Bill T. Jones: Notes on Tonight's Program

Director's Note on tonight's performance of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in Story/Time.

The visual landscape of Story/Time is defined by my sitting at a desk in the middle of the playing area. The decision to do this is a direct response to the image I hold of John Cage in his work Indeterminacy (1958), in which he sat alone on stage reading an unbroken stream of one-minute stories to a small audience. Initially, that is what I thought this work would be: an opportunity for me to return to the stage in a low-key, non-popular performance art-mode, reading my stories, each one a minute long, often personal but not exclusively so. As the company is an essential expression of my thought and creative process, I decided that I would read the stories at the center of the ever-shifting landscape of the company's task-based menu of events. I felt that this would make for an interesting and resonant dissonance- something John Cage himself was interested in. He and I are quite different men; our time are different. This fact added a layer of urgency and interest for me as I am constantly attempting to calibrate and understand my work and myself in the modernist tradition. Turning to Cage at this point in my creative life serves as both a provocation and a comfort.

As in the 1959 treatment of Indeterminacy by Cage, joined by David Tudor, the three main streams of Story/Time (stories, choreography, and music) are sometimes (but not exclusively) governed by chance procedure, each pursuing their own logic, simply co-incident. The stories (drawn from a selection of more than 150) and the order in which they are read are determined by chance. Seventy minutes of choreography are selected from a growing and changing menu of 35 items spanning 105 minutes. A unique musical score is generated by composer Ted Coffey during each performance.

- Bill T. Jones

This Week at Children's Theatre-in-the-Woods

Hey there little kids, big kids, young kids and old(er) kids!

I hope you have had a chance to visit Wolf Trap Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods this summer because it has had me up on my hind paws and howling like a wolf puppy! Wolf Trap has had some of the best family-friendly entertainment I have ever seen. Just last week I had the chance to see master puppeteer, Matthias Kuchta, perform The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats – a wolf pack favorite. Granny Winifred Wolf gave it two paws up! 

Luckily, the Theatre-in-the-Woods season is not over yet. There are still several shows to see and many memories to make. Don’t miss The Okee Dokee Brothers and the Pushcart Players this week! 

The Okee Dokee Brothers are my kind of people. They love the outdoors so much that they wrote their latest album, Can You Canoe?, while traveling down the length of the Mississippi river like a modern Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. They play such beautiful kid’s folk music that Out With The Kids blog writer, Jeff Bogle, writes, “Can You Canoe? is the best album for kids & families ever made." WHOA! Come “Take It Outside” with them Tuesday through Thursday, July 31 – August 2!

Friday and Saturday of this week, The Pushcart Players are bringing a classic fairytale to the woods. They are a premier touring theatre company for family audiences, and believe me, they’re sure to make you laugh until your fur curls. Watch them perform Happily Ever After…A Cinderella Tale with wit and charm. According to the Players, we will be “humming the hums and thinking the thinks all the way home!” 

 

I look forward to seeing you back at Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods this week!

Your pen pal with paws,

WOLFIE

NSO@Wolf Trap: Beethoven's 9th

This post is from NSO@Wolf Trap Festival Conductor Emil de Cou.

For composers of the Romantic era, so it is said, the premiere of their Ninth symphony was akin to The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb. No one survived to complete a Tenth: Schubert, Dvorak, Bruckner. One last stroke of the quill... and then the great composer slumped over the manuscript. Pan to flickering candle, fade out, the end.

Gustav Mahler, an extremely superstitious man, took the curse quite seriously and tried to turn the evil eye away by naming what would have been his Ninth symphony Das Lied von der Erde ("The Song of the Earth"). Alas, if you truly believe a curse you cannot hide from it: Das Lied would be his final work in the symphonic form. He died with his Tenth symphony incomplete.

All of this sounds ready-made for Hollywood but it is, in fact, mostly the classical music equivalent of urban myth. Many composers originally credited with nine symphonies actually wrote fewer, others who purportedly stopped at nine wrote more. Earlier works were unearthed, attributions corrected, and later works that existed in sketch form were faithfully completed by highly competent composers with commitment to authenticity. The final editions of these works are (almost) as musically valid as if they had been completed from the grave. The myth also presumes that the symphonic form is the greatest expression of a composer's gift - as if concertos, sonatas, chamber music, solo, and vocal works were second-class citizens.

Of all these cursed claims, the most prominent is Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor Op.125, which had its premiere in 1824, a good three years before the composer's death. His final string quartets, as dazzling as any symphonic work, were yet to come. (Find me something better than the Opus 130 "Grosse Fuge" and I've got a performing arts center in Vienna, Virginia I can sell you.) There is no question that his symphonies are the apotheosis of the form and that the Ninth remains one of the greatest works of art in the history of the universe.

