In chapter one Manifestos, on April 25th 1992, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, an American dancer by the name of Ruth St. Denis had presented “loving cup” to Anna Pavlova, a Russian ballerina. The passing of the cup to Anna Pavlova signified changes in the American dance scene. St. Denis’s husband and also dance partner, Ted Shawn joined to pay tribute to Pavlova, in which had a solo, The Dying Swan that had left a huge impact on ballet devotees throughout the entire world.…
Wichita native Dr. Brain Mueller returned to a Wichita stage for a marimba solo. Mueller, a Wichita State University graduate, joined the WSU Impulse Percussion Group for their Marimba Spiritual concert.…
On Monday, 18 November 2013 at 7:30 p.m. in Evergreen Presbyterian Church the Rhodes College Orchestra and Wind Ensemble performed the Baroque-N Christmas. The event was open to the public, to share their joy for the upcoming holiday. The program included the Palladio, the Suite for Strings, the Chasing Sheep is Best Left for Shepherds, the Alleluia, the Variants on a Mediaeval Tune, and the Concerto Grosso in G Minor, Op.6, No.8. I was very eager to attend the concert because the Baroque-N Christmas included works from the Baroque Era, which is my favorite period of artistic style. Leah McGray was the conductor and Jennifer Rote was the flute soloist for the Rhodes College Wind Ensemble; I don’t remember their being a concert master, which I thought was odd.…
The dance show that I went to was called Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The place of the performance is 131 W 55th Street between 6th and 7th avenues. The date and time of the performance was Saturday, Dec 16, 2017 at 2:00pm. I was 20 minutes late to the first performance because of the heavy traffic, but i did see a portion of the first dance. Heysel and I both saw this dance performance together.…
I went to see Overture to King Stephen, Op. 117 and Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36, both composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and performed by Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall on December 31 2012. The music group consisted of about sixty-three bowed string instrumentalists, ten woodwind instrumentalists, nine brass instrumentalists and four percussion instruments and the conductor is Esa-Pekka Salonen.…
Here again, the choreography had some resemblance to the Petipa/Ivanov, but it was badly danced by a corps that looked to be sleep walking . No interesting patterning. Arms that went up and down and up and down, relentlessly. Poor feet on all the small jumps. If the stage at the State Theater cannot make room for all these ladies, cut back a few to give some air and space to the corps.…
I attended the EIU Wind Symphony concert on December 4, 2015. It started seven in the evening and was in Dvorak hall in the Doudna Fine Arts center on Eastern’s campus. Alicia Neal was the conductor of the symphony. It was a symphony composed of some of Eastern’s best music majors and it showed their skill throughout the entire performance.…
April 20, 2016, my oldest daughter and I attended the Moscow Ballet’s performance of Don Quixote, an everlasting favorite, at Three Rivers College. This is a classic ballet that has grown in popularity over the years, of which three acts can brilliantly convey every human emotion possible. It is a ballet with which I am vaguely familiar; I have seen it performed on television a few times and at the age of eleven I was thrilled to see a live performance. Don Quixote is chalk full of minuets, jigs, marches, and waltzes, mostly up beat and light-hearted with fun entertaining melodies as to correlate to the comedy. This particular viewing did not have an orchestra, but rather recorded sound. This aspect was suitable for the Tinnin Fine Arts Center…
I attended concert Welcome Christmas 2014 performed by the Vocal Essence and The Ensemble singers on Friday December 5th from 7.30 to 9: 30 pm at the Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, Apple Valley. The concert was conducted by Phillip Brunelle, narrated by Katherrine Fennard and fiddled by Sara Pajounen. Recording devices and cameras were prohibited it could have been a nice opportunity to record and listen again. I arrived just on time and the singers all dressed in black suites for men and black dresses for women processed silently as they took their spots on the stage according to the parts they were practicing for while the audience cheered for them as they took their spots on stage. As the choristers arrived the hall the musical prelude was going on with different instruments such as the flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, horn, trumpet, fiddle, violin, viola, cello, bass and percussion but the musicians stopped playing and cheered them as well. Everyone cheered them and then sat down and the deal began.…
On October 20, I attended a concert by the RCC Jazz in featuring Lanny Morgan at the Digital Library Auditorium. The name of group members which are used were Doug Webb (Tenor Sax), Tom Ranier (piano), Chuck Berhofer (bass), and Steve Schaeffer (drum…
I attended The Works of Thomas Root on Tuesday, March 24th. It featured the Weber State University wind ensemble and symphonic band as well as the WSU Band Alumni. There were many pieces conducted and created by Thomas Root. Most pieces were still unpublished but they were wonderful nonetheless. He also had pieces that were dedicated to people that he had come to meet throughout his life, and a piece was dedicated to his own mother.…
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, also spelled Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was born in Votkinsk, in the city of Vyatka, Russia, May 7, 1840. Second in a family of five sons and one daughter, to whom he was extremely devoted. Once in his early teens when he was in school at St. Petersburg and his mother started to drive to another city, he had to be held back while she got into the carriage, and the moment he was free ran and tried to hold the wheels.…
About two weeks after the 2013 All-State concert, juniors Mitch Dekutoski and Julianna Norby received letters from the Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall inviting them to audition for their program…
“Our company is as strong technically as any professional ballet company,” says Virginia Johnson, artistic director for New York City’s Dance Theatre of Harlem today. The pas de deux from Act 3 of the ballet classic Swan Lake is, after all, part of the company’s repertoire. But, as Johnson explains, the Dance Theatre of Harlem strives for something different. “We are a neo-classical company. Our work is based on the idea of moving ballet forward and giving audiences today something that maybe helps them understand their own lives in a different…
When I turned three, my mom signed me up for my first ballet class, and I loved it. Moving along to the music brought me joy and fulfillment. My liking for it has gradually grown into a passion. But over the years, I have also noticed a stigma for extreme competitiveness and perfectionism. Something that originally began as a form of worship has transformed into a celebration of the superficial and frivolous. Dancing often creates many concerns for young performers.…