2017 Ringling International Arts Festival

EXPECT THE UNEXPLORED EXPLORE THE UNEXPECTED

Photo by Franz Ritschel

Photo by Matthew Holler

Photo by Werner Puntigam

Courtesy of Urbanite Theatre

Photo courtesy of artist

Photo courtesy of artist

Photo by Mallory Lynn

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL O CTOBE R 1 8 – 21 , 20 1 7

THANK YOU TO OUR 2017 SPONSORS

DIRECTOR

Publix Super Markets Charities

PATRON

Lucia and Steven Almquist Kathy and Michael Bush Cumberland Advisors Huisking Family Fund of Community Foundation of Sarasota County Icard, Merrill, Cullis, Timm, Furen & Ginsburg, P.A. Macy’s Dick and Betty Nimtz Charlotte and Charles Perret Sarasota Manatee Originals Stephen and Judith Shank SunTrust Private Wealth Management Willis A. Smith Construction ASSOCIATE

BLVD Sarasota Daniel Denton and Ramses Serrano Leon and Marge Ellin CONTRIBUTOR

Dr. Susan M. Brainerd and Alan R. Quinby

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR HOSPITALITY SPONSORS

Hampton Inn and Suites, Sarasota/Bradenton Airport Hyatt Place, Sarasota/Bradenton Airport

HAMPTON INN & SUITES SARASOTA-BRADENTON AIRPORT

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR MEDIA SPONSORS

Sarasota Magazine WUSF Public Media

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF RIAF 2017

Gold Coast Eagle Distributing

Muse at The Ringling / Tableseide

Support for the Art of Our Time, including the Art of Performance, was provided in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues. Additional support was provided by The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Foundation.

5401 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, FL 34243 941.359.5700 ringling.org Welcome to the 9th Annual Ringling International Arts Festival. This year we present an entirely new selection of artists and, for the first time, feature two collectives of performers from the Sarasota area, ensemblenewSRQ and Urbanite Theatre. We also welcome Sarasota-native James McGinn from his Antwerp-based studio for the performance of Ing an Die. It is always wonderful to celebrate the incredible strength of our creative community in Sarasota.

New this year, the festival will be staged entirely on the main campus of The Ringling. We are taking full advantage of our unique architectural spaces to provide intimate and evocative experiences to our audiences.

Of course, the center of the Festival has always been the Historic Asolo Theater (HAT for short), and this year you will experience a transformed space. Newly re-opened after a six month conservation project, the HAT is sparkling with newly restored gilding and panels. The other performance spaces include the Museum Courtyards, Huntington Gallery, and Turrell Skyspace in the Art Museum and the “Backyard” of the Historic Circus Museum.

RIAF would not be possible without the financial support of our community. Thanks go to all of you who provide financial support through sponsorships and ticket purchases and to the foundations and grant organizations that support this programming. Thanks to everyone for making the 9th Annual Ringling International Arts Festival a success.

I hope you enjoy all the performances during the festival. I encourage you to also attend the innovative performances of our ongoing New Stages series. With a performance every month beginning in November, New Stages presents “A World of Music” with a six-part series featuring ensembles from Europe, South America, and the US. Thank you for your support of the Ringling International Arts Festival.

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums GOVERNOR

The Honorable Rick Scott FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

John E. Thrasher President

Dr. Sally E. McRorie Provost EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Steven High

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Paul G. Hudson, Chair Nancy J. Parrish, Vice Chair Frances D. Fergusson, Treasurer Daniel J. Denton, Secretary Ellen S. Berman Madeleine H. Berman Thomas J. Charters Herta K. Cuneo Rebecca Donelson Kenneth J. Feld Darrel E. Flanel Jeffrey R. Hotchkiss Robert D. Hunter Thomas F. Icard, Jr. Dorothy C. Jenkins Thomas W. Jennings, Jr. James A. Joseph Nancy Kotler Patricia R. Lombard Thomas B. Luzier Lisa A. Merritt Tina Shao Napoli Sarah H. Pappas Michael R. Pender Margaret A. Rolando Ina L. Schnell Judith F. Shank Javi Suarez Edward M. Swan, Jr. Howard C. Tibbals Larry A. Wickless EX-OFFICIO BOARD MEMBERS

Steven High Executive Director

David L. Emison, Chair, Volunteer Services Advisory Council Wilmer Pearson, Chair, Docent Advisory Council

WELCOME TO THE 2017 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL For the ardent aficionado of adventurous art, RIAF 2017 presents this dynamic array of ingenious and inventive works of contemporary performance.

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FIRST NIGHT RIAF 2017 MUSEUM OF ART WEST COURTYARD WED, 6:30 PM

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WANTED by eVenti Verticali MUSEUM OF ART WEST COURTYARD FIRST NIGHT (WED), 8:00 PM / THU & FRI, 8:00 PM

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NOBUNTU HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER THU, 2:00 PM / FRI, 8:00 PM / SAT, 2:00 PM

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ING AN DIE by James | McGinn & Again HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

THU, 8:00 PM / FRI, 5:00 PM / SAT, 5:00 PM

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PORTRAITS IN MOTION by Volker Gerling HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

THU, 5:00 PM / FRI, 2:00 PM

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HAPPY HOUR by Monica Bill Barnes & Co. SIDE SHOW CABARET / CIRCUS MUSEUM

THU, 5:00 PM / FRI, 5:00 & 8:00 PM / SAT, 5:00 PM

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WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT by Urbanite Theatre SIDE SHOW CABARET / CIRCUS MUSEUM

THU, 2:00 & 8:00 PM / FRI, 2:00 PM / SAT, 2:00 PM

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ENSEMBLENEWSRQ MUSEUM OF ART: TURRELL SKYSPACE & HUNTINGTON GALLERY THU, 5:00 PM / FRI, 2:00 & 5:00 PM / SAT, 2:00 & 5:00 PM

RIAF FAMILY DAY SAT, OCT 21, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Art making, interactive stops throughout the Museum of Art, and a “special edition” of Kids Quest at 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM. Kids Quest tickets are $2 per child; and are available at Admissions.

INFORMATION

2017 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

FESTIVAL BOX OFFICE

• Will Call will be available at the entrance location of each performance one hour before start time.

941.360.7399 Historic Asolo Theater John M. McKay Visitors Pavilion WED OCT 18 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM THU OCT 19 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM FRI

OCT 20 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

SAT OCT 21 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM

• Performances begin promptly.

• Latecomers are seated at discretion of Management.

• No refunds.

• Wheelchair seating is available if requested in advance.

• Cameras and/or recording devices are not permitted.

• Tram Service is provided throughout the estate.

PERFORMANCE VENUE MAP

ENJOY THE RINGLING

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RIAF ticket-holders receive free admission to the Museum of Art and Circus Museum during the days of the festival. A walkthough of Ca’ d’Zan’s 1st floor is also available. Please see an admissions associate for tickets and details.

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Museum Hours during the festival: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

WHERE TO EAT Muse at The Ringling Full service restaurant Lunch and dinner 11:00 AM – 8:30 PM

Museum Cafe Sandwiches, snacks, coffee, and beverage 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM, THU & FRI 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM, SAT

Banyan Cafe Fresh grab-and-go food 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

THE RINGLING

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Not a Member? Join now to enjoy discounts at upcoming performances.

Call The Ringling Membership Department at 941.360.7330, or join online at ringling.org/membership.

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(MAP DETAIL) MUSEUM OF ART

HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

1 WEST COURTYARD

4 Nobuntu | Portraits in Motion | Ing An Die

First Night, including WANTED

All seats reserved. Theater opens 30 minutes prior to performance.

General Admission seating. Space opens at 6:30 PM. Food and beverage included.

WANTED (THU & FRI)

BECOME A MEMBER

Information

General Admission seating. Space opens at 7:00 PM. Food and beverage available.

