— World Premiere of En Masse- special centennial work by Leonard Bernstein, Christopher Rountree and Hope Boykinfeaturing live music by Wild Up
Saturday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m.; Tickets at TheSoraya.org.
The final season of Martha Graham Dance Company's(MGDC) three-year centennial celebration premieres at The Soraya with three monumental pieces: The World Premiere of En Masse (a Soraya commission);Graham's 1947 Night Journeywith music by William Schuman, a rarely seen work based on Oedipus; and We the People, by choreographer Jamar Roberts with a folk score by Rhiannon Giddens, a 2024 creation inspired by Graham's longstanding sociopolitical critique.
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En Masse, choreographed by Hope Boykin, will be a centerpiece of the Martha Graham Dance Company's 100th Season. It will be danced to new musical arrangements of excerpts from Leonard Bernstein's Mass, as well as another Bernstein inspired piece of music entitled “For Martha” composed by Christopher Rountree. For this new composition, Rountree used unknown musical themes written by Bernstein, found in his correspondence with Martha Graham in the 1980s. The musical selections were reviewed and approved by the Leonard Bernstein Organization, making official this first ever posthumous partnership between two of the 20th Century's greatest artists. Rountree's ensemble Wild Up will perform the new score.
The pairing of Wild Up and MGDC marks The Soraya's continuing commitment to Graham's collaborations with composers.
GRAHAM100, an event selected as one of the Los Angeles Times' “10 can't-miss dance shows” this fall, is one of five Soraya 15th Anniversaryevents specially produced to celebrate The Soraya's signature work in Los Angeles.
For story development and interview requests, please contact:
— Marie Estrada, Soraya Marketing & Communications Specialist
— Gary Murphy, PR Consultant
— Click here for your press kit, complete with photos, bios, the full press release, and a document from the Leonard Bernstein Office detailing Graham and Bernstein's correspondence.
Program: En Masseby Hope Boykin (2025) Music by Leonard BernsteinandChristopher Rountree
Night Journey by Martha Graham (1947) Music by William Schuman Set by Isamu Noguchi
We the Peopleby Jamar Roberts (2024) Music by Rhiannon Giddens Arranged by Gabe Witcher
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SOURCE Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts at California State University, Northridge
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