OVERVIEW

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

6:45 PM – FESTIVAL OPENING: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Frances and Armand Hammer Auditorium

ILLUMINATIONs 1, Opening Panel: "John Cage and His Legacy", with Laura Kuhn, Brian Brandt, Don Gillespie, moderated by Roger Reynolds

8:00 PM – ILLUMINATIONs 1 will be followed by A Reading of Cage's radio play James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet
Frances and Armand Hammer Auditorium

Reception to follow in the Corcoran Gallery North Atrium

Pre-registration required

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

12:10 PM – NGA East Building Auditorium  
National Gallery of Art New Music Ensemble – Steve Antosca, Artistic Director, with guest performers Jenny Lin, Bonnie Whiting Smith, Dustin Donahue
Works by Cage, Schönberg, and Tribute works by Christian Wolff and David Felder

ART DISPLAY

FRIDAY, August 24 , 2012 - MONDAY, September 17, 2012
National Gallery of Art East Building's Concourse Galleries
"John Cage: Rocks, Paper, Fire", six prints from the Gallery's collection

This small but exquisite display – managed with the singular elegance that characterizes the National Gallery – will illuminate Cage's experimentalism in visual art: rocks as templates used in the discovery of forms, fire as an unpredictable medium for transforming the very paper upon which Cage made his prints. "His commitment to indeterminacy as a creative strategy proved to be a wellspring of beauty." Donated by Kathan Brown.

6:00 PM– La Maison Française, Embassy of France in Washington, DC 
ILLUMINATIONs 2, Lecture: "Anarchic Harmony: John Cage's Paradoxical Wager?" by Joan Retallack

7:30 PM – La Maison Française, Embassy of France
JOHN CAGE/A Tribute Evening by Alexis Descharmes, Cellist, with guests Irvine Arditti, Lina Bahn, Bill Kalinkos, Jenny Lin, and Steven Schick
Works by Cage, Erik Satie, Klaus Huber, Pierre Boulez, and a Tribute work by Beat Furrer

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

12:00 PM-4:30 PM – Library of Congress, Mary Pickford Theater, 3rd floor, James Madison Building (Pickford Theater seating is 64; patrons may come and go during the 3-hour screening; reserved seating is not available.)

This presentation features the WORLD PREMIERE of Henning Lohner’s Musicircus preceded and followed by the haunting Beach Birds for Camera, directed by Elliot Caplan. The public is invited to arrive at the beginning, wander in and out, or arrive in the middle and stay through the end. A coffee shop is located downstairs in the building. Introduction by Brian Brandt

About Musicircus: 3.5 hours of 53 Cage compositions by 77 performers organized by John Kennedy & Charles Wood from the 1992 Symphony Space, New York City event.
Featured in the soon-to-be-released 5-DVD set of John Cage films on Mode Records.

6:00 PM – The Phillips Collection, The Auditorium  
Freeman Etudes, performed by guest violinist Irvine Arditti – the complete Freeman Etudes by John Cage: an American premiere
Pre-registration required [See Festival Calendar; Phillips tickets include admission to The Phillips Collection Pre-concert Panel Discussion at 4:00 PM as well as "Phillips after 5" and Art Exhibitions]

TWO ART EXHIBITIONS

SATURDAY, June 2, 2012 - SUNDAY, September 9, 2012 – The Phillips Collection 

1) Jasper Johns: Variations on a Theme, nearly 100 prints by Cage's friend and sometime-collaborator

2) John Cage at the Phillips, three of Cage's watercolors (donated to The Phillips Collection by Ray Kass) as well as works by Northwest School painters Mark Tobey and Morris Graves

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

PERCUSSION EVENTS coordinated by Ross Karre

4:00 PM – American University, College of Arts and Sciences' Katzen Arts Center
Abramson Family Recital Hall
ILLUMINATIONs 3, Lecture: "Organic Structure in John Cage’s Early Percussion Music" by Thomas DeLio

5:00 PM - 11:00 PM – American University, Katzen Arts Center 
Allen Otte, Russell Burge, James Culley, and Ben Toth –Percussion Group Cincinnati, and
Steve Schick, Dustin Donahue, Ross Karre, and Bonnie Whiting Smith – red fish blue fish
Performances, including a Percussion Concert at 7:30 PM, Theatrical realizations, and Installations featuring the percussion music of Cage, and Tribute works by Ryan Bridge and Tamzin Ferré Elliott
Ross Karre: Percussion Events Coordinator
NJ Snider, Director, Music Department: American University Coordinator

ART EXHIBITION

SATURDAY, September 1, 2012 - SUNDAY, October 21, 2012 – American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Katzen Museum First Floor Exhibition
John Cage's "STEPS": A Composition for a Painting, Selected Watercolors, and Ephemera, includes seven enormous watercolor works resulting from Cage's STEPS project, and a room showing the progression of graphically inventive musical scores – from original manuscripts through publication (including never-before-exhibited items from the archives of Cage's publisher, C.F. Peters Corporation, New York). There is also a room featuring continuous video showings. You don't want to miss seeing the original manuscript to 4' 33'.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

9 AM-1:00 PM [Registration 9AM-10AM] – American University, Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall

JOHN CAGE CENTENNIAL PERCUSSION WORKSHOP coordinated by Ross Karre

Percussion Masterclass with Steven Schick and Allen Otte, Percussion Group Cincinnati, and red fish blue fish.

American University will host a very special workshop for composers, percussionists, and music enthusiasts on the topic of John Cage's percussion repertoire and interpretation. Percussion Group Cincinnati, who worked closely with Cage for many years, will guide the participants through an anecdotal history of Cage's special sounds and techniques. Steven Schick will discuss John Cage's influence on American percussion and experimentalism. red fish blue fish will lead participatory group interpretations of open form pieces such as "Six", "But what about the noise of crumpling paper", and "Variations IV". The event is free. Parking is free. Registration will take place outside of the Katzen Arts Center Abramson Family Recital Hall from 9 AM - 10 AM. Lectures, demos, and performances will occur from 10 AM - 1 PM in the Abramson Family Recital Hall.
Optional RSVP and Updates on Facebook.

12:30 PM – The Kreeger Museum, Grand Hall 
ILLUMINATIONs 4, Lecture: "Choice, Chance, and Circumstance in John Cage's Watercolors" by Ray Kass, followed by a light reception at 1:30, Monet Gallery

2:00 PM [this follows the 1:30 PM reception] – The Kreeger Museum, Grand Hall
Piano Recital by Stephen Drury, music by Cage, a realization by David Tudor, and a Tribute work by Philip Glass

6:45 PM – Freer Gallery of Art, gallery 5
Pre-concert Talk by Roger Reynolds: "PHANTOM CONVERSATION – A Virtual Discussion Between Daisetz T. Suzuki and John Cage"

7:30 PM – Freer Gallery of Art, (Eugene and Agnes E.) Meyer Auditorium
Four Walls performed by Margaret Leng Tan, piano and voice – John Cage: Four Walls, followed by Music for Piano #2, simultaneous with 10 Stones (video realization by Rob Dietz)

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2012

2:00 PM – National Gallery of Art, East Bldg. Auditorium
Roger Reynolds, Composer and University Professor, UC San Diego, and Artist in Residence, UC Washington Center; Jenny Lin, Guest Pianist
ILLUMINATIONs 5, Intermedia Lecture Event: "PASSAGE 7: John Cage"– incidents, texts, conversations, and music