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University of North Carolina will Mount Lavish Rite of Spring Festival

Raucous rhythmic explosion of 1913 revisited with panoramic celebration Eleven works to be premiered, two conferences scheduled in grand tribute to music's modernist breakthrough Distinguished artists from Yo Yo Ma to NYC's Brooklyn Rider Quartet will dazzle onstage It's a hundred years since May 29, 1913, when Serge Diagilev, Vaslav Nijinsky and Igor Stravinsky mounted a ballet performance of the Rite of Spring at Paris' Theatre des Champs Elysees which ended with fisticuffs in the audience and the police being called to quell the riot. The music scene was never the same again: modernism had broken through the railings of Romantic harmony and regularity to include blaring dissonance, unresolved harmonies and jerky, unpredictable rhythms in its repertoire of expressive effects:
On opening night, the very first notes hinted at the avant-garde masterpiece that was to follow. The introductory melody, adapted from a Lithuanian folk song, featured a bassoon playing at the very top of its register. The unlikely timbre of the instrument caused composer Camille Saint-Saens to exclaim, “If that is a bassoon, then I am a baboon!” The curtain rose and the music continued, without a melody but with a loud, pulsating, dissonant chord with jarring, irregular accents. Dancers emerged dressed as primordial pagans from ancient Russia, performing an “anti-ballet” with heavy steps, bodies pulled downward and a focus on the movements of the human form rather than the elegance normally seen in a Romantic ballet. One dancer recalled this shockingly new choreography “With every leap we landed heavily enough to jar every organ in us.” The ballet’s narrative was a raw, violent story based on pagan rites of sacrifice. The audience, comprised of traditionalists and modernists, was moved passionately by what they saw on stage and the provocative music they heard. Some called for the ballet to be stopped or shouted at the dancers. Meanwhile others yelled back, defending the work. Diaghilev flipped the house lights on and off in a vain attempt to quell the angry crowd. Nijinsky leaned onto the stage to call out beats for the dancers who couldn’t hear the music over shouts and arguments echoing throughout the theater. Carl Van Vechten, an American writer and photographer, was at the performance and later wrote of his experience “The young man seated behind me in the box stood up during the course of the ballet to enable himself to see more clearly. The intense excitement under which he was laboring betrayed itself presently when he began to beat rhythmically on the top of my head with his fists. My emotion was so great that I did not feel the blows for some time.” All decorum had left the Théatre des Champs-Elysées as fistfights broke out in the aisles, duels were being called and people fled the ensuing chaos. Police were called to quell the riot that had now spilled out into the street. Roman Vlad, a composer, pianist and musicologist, later wrote, “Never had an audience heard music so brutal, savage, aggressive, and apparently chaotic; it hit the public like a hurricane, like some uncontrolled primeval force.”
A century later, Stravinsky's daring may seem tame compared with the discomforts of Schonberg or Berg that followed, but musicians and composers are still exploring the new universe that Le Sacre du Printemps's wormhole sent them through to, while keeping a sometimes tenuous hold on the eternal verities of traditional music's original forms. The balance between the two, old and new, is as challenging and fruitful as ever, and the Rite of Spring remains its quintessential starting point. As to the music itself, it plays as well as ever, though some may find the attempt to shock the bourgeoisie out of its unimaginative complacency circa 1913 a bit dated in the Internet age, at least as far as the mythic and rather horrid theme of Le Sacre Du Printemps goes (a young pagan girl ritually dances herself to sacrificial death). In fact it seems probable that most of the outrage was directed against Najinsky's heavy footed choreography, rather than Stravinsky's threatening discords. But the music as well as the theme has enduring appeal for its gathering mix of triumph and tragedy, harmony and dissonance, or as Bernstein once put it, "it's got the best dissonances anyone ever thought up, and the best asymmetries and polytonalities and polyrhythms and whatever else you care to name." Extraordinary event list Now the University of North Carolina's Emil Kang and his Carolina Performing Arts have prepared what looks to be the definitive celebration of this musical Bastille. Their "The Rite of Spring At One Hundred" festival will run from a world premiere by Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble on Sunday Sept 30 at Memorial Hall to a finale on April 27 by the Bejart Ballet Lausanne (see photo above). In between, there will two conferences, one in Moscow, and a glittering parade of new inspiration in music and ballet by well known performers: nine world premieres and two US premieres, in fact, played by the Mariinsky Orchestra of St Petersburg conducted by Valery Gergiev, (Oct 29 and 30), Brooklyn Rider with Gabriel Kahane and Shara Warden (Nov 16), the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and SITI Company (Jan 25 and 26), Vijay Iyer and the International Contemporary Ensemble (Mar 26) the Nederlands Dans Theater (apr 3) and Basil Twist, puppeteer, with the Orchestra of St. Luke's (Apr 12 and 13). The size and scope of the celebration is remarkable, especially since all performances will take place in Chapel Hill. That's only "an hour away" from Manhattan, say the sponsors, but given so many performances and the expense in energy, time and fare in getting there, one can only keep one's fingers crossed they get the audiences they deserve. For those interested in this remarkable watershed in musical history and its enormous influence on music since there can surely never be such an opportunity again. (See www.TheRiteofSpringat100.org for more pics and tickets).
