Back to Press Release List > 09/04/2007 - The Rite of Spring Project, Fall 2007

On Saturday, November 17 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 18 at 3:00 p.m., Carnegie Hall’s first major international festival—Berlin in Lights—will reach its grand finale with two extraordinary performances by Sir Simon Rattle, the Berliner Philharmoniker, and more than 200 New York City public school students presented at The United Palace Theater in Upper Manhattan.

These performances will mark the completion of The Rite of Spring Project—an expansive educational program that will kick off in Upper Manhattan classrooms in late September. The Rite of Spring Project’s two components—The Dance Project led by choreographer Royston Maldoom, and Songs: Ritual Rhythms, led by vocal coach Mary King and composer Catherine Milliken—will bring together hundreds of students to explore Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring through movement and music.

The performances on November 17 and 18 will open with the premiere of an original musical composition for voice and percussion, developed and performed by students and based on themes from Stravinsky’s renowned work. For the program’s second half, approximately 120 students will take to the stage, dancing to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, performed by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker with choreography by Mr. Maldoom. The Rite of Spring Project is presented by The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall in partnership with Zukunft@BPhil, the Berliner Philharmoniker Education program.

“We are thrilled to engage hundreds of New York’s students in these two innovative creative learning projects as part of Carnegie Hall’s Berlin in Lights celebration,” said Carnegie Hall Executive and Artistic Director Clive Gillinson. “For many of the students, this will be their first encounter with dance and classical music, and we hope this experience will awaken their enthusiasm for active involvement in the arts. This special project reflects Carnegie Hall’s ongoing commitment to bringing music education to our community and making great music as widely accessible as possible. The weeks of rigorous preparation, culminating in these performances, are sure to be transformational experiences for students, musicians, and community members alike.”

Berlin in Lights, presented from November 2 through 18, will draw together the full range of Carnegie Hall’s world-renowned artistic and educational resources for a 17-day celebration of the extraordinary city that is Berlin today. With close to 50 events presented at Carnegie Hall and at partner venues throughout the city, this major festival will offer a snapshot of Germany’s vibrant capital city through orchestral, chamber music, cabaret, world, and techno music concerts as well as film, architecture, and photography events. Berlin in Lights is centered around an eight-day residency by Berlin’s greatest cultural ambassador, the Berliner Philharmoniker and its music director Sir Simon Rattle, with residency activities to include orchestral and chamber music concerts and this special arts education project in New York City public schools.


THE RITE OF SPRING PROJECT—THE DANCE PROJECT
The Dance Project will offer approximately 120 New York City public school students the opportunity to be engaged in a transformative rehearsal process with a professional choreographer and the unique experience of taking part in live performance with the extraordinary Berliner Philharmoniker. For eight weeks beginning Monday, September 24, students from four schools—many of them encountering dance and classical music for the first time—will rehearse with choreographer Royston Maldoom and his team in preparation for the performances of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring on November 17 and 18.

Schools participating in The Dance Project are PS 153 (1750 Amsterdam Avenue between 146th and 147th Streets), PS 161 (499 West 133rd Street at Amsterdam Avenue), the Choir Academy of Harlem (2005 Madison Avenue between 127th and 128th Streets), and the Bread & Roses Arts Integrated High School (6 Edgecombe Avenue at 135th Street).

The Dance Project is adapted from the Berliner Philharmoniker’s 2003 outreach initiative in which the orchestra and students drawn from Berlin’s diverse ethnic communities performed The Rite of Spring before an audience of 3,000. The project was documented in the award-winning film Rhythm Is It!, which illustrates the personal and social transformation that took place among the program’s participants. This marks the first time that this Rite of Spring dance initiative has been mounted with the Berliner Philharmoniker, outside of Berlin.


THE RITE OF SPRING PROJECT—SONGS: RITUAL RHYTHMS
Songs: Ritual Rhythms will bring 80 New York City public high school students together with musicians from the Berliner Philharmoniker and its education team to create an original composition for voice and percussion based on the themes of rites and sacrifice, the central themes of The Rite of Spring. Songs: Ritual Rhythms will be led by vocal coach Mary King and composer Catherine Milliken, Education Director for the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Songs workshops will guide students as they examine what the themes of rites and sacrifice mean to them today, drawing connections to their personal experiences and everyday lives. The students, split into vocal and percussion groups, will work collaboratively, first creating the texts for their songs and then working together to create original melodies and musical accompaniment. A performance of the new composition will open the programs at The United Palace Theater on November 17 and 18.

Schools participating in Songs: Ritual Rhythms are: Norman Thomas High School (111 East 33rd Street), the Choir Academy of Harlem (2005 Madison Avenue between 127th and 128th Streets), Coalition for Social Change High School (220 West 58th Street), and the Professional Performing Arts School (328 West 48th Street). Songs: Ritual Rhythms workshops begin on Monday, October 29.


