"QCSO Up Close with Ballet Quad Cities: The Soldier's Tale" at St. Ambrose University -- October 9.
Saturday, October 9, 7:30 p.m.
St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center, 518 Locust Street, Davenport IA
On October 9, a gifted series of disparate artists ranging from Quad City Symphony Orchestra musicians to professional dancers to an Augustana College instructor/performer to a visiting guest conductor will gather at St. Ambrose University for QCSO Up Close with Ballet Quad Cities: The Soldier's Tale, an evening of music and movement headlined by the influential and rhythmic Igor Stravinsky ballet of the title.
Largely considered to be Stravinsky's greatest work for narrator and orchestra, The Soldier's Tale (L'Histoire du soldat) premiered in Switzerland in 1918, and was based on a Russian folk tale drawn from the collection of Alexander Afanasyev titled The Runaway Soldier & the Devil. With the ballet conceived by Stravinsky and Swiss writer C.F. Ramuz, the work was originally designed to be interpreted by three actors and one or several dancers as accompanied by a septet of musicians, the music scored for violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, and percussion. It is the story of a soldier, on leave from the army, who trades his old violin for a magic book that can tell the future and make him rich. The soldier soon discovers, however, that he has made a deal with the devil, and that money does not ultimately bring happiness. Described by MaestroClassics.com as “the best way to introduce your children to Igor Stravinsky,” the hour-long ballet has enjoyed performances with New York City Opera, Lincoln Center, and the New York City Ballet, and was once even adapted in an animated version for PBS's Great Performances, with Max von Sydow providing the voice of the devil.
For the October 9 performance, The Soldier's Tale score will be performed by bassoonist Benjamin Coelho, trombonist Michael Cox, violinist Naha Greenholtz, percussionist Tony Oliver, trumpet player Matthew Onstad, bass player Dave Scholl, and clarinetist Don Won under the direction of guest conductor Kyle Knox. Narration will be provided by Augustana College's assistant professor of theatre Shelley Cooper, star and creator of the recent musical play Mary & Ethel: How I Learned to Sing. And the featured Ballet Quad Cities dancers for The Soldier's Tale are company members Nicholas Bartolotti, Sierra DeYoung, Christian Knopp, Madeleine Rhode, Jillian Van Cura, and Mahalia Zellmer, with the choreography by Ballet Quad Cities Artistic Director Courtney Lyon.
In addition to the performance of A Soldier's Tale, the evening will feature QCSO's principal bassoonist Coelho exploring the rhythms of jazz in Libby Larson’s Jazz Variations for Solo Bassoon, as well as dancers from Ballet Quad Cities joining principal clarinetist Won and principal bassist Scholl for the Swing Era-inspired Benny’s Gig composed by Morton Gould for the great jazz clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman.
QCSO Up Close with Ballet Quad Cities: The Soldier's Tale will be presented in St. Ambrose's Galvin Fine Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on October 9, admission is $8-23, and a digital-access version of the concert event is also available for $10-25, with the program viewable for 30 days following the live-stream. For more information and tickets, call St. Ambrose at (563)333-6251 or the Quad City Symphony Orchestra at (563)322-7276 and visit QCSO.org.