MUSEUM OF ART

2 TURRELL SKYSPACE ensemblenewSRQ, Program 1

General Admission seating. Theater opens 30 minutes prior to performance.

MUSEUM OF ART

3 HUNTINGTON GALLERY ensemblenewSRQ, Program 2

General Admission seating. Theater opens 30 minutes prior to performance.

SIDE SHOW CABARET

5 Happy Hour | White Rabbit Red Rabbit General Admission cabaret-style seating.

It may not be possible for large groups to be seated together. Theater opens 30 minutes prior to performance.

WELCOME TO

FIRST NIGHT RIAF 2017

FEATURING WANTED

BY EVENTI VERTICALI

WED, OCT 18 6:30 – 10:00 PM

Museum of Art West Courtyard

6:30 PM OPENING NIGHT GATHERING AND CELEBRATION ★ General Admission Seating ★ Pre-performance reception includes: hors d’oeuvres ★ beer ★ wine ★ soft drinks music ★ video arcade ★ photo booth ★ and much more! ★ Cash bar also available

8:00 PM WANTED BY EVENTI VERTICALI PLEASE NOTE: performance includes strobe lighting effects

9:00 PM THE CELEBRATION CONTINUES WITH LIVE DJ AND DANCING

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2017 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

MUSEUM OF ART WEST COURTYARD WED OCT 18 8:00 PM

EVENTI VERTICALI

First Night Performance

WANTED

THU OCT 19 8:00 PM FRI

OCT 20 8:00 PM

Approximately 45 minutes No intermission

DIRECTORS AND PERFORMERS ANDREA AND LUCA PIALLINI DRAWINGS BY FABIO LANZA TOUR MANAGER CLAUDIA MURESU Hailing from Italy, WANTED is the creation of Luca and Andrea Piallini. The brothers founded their company, eVenti Verticali, in 2006 after uniting their performing careers: one based in theater, the other in circus and acrobatics. Together, they created a language of Vertical Theatre that unites circus, dance, music, and graphic technology in performances presented on the “vertical stages” of building façades, bell towers, walls, cliffs, trees, and the great outdoors. Their high-energy outdoor performance spectacles have captivated audiences of all ages in Europe, Russian, Asia, and now the United States.

In WANTED, two characters are drawn into a world of comics and animated films through projected large-scale videos, while performing over the audience suspended in harnesses. The two characters go on an adventurous trip that teeters between the fictitious nature of animated drawings and the pseudo-reality of a computer screen.

They are on the run—they traverse the globe, jump tall buildings, and tunnel their way into safes! The computer itself becomes a character, intervening and interacting with the two heroes on its desktop, transforming them into 1980’s videogame characters.

Photo courtesy of the artist

Representation: Elsie Management, Laura Colby, Director / laurac@elsieman.org

SPONSORED BY

BLVD Sarasota WUSF Public Media

2017 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

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Photo © Werner Puntigam pntgm EAR X EYE

HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER THU OCT 19 2:00 PM FRI OCT 20 8:00 PM SAT OCT 21 2:00 PM

NOBUNTU 60 minutes No intermission

DUDUZILE SIBANDA ZANELE MANHENGA HEATHER DUBE THANDEKA MOYO JOYLINE SIBANDA

SPONSORED BY

Steve and Lucia Almquist Charlotte and Charles Perret Steve and Judy Shank Icard, Merrill, Cullis, Timm, Furen & Ginsburg, P.A.

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With a belief that music is the most important and original wheel of change, this ensemble of young women from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, performs as Nobuntu—an African concept that values humbleness, love, purpose, unity, and family from a woman’s perspective. In a celebration of their culture, beauty, and heritage, they present a repertoire of traditional Zimbabwean-rooted music, Afro Jazz, Gospel, and Crossover. It is an expression of a new generation that transcends racial, tribal, religious, gender, and economic boundaries.

Nobuntu recordings are available in the lobby following each performance or can be found on 10th District Music: 10th-district-music.com

2017 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

THE NOBUNTU PROGRAM WILL INCLUDE SELECTIONS FROM THE FOLLOWING: AMEN Traditional arranged by Reality 7 In this song we are sharing our feelings of devotion.

Through calmness and serenity.

WOZA NGANE

by Zanele Manhenga Coming from a land where domestic violence is rampant, we encourage people to stop all forms of abuse that cause so many deaths in our country.

UTHIXO

by Thandeka Moyo A sacred song of praise. UTHIXO is Ndebele for the Creator.

INKOMO ZOMLANDU Traditional arranged by Heather Dube

BLACK PRESIDENT

by Brenda Fassie A song originally done by the late Brenda Fassie celebrating the first black South African president, the late Nelson Mandela. The song was first performed at his memorial.

LINSO LYAMOYO

by Thandeka Moyo This is a Tonga phrase that means the “eye of the heart.” In this song we encourage parents and guardians to let their children dream and be who they want to be.

EWUWE Traditional A calm, soothing traditional lullaby sung by mothers to their children for generations.

A song about a dowry and a celebration of marriage.

MBIRA MUSIC

by Duduzile Sibanda

NOBUNTU CLICK SONG

by Zanele Manhenga

The Mbira is a Zimbabwe instrument played at traditional gatherings. We celebrate the Mbira’s unusual sound, beauty, and its connection to the human soul.

A song in the language of Ndebele that features unusual clicking sounds. Ndebele is one of the main languages of Zimbabwe.

STREETS

by Heather Dube This song encourages people to be themselves and proud of who they are. A song of empowerment.

USIBALI Traditional arranged by Dumisani Moyo

AMAZING GRACE Traditional arranged by Nobuntu MOYA MOYA Traditional arranged by Zanele Manhenga A song about a sad woman lamenting her inability to have children. She is considered inadequate and incomplete because this is how the society views a barren woman.

A traditional song that celebrates marriage.

IMPI

by Zanele Manhenga

NARINI

by Zanele Manhenga

Our warrior song where we thank the Almighty for fighting for us and helping us see places we never thought we would see.

Narini is a Shona word that means forever and ever. In this song we celebrate everlasting love – the eternal bond between two lovers.

SILELE Traditional arranged by Japhet Mlauzi This song talks about a spiritual healer who is a wanderer. In our culture spiritual healers are revered and always sought out for advice.

DIAMONDS

by Paul Simon This is a special song to us. A typical Mbube song, it was originally performed by Paul Simon featuring the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

PEOPLE GET READY

by Curtis Mayfield A beautiful song written by Curtis Mayfield. We love this message of encouragement.

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2017 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

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NOBUNTU Given the absence of professional, all-female a cappella ensembles in Zimbabwe, Nobuntu was founded in 2011 to fill that void. The 2013 release of their debut album, THINA, immediately took them beyond their African borders to Austria, Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic, playing in concert halls, theatres and festivals such as “Voice Mania” in Vienna and “Trans-Vocal” in Frankfurt-Oder.

In 2015, the ensemble was nominated for Best Musician of the Year at the Zimbabwe International Women Awards 2015.

In 2016, Nobuntu released their 2nd album, EKHAYA, an homage to all things African; its beauty, the values, and the norms as a people.

The video of NARINI, the lead single from the album, went on to be number one of the Top 10 Zimbabwean Music Video on DSTV’s Zambezi Magic TV. It stayed in the Top 10 for over four weeks. This year, the ensemble won Outstanding Imbube Group in the inaugural Bulawayo Arts Awards.

Photo © Werner Puntigam pntgm EAR X EYE

DUDUZILE SIBANDA is a self-taught singer and songwriter who discovered her ability to sing at a very young age. Coming from a music-loving family, she grew up singing at family gatherings, church functions, and in the school choir. After high school, Duduzile pursued music as a backing singer for local musicians like Khulekani Bhethule (Khuxxman), Zenzele Ndebele, Gabs Fire, Mjox, and many more. She also worked vocally on a series of jingles for Radio Dialogue.

