L’Alliance New York is proud to announce the New York premiere of D’Est en musique as part of the 2025 Crossing The Line Festival on Tuesday, September 9, 2025 at 7:30 PM, followed by an Opening Reception. The performance takes place at L’Alliance New York Florence Gould Theater and is presented in collaboration with MoMA.

In her 1993 semi-fictional travelogue D’Est, the Belgian auteur Chantal Akerman captured the changing face of a collapsing Soviet Union in wordless images of remarkable potency. In 2005, she re-edited the film as part of a musical collaboration with her partner, the renowned cellist, Sonia Wieder-Atherton.

Twenty years later and on the other side of Akerman’s death, D’Est takes on poignant new dimensions of loss and memory as Wieder-Atherton performs her richly curated score alongside award-winning pianist, Sarah Rothenberg. Part of a complete MoMA retrospective of Akerman’s work, this singular evening pairs the film with masterworks by, among others, Bartók, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel.

For more information and to reserve tickets, visit https://lallianceny.org/event/dest-en-musique/.

Performers
Sonia Wieder-Atherton collaborates with many contemporary composers. She has conceived and directed a number of projects including Shakespeare Bach with Charlotte Rampling and Cadenza, or the dreams of Luigi Boccherini with works by Michael Riesman, Eric Dolphy, and György Kurtag. She regularly plays in venues such as Philharmonie de Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Megaron in Athenes, and the Armory in New York. Her many recordings bear witness to her career. Her last release is the 6 cello solo suites for the label Alpha Classic.

Sarah Rothenberg has a unique career as pianist, writer, producer, and creator. A pianist of “power and introspection” (The New York Times), she has performed at the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Great Performers at Lincoln Center (New York), the Barbican Centre (London), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), the Gilmore Piano Festival, 92nd Street Y, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, the Library of Congress, the Van Cliburn Foundation, the Getty Museum, the Ojai Festival, and concert series across the United States.

Billing credits:
Concept: Chantal Akerman and Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Cello: Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Piano: Sarah Rothenberg
Set to footage from Chantal Akerman’s documentary D’Est (1993)
With the music of Béla Bartók, Frédéric Chopin, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel, Alfred Schnittke and Boris Tchaikovsky

Production credits:
Philharmonie de Paris
In partnership with Chantal Akerman Foundation, Cinematek Brussels and Jeu de Paume Paris
2024 Premiere: Salle des Concerts Cité de la musique - Philharmonie de Paris

Support for Crossing The Line Festival
Howard Gilman Foundation, Air France, and The Wescustogo Foundation. L'Alliance New York's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the Support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Additional Support for Crossing The Line Festival
Opening Reception supported by Pommery