Two world-premiere performances of choreography by local artists grace the March 9 concert by the Rochester Oratorio Society.
This unique Spring program features a light-hearted and joyful mix of modern dance, familiar choral masterworks and instrumental chamber music. Special guests include: BIODANCE, directed by Missy Pfohl Smith; the Antara Winds, an ensemble of faculty artists from the Eastman School of Music, SUNY Geneseo and the Hochstein School of Music and Dance; and a trio of strings and piano led by Nazareth College artist Kevin Nitsch.
In its first world-premiere of the day, BIODANCE will perform original choreography by Artistic Director Missy Pfohl Smith, dance faculty at the University of Rochester, set to the ever-popular Lovesong Waltzes by Johannes Brahms. The charming suite of dances will be heard in a new setting for piano and woodwind quintet created expressly for the Antara Winds by ROS Artistic Director Eric Townell.
After intermission, BIODANCE offers its second world-premiere of the evening with "Scherzo," by internationally recognized choreographer and SUNY-Brockport artist, Bill Evans, also set to the music of Brahms, performed by piano trio under Kevin Nitsch.
In a solo performance, the Antara Winds, now in its 30th season, will play "Dance Suite," composed in 1955 by Paul Valjean, an alumnus of the Eastman School of Music. The ROS, now in its 66th season and its sixth with Townell, rounds out the evening with dance-inspired works by Bizet, Elgar and the English Romantic composer Arthur Bliss.
"The program presents a wonderful, entertaining mix of dance-inspired music," Townell notes. "There will be much to please the eye and the ear."
The Rochester Oratorio Society presents "Spirit of the Dance," with BIODANCE, Missy Pfohl Smith, Artistic Director, and the Antara Winds, at Hochstein Performance Hall, 50 Plymouth Avenue North, Rochester, Friday, March 9, 2011, at 7:30 P.M. Tickets ($25/$10 students with ID) may be purchased online via Brown Paper Tickets and are available from the ROS Office at (585) 473-2234. Advance reservations are suggested.
