2018-19 SEASON
2018-19 SEASON
Colorado Springs chorale
The Colorado Springs Chorale Presents
CROSSINGS
Saturday, March 16, 2019 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 17, 2019 3:00 p.m.
Shockley-Zalabak Theater, Ent Center for the Arts
5225 N. Nevada Ave., Colorado Springs
Conductor Deborah Jenkins Teske and the 120-voice Chorale welcome special guest Ormao Dance Company to perform together Eric Whitacre’s Cloudburst and more in a concert celebrating the intersection of art forms, styles, cultures and languages. “Crossings” features words and music from the U.S., Chile, the British Isles, and Africa. Music and poetry by Ratcliff, Mulholland, Neruda, Paz, and Quick, and the world premiere performance of a new work by renowned composer Shawn Kirchner, who will be in attendance.
Tickets: $25 adults | $20 senior & military | $5 student/youth
Crossings concert presented with the generous support of Virginia Snow
New work by Shawn Kirchner commissioned for the Colorado Springs Chorale through the generous support of Richard and Sandra Hilt
ABOUT SHAWN KIRCHNER
Shawn Kirchner is a composer/arranger, singer, and pianist active in the music circles of Los Angeles whose choral works are performed throughout the world. A member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale since 2001, Kirchner has enjoyed an enduring creative relationship with music director Grant Gershon, resulting in numerous commissions and premieres at LA’s Disney Hall, and culminating in his tenure as the LA Master Chorale’s Swan Family Composer-in-Residence from 2012-2015. Kirchner has collaborated with and/or written for many leading choral ensembles across the country, including Conspirare, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Lorelei Ensemble, San Diego Master Chorale, Los Robles Master Chorale, Boston’s Coro Allegro, and the Atlanta Master Chorale.
Kirchner’s choral writing is informed by his interest in songwriting and folk/carol traditions on the one hand, and poetry on the other. Best-known worldwide for his setting of the Kenyan song Wana Baraka and other settings of traditional American songs, which have been praised by the LA Times as “arranged with mastery,” Kirchner has also produced cycles on the poetry of Pablo Neruda, Sylvia Plath, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and William Blake. His original songwriting ranges in style from jazz and gospel to folk and bluegrass, the latter featured on his CD Meet Me on the Mountain.
As a singer with the LA Master Chorale, Kirchner has performed with the LA Philharmonic in many collaborations with the world’s leading conductors, composers, and soloists, and he has sung on recordings of the music of Adams, Reich, Glass, Lang, Gorecki, and Muhly. In 2016, he sang in LAMC’s ground-breaking performance of the fully-staged Renaissance masterpiece, Lagrime di San Pietro by Orlando di Lasso, as conceived and directed by Peter Sellars – a production now touring internationally through 2020. Kirchner has also sung on the soundtracks of three dozen feature films including Avatar, La La Land, Sing!, Ghostbusters, Minions, Jumanji, the Lorax, and the X-Men series.
Kirchner was raised with his triplet brother and sister in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where his musicianship was shaped through intensive piano study with Joan Smalley and George Katz. His principal creative mentors are the poet/songwriter Steve Kinzie and choral composer/arranger Alice Parker. He earned a BA in Peace Studies from Manchester University and a MA in Choral Conducting from the University of Iowa where his teachers included William Hatcher, Richard Bloesch, and Donald Jenni.
Ormao embraces dance as an art form, a celebration of human connection, expression, and diverse life experience. Nationally recognized choreographers regularly contribute to our diverse repertory with content that provokes, challenges, and entertains while encouraging diversity and tolerance. We seek to engage and grow audiences for dance with performances in theaters as well as unexpected places such as art museums, abandoned buildings, and construction zones.
Janet Johnson (Executive & Artistic Director) As the founder of the Ormao Dance Company (in 1990), Ms. Johnson has brought a longed for level of professional contemporary dance to our city. Her work has brought noted choreographers to the company, given young, emerging choreographers fertile ground to launch exciting new works, and fostered a reputation for tremendous collaborations. As a choreographer, she has developed a wide repertoire of award winning collaborative works including Bernstein Piano Solos (2018), PREPRESS (2017) and Protest (2014). Her belief in the inclusive nature of modern dance has created a company with depth of artistic expression, brilliance of technical skill, and given back to the Colorado Springs community a professional contemporary dance company they can call their own.
Mike Tyus (Choreographer) began his artistic career in 2004 as co-founder of dance group, the Urban Poets. Tyus toured the globe reaching audiences in countries including China, South Africa, Singapore, and Turkey. After four years he began working with Cirque Du Soleil. Tyus not only performed Cirque, but also collaborated with the composer Danny Elfman. Soon after, he joined the legendary modern dance company, Pilobolus, where toured, taught, and created with new found vigour. Mike is back on tour as the lead in Cirque Du Soleil’s KOOZA, performing across Asia. Tyus has been molded by multiple teachers and dance theologies, giving him an in-depth understanding of dance as a performing art. He is influenced by concert dance, commercial dance, ballet, and breaking, utilizing all kinds of movement to connect to an ever-changing audience.
Laura Hymers Treglia (Choreographer) is a dance artist, teacher, and Feldenkrais Practitioner. Laura earned her BFA in Dance Performance from The Ohio State University, and developed her dance career as a performer and arts administrator in NYC; performing with the Tiffany Mills Company and serving as Director of Education for the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Laura presently performs and teaches with Ormao Dance Company, and leads the Dance for Parkinson’s program.