THE ARGUMENT

‍music Robert Schumann Fünf Stücke im Volkston

mores 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

I'VE SEEN. “Vanitas vanitatum.” Mit Humor

cello Andrew Janss

piano Colin Fowler

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

premiere: February 26, 1999, Bank of America Celebrity Series, Wang Center of Performing Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

‍CANDLEFLOWERDANCE‍

music Igor Stravinsky Serenade in A

mores Katherine M. Patterson

lights Nicole Pearce

piano Colin Fowler

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

per Susan Sontag

Premiere: September 22, 2005, Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, California

partly commissioned by Cal Performances, Berkeley, California

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)

mores 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, Massachusetts

commissioned in part by the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Music Center

music with permission of 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: August 2, 1999, Ted Shawn Theatre, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, Massachusetts

‍POLKA‍

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

mores 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 on August 29, 1956 in 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 since then he has performed more than 140 shows for the company. From 1988 to 1991 he was Director of the dance corps of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium's national opera house. In 1990 he created the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Morris is a highly sought after choreographer: from 1986 to today he has performed eighteen ballets, including eight shows for the San Francisco Ballet. His shows are part of the repertoire of numerous dance bodies, including the American Ballet Theatre, the Houston Ballet and the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris. Famous for his musical sensitivity, he has been defined as “strictly constant in his devotion to music” (The New Yorker). He began conducting MMDG shows in 2006 and has since directed shows at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Lincoln Center, and Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Morris has been named director of the 2013 Ojai Music Festival. He has worked extensively in opera, direction and choreography of shows for numerous organizations such as, among others, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the English National Opera and the Royal Opera in Covent Garden. In 1991 he received the MacArthur Foundation Award and to date he has been awarded eleven honorary degrees. He has taught at the universities of Washington and Princeton 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 inaugurated the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, New York, not only the company headquarters, but also a rehearsal space for the dancing community, a social space for the creation 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 that same year it debuted in New York. Since then, the company's commitments have grown steadily with tours in many cities in the United States and around the world. In 1986, MMDG created the first national television program for the PBS Dance series in America. In 1988 he was invited to become the national dance force of Belgium, where he spent three years at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. In 1991, now one of the most important dance companies in the world, it returned to the United States. Based in Brooklyn, New York, MMDG maintains strong ties with organizations in numerous cities around the world, in particular, on the West Coast, with Cal Performances in Berkeley and, in the Midwest, with the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition, the MMDG regularly performs in New York, Boston, Seattle, and Fairfax, Virginia. In 2002 he made his debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival and in 2003 at the Tanglewood Music Festival and, since then, he has been invited to participate in both festivals every year. After numerous seasons in 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 show has seen the participation of live musicians since the formation of the MMDG Music Ensemble in 1996. The dance corps collaborates with famous musicians such as, among others, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the pianist Emanuel Ax and the mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, 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 illustrious artists and costume designers such as, among others, the painters Howard Hodgkin and Robert Bordo, the scenographers Adrianne Lobel and Allen Moyer, and the costume designers Martin Pakledinaz and Isaac Mizrahi. MMDG television and film projects also include Dido and Aeneas, The Hard Nut, Falling Down Stairs, two documentaries for the British program South Bank Show And the PBS program Live From Lincoln Center. During the tours, the dance force collaborates with local cultural institutes and community organizations to present Access/MMDG, a program of activities based on the arts and humanities for people of all ages and abilities. After Spoleto, MMDG will perform at the Ravenna Festival, and then return to the United States and make its tenth appearance at the Tanglewood Music Center. For more information, visit the site Www.mmdg.org.

MMDG MUSIC ENSEMBLE

The MMDG Music Ensemble, formed in 1996, performs with the dance corps in the most prestigious venues in the world 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 main group of musicians, complemented by a large series of regular guests, accompanied the dance corps in more than 1,200 shows with live music. The Ensemble often collaborates with famous musicians such as, among others, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the pianist Emanuel Ax and the mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, and with important orchestras and choral groups, including the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Trinity Choir and the 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 the most recent tracks by Lou Harrison and Henry Cowell. The MMDG Music Ensemble performed with the dance corps at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, at Sadler's Wells in London, at the Sydney Festival in Australia and, recently, accompanied MMDG on its first tour in China. The Ensemble made its debut at the Ojai Music Festival in June 2013. At the headquarters in Brooklyn, the members of the Ensemble participate in the Mark Morris Dance, Music and Literacy Project, a residency program within the New York public school system, which uses Morris's masterpiece The Cheerful, the Thoughtful and the Moderate to introduce students to the performing and visual arts.

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