But did Beethoven intend that his symphonic output would end with Nine? "Nein!" Shortly after the premiere of the Ninth he was already working on a Tenth symphony. There is also a legitimate case to be made for a revisionist renumbering. If you count his Battle Symphony- Wellington's Victory, and the very symphonic Choral Fantasy, what we consider to be his Ninth is actually his Eleventh, which takes away the curse, but unfortunately takes a bit of ring-a-ding-ding out of the title.

The "Ode to Joy" of the final movement, with the text of the poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, is the final element that elevates the Ninth from a musical work to a political work in the very best sense. Freedom and equality run as a constant thread through Beethoven's musical philosophy - he dedicated his Third symphony ("Erocia") to Napoleon Bonaparte (and violently scratched the Frenchman's name from the score when he crowned himself emperor). His only opera, Fidelio, is about the eventual triumph of man (and especially woman) over political oppression. Beethoven's exaltation of freedom is very much like our own imperfect (or more perfect) union. And in this fractious political season, joy and universal brotherhood are good words to remember.

Beethoven's 9th

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra, Op. 46 - Max Bruch

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, "Choral" - Ludwig Van Beethoven

News and Notes for the Week of July 27, 2012

Can you believe that there are only 6 more weeks left of the summer season at Wolf Trap? You had better get your tickets soon for the latter part of the season—we are selling out shows left and right! But first, let’s take a look back at the past week at Wolf Trap.

Last night Irish conductor Eimear Noone led the National Symphony Orchestra through a multimedia presentation celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. The Washington Examiner interviewed Noone before the performance in this preview piece, so read up and see what you missed!

The second of only three dance performances this summer, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company make their debut on the Filene Center stage this coming Tuesday. The dance troupe will be performing the new work Story/Time for the first time in the D.C. area. Head on over to The Washington City Paper and The Washington Post to get the inside scoop on this one-of-a-kind performance. Did I forget to mention that lawn tickets are only $4?

Broadway chanteuse Idina Menzel will be at Wolf Trap this coming Friday. Want to know what to expect? Jessica Goldstein from The Washington Post gets up close and personal with Idina to find out what she’ll performing on Friday—and most importantly, if she will in fact be performing barefoot.  

From hometown girl to cover girl, Mary Chapin Carpenter graces the cover of MetroWeekly. Carpenter will be at Wolf Trap later in the season, but for now you can check out her interview with Doug Rule to see how she feels about returning to her roots and why Wolf Trap is such a special place for her.

Wolf Trap's Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods has had a busy season thus far! High profile performers and sold-out shows have become the norm around here. Mommy Blogger Amanda Socci won a family 4 pack from FAMILY Magazine of Washington DC to see Elizabeth Mitchell on July 5. Check out what she has to say about Mitchell and TITW here!

NSO@Wolf Trap: The Planets

This post is from NSO@Wolf Trap Festival Conductor Emil de Cou.

In the 17th century a newfangled machine called the pipe organ took hold and, when matched with the glories of Baroque and Renaissance artists and composers, created awe-inspiring multimedia experiences in cathedrals everywhere.

Tonight we enjoy two works that are also milestones in the fusion of music, imagery, and technology, both based on works by composers who were prolific but often unheralded. Ferde Grofe (1892-1972) was an American composer of French extraction whose accomplishments as an arranger first established his credentials: it was he who took Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue from a duo piano piece and translated it into the jazz orchestra hit performed by Paul Whiteman's band and thence to the colorful full orchestra version we know today. Grofe's original version of Rhapsody in Blue is brilliantly preserved in one of the first music videos (well, music films, since video wasn't invented yet): the 1930 King of Jazz, which featured elaborate choreography synchronized to jazz hits of the period.

Of Grofe's many compositions - jazz, pop, classical- his greatest affinity was for the natural beauty of America, in particular our great rivers. The most famous of these works, the Grand Canyon Suite, evokes the journey of the Colorado River in five movements. Once again Grofe was on the cutting edge of art-meets-music meets the latest medium: the Disney documentary Grand Canyon, which paired Grofe's music with elaborate imagery, won the 1959 Academy Award for Best Short Subject.

Following the Grand Canyon Suite (minus the Disney film, sorry) we're honored tonight to have NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on hand to introduce a new film from director Duncan Copp celebrating Curiosity, the latest mission to Mars. A massive rover that resembles something from a distant galaxy or a Terminator film, Curiosity is set to land about 10 days from now. We've paired this savory film with a nice glass of Bizet, the Farandole from the L'Arlessienne Suite No. 2.

