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Collaboration key to live music, dance concert
"Vision of Sound" to debut at UB and 2 other upstate venues
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
Collaboration is the overarching concept behind "Vision of Sound," a concert of live music and dance to debut at UB and two other sites in upstate New York later this month.
UB senior dance majors (from left)
Megan Castlevetere, Nicole Dalton and Nicole Arcangel will perform in
the UB presentation of "Vision of Sound" on Feb.
13.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI
The concerts will be directed by Melanie Aceto, assistant professor of theatre and dance at UB; Mark Olivieri, composer in residence at Brockport State College and a Ph.D. student in composition in the UB Department of Music; and Neva Pilgrim, program adviser for the Society for New Music in Syracuse.
Billed as a "collaboration of composer, choreographer, dancers and musicians," "Vision of Sound" springs from a longstanding collaboration between Aceto and Olivieri, who both grew up in Rochester and worked together at Brockport State College. "We just feel we've known each other forever," and their work has taken similar paths, Aceto told told the Reporter recently over coffee at Starbucks in the Commons.
"We both have a strong, mutual interest in making new music and new dance, and performing to live music," she said. Having live music can be a luxury for many productions, she explains, noting that many companies can't afford to pay musicians to play.
Moreover, she says she and Olivieri share an interest in the collaborative process: "How does dance inform the creation of the music and how does the music inform the creation of the dance?"
"You definitely can have a piece of music and make a dance to it; you also can have a dance done and have a composer come and generate sound. Both are valid ways of working," she noted.
But, what happens when you create both music and dance at same time? How do they inform each other?
While "logistics and reality" prevented Aceto and Olivieri from applying that creative concept in its "purest form" to these concerts—five composers and five choreographers from as far away as Texas, Ohio and New York City worked on "Vision of Sound"—it remains the idea underlying the concerts and a goal for future productions, she says.
There is no single theme for the concerts, other than contemporary work performed live, Aceto says. All the music has been composed in past five years, while all the dances are new, she adds.
The music inspiring the choreographers features such titles as "Fruity Pebbles," "I Conquered Egypt," "A Dirty Little Secret" and "Synthecisms." While the pieces are considered classical "new" music, many incorporate funk, pop and rock elements.
"Vision of Sound" will open on Feb. 10 in the Hartwell Dance Theater at Brockport State College and continue the following night at the Carrier Theater in the Civic Center in Syracuse. The final performance will take place at 7 p.m. Feb. 13 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall on the UB North Campus.
Tickets are $12 for general admission, $10 for seniors and $8 for students.
In addition to Aceto, choreographers are Bill Evans, Darwin Prioleau, Jenny Showalter and Kista Tucker. Composers are Olivieri, Marc Mellits, Dan Felsenfeld, Dan Coleman and Brian Bevelander.
The musicians who will accompany the dancers, all of whom are renowned soloists, chamber musicians, recording artists and longtime core performers for the Society for New Music, are James Krehbiel, violin; Elizabeth Simkin, cello; Sar Shalom Strong, piano; and Ronald L. Caravan, saxophone.
UB senior dance majors Nicole Arcangel, Megan Castlevetere and Nicole Dalton will perform in the UB concert.
"Vision of Sound" is funded by the Society for New Music; Brockport State College; and the UB College of Arts and Sciences and departments of Theatre and Dance, Media Study; and Women's Studies.