MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP
MMDG MUSIC ENSEMBLE

THE ARGUMENTmusic Robert Schumann Fünf Stücke im Volkston

costumes Elizabeth Kurtzman

lights Michael Chybowski

I. "Vanitas vanitatum." Mit Humor

II. Langsam

III. Nicht schnell, mit viel Ton zu spielen

IV. Nicht zu rasch

V. Stark und markiert

VI. "Vanitas vanitatum." Mit Humor

cello Andrew Janss

piano Colin Fowler

Dallas McMurray, Maile Okamura, Spencer Ramirez, Noah Vinson, Jenn Weddel, Michelle Yard

premiere: Feb. 26, 1999, Bank of America Celebrity Series, Wang Center of Performing Arts, Boston, Mass.

‍CANDLEFLOWERDANCE‍

music Igor Stravinsky Serenade in to

costumes Katherine M. Patterson

lights Nicole Pearce

piano Colin Fowler

Rita Donahue, Lauren Grant, Aaron Loux, Billy Smith, Noah Vinson, Jenn Weddel

for Susan Sontag

premiere: Sept. 22, 2005, Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, Calif.

commissioned in part from Cal Performances, Berkeley, Calif.

music with permission from Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. publisher and copyright owner


INTERVAL

‍EXCURSIONS‍

music Samuel Barber Excursions for the Piano (Op. 20, IV, III, II, I)

costumes Katherine M. Patterson

lights Nicole Pearce

piano Colin Fowler

Rita Donahue, Laurel Lynch, Dallas McMurray, Billy Smith, Noah Vinson, Michelle Yard

premiere: June 26, 2008, Seiji Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood Music Center, Lenox, Mass.

commissioned in part by the Tanglewood Music Center of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

music with permission from G. Schirmer, Inc. publisher and copyright owner

‍SILHOUETTES‍

music Richard Cumming Silhouettes - Five Pieces for Piano

lights Michael Chybowski

piano Colin Fowler

Sam Black, Lauren Grant

premiere: June 10, 1999, Maximum Dance Company, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Miami, Florida

Company premiere: Aug. 2, 1999, Ted Shawn Theatre, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, Mass.

‍POLKA‍

music Lou Harrison Grand Duo for Violin and Piano, Mvt 4

costumes Susan Ruddie

lights Michael Chybowski

violin Owen Dalby

piano Colin Fowler

Sam Black, Rita Donahue, Lesley Garrison, Lauren Grant, Brian Lawson, Aaron Loux, Laurel Lynch, Dallas McMurray, Maile Okamura, Spencer Ramirez, Billy Smith, Noah Vinson, Jenn Weddel, Michelle Yard

premiere: April 7, 1992, Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom, New York, New York

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MARK MORRIS

Mark Morris was born August 29, 1956 to Seattle, Washington, where he studied with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson. Early in his career he performed with the companies of Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean and Eliot Feld and with the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble. In 1980 he founded the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) and from has since produced over 140 performances for the company. From 1988 to 1991 he was Director of the corps de ballet of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national theater ofopera Belgium. In 1990 he initiated the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Morris is an in-demand choreographer: since 1986 he has created eighteen ballets, including eight performances for the San Francisco Ballet. His shows are part of the repertoire of numerous ballet companies, including the American Ballet Theatre, the Houston Ballet, and the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris. Known for his musical sensibility, he has been called "rigorously constant in his devotion to music"(The New Yorker). He began to directing MMDG performances in 2006 and, from then, has worked in directing performances at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Lincoln Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Morris was named director of the 2013 Ojai Music Festival. He has worked extensively inopera, directing and choreographing performances for numerous organizations including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, the English National Opera and the Royal Opera in Covent Garden, among others. In 1991 he received the MacArthur Foundation award and to date has been awarded eleven honorary degrees. He has taught at Washington and Princeton universities and at the Tanglewood Music Center. Morris is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and has served on the advisory board for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. He recently received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement (2007), the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society (2010), the Benjamin Franklin Laureate Prize for Creativity (2012) and the Cal Performances Award of Distinction in the Performing Arts (2013). In 2001, Morris opened the Mark Morris Dance Center to Brooklyn, New York, not only home to the company, but also a rehearsal space for the dance community, a social space for the implementation of support programs for children and the elderly, and a dance school for students of all ages and abilities.

MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP

The Mark Morris Dance Group was formed in 1980 and debuted to New York that same year. from then the company's engagements have grown steadily with tours to many cities in the United States and around the world. In 1986, MMDG produced the first national television program for the PBS series Dance in America. In 1988 it was invited to to become the national dance corps of Belgium, where it spent three years at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie to Brussels. In 1991, having now become one of the world's leading ballet companies, he returned to the United States. Based to Brooklyn, New York, MMDG maintains strong ties with organizations in numerous cities around the world, notably, on the West Coast, with Cal Performances to Berkeley and, in the Midwest, with the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition, MMDG regularly holds performances to New York, Boston, Seattle and Fairfax, Virginia. In 2002 he debuted at the Mostly Mozart Festival and in 2003 at the Tanglewood Music Festival and, from since then, he is invited to to participate in both festivals each year. After numerous seasons to London, he received two Laurence Olivier Awards and a Critics' Circle Dance Award for Best Foreign Dance Company. By virtue of Morris' dedication to live music, every performance features live musicians since the formation of the MMDG Music Ensemble in 1996. The dance troupe collaborates with renowned musicians such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax and mezzo soprano Stephanie Blythe, among others, and with major orchestras and opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, the English National Opera and the London Symphony Orchestra. In addition, the MMDG often works with distinguished artists and costume designers such as painters Howard Hodgkin and Robert Bordo, set designers Adrianne Lobel and Allen Moyer, and costume designers Martin Pakledinaz and Isaac Mizrahi, among others. MMDG's television and film projects also include Dido and Aeneas, The Hard Nut, Falling Down Stairs, two documentaries for the British South Bank Show and the PBS program Live From Lincoln Center. While touring, the dance troupe collaborates with local cultural institutes and community organizations to present Access/MMDG, a program of arts- and humanities-based activities for people of all ages and abilities. After Spoleto, MMDG will perform at the Ravenna Festival, and then return to the United States to make its 10th appearance at the Tanglewood Music Center. For more information, visit www.mmdg.org.

MMDG MUSIC ENSEMBLE

The MMDG Music Ensemble, formed in 1996, performs with the corps de ballet in the world's most prestigious venues and is an integral part of the company's creative life. "With the dancers come the musicians -- and what a difference!"(Classical Voice of North Carolina). The core group of musicians, supplemented from a large number of regular guests, has accompanied the corps de ballet in more than 1,200 performances with live music. The Ensemble frequently collaborates with renowned musicians such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax, and mezzo soprano Stephanie Blythe, among others, and with leading orchestras and choral groups, including the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Trinity Choir, and Yale Choral Artists. Under the artistic direction of Mark Morris, the Ensemble's repertoire ranges from seventeenth-century works by John Wilson and Henry Purcell to more recent pieces by Lou Harrison and Henry Cowell. The MMDG Music Ensemble has performed with the corps de ballet at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Sadler's Wells in London, the Sidney Festival in Australia, and recently accompanied the MMDG on its first tour to China. The Ensemble made its debut at the Ojai Music Festival in June 2013. At to Brooklyn, Ensemble members participate in the Mark Morris Dance, Music and Literacy Project, a residency program within the New York City public school system that uses Morris' masterpiece L'Allegro, Penseroso and Moderato to introduce students to the performing and visual arts.

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