Our media-music mash-up continues with English composer Gustav Holst's The Planets with high definition video courtesy of NASA. The musical career of Holst (1874-1934) was somewhat similar to Grofe's in its diversity. When a nerve condition affected Holst's right hand, his early aspirations as a pianist came to an end and he took up the trombone instead, playing popular music in the White Viennese Band. He would develop eclectic interests through his compositional career, setting everything from Walt Whitman to Sanskrit, as well as major choral works in the traditional English manner.

Though he was not particularly thrilled that The Planets became his greatest hit- and he might be a bit dismayed that we have taken an astronomical point of view rather than followed his astrological intentions- audiences have celebrated it as concert hall classic. Tonight, we magnify that classic with visuals that out-Disney Disney. These images, assembled by Duncan Copp, are derived from a variety of American and international initiatives: Mission Cassini to Saturn, Mission Galileo to Jupiter, as well as missions to Mercury, Mars and (okay, a top of the hat to Disney via Pixar) to Infinity and Beyond. We also share in imagery provided by Voyager spacecrafts, launched in the early 1970s and now reaching the outer-most reaches of our friendly skies. Did you know that Voyager carries "Golden Records" containing elements of life on Earth? Selected by the late great Carl Sagan, these discs contain scientific data, architecture, images of humans, animals, nature, spoken voices, and , naturally, the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Chuck Barry.

So while you are enjoying the earthly sounds of Holst and the heavenly National Symphony Orchestra while watching otherworldly images of our solar system and gazing up at real stars, please be aware that there could very well be little green men and women somewhere out there looking at images of you, listening to our music and asking the same eternal question:

Is there any more wine in that bottle?

The Planets - An HD Odyssey

Friday, July 27, 2012

Grand Canyon Suite - Ferde Grofe

Farandole from Suite No. 2 from L'Arlesienne - Georges Bizet

The Planets, Op. 32 - Gustav Holst

Where the Interns Come out to Play, Part #3

I’m back again with another round of introductions to some of this summer’s wonderful interns! Meet Reed, Arianna, Dominique, Rhemé, Libi, and (me) Lindsay. We come from all over the U.S. and from a variety of departments within Wolf Trap. You’ll find some downright poetic descriptions of life at Wolf Trap and some pretty ambitious career aspirations below…

 















Name: Reed Bonnet

Job at Wolf Trap: Multimedia Intern

Where do you go to school? Indiana University of Pennsylvania

What are you studying? Communications Media

What made you interested in working at Wolf Trap? A fellow visual artist told me about the program here. Arts and especially arts education are very important to our culture, and these things are swiftly falling by the wayside. I wanted to capture the spirit of the arts and share it with the internet generation!

Favorite Wolf Trap concert of the summer so far? Brandi Carlile was amazing! I went in with a mild appreciation of her and left enthralled with her talent and stage presence. She really had a lot of fun on stage and was genuinely excited to be there (she said playing Wolf Trap was a life-long dream).

Is your Wolf Trap internship what you expected it would be? Did you have expectations of what it would be like coming in? The internship is truly awesome. It’s better than I expected. Interns aren’t getting coffee and making copies here. We get real experience in our fields in a great environment. Supervisors are relateable and appreciative, and they encourage and value input and ideas from all interns.

If I could have any job in the world… Wes Anderson’s cinematographer.

Name: Arianna Zell

Job at Wolf Trap: Advertising & Group Sales Intern

Where do you go to school? College of William and Mary

What are you studying? Marketing and Music

What is the craziest/hardest thing you’ve had to do as part of your Wolf Trap internship?  Run Group Sales for the day! I had to understand the entire ticketing system, craft e-mails to customers, and (the hardest part) talk on the phone with people all day answering questions and helping them purchase tickets. Group Sales requires a lot of patience, composure, and energy! You’ve got to have those communication skills that everyone’s talking about. :)

Is your Wolf Trap internship what you expected it would be? Did you have expectations of what it would be like coming in? No, it’s better than what I expected it to be. I’ve experienced and seen almost every aspect of marketing from Advertising and Group Sales. I’ve learned different ways to think, brand, and market both a venue and a show. Wolf Trap gives you so much opportunity to meet, learn, and experience how a business is run. I’ll never forget this summer!

If I could have any job in the world… I would be working either in California or internationally for Interscope Records or a big music venue as the head/director of marketing. Ah, that would be awesome.

Name: Dominique Miller

Job at Wolf Trap: Program and Production Intern: Hospitality Supervisor

Where do you go to school? SUNY University at Buffalo

What are you studying? Arts Management

What made you interested in working at Wolf Trap? The commitment to diversity, its close proximity to Washington D.C., diversity within the programming, the Josie Bass Career Development Program for African American Students, and that the internship program is paid. :)

What are you working on? I am making sure artists are able to eat when they come for their shows and that all of their hospitality needs are met while at Wolf Trap.