In 2011, she joined a theatre project titled Stitcha produced by Qhube Productions where she further explored her music career as well as theatre. After Stitsha, she began doing backing vocals for Ramadu, an Austrian based musician, who at the time, was working on his release Zim Classics.

Duduzile joined Nobuntu when the group was founded.

She is a singer, songwriter, and dancer on both albums, THINA and EKHAYA. In 2016, Duduzile, along with friend and fellow Nobuntu member, Zanele Manhenga, started uMuz’Wentombi (The House of Woman), a culture and arts platform meant to bring women together in the city of Bulawayo.

ZANELE MANHENGA is a singer, songwriter, and poet who began her journey as a child singing at family gatherings with her older sister, the Afro-jazz artist Dudu Manhenga. She has appeared as a performer and MC at the Sistaz Open Mic, a Pamberi Trust initiative to give young and upcoming female artists a platform to enter the mainstream of the arts in Harare.

Additionally, she has attended several grooming workshops under the gender project F.L.A.M.E. Zanele has performed, recorded, toured, and been mentored

by Dudu Manhenga and Color Blu in South Africa and Mozambique. She has also performed as a background vocalist for artists including Pastor Gee, Ignatious Mabasa, Ronny Roots, Bob Nyabinde, Jeys Marabini, Lwazi Shabangu, and Cool Crooners. With these and other artists she has performed at Harare International Festival of the Arts HIFA, Beira Jazz festival, Harare Jazz Festival, Grahamstown Arts Festival, October Jazz, and Bob Marley Commemoration. In 2011, Zanele studied for a National Certificate in Musicology at the Zimbabwe College of Music where she trained with various instruments including the Mbira and traditional Zimbabwe dance among other subjects. She released a single online called Nginje in 2013, and in 2014 was signed by 10th District Music and joined Nobuntu. She has since contributed songs on the latest Nobuntu album EKHAYA.

Nobuntu HEATHER DUBE is a dancer, percussionist, and vocalist who started performing at a very young age in school choirs and traditional groups. In 2007, she worked with Indlovukazi ZikaNyongola, a Friends of Joshua Trust Initiative. In 2008, she was part of the Amawumbo Dance Company which toured France and Belgium, performing in festivals such as the Martiuges Festival, Chambery Festival, and Tohout Festival. In 2009, she was part of Kwabatsha Dance Company which toured around the country. In 2010, Heather was selected to represent Zimbabwe at the Shangai Expo in China as a dancer. She is also a session vocalist and has done backing vocals for Khuxxman, Hudson Simbarashe, and Vusa Mkhaya as well as a percussionist for the Austria-based group called Mozulu Art. Her journey with Nobuntu started in 2011 as a dancer, vocalist, and percussionist on stage and in the studio.

THANDEKA MOYO is a songwriter, singer, dancer, makeup artist, and designer. She started singing in high school Photo by Tswarelo Mothobe at St. Columbus in 2003 and was very much involved with the high school choir. From 2008-2010, she studied Cosmetology at Bulawayo Polytechnic and focused on Image Consultancy and Personal Grooming. During this time, she joined the Bulawayo Polytechnic Choir and performed in District Competitions. Since then she has worked with upcoming Artists in Zimbabwe including the UK-based Gospel artist Nkosie ka Ndlovu and Afro-Soul artist Mduduzi Ngoma. Thandeka joined Nobuntu in September 2014.

JOYLINE SIBANDA is a dancer and singer who started performing in 2004 at Vuka Africa and with Cont Mhlanga in a show called Mzilikazi. She then worked with Friends of Joshua as a dancer and singer of INDLOVUKAZI Zikanyongola. In 2011 she toured Germany with lntombi Zomqangala. Joyline is an original member of Nobuntu.

Representation: Baylin Artist Management / 267.888.3750 / baylinartists.com

RINGLING ART OF PERFORMANCE STAFF FOR RIAF 2017 DWIGHT CURRIE CURATOR OF PERFORMANCE AARON MUHL MANAGING DIRECTOR MICHAEL KOHLMANN GUEST ARTIST MANAGER SONJA SHEA PROJECT COORDINATOR ALLISON BAKER HISTORIC ASOLO STAGE MANAGER JEFF DILLON CIRCUS BACKYARD TECHNICAL DIRECTOR NICK LADNIER HISTORIC ASOLO AUDIO OPERATOR VINCE LOBELLO WANTED TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Festival productions employ I.A.T.S.E. Local 412 Stagehands and Technicians

MICHELLE MARCUS CIRCUS BACKYARD LIGHTING OPERATOR LUKE MATHYS HISTORIC ASOLO LIGHTING OPERATOR

2017 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

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HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER THU OCT 19 8:00 PM FRI OCT 20 5:00 PM SAT OCT 21 5:00 PM

ING AN DIE

JAMES | MCGINN & AGAIN 65 minutes No intermission

CHOREOGRAPHY & DIRECTION JAMES MCGINN PERFORMANCE INGA HULD HÁKONARDÓTTIR & JAMES MCGINN

MUSIC DJ SNAKE, DOLLY PARTON & KENNY ROGERS, ENYA, HANZ ZIMMER, LIL JON, MANUEL PONCE TEXT ANNA & THE KING (EXCERPTS) ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE CHRISTOFFER FORBES SCHIECHE LIGHTING NICHOLAS HOUFEK & JAMES MCGINN TECHNICAL DIRECTION NICHOLAS HOUFEK COSTUMES REID & HARRIET COMPANY MANAGEMENT NATASHA KATERINOPOULOS MARKETING MANAGEMENT ANNA KROLL

SPONSORED BY

Michael and Kathy Bush

Co-produced by wpZimmer with support from John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, Kunstencentrum BUDA, Le Centre Chorégraphique National d’Orléans, P.A.R.T.S.

ING AN DIE ACT 1: (form) presents brief glimpses of high art and performance ranging from the restrained performativity of post-modernism and ballet to the ecstatic nature of contemporary dance.

ACT 2: (fiction) juxtaposes references of commercial dance and theater to confront gender placement and sexual objectification within mainstream commercialism.

ACT 3: (fate) proposes a space of timeless fantasy where the established borders between materials and vocabularies begin to dissolve. While abstractly harboring the emotional weight of contemporary life, an angelic ritual casts a protective spell against the impending apocalypse.

JAMES MCGINN (Artistic Director) was born and raised in Sarasota and introduced to dance and artistic practice by way of his parents: Deborah Vinton, a renowned Cecchetti Ballet teacher/examiner and Peter McGinn, a worldtraveling filmmaker, production designer, and visual art professor. Throughout his adolescence, James spent every waking hour between his parents’ studios, experimenting with and between the media. After numerous Nutcrackers at the Sarasota Opera House, at the age of eight he began training more formally at the Sarasota Ballet under his mother’s direction of the school. In 2000, he continued his studies as a dance major at Booker High School, where he received numerous accolades as a rising choreographer and began a decadelong courtship with the American Dance Festival, training with more than 25 of the world’s best teachers and choreographers.

In 2008, James moved to New York City to pursue an interdisciplinary Liberal Arts degree from The New School/Eugene Lang College, weaving Performance Theory, Philosophy, Linguistics, and Contemporary Visual Art practices via Parsons School of Design. Upon graduating in 2008, he began performing in the work of Jonah Bokaer, Miguel Gutierrez, and John Jasperse; touring throughout the US and Europe. In 2012, he moved to Belgium to attend the Research Cycle of P.A.R.T.S., the renowned school of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, and in 2013 was a danceWEB scholar at Impulstanz in Vienna.

James is currently living in Paris, with choreographic sponsorship from wpZimmer, a workspace in Antwerp, Belgium. He still actively tours globally with Jonah Bokaer’s most recent production Rules of the Game, in collaboration with Daniel Arsham and Pharrell Williams. In addition to his performative and choreographic endeavors, James is on faculty at the University of the Arts, lecturing on the notion of gestural semiology and directs a laboratory for agential movement analysis.

