Press Notes
September 26, 2008
SPECIAL HONOR TO ROBERT COLE
By: MMDG
MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP GIVES A SPECIAL HONOR TO
OUTGOING CAL PERFORMANCES DIRECTOR, ROBERT COLE
When Cal Performances Director, Robert Cole announced his decision to step down at the conclusion of the 2008-2009 season, the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) named a studio in its Brooklyn home the Robert W. Cole Studio to honor Cole’s dedication to the performing arts field and to celebrate the ongoing partnership between Cole and MMDG.
Robert Cole turned Berkeley into a destination for internationally celebrated artists and one of the most admired performing arts centers in the world. A conductor and instrumentalist by training, Cole assumed the directorship of Cal Performances in 1986 and has propelled the organization to the top ranks of performing arts presenters, regularly mounting world, American and West Coast premieres in dance, music and theater.
One of his early partnerships was with choreographer Mark Morris whom Cole first invited to Berkeley in 1987. The Dance Group has performed at Cal Performances almost every season in the 18 years since its debut. Cole has co-commissioned many MMDG works including the U.S. premieres of Morris' staging of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Platée (1998) and Henry Purcell’s King Arthur (2006); and West Coast premieres of L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1994), The Hard Nut (1996), Mozart Dances (2007), and Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare (2008).
In a Berkeley ceremony last spring, Mark Morris proclaimed, “Let it be known that, for his invaluable investment in the creation of art, for his outstanding commitment to the Mark Morris Dance Group, and for his unerring dedication to providing the best available resources for the greatest possible outcome, we have established the Robert W. Cole Studio at the Mark Morris Dance Center, which shall now and henceforth most fittingly celebrate and honor your visionary career by providing a home for the development of new works and a future for the arts.”
Robert Cole is a graduate of the University of Southern California School of Music and studied conducting with Richard Lert and Ingolf Dahl in California, with Leonard Bernstein and Leon Barzin at the Tanglewood Music Center, and with Hans Swarowsky in Europe. Prior to his appointment in Berkeley, Cole was the Executive Director of the Brooklyn Center for Performing Arts at Brooklyn College, and previously served as Executive Director of the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie, New York. He was Associate Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and was Music Director and Executive Director of the Ballet Society of Los Angeles. Cole has served on panels for New York State Council on the Arts, California Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts, and on the boards of Early Music America, San Francisco Early Music Society and International Society of the Performing Arts.
