NM Phil on a journey from Broadway to tango
The New Mexico Philharmonic will join the New Mexico Ballet in a night of song and dance at Popejoy Hall on Saturday, Nov.17.
The evening will feature collaborations with local dancers, as well as players from the orchestra’s Young Musician Initiative.
Audiences will hear music from Broadway’s “Phantom of the Opera,” “Pippen” and “Lord of the Dance,” as well as the orchestra’s continuing tribute to Leonard Bernstein in honor of his 100th anniversary.
Guest conductor Grant
Cooper will lead an evening of tango, flamenco, Irish dance and more. Members of the Coleman Academy of Irish Dance, flamenco dancers Carlos Menchaca and Madison Olguin, as well as tango dancers Eva Garlez and Pablo Rodriquez will interpret the music on stage.
Cooper has added compositions of his own through two tangos.
“They’re simply little tunes that reflect what I as a New Zealander believe tango to be,” he said in a phone interview from his home in upstate New York. “It’s like learning a new language. It defies description, except I hope it inspires the dancers to dance.”
The dancers also will perform his six-movement ballet.
“We don’t have a title to it because we’re re-interpreting it,” he said. “It’s not going to look like ‘Swan Lake’ or ‘The Nutcracker.’ It’s about movement and how the dancers feel in their bodies as they dance to the music.”
Singers from the Enchantment Award Singers, otherwise known as the New Mexico High School Theatre Awards, will join the orchestra on an arrangement of Bernstein’s “Somewhere” from “West Side Story.”
Cooper will return to the New Mexico Philharmonic to conduct a concert of Rachmaninoff ‘s Piano Concerto No. 3 with pianist Olga Kern on Feb. 23.