Is your Wolf Trap internship what you expected it would be? Did you have expectations of what it would be like coming in? This internship has exceeded my expectations on many levels. Literally all employees are supportive of interns and their career goals. The open door policy allows for limitless opportunities for interns in regard to learning about Wolf Trap and the performing arts field in general.

 















Name: Rhemé Sloan

Job at Wolf Trap: Major Gifts Intern, Development

Where do you go to school? University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

What are you studying? Voice Performance and Performing Arts Management

Favorite Wolf Trap concert of the summer so far? Seal with Macy Gray. We stood out in the rain to watch the concert so the energy of the audience was really cool. And both Seal and Macy Gray gave fantastic performances and were so engaging with the crowd.

What are you working on? I am mainly working on the planning and execution of the upcoming Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony Chairman’s Dinner which is fast approaching.

Favorite song at the moment? “If I’m Any Closer” by Seal or “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen. Sorry, I’m not sorry.

If I could have any job in the world… General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera or Executive Director of the New York City Ballet

If I could live anywhere in the world… A nice apartment or home in New York City with a place somewhere in the south to take breaks from the city life. A quaint home somewhere in France would be ideal...You’ve gotta dream!

 















Name: Libi Baehr

Job at Wolf Trap: Finance Intern

Where do you go to school? Wake Forest University

What are you studying? Accounting and Psychology

What made you interested in working at Wolf Trap? Growing up just down the road, Wolf Trap has always been an important part of my life. Although I had heard wonderful things about the internship program at Wolf Trap, I never thought it would be a possibility for me—someone who had very little arts background and was majoring in accounting. When I did some more research, however, I saw that there were internships available in marketing, development, and even finance.

Favorite Wolf Trap concert of the summer so far? My favorite concert so far was probably RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles. Even though it, ironically, rained that night, it was still a fantastic and unforgettable concert!

Favorite food? Tortilla chips from Chipotle…yum

If I could have any job in the world… It would be getting paid to be a professional “pinner” on Pinterest (I’m obsessed). Tied with that for first place would be working in finance or development for a non-profit.

Name: Lindsay Sheridan

Job at Wolf Trap: Marketing Intern

Where do you go to school? Luther College in Decorah, Iowa

What are you studying? Music major, Management minor

Is your Wolf Trap internship what you expected it would be? To be honest, I can’t even remember exactly what my expectations were coming in. Whatever they were, I’m sure this internship has exceeded them. The environment and the types of shows we sell are radically different from anything I had previous experience with – which has been fantastic! Also, the sense of community between the interns has been so much fun.

Favorite song at the moment? “The Story” by Brandi Carlile 

If you could have any job in the world… My standard answer used to be “executive director of an orchestra”. Now I say I will be a leader in the world of the arts, whatever that might mean. If someone had told me six months ago that I would be launching a local music series with a business partner come September, I would have been shocked. Right now that’s the job I want. Who knows what will come next!

This Week at Children's Theatre-in-the-Woods

Today's post is written by Mark Blashford, Wolf Trap's education outreach intern.

Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, children’s theatre aficionados et. al, Wolf Trap Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods has another summertime treat for you! Matthias Kuchta, a German master puppeteer, is flying all the way from Düsseldorf, Germany to be with us from Tuesday, July 24 to Saturday, July 28! Matthias Kuchta’s enchanting puppets will come to life on our stage in his rendition of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats.

Now kids, the story of The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats is particularly near and dear to my heart. It is one of my family’s favorite bedtime stories. In fact, my granny, Winifred Wolf, tells it best. She always insists, however, that we are not related to the wolf in this story. “We get a bad rep,” she says, “even though we are not huff-and-puff-blow-your-house-down wolves!”

She is right. Unlike my wolf pack and me, the Grimm Brothers’ Canis lupus is a wicked wolf that is unkind to his goat neighbors. As you all know, I’m a nice guy and I have a lot of friends including seven little goats. I had wanted to audition for the role of “The Big, Bad Wolf” in this week’s show, but the park rangers told me that I am too cuddly, and not tricky enough for Matthias Kuchta’s production. According to my sources, Mr. Kuchta’s puppets are incredible performers and his performances are quite magical… join me this week at the Theatre-in-the-Woods to see for yourself!

Your pen pal with paws,

WOLFIE

A "Tesh Sesh" to Remember...