Photo courtesy of the artist

For more information, visit jamesmcginn.info or follow him on Instagram @jamesmcginn

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2017 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

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James | McGinn & Again INGA HULD HÁKONARDÓTTIR (Performer) originated from Iceland, graduated from P.A.R.T.S. in 2014, and has since been living and working in Belgium. As a dancer/performer, Inga has worked with choreographers such as Salva Sanchis in Islands and Radical Light, Eleanor Bauer in her avant garde musical, Meyoucycle, and James McGinn in Ing an Die. She has choreographed several works, mostly in collaboration with Rósa Ómarsdóttir, Katie Vickers, and Rebecka Stillman. Among the most recent are The Valley, We Will Have Had Darker Futures, and Da Da Dans (produced by Iceland Dance Company).

CHRISTOFFER FORBES SCHIECHE (Artistic Associate) is a Swedish choreographer and graphic designer based in Brooklyn, NY. He studied dance at Amsterdam School of the Arts and at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, and graphic design at Shillington in New York. He has danced in pieces by Daniel Linehan, Salva Sanchis, James McGinn, and Benjamin Vandewalle, among others, and his pieces—together with Bryana Fritz—have been shown at venues and festivals across Europe, most recently Sixteen Candles (2015) at ImPulsTanz’s young choreographer series [8:tension] in Vienna.

NICHOLAS HOUFEK (Lighting Design & Technical Direction) is a NYC based lighting designer working in dance, music, and theater. Mr. Houfek has worked with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Cedar Lake Contemporary Dance, Ian Spencer Bell Dance, and William Isaac’s Kymera Dance. His work in Music and Theater includes: ICE (Mostly Mozart, Lincoln Center, Miller Theater, Roulette), Silk Road Ensemble, Maya Beiser, Ojai Music Festival, Family Play (Collaboration Town/The New Ohio),The Capables, (Gym at Judson), The Highwayman (ARSNOVA, Dickson Place), and The 39 Steps (Olney Theatre Center). CoLighting Designs include: Lil’ Buck and YoYo Ma at (le) Poussin Rouge, and Natalie Merchant Tours.

REID BARTELME and HARRIET JUNG (Costume Designers) founded Reid & Harriet Design in the fall of 2011. Prior to meeting at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Reid spent 10 years working as a dancer and Harriet studied visual arts and completed a degree in Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. Collaboratively, they have designed costumes for Justin Peck, Pam Tanowitz, Kyle Abraham, Pontus Lidberg, and Trey Mcintyre among others. They have costumed dozens of productions for companies including American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Malpaso Dance Company, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Miami City Ballet. Along with Justin Peck, they are featured in the documentary Ballet 422.

NATASHA KATERINOPOULOS (Company Manager) is a New York-based performing arts manager, originally from Crete, Greece. Since 2011 she has worked with Jonah Bokaer Choreography, Martha Graham Dance Company, and various independent artists for projects presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music / BAM, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Onassis Cultural Center, The Glass House, Winspear Opera House (Dallas), Hebbel am Ufer Theater (Berlin), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Pérez Art Museum (Miami), Parrish Art Museum, and other venues in the Americas, Europe, and Oceania. Katerinopoulos holds a BA in Theater Studies from the University of Patras, Greece, and a MA in Arts Politics from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.

Photo courtesy of the artist

ANNA KROLL (Marketing Manager) is an artist and arts administrator based in Bennington, VT and Philadelphia, PA. Anna’s work has been shown at Cocoon Theater in Poughkeepsie, NY and in Philadelphia, PA at theaters, parks, and subway underpasses as well as in the Digital Fringe portion of the 2015 and 2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. She had two web-based pieces commissioned for Re-Place-Ing, an expanded archive of cultural memory for Philadelphia, a project of the Painted Bride Art Center. She is currently the Digital Arts Technician at her alma mater Bennington College. Her piece Survived By will be in the Digital Fringe portion of the 2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

PORTRAITS IN MOTION

THU OCT 19 5:00 PM FRI OCT 20 2:00 PM

VOLKER GERLING 60 minutes No intermission

Presented by Aurora Nova in Association with Boat Rocker Entertainment

FROM THE ARTIST During my time as a student of film at the Academy, I understood that my passion was not for the big screen movie or television, but for a very special small form of film I called photograph flipbook cinema. In my flipbook films I mainly work with documentary portraits of people. The 36 images that my films are made of would run by in about one and a half seconds of ordinary cinema or television, but in a flipbook movie they can be repeated at will, you can see the gaps between them, and you can unconsciously try to fill these gaps. In this form, these pictures gain their own very unusual power and poetry.

Continued next page . . .

Photo by Franz Ritschel

2017 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

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People I photograph usually do not know that I will not take only one picture but will actually shoot a whole analogue film in just twelve seconds. Reacting to the camera in action, people shift and move and abandon the poses they first assumed when they knew they were going to be photographed. They react spontaneously. Their gestures and emotions are immediate, caught up completely in the present.

These people are suddenly very beautiful, and what they show is true and real. These moments are the essence of my work.

In summer 2002, I took an old wooden kitchen tray and made it into a simple hawker’s tray. There was room for six flipbooks on it. I hung a sign on it, saying: “Please visit my traveling exhibition.” I walked through the city of Berlin and showed my flipbook movies.

Sometimes I changed the programme. I screwed an empty honey jar underneath the hawker’s tray so that visitors could pay a symbolic exit fee.

After I had been showing my flipbook cinemas in this way for almost a year, I came to realise that people have a need for “small” and “simple” stories. I decided to travel. I wanted to know how people outside the city would react to my films. I wanted to make new flipbook movies. I bought myself a new pair of walking boots and set off. I did not want to miss anything along the way, so I chose to go slowly, on foot. I took Photos by Volker Gerling

my hawker’s tray with me and showed my flipbook movies to people by the wayside and over their garden fences. In the evenings, I went into pubs and restaurants and I visited village parties. I did not take any money with me. I slept in my tent and lived only from whatever people gave me. Sometimes they gave me money as a symbolic fee when they had seen my small show of flipbook cinemas, or they often gave me something to eat.

My journeys are reminiscent of the days when cinema itself was itinerant, when projectionists would move from town to town and there were no movie theatres. My own form of wandering cinema also creates a link between the ways in which my films are seen and my own way of travelling. The rhythms and the sense of time are comparable – just as visitors to my flipbook movies can view them at their own speed, my walking is based on my own rhythm and speed.

In my flipbooks, I am interested in the gaps between the images and everything that gets lost when you leaf through them quickly, and when I am walking I am interested in the gaps between the cities that you would normally speedily cover by car, train or plane. I am interested in what happens by the wayside; whatever you can never see when you travel quickly. I am interested in the people I meet

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Volker Gerling when I am on my way. What are their lives like? What is important for them? What stories do they tell me, the stranger? How do the people in all the different towns, gardens and villages I pass through react to my art?

I met an old man who wanted to change the world and nearly died of hunger. I met an apprentice journeyman carpenter about to set off on his own travels. I met a young woman on holiday who had decided to make a new life. I met a man who lived in a caravan and bid farewell to me with an old Chinese saying about the nature of wandering. I met a woman who was dreaming of the sensation of the rain on her bald head, and I met an old man who showed me the bed where his wife had died.

Today I can look back at more than 3,500 kilometers of walking, mainly in Germany, and more than a year’s worth of time on the road spread across Photo by Susanne SchÜle

14+ years. Again and again I experience the excitement and the

surprises of setting off without knowing what will happen next. I remain true to the principle of my very first walk—I take no money. I finance my journeys by showing my flipbook cinemas that I carry on my hawker’s tray. Old faces and old stories lead me to new faces and new stories. My exhibition is renewed.

