Sarasota Orchestra celebrates the ‘Music of the Dance’ in Discoveries concert
Audiences may not be dancing in their seats at the final Sarasota Orchestra Discoveries concert for 2023 but they should understandably have images of dancers during a performance focused on the art form.
“Cheers to the Music of Dance” features compositions created for dance performances, like Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Dance of Blessed Spirits” from his opera “Orpheus and Eurydice,” while others were written for orchestras and later transformed by choreographers.
One of the pieces featured, Poulenc’s “Sinfonietta” was turned into a ballet by Frederick Ashton that will be performed in the closing program of this season by The Sarasota Ballet.
Guest conductor Yue Bao, mostly recently associate conductor of the Houston Symphony, makes her Sarasota debut with the concert, which she said highlights a variety of musical style, particularly those inspired by dance styles.
“It’s not black and white. For the pieces that were written specifically for dancers, it is obviously composed to accompany dancing, like folk music and waltzes,” she said. But ‘Sinfonietta’ was not written for dance music. “There’s a certain flow and dance rhythm.”
Because the concert comes amid the holiday season, Bao said “we created this kind of very cheerful celebration program. We hope to create some delightful for a cheerful atmosphere for the night.”
The program also includes Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Emperor Waltz” and Johannes Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5.”
Bao spends most of her time traveling from city to city working with different orchestras, and has led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, among many others.
“For me it’s a privilege to be able to work with different groups and get experience, sounds and styles,” she said. Each orchestra has their own sound and personality. As a conductor we try to keep that alive and work with our own interpretation. You always get different chemistry with different orchestras. That’s the charm and excitement of my job.”
With a wave of her hands, she evolved into a conductor, she said. “I started with the piano and then started composition in school. I’d gather my friends to experience my work, to see if my crazy ideas work, that’s how I started to wave my arms. I would play the piano parts but I was waving at them, conducting them, and I grew more interested. I studied and took lessons and really enjoyed it.”
As a conductor, Bao said she sees herself “as a leader but also a collaborator as a team working with the musicians. I can share my love of music with the musicians and audiences at the same time, I hope they enjoy working with me and hoping I’m inspiring them and reminding them why we are doing this.”
The Discoveries concerts run roughly an hour and are intended both to create a more welcoming atmosphere and experience for those new to classical music concerts and to provide new insights into the music.
‘Cheers to the Music of Dance’
Sarasota Orchestra Discoveries. Yue Bao, guest conductor. 7:30 p.m. Dec. 20, Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. $35-$79. 941-953-3434; sarasotaorchestra.org
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Orchestra Discoveries concert highlights dance music
