Program Notes: RZA and Intergalactic

IMAGINATION ARTIST SERIES 2022/23

RZA AND THE COLORADO SYMPHONY PRESENT: 36 CHAMBERS OF SHAOLIN AND A BALLET THROUGH MUD

RZA, composer

CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor

YUSHA-MARIE SORZANO, choreographer

SARAH LOZOFF, intimacy director

PHIL HIESTER , lighting director

NATALIE MCCALL , associate/rehearsal director, dancer

ALVE FU, dancer

MYLES LAVALLE, dancer

MADISON MOSER , dancer

EMARA NEYMOUR-JACKSON , dancer

ANDREA SOTO, dancer

Friday, February 17, 2023 at 7:30pm

Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 7:30pm

Boettcher Concert Hall

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

— INTERMISSION — A Ballet Through Mud

CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR AND 45 MINUTES WITH A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION

FIRST TIME TO THE SYMPHONY? SEE PAGE 7 OF THIS PROGRAM FOR FAQ’S TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE GREAT!

PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY

IMAGINATION BIOGRAPHIES

RZA, composer

Wu-Tang Clan mastermind Robert Diggs, best known as "The RZA" among several other pseudonyms, is one of music's most revered, influential artists and producers. With the group's classic 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), he established their widely imitated core sound, consisting of stark, booming beats and chilling samples (heavily drawing from vintage soul records as well as kung fu movies), setting the backdrop for the crew's gritty, violent narratives.

Following the album's trailblazing success, Diggs produced the first wave of solo releases by his fellow Wu-Tang members. He then returned with the groups highly acclaimed 1997 Grammy Nominated Album – Wu-Tang Forever. Following the worldwide success of the Wu-Tang Forever release, he devoted time to his own solo career, with the goldselling debut by his alter ego Bobby Digital arriving in 1998.

RZA's creative exploration did not stop there. He successfully found his way to scoring multiple film and television works, beginning with his highly acclaimed score for Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) and continuing with a lengthy string of soundtracks (Blade Trinity, Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2, The Man with the Iron Fists, and Love Beats Rhymes). Following a BAFTA nomination, RZA continued to compose music for television, earning two Emmy nominations. RZA has recently executive produced the Hulu original series Wu-Tang: An American Saga, which is in its third season.

Tonight, RZA debuts one of his most exciting endeavors, having written and composed A Ballet Through Mud. This world premiere with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra is a never-beforeseen fusion of the Arts – Theatre, Orchestra, Ballet, and Hip Hop.

IMAGINATION BIOGRAPHIES

CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor

Australian conductor Christopher Dragon is the Resident Conductor of the Colorado Symphony and Music Director of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra. He joined the Colorado Symphony in the 2015/2016 Season as Associate Conductor – a position he held for four years. For three years prior, Dragon held the position of Assistant Conductor with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with Principal Conductor Asher Fisch.

Dragon has a versatile portfolio ranging from live-to-picture performances of Nightmare Before Christmas, Jurassic Park and Mary Poppins, a wide variety of collaborations with artists such as The Flaming Lips, Cynthia Erivo and Wynton Marsalis, to standard and contemporary orchestral repertoire such as Danny Elfman’s Violin Concerto, Eleven Eleven, all areas of which he has become highly sought after. Christopher has become known for his charisma, high energy and affinity for a good costume, consistently delivering unforgettable performances that has made him an audience favourite.

Recent season highlights include his subscription series debut with the San Diego Symphony, performances of Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton with Danny Elfman reprising the role of Jack Skellington and the historic Colorado Symphony performances with the Wu-Tang Clan at Red Rocks and the Mission Ballroom. Dragon’s upcoming debuts include concerts with the San Francisco Symphony and the Utah Symphony.

Christopher works regularly in Australia and has guest conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His 2015 debut performance at the Sydney Opera House with John Pyke and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was released on album by ABC Music and won an ARIA the following year. Christopher’s other guest conducting includes Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

He has also conducted at numerous festivals including the Breckenridge and Bangalow Music Festivals, with both resulting in immediate re-invitations. At the beginning of 2016 Dragon conducted Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony as part of the Perth International Art Festival alongside Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Christopher began his conducting studies in 2011 and was a member of the prestigious Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program in Australia under the guidance of course director Christopher Seaman. He has also studied with numerous distinguished conductors including Leonid Grin, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi at the Jarvi Summer Festival, Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival and conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula.

IMAGINATION BIOGRAPHIES

YUSHA-MARIE SORZANO, choreographer

Originally from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Yusha-Marie Sorzano is a relentless performing artist, choreographer, educator, and mentor who has worked in concert dance, theater, television, and film. She received her primary instruction from New World School of the Arts, Armour Dance Theatre, and The Dance Theater of Harlem.