In 2005, I began to show my flipbook movies in a stage show, Portraits in Motion. On stage, I use a video camera to project my movies onto a big screen. For a brief moment, the people in my flipbooks come to life. They are so real that sometimes you feel you have known the people in them for years. I tell their stories, and tell of my own big, small, serious, and bizarre encounters.

My show is a gentle and thoughtful reflection about the fleeting nature of the moment and what it means when people meet each other.

Every year I walk, so every year my show develops at the leisurely pace of a walker.

— Volker Gerling

Photos by Volker Gerling

SIDE SHOW CABARET THU OCT 19 5:00 PM FRI OCT 20 5:00 PM FRI OCT 20 8:00 PM

Photo by Grant Halverson

SAT OCT 21 5:00 PM

HAPPY HOUR

MONICA BILL BARNES & CO. 60 minutes No intermission CHOREOGRAPHED BY MONICA BILL BARNES PERFORMED BY MONICA BILL BARNES & ANNA BASS HOSTED BY ROBBIE SAENZ DE VITERI SPONSORED BY

Willis A. Smith Construction, Inc.

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LIGHTING DESIGN BY JANE COX SET AND COSTUME DESIGN BY KELLY HANSON PRODUCING ASSOCIATE: JENNEY SHAMASH

2017 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

MONICA BILL BARNES & COMPANY is a contemporary American dance company that brings dance where it does not belong. We create and produce each work entirely from its own rulebook­—dancing to radio interviews on the biggest stages in the world, hosting a weekly show in a crowded office party, or leading a choreographed exercise routine in an art museum.

Within each of these new contexts and borrowed environments, we constantly find humor in our awkward, everyday triumphs and failures. Together, we create the most unlikely experiences for every kind of audience. monicabillbarnes.com

HAPPY HOUR MUSIC CREDITS HURTS SO GOOD (John Mellencamp and George Green) performed by John Mellencamp Used by Permission of EMI FULL KEEL MUSIC. All rights reserved.

LOVE ME TENDER (LIVE) (Ken Darby and Elvis Presley) performed by Elvis Presley COME RAIN OR COME SHINE (Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer) performed by Judy Garland ANY WAY YOU WANT IT (Steve Perry and Neal Schon) performed by Journey AMOR (Gabriel Ruiz) performed by Ben E. King

(I LOVE YOU) FOR SENTIMENTAL REASONS (Deek Watson & His Brown Dots) performed by Nat King Cole BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP (Mike d’Abo and Tony Macaulay) performed by The Foundations O SILVER MOON (Antonín Dvořák Jana Valaskova, Johannes Wildner & Slovak Radio)

performed by Symphony Orchestra SMILE (Charlie Chaplin, John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons) performed by Nat King Cole I’M ALL OUT OF LOVE (FULL VOCAL KARAOKE) (Graham Russell and Clive Davis)

MONICA BILL BARNES founded MBB&CO in 1997 with the mission to celebrate individuality, humor, and the innate theatricality of everyday life. Her work has been performed in venues ranging from Upright Citizen’s Brigade to The BAM Opera House, and has been presented in more than 75 cities throughout the US. Current projects include a collaborative show with radio host Ira Glass, Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host; a collaboration with author/visual artist Maira Kalman creating a guided Museum Workout; and One Night Only, the company’s newest show that premiered in NYC in fall 2017.

ANNA BASS has worked with MBB&CO for 15 years, performing all over the world on stages ranging from public fountains and city parks to comedy clubs and Carnegie Hall. She collaborated on all of the company’s current productions, and also served as Assistant Choreographer for productions at The Atlantic Theater, The Public Theater, and Yale Repertory Theater. Anna wears the grey suit in Happy Hour, the bronze dress in The Museum Workout, and tours the country with Monica and Ira Glass in Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host.

ROBERT SAENZ DE VITERI began working in theater as an audio script assistant to Anna Deavere Smith while she developed Let Me Down Easy. He was a member of the Obie Award winning Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He joined MBB&CO to tour with Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host. Since then he has created, produced, and performed in Happy Hour and The Museum Workout. Other favorite projects include producing This American Life Episode 528, The Radio Drama Episode live at BAM, directing Rachel Bonds’s Michael & Edie, and creating The Spiritual Life of Modern America, based on writer Knut Hamsun’s experiences of immigrating to America.

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Monica Bill Barnes & Company JANE COX (Lighting Design) has designed with MBB&CO for more than a decade, and her collaboration with the company is central to her creative life. Recent theater includes Color Purple, Amelie, and Jitney (TONY nomination) on Broadway, Othello at NYTW, and Hamlet at the Barbican in London. Other designs include The Flick, The Ambassador, All The Way, and Machinal (TONY and Drama Desk nominations). Jane has a long-standing relationship with The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and is the director of the Program in Theater at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University.

KELLY HANSON (Set and Costume Design) has worked with MBB&CO on every company show since she first met Monica in 2001. She is also a Production Designer for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she does approximately 220 live shows a year. She has been nominated for an Emmy and an Art Department Guild award. Kelly was born in Bryan, TX, and earned her MFA in set design at University of California San Diego.

JENNEY SHAMASH (Producing Associate) is a performing arts producer and manager. She has worked with several major producing organizations including Park Avenue Armory, Irish Repertory Theatre, and the Tony Award winning Signature Theatre Company. She has collaborated on productions in New York City, around the US, and internationally with artists such as Peter Sellars, Bill Irwin, Taryn Simon, Charles Mee, Athol Fugard, Annie Baker, Tina Landau, Sam Shepard, Martha Clarke, Katori Hall, and Naomi Wallace. She has a degree in Theater & Dance and French from Amherst College.

Photo by Grant Halverson

Happy Hour is supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, by the NY State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the NY State Legislature, by Mertz Gilmore Foundation, by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by Jody and John Arnold. Happy Hour was developed during a residency at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Happy Hour would not be possible without the generous support of Gina Gibney Dance Center, San Diego Dance Theater, Velocity Dance Center, SPACE at Ryder Farm, and individual patrons.

SIDE SHOW CABARET THU OCT 19 2:00 PM THU OCT 19 8:00 PM FRI OCT 20 2:00 PM SAT OCT 21 2:00 PM

URBANITE THEATRE

WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT

BY NASSIM SOLEIMANPOUR 60 minutes No intermission Presented in association with Aurora Nova Productions and Boat Rocker Entertainment.

Artwork courtesy of Urbanite Theatre

THE PLAY YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE IS SEALED INSIDE AN ENVELOPE The actor about to perform has never seen it. In fact, there is a new actor for every performance. Those four brave artists have been told only what is absolutely necessary and given this one instruction: “Once you start, you must finish...NO MATTER WHAT.” SPONSORED BY

Leon and Marge Ellin

Continued next page . . .

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THE ACTORS / WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT (in alphabetical order; the actor for each performance will be announced at show time) GOPAL DIVAN was born in Hong Kong and was classically trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Drama Centre, London, where he worked on London’s West End before making his television debut on BBC’s Casualty. He currently resides in New York where he is making a splash across the board in TV, theatre, and film. He most recently worked with Sarah Jessica Parker on HBO’s Divorce (Season 2) and at the American Airlines Theater on Broadway with Alec Baldwin and Sam Underwood. He was awarded ‘Best Actor’ at the South Asian International Performing Arts Festival and has served as guest lecturer on the acting course at Hofstra University and Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.

Locally, TESS HOGAN* was a member of the resident company at The Asolo Rep for six years and a founding member of Banyan Theater and Infinite Space Theater. Regional Credits include: Geva Theatre, Meadowbrook Theatre, Denver Theatre Center, Pennsylvania Stage Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Yale Repertory Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, Manhattan Punchline, Emelin Theater, En Garde Arts, The Joyce Theater, Fulton Opera House, among others. She holds an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama and is a practicing Speech/Language Pathologist and Vocologist for Banyan Voice and Speech and Pediatric Therapy Solutions. She and her husband V Craig Heidenreich make their home in Sarasota.

