WORLD PREMIERE COLLABORATIVE CONCERT
TUESDAY, APRIL 5
Collaborative Concert
World premiere of six music compositions with seven dance pieces in an unprecedented collaboration featuring Shepherd School faculty members and students, the Rice Dance Theatre, and Guest Artists, Chrysalis Dance Company funded by Houston Endowment, Inc., Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts and the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County.
Composers/choreographers: Richard Lavenda/Christine Lidvall; Kurt Stallmann/Rebecca Valls; Francisco Castillo/Katie Olsen; Jordan Kuspa/Michele Edwards; Christopher Lee/Nancy Ku; Angelique Poteat/Anisha Srinivasan; and Daniel Sedgwick/Helen Cloots.
7:30 p.m., Stude Concert Hall
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Serendipity and a little planning are the catalysts that made possible an upcoming world-premiere collaborative concert that brings together student and faculty composers, dancers and musicians. The concert, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. April 5 in Stude Concert Hall in Alice Pratt Brown Hall, is the result of an unprecedented partnership among Shepherd School of Music faculty members and students and Rice Dance Theatre. It features the first-ever public performance of six musical compositions with seven specially choreographed dance pieces.
Last year, Benjamin Kamins, Shepherd School professor of bassoon, had a spark of an idea to bring together the considerable talents of student and faculty composers with the dance group. He found an eager accomplice when he shared his ideas with Christine Lidvall, dance theater coordinator at Rice and a founder of Houston¹s Chrysalis Dance Company.
Lidvall and Rebecca Valls, director of the Rice Dance Theatre, discussed the possibilities of an alliance with Rice faculty and staff composers and decided it was an exciting idea that would challenge and benefit the dance group.
"Originally, I approached the dance group because I wanted to collaborate on a new choreography of a Stravinsky piece," Kamins said. "When that didn¹t work out, we continued to talk more about the possibilities of combining music and dance." After months of discussion, Kamin¹s spark evolved into a full-fledged concept. Lidvall would work with dance students to choreograph and perform dances to new works by student and faculty composers.
"Then it just turned into this giant collaboration and took on a life of its own,² Kamins said. "We spoke to Kurt Stallman, and he suggested allowing student composers to work with the dancers as a project." Stallman is an assistant professor of composition at the Shepherd School and the director of REMLABS , Rice Electronic Music Labs. Kamins describes the music as "cutting-edge and contemporary." Some of the selections are electronic, computer-generated pieces; others are performed by small ensembles.
Faculty and student performers from the Shepherd School to include: Leone Buyse, Paul Ellison, Benjamin Kamins, Greg Haro, Victoria Bass, Jennifer Humphreys, Jessica Blackwell, Ariella Perlman, Louis DeMartino, Emily Cole, Jessica Dunn, Emily Hu, Edward Merritt, and Brandon Bell. Rice Dance Theater performers to include: Nancy O'Conner, Ruta Perzynska, Helen Cloots, Marysa Mumphrey, Emily Douglas, Anisha Srinivasan, Claire Sudolsky, Della Hoffman, Caroline Crites, Ashley Martin, Danielle Mouledoux, and Kathleen Shergy.
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