditorium, following nearly five seasons of performances around town during the auditorium's renovation. Programs are made possible in part by The Ernest L. and Louise M. Gartner Fund, The P.J. McMyler Musical Endowment Fund and The Anton and Rose Zverina Music Fund. Additional support has been provided by The Musart Society and the John P. Murphy Foundation. The official media sponsor is WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN Ideastream.

About the Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 40,000 objects and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. Currently undergoing a multi-phase renovation and expansion project, it is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, performing arts and art education. Admission to the museum has been free since its founding charter.

The Cleveland Museum of Art has a membership of nearly 25,000 households and is supported by a broad range of individuals, foundations and businesses in Cleveland and Northeastern Ohio. The museum is generously funded by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. Additional support comes from the Ohio Arts Council, which helps fund the museum with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. For more information about the museum, its holdings, programs and events, call 888-CMA-0033 or visit www.ClevelandArt.org.