Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Art After 5 will double down on its innate awesomeness this Friday with the commencement of Bowerbird‘s CAGE: Beyond Silence, a series of live performances celebrating the arrival of Dancing Around The Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp, a new multi-media exhibit that opens Tuesday marking the centenary of one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. Art after 5 is already pretty awesome. It is a contact zone of all sorts, a heady mix of cocktails, eclectic music and one of the world’s great art collection under the magnificent vaulted ceilings of the museum. During these events, the grandiose staircase doubles as ‘stadium seating. Waiters roam around some tables at the staircase’s base, serving light fair in formal outfits. This Friday’s entertainment will feature pianist Margaret Leng Tan, who will play some of John Cage’s film music. Cage was born in 1912, making this his centenary (September 5, actually, but who’s counting?). The music includes four pieces, in case you want to preview on Spotify – “Works of Calder,”” Music for Marcel Duchamp,” “Chess Pieces” and “Music for Piano no. 2.” These selections 
will be accompanied by projected video, including one entitled “Works of Calder,” which will use music to substitute for the sound of colliding mobiles. Footage comes from famed artist Alexander Calder’s studio. Cage’s music is airy, ethereal, minimalist, and – even though written more than fifty years ago – still edgy. Bowerbird’s CAGE: Beyond Silence continues with presentations of experimental music, film and dance that will run concurrently with the exhibit through January 20th. — BRANDON LAFVING
EDITOR’S NOTE: We are proud to partner with the Philadelphia Musueum of Art on this. We have several pairs of tickets to see DANCING AROUND THE BRIDE to give away to lucky Phawker readers. To qualify you need to sign up for our mailing list. It’s easy, just type your email into the mailing list sign up window to the right of this post, right below our masthead. Signing up to our mailing list gets you special content alerts and early warnings about special promotions and concert ticket giveaways. And rest assured your email address will never be sold or shared with anyone, we promise upon pain of death. Us not you. Then send an email to FEED[at]PHAWKER.COM with the words JOHN CAGE SUPERSTAR in the subject line. These are hard tickets so please include a mailing address along with your full name and a mobile number for confirmation. Good luck and godspeed!
JOHN CAGE: Water Walk