November concert brings music, movies and dance to stage

Music, dance and the movies come together along with some very special guests for the next University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra concert. Acclaimed violinist Michael Ludwig is the soloist for “The Red Violin” concerto by John Corigliano and dancers from the Columbia Classical Ballet will join the orchestra as it performs the second act of “The Nutcracker.” The concert is Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Koger Center for the Arts.

Just a few months ago Michael Ludwig gave the Russian premiere “The Red Violin” with the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra and in October performed it with the National Philharmonic. “The Red Violin” concerto grew out of Corigliano’s Academy Award-winning soundtrack for the 1998 film of the same name that spans three centuries and five countries as it tells the story of a mysterious violin and its many owners. Corigliano completed the four-movement concerto in 2003.

Ludwig has long experience performing “The Red Violin” and recorded it in 2009 with the Buffalo Philharmonic conducted by music director JoAnn Falletta for the Naxos label. His performance in St. Petersburg was made at the request of Corigliano who has called Ludwig “an extraordinary artist who merges world-class technique with a world-class interpretive mind.”

Corigliano is one of the best-known contemporary composers whose varied styles have garnered many honors. The composer was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his Second Symphony in 2001, won a 2000 Grammy Award for “Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan” for soprano and orchestra, was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to write “The Ghost of Versailles” in 1991, and has scored several movies including “Altered States” and “Revolution.”

This will be the second time Ludwig, concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic, has performed with the USC Symphony Orchestra.

“He’s a first-class performer and a heck of a nice guy,” said Dr. Donald Portnoy, music director. “There’s warmth in his playing and real insight into the music he is performing. There is always a musical idea he is trying to get across to the audience and he does that.”

Corigliano will be paired with another composer who could write music for many purposes – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Most people know his music through “The Nutcracker” and although thousands of people attend “The Nutcracker” ballet each year, they rarely get a chance to hear the music played live. The USC Symphony will be in full force for this work with nearly 70 players on stage.

“We thought it would be nice for people to be able to hear it as Tchaikovsky intended,” said Portnoy.

For “The Nutcracker” the orchestra will be joined by Columbia Classical Ballet dancers performing excerpts from 1892 ballet by choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. The ballet is set at Christmas time during a magical night. In the second act the Nutcracker, who has been transformed into a prince, and the girl Clara journey to the Kingdom of Sweets where sugarplum fairies dance. During the 1960s “The Nutcracker” became a holiday dance tradition in the United States.

The second act includes the Spanish, Arabian, Chinese and Russians dances, as well as the “Waltz of the Flowers,” the “Pas de Deux” and “Sugar-Plum Fairy Dance,” the last of which uses the celesta, a keyboard/percussion instrument invented in 1886. The clear bell-like tone of the celesta is immediately recognizable. Although most strongly associated with the Sugar Plum dance, many people also know its sound through the “Hedwig Theme” from the “Harry Potter” movies.

Don’t miss this concert of musical masterpieces from the 19^th and 21^st centuries.

Tickets are $25 for the general public, $20 for USC faculty and staff and seniors; and $8 for students. To purchase tickets go to capitoltickets.com or call (803) 251-2222.