The Chapman Orchestra
The Chapman Orchestra

INTERPLAY 2016 “American Visions” festival puts spotlight on two iconic composers


The Chapman Orchestra, with music director Daniel Alfred Wachs

The Chapman Orchestra, with music director and conductor Daniel Alfred Wachs


Chapman University will partner with Pacific Symphony for the third consecutive year to offer the INTERPLAY Festival (formerly known as the Global Arts Festival), with public events scheduled from April 2-16, 2016. With a series of concerts, recitals, master classes and lectures – and with many events offered free of charge to the public – this year’s festival, themed “American Visions, American Voices,” will celebrate the music of two iconic American composers: Charles Ives (1874-1954) and George Gershwin (1898-1937).

The INTERPLAY Festival will explore how Ives, Gershwin and their contemporaries created a uniquely “American voice” by drawing on the sights and sounds around them during that fascinating era of this country’s history. In addition to the public events, festival coordinator Susan Key, an adjunct faculty member at Chapman, has been teaching a semester-long honors course on Ives, Gershwin and their cultural milieu.

The events will take place at venues ranging from Chapman University’s new Musco Center for the Arts and the university’s Salmon Recital Hall in Orange to Henry and Renee Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. A complete schedule is attached.

Pacific Symphony

Pacific Symphony, with music director and conductor Carl St.Clair


The INTERPLAY Festival kicks off on Saturday, April 2 during Musco Center’s daylong Community Open House & Arts Festival, with a free 4:30 p.m. concert by Chapman student and faculty music ensembles, actors and dancers performing selections from Ives’s celebrated “Concord Sonata,” Gershwin’s Piano Sonata in F and more.

INTERPLAY FESTIVAL 2016: “American Visions, American Voices” - SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

 

Thursday, March 31 at 11:30 a.m.

IVES IN SONG

Location: Salmon Recital Hall, Chapman University, Orange

Free and open to the public


Acclaimed baritone William Sharp and Pacific Symphony advisor and music historian Joseph Horowitz present “Charles Ives: A Life in Music” from 11:30 a.m. to 12 noon. Afterward, Sharp will present a master class for Chapman students to refine their interpretation of songs they’ve prepared for performance at Musco Center on Saturday.

 

Musco Center for the Arts

Musco Center for the Arts

Saturday, April 2 at 4:30 p.m.

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF PERFORMING ARTS CONCERT: Ives and Gershwin

Location: Musco Center for the Arts, Chapman University, Orange

Free and open to the public


Part of
Musco Center’s
daylong public opening celebration, the
Community Open House & Arts Festival
, this concert is a multi-media showcase featuring the music of Ives and Gershwin. Come experience the largest-ever collaboration in the history of Chapman’s College of Performing Arts, featuring performances by The Chapman Orchestra, Chapman Wind Symphony, Faculty Brass Quartet and Chapman String Quartet as well as student dancers and actors. With a script by Joseph Horowitz and visuals by Peter Bogdanoff, this event is presented in conjunction with INTERPLAY 2016 and Pacific Symphony’s “Music Unwound” series.

 

Pianist Steven Mayer

Pianist Steven Mayer

Sunday, April 3 at 2 p.m.

A TRANSCENDENTAL MASTERPIECE: Ives’ Concord Sonata

Location: Musco Center for the Arts, Chapman University, Orange

Tickets $10-$20,
www.muscocenter.org


Charles Ives’ magisterial Concord Sonata was acclaimed at its 1939 premiere as “the greatest music composed by an American” – and ever since has mapped the summit of American keyboard literature. Join celebrated pianist Steven Mayer – who has performed this monumental work more than any other present-day pianist – and baritone/actor William Sharp for this performance of Ives’ sonata, accompanied by readings from two writers who critically influenced Ives’ work: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.  A choral setting of Ives’ Psalm 67 opens this unique concert curated by Pacific Symphony.

 

Music historian Joseph Horowitz

Music historian Joseph Horowitz

Thursday, April 7 at 11:30 a.m.

LECTURE:  “Huck Finn Meets Charles Ives”

Location: Salmon Recital Hall, Chapman University, Orange

Free and open to the public


A “Music Around Noon” lecture by Pacific Symphony Artistic Advisor Joseph Horowitz explores the connections between Mark Twain’s
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
and Charles Ives’s Second Symphony.

 

 

Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Costa Mesa

Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Costa Mesa

Thursday-Saturday, April 7-9 –  7 p.m. (pre-concert presentation), 8 p.m. (concert)

PACIFIC SYMPHONY: “Ives and Gershwin”

Location:  Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 600 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa


 

 

 

Tickets $25-$99; visit www.PacificSymphony.org or call (714) 755-5799


Carl St.Clair, conductor
Joseph Horowitz, artistic adviser
William Sharp, baritone
Simone Dinnerstein, piano

Ives:  Symphony No. 2
Ravel:  Piano Concerto in G Major
Gershwin:  Rhapsody in Blue

The jazz connection: Gershwin married classical music to the most unique of American art forms, while Ives’ Second Symphony alludes to popular American folk tunes including “Camptown Races,” “Turkey in the Straw” and “America the Beautiful.” Between them, Ravel’s beautiful piano concerto, also heavily influenced by jazz.

Special Pre-concert Presentation at 7 p.m. featuring Alan Chapman, David Prather, William Sharp and Chapman University students. Please join us for a post-concert talk-back from the stage.

 

Sunday, April 10 at 1:30 p.m. (pre-concert program), 3 p.m. (concert)

PACIFIC SYMPHONY: “Rhapsody!”

Location:  Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 600 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa

For tickets visit www.PacificSymphony.org or call (714) 755-5799


Carl St.Clair, conductor
Joseph Horowitz, artistic adviser
Simone Dinnerstein, piano

Ravel:  Piano Concerto in G Major
Gershwin:  Rhapsody in Blue

Tin Pan Alley meets Carnegie Hall in Gershwin’s groundbreaking composition, now among the most popular in the repertoire. But first, Ravel’s beautiful piano concerto, also heavily influenced by jazz.  Special Pre-concert Presentation at 1:30 featuring Chapman University’s Prof. Wendy Salmond and Joseph Horowitz discussing Gershwin’s relationship with his contemporaries in both visual arts and music.

 

Thursday, April 7 at 11:30 a.m.

Lecture:  “Huck Finn Meets Charles Ives”

Location: Salmon Recital Hall, Chapman University, Orange

Free and open to the public


A “Music Around Noon” lecture by Pacific Symphony Artistic Advisor Joseph Horowitz explores the connections between Mark Twain’s
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
and Charles Ives’s Second Symphony.

 

Saturday, April 16 at 6 p.m.

Dance Performance:  “Rhythmic Visions, Rhythmic Voices: An Evening of American Vernacular Percussive Dance”

(The 2016 “Happy Chappy Tappy” Presentation)

Location:  Memorial Hall, Chapman University, Orange

Tickets $5 at the door


A narrated performance to live music exploring the history and significance of this quintessentially American art form.

 

 

 

 

Mary Platt

Mary Platt is director of the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University

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