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Le Sacre du printemps:  Béjart Ballet Lausanne<br />
Photo by Francette Levieux<br />
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Béjart Ballet Lausanne: Founded in 1987 by Maurice Béjart, the works of Béjart Ballet have traveled the world and left an indelible mark on contemporary dance. Working with both modern and traditional styles and at times blending pop with classical, Béjart blurred genres and incorporated different cultures and traditions into the company’s performances. Béjart passed away in 2007 but the company continues to thrive under current Artistic Director Gil Roma.  <a href="http://www.bejart.ch/fr/">http://www.bejart.ch/fr/</a>
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Le Sacre du printemps: Béjart Ballet Lausanne
Photo by Francette Levieux



Béjart Ballet Lausanne: Founded in 1987 by Maurice Béjart, the works of Béjart Ballet have traveled the world and left an indelible mark on contemporary dance. Working with both modern and traditional styles and at times blending pop with classical, Béjart blurred genres and incorporated different cultures and traditions into the company’s performances. Béjart passed away in 2007 but the company continues to thrive under current Artistic Director Gil Roma. http://www.bejart.ch/fr/

BBLBejart Ballet Lausannejuin 2011lausanneSacre du PrintempsValerie Lacaze

  • Le Sacre du printemps:  Béjart Ballet Lausanne<br />
Photo by Francette Levieux<br />
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Béjart Ballet Lausanne: Founded in 1987 by Maurice Béjart, the works of Béjart Ballet have traveled the world and left an indelible mark on contemporary dance. Working with both modern and traditional styles and at times blending pop with classical, Béjart blurred genres and incorporated different cultures and traditions into the company’s performances. Béjart passed away in 2007 but the company continues to thrive under current Artistic Director Gil Roma.  <a href="http://www.bejart.ch/fr/">http://www.bejart.ch/fr/</a>
  • Nederlands Dans Theater I<br />
Courtesy of Nederlands Dans Theater<br />
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Nederlands Dans Theater: Founded in 1959, Nederlands Dans Theater is at the forefront of contemporary dance and has long been recognized for its innovative work and as one of the most prominent and ground-breaking contemporary dance companies in the world. Performing highly praised works and new creations by established and emerging choreographers, the company inspires and engages audiences from The Hague to New York, Tokyo to Rio de Janeiro. Constantly challenging the boundaries of dance performance, these resplendent performers present challenging repertoire with unparalleled virtuosity and expression.
