Park Avenue Armory's spring-fall 2016 season begins March 22 with the U.S. premiere of Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s De Materie, conceived by acclaimed director Heiner Goebbels and featuring a flock of sheep onstage. Performances are scheduled to run through March 30.

The large-scale production, which occupies the Armory's 55,000-square-foot drill hall, also features the International Contemporary Ensemble and a cast of over 30 actors and dancers. It is described as a hybrid of theatre, narration, singing, instrumental music and philosophical reflection. Goebbels returns to the venue following his 2009 staging of Stifters Dinge.

“De Materie weaves together disparate moments from history,“ state Armory press notes. “Andriessen’s composition, itself a journey through eras and styles of music history from early Renaissance, to the roaring 20's, to contemporary music of today, attempts to merge the clash of these different perspectives into a kind of simultaneity within a large-scale musical and philosophical essay: the private, the political, physics and love, the history of humanity, and the fate of individuals.“

The Armory's season encompasses opera, music, visual and performance art, including major site-specific commissions like De Materie. On March 7, the Armory launched The Artist’s Studio, an intimate artistic series presenting concerts across a range of genres in the newly renovated Veterans Room, curated by jazz musician and composer Jason Moran.

For more detailed information and to purchase tickets, visit Armoryonpark.org.