42nd Season Highlights

Reviews
Excerpted from a review by John Campbell of Artsong Update Issue #80

A program on March first and second at Old Dominion University Theater titled Transformations was a huge undertaking for artisitc co-directors Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn that included seven pieces of contemporary music performed with visual enhancement, mostly dance.
In opening remarks Dr. Kasparov encouraged us to evaluate each piece on the basis of completeness within the world created. He also thanked Fred Bayersdorfer for finding the resources for instruments for the colorful percussion piece José beFORe John5 (2000) by composer Aurél Holló (b.1966). Percussionists Dale Lazar, Bryan Maurer and Nikolas White began with clapping and stomping in out of phase rhythms. Soon, scintillating sound created on one marimba by two players, Mr.Lazar and Mr. Maurer, working together as the piece gained complexity enriched by Mr. White on crow call, tuned gongs and Devil chaser stick. Log drum, the hose-shaped Egyptian oboe (mismar), box drum, snare drum and Africa talking drums all added to the exotic sound. The choreography of making the music against a deep-blue lighted scrim added up to a rich experience. Drumsticks striking a slack-stringed guitar punctuated by other exotic percussion led to the dramatic ending.

Armenian composer Petros Ovsepyan (b.1966) was choreographer for his piece titled His (2009). The stage was dimly lit, with three performers dressed in black except flutist Bonnie Kim with a red sash and dancer Remmie Bourgeois in a red shirt, black pants and bare feet. A grand piano sat in the middle of the stage and the violinist Anna Dobrzyn stood nearby. The powerfully built dancer assumed the sturdy pose reminiscent of the sculpture "The Thinker" as the violin made occasional detached quiet scratching sounds. At other times we heard faint whistles from the flute but the sound of the air handler obscured the intent. Suddenly the dancer leaped in a chimpanzee-like way onto the top of the piano where he crouched looking pensive while the violin and flute created wild creature noises. In time he leaped to the floor still crouching then over several minutes rose slowly toward standing.

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His hand trembled with great effort. Finally upright, primordial first steps seemed about to happen with his body angled toward the flutist playing lyrically and with his back to us he seemed to be pushing against the piano as the lights went down. The human race is moving to high culture.

Choreographer Starrene Foster visually realized the many moods of the music of La Valse by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) arranged for piano, four hands by Andrey Kasparov and played by him and Oksana Lutsyshyn. Five dancers of the Star Foster Dance Project of Richmond combined classical and modern dance poses to good effect. The opening vignette of angular figures brightly back-lit with waltz movements reflected the Vienese sound in the piano. As the music deconstructs this classical form the dancers did the same. This experience was one of the two most enjoyable, focused dances of the evening. There was clarity, gracefulness and an imaginative connection to the muisc.
In Musique de Tables (1987) by Thierry de Mey (b.1956), David Walker, Dale Lazar and Bryan Mauer sit at a table facing the audience, lighted like three Bürgern from a Rembrandt painting. The music consisted of turning pages and striking the table with their hands. In-synch or by turn or complimentary motions created sound patterns with hands and fingers on a glass table top with camera below and images projected behind them as if we are seeing the three sets of hands reflected in a mirror with the faces looming in the background. The video projection was supervised by Stephen Pullen and the work was done by four of his talented students. With pages first turned sequentially, then in unison, there is choreography in every gesture. In this context it became an exciting event in the world created - complete within itself.
Written for the Diehn Concert Series, Clockworks (2009) by Christopher Cook (b.1962) is a rich, sonic piece built from intimate recordings of grandfather clocks, alarm clocks, digital watches, Westminster chimes, all sorts of timepieces, manipulated by computer. Sounds were compressed, stretched and otherwise twisted to become unrecognizable. These yielded rhythmic grooves that were brought vividly to life by six dancers (Jay Ambrose, Kevin Carroll, Julie Champagne, Carrie Moseley, Tamika Steeley and Elizabeth Zamer). The dancers' tunics had strategically placed holes - some large, others very large with finished hems - that punctuated the visuals of movement. The costumer was not credited in the program. For the men a rectangle of colorful fabric suggested ties and added to the hip-hop exuberant movement by Tamika Steeley.