Martha Graham Dance Company's ballet of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring
Santa Fe New Mexican
Mark Tiarks
Mar 27, 2020
The Santa Fe Symphony and Performance
Santa Fe announced their 2020-2021 seasons on March 24. It wasn’t an
unfortunate coincidence or a case of bad planning, but an intentional
decision reflecting a new spirit of collaboration.
Next
March, the two groups are co-presenting one of the most compelling
offerings on the upcoming cultural calendar, the Martha Graham Dance
Company’s 75th anniversary presentation of its groundbreaking ballet Appalachian Spring.
The symphony is furnishing the 13-member group that will play Aaron
Copland’s original score for chamber orchestra, as well as accompanying The Auditions by Augusta Read Thomas, a 2019 ballet piece written specifically to be paired with the Copland.
Both
organizations have new executive leadership, with Daniel Crupi becoming
executive director of the symphony in March 2019 and Chad Hilligus
taking the executive and artistic director reins at PSF four months
later. The newly announced seasons are therefore the first to fully
reflect their visions, and it’s an encouraging sign that both groups are
demonstrating increased artistic vigor and engaging in new creative
collaborations, in addition to their co-presenting venture.
“We’re
performing more works by women and composers of color, commissioning
new pieces, and prioritizing 20th- and 21st-century repertory,” says
Crupi.
***
Performance Santa Fe’s season opens on July 19 with another high-profile
co-presentation, this one with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. It’s based
on the acclaimed 2019 multi-genre album Holes in the Sky by
pianist Lara Downes, which featured music written by female composers
including Janis Ian, Clara Schumann, Georgia Stitt, Eve Beglarian, Joni
Mitchell, and Paola Prestini, among others.
***
The Sphinx Organization, which describes itself as “a social justice
organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of
diversity in the arts,” and the symphony have entered into a three-year
partnership, during which the Detroit-based group will provide a soloist
for one of each year’s concerts. The first is violinist Rubén Rengel,
who plays Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor on a March 21,
2021, concert that also features the Symphony No. 1 by African American
composer Florence Price. Price is one of classical music’s “hidden
figures,” a woman whose important works from the first half of the 20th
century are just now being rediscovered.
No comments:
Post a Comment