The festival will feature 27 performances and events as well as post-performance White Light Lounges, where performers and audience members can meet and talk. On October 18, the festival will kick off with a free concert of ghazal and Punjabi folk songs performed by Kiran Ahluwalia. Closing the festival on November 18 will be Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra interpretation of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony.

Other festival highlights will include the U.S. premiere of Rian, performed by Ireland's Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre (November 8-10); virtuoso Wang Li playing jaw harps and calabash flute(October 25); the N.Y. premiere of choreographer Akram Khan's Vertical Road (October 23-24); Cameron Carpenter playing Bach on the Alice Tully Hall organ (October 28); Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, conducted by Matthias Pintscher and performed by pianist Emanuel Ax, members of the New York Philharmonic, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, and tenor Russell Thomas (November 4); Cosmic Pulses, performed by percussionist Stuart Gerber and sound projectionist Joe Drew (October 30); the U.S. debut of the Latvian Radio Choir (November 16); Mary Chapin Carpenter singing from her new album (October 26); Heiner Goebbels' I went to the house but did not enter featuring the Hilliard Ensemble (November 13-14); and more.

For more information and tickets to White Light Festival, click here.