  • 8/22/10 11:22:50 AM --  Yo-Yo Ma Silk Road Ensemble Photography at the Overture Center in Madison, WI (C) Todd Rosenberg Photography 2010<br />
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The highly acclaimed Silk Road Ensemble, featuring multiple Grammy Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma, will present a thrilling combination of world and classical music traditions. The concert program includes the world premiere of The Seasons, a piece by Uzbekistan’s Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky commissioned for The Rite of Spring at 100. The three major sections of The Seasons represent summer, autumn and winter, each inspired by one of the nine folk tunes Stravinsky used in composing The Rite of Spring. The sections are titled after poems by Nicholas Roerich, designer of the original costumes and set. Roerich, who is credited with the central creative vision behind The Rite of Spring, spent much of his life traveling through central Asia, a compelling reflection of the legacy of multicultural inspiration at the heart of The Silk Road Ensemble’s musical vision. <br />
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"A musical caravan and a symbol of the connections between East and West" - Chicago Tribune
  • Valery Gergiev<br />
Photo by Joost Van Velsen
  • Joffrey Ballet<br />
Photo by Herbert Migdoll<br />
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The Joffrey is a world-class, Chicago-based ballet company and dance education organization committed to artistic excellence and innovation, presenting a unique repertoire encompassing masterpieces of the past and cutting-edge works. The Joffrey is committed to providing arts education and accessible dance training through its Joffrey Academy of Dance and Community Engagement programs.<br />
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 The Joffrey Ballet has been hailed as “America’s Company of Firsts.” The Joffrey Ballet’s long list of “firsts” includes being the first dance company to perform at the White House at Jacqueline Kennedy’s invitation, the first to appear on television, the first American company to visit Russia, the first classical dance company to go multi-media, the first to commission a rock ‘n’ roll ballet, the first and only dance company to appear on the cover of Time magazine, and the first company to have had a major motion picture based on it, Robert Altman’s The Company.<br />
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 For more than a half-century, The Joffrey Ballet’s commitment to taking world-class, artistically vibrant work to a broad and varied audience has created a solid foundation that continues to support the company’s unprecedented capacity for achieving important “firsts.” Today, the Joffrey, which has been hugely successful in its former residences in New York and Los Angeles, lives permanently in its brilliant new facility, Joffrey Tower, in the heart of America, Chicago, Illinois. The company’s commitment to accessibility is met through the most extensive touring schedule of any dance company in history, an innovative and highly effective education program including the much lauded Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, and collaborations with myriad other visual and performing arts organizations.<br />
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 Classically trained to the highest standards, The Joffrey Ballet expresses a unique, inclusive perspective on dance, proudly reflecting the diversity of America with its company and audiences and repertoire which includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces and contemporary works. Founded by visionary teacher Robert Joffrey in 1956, guided by celebrated choreographer Gerald Arpino from 1988 until 2007, The Joffrey Ballet continues to thrive under internationally renowned Artistic Director Ashley C. Wheater and Executive Director Christopher Clinton Conway. The Joffrey Ballet has become one of the most revered and recognizable arts organizations in America and one of the top dance companies in the world.
  • BILL T. JONES<br />
Photo by Stephanie Berger<br />
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Bill T. Jones, a multi-talented artist, choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer, has received major honors ranging from a 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award to Kennedy Center Honors in 2010. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2009 and named “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure” by the Dance Heritage Coalition in 2000. His ventures into Broadway theater resulted in a 2010 Tony Award for Best Choreography in the critically acclaimed FELA!, the new musical co-conceived, co-written, directed and choreographed by Mr. Jones. He also earned a 2007 Tony Award for Best Choreography in Spring Awakening as well as an Obie Award for the show’s 2006 off-Broadway run. His choreography for the off-Broadway production of The Seven earned him a 2006 Lucille Lortel Award.<br />
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Mr. Jones began his dance training at the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY), where he studied classical ballet and modern dance. After living in Amsterdam, Mr. Jones returned to SUNY, where he became co-founder of the American Dance Asylum in 1973. In 1982 he formed the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (then called Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane & Company) with his late partner, Arnie Zane. In 2010, Mr. Jones was named Executive Artistic Director of New York Live Arts, a new model of artist-led, producing/presenting/touring arts organization unique in the United States that was formed by a merger of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Dance Theater Workshop.<br />
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In addition to creating more than 140 works for his own company, Mr. Jones has received many commissions to create dances for modern and ballet companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, and Berlin Opera Ballet, among others. In 1995, Mr. Jones directed and performed in a collaborative work with Toni Morrison and Max Roach, Degga, at Alice Tully Hall, commissioned by Lincoln Center’s Serious Fun Festival. His collaboration with Jessye Norman, How! Do! We! Do!, premiered at New York’s City Center in 1999.<br />
