This weekend come check out the UMS presentation of Hubbard Street Dance. Performing a piece inspired by Marc Chagall’s America Windows and written by Hubbard Street’s first resident choreographer, Alejandro Cerrudo, the performance is sure to take your breath away. Cerrudo, when interviewed, commented on how windows shape and distort images – this is the inspiration of the piece. They use water effects, like mist curtains, and special backlighting to exemplify the beauty of the dancers. It is sure to be a spectacle of a performance, so get on those tickets, folks!
Tag: ums
REVIEW: Audra McDonald
Vocal perfection? Thy name is Audra McDonald.
This evening, I had the absolute pleasure to hear Audra McDonald perform for the second time in the always amazing, Hill Auditorium. She began the first half with several numbers that were classically-Audra but never overused: “Stars and the Moon,” “I’ll be here,” “When did I Fall in Love” to name a few. Some interesting new additions, at least for me having seen her two years ago, were a moving rendition of the classic, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as well as a number from the not-too-popular Kandor and Ebb musical Steel Pier entitled “First You Dream.” The latter was dedicated to her father who sadly passed away in a plane crash, a plane he was piloting himself. The song is sung by the main character, a pilot who dies but doesn’t yet know he is dead. His final piece of advice to the woman he is trying to inspire is a clear message on how to begin: “first you dream.”
With a rousing first half, it was hard to imagine anything could be more impressive. Of course, Ms. McDonald never begins something to finish with anything less than her best. With her on stage for the second half came the entire University of Michigan Music School Orchestra to back her up in a slew of Gershwin songs, paying tribute to the new pact between the Gershwin family and the University of Michigan. This new collaboration project with provide a collected and accessible database of Gershwin repertoire, complete with original manuscripts and composer notes. Judging by the gasps of excitement from the Musical Theatre majors I was seated around, I’d say this is more than fantastic news for wolverines cravin’ that Gershwin swing.
What a fantastic performance by a truly special talent. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to see Ms. McDonald perform once again while here at Michigan. She’s a goddess in her own right and knows how to wield the amazing gift with which she’s been blessed.
PREVIEW: Audra McDonald this Sunday!!
Returning to UMS for the fifth time, Audra McDonald performs this Sunday, September 15 at 4 pm in Hill Auditorium. She brings a repertoire filled with Broadway classics and in particular, a special attention paid to the works of Gershwin, having just finished her time in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. What do I love most about Audra McDonald? She has wicked pipes and a vibrant personality that makes for a stunning performance experience, sure to make any music-lover, Broadway-fanatic or not, giddy with delight. Not to be missed!
PREVIEW: Esperanza Spalding
2011 Grammy winner for “Best New Artist” and 2012 Grammy for “Best Jazz Vocal Album,” Ms. Spalding returns to wow Ann Arbor audiences this Saturday, April 6 at 8pm at the Michigan Theater. Singer, bassist, and composer, Ms. Spalding will demonstrate how her talents encompass various stylings and rhythms. Young, beautiful, and vibrant, she is going to rock the stage Saturday night, and you’re going to want to be there. Billboard writes, “Whether exploding into vocalese or making her bass solo sound like a horn, she’s a spark plug who dances as she grooves through a funked-up and rock-out repertoire.” Esperanza Spalding will blow you away as she returns to present her new album, Radio Music Society.
More information can be found at her website: http://www.esperanzaspalding.com/
REVIEW: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
Saturday evening, I had the privilege and honor of seeing Yo-Yo Ma perform with the Silk Road Ensemble in acoustically-perfect Hill Auditorium. It was truly a stunning and breath-taking event. From the instant we were in our seats, we left Ann Arbor for destinations along the Silk Road – it was not just a musical experience, but a quest to far off lands. Warm, tingly, and adventurous, it was a spectacle in which, I’m fairly certain, every person in Hill that night was swept away.
The first song they performed was entitled the “Silk Road Suite” with four separate parts making up the piece. I think it was my second favorite of the performance. The rhythms kept you wanting more, rocking gently in your seat, and I couldn’t believe how much time had passed by the end. The Silk Road Ensemble performs without a conductor, keep in mind, so it was amazing to see how well they kept in rhythm – reading off each other’s’ movements and marking their pace in time.
The second and third pieces were pretty wild, but enjoyable nonetheless. I felt they went on a little too long, but I understood the artistic drive that held them within a certain space of suspense and phraseology. “The Prospect of Colored Desert” was about a tiger stalking its prey, if I heard the introduction correctly, and it made use of dramatic imagery with slides, slurs, and flurries of notes and percussion. “Playlist for an Extreme Occasion” was anything but traditional, as the program note indicates as well. It was interesting, but not very distinguishable from the rest, in my opinion.
