76TH SEASON OF CONCERTS

OCTOBER 8, 2017 / NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
2 3

Program

The Canales Project

Presented in partnership with TEDxMidAtlantic

Lara Downes, piano

Kaoru Watanabe, shinobue bamboo flute

Sandeep Das, tabla

OCTOBER 8, 2017 / 3:30

WEST BUILDING, WEST GARDEN COURT

Program will be announced from the stage.

above Sandeep Das, Photo by Michael Lovett. top right

Kaoru Watanabe, Photo by Bryce Craig. bottom right Lara 

Downes, Photo by Shervin Lainez
4 5

The Musicians

LARA DOWNES 

An iconoclastic pianist whose artistry has been called “luscious, moody and dreamy” 

by The New York Times, Lara Downes takes inspiration where she finds it, going 

beyond labels like “classical” or “eclectic” to make music that is timeless and timely. 

Downes’s forays into the broad landscape of American music have led to her charttopping release, America Again (Sono Luminus, 2016), selected by NPR as one 

of the “10 Albums that Saved 2016.” In recognition of this acclaimed album, she 

was a recipient of the 2017 Innovator of the Year award by the University of 

California, Davis. 

Downes is also a laureate of the 2016 Sphinx Medal of Excellence award, for 

her leadership in expanding the reach of the arts as a performer, an entrepreneur, 

and a cultural visionary. She enjoys creative collaborations with a range of leading 

artists, from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove. Downes’s 

newest project, Anniversaries for Lenny, celebrates the American legacy of Leonard 

Bernstein on the 100th anniversary of his birth. When not on the road, Downes 

serves as artist-in-residence at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, at the 

University of California, Davis, where she mentors the next generation of young 

musicians as director of the Mondavi Center National Young Artists Program.

KAORU WATANABE

Kaoru Watanabe, a Brooklyn-based composer and practitioner of the Japanese taiko 

drum and shinobue bamboo flutes, is known for artfully combining Japan’s traditional 

ritual and theater music with complex compositional and improvisational elements 

of jazz and other global music. For close to a decade, Watanabe was a performing 

member and artistic director of Kodo—an iconic Japanese taiko performing arts 

group. Since leaving Kodo, Watanabe has collaborated with such luminaries as 

Japanese National Living Treasure Band ̄o Tamasabur ̄o V, MacArthur Fellow Jason 

Moran, S ̄o Percussion, and film directors Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson. He 

also was a featured artist on the Grammy Award–winning album Sing Me Home, by 

Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. Watanabe has performed his compositions 

at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, 

the Whitney Museum, and Tokyo’s Kabuki-za and has performed extensively across 

the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

As an educator, Watanabe has taught courses at Princeton and Wesleyan Universities and was a faculty member at the Tanglewood Music Festival and at DePauw 

University for the Silk Road Project’s Global Musician Workshop. He is an instructor 

for kaDON, an online resource presented by Japan’s most prestigious taiko maker, 

Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten. His studio in Brooklyn hosts private lessons, rehearsals, 

weekly classes, intensive workshops, and professional-level training courses offered 

by both Watanabe and esteemed guest instructors from Japan.

SANDEEP DAS

Grammy-nominated Sandeep Das is considered one of the leading tabla players in 

the world today. One of the favorite disciples of the legendary tabla maestro, Pandit 

Kishan Maharaj of the Benaras Gharana, Das has carved out a niche for himself in 

the musical world. His concerts have taken him to major centers of music, including 

Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, Royce Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Hollywood 

Bowl, and the Petronas Tower Hall in Malaysia.

Das has composed for and performed internationally with Yo-Yo Ma and the 

Silk Road Ensemble since the group’s founding in 2000. With the ensemble, he 

performed at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in 2008 and played the 

BBC Proms in 2004 and 2009. He is the only Indian artist to have performed for 

the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics Games in Shanghai.
6

The Project

The Canales Project, founded by Carla Dirlikov Canales, produces concert programs 

that explore issues of culture and identity through music and interaction with 

established artists who have lived and understand those issues. These concerts offer 

opportunities to hear music from many traditions, while giving the artists a chance 

to address their own experiences navigating questions of identity. The rising generation in the United States is called “the plurals” because so many of its members 

come from diverse backgrounds and speak multiple languages. The ability of many 

in this group to understand and operate in multiple cultures should not be seen as 

a burden but rather as an opportunity, a kind of super power this new generation 

possesses. Further, what sets this generation apart can also help bring its various 

cultures together, and with these ties, this new generation makes the journey from 

“the other” to the “all.”

In this special performance, the Canales Project teams up with TEDxMidAtlantic 

to present three extraordinary artists who will share their perspective with TED-style 

commentary integrated into their performance. TEDxMidAtlantic celebrates the 

power of ideas to positively change the world and aims to build community by 

bringing together like-minded people who believe in this mission. In the spirit of 

ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that offer 

a TED-like experience with live speakers who spark deeper conversation.

Upcoming Events of the SeventySixth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, all programs 

take place in the West Building, 

West Garden Court.

—

Dalí Quartet

With Orlando Cotto, percussion

Music by Ricardo Lorenz, Guido LópezGavilan, and Jorge Mazón–Rico Melao 

October 15, 3:30

—

Lina Bahn, violin, and 

Matt Haimovitz, cello

With Artichoke Dance Company

Voices of the Ocean

October 22, 3:30

—

Pomerium

Flemish Musical Mastery in the 

Age of Bosch and Bloemaert

Celebrating Bosch to Bloemaert: Early 

Netherlandish Drawings from the Museum 

Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

October 29, 3:30

—

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Octets by Jean Françaix 

and Franz Schubert

November 5, 3:30

—

The Crossing

With members of ICE

Music by Ted Hearne, David Lang, 

and Caroline Shaw

November 12, 3:30

Mantra Percussion

Michael Gordon, Timber

Celebrating Jackson Pollock’s Mural

November 19, 3:30

—

LACE (Living Art Collective Ensemble)

Salon-style concerts with music by 

Boccherini, Brillon, and Mozart

Celebrating Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures

November 24–25, 2:00 & 4:00

West Building, East Garden Court

—

New York Opera Society

The Three Lives of Rosina Almaviva

Celebrating Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures

November 26, 3:30

—

Inna Faliks and Daniel Schlosberg 

Gustav Mahler, Symphony no. 6, 

arranged for piano, four-hands, 

by Alexander von Zemlinsky

December 3, 3:30

—

Caroling in the Rotunda

December 9, 10, 16 & 17, 1:30 & 2:30

—

The Swiss-American Musical Society

Igor Stravinsky, The Soldier’s Tale

Christophe Sturzenegger,

The Snow Queen

Christophe Sturzenegger, conductor

Robert Baker, narrator

December 10, 3:30

—

Turtle Island Quartet

With special guest Liz Carroll

Winter’s Eve

December 17, 4:00
nga.gov/music

Admission to the National Gallery of Art 

and all of its programs is free of charge, 

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the performance is not 

allowed. Please be sure that all portable 

electronic devices are turned off.

The department of music produced 

these program notes. Copyright © 2017 

Board of Trustees, National Gallery of 

Art, Washington

Concerts are made possible in part 

through the generosity of donors to 

the National Gallery of Art through 

The Circle. Reserved seating is available 

in recognition of their support. Please 

contact the development office at 

(202) 842-6450 or circle@nga.gov for 

more information.

Cover Mary Heilman, Melody (detail), 

1998, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 

Gift of Kathan Brown