“Pierre Audi has led the Dutch National Opera since 1988 while also serving as artistic director of the Holland Festival in Amsterdam from 2004 until 2014,” writes Robin Pogrebin in Tuesday’s (6/2) New York Times. “Somehow he found time to work as a critically acclaimed director, after founding London’s avant-garde Almeida Theater…. He joins the Armory in October to begin planning its 2017 season. He succeeds Alex Poots, who in November was named artistic director and chief executive of Culture Shed,” a performance space on Manhattan’s far West Side “Under [Audi’s] direction, the [Almeida] established an international reputation for producing new plays and musicals, introducing to the U.K. composers like John Cage, Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Part—as well as works by Robert Wilson, Deborah Warner, Simon McBurney, and Robert Lepage…. As head of the Dutch National Opera, Mr. Audi has helped to raise the company’s profile…. The Armory is hoping he will raise its profile and build on the institution’s success…. Recent Armory highlights have included a residency by the Royal Shakespeare Company … the New York Philharmonic’s performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ‘Gruppen’ with three ensembles surrounding the audience; and ‘Macbeth’ featuring Kenneth Branagh.”
Posted June 3, 2015
