Season in Review: Palm Beach area upholds its reputation as a hot spot for the arts

It’s a fact not generally appreciated nationwide, but Palm Beach and its surrounding area is one of the country’s most vibrant hot spots for the arts.

That’s especially true during season, when venues on the island and across the Intracoastal offer so much art, music, dance and theater that planning to attend a concert or see a play in the winter months amounts to making a tough choice between several can’t-miss events.

This season was no exception, and in a couple cases, arts organizations made important steps forward, further solidifying this part of South Florida as an arts hub.

Let’s take a look at the season that was:

Art

The Norton Museum of Art continues to occupy a central role in the realm of visual art, thanks to its stunning Foster + Partners renovation, now five years old, vibrant leadership in the person of its director, Ghislain d’Humières, and continued growth in its collections.

In October, the West Palm Beach museum hosted "Artists in Motion," an exhibit drawn from Princeton University’s Pearlman Collection of impressionist and modernist masterpieces by artists everyone knows without needing their first names: Van Gogh, Degas, Manet, Gaugin, Cézanne. Similarly big names in photography were on view starting in December with images from Avedon, Steichen, Lange and Parks, among others as the Judy Glickman Collection showcased 110 photographs from the 20th century’s major lens artists grouped according to four categories of “presence.”

Now on view through Aug. 11 are works from a substantial new gift to the museum from longtime Norton supporter Jonathan “Jack” Frost: A collection of nearly 700 prints and other works on paper spanning five centuries. The gift expands the Norton’s holdings of European and American art, and marks a milestone in the institution’s history. Also still on view through July is a solo show by the Puerto Rican artist Nora Maité Nieves, the museum’s Mary Lucille Dauray artist-in-residence.

Back on Palm Beach, the Society of the Four Arts presented two absorbing exhibitions, beginning in November with “Scenes of New York City,” which offered images of the big city by creators from Childe Hassam through Edward Hopper to Keith Haring. The Society stayed with its New York theme in its winter exhibition, “Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts,” which offered works presented at Guild Hall, a pioneering arts center in East Hampton. Artists on view included George Bellows, Chuck Close, Jane Freilicher, Jackson Pollock and others. Not to let any space go to waste, the society also mounted an outdoor exhibition of 71 photographs depicting the diversity of flowers. “Flora Imaginaria,” which closes May 6, is on display at the Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden.

The Flagler Museum returned to regular arts exhibits after the COVID hiatus with a show about the importance of bicycles in American society. Before the advent of automobiles in the 1890s, the bicycle was a major force in transportation as it marked emancipation from horse and buggy. Photos and examples of Gilded Age bicycles were on display. The winter exhibit at the Flagler focused on the work of a commercial artist who has retained enormous popularity today for his memorable Art Nouveau imagery. Alphonse Mucha, the Czech-born artist who made his name in his adopted city of Paris, was an exemplary draftsman whose style was ideal for the emerging industry of mass-market advertising, but he also was a Czech patriot who created a landmark series of canvases depicting historical events from his homeland.

Not to be outdone was the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, which in October mounted beautifully considered works by locally based artist Paul Gervais of the Hypoluxo Scrub, which he first saw from the window of a Brightline train. His paintings of the Scrub mark it as a protected survivor of South Florida development and gave viewers much to think about when considering our local environment. A group of works from the Historic Artists' Home and Studio program arrived in January, featuring pieces by O'Keeffe, Homer, Benton, Pollock and Andrew and N.C. Wyeth, among others. And out in the Gardens, the art museum hosted an exhibit of works by female sculptors called "The Divine Feminine, " which ran from December to April.

But the museums are only part of the art picture on Palm Beach. The town hosts dozens of high-end galleries offering the very best in contemporary art for residents and visitors who take in not just the big Art Basel Miami Beach art show in December, but also the art fairs at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.

New on the gallery scene this year were Atlanta luxe gallerist Jennifer Balcos, who opened a gallery at 292 S. County Road in December, and Italy’s Frascione Gallery, which opened its first U.S. site in December at 256 Worth Ave. Among the more notable shows this season were Rachel Hovanian’s March solo show at County Gallery, “Beyond the Hedges,” which imagined domestic scenes behind the immaculate house shrubbery of South Florida, and Damian Loeb’s extraterrestrial landscape imagery in November at Acquavella Galleries.

Music

The Palm Beach Symphony marked its 50th anniversary this season with some significant achievements such as a sixth regular concert and the commissioning of world premiere compositions from major composers including Bright Sheng, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Aaron Jay Kernis. Soloists this past season included pianists Yefim Bronfman, Emmanuel Ax, Santiago Rodriguez and Ignat Solzhenitsyn, and violinists Akiko Suwanai and Pinchas Zukerman.

The orchestra, led by music director Gerard Schwarz, wrapped up the season April 25 with an all-Beethoven program at the Kravis Center that included the master‘s Second Piano Concerto and his epic Ninth Symphony, commemorating the 200th anniversary of its premiere in May 1824.

The Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach presented an 11th season of concerts at several venues around Palm Beach County, including the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea on the island and the Norton Museum of Art. Among the events was an art song recital by the American mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke in March at Bethesda, the duo of violinist Tessa Lark and pianist Peter Dugan at the Norton in November, and an evening of French music at Bethesda in April featuring the Los Angeles Philharmonic harpist Emmanuel Ceysson and a string quartet.

Under artistic director Arnaud Sussmann (a violinist who appeared in several CMSPB concerts this season), the society inaugurated a chamber music festival at the Boscobel House and Gardens in New York’s Hudson Valley. The second season of that festival took place in September. The society’s 12th season opens this coming November with a program of late Romantic French and Belgian music by Ernest Chausson and Eugène Ysaÿe.