A YoungArts Foundation winner in dance, Ms. Sorzano went on to attend the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program and in her junior year was invited to join Ailey II. She has been a member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Morphoses, TU Dance, and BODYTRAFFIC. She has also performed as a guest artist with Benjamin Millepied’s LA Dance Project. Ms. Sorzano is currently a member of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, where she is part of the original cast of the Bessie-nominated Black Girl: Linguistic Play, and Ink, the 2nd and 3rd installments of Brown’s acclaimed trilogy on race, culture, and identity.

As a choreographer, Ms. Sorzano has created works for dance companies including The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Idaho, Santa Barbara Dance Theater, Festival Ballet, Moving Arts, and Zeitgeist Dance Theatre, where she is a founding Co-Artistic Director. She is currently a part of the creative team for Jeannette, a new musical.

Ms. Sorzano has been the recipient of an Alvin Ailey Organizations New Directions Choreography Fellowship, a National YoungArts Foundation Dance Artist Fellowship, a Watermill Center Fellowship, a Jerome Robbins Dance Division Research Fellowship at the New York Public Library. In 2021, she was nominated by a panel of leaders in the concert dance world, including artistic directors Virginia Johnson of Dance Theatre of Harlem and Lourdes Lopez of Miami City Ballet to join the 2021 cohort of ‘Female Choreographers of Color in Ballet’ — a collaboration with Dance Lab New York and The Joyce Foundation.

Deeply passionate about the powerful role that educators play in the lives of young artists, Ms. Sorzano enjoys teaching and mentoring aspiring artists around the world. She currently serves as the BFA Program Director in the School of Dance at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

NATALIE MCCALL, associate/rehearsal director & dancer

Los Angeles born Natalie McCall is a performing artist and educator. She received her Vaganova training under the direction of Marat Daukayev and Hasmik Amirian before attending The Ailey School. A graduate of Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Training Program, Natalie went on to dance with Micaela Taylor’s TL Collective, Clairobscur and Santa Barbara Dance Theater. She has performed and created roles in works by Marco Goecke, Sidra Bell, Maurya Kerr, Andrea Schermoly, Yusha-Marie Sorzano and Alonzo King. Natalie is guest faculty for California Institute of the Arts and Southland Ballet Academy, as well as current season faculty with Studio Fusion and Danceology. Her love of movement extends to her own work teaching Pilates and the GYROTONIC® Method.

IMAGINATION BIOGRAPHIES

Natalie is the associate and rehearsal director for choreographer Yusha-Marie Sorzano, whose commissions she has assisted with since 2017. Her participation on Ms. Sorzano’s creative team includes works for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Idaho, Santa Barbara Dance Theater and Jeannette, a new musical, alongside Dance Artist-In-Residence fellowships at the Watermill Center and the National YoungArts Foundation.

ALVE FU

Alve Fu, who was born in China is a professional choreographer, dancer and an actor. She began her training at Beijing Dance Academy Affiliated Secondary School, and then went to Central Conservatory of Music, China for her BFA. She was trained in various types of dance and music techniques, including contemporary dance, Chinese traditional and folk dance, belcanto, Dalcroze eurhythmics and piano etc. Besides creating her own dance works, she collaborated and worked with different artists and choreographers such as NiNi Dongnier, Julie Bour and Dimitri Chamblas. Alve was honored to perform in Aranya Theater (China), REDCAT and other renowned theaters and art festivals in China and in the US. While focusing on dance and music, she is also performing in films, such as The Space, which is directed by a well-known filmmaker, Susie Au. She also worked as a stunt coordinator for that. In order to pursue her MFA and Choreography, she is now studying at California Institute of The Arts.

MYLES LAVALLE

Myles Lavallee was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ, where he trained and competed with various dance studios. He won many awards including JUMP’s Teen National Title and NUVO’s Teen 1st Runner Up, before moving away to NYC to focus his studies at the School of American Ballet. In 2011 Myles joined Ballet Arizona where he danced for four seasons. In 2014, he moved to Canada to join Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal and in 2016, Myles joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago for two seasons. He was commissioned twice to choreograph for Ballet Arizona’s Innovations program and created pieces in both LGBC and HSDC choreographic workshops. Myles choreographies have won numerous awards and he recently received the Outstanding Choreographer Award at YAGP Phoenix 2022 Semifinals. Myles now lives in Los Angeles as a freelance artist and choreographer. He has recently been seen dancing with Body Traffic, Post Ballet, Ishida Dance, Heidi Duckler Dance, & Para Mar Dance as well as in several music videos and on Netflix and YouTube. He is extremely passionate about teaching, choreographing and sharing his love for dance!