Today's post is from Justin McCarthy, Wolf Trap's Creative Copywriting Intern

Maybe you think you “get” John Tesh. Perhaps you’ve seen him host Entertainment Tonight, or you’re among the 14 million listeners that tune in to his syndicated radio show Intelligence for Your Life. Maybe you like to unwind on Sunday evenings with your own little “Tesh Sesh”: some lavender bath oil, a few aroma therapy candles, and his velvety baritone as you commune, together, in musical worship. You know and love this two-time GRAMMY nominee and multiple Emmy Award winner, and you have a great rapport when, in your imagination, the two of you hash out the troubles and tribulations of life in your car as that smooth, lulling voice guides you home from work. So what’s the deal with this John Tesh Big Band stuff, you ask? Does he have it in him to take on the Great American Songbook, revisiting the classics of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, while still maintaining that distinctly Tesh-esque quality of showmanship and endearing charm? You’re posing a question akin to that quandary famously aired by Will Ferrell as Robert Goulet on Saturday Night Live: can he croon? 

I’m here to tell you right now: absolutely. This summer John Tesh is going prove to you that he truly has “Got the World on a String,” and can swing with the best of ‘em. Tesh really is in his element with these American classics at his fingertips, and he’s backed by a searing big band ensemble specializing in thundering brass, dancing winds and tight rhythms. Old Blue Eyes Sinatra himself would get chills from Tesh’s interpretation of “The Summer Wind,” and crowd favorites like “Blue Skies” and “Beyond the Sea,” are sure to start some house-rockin’ sing-a-longs. Mix in some familiar (but updated for the horn section) Tesh originals like “Barcelona” and “Give Me Forever,” and you’ve got the show of the Wolf Trap season on your hands. 

I’m the copywriting intern, so I’ve been writing about the artists at Wolf Trap for weeks now. Every day, I crank out writing that’s designed to make musicians look appealing, and sometimes it can be tough to find the right angle and generate enough of a “hook.” Not this time. I volunteered to write this blog post because there is quite literally too much to say about John Tesh. I’m having trouble expressing to you just how fantastic this show will be. I’ll be on the lawn with a bottle of wine and a date, swing dancing and singing my heart out. I hope you will be, too.

Wolf Trap: Where the Interns Come Out to Play #2

There are 30 interns at Wolf Trap this summer. That’s 30 people with totally different college degrees, career aspirations, and hometown addresses. Wolf Trap interns are seriously ambitious but a lot of fun. They work in every department – Opera, Program and Production, Communications and Marketing, Development... 

Despite the large variety of backgrounds among the interns, one thing seems to be common – they are excited to be here and love their Wolf Trap experience so far. Check out this first interview installment highlighting some of this summer’s interns, including thoughts on their jobs and answers to important questions like “If I were a sandwich, I would be…” 

Name: Victoria Lightfoot 

Job at Wolf Trap: Public Relations Intern 

Where do you go to school? Alumnae of Georgia State University What are you studying? I recently received my B.A. in Journalism with a concentration in Public Relations and minor in Hospitality Administration 

What is the craziest/hardest thing you’ve had to do as part of your Wolf Trap internship? Pitch calls for “Face of America: Spirit of South Florida”! It can be very nerve-racking to call someone you don’t know and try to convince them to tell such a complex story! But in the end, I was able to secure some coverage and also get more comfortable with pitching to the media. 

Favorite Wolf Trap concert of the summer so far? I have two… Broadway Rocks! with the NSO was excellent! The music selections were fun and had the crowd up and moving and the vocalists were beyond amazing! The other was Seal and Macy Gray – they both had tremendous stage presence! They choose great songs to cover and they were both really into the music.

If I could have any job in the world… I would have my own Public Relations agency specializing in non-profit management. 

If you were a sandwich, what would you be… the No. 10 Hunter’s Club from Jimmy John’s! Roast Beef with mayo, tomato, a little lettuce and avocado and french bread! MHHHMM! 

Name: Emily McHugh 

Job at Wolf Trap: Special Events intern 

Where do you go to school? I completed my Bachelor’s degree at Northwestern University in Chicago, and just finished graduate school at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. 

What are you studying? Vocal Performance 

What made you interested in working at Wolf Trap? I have been attending shows at Wolf Trap since I was a child, so it has always been special to me. I had previously spent two wonderful summers as a seasonal hospitality employee for the Program & Production department as well. I was dying to return! 

What are you working on? I assist with planning our various Wolf Trap member events, major fundraisers, and corporate rental events. Specifically, I am helping with our Wolf Trap Golf Tournament, The 2012 Wolf Trap Ball, the Face of America: Spirit of South Florida premiere events, Club 66’s second annual ROCKtoberFete, and various Member Appreciation Nights, Theater Parties, Chairman’s Dinners, Opera rehearsals, and NSO Invited Rehearsals.