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His work in dance has been recognized with the 2010 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award; the 2005 Wexner Prize; the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement; the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize; and the 1993 Dance Magazine Award. His additional awards include the Harlem Renaissance Award in 2005; the Dorothy B. Chandler Performing Arts Award in 1991; multiple New York Dance and Performance Bessie Awards for his works The Table Project (2001), The Breathing Show(2001), D-Man in the Waters (1989) and the Company’s groundbreaking season at the Joyce Theater (1986). In 1980, 1981 and 1982, Mr. Jones was the recipient of Choreographic Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1979 he was granted the Creative Artists Public Service Award in Choreography.<br />
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Mr. Jones was profiled on NBC Nightly News and The Today Show in 2010 and was a guest on the Colbert Report in 2009. Also in 2010, he was featured in HBO’s documentary series MASTERCLASS, which follows notable artists as they mentor aspiring young artists. In 2009, Mr. Jones appeared on one of the final episodes of Bill Moyers Journal, discussing his Lincoln suite of works. He was also one of 22 prominent black Americans featured in the HBO documentary The Black List in 2008. In 2004, ARTE France and Bel Air Media produced Bill T. Jones-Solos, highlighting three of his iconic solos from a cinematic point of view. The making of Still/Here was the subject of a documentary by Bill Moyers and David Grubin entitled Bill T. Jones: Still/Here with Bill Moyers in 1997. Additional television credits include telecasts of his works Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land (1992) and Fever Swamp (1985) on PBS’s “Great Performances” Series. In 2001, D-Man in the Waters was broadcast on the Emmy-winning documentary Free to Dance.<br />
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Bill T. Jones’s interest in new media and digital technology has resulted in collaborations with the team of Paul Kaiser, Shelley Eshkar and Marc Downie, now known as OpenEnded Group. The collaborations include After Ghostcatching – the 10th Anniversary re-imagining of Ghostcatching (2010, SITE Sante Fe Eighth International Biennial); 22 (2004, Arizona State University’s Institute for Studies In The Arts and Technology, Tempe, AZ); and Ghostcatching – A Virtual Dance Installation (1999, Cooper Union, New York, NY).<br />
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He has received honorary doctorates from Yale University, Art Institute of Chicago, Bard College, Columbia College, Skidmore College, the Juilliard School, Swarthmore College and the State University of New York at Binghamton Distinguished Alumni Award, where he began his dance training with studies in classical ballet and modern dance.<br />
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In addition to his Company and Broadway work, Mr. Jones also choreographed Sir Michael Tippet’s New Year (1990) for Houston Grand Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. His Mother of Three Sons was performed at the Munich Biennale, New York City Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. Mr. Jones also directed Lost in the Stars for the Boston Lyric Opera. Additional theater projects include co-directing Perfect Courage with Rhodessa Jones for Festival 2000 in 1990. In 1994, he directed Derek Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain for The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN.
  • Anne Bogart<br />
© 2011 J. Paul Getty Trust<br />
Anne Bogart is one of the most innovative and influential American theater directors working today. She is the winner of two Obie Awards for Best Director for No Plays No Poetry But Philosophical Reflections Practical Instruction Provocative Opinions and Pointers from a Noted Critic and Playwright (1988) and The Baltimore Waltz (1990).<br />
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In 1992, she co-founded SITI Company, one of the country’s leading theater ensembles known internationally for its groundbreaking theater productions and for training artists from around the world. Bogart’s works include numerous critically-acclaimed works such as American Document, Antigone, Under Construction, Freshwater, Who Do You Think You Are, Radio Macbeth, Hotel Cassiopeia, Death and the Ploughman, La Dispute, Score, bobrauschenbergamerica, Room, War of the Worlds, Cabin Pressure, War of the Worlds: The Radio Play, Alice’s Adventures, Culture of Desire, Bob, Small Lives/Big Dreams, The Medium, Noel Coward’s Hay Fever and Private Lives, August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, and Charles Mee’s Orestes.<br />
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Bogart also heads the Graduate Directing Program at Columbia University and is the author of a book of essays titled A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theater, And Then You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World and the co-author with Tina Landau of The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. A newly published book Conversations with Anne features a series of intimate interviews that she has conducted before live audiences with major artists and cultural thinkers at her West Side studio.<br />
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Anne has taught at University of California (San Diego), New York University, Williams College, Bennington College, University of Alaska, Playwrights Horizons, Trinity Rep Conservatory, the School for Movement Research, and American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, among others. She is the recipient of the New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award, 1984, and the Villager Award, 1980. She was a 2000-2001 Guggenheim Fellow and won a National Endowment for the Arts Artistic Associate Grant in 1986-87. Anne was the president of Theatre Communications Group, 1991-93, and has served on the National Endowment for the Arts Overview Committee, the Opera Musical Theatre panel, and the Fulbright Committee. Anne was the featured speaker at the Toga Theatre Festival in Japan, 1988, and participated in the Cultural Olympiad (Atlanta), 1996. She was the designated Modern Master at the Modern Masters Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville. Anne is a recipient of the Kellogg Award from Bard College (2001) and the ATHE Achievement in Professional Theater Award (1999).