As always, the Society of the Four Arts presented another robust season of musical performances at its Gubelmann Auditorium. The season opened in December with two special events: The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, led by Wynton Marsalis, in a holiday program, and the return of a New York holiday tradition, the playing of all six “Brandenburg” Concertos by J.S. Bach, as performed by musicians from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

That society joined Four Arts artistic adviser Wu Han for a three-concert look at some of Beethoven’s chamber music in early January, while some of the music world’s finest string quartets — the Calidore and Schumann in February, the Escher in March and the Jerusalem in April — also made the Four Arts part of their season’s itineraries. Solo pianists, always popular with Four Arts audiences, were in strong supply with Jeremy Denk (January), Michael Stephen Brown (March) and Anna Geniushene (April).

Chamber music devotees also could enjoy the regular Tuesday night music series in February and March at the Flagler Museum. The young violinist Elissa Lee Koljonen gave a solo recital in February, and there was a Chicago presence with the Aznavoorian Sisters (February) and the Black Oak Ensemble (March). The concerts marked a return to the Flagler’s tradition of Tuesday night chamber music concerts in the resonant Whitehall music room.

There was mystery at Palm Beach Opera this season, with the abrupt departure of general director David Walker in mid-season; he was replaced by administrator James Barbato.

The season’s operas, “Tosca” in January, “Tales of Hoffmann” in March, and “Norma” in April, were also attended by extra drama, of the kind so beloved by opera fans everywhere. Soprano Jessica Pratt, who was to perform the title role of Norma in Bellini’s bel canto staple, bowed out due to illness just before the show went on. She was replaced by none other than Angela Meade, renowned at the Metropolitan Opera for her readings of this role. Meade gave a powerhouse performance opening night, saving the day for a difficult and challenging opera to bring off successfully. Donors also got to see the company’s Young Artists in their annual post-season Liederabend concert in April, where they presented an impressive program of music by American composers Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland.

The opera’s coming season will feature Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” in January, Verdi’s “La Traviata” in February, and Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” in April.

Last but not least, the Kravis Center’s classical programs brought a strong lineup of touring orchestras to West Palm Beach, such as the Cleveland, Detroit, Jacksonville and Rotterdam orchestras, as well as the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in March and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in January. But its biggest coup was a first-ever visit by the legendary Vienna Philharmonic in March, at which conductor Franz Welser-Möst led an exceptional reading of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony before a virtually sold-out house. This was music making on a sublime level, and one that area audiences are likely to remember for years to come.

Theater

Attention was duly paid to Palm Beach Dramaworks this season as it mounted an impressive lineup of works including Arthur Miller’s classic 1949 play “Death of a Salesman.” The sad tale of Willy Loman, who sours on the American Dream, starred Rob Donohoe and was lauded by area critics as a landmark production for the West Palm Beach-based theater. Audiences got the message: Dramaworks extended the April run of “Salesman” for another week.

But the troupe also presented two world premieres: Jenny Connell Davis’ “The Messenger,” a Holocaust-themed drama, in December. Davis is the first-ever resident playwright for Dramaworks. In February, Miami attorney and playwright Christopher Demos-Brown saw his new work, “The Cancellation of Lauren Fein,” the story of a professor who runs afoul of cancel culture, take the stage in February, to wide critical acclaim.

The current season of Dramaworks ends with “Trying,” the story of a young Canadian woman who is hired as an aide to former U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle, by this time an irascible elderly man who is attempting to organize his files for a memoir. Joanna Glass’ highly regarded 2004 play runs from May 24 to June 9.

Much of the theater enjoyed by area residents can be found at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, where the Kravis on Broadway series regularly presents touring companies of the top shows on the Broadway circuit. This year saw “Mean Girls,” “Beetlejuice,” “Jagged Little Pill,” “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” and “Six: The Musical,” the latter a Tony Award-winning rock concert examination of the six wives of England’s King Henry VIII.

Also on the series in January was a much-admired production of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Aaron Sorkin’s theatrical version of the classic Harper Lee novel and film. And in April came Lin-Manuel Miranda’s groundbreaking hip-hop tale of the nation’s first secretary of the Treasury, “Hamilton.”

Dance

Miami City Ballet marked the 40th anniversary of the death of George Balanchine with performances in November, February and March of the choreographer’s works including “The Firebird,” “Agon” and “Serenade.” New works by choreographers Jamar Roberts, Margarita Armas, Durante Verzola, Alonzo King and Ricardo Amarante also were seen, as was the company’s annual holiday production of “The Nutcracker.”

The company’s final show at the Kravis this season is Alexei Ratmansky’s setting of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake,” which runs from May 10-12. It will be worth your while to go, because the coming season will be very different.

In one of the unhappiest developments on the local arts scene, Miami City Ballet will visit the Kravis Center only twice next season, in March and April, when the troupe presents its “Winter Mix” and “Spring Mix” programs for a total of just six performances. This is a blow to area audiences and the company’s longstanding support on the island, and one that devotees surely hope will be reversed in years to come.

Meanwhile, Colleen Smith’s Palm Beach Gardens-based Ballet Palm Beach continues with its presentations of original and classic works, with its own “Nutcracker” in December at the Kravis Center, and Smith’s “Peter Pan and Tinker Bell,” with the familiar J.M. Barrie character in a story set to music from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque eras.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: 2023-24 Palm Beach arts season was robust, groundbreaking