Is your Wolf Trap internship what you expected it would be? Did you have expectations of what it would be like coming in? This internship is just as exciting, challenging, and rewarding as I expected it to be! I work with the most amazing women in this department, and I get to interact with the friendliest patrons around. I learn something new about Wolf Trap every day. 

If I could have any job in the world… I would be a marine biologist and study large sea creatures like sharks, whales, and dolphins. A total lack of scientific skills precludes me from this career, but when Shark Week rolls around I like to indulge my imagination. 

Name: Catherine Hann 

Job at Wolf Trap: Special Events Intern

Where do you go to school? The University of Kentucky 

What are you studying? Bachelor of Arts in Arts Administration with an emphasis in Music Performance 

What is the craziest/hardest thing you’ve had to do as part of your Wolf Trap internship? Carry our solid wood podium while wearing a dress and heels! If I have to break a sweat, I might as well look awesome while doing it. 

Favorite Wolf Trap concert of the summer so far? A Prairie Home Companion. When Garrison Keillor got 7,000 people to sing in harmony, it sent chills up my spine. 

Favorite food? Cobb Salad from Sweetleaf. I’m really going to miss Sweetleaf when I go back to Kentucky. 

If I could have any job in the world… Play trombone in the Saturday Night Live band. 

If I could live anywhere in the world… Anywhere east of the Mississippi. Sorry West Coast folks, I like watching my TV shows at the intended hour. 

If I were a sandwich, I would be… the Bacon Turkey Bravo from Panera. I don’t know what kind of magical flavors go into making that bread, but it’s the most amazing sandwich ever.  

Name: Michelle Melton 

Job at Wolf Trap: Education Intern 

Where do you go to school? James Madison University 

What are you studying? Theatre & Communications, Sciences, and Disorders (undergrad program for Speech Therapy) 

What are you working on? I am currently preparing and organizing for the Summer Institute, a five-day institute for teachers who will be participating in the Early Childhood STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Learning Through the Arts. This is the latest initiative for the Wolf Trap Institute Early Learning Through the Arts.

I kind of hate this question, but I have to ask – is your Wolf Trap internship what you expected it would be? Did you have expectations of what it would be like coming in? Even though I had researched about the internship and heard such great things about it, I didn’t know what to expect. I knew it was ranked as one of the best internships and now I completely know why. This is the best internship you could ever have. I am not lying when I say that. The people that work at Wolf Trap care about you and help you not only grow as a professional in the business world, but as a person. 

Favorite song at the moment? "Payphone" by Maroon 5 

If I could have any job in the world… one at Wolf Trap or as head of a camp that I create for children with speech, language, and hearing disability that incorporates the arts. 

If I were a sandwich, I would be… a Chilean sandwich called an Ave Palta, which has chicken salad on it and avocado mashed up on wheat bread slices.

This Week at Children's Theatre-in-the-Woods

Today's post is by Mark Blashford, Wolf Trap's education outreach intern.

Calling all music and dance loving kids and grown-ups!

Wolf Trap Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods is the summer destination for creative kid-friendly sounds and breathtaking ballet artistry. This week Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, Robbie Schaefer, and the Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington D.C. are coming to my theatre in picturesque northern Virginia to perform for you!

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem is a folk band from Connecticut with the chops to take you and your loved ones on a wholesome mountain music journey on Tuesday, July 17th and Wednesday, July 18th. They will wow you with a 95% recycled percussion kit, featuring a cardboard box, tin cans, caulk tubes, and a vinyl suitcase. You won’t believe the sounds they can make, and you’ll likely be inspired to make your own drum set as soon as you get home!

On Thursday, sing along to songs that will guarantee laughs from all ages with Eddie From Ohio guitarist, Robbie Schaefer! Mr. Schaefer is a consummate musician and no stranger to Wolf Trap, having just performed here in April. Like the cereal slogan, he is “kid tested, mother approved.”

The fourth week concludes with the amazing technical skill of the Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington D.C. This pre-professional dance school trains its students in authentic Russian ballet tradition. Your family will be inspired by the history of ballet through a series of vignettes in Kirov’s production, The Secrets of Ballet. *Fun fact* Did you know that ballet was restricted to only males when it was first performed? I hope you’ll join me this Friday and Saturday by pulling on your dance tights and lacing up your pointe shoes!

Your pen pal with paws,

WOLFIE

NSO@Wolf Trap: The Wizard of Oz

This post is from NSO@Wolf Trap Festival Conductor Emil de Cou.

In one of the great acceptance speech zingers of all time, the legendary Meryl Streep famously said, "There are some days when even I think I'm overrated, but not today." The award in hand was an Emmy for her performance in the television adaptation of Angels in America, in which she played not one, but four roles to perfection: a mother, a rabbi, an anarchist, and an angel.