  • Pierre-Laurent Aimard<br />
Photo: Marco Borggreve DG<br />
Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time and as a uniquely significant interpreter of piano repertoire from every age, Pierre-Laurent Aimard enjoys an internationally celebrated career.<br />
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He performs throughout the world each season with major orchestras under conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Peter Eötvös. He has been invited to create, direct and perform in a number of residencies, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Wiener Konzerthaus, Berliner Philharmonie, Opéra de Paris, Lucerne Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, Cité de la Musique and Southbank Centre – where he is Artistic Advisor to a festival celebrating the music of Pierre Boulez.<br />
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Aimard is also the Artistic Director of the prestigious and historic Aldeburgh Festival where he has just signed for another three years. Commenting on his directorship, the Financial Times wrote: “Aimard virtually turned the festival on its head. Suddenly Aldeburgh feels less parochial, less precious – and very international.”<br />
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Born in Lyon in 1957, Pierre-Laurent Aimard studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Yvonne Loriod and in London with Maria Curcio. Early career landmarks included winning first prize in the 1973 Messiaen Competition at the age of 16 and being appointed, three years later, by Pierre Boulez to become the Ensemble Intercontemporain’s first solo pianist.<br />
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Aimard has had close collaborations with many leading composers including Kurtag, Stockhausen, Elliot Carter, Pierre Boulez and George Benjamin and had a long association with György Ligeti, recording his complete works for piano. Through professorships at the Hochschule Köln and Conservatoire de Paris, as well as numerous series of concert lectures and workshops worldwide, he sheds an inspiring and very personal light on music of all periods. During 2009, Aimard was invited to give a series of classes and seminars at the College de France, Paris. He was the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award in spring 2005 and was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America in 2007.<br />
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Aimard records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. His first DG release, Bach’s Art of Fugue, received both the Diapason d’Or and Choc du Monde de la Musique awards, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s classical chart and topped iTunes’ classical album download chart. In recent years Aimard has been honored with ECHO Classic Awards, most recently in 2009 for his recording of solo piano pieces, “Hommage à Messiaen.” His recording of Ives’s Concord Sonata and Songs received a Grammy award in 2005 and several other recordings have received Grammy nominations. Aimard recently released The Liszt Project Aimard’s two solo discs featuring the music of Liszt alongside the music of Berg, Bartok, Ravel, Scriabin and Messiaen as well as a work by Marco Stroppa.
  • Basil Twist, third generation puppeteer<br />
Courtesy of artist management
  • Yefim Bronfman<br />
Photo by Dario Acosta<br />
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Grammy Award-winning pianist Yefim (“Fima”) Bronfman is among the most talented virtuosos performing today. His commanding technique and exceptional lyrical gifts have won consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences worldwide for his solo recitals, prestigious orchestral engagements and expanding catalogue of recordings.<br />
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A devoted chamber musician, Bronfman has collaborated with the Emerson, Cleveland, Guarneri, and Juilliard String Quartets, as well as with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has also performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Shlomo Mintz, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Pinchas Zukerman and many other artists.<br />
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Bronfman has recorded solo recitals, concertos, and chamber music. He won a Grammy Award in 1997 for Bartók: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-3, recorded with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. With Isaac Stern, Bronfman recorded Brahms’s and Bartók’s violin sonatas and a cycle of Mozart sonatas for violin and piano. In addition to performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on the Fantasia 2000 soundtrack, Bronfman recorded Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet and his two piano concertos with the orchestra. He’s also recorded with Emanuel Ax the two-piano works by Rachmaninov and Brahms for Sony Classical. His 2008 release of Tchaikovsky’s Trio in A minor with Gil Shaham and Truls Mork earned high praise.<br />
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Yefim Bronfman was born in Tashkent in the Soviet Union on April 10, 1958, and moved to Israel with his family in 1973. He studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University, and made his international debut with Zubin Mehta and the Montreal Symphony. Moving with his family to the U.S. in 1976, he studied at the Juilliard School, Marlboro, and the Curtis Institute, with Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in May 1978, his Washington recital debut in March 1981 at the Kennedy Center, and his New York recital debut in January 1982 at the 92nd Street Y.<br />
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Bronfman became an American citizen in July 1989.<br />
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In 1991, he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking his first public performances there since his emigration to Israel. Also in 1991, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists.
