Coaching and Panel Discussion
Sunday, April 12
2:00PM
Approximate run time: 90 minutes
Performance Garage
1515 Brandywine Street Philadelphia, PA 19130
The Music and Motion event will bring the audience behind the scenes to showcase the creative process of the interpretation of music for choreography and the coaching of musicality in dance.
The coaching demonstration will feature Philadelphia Ballet dancers, coached by Juliano Nunes, choreographer of Philadelphia Ballet’s upcoming Romeo and Juliet, with live music by Principal Pianist Martha Koeneman. A panel discussion will follow, moderated by composer and musician John B. Hedges.
This special exploration of Romeo and Juliet is generously supported by Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman
Moderator and Panelists
John B. Hedges
Moderator
Composer and Musician
The inspired and multifaceted music of composer John B Hedges has been performed throughout the world. As a composer and conductor he has worked with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, New Jersey Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Curtis Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Ensembles the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble among others. He has conducted concerts at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Academie Musicale de Villecroze, the Aldeburgh Festival. An accomplished orchestral arranger, his arrangements for groups such as Time for Three and the Minnesota Orchestra have been toured and performed by countless orchestras. Hedges maintains an active career as a keyboardist, vocalist and producer of pop music as well, most recently co-producing, arranging and performing on the recently released album, Slightly South of Stormy Clouds, with his cousin, singer-songwriter Quinn Hedges. In addition, his own funk-inspired project will be released in 2017.
His most recent compositions show a remarkable range: a Jungle Book ballet for the Pennsylvania ballet with choreographer Colby Damon; Promise of a City, a work for massive forces premiered by the Philadelphia All-City Orchestra, Chorus & Band with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, A Shipwreck Opera in One Act in collaboration with fiction writer Aimee Bender; Exeter Riddles, a set of Anglo-Saxon choral works; On the Good Foot, a tribute to the late James Brown for large chamber ensemble; and Fantasía sobre Yma Sumac, a concerto for clarinet & orchestra inspired by the eclectic music of Peruvian songstress Yma Sumac. The latter was premiered by clarinetist Victoria Luperi and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra where Hedges served as composer-in-residence for the 2011-2012 season and was noted by several critics as the top performance of the season in the Dallas/Fort Worth region. NewMusicUSA granted a residency for Hedges with the Richmond Symphony in 2013 for performances Prayers of Rain & Wind with bass soloist Joseph Conyers which resulted in the highest selling Masterworks series in the Symphony’s history. In 2014, the Sphinx Virtuosi commissioned and toured the composer’s work Raise Hymn, Praise Shout including performances in Miami’s New World Center, Chicago’s Harris Theater and Carnegie Hall.
The son of a rock musician, Hedges group up immersed in rock, soul and music theatre and these early influences continue to inform his work today. He began studying classical music at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving his B.A. in Music in 1994 and his M.M. from Westminster Choir College in 1997. He then completed post-graduate studies at the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Richard Danielpour and Ned Rorem. Hedges spent summers at the Aspen Music Festival where he studied with John Harbison and George Tsontakis and attended the Contemporary Composition and Performance course at the Britten-Pears School (as both composer and conductor.) He subsequently returned to the U.K. to apprentice with Oliver Knussen. In addition, he has participated in the Academie Musicale de Villecroze in France, in the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s Composition and Conducting Institute and assisted composer Tan Dun on the Metropolitan Opera premiere of The First Emperor.
Recipient of the Alfred Casselo Award, the Theodore Presser Career Grant and a 2006 Independence Foundation Fellowship, Hedges has also been awarded grants and fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, NewMusicUSA, Meet the Composer, and multiple residencies at the artists’ community Yaddo. Hedges currently directs the eclectic music program at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia and lives in Havertown, PA with his wife, visual artist Lynn Palewicz, their son Bran, and two rabbits named Rose Tyler & Martha Jones.
Juliano Nunes
Panelist
Philadelphia Ballet Resident Choreographer
Juliano Nunes trained at the Brazilian Dance Conservatory in Rio de Janeiro and furthered his studies at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts in Germany with a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts. He has worked with companies such as Royal Ballet of Flanders, Leipzig Opera Ballet, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and Stuttgart Gauthier Dance.
He has gone on to receive critical acclaim for his own choreography and has created pieces for the Royal Ballet in London, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theatre 2, Rome Opera House, Acosta Danza, Philadelphia Ballet, Mariinsky Theatre, Ballet Zürich Opera House, Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Staatstheater Hannover, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet West, Origen Festival Cultural, Teatro San Carlo, and Netflix’s “ Tiny Pretty Things.” Nunes has created visual works with artists such as Penelope Cruz, Residente, and FKA twigs.
Martha Koeneman
Panelist
The Greapentrog Principal Pianist
Martha Koeneman was hired by Founding Director Barbara Weisberger and joined Pennsylvania Ballet (now Philadelphia Ballet) in 1973. In 1976 she was promoted to Principal Pianist by Music Director Maurice Kaplow. In that capacity, she performs all solo piano and harpsichord repertoire for the company in Philadelphia. She also served as an accompanist for The Singing City Choir for five years under Directors Joseph Flummerfelt and Jeffrey Brillhart and was the accompanist for the Silver and Bronze medalists in the 1979 International Ballet Competition. Philadelphia Ballet is honored to present the David F. Hoffman Award for Artistic Achievement to Martha in celebration of her extraordinary commitment and musical legacy as she begins her 53rd season with the company.
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