Though I lay no claim to her talent, I can relate to her wry immodesty. Many is the time that I read my bio or hear applause and I think, well, thank you very much, but really it's a bit much.

But not tonight.

I have been a professional conductor for my entire adult life and have had the privilege of leading major orchestras in major works, from classics of the baroque era to opera to contemporary works of great complexity. But rarely do I get the mental and physical workout the likes of which I get when I conduct a live performance of The Wizard of Oz. Since the NSO and I premiered the symphony 'n' screen adaptation at Wolf Trap in 2005, I have performed it several times here and with other orchestras. Despite the fact that the score has been seared into my brain from early childhood, each time I conduct this score I feel like I'm being sucked up into a black and white vortex and dropped down in a color fantasy, only to be shipped back to sepia reality. It's an emotional journey worthy of Bruckner, except much, much more complicated.

When you conduct Bruckner you don't have to deal with witches (good ones and bad ones from every point on the compass), Munchkins (who sings in the strangest keys), flying monkeys, talking vegetation, and a lost little girl who pauses to sing with her friends now and then. What sounds seamless to the audience is, in live performance, a bazillion little calculations by me and 100 musicians who have to adapt at the flick of the wrist. No matter how many times we perform The Wizard of Oz - same score, same film, same orchestra, same me - the Tin Man always dances off the beat, the monkeys tear up the Scarecrow ahead of their cue, and Dorothy's heels click in a tempo that has little to do with whatever else is going on.

I can't really blame Harold Arlen, who wrote the songs, nor can I scold Herbert Stothart, who scored the instrumental sections, nor the half a dozen or so other members of the musical staff, many of who remain uncredited. The fact is that a film score is a collaboration among artists and art forms and The Wizard of Oz was created, masterfully so, before the technology existed to sync sound and scene to the microsecond as we do now. Any attempt to recreate it in a live environment lends even more room for error.


But of course the potential for error is part of what makes live performance all the more fun. Fortunately the 100 artists who are members of the National Symphony Orchestra make me look good. At least today.

Take a journey to Oz like you never have before, with the complete 1939 classic shown on HUGE screens in-house and on the lawn and the full score played live by the NSO tonight, Saturday, July 14, at 8:30 pm.

News and Notes for the Week of July 13, 2012

Now that the heat wave has subsided, it’s the perfect time to come spend your evenings at Wolf Trap. We’ve had a lot going on, so here’s this week’s news and notes to keep you on beat with us!

Seal and Macy Gray kicked off their first stop of their summer tour at Wolf Trap on Tuesday evening despite the downpour. Both artists performed songs from their newly released cover albums, Soul II and Covered, respectively. If the concert wasn’t enough for you, then check out this interview by Elysa Gardner from USA Today with Seal himself.

Tickets at Wolf Trap are selling out fast, but don’t fret—The Washington City Paper has got your back! This month you can enter for a chance to win tickets to three of Wolf Trap’s most popular performances, Jackson Browne , Summerland tour, and NSO @ Wolf Trap's The Planets - An HD Odyssey. Head on over right now! 

The NSO @ Wolf Trap season finally kicked off last weekend with two back-to-back performances, Broadway Rocks! and The Music of John Williams. The Examiner previewed two of the NSO’s upcoming shows for this weekend, Hamlisch Goes Gershwin and The Wizard of Oz. Read up on these before you go! 

This season at Theatre-in-the-Woods has been filled with some of today’s biggest kindie music stars. GRAMMY-nominated singer/songwriter Justin Roberts will make an appearance later in the TITW season, but until then you can check out his interview with Go Ask Mom blogger Sarah Lindenfeld Hall.

What We're Listening To: July

It’s that time again; once a month we give you a taste of what your humble blog team has pumping through their ear buds. With summer officially in full swing, we have included a few Wolf Trap hits like Gipsy Kings' "Bomboleo" and Wilco's "Born Alone" as well as a few possibly lesser known (but still worth checking out) tracks from Regina Spektor, Matt & Kim, and Milo Greene, among others. Don't forget to sound off below and let us know what you're listening to. We may work at a concert venue, but we're still always up for some suggestions! 

NSO@Wolf Trap: Hamlisch Goes Gershwin

This post is from NSO@Wolf Trap Festival Conductor Emil de Cou.

Born in New York... a child prodigy on the piano... paid the bills writing arrangements... distinguished composer for Broadway and Hollywood...

Marvin? George? Marvin? George?