The piece following intermission and the award ceremony, in which Yo-Yo Ma was presented with the UMS Distinguished Artist Award, was my absolute favorite, I believe. It was called, “Beloved, do not let me be discouraged…” As the title depicts, it is a hopeful story that you can almost imagine watching on stage as the artists rocked and swayed to the rhythm of their instruments. The program note on this piece reads, “The musical voice of kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor is a natural fit for this piece, in part because Persian music often expresses a deep desire to love oneself in love.” The mood that transcended over us all caused us to weep, metaphorically at least, alongside the droning of the kamancheh.
(What the **** is a kamencheh?)
The second to last piece, “seasons continue, as if none of this ever happened” had a powerful message and if nothing else, it was absolutely intense. The shakuhachi was accompanied by a recording of electronically-generated music (shaku – what??). The story of the piece is to commemorate the tragedy of the tsunami that altered life in Japan in 2011 for so many Japanese. There was a haunting beat that led the shakuhachi in loops and circles, up and down; one could imagine getting lost in the music – lost in the tsunami – and in the horrific stories of the past that we sometimes forget…”as if none of this ever happened.”
And to conclude this intensely moving and artistic display of terrific talent from the Silk Road Ensemble, they played a stunning piece entitled, “Suite from Book of Angels.” This beat pumped out a rhythm that you couldn’t sit still and listen to. The drums made this piece for me – keeping pace for the other instruments while also treading water on its own at certain moments. It was fantastic.
Yo-Yo Ma writes in the program book: “The Silk Road Ensemble is a musical model that requires curiosity, collaboration, and wholehearted enthusiasm from all the participants. The music we play does not belong to just one culture or even to only the Silk Road region. Ensemble members are united in their demonstration of virtuosity and generosity…” “Enthusiasm” is just one word to describe the countenance of those performers on stage last night. They looked elated the entire time they were performing, and the energy they brought to the show was unlike anything I’d ever seen by an ensemble of this size. Such a display of cross-cultural unity and musical harmony, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble presented something uniquely beautiful and a truly stellar performance.
REVIEW: New York Philharmonic
Saturday night, Hill Auditorium was absolutely packed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the auditorium sold out before, but this was just about at peak capacity. And only after I’d finished appraising the crowd, everyone so nicely suited up, did I notice the orchestra was already tuning on stage. It was a smaller section of the orchestra that they used for the first two Mozart pieces, making up the first half of the concert. Regardless, their sound was more than impressive. From the moment the conductor walked on stage, I entirely forgot where I was until it all ended in a final, flourished wave of his arm.
The first piece, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492 was absolutely staggering. Every turn of the music left me wondering, what’s coming next? As I sat their listening, I tried to imagine what I would be doing if I were in a silent film where this was the soundtrack. I imagined me dancing, then the floor gave out and I was falling, then I was laughing and flirting with a dashing gentleman, then he murders me! With every twist and lift of the synchronized first violinists, the attitude of the piece entirely shifted. As every overture should conclude, it was a valiant finish that left everyone squirming in their seats, wanting more.
Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425 was the second piece and even more fantastic than its predecessor. Just as flourished albeit a little more charming and embellished with shadows of passion, this piece too was breathtakingly perfect.
That’s the other thing about the New York Philharmonic – I don’t think you can do it any better! Both their Mozart pieces and the Brahms were absolutely flawless. After the show, I had froyo with a friend of mine who attended the concert with me and I asked her, seeing as she is quite an esteemed musician herself, how do you do it better than that? She replied, simply, you don’t.
The Brahms piece they played was one that took Brahms nearly 11 years to compose. 11 years on the same symphony!? I can’t even imagine. I write short fiction as part of my creative writing major here and that would mean that I would have started a story back when I was nine if I were to write a story in the time it took Brahms to write his first symphony. What?! The piece was, of course, stellar. It said in the program that it was fairly lengthy compared to the average arrangement of the time, however, I swear it felt like I sat in my seat for not 10 minutes when it had actually been two hours for the whole concert. I couldn’t believe it had ended, and I was actually sort of upset I hadn’t seen it coming.
In conclusion to my rave review of the New York Phil, it was just so great. Peter Laki, UMS correspondent, wrote in the program book: “The classics provide us with much-needed emotional stability in these volatile and uncertain times, and we must make sure we bequeath our love of them to those coming after us, just as we inherited it from those who have been here before.” Truly, nothing is better than that.
