MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP
MMDG MUSIC ENSEMBLE

*apprentice

MetLife Foundation is the Official Tour Sponsor of the Mark Morris Dance Group

The Argument © 1999 Discalced, Inc.

Candleflowerdance © 2005 Discalced, Inc.

Excursions © 2008 Discalced, Inc.

Silhouettes © 1999 Discalced, Inc.

Polka © 1992 Discalced, Inc.

thanks to Angelo Fabbrini Pianoforti - Pescara for the invaluable support

music by Robert Schumann Fünf Stücke im Volkston

costume design Elizabeth Kurtzman

lighting design Michael Chybowski

cello Andrew Janss

piano Colin Fowler

premiere: February 26, 1999, Bank of America Celebrity Series, The Wang Center of Performing Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

music by Igor Stravinsky Serenade in A

costume design Katherine M. Patterson

lighting design Nicole Pearce

piano Colin Fowler

for Susan Sontag

premiere: September 22, 2005, Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, California

commissioned in part by Cal Performances, Berkeley, California

music by arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publisher and copyright owner


INTERMISSION

music by Samuel Barber Excursions for the Piano (Op. 20, IV, III, II, I)

costume design Katherine M. Patterson

lighting design Nicole Pearce

piano Colin Fowler

premiere: June 26, 2008 – Seiji Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood Music Center, Lenox, Massachusetts

music by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner

music by Richard Cumming Silhouettes - Five Pieces for Piano

lighting design Michael Chybowski

piano Colin Fowler

premiere: June 10, 1999 – Maximum Dance Company, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Miami, Florida

company premiere: August 2, 1999 – Ted Shawn Theatre, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, Massachussetts

music by Lou Harrison Grand Duo for Violin and Piano, Mvt 4

costume design Susan Ruddie

lighting design Michael Chybowski

violin Owen Dalby

piano Colin Fowler

premiere: April 7, 1992 – Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom, New York, New York

Mark Morris was born on August 29, 1956, in Seattle, Washington, where he studied with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson. In the early years of his career, he performed with the companies of Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, Eliot Feld, and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) in 1980, and has since created more than 140 works for the company. From 1988 to 1991, he was Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium. In 1990, he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Much in demand as a ballet choreographer, Morris has created eighteen ballets since 1986, including eight works for San Francisco Ballet. His work is also in the repertory of companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet, among others. Noted for musicality, he has been described as "undeviating in his devotion to music" (The New Yorker). He began conducting performances for MMDG in 2006 and has since conducted at The International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Lincoln Center, and Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). He served as music director for the 2013 Ojai Music Festival. He also works extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, English National Opera and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, among others. In 1991, he was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation and has received eleven honorary doctorates to date. He has taught at the University of Washington, Princeton University and Tanglewood Music Center. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and has served as an Advisory Board Member for the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative. In recent years, he has received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement (2007), the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society (2010), the Benjamin Franklin Laureate Prize for Creativity (2012) and Cal Performances Award of Distinction in the Performing Arts (2013). Morris opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, New York in 2001 to provide a home for his company, rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children and seniors, and a school offering dance classes to students of all ages and abilities.

The Mark Morris Dance Group was formed in 1980 and gave its first concert that year in New York City. The company’s touring schedule steadily expanded to include cities in the United States and around the world, and in 1986 it made its first national television program for the PBS series Dance in America. In 1988, MMDG was invited to become the national dance company of Belgium, and spent three years in residence at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. The Dance Group returned to the United States in 1991 as one of the world’s leading dance companies. Based in Brooklyn, MMDG maintains strong ties to presenters in several cities around the world, most notably to its West Coast home, Cal Performances in Berkeley, California, and its Midwest home, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. MMDG also appears regularly in New York, Boston, Seattle and Fairfax, Virginia. The company made its debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2002 and at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2003, and has since been invited to both festivals annually. From the company’s many London seasons, it has received two Laurence Olivier Awards and a Critics’ Circle Dance Award for Best Foreign Dance Company. Reflecting Morris’ commitment to live music, the Dance Group has featured live musicians in every performance since the formation of the MMDG Music Ensemble in 1996. The Dance Group regularly collaborates with renowned musicians, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, as well as leading orchestras and opera companies, such as The Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, London Symphony Orchestra, among others. Moreover, MMDG frequently works with distinguished artists and designers, including painters Howard Hodgkin and Robert Bordo; set designers Adrianne Lobel and Allen Moyer; costume designers Martin Pakledinaz and Isaac Mizrahi, and many others. MMDG’s film and television projects include Dido and Aeneas, The Hard Nut, Falling Down Stairs, two documentaries for the U.K.’s South Bank Show, and PBS’ Live From Lincoln Center. While on tour the Dance Group partners with local cultural institutions and community organizations to present Access/MMDG, a program of arts and humanities-based activities for people of all ages and abilities. Following Spoleto, MMDG performs in the Ravenna Festival and then returns to the United States to make its tenth appearance at Tanglewood Music Center. For more information, visit www.mmdg.org.

The MMDG Music Ensemble, formed in 1996, performs with the Dance Group at prestigious venues around the world and is integral to the company’s creative life. "With the dancers come the musicians…and what a difference it makes" (Classical Voice of North Carolina). The core group, supplemented by musicians from a large roster of regular guests, has helped the Dance Group present more than 1200 performances with live music. The Ensemble frequently collaborates with renowned musicians, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, as well as leading orchestras and choirs, such as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Trinity Choir and Yale Choral Artists. Under the artistic direction of Mark Morris, the Ensemble’s repertory ranges from 17th-century works by John Wilson and Henry Purcell to more recent scores by Lou Harrison and Henry Cowell. The MMDG Music Ensemble has performed with the Dance Group at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Sadler’s Wells in London, the Sydney Festival in Australia, and recently accompanied MMDG on its first tour of China. It made its debut at the Ojai Music Festival in June 2013. At home in Brooklyn, members of the Ensemble participate in the Mark Morris Dance, Music and Literacy Project, a residency program in the New York City public school system, which uses Morris’ masterwork L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato to introduce school children to the performing and visual arts.