Shakespeare & Company launches summer-long Spherical Sounds series10:09AM / Thursday, July 09, 2009
LENOX, Mass. - Shakespeare & Company’s exciting new Spherical Sounds series kicks into high gear this weekend, with three very special performances—two of which are free! Spherical Sounds is a summer-long journey of sound and music with Resident Composer and Music Director Bill Barclay. It includes a free, weekly concert series (every Thursday night in July and August), two specially prepared musical lectures, and two performances by the stunning ensemble AUREA, combining great music and great poetry into an unforgettable synthesis. Spherical Sounds is generously sponsored by a Meet the Composer grant from MetLife Creative Connections, awarded to create this unique programming.
Throughout this special, three-month series, Barclay leads an exploration of sounds both distant and familiar. A series of eight free, Thursday night concerts anchors the series, with additional special events including Composing with Shakespeare, a musical talk about writing music for Shakespeare’s plays on July 9; The Music of the Spheres, a special musical presentation with actors and singers in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre on July 19th; and appearances by the performance ensemble AUREA this Sunday, July 12 and September 6.
Barclay’s work for Shakespeare & Company spans nine seasons and includes music for this summer’s Twelfth Night and Toad of Toad Hall, last summer’s All’s Well That Ends Well, The Mad Pirate & The Mermaid and The Goatwoman of Corvis County, and several other scores and performances for productions on all our stages including Antony & Cleopatra, Rough Crossing, King John, and The Secret of Sherlock Holmes. In addition to a Meet the Composer grant, Bill is the recipient of a Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship, the nation’s largest grant for actors, for his work developing creative partnerships with theatres in England, France, Indonesia, and the US.
Schedule
First off this weekend is Barclay, who presents Composing With Shakespeare, a musical talk featuring the members of 2009 Eliot Norton Award-winning, Boston-based theatre company Orfeo Group. This special presentation is part of S&Co.’s always-free Bankside Festival, and is held at the Rose Footprint Theatre at 5:30 pm on July 9. Tickets are free but required, and can be picked up at the Box Office beforehand.
Each Thursday through August 27, a free, cabaret-style concert will enliven the scene at “EBTSs” (the Elayne Bernstein Theatre Bar). Performances begin every Thursday at 10:15pm and festivities continue until 12:15am. Food and drink are available at the full-service bar. The Spherical Sounds series kicked off in grand fashion last week with a collection of the songs of Cole Porter, performed by Barclay and fellow Company actors Peter Davenport and Alexander Sovronsky. (Sovronsky appears this season in Hamlet).
This week’s free performance, The Rubber Violin, also features Sovronsky, with Barclay accompanying on piano. Sovronsky, an actor on the rise as well as a fiddle phenom, has graced the stages of Broadway, The Public Theatre in New York, and Shakespeare & Company with a thrilling range of techniques and styles on the violin. This celebration of the violin/piano repertoire features works by Piazzola, Gerswhin, Bolcolm, Bach, Vivaldi, Kreisler, Tartini, and Heifitz. This performance is free, and happens in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre Lobby on Thursday, July 9 at 10:15pm.
Sunday, July 12 marks the first of two performances this summer at S&Co. by AUREA, a well-respected and talented performance ensemble engaged in a joyous pursuit to investigate and invigorate the harmony of music and the spoken word. The troupe features Company actor Nigel Gore (appearing this season in Hamlet and Twelfth Night). AUREA: Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known weaves a rich and varied emotional tapestry from music of Dohnanyi, Rebecca Clarke, Martinu and virtuosic harmonica improvisations of Chris Turner and the poetry of T. S. Eliot, Auden, Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Ted Huges, Mark Strand and others. The performance features Nigel Gore (reader), Chris Turner (reader), Charles Sherba (violin), Consuelo Sherba (viola), Ted Mook (cello), and Chris Turner (harmonica). AUREA: Strange Fite of Passion Have I Known is performed at Founders’ Theatre on Sunday, July 11 at 8:30pm. Tickets are $20 or $10 for patrons under 25, and available on the day of show or in advance from the Box Office at (413) 637-3353 or www.shakespeare.org. |