  • Magdalena Kožená<br />
© Mathias Bothor/DG<br />
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Magdalena Kožená was born in Brno, studied at the Brno Conservatoire and with Eva Blahová at the College of Performing Arts in Bratislava. She was awarded several major prizes in both the Czech Republic and internationally, culminating in the 6th International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1995.<br />
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She is an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon, and her first solo recital disc of Dvorak, Janacek and Martinu won the Gramophone Solo Vocal Award, 2001. Recent recordings with DG include Mozart, Gluck and Myslivecek arias with the Prague Philharmonia and Michel Swierczewski; French arias with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Minkowski; Gluck’s “Paride ed Elena” with the Gabrieli Consort and McCreesh; an acclaimed disc of cantatas by members of the Bach family (“Lamento”) with Musica Antiqua Koeln and Reinhard Goebel, a Mozart album with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Sir Simon Rattle, a Handel disc and a Vivaldi disc with the Venice Baroque and Andrea Marcon and a recital disc with Malcolm Martineau “Songs my Mother taught me”. She was the 2004 Gramophone Awards Artist of the Year.<br />
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For her recording of the “Julietta” Fragments by Bohuslav Martinů with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Magdalena Kožená has received a 2009 Gramophone Award.<br />
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Magdalena Kožená is well established as a major concert and recital artist. Recital appearances have taken her to London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Hamburg, Lisbon, Prague, Copenhagen, Tokyo, San Francisco, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall. She has also appeared at the Munich, Salzburg, Lucerne, Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Aldeburgh and Edinburgh festivals. Her pianists include Daniel Barenboim, Yefim Bronfman, Malcolm Martineau, Andras Schiff and Dame Mitsuko Uchida.<br />
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Her concert appearances include the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle; the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Mariss Jansons, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra with Claudio Abbado, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Sir Charles Mackerras and Robin Ticciati, the Wiener Philharmoniker with Daniel Harding and Sir Simon Rattle; the Accademia Santa Cecilia with Myung-Whun Chung and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela with Gustavo Dudamel.<br />
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Operatic engagements have included Octavian “Der Rosenkavalier” for the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin; Gluck’s “Orphée” with Gardiner in Paris; Nerone (“L’Incoronazione di Poppea”) with Minkowski in Vienna; Mélisande in Paris with both Bernard Haitink and Marc Minkowski; Mélisande at the Deutsche Staatsoper with Sir Simon Rattle, Cherubino in Aix-en-Provence and Munich; Sesto (“Giulio Cesare”) in Amsterdam. At the Salzburg Festivals her roles have included Zerlina (“Don Giovanni”) with Harnoncourt, Idamantes with Norrington and Rattle and Dorabella with Rattle. At the Metropolitan Opera she has sung Varvara (“Katja Kabanova”) with Belohlavek and Cherubino, Dorabella and Idamantes with Levine and for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden she has sung the title role of “La Cenerentola”.<br />
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 In 2003 she was awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.
  • Compagnie Marie Chouinard<br />
Photo by Marie Chouinard<br />
Returning to Memorial Hall, Compagnie Marie Chouinard presents two of Chouinard’s most highly regarded works, pairing a new interpretation of Nijinksy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1994) with The Rite of Spring (1993). The concentration of soloists is one of the most dynamic aspects of Chouinard’s version of “this hymn of life,” as she refers to the original The Rite of Spring, making Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, a solo set to Claude Debussy’s score, an ideal accompaniment. Chouinard’s work explores the relationship of the body’s vital energy with space, creating “pathways toward freedom and compassion, where humor is possible and Eros omnipresent.” <br />
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“Contemporary dance at its best…funny, outrageous, rude, theatrical and gorgeous” – The Vancouver Sun
  • Vijay Iyer, Jazz Pianist<br />
Photo by Hans Speekenbrink<br />
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By now, there can be no doubt that pianist-composer Iyer stands among the most daringly original jazz artists of the under-40 generation – Howard Reich the Chicago Tribune<br />
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The American-born son of Indian immigrants, Vijay Iyer (pronounced “VID-jay EYE-yer”) is a self-taught creative musician grounded in American jazz and popular forms, and drawing from a wide range of Western and non-Western traditions. He was described by The Village Voice as “the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years,” by The New Yorker as one of “today’s most important pianists… extravagantly gifted,” and by the L.A. Weekly as “a boundless and deeply important young star.”<br />
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Most recently, in the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards, Iyer was named the 2010 Musician of the Year, an honor previously given to Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter, and Dave Holland.<br />
