Segerstrom Center for the Arts - Dracula (1931) |
The Philharmonic Society of Orange County and SegerstromCenter for the Arts will co-present Tod Browning’s 1931 film classic DRACULA
starring Bela Lugosi with original music by Philip Glass performed live by the
legendary composer at the piano, the Grammy Award®-winning Kronos Quartet, with
Mick Rossi directing from the keyboard. The concert takes place over Halloween
weekend on Saturday, October 28, 2017 at 7:30pm. (The originally announced
second performance scheduled for October 29th has been canceled.)
Roger Ebert
wrote, “The Glass score is effective in the way it suggests not just moody
creepiness, but the urgency and need behind Dracula's vampirism. It evokes a
blood thirst that is 500 years old."
Single tickets start at $59 and are now available through
both Segerstrom Center for the Arts and the Philharmonic Society. Tickets may
be purchased through Segerstrom Center for the Arts online at SCFTA.org; in
person at the Center’s Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa; or by
calling (714) 556-2787. Tickets may be purchased through the Philharmonic
Society online at PhilharmonicSociety.org; in person at the Philharmonic
Society office located at 2082 Business Center Drive, Suite 100, in Irvine; or
by calling (949) 553-2422.
Universal Family and Home Entertainment Productions
commissioned the work from Glass in 1998, and he composed it specifically for
the Kronos Quartet. According to Glass, “The film is considered a classic. I
felt the score needed to evoke the feeling of the world of the 19th century—for
that reason I decided a string quartet would be the most evocative and
effective. I wanted to stay away from the obvious effects associated with
horror films. With Kronos, we were able to add depth to the emotional layers of
the film.” Billboard called the score “one of Glass’ most lyrical, moving
works.”
Segerstrom Center for the Arts - Philip Glass - Photo by Steve Pyke, 2005 |
Philip Glass
Through his operas, symphonies, compositions for his own
ensemble, and his wide-ranging collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla
Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an
extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon today’s musical and intellectual
life.
Born in 1937, Philip Glass grew up in Baltimore and studied
at the University of Chicago, the Juilliard School and in Aspen with Darius
Milhaud. Finding himself dissatisfied with much of what then passed for modern
music, he moved to Europe, where he studied with the legendary pedagogue Nadia
Boulanger (who also taught Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and Quincy Jones among
many others) and worked closely with the sitar virtuoso and composer Ravi
Shankar. He returned to New York in 1967 and formed the Philip Glass Ensemble.
In the past 25 years, Glass has composed more than 20
operas, including Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, Akhnaten, and The Voyage;
eight symphonies (with others already on the way); two piano concertos and
concertos for violin, piano, timpani, and saxophone quartet and orchestra;
string quartets; and a growing body of work for solo piano and organ.
Considered to be one of the most influential composers ever
to work in film, Philip Glass has reinvented the relationship between music and
the moving image. He has worked on soundtracks to films ranging from new scores
for the stylized classics of Jean Cocteau to Errol Morris’s documentary about
former defense secretary Robert McNamara. Rather than simply providing music as
accompaniment to an otherwise finished film, Glass considers music an essential
narrative force, and has worked as a true collaborator with directors including
Godfrey Reggio, Martin Scorcese, Peter Weir and Stephen Daldry among others,
conceptualizing scores from the initial stages of the film and sharing in the
editing process. From the beginnings of his work in film, the composer saw the
potential for his film scores to be played live in concert. The events are a
synthesis of music concert and film event—the merger creates an intense
performance experience far more powerful than cinema alone. Glass has also
brought a new life to vintage cinematic classics, such as Dracula, reinventing
these legendary films for a new live context.
Kronos Quartet. Photo www.kronosquartet.org |
Kronos Quartet
For more than 40 years, the Kronos Quartet—David Harrington,
John Sherba (violins), Hank Dutt (viola) and Sunny Yang (cello)—has pursued a
singular artistic vision, combining a spirit of fearless exploration with a
commitment to expanding the range and context of the string quartet. In the
process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of
our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 45
recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, collaborating with many of
the world’s most eclectic composers and performers, and commissioning more than
700 works and arrangements for string quartet. Kronos’ work has also garnered
numerous awards, including a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance (2004)
and “Musicians of the Year” (2003) from Musical America.
“This audacious ensemble…has changed our perception of not
just what a string quartet can be, but what music can be in the 21st century
global village,” says the Los Angeles Times. Kronos’ adventurous approach dates
to the ensemble’s origins. In 1973, David Harrington was inspired to form
Kronos after hearing George Crumb’s Black Angels, a highly unorthodox, Vietnam
War-inspired work featuring bowed water glasses, spoken word passages, and
electronic effects. Kronos then began building a compellingly diverse
repertoire for string quartet, performing and recording works by 20th-century
masters (Bartók, Shostakovich, Webern), contemporary composers (Aleksandra
Vrebalov, John Adams, Alfred Schnittke), jazz legends (Ornette Coleman, Charles
Mingus, Thelonious Monk), and artists from even farther afield (rock guitar
legend Jimi Hendrix, Azeri vocalist Alim Qasimov, avant-garde saxophonist John
Zorn).
