The worlds of orchestral music and dance will collide this Friday with At Play, presented by Kinetic Ensemble and with guest partner Frame Dance Productions. A fusion between melody and choreography, At Play will merge art styles for the ensemble’s season finale on May 17 at 7:30 p.m. at MATCH with a program featuring nothing but living, American composers of marginalized identities.
“Our initial inspiration for this program came from Jennifer Higdon’s ‘Dance Card.’ This piece, in particular, is really striking. It’s really engaging,” said Tonya Burton, violist for Kinetic. “We felt like this was a fitting way to finish our ninth season. The first time I heard this piece, I felt like it had Kinetic written all over the music.
“The music is technically challenging. The parts are individually virtuosic, and it requires every player to be super engaged in the process. We felt like this is a great piece for Kinetic to do, we have the opportunity to put our spin on it, and we have the experience making chamber music within this work.”
From there, Higdon’s piece informed the choices for the remaining pieces on the set list. Higdon’s five movement work will fill the entire second half of the program, but not without a who’s-who of composers represented beforehand, including Kenji Bunch’s “The Still, Small Voice,” Viet Cuong’s “Next Week’s Trees,” Jessie Montgomery’s “Voodoo Dolls,” Caroline Shaw’s “Valencia” and Paul Wiancko’s “Toy Bricks.”
Among the musicians whose work is being performed are several Grammy Award winners, two Pulitzer Prize winners and a bevy of high-profile commissions, which will be juxtaposed by one of Houston’s premiere, “outside the box” dance companies.
As thought leaders in dance education for all ages, Frame Dance Productions has developed inclusive, empowering curricula that focus on developing socio-emotional skills, resilience and creativity. Frame Dance Productions is dedicated to bringing the transformative power of modern dance to Houston through radically inclusive dance education, collaborative creation and public-facing performance.
Need proof of just how innovative the dance company is? The organization, helmed by Lydia Hance, has performed wherever space allows, including the METRORail, a U-Haul and the downtown tunnels.
“Lydia is known for doing spontaneous projects in public settings, and the idea of ‘play’ is really vital to their mission statement, their education programs and all the projects I’ve seen,” Burton said. “My mind jumped to her immediately in the planning process. As we were talking about this performance and what it might look like, she got really excited thinking about not just having her and her company of professional dancers, but also including some student performers and some of her community dancers. It will be a unique experience that I think exemplifies the concept.”
Patricia Ryan, cellist, points out another important aspect of the program.
“We felt really strongly about programming pieces by living, American composers and to demonstrate what great music is currently being composed in our day,” she said. “It is reflective of our time on this planet. As much as we love playing the old canon of Beethoven and Mozart, who still have relevance today, there’s something that’s really more tangible for us to play pieces by current, living composers, especially now that there’s an opportunity for previously marginalized groups who are able to now get the support and exposure that they deserve. We have an array of diversity and many strong women composers who are on this program.”
The concert has unexpected twists with the many elements “at play.” The program not only incorporates visual representation with dance, but it also showcases spontaneity and freedom for individual musicians as Kinetic Ensemble is a conductor-less orchestra. In addition, attendees will witness untraditional sounds not often heard in a classical setting like improvisation, percussive sounds of chopping and tapping, humming, snapping and a few other surprises.
But it is all in the spirit of having fun and making chamber and classical music fun again. After all, contemporary classical music doesn’t have to be a four-letter word.
“There might be some stigma about how contemporary music is maybe something that is hurtful to the ears, but this is incredibly accessible music and something that is very relatable,” Ryan said. “Even if that’s not something that the audience is willing to believe at the very beginning of the concert, there’s also the element of the visual dance that we’re also collaborating with that will further enhance the music and the message behind each of these pieces.”
“These composers’ lived experiences are experiences that our audiences also share on a day to day basis,” Ryan said. “We are at a period where we are still with revolutionary composers, and we want to celebrate what they’re bringing to the canon of music.”
Give it a try…it might just be an enlightening experience.
Kinetic Ensemble presents ‘At Play’ 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 17 at MATCH, 3400 Main. For tickets or information, visit kineticensemble.org. $15-$30.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
