2022–23 IMPACT REPORT
Reporting on the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2023

South African choreographer Robyn Orlin’s And so you see… our honourable blue sky and ever enduring sun… can only be consumed slice by slice… highlighted the uneasy relationship between global north and south–and won performer Albert Ibokwe Khoza a Bessie Award.

For two years Gabriel Kahane worked on a new project, commissioned by Meany, inspired by a year spent away from the internet. He presented the finished project, Magnificent Bird, on our 2022-23 Season.

Mexico: A Musical Journey  explored Mexican history and culture through music by six iconic Latin American composers and works by visual artists ranging from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera to today.

Abby Z's choreography shatters assumptions of established forms. We presented this performance in the intimate Studio Theater where audiences experienced up close the dancers’ kinetic energy.

A vocalist, composer, and performance artist who strikingly explores the abstraction of operatic and extended-vocal technique to build multi-layered soundscapes, Holland performed their solo program in our intimate Studio Theater.

UW’s Meany Center was an appropriate venue for BIG 5-0, celebrating Pilobolus’s 50th Anniversary: the company was originally founded by university students interested in the intersections between science, art, movement, and the natural world.

Since we first presented him in 2013, Daniil Trifonov has established himself as one of the most musically advanced pianists of his generation. It was meaningful to welcome him back to Meany ten years later

Canticle for Innocent Comedians, a reimagining of a lost work by Martha Graham, presented eight diverse choreographers creating new vignettes based on Graham’s original theme that celebrated different aspects of nature.

After 44 years (and a record 27 performances at Meany!) Phil Setzer, Eugene Drucker, Lawrence Dutton and Paul Watkins are retiring the Emerson. Their final performance on the Meany Stage moved us to tears.

Composer/vocalist Caroline Shaw’s extended vocal techniques and powerful lyrics combined with SŌ’s experimental percussion effects on Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part made this performance spellbinding.

It was enormously exciting to present a program of Beethoven Quartets alongside two new pieces (co-commissioned by Meany Center) by German composer, conductor, and clarinetist Jörg Widmann that were based on Beethoven’s writing.

We’ve been following Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov for several years as his career grew. His well-received Meany debut featured fellow Uzbek composer Dilorom Saidaminova, alongside Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev

Beloved by Meany audiences, KODŌ returned to our stage–and shook our walls!--with their expert musicianship and amazing physicality. The audience’s joy  was palpable in the packed theater.

​Known for their innovative programming, the Takačs is one of the world’s leading ensembles. Their January performance featured works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Benjamin Britten and Antonín Dvořák

Meany Center was a proud commissioner of the stunningly beautiful The Fires of Varanasi. Contemporary Bharatanatyam style dance performed to live music created a diasporic work that  spoke to our time

With blackboard visuals recreated each night and the percussive music of the dancers’ feet, Black Girl Linguistic Play explored social dance and play as expressions of young female self-actualization– a unique and joyful experience.

Much beloved by Meany patrons, Angela is a fabulously articulate artist, bringing audiences directly into her performances through her detailed, deeply knowledgeable, and warm introductions from the stage.

Sharon Isbin is one of the most acclaimed guitarists of our time, while Amjad Ali Khan and his sons Amman Ali Bangash and Ayana Ali Bangash are known as “the First Family of the Sarod.” Together, their unique blend of Spanish guitar and original Indian ragas was unforgettable!

Directed by Bill T. Jones and performed by Williams and several musical collaborators, Motherboard Suite featured dance by seven diverse choreographers—including local choreographer Jade Solomon Curtis—and fearlessly explored the intersection of race and technology.

Dynamic young musicians who understand the importance of diversifying the classical music repertoire, the Dover Quartet made their Meany debut with  an eclectic program of Amy Beach, Dvořák and George Walker.

One of Africa’s most vital stars,Fatoumata Diawara’s propulsive blend of Southern Mali’s traditional music with soul, R&B, and funk had our audience dancing in the aisles.

Meany co-commissioned Drumfolk, a powerful depiction of the 1739 Stono Rebellion through the lens of percussive dance, vocals, and scenic design. Step Afrika! also performed to a packed and enthusiastic K-12 matinee.

We hope this is just the beginning of Meany’s relationship with Aaron, whose program featured works by Black American composers Margaret Bonds, Mary Lou Williams, William Grant Still, Florence Price, and Duke Ellington.

Directed by Peter Sellars and sung by the exquisite LA Master Chorale, the 75-minute performance of Orlando di Lasso’s renaissance masterpiece Lagrime di San Pietro fully embodied the music to stunning effect.

RUBBERBAND made its Meany Debut with choreographer and company founder Victor Quijada’s Reckless Underdog. Quijada’s propulsive blend of classical ballet, modern dance and hip hop defies categorization.

We ended our season with I Choose to Remember Us Whole, an interactive experience that highlighted Daniel Alexander Jones’ commitment to civic healing through collective engagement.