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The breadth and depth of Iyer’s recorded output defy any simple description. His music has covered so much ground at such a high level of acclaim that it is easy to forget that it all belongs to the same person. In August 2010 he releases Solo, his first solo piano album, covering an astonishing range in his most personal statement yet, on the German label ACT Music + Vision. Iyer’s 2009 release, Historicity (ACT), a classic piano-trio set of surprising covers and originals rendered in his signature approach, became one of the most acclaimed jazz albums of the decade. It was chosen as the #1 Jazz Album of the Year by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Detroit Metro Times, National Public Radio, PopMatters.com, the Village Voice Jazz Critics Poll, and the Downbeat International Critics Poll.<br />
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Alongside these works sit several vastly different, equally important and groundbreaking collaborations. Among the best known are In What Language? (2004), Still Life with Commentator (2007), and the work-in-progress Holding it Down, three politically searing, stylistically omnivorous large-scale works created by Iyer and poet-performer Mike Ladd (“unfailingly imaginative and significant” – JazzTimes; “powerful narrative invention and ravishing trance-jazz… an eloquent tribute to the stubborn, regenerative powers of the human spirit” – Rolling Stone). On another end of the spectrum, Your Life Flashes (2002), Simulated Progress (2005), and Door (2008) capture the innovations of the experimental collective Fieldwork (“phenomenal… incredible, challenging, and forward-thinking” – All Music Guide). And last but not least, Raw Materials (2006, “a total triumph from beginning to end” – All About Jazz) documents “one of the great partnerships in jazz” (Chicago Tribune) – the duo of Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa. All of Iyer’s albums have appeared on best-of-the-year lists in dozens of major media, ranging from JazzTimes, Jazzwise, Jazzman, Downbeat, and The Wire, to ArtForum, National Public Radio, The Utne Reader, The New Yorker, and The Village Voice.
  • Ballet Russes (ca. 1913)
  • Brooklyn Rider <br />
Photo by Sarah Small<br />
The adventurous, genre-defying string quartet Brooklyn Rider combines a wildly eclectic repertoire with a gripping performance style that is attracting legions of fans and drawing critical acclaim from classical, world and rock critics. NPR credits Brooklyn Rider with “recreating the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble.” The musicians play in venues as varied as Joe’s Pub and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Todai-ji Temple in Japan, Library of Congress, San Francisco Jazz and the South By Southwest Festival. Through creative programming and global collaborations, Brooklyn Rider illuminates music for its audiences in ways that are “stunningly imaginative” (Lucid Culture).<br />
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During the past year, Brooklyn Rider recently released the albums Brooklyn Rider Plays Philip Glass, which was selected as one of NPR Classical’s Best Albums of the Year (So Far), and Seven Steps, featuring their interpretation of Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-sharp minor.<br />
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In recent seasons, Brooklyn Rider has appeared at Lincoln Center’s Tully Scope Festival, the Cologne Philharmonie, American Academy in Rome, Malmö Festival in Sweden, Spoleto Festival USA, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and SXSW Festival as the only classical group invited to play there. The Los Angeles Times reviewed one of the concerts from an extensive cross-country tour, saying, “The dazzling fingers-in-every-pie versatility that Brooklyn Rider exhibits is one of the wonders of contemporary music.”<br />
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Born out of a desire to use the rich medium of the string quartet as a vehicle for communication across a large cross section of history and geography, Brooklyn Rider is equally devoted to the interpretation of existing quartet literature and to the creation of new works. The musicians have worked with such composers as Derek Bermel, Lisa Bielawa, Ljova, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, Jenny Scheinman and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, and they also regularly perform pieces written or arranged by members of the group. Another integral part of their work involves creative collaborations with other artists. A long-standing relationship between Brooklyn Rider and Kayhan Kalhor resulted in the critically acclaimed 2008 recording, Silent City, selected by Rhapsody.com as one of World Music’s Best Albums of the Decade.<br />
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Brooklyn Rider often appears under the umbrella of outside initiatives begun by all four members of the group. In 2003 violinist Johnny Gandelsman created In A Circle, a series of performance events in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn that explore connections between music and the visual arts. He launched In A Circle Records in 2008 with the release of Brooklyn Rider’s eclectic debut recording, Passport, followed by Dominant Curve in 2010. Both albums made NPR’s year end round-ups: Best Classical CDs of 2008 and 50 Favorite Albums of 2010. The recordings have received glowing reviews from Gramophone, Strings, The Strad and Huffington Post, as well as the online indie magazines Pitchfork, Vice, Nerve and Lucid Culture. “Forgive the hyperbole,” wrote Strings, “but I’ve seen the future of chamber music and it is Brooklyn Rider.”<br />
