Performances
Dear Friends,
Cal Performances brings our 2012—2013 season to a festive close with the third annual Ojai North! (June 12—15), our partnership with the Ojai Music Festival. Ojai North! is central to Cal Performances' programming. The adventurous spirit that has, for generations, distinguished both the Ojai Music Festival and Cal Performances internationally will be on full display throughout Ojai North!, which features an extraordinary array of artists, influential works of music and dance, and innovative programs—all curated by the great dancer, choreographer, musician—artist—Mark Morris, this year's Ojai Music Director. Over four days, Mr. Morris takes us on a journey through the music, dance, and ideas in which he is passionately invested and which have shaped his art, bringing us into his personal aesthetic world and sharing with us his unique understanding and insights.
Mr. Morris's renowned modern dance company, the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG), first performed here in 1987, and over the years we have presented many world premieres of Mr. Morris's productions. Cal Performances serves as the company's West Coast home, where we present MMDG annually. When I arrived in Berkeley in 2009, I looked to how I could evolve our longstanding relationship with Mr. Morris, and I realized that there were aspects of his remarkable artistry that had not been presented to our audiences. Although he is best known for the musicality of his dance works—how they communicate the meaning of the music—in 2010 Cal Performances called attention to the expressiveness of his gestural language by presenting his only dance without music, Behemoth. In 2011, we presented Mr. Morris as conductor, directing his fully staged production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. And this season, Mr. Morris has curated an Ojai festival that reflects his interest in maverick American composers of the 20th century.
Ojai North! begins on Wednesday, June 12, with the first of two outdoor performances of percussion works by John Luther Adams. That same evening, MMDG gives the world premiere of Spring, Spring, Spring, Mr. Morris's Rite of Spring set to The Bad Plus's live jazz reinterpretation of Stravinsky's groundbreaking masterpiece, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary on May 29. Spring, Spring, Spring is reprised on Thursday evening; preceding it on both evenings is Mr. Morris's Mosaic and United, danced to the quartet music of Henry Cowell performed live by the American String Quartet.
On Friday, the focus of the festival shifts to the music Harrison, Cage, and Cowell—three great American musical revolutionaries whose pre-minimalist works Mr. Morris encountered as a young man in Seattle and which exercised a great influence on his development as an artist. Lou Harrison, with whom Mr. Morris enjoyed a close friendship, wrote beautiful, innovative music that spans cultures and oceans. We will hear several of Harrison's seminal works, including the Suite for Symphonic Strings and the Concerto for Piano with Javanese Gamelan. John Cage is heard through Four Walls, a work written to accompany a dance play by Merce Cunningham, and Cowell through his remarkable songs and organ music. Music that influenced these composers—including music from Java and works by Charles Ives and Carl Ruggles—also features prominently, exposing the roots of this family tree of American composition. And Threepenny Review editor Wendy Lesser conducts informative talks with the artists. A particularly delightful aspect of this year's Ojai North! is the participation of UC Berkeley's own Gamelan Sari Raras, which performs in two concerts, and the Cal Marching Band, which makes surprise appearances throughout the festival.
Matías Tarnopolsky
Director, Cal Performances
Dear Friends,
Cal Performances brings our 2012—2013 season to a festive close with the third annual Ojai North! (June 12—15), our partnership with the Ojai Music Festival. Ojai North! is central to Cal Performances' programming. The adventurous spirit that has, for generations, distinguished both the Ojai Music Festival and Cal Performances internationally will be on full display throughout Ojai North!, which features an extraordinary array of artists, influential works of music and dance, and innovative programs—all curated by the great dancer, choreographer, musician—artist—Mark Morris, this year's Ojai Music Director. Over four days, Mr. Morris takes us on a journey through the music, dance, and ideas in which he is passionately invested and which have shaped his art, bringing us into his personal aesthetic world and sharing with us his unique understanding and insights.
Mr. Morris's renowned modern dance company, the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG), first performed here in 1987, and over the years we have presented many world premieres of Mr. Morris's productions. Cal Performances serves as the company's West Coast home, where we present MMDG annually. When I arrived in Berkeley in 2009, I looked to how I could evolve our longstanding relationship with Mr. Morris, and I realized that there were aspects of his remarkable artistry that had not been presented to our audiences. Although he is best known for the musicality of his dance works—how they communicate the meaning of the music—in 2010 Cal Performances called attention to the expressiveness of his gestural language by presenting his only dance without music, Behemoth. In 2011, we presented Mr. Morris as conductor, directing his fully staged production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. And this season, Mr. Morris has curated an Ojai festival that reflects his interest in maverick American composers of the 20th century.
Ojai North! begins on Wednesday, June 12, with the first of two outdoor performances of percussion works by John Luther Adams. That same evening, MMDG gives the world premiere of Spring, Spring, Spring, Mr. Morris's Rite of Spring set to The Bad Plus's live jazz reinterpretation of Stravinsky's groundbreaking masterpiece, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary on May 29. Spring, Spring, Spring is reprised on Thursday evening; preceding it on both evenings is Mr. Morris's Mosaic and United, danced to the quartet music of Henry Cowell performed live by the American String Quartet.
On Friday, the focus of the festival shifts to the music Harrison, Cage, and Cowell—three great American musical revolutionaries whose pre-minimalist works Mr. Morris encountered as a young man in Seattle and which exercised a great influence on his development as an artist. Lou Harrison, with whom Mr. Morris enjoyed a close friendship, wrote beautiful, innovative music that spans cultures and oceans. We will hear several of Harrison's seminal works, including the Suite for Symphonic Strings and the Concerto for Piano with Javanese Gamelan. John Cage is heard through Four Walls, a work written to accompany a dance play by Merce Cunningham, and Cowell through his remarkable songs and organ music. Music that influenced these composers—including music from Java and works by Charles Ives and Carl Ruggles—also features prominently, exposing the roots of this family tree of American composition. And Threepenny Review editor Wendy Lesser conducts informative talks with the artists. A particularly delightful aspect of this year's Ojai North! is the participation of UC Berkeley's own Gamelan Sari Raras, which performs in two concerts, and the Cal Marching Band, which makes surprise appearances throughout the festival.
Matías Tarnopolsky
Director, Cal Performances
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Website Comments: www
calperformances.org