STRAVINSKY’S THE RITE OF SPRING
Igor Stravinsky’s ballet, The Rite of Spring, depicting springtime rites in pagan Russia, was originally choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and premiered in 1913. At its first performance in Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the new piece was met with a deafening riot by the audience that was so intense that the dancers onstage could no longer hear the music and depended on Nijinsky shouting the counts of the choreography from the wings to complete the performance. Audiences at the time found Stravinsky’s pagan subject matter to be vulgar and Nijinsky’s angular choreography, paired with the composer’s pulsating score, to be jarring. Today, The Rite of Spring is considered to be a masterwork and core part of the orchestral repertoire.


THE RITE OF SPRING PROJECT: Project Leadership

Over the past 30 years, British choreographer Royston Maldoom has conceptualized and directed numerous dance related projects around the world. He discovered his passion for dance at the age of 20, while watching a filmed performance by the Royal Ballet. Shortly thereafter, he began his training and received scholarships to study at the Rambert Ballet School, the Royal Ballet School, and the London School of Contemporary Dance. Mr. Maldoom began his work as a choreographer in 1975, and his first piece was awarded the Foundation of France Prize for Outstanding Artistic Achievement. Following that success, he was commissioned to create works for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, The Scottish Ballet, Irish National Ballet, and Ballet San Marcos along with many other companies internationally and in the UK. In 1981, Mr. Maldoom was appointed Dance Artist in Residence for Fife/Scotland. There he produced many workshops, summer programs, and festivals, and established youth and adult community dance classes. Following a period as Dance Research Officer for Stirling District Council, Mr. Maldoom moved to London, and began to work more internationally. His work brought him to Lithuania during the independence movement, Croatia and Bosnia during the Balkan war, South Africa of Nelson Mandela’s election, and Ethiopia, where he established the Adugna Dance Company with former street children.

During the 1990s, Mr. Maldoom began to work regularly in Germany. He was the choreographer and artistic director of the German-British Youth Dance Exchange in Berlin from 1989 to 1997, choreographer of the European Youth Dance Festival in Duisburg from 1990 to 1997, and visiting choreographer to the Academy for Performing Arts at Frankfurt University. Mr. Maldoom is the recipient of numerous awards including the Special Schiller Award in Manheim for his work on The Rite of Spring with the Berliner Philharmoniker and the German Honorary Prize in Dance in recognition of his international social, cultural, pedagogic and choreographic dance work. In 2006, The Queen presented Mr. Maldoom with the Order of The British Empire (O.B.E.) for Services to Dance.

Well-known as a performer, creative director, and vocal coach, Mary King is currently Director of the Southbank Centre’s Voicelab initiative, where she is involved in casting for professional projects, creating a diverse core ensemble, and encouraging vocal talent in all forms. As a vocalist, Ms. King has performed numerous roles on the operatic stage, working with conductors and orchestras across the world including Oliver Knussen and Sir Simon Rattle, the Berliner Philharmoniker, and the Cleveland and Concertgebouw Orchestras. Ms. King is also a distinguished interpreter of contemporary repertoire. She frequently has performed works such as Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are, Ligeti's Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures, along with countless new works. She was Artistic Associate of the English National Opera's Baylis Program from 2004 to 2006, and also oversaw the ENO's highly successful performance skills course, The Knack for eleven years. She is also increasingly well-known for her work on television, and was one of the driving forces behind the critically acclaimed Operatunity—a five week television series introducing opera to the public, which was followed by Musicality—a five part series on musical theater. In July 2006, Ms. King served as an analyst at Cardiff Singer of the World for BBC Television.

Catherine Milliken completed her music degree in her native Australia, studying piano and oboe. She continued oboe studies in Europe under Heinz Hollinger and Maurice Bourgue while simultaneously undertaking full-time studies of the Dalcroze method of music education. As a founding member of the renowned contemporary music group Ensemble Modern Germany, Ms. Milliken has worked with leading composers and conductors of our time, including Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Frank Zappa, György Ligeti, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1990, she started composing and working with electronics. Since that time, she has composed for theatre, opera, radio, film, and installations and has received various awards for her work. Ms. Milliken has been commissioned by the Berliner Staatsoper, Staatstheatre Darmstadt, Southbank Centre London, the ZKM (Centre for New Media) Karlsruhe, The Experimental Electronic Studio of Freiburg, Center for Composition of Music Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX) in Paris, the German public radio stations of Saarland and Hessen, Deutschland Rundfunk, as well as Concerto Köln and various contemporary music festivals. In 1994, she formed HCD-Productions with composer-colleagues Dietmar Wiesner and Hermann Kretzschmar. Together, they have conceived installations and performances, produced recordings, and composed radio plays for which they received the “Prix Italia” in 1999.