BRENDAN RAGAN* is a founding Co-Artistic Director of Urbanite Theatre. At Urbanite, Brendan has appeared in Reborning, Lungs, Ideation, and Pilgrims. His credits in the region include Asolo Rep (You Can’t Take it With You, The Heidi Chronicles), Gorilla Theatre (An Iliad), Stageworks (Venus in Fur), and New Stage Largo (Hamlet). Brendan’s credits from around the country include Single Carrot Theatre, CENTERSTAGE, Waterside Theatre, Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and Nebraska Shakespeare. On film, he recently appeared in Dylan McDermott’s new series Sugar, and Killroy Was Here, written and directed by Kevin Smith. Brendan will direct the regional premiere of Echoes by Henry Naylor, opening in November at Urbanite Theatre.

SUMMER DAWN WALLACE* is a founder and Co-Artistic Director of Urbanite Theatre.

Regional Acting Credits include: Ideation, Stupid Fucking Bird, Freak, (Urbanite Theatre) Yentl, Once in a Lifetime, Hamlet, The Perfume Shop (Asolo Repertory Theatre), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Mad Cow Theatre), Always Patsy Cline (Lagniappe Theatre). Summer is a former resident company member with Cumberland County Playhouse and will be appearing in Urbanite Theatre’s upcoming production of Women Laughing Alone with Salad. Recent film projects include, Dylan McDermott’s web series Sugar, and a featured role on Funny or Die with Justin Long. Summer is a proud member of Actor’s Equity and Sag-Aftra. As a teaching artist, Summer has worked with Manatee School for the Arts, Riverview High School, is an Adjunct Professor of Theatre at New College of Florida, and has joined the faculty of Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training for the fall 2017 semester.

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White Rabbit Red Rabbit STAGE MANAGER AND PLAYWRIGHT AMANDA LAFORGE (Stage Manager) graduated from Ithaca College and is co-founder of Performing Arts for Social Change in Ithaca, NY. Amanda is resident Company Stage Manager and Volunteer Coordinator for Urbanite Theatre. Other work includes Asolo Rep and PURE Sarasota; Whistler in the Dark, Imaginary Beasts, and Company One in Boston; the University of Yaounde One in Cameroon, West Africa; and Volunteer Program Associate at The Ringling.

NASSIM SOLEIMANPOUR is an independent multidisciplinary theatre maker from Tehran, Iran. Best known for his play White Rabbit Red Rabbit, written to travel the world when he couldn’t, his work has been awarded the Dublin Fringe Festival Best New Performance, Summerworks Outstanding New Performance Text Award, and The Arches Brick Award (Edinburgh Fringe), as well as picking up nominations for a Total Theatre and Brighton Fringe Pick of Edinburgh Award. Nassim is an experienced public speaker, most recently as a panellist for the World Theatre Festival, Brisbane’s In Conversation series.

Nassim recently premiered his newest play NASSIM. He and his wife now live in Berlin, Germany.

URGENT: ALL MEDIA AND PRESS AGENTS: This play is NOT overtly political, and should not be portrayed as such. It operates on a deeper, metaphoric level, and very expressly avoids overt political comment. We therefore ask the press to be judicious in their reportage. *Performers appear by special arrangement with Actor’s Equity Association.

White Rabbit Red Rabbit was originally produced by Volcano Theatre in association with Necessary Angel and Wolfgang Hoffmann. Dramaturgy by Daniel Brooks and Ross Manson.

Artwork courtesy of Urbanite Theatre

A Victorian pioneer woman and a muslim school girl were born 175 years apart, but their parallel stories eerily mirror one another across generations.

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ensemblenewSRQ PROGRAM ONE THE SPACE AROUND YOU: MUSICAL REFLECTIONS ON JAMES TURRELL’S JOSEPH’S COAT PROGRAM TWO THE MAGICAL WORLD OF LUCIANO BERIO’S SEQUENZAS: AN EXPLORATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL VOICE Both programs are 60 minutes No intermission

T

he two programs presented this weekend are juxtaposed by their focus and scope, designed to open the listener’s eyes and ears to the numerous shades of intimacy and perspective that can be created by live musical performance. The Space Around You looks beyond the individual performers and draws the audience into an experience that interacts with the inanimate body of James Turrell’s Joseph’s Coat. It provides a macro view of our surroundings, mirroring the atmosphere and changing light of the sky.

– George Nickson and Samantha Bennett Artistic Directors

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Photo by Matthew Holler

The Magical World of Berio’s Sequenzas does the opposite, focusing intensely on the individual performer’s voice as virtuoso and soloist: a micro view of each performer and their instrument as they weave a journey through deeply personal human and musical expression.

JAMES TURRELL SKYSPACE Program One

PROGRAM ONE

THU OCT 19 5:00 PM

THE SPACE AROUND YOU: MUSICAL REFLECTIONS ON JAMES TURRELL’S JOSEPH’S COAT

HUNTINGTON GALLERY

FRI OCT 20 5:00 PM

We have long dreamt about the opportunity to perform John Luther Adams’ music in a James Turrell installation, the physical space for which many of Adams’ works were created to accompany. These two artists are so well paired in their vision that the parallels of sound, space, light, and time are able to blend together into one experience that immerses listeners and transports them to a heightened sensory space.

Program Two FRI OCT 20 2:00 PM SAT OCT 21 2:00 PM SAT OCT 21 5:00 PM

SALVATORE SCIARRINO Codex Purpureus (1983) SAMANTHA BENNETT VIOLIN STEVEN LARAIA VIOLA NATALIE HELM CELLO The case of a work which has been hatched for years­—desires suspended for far too long, with incomplete images, yet giving clear outlines, as if their sound was barely an echo. I would have written many times about that glowing trail, the emission left by sounds throughout the crowded space of the mind: which some mouths call silence. Yet sometimes it is a deeper trace, a crevice. And then all things, the objects which have been expressed, remain as an indefinite emission within the faintest of glows, almost like a streak in memory. Who will be able to tell when they are once again absorbed within us in the dark? We tell the difference between vision and blindness in vain: this threshold is crossed dazzling us with all light, with a trail of illusions. Do you not also hear what is visible inside sound?

– Salvatore Sciarrino

JOHN LUTHER ADAMS Four Thousand Holes (2010) CONOR HANICK PIANO GEORGE NICKSON PERCUSSION The title of Four Thousand Holes, refers to a John Lennon quote: “And though the holes were very small, They had to count them all,” from A Day in the Life. Like much music of John Luther Adams, the piece incorporates sounds of the natural world and of the texture of the space around us. An electronic “aura,” provided by the composer, in combination with the piano and percussion, lends the piece a bright but dreamy sonic landscape.

Waves of unfolding sound build to an exuberance of sustained experience, while the meditative pace allows for personal contemplation.

– ensemblenewSRQ

Continued next page . . .

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PROGRAM TWO

FROM THE COMPOSER

THE MAGICAL WORLD OF LUCIANO BERIO’S SEQUENZAS: AN EXPLORATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL VOICE

SEQUENZA V FOR TROMBONE can be considered as an essay in the superimposition of musical gestures and actions: the performer combines and transforms both the sound of his voice and the proper sound of the instrument. In other words, he must perform two functions simultaneously: playing and singing.

It’s not easy to get the coordination of the two elements exactly right, and the sense and efficacy of the piece depends on scrupulously respecting the intervals between voice and instrument: only in this way it is possible to attain the required level of transformation (vocalization of the instrument and “instrumentalization” of the voice), and to provide material suitable for further simultaneous transformations.

Luciano Berio’s solo works are transformative portraits of both musician and instrument, illuminating specific aspects of character and expression without altering their essential nature.