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Brothers Colin and Eric Jacobsen are co-founders of The Knights, a New York-based orchestra in which all the members of Brooklyn Rider play. The quartet also founded the Stillwater Music Festival (MN) in 2006 as a place to unveil new repertoire and collaborations. As educators, Brooklyn Rider has enjoyed residencies at Williams College, MacPhail Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Texas A&M University, Denison University and University of North Carolina, as well as Sewanee Summer Music Festival and Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival.<br />
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Much of Brooklyn Rider’s desire to extend the borders of conventional string quartet programming has come from their longstanding participation in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. As individual members of the ensemble, they have performed throughout the world, recorded three albums for Sony Classical, and taken part in educational initiatives, family concerts and media broadcasts. Members of Brooklyn Rider have been involved in a series of museum residencies initiated by the Silk Road Project at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum Reitberg in Zurich and the Nara National Museum in Japan. They have also participated extensively in Silk Road Ensemble residencies at Harvard University and the Rhode Island School of Design.<br />
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A public radio favorite, Brooklyn Rider has been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, All Songs Considered, Deceptive Cadence and All Things Considered, WNYC’s Soundcheck and American Public Media’s Performance Today, as well as NY1 News TV in New York City. Their recordings are played across North America on stations ranging in focus from classical to world, jazz, pop and new music.<br />
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The quartet’s name is inspired in part by the cross disciplinary vision of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a pre-World War I Munich-based artistic collective whose members included Vassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander Scriabin. In this spirit, Brooklyn Rider has created an online art gallery that showcases the work of some of their friends. Proceeds are used to support new commissioning projects. In the eclectic spirit of Der Blau Reiter, the group also draws inspiration from the exploding array of cultures and artistic energy found in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, a place they call home.
  • Serge Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky & Igor Stravinsky (ca. 1913)
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  • Carolina Pefoming Arts Emil Kang, master musical ringmaster, may have scooped the pot for the Rite of Spring centennial celebration.<br />
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Emil J. Kang (born 1968 in New York) serves as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's first Executive Director for the Arts, a senior administrative post created to help unify and elevate the performing arts at the University.[1][2][3] In his first season, Emil Kang introduced the University’s first major performing arts series, inaugurated in conjunction with the grand re-opening of the University’s main performing arts venue, Memorial Hall.[4][5][6] Emil Kang also co-teaches courses in artistic entrepreneurship[7] and performance theory.[8] Kang is also a member of the music faculty and currently serves as Professor of the Practice.[9]<br />
In Fall 2009, Kang will be joining Chancellor Emeritus James Moeser in a new first-seminar on listening to music.[10]<br />
Prior to coming to Chapel Hill, Emil Kang served as President and Executive Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO).[11][12] Emil Kang has also held positions of Vice President of Operations for the DSO, Orchestra Manager for the Seattle Symphony, and Orchestra Management Fellow with the American Symphony Orchestra League (ASOL).[13] As an Orchestra Management Fellow, Kang worked with symphony orchestras in San Francisco, Houston, and Grand Rapids, Michigan.<br />
He is a frequent speaker and has led numerous local, state and national outreach efforts. He has also chaired panels for the National Endowment for the Arts,[14][15][16][17] the Pew Charitable Trusts,[18] the Full Frame International Documentary Film Festival,[19] and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, among others.<br />
Emil Kang was the youngest and first Asian-American to hold the top administrative post of a major symphony orchestra. Kang was recently named "Tar Heel of the Week" by the News and Observer (NC).[20] Kang was selected by Crain’s Detroit Business “40 under 40,” is a graduate of Leadership Detroit, and has served on national boards including Henry Ford Hospital[21] and United Neighborhood Centers of America.<br />
Kang currently serves on the boards of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP),[22] North Carolina Symphony[23] and the Kenan Institute for the Arts at the North Carolina School of the Arts.[24] Kang has also been a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and completed the Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management program at Harvard Business School. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Rochester in New York.<br />
On Tuesday, May 8, 2012, President Barack Obama nominated him, along with two others, to the U.S. Senate for a term as a Member of the National Council on the Arts. He replaces Benjamin Donenberg, whose term was expiring. Kang's term will last until September 3, 2018.[25]
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