SPECIAL PROJECTS FOR THE 2010‑2011 SEASON

THE AHN TRIO: Classical Music
in the Digital Age
The Ahn Trio collaborates with visual artist Paul D. Miller (a.k.a.: DJ. Spooky), and composer Kenji Bunch to explore music and art in our Digital Culture. What are the borders between classical traditions and the digital music / art of today? Workshops, a master class, a lecture / demonstration all lead to a performance where the audience will hear Bunch’s Triple Concerto (The Hardware Concerto), which mixes influences from Hollywood film scores to the Funk of the 70′s with an Ahn Trio using “hardware”– plugged‑in instruments. In addition, DJ Spooky will digitally sample The Ahn Trio’s music as they perform, re‑mix it on the spot and create a performance that is not only purely digital, but is accompanied by the visual art for which Paul D. Miller is internationally renowned. The Ahn Trio, Kenji Bunch, and Paul D. Miller engage the audience throughout the concert.

THE AHN TRIO: The Ahn Trio Goes BraziliAHN.
The exciting Ahn Trio never fails to raise the bar on great concert programming. With three commissioning partners: Michael Blachly from the University of Florida, Gainesville; Anna Thompson, Notre Dame and Terre Jones, Wolf Trap they are able to bring your audiences a new program of the music from Brazil featuring the fabulous songs of Edo Lobo with arrangements by Nelson Ayers and other notable Brazilian artists. This program was premiered in February 2010 and will tour in the 2010‑11 season. Best news of all, we have excellent enroutes in the works.

PRISM QUARTET: Music from China
This collaboration between two of the nation’s preeminent proponents of new music, PRISM Quartet and Music from China, spans remarkable distances of both space and time. The commissioned works for the collaboration “evolve a multifaceted and layered language capable of containing Occident and Orient, forging a musical hybrid enriched by both traditions.” United by their passion for fresh soundscapes, PRISM and Music from China join forces that explore the profound contrasts of timbre and culture, from instruments played for a millennium or more (traditional Chinese instruments) to the saxophone, which bears a French patent from the Industrial Revolution. Special note: presenters in the Mid‑Atlantic states are eligible for a fee subsidy by applying to Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour (www.PennPAT.org).

LEON BATES: American Originals Program and Teaming Up with Ensembles
Leon Bates, in a project that includes a recital, lecture/demonstration, and/or a performance with orchestra, explores the genius of our American Originals–composers like Barber, Copeland, Gershwin, and Bernstein. Demonstrating his tremendous versatility, Bates also includes the works of African‑American composers like George Walker and Nathaniel Dett, as well as his own remarkable transcriptions of the works of Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Chick Corea and Pat Metheney. Another special offering for the 2010-2011 season is joint performances with the Colorado String Quartet and also with the Borealis Wind Quintet. Both of these collaborations have meet with great success in the past. It is an extraordinary musical journey, and Leon Bates is the perfect guide–born and raised in Philadelphia, Leon Bates is an American original in his own right.

THE NAI‑NI CHEN DANCE COMPANY: Song of the Phoenix
The Nai‑Ni Chen Dance Company’s project introduces dances inspired by the timeless ideas from the I‑Ching (The Book of Changes). Also available for the 2010‑20101 Season, will be highlight works like “The Way of Five–Fire” with music by Tan Dun and “Incense” with music by Joan La Barbara. The Nai‑Ni Chen Dance Company has tremendous residency activities to go along with Song of the Phoenix: Tradition Meets Innovation, Forms in Motion, Dancing on the Silk River, or The Ten Elements of Chinese Dance.

KORESH DANCE COMPANY: Two Celebrated Israeli Choreographers, One Amazing Dance Company
This Koresh Dance Company project features the world premiere of Sense of Human, by Ronen (Roni) Koresh and the company premiere of Passomezzo by Ohad Naharin, artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company. Passomezzo, set to the Baroque melodies of Greensleeves and The Beggar’s Opera, is a highly theatrical pas de deux depicting the intimate dialogue between a man and a woman. Ohad describes Passomezzo as a duet about tough love and opposition that explores the tempestuous shifts of balance in a relationship. Roni’s new work, Sense of Human, depicts life in its purest, deepest, most basic human state. We walk through life wearing carefully chosen facades that disguise, redirect, and hide the basic yearnings by which we exist. What are we hiding? Are we really concealing anything? Can others see right through us? Can others know us better than we know ourselves? This work delves beneath our desired self images to discover our true sense of humanity.