The Sequenzas were written for specific virtuoso performers, stretching the limits of musical and technical requirement. In this way, each performance of the Sequenzas is utterly dependant on the perspective and creativity of the soloist.

Highlighting the artistry and talent of members of our collective gives us the chance to peer into their creative process in performances of these monumental works. (It doesn’t hurt that Grock, one of history’s most famous clowns and Berio’s inspiration for Sequenza V, cheekily nods to The Ringling and Sarasota’s storied circus history.)

LUCIANO BERIO, Musica Leggera BETSY TRABA FLUTE STEVE LARAIA VIOLA NATALIE HELM CELLO GEORGE NICKSON TAMBOURINE LUCIANO BERIO, Sequenza V (1966) BRAD WILLIAMS TROMBONE LUCIANO BERIO, Sequenza VIII (1976) SAMANTHA BENNETT VIOLIN LUCIANO BERIO, Lied BHARAT CHANDRA CLARINET LUCIANO BERIO, Sequenza III (1965) THEA LOBO MEZZO-SOPRANO LUCIANO BERIO, Sequenza IV (1966) CONOR HANICK PIANO LUCIANO BERIO, Musica Leggera

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As in Sequenza III for voice, also in Sequenza V, I tried to develop a musical commentary between the virtuoso and his instrument, by disassociating various types of behaviour and then putting them together again, transformed, as musical unities. Thus Sequenza V can also be heard and seen as a theatre of vocal and instrumental gestures.

Behind Sequenza V lurks the memory of Grock (Adriano Wettach), the last great clown. Grock was my neighbour in Oneglia. He lived in a strange and complicated villa up the hill, surrounded by a kind of Oriental garden with small pagodas, streams, bridges and willow trees. Many times, with my schoolmates, I climbed a high iron fence to steal oranges and tangerines from his garden. During my childhood, the closeness, the excessive familiarity with his name and the indifference of the adults around me, prevented me from realizing his genius. It was only later, when I was perhaps eleven, that I saw him perform on the stage of the Teatro Cavour in Porto Maurizio, and understood him. Once during the evening, while performing, he stopped suddenly and, staring at the audience with a disarming look, asked: “warum?” (“why?”). Like everyone else, I didn’t know whether I should laugh or cry and I wanted to do both. After that experience, I stole no more oranges from his garden.

Sequenza V, written in 1966 for Stuart Dempster, is a tribute to Grock and his metaphysical why, which is the generating cell of the piece.

To compose SEQUENZA VIII has been like paying a personal debt to the violin, which to me is one of the most subtle and complex of instruments. I studied violin myself, while I was already learning the piano and before starting the clarinet (my father wanted me to

ensemblenewSRQ practise “all” the instruments), and I have always maintained a strong attraction for this instrument, mixed, however, with rather tormented feelings (perhaps because I was already 13—­much too late­—when I started my violin lessons).

While almost all the other Sequenzas develop to an extreme degree a very limited choice of instrumental possibilities, Sequenza VIII deals with a larger and more global view of the violin: and can be listened to as a development of instrumental gestures.

Sequenza VIII is built around two notes (A and B), which— as in a chaconne—act as a compass in the work’s rather diversified and elaborate itinerary, where polyphony is no longer virtual but real, and where the soloist must make the listener constantly aware of the history behind each instrumental gesture. Sequenza VIII, therefore, becomes inevitably a tribute to that musical apex which is the Ciaccona from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita in D minor, where—historically—past, present and future violin techniques coexist. Sequenza VIII was written in 1976 for Carlo Chiarappa.

SEQUENZA IV FOR PIANO can be considered as a journey of exploration through the unknown and known regions of instrumental articulation and colour. Two independent harmonic sequences unfold simultaneously, at times interpenetrating each other: a real one on the keyboard and a virtual one—so to speak—by means of the sustaining pedal.

In Sequenza IV, as in the other Sequenzas, I elaborated a polyphony of actions, intended as an exposition and superimposition of different instrumental characters and gestures. Sequenza IV was written in 1966 for Jocy de Carvalho.

Continued next page . . .

The voice carries always an excess of connotations, whatever it is doing. From the grossest of noises to the most delicate of singing, the voice always means something, always refers beyond itself and creates a huge range of associations. In SEQUENZA III I tried to assimilate many aspects of everyday vocal life, including trivial ones, without losing intermediate levels or indeed normal singing. In order to control such a wide range of vocal behaviour, I felt I had to break up the text in an apparently devastating way, so as to be able to recuperate fragments from it on different expressive planes, and to reshape them into units that were not discursive but musical. The text had to be homogeneous, in order to lend itself to a project that consisted essentially of exorcising the excessive connotations and composing them into musical units. This is the “modular” text written by Markus Kutter for Sequenza III.

In Sequenza III the emphasis is given to the sound symbolism of vocal and sometimes visual gestures, with their accompanying “shadows of meaning”, and the associations and conflicts suggested by them. For this reason Sequenza III can also be considered as a dramatic essay whose story, so to speak, is the relationship between the soloist and her own voice. Sequenza III was written in 1965 for Cathy Berberian.

Photo by Matthew Holler

Give me a few words for a woman to sing a truth allowing us to build a house without worrying before night comes

ensemblenewSRQ Founded in 2015 by Samantha Bennett and George Nickson, ensemblenewSRQ is Sarasota’s own contemporary music collective. ensemblenewSRQ strives to manifest the creativity of the current generation and inspire audiences to participate in musical culture in a profound way, through high-level curated concert experiences that sustain and transform the relevance of contemporary classical music.

ARTISTIC DIRECTORS

SOLOISTS

Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a violinist “full of subtlety and poise,” SAMANTHA BENNETT is an active and varied performer around the globe. Ms. Bennett is Principal Second Violin of the Sarasota Orchestra. As a recitalist, she has performed in Boston’s Jordan Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. She has participated in the Lucerne Festival Academy, Spoleto Festival USA, the Music Academy of the West, and the Tanglewood Music Festival, where she was awarded the 2013 Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize. She has performed with Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, and as a Guest Concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony. With the New Fromm Players she performed new works to critical acclaim as EnsembleIn-Residence of composer Bright Sheng’s contemporary music festival, The Intimacy of Creativity 2015, in Hong Kong. As Concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony, Ms. Bennett recorded works for Portrait of Augusta Read Thomas (Nimbus Records), including the World Premiere recording of Augusta Read Thomas’s saxophone concerto Hemke Concerto Prisms of Light. A fierce advocate of new music, she has premiered works by Gunther Schuller, Toshio Hosokawa, Oliver Knussen, John Cage, George Benjamin, Augusta Read Thomas, and Philip Glass. Born in Ames, Iowa, Ms. Bennett is a graduate of New England Conservatory in Boston.

Hailed as “excellent”, “impeccable”, “limpidly beautiful”, “impressive”, “stunning”, and “Boston’s best”, Grammynominated mezzo-soprano THEA LOBO’s 2017-18 season includes performances with the Northwest Florida Symphony, Choral Artists of Sarasota, Harvard Musical Association, Sunshine City Opera, and ensemblenew SRQ. She has recently performed with Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Shakespeare Concerts, Callithumpian Consort, and Guerilla Opera. Ms. Lobo was featured on True Concord’s 2016 Grammy winning recording of Stephen Paulus’s Prayers & Remembrances, created the art song duo songeaters, and has performed as a soloist under the direction of composers Steve Reich, Fred Lerdahl, Christian Wolff, Louis Andriessen, and others. TheaLobo.com

A percussionist of great versatility and virtuosity, GEORGE NICKSON has been hailed as “a performer handling his role with ease and flair” by The New York Times. Nickson was appointed Principal Percussionist of the Sarasota Orchestra in April, 2012. He has received the Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School where he studied with Daniel Druckman and completed his undergraduate studies at the New England Conservatory with Will Hudgins. In addition to his position with the Sarasota Orchestra, Nickson has had the privilege of performing with the orchestras of Boston, Detroit, Washington D.C., Toronto, and Honolulu.