The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall creates broad-reaching music education programs, playing a central role in Carnegie Hall’s commitment to making great music accessible to as many people as possible through creative musical interaction and inspiring lifelong learning. Educational programs are woven into the fabric of the Carnegie Hall concert season, with opportunities for preschoolers to adults, new listeners to emerging professional musicians. With its access to the world’s greatest artists and latest technologies, The Weill Music Institute is uniquely positioned to inspire the next generation of music lovers, nurture tomorrow’s musical talent, and shape the evolution of music education itself. The Weill Music Institute annually serves over 115,000 children, students, teachers, parents, young music professionals, and adults in the New York City metropolitan area, across the United States, and around the world.

Zukunft@BPhil—the Berliner Philharmoniker education initiative made possible by Deutsche Bank—was founded by Sir Simon Rattle in 2002, based on his belief that “music is not a luxury, but a fundamental necessity…a vital and essential component in the life of all people.” The program aims to awaken an enthusiasm for active and creative involvement in music in people of all ages, as well as those from different social and cultural backgrounds and varying levels of musical talent. Zukunft@BPhil presents a variety of projects annually in Berlin and on tour with the orchestra, each tied to the Berliner Philharmoniker’s programming. The projects, which include a community dance project and ten musical and/or compositional projects each year, encompass different art forms and are primarily intended for schoolchildren. They are moderated by music animators, members of the orchestra, and artists from various disciplines. A culminating public presentation is an integral element to most of the projects, allowing participants to share their new experiences with others. Songs: Ritual Rhythms is the second creative learning project of its kind to be presented by Zukunft@BPhil in New York City in partnership with The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall. The first project, presented in January 2006, invited student exploration of composer Thomas Adès' orchestral work, Asyla.


About the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sir Simon Rattle was chosen by the musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker to succeed Claudio Abbado as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director in June 1999, capping a relationship that began 12 years earlier. For 18 years (1980–1998) as Principal Conductor, Artistic Advisor, and then Music Director, he led the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. At the same time, Sir Simon served as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s first Principal Guest Conductor from 1981–1994, a position he now holds with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; and forged long-term bonds with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic. A distinguished opera conductor as well, he has performed works of Mozart, Strauss, Wagner, Beethoven, and Janáček, and led the world premiere of Nicholas Maw’s Sophie’s Choice. An exclusive EMI artist, Simon Rattle has made more than 60 recordings with the CBSO, Berliner Philharmoniker, and other orchestras. He was named a K.B.E in 1994 in recognition of his contribution to the arts.

The history of the Berliner Philharmoniker has been written by the legendary music directors who preceded Simon Rattle. They include Hans von Bülow, who helped establish the orchestra’s high musical standards; Arthur Nikisch, who during his 27-year tenure brought the ensemble to international stature; Wilhelm Furtwängler, who significantly expanded its repertoire to include works by major 20th-century composers; Herbert von Karajan, who cultivated the orchestra’s distinctive sound, made countless recordings, and founded its Salzburg Easter Festival; and Claudio Abbado, who developed cycles of concerts having specific thematic concepts, and who brought more than half of the current players to the ensemble. Under Simon Rattle’s direction, while upholding this tradition of excellence, the Berliner Philharmoniker is expanding its cultural mission by developing projects designed to bring music and music education to the widest possible audiences.

Program Information
Saturday, November 17 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 18 at 3:00 p.m.
The United Palace Theater, 4140 Broadway at 175th Street
THE RITE OF SPRING PROJECT
Berliner Philharmoniker
Simon Rattle, Music Director and Conductor
Students from The Rite of Spring Project
Royston Maldoom, Choreographer

Songs: Ritual Rhythms—an original composition by New York City public school students based on themes from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring

IGOR STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

The Berlin in Lights festival is made possible by a leadership gift from the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.

Major funding has also been provided by Mercedes and Sid Bass, and Fundación Mercantil (Venezuela), with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding provided by Axel Springer and GWFF USA Inc.

The Rite of Spring Project is made possible, in part, by a generous gift from Martha and Bob Lipp and by the Jerome Robbins Foundation.

This is a program of The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall in partnership with Zukunft@BPhil, the Berliner Philharmoniker Education Program made possible by Deutsche Bank.

Bank of America is the proud season sponsor of Carnegie Hall.

For a complete schedule of Berlin in Lights events, including all additional Berliner Philharmoniker performances during their eight day November residency, please visit www.carnegiehall.org/berlininlights/ .