Tonight we are privileged to have both, as the NSO's great friend Marvin Hamlisch leads a tribute to George Gershwin. Kindred spirits in mining and mingling American genres (Gershwin brought jazz to the concert hall, Hamlisch brought ragtime to the movies), they each cut their teeth behind the scenes as well, each consummate musicians who came up through the ranks. Gershwin was a song plugger who churned out piano rolls. Hamlisch got his start as a rehearsal pianist for Barbra Streisand.

Tonight's program features works by some of the most distinguished arrangers of their time: Ferde Grofe, Robert Russell Bennett, Torrie Zito, Hilding Anderson, and Robert McBride. Each had distinguished careers on Broadway, in Hollywood, on the road, and in recording studios. Whether they honed their skills on Tin Pan Alley or at Juilliard, they were highly esteemed by the composers whose works they brought to life.

Among those composers who owe them a debt of gratitude is George Gershwin. A prolific arranger and orchestrator in his early years, he readily collaborated with muscians whose skills complemented his. There are some who argue that composers who delegate or collaborate with arrangers or orchestrators are somehow lesser deities. Especially in the case of musical theatre, the dominant genre of Gershwin's career, the time demands alone would crush any composer who tried to go it alone. Song are dropped and added in rehearsal and on the road, recitative needs underscoring, the star demands a key change. As for scoring, recording, and conducting film music, well, it takes an entire music department to bring the composer's ideas to fruition.

This is not to say that the arranger dilutes the composer's intentions. On the contrary, the very best arrangers take the composer's "short score," with its melody, harmony, rhythm, and suggestions for instrumentation, and enhance those intentions with sympathetic orchestrations. Ferde Grofe (1892-1972) is most famous as a composer for his Grand Canyon Suite (which we'll be performing in two weeks at our The Planets- An HD Odyssey concert), but his legacy shines further in his arrangement of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which Grofe adapted from a two-piano work into a jazz orchestra classic for the Paul Whitman Orchestra. The Grofe arrangement established Gershwin's career and helped define the jazzy-classical sound we associate with the composer. Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981) created orchestrations for the giant of film and theatre: Berlin, Kern, Rodgers, porter, Lowe, and Styne. He worked on numerous shows with Gershwin and was his devoted assistant on his 1937 film Shall We Dance. At that time, Gershwin was already suffering from the brain surgery that would ultimately take his life at age 39.

As you listen to each work tonight you might hear some subtleties that reflects the talents of the arrangers, but for the most part their contributions- if executed properly- are invisible except to the most finely tune ears. The polished sound you hear may well be the product of the pens of two men, but the spirit that invades you is the composer's gift alone. A Gershwin song by any arrangement sounds just as 's wonderful. 

Hamlisch Goes Gershwin

Friday, July 13, 2012 at 8:15 pm

Marvin Hamlisch, conductor

Melissa Errico, vocalist

Kevin Cole, piano

Selections from Porgy and Bess

Swanee

Rhapsody in Blue

Gershwin in Hollywood

"Someone to Watch Over Me" from Oh, Kay

"Embraceable You" from Girl Crazy

"By Strauss" from The Show is On

Overture to Of Thee I Sing

An American in Paris

Wolf Trap: Where the Interns Come Out to Play

Ranked “One of America’s Top 100 Internships” by The Princeton Review, Wolf Trap’s Internship Program offers undergraduate, graduate students and recent graduates the opportunity to get hands on experience in the world of arts administration. Including a diversity program for African-American and Latino students, Wolf Trap seeks to train the next generation of arts leaders.

Working at Wolf Trap is more than a job, it’s a life changing experience! Over the course of 12 weeks, interns have multiple opportunities to meet and network with staff members from all six departments (Program & Production, Communications & Marketing, External Affairs, Planning & Partnerships, Development, and Education). Facilitating this type of meet and greet between 30 interns and 80 plus staff members must be impossible, right? Actually, when a program has been around as long as Wolf Trap’s, all it takes is a series of weekly lunches.

Every Wednesday at noon, all interns gather in the Center for Education for an up-close and personal Q&A session with senior staff members from the various departments. There is even a lunch scheduled with Wolf Trap’s President and CEO, Terre Jones! During this time, interns learn how each staff member got their start in the world of arts administration and what ultimately led them to work at Wolf Trap. Afterwards, the floor is open to all types of questions, from career advice to job descriptions and the Wolf Trap experience.

But the dialog doesn’t stop there—Wolf Trap also has an open door policy for interns. You can request a meeting with anyone to have a one-on-one conversation!

This isn’t your standard 9-5— you won’t just sit at your computer all day and then head home. The staff here want to see their interns succeed, whether at Wolf Trap or at another organization. Career development is key, and you can expect nothing but the best training from Wolf Trap!