Not only an accomplished orchestral percussionist, Nickson is renowned for polished and confident contemporary repertoire performances both as a percussionist and conductor. Recent highlights include the premiere of Bright Sheng’s marimba concerto Deep Red at Tanglewood, solo performances at The Spoleto Festival, and a recording for Albany Records of Charles Wuorinen’s seminal solo percussion work, Janissary Music.

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A pianist that “defies human description” for some (Concerto Net) and recalls “a young Peter Serkin” for others (The New York Times), CONOR HANICK has performed to wide acclaim throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia with some of the world’s leading ensembles, instrumentalists, and conductors, and worked with composers as diverse as John Adams and Pierre Boulez. Mr. Hanick recently appeared with The Juilliard Orchestra in Milton Babbitt’s Second Piano Concerto at Alice Tully Hall; the Alabama Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Piano Concerto; and Alan Gilbert in György Ligeti’s Piano Concerto for the New York Philharmonic Biennial. This season he presents recitals in New York, Houston, Portland, Indianapolis, and Chicago for the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW series; joins The Knights at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center; and collaborates with composers Caroline Shaw, Chris Cerrone, and Sam Adams. A recent finalist for the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, Mr. Hanick is a graduate of Northwestern University and The Juilliard School, where he received his master’s and doctorate degrees. conorhanick.com BRAD WILLIAMS is the Principal Trombonist of the Sarasota Orchestra, a position he has held since 2009.

Prior to that, he was the Second Trombonist of the Buffalo Philharmonic. During his career he has performed with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming, and Charles Dutoit. A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, Brad was the only tenor trombonist accepted into the undergraduate program at Juilliard in 2001. In his time away from music, he enjoys gardening, cooking, traveling, and most of all spending time with his wife, Rebecca, and newborn baby Jude.

ensemblenewSRQ

PUBLICATION CREDITS Salvatore Sciarrino: Casa Ricordi John Luther Adams: Taiga Press (BMI) Luciano Berio: Universal Edition ensemblenewSRQ enjoys the support of Tableseide Restaurant Group, Alfstad& Contemporary, Drummersonly Drum Shop, Ted and Judy Beilman; Edward Alley and June LeBell; Adrian Bennett; Nan Bennett; Linda Z. Buxbaum; Pat Michelsen and Eric Dean; Victoria and Brian Eckl; Linda S. Goodwin; Robert Hendel; Jane and Bill Knapp; Christopher Light; Chris and Sally Lutz; Alan and Nancy Milbauer; Christine Nickson; Alexis Nickson and Matthew Naveda; Thomas Novak; Billy Robinson; Bill and Bonnie Sexton; and Jan Winkler and Hermine Drezner.

MORE FROM ensemblenewSRQ

LOU HARRISON AT 100 MONDAY, DECEMBER 11 8:00 PM First Congregational Church Sarasota A centennial homage to Lou Harrison, celebrated American composer and maverick of sound. Featuring acclaimed pianist Sarah Cahill and Artistic Director Samantha Bennett in works including the Grand Duo whose June 2017 performance garnered the acclaim of “gorgeous intensity” by The New York Times.

TICKETS: ensemblenewsrq.org

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Photo courtesy of the artist

Photo courtesy of Monsieur Periné

Photo by Erin Patrice O’Brien

NEW STAGES | A WORLD OF MUSIC AWAKE LOVE ORCHESTRA SWEDEN NOV 10 – 11 Awake Love Orchestra has been entertaining international audiences since 2009. Now making their US debut at The Ringling, this unique fusion of folk, choral, and popular music transports the listener from Scandinavia and the Mediterranean to Eastern Europe and the USA.

MONSIEUR PERINÉ COLUMBIA DEC 8 – 9 A leading band in Colombia’s new music scene, Monsieur Periné won the Latin Grammy Award for Best New Artist and earned nomination for their album, Caja de Música. Rooted in gypsy jazz and celebrating the tradition of Django Reinhardt, Monsieur Periné‘s fresh style adds a variety of Latin elements to the mix.

ETHEL: CIRCUS— WANDERING CITY USA JAN 26 – 27 Created in partnership with The Ringling and projection designer/ director Grant McDonald, Circus is a full-evening, multimedia performance program inspired by the heroes behind the magic of the Big Top. The work combines stunning images and films from The Ringling’s unmatched archives, intricate projection mapping, and original music composed by members of the quartet. Together, they illuminate and reveal a largerthan-life performing culture of global traditions and origins, while celebrating the wonderment and excitement of one of America’s most iconographic popular culture experiences.

Photo by Robert Allen Mayer

Photo by Francis Vernhet

Photo by Jati Lindsay

TICKETS: 941.360.7399 or ringling.org HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER AT 7:30 PM, $30 / MEMBERS SAVE 10%

SOMI

CHUCHO VALDÉS

USA/LITTLE AFRICA

CUBA

FEB 16 – 17

MAR 2 – 3

Born to parents from Rwanda and Uganda, Somi is now at home in Harlem’s vibrant immigrant community of “Little Africa.” Petite Afrique: The Other Black in Harlem is a song cycle inspired by that place, its ornate traditional fabrics, Francophone bibles, palm oil and shea butter, and tribes of fast-fingered hair braiders.

Winner of five Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards, the Cuban pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader Chucho Valdés has been a key figure in the evolution of Afro-Cuban jazz for the past 50 years.

TURTLE ISLAND: BIRD’S EYE VIEW USA MAR 23 – 24 In this high flying program, the two-time GRAMMY® winning Turtle Island Quartet, pays homage to the incandescent visionary brilliance of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. The genius of his improvisations almost single handedly catapulted jazz from pop into art, indelibly altering the musical landscape of America.

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE FRIDAYS, 1:00 PM & 6:30 PM

Join us for HD screenings of productions from the U.K. Each broadcast is filmed in front of a live audience with cameras positioned throughout the theater to ensure that cinema audiences get the “best seat in the house.” Programming is Subject to Change

$20 / $18 for Members

TICKETS: ringling.org or 941.360.7399

HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

NOV 3 OBSESSION

DEC 1 NO MAN’S LAND by Harold Pinter

DEC 15 PETER PAN by JM Barrie

Jude Law stars in the Barbican Theatre’s stage adaptation of Luchino Viscounti’s 1943 film. Directed by Ivo van Hove. Run time: 120 minutes, no interval. Suitable for adult audiences.

Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart star in No Man’s Land at Wyndham’s Theatre. Run time: 150 minutes.

Suitable for audiences 12 and above.

A wondrously inventive production from Bristol Old Vic theatre directed by Sally Cookson. Run time: 170 minutes.

A delight for both children and adults.

JAN 19 FOLLIES

FEB 2 SAINT JOAN by Bernard Shaw

Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the National Theatre. Run time: 210 minutes. For all audiences.

Josie Rourke directs Gemma Arterton as Joan of Arc in Shaw’s electrifying masterpiece. Run time: 180 minutes.

Suitable for audiences 12 and above.

FEB 9 TWELFTH NIGHT

by William Shakespeare

FEB 23 WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

by Edward Albee

MAR 16 SALOMÉ by Yaël Farber

Imelda Staunton and Conleth Hill star in James Macdonald’s production of this landmark play. Suitable for adult audiences. Run time: TBD.

Director Yaël Farber’s hypnotic production on the stage of the National Theatre. Run time: 200 minutes.

Suitable for adult audiences.

A new twist on Shakespeare’s classic comedy directed by Simon Godwin.

Run time: 210 minutes. Suitable for audiences 12 and above.

APRIL 20 YERMA by Simon Stone after Federico García Lorca ‘An extraordinary theatrical triumph’ (The Times). Run time: 120 minutes, no interval. Suitable for adult audiences.