5/19/2017 Music, Dance and Collaboration Brings “Carmina Burana” to Life in Princeton --> New Jersey Stage

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Music, Dance and Collaboration Brings“Carmina Burana” to Life in Princeton

20By Gary Wien, JerseyArts.com

When Carl Orff first conceived “CarminaBurana,” he pictured it as a “scenic cantata”with music and dance working together tocreate a truly beautiful experience. Thatcombination will be on display at PrincetonUniversity’s Richardson Auditorium on May21st when three Garden State-based artsorganizations—Princeton Pro Musica,Princeton Girlchoir and Roxey Ballet—

team up for a performance.

“With hundreds of auience members gathered around and above the thrust stage of RichardsonAuditorium, the 100 voices of Princeton Pro Musica will—with the full sonic power of seven pairs ofhands pounding away at an entire battery of percussion instruments—perform the musical half of Orff’sscenic cantata, ‘Carmina Burana,’” said Princeton Pro Musica Artistic Director Ryan James Brandau.“Nineteen dancers from Mark Roxey’s company will bring the poetry to life with movement and light.The lovely voices of Princeton Girlchoir will be heard from the balcony. It will be a thrilling hour!”

Hilary Butler, Executive Director, Princeton Girlchoir added, “The interesting thing about ‘CarminaBurana’ is that it is structured as a story, although it is not a traditional story where you have abeginning, middle and end. The piece in whole tells a contextual story; adding dance to that helps theaudience to interpret and understand what is happening in the broader context.”

Butler notes that “Carmina Burana” uses multiple languages, which can be difficult for audiences tofollow from a story standpoint, but the dance performances help tell the story.

“The choreography stretches from the main parts of the sections; they are narratives and they followsubject matter that you find in the poetry, as well as elements of the score,” explained Mark Roxey,Artistic Director of Roxey Ballet. “The ballet was crafted one note at a time in collaboration with Ryan,the conductor of Princeton Pro Musica. There was lots of discussion and collaboration. The audience thatcomes will not see every section of ‘Carmina Burana.’ It is a two-year project.

“We have choreographed 12 of the 25 sections, so it is roughly half. It brings the audience to Carl Orff’smusic in a way that is very visual, but it also allows for some reflection and time for the audience to listento other sections.

“The costumes are by Alicia Worden and Nilda Roxey Jones and have as much to do with the concepts inthe choreography, in that they tell their own stories that are thought provoking. The styling is very muchmy style of work.

“When you see Roxey Ballet, you see a style of ballet. It’s one of those elements that’s hard to convey –it’s total theater, it encompasses a lot of elements of both classical and contemporary ballet theater.”

Princeton Girlchoir members will provide the treble choir, singing during certain movements of thepiece. The company has worked with Princeton Pro Musica a number of times in the past, most recentlyin Mendelssohn’s oratorio, “Elijah.”

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5/19/2017 Music, Dance and Collaboration Brings “Carmina Burana” to Life in Princeton --> New Jersey Stage

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“I’m always delighted to work with young singers of such a high caliber,” said Brandau. “We’re lucky tohave them in town!”

According to Mary Trigg, Executive Director of Princeton Pro Musica, she knew about Roxey Ballet froma friend and neighbor who works for them. After looking at Roxey’s website and watching a few videos oftheir work, she thought they would be able to provide something new for “Carmina Burana,” a piece thecompany has performed five times in its 38 year history.

“I thought Mark had an interesting style that would lend itself to “Carmina,” so we invited them to have aconversation about it,” recalled Trigg. “Mark very enthusiastically accepted the commission and it justtook off from there.

“Working with Mark and the company has been a joy. Mark’s enthusiasm is contagious and his deepappreciation of the music of Carl Orff will add an element of rhythmic intensity that is hard to feelwithout the movement of the dancers.”

Princeton Pro Musica raised $10,000 from a successful gofundme.com crowdfunding campaign forthe commission. It was their first time utilizing crowdfunding and Brandau believes it is ideal forprojects like this in which one nonprofit is raising money to hire another nonprofit. Importantly, thecrowdfunding campaign did not detract from Princeton Pro Musica’s regular fundraising efforts.

Working with a dance company like Roxey Ballet was important, but having original choreography andcostumes designed for the piece makes this production even more special, essentially bringing Orff’s

original vision to life.

“In Orff’s musical idiom, music andmovement coexist,” added Brandau. “At theschool he created with Dorthee Geunther,the dancers were encouraged to improvisetheir own music for movement, andinstrumentalists were expected to createmovement to pair with their music.

“Orff’s score is dominated by infectiousrhythmic patterns, which he enhances with abarrage of accents and the clear timbrespercussion. The effect, for me, is that themusic and dance coincide so well that theyamplify each other’s impact. The totalartwork is greater than the sum of its parts.”

All three organizations believe in the powerof collaboration. Roxey Ballet has workedwith many New Jersey-based songwritersand singers—the Riverside Symphonia,Concordia Chamber Players and the NewJersey Philharmonic, to name a few.

“We’ve worked with a number of organizations andwe always welcome musical organizations,” saidRoxey. “There is nothing more fulfilling than thecollaborative elements of dance and musicexperienced together.”

For Brandau, the collaboration goes beyond simplyintroducing audiences to one another; it helpeddefine the work in many ways.

“As the artistic director of a choral and orchestralgroup, it’s extremely enriching to interact with anartistic director and artists from another discipline, especially one that uses music, to witness how theybuild their creations, how they rehearse them, what their artistic priorities are,” said Brandau.“Attending rehearsal absolutely impacted the way I rehearsed the singers of Princeton Pro Musica.”

Trigg believes that budget cuts and uncertainty within the future of arts funding makes collaborationsmore important now than ever before.

“In the current climate, there is something beautiful about different arts organizations coming togetherto support one another and to create art that is bigger than any one organization,” she explained.

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5/19/2017 Music, Dance and Collaboration Brings “Carmina Burana” to Life in Princeton --> New Jersey Stage

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The three organizations have joined togetherto make an experience that will stimulate allof the senses in a piece that celebrates life,fate, love and spring. The trio’s “CarminaBurana” is a wonderful look at an enduringclassic and an exciting example of what canbe done via a collaborative effort.

Princeton Pro Musica, Princeton Girlchoirand Roxey Ballet will perform “CarminaBuran” on Sunday, May 21, 2017 at

Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, NJ. Theconcert will be held at 4 p.m. with a post-show talk-back with conductor Ryan James Brandau andchoreographer Mark Roxey at 5:15 p.m.

About the author: Gary Wien is a music journalist from Belmar,NJ. A three-time winner of Asbury Music’s Music Journalist of TheYear, his writing and photographs have been seen in publications likeUpstage Magazine, Backstreets Magazine, Gannett Newspapers, andPrinceton Magazine. He is the also the author of two books: BeyondThe Palace (about the history of rock music in Asbury Park) and AreYou Listening? (his picks for the Top 100 Albums of 2001-2010 byNew Jersey Artists) and is the publisher of New Jersey Stage

magazine.

Content provided by Discover Jersey Arts, a project of the ArtPride New Jersey Foundationand New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

 

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