MUSIC: Chamber Singers set the music for tango duo, ballet performers
By Eric E. Harrison (Contact)
LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Chamber Singers plan to give their audiences a real song and dance in two Little Rock concerts this weekend.
Tango dancers Louis Bianco and Lauryl Simoneaux and dancers from Arkansas Festival Ballet, choreographed by Artistic Director Rebecca Miller Stalcup, will join the Chamber Singers and conductor John Erwin for a program called “All Music MustDance,” 7:30 p.m. today at St. James United Methodist Church, 321 Pleasant Valley Drive, and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave.
“We’ve borrowed our concert and season title, ‘All Music Must Dance,’ from Weston Noble, the brilliant choral conductor emeritus of Luther College, who made the point that all music comes to life only when it has the rhythmic lift we associate with dance,” Erwin says.
Members of the Festival Ballet - Michelle Alexander, Greg Balch, Gracie Davis, Kelsey Huggins, Sydney Ippolito, Emily Karnes, Alexandra Marshall, Rachel Powell, Lizzie Rainey, Meredith Short, Michael White, Sara Williams, Emily Woodell, Nathan Young, Hannah Fender, Jennifer Saccente, Sarah Parker and Magdalena Teske - will be on stage for “Kyrie” from Pavane, op.50, by Gabriel Faure, arranged by Arthur Frackenpohl, and for the first of the “ Polovtsian Dances” from Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin.
The tango dancers will be tangoing to Libertango by Astor Piazzolla and Tango to Evora by Loreena McKennitt.
The Chamber Singers will also perform “Come to the Music” by Joseph Martin, “Sing We, Dance We” by Francis Pilkington, “Tanzen und Springen” by Hans Leo Hassler, “Der Tanz” and “Lebenslust” by Franz Schubert , five of the Liebeslieder Waltzes (Nos.7-11) by Johannes Brahms, “The Dance From the Bavarian Highlands” by Edward Elgar, “The Boatmen’s Dance” by Aaron Copland, “And the Father Will Dance” by Mark Hayes, “The Heart’s Cry” from Riverdance by Bill Whelan and, as a finale, the Liebeslieder Polkas by P.D.Q. Bach, aka Peter Schickele.
Tickets are $15, $10 for students and senior citizens. Call (501) 377-1121 or visit the Web site, www.ar-chambersing ers.org.
This article was published Friday, October 10, 2008.
Weekend, Pages 75 on 10/10/2008