Segerstrom Center for the Arts - Dracula (1931) |
Integral to Kronos’ work is a series of long-running,
in-depth collaborations with many of the world’s foremost composers. One of the
quartet’s most frequent composer-collaborators is “Father of Minimalism” Terry
Riley, whose work with Kronos includes the early Sunrise of the Planetary Dream
Collector; Cadenza on the Night Plain and Salome Dances for Peace; 2002’s Sun
Rings, a multimedia, NASA-commissioned ode to the earth and its people,
featuring celestial sounds and images from space; and The Cusp of Magic,
commissioned in honor of Riley’s 70th birthday celebrations in 2005 and
recorded and released in 2008. Kronos commissioned and recorded the three
string quartets of Polish composer Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, with whom the group
has been working for more than 20 years. The quartet has also collaborated
extensively with composers such as Philip Glass, recording his complete string
quartets and scores to films like Mishima and Dracula; Azerbaijan’s Franghiz
Ali-Zadeh, whose works are featured on the full-length 2005 release Mugam
Sayagi: Music of Franghiz Ali-Zadeh; Steve Reich, whose Kronos-recorded
Different Trains earned a Grammy; Argentina’s Osvaldo Golijov, whose work with
Kronos includes both compositions and extensive arrangements for albums like
Kronos Caravan and Nuevo; and many more.
In addition to composers, Kronos has collaborated with many
international artists, including the Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man; legendary
Bollywood “playback singer” Asha Bhosle, featured on Kronos’ Grammy-nominated
CD, You’ve Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman’s Bollywood; Inuit throat
singer Tanya Tagaq; Mexican rockers Café Tacuba; genre-defying sound artist and
instrument builder Walter Kitundu; the Romanian gypsy band Taraf de Haïdouks;
renowned American soprano Dawn Upshaw; and the unbridled British cabaret trio,
the Tiger Lillies. Kronos has performed live with the likes of icons Allen
Ginsberg, Zakir Hussain, Modern Jazz Quartet, Tom Waits, David Barsamian,
Howard Zinn, Betty Carter, and David Bowie, and has appeared on recordings by
such diverse talents as Nine Inch Nails, Amon Tobin, Dan Zanes, DJ Spooky, Dave
Matthews, Nelly Furtado, Rokia Traoré, Joan Armatrading and Don Walser.
The Kronos’ music has been featured prominently in other
media, including film (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, 21 Grams, Heat, True
Stories) and dance, with noted choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, Paul
Taylor, Twyla Tharp, and Eiko & Koma.
THE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY
Founded in 1954, the
Philharmonic Society of Orange County presents the world’s most acclaimed symphony
orchestras, chamber ensembles, soloists and international artists for the
enjoyment and appreciation of Orange County audiences. A catalyst for cultural
and educational development throughout the region, the Philharmonic Society is
a key resident company in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at
Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and also presents concerts at the Irvine
Barclay Theatre and various venues in Orange County.
Philharmonic Society of Orange County © Todd Rosenberg 2017 |
For more than 60 years, the Society has presented artists
who set the standards for artistic achievement: Sir Georg Solti, Itzhak
Perlman, Jacqueline du Pré, Daniel Barenboim, Lorin Maazel and Cecilia Bartoli,
to name just a few. In addition, many of the world’s greatest orchestras have
performed in Orange County by invitation of the Philharmonic Society. The
Society celebrated the diversity of our cultural landscape with Eclectic Orange
Festival presentations from 1999-2004. Eclectic Orange events championed
contemporary composers through commissions and sponsorship of regional and
world premieres. Among the living composers presented were Tan Dun, Philip
Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Edgar Meyer, Burhan Öçal and Mikel Rouse.
Past presentations include the West Coast premiere of Steve Reich’s “The Cave,”
the Southern California premiere of Terry Riley’s “Sun Rings,” the United
States exclusive engagement of Théâtre Zingaro, the West Coast premiere of
“Orion” by Philip Glass, the West Coast premiere of Steve Reich’s “WTC 9/11”,
and the 2011 exclusive West Coast recital appearance of opera superstar Renée
Fleming.
The Society’s nationally recognized Youth Music Education
Programs, one of the most extensive music education programs of its kind in the
country, are offered free of charge to schools, students and parents, and each
year reach more than 160,000 students from first grade through high school.
Segerstrom Center for the Arts - Dracula (1931) |
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