(Brooklyn, NY) – The Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) completes their lively, engaging and varied 2016-17 season with the world premiere of Mark Morris’ Numerator at Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Festival for Lou 100: In Honor of the Divine Mr. Harrison, an entire Lou Harrison (1917-2003) program performed with the Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center.
“Lou was a friend, and his music has been a decades-long inspiration to me as a choreographer,” says Morris. “I’ve made up dances to many of his scores and there exist many more that are varied, extravagant, and irresistible. Lou said, ‘Music is a Song and a Dance.’ Not only do I agree, but he was absolutely right. I gratefully and humbly celebrate his centenary.”
Created in honor of Harrison’s centenary (celebrated May 14th around the world), Numerator is set to Harrison’s Varied Trio for violin, piano, and percussion and is danced by six men in muted jewel-tone costumes designed by Elizabeth Kurtzman.
The evening includes the radiant Pacific, set to the third and fourth movements of Harrison’s Trio for violin, cello, and piano and praised by The New York Times: “Mr. Morris’s melding of music and movement is utterly lucid – not because of the harmony he creates, but because he allows the forms to be heard and seen in pure and equal ways.” Pacific’s flowing costumes are by the late, multiple Tony Award-winning designer Martin Pakledinaz. Originally choreographed for San Francisco Ballet (1995), it was set on the Dance Group in 2015.
Serenade, set to Serenade for Guitar, premiered in 2003, the year of Harrison’s death. With costume designed by Isaac Mizrahi, it was the last solo Morris originally choreographed for himself. As he said of the score, “It is so tender and finely webbed, so all over the world, that I realized it could be the basis of a new kind of dance.” Acoustic guitar and percussion will share the Seiji Ozawa Hall’s stage with the soloist dancer.
The rousing audience and critical favorite Grand Duo, set to Harrison’s Grand Duo for violin and piano closes the evening. Of the dance, The Boston Globe says, “…one of the most viscerally charged passages in the annals of modern dance.”
“Lou Harrison adored Mark Morris and his superb musicality. It is thrilling that MMDG will present a substantial program in honor of Lou’s 100th birthday and continues to be an important champion of his legacy,” says Eva Soltes, Director, Harrison House Music, Arts & Ecology, the organization leading the Harrison centenary celebrations.
This year marks the Dance Group’s 12th season at Tanglewood, and its ninth world premiere on the Seiji Ozawa stage.
For tickets: June 28: https://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/85454
June 29: https://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/85455
A Lou Harrison centenary promotional video is viewable at: https://youtu.be/wEJZyJnIPyc
For more information on the Dance Group visit: www.mmdg.org
Mark Morris has been hailed as the “the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical.” (New York Times). In addition to creating over 150 works for the Mark Morris Dance Group, he conducts orchestras, directs opera, and choreographs for ballet companies worldwide. Morris’ work is acclaimed for its ingenuity, musicality, wit, and humanity. Named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation in 1991, he has received eleven honorary doctorates to date, and a multitude of awards, including the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, the Benjamin Franklin Laureate Prize for Creativity, the Cal Performances Award of Distinction in the Performing Arts, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Gift of Music Award, and the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award. In 2015, Morris was inducted to the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Formed in 1980, Mark Morris’ internationally-renowned Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) has received “highest praise for their technical aplomb, their musicality, and their sheer human authenticity.” (Bloomberg News). Live music and community engagement are vital components of the Dance Group. It has toured with its own musicians, the MMDG Music Ensemble, since 1996, and regularly collaborates with orchestras and opera companies around the world. MMDG’s film and television projects include Dido and Aeneas, The Hard Nut, Falling Down Stairs, the U.K.’s South Bank Show, and Live from Lincoln Center. In 2015 Morris’ signature work L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato premiered on PBS’ Great Performances. The Mark Morris Dance Center was opened in 2001 to provide a home for the dance group, rehearsal space for the dance community, programs for local children and seniors, and dance classes for students of all ages and abilities.
The Mark Morris Dance Group gratefully acknowledges support from the Friends of MMDG and: American Express, Anonymous, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, LLP., Morley and Frederick Bland, Booth Ferris Foundation, Allan and Rhea Bufferd, Suzy Kellems Dominik, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Judith R. and Alan H. Fishman, Shelby and Frederick Gans Fund, Isaac Mizrahi and Arnold Germer, Howard Gilman Foundation, Sandy Hill, Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, Elizabeth Liebman, The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, Suzanne Berman and Timothy J. McClimon, McDermott, Will & Emery, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Helen and John Meyer/Meyer Sound, New England Foundation for the Arts, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Ellen and Arnold Offner, Sarabeth Berman and Evan Osnos, PARC Foundation, Diane Solway and David Resnicow, Resnicow + Associates, Jennifer P. Goodale and Mark Russell, Margaret Conklin and David Sabel, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Iris Cohen and Mark Selinger, The SHS Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Jane Stine and R.L. Stine, The White Cedar Fund.
Additional support provided by: The Amphion Foundation, Inc., Arnow Family Fund, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc., Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, Credit Suisse Americas Foundation, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Inc., The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Estée Lauder Companies, ExxonMobile Corporate Matching Gift Program, Google Matching Gift Program, Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation, Guggenheim Partners Matching Gifts, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Marta Heflin Foundation, IBM Corporation Matching Gifts Program, JP Morgan Chase, Kinder Morgan Foundation, Leatherwood Foundation, The Henry Luce Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, McDermott, Will & Emery, Morgan Stanley & Co., Harris A. Berman & Ruth Nemzoff Family Foundation, New York Life Foundation, Wilhelmina Parris, FLP, The L. E. Phillips Family Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Rolex, Billy Rose Foundation, Inc., San Antonio Area Foundation, Schneer Foundation, SingerXenos Wealth Management, Solon E. Summerfield Foundation, Tiffany & Co., Trust for Mutual Understanding, Viad Corp.
Public funding for the Mark Morris Dance Group has been provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, Council Member Helen Rosenthal, the New York City Department for the Aging, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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