IMAGINATION BIOGRAPHIES

MADISON MOSER

Canadian-born and raised artist, Madison Moser has trained and performed with several prestigious institutions including the Alberta Ballet School, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Moscow Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet School and Cirque du Soleil. Since moving to Los Angeles, Madison works closely with and has performed works by Tyce Diorio, Alex Komulainen, Chehon Wepsi-Tschopp and the IAF company. Madison can also be seen on the most recent season of So You Think You Can Dance. She is currently continuing her studies at the California Institute of the Arts pursuing a BFA in Dance. Since beginning her studies there, she has performed as a soloist in works by Rosanna Tavarez and Merce Cunningham, as well as premiering original works of choreography.

EMARA NEYMOUR-JACKSON

Emara NeyMour- Jackson is a dancer-choreographer singer, actress, filmmaker, and curator. Specifically, in dance, she has trained in Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Hip-Hop, Musical Theater, Femme Heels, and other unconventional improvisation and experimental forms. Emara received her BFA in dance from California Institute of the Arts (Class of 2020) and has worked and collaborated with choreographers such as Nina Flagg, Spencer Theberge, Marissa Osata, Micaela Taylor, Chris Emile, Amy Garner, Brian Aryias and Calarts Alumni Kevin Zambrano. Emara has also worked with artists such as Solange Knowles, Moses Sumney, KFlay, Raveena, Aluna, Child, and The City Girls. She thanks her mother, Dorrian, and mentors for their endless support and push to pursue her goals.

ANDREA SOTO

Andrea Soto is a first-generation Mexican-American movement and multimedia creator, performer and collaborator based in Los Angeles. She holds a BFA in Dance with a Digital Arts minor from California Institute of the Arts (2022). Through a merge of art mediums and improvisation, Andrea researches the body as a temple of pleasure and truth system, as she dives into the organic nature of human condition and what it is to be on this Earth as our pure conscious selves. In her practice, she holds space to move and create multidimensionally from our body organs and atoms, allowing them to become a speaking being. Her work uses collaboration across genres as a driving force in her work, building a shared collective research with artists from the community. Creations of hers include her most recent project OPEN FIELD (2022), a global poetic ecosystem exploring a collection of translations of body and memory; DECAY (2022); a body not even a body (2021). As a dancer, Andrea has been part of works by Yvonne Rainer, Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, Yusha-Marie Sorzano, Holley Farmer, Toru Shimazaki, Sam Wentz, among others. She has performed at Centre National de la Danse in Paris and has also worked as a freelancer with international artists and choreographers such as Julie Tolentino, Gerard and Kelly, Mimi Haddon, and Melina Matsoukas.

Intimacy direction by Sarah Lozoff.

FAMILY 2022/23

INTERGALACTIC SYMPHONY SPECTACULAR

NICHOLAS KOO, conductor

Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 2:30pm

Boettcher Concert Hall

IVES The Unanswered Question

STRAUSS Also Sprach Zarathustra

STRAUSS II Blue Danube Waltz

HOLST The Planets, “Jupiter”

JOHN WILLIAMS Close Encounters of the Third Kind

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5, Mvt. I

JOHN WILLIAMS Adventures on Earth

JOHN WILLIAMS Star Wars Suite for Orchestra

I. Main Title

CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 34 MINUTES WITH A NO INTERMISSION

FIRST TIME TO THE SYMPHONY? SEE PAGE 7 OF THIS PROGRAM FOR FAQ’S TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE GREAT!

PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY

Sunday’S concert iS dedicated to Fennemore Law

FAMILY BIOGRAPHY

NICHOLAS KOO, conductor

Nicholas Koo is a Korean-American conductor currently serving multiple orchestras across the United States including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, and the San Diego Symphony. He has assisted a number of notable conductors including Donald Runnicles, Fabien Gabel, and Marin Alsop and has worked alongside soloists such as Emanuel Ax, Hélène Grimaud, Paul Huang, Orion Weiss, and Joyce Yang. He has made a number of appearances conducting the Colorado Symphony in their regular season and is also active in the Chicago area, having guestconducted the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra among others. Off the podium, Nicholas works in collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association in artistic media, using his knowledge of repertoire to coordinate score calls for a number of recording projects.

More recently in December of 2022, Nicholas was selected from a pool of over 300 world-wide applicants to conduct in the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in Ravenna, Italy. Through a series of rehearsals and masterclasses, he studied alongside Maestro Muti to access depth and understanding of operatic tradition that culminated in a performance of Verdi’s monumental Messa da Requiem. Nicholas was invited to join the artist roster of Festival Mozaic in the summer of 2022 as the festival’s first assistant conductor where, in collaboration with the San Luis Obispo Movement Arts Collective, he produced and led a family concert alongside choreographed ballet of Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. Under the mentorship of conductor Scott Yoo, Koo has been a frequent conductor at the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, most recently as the 2021 recipient of the Perotti-Holmes endowed fellow. Partnering with PBS television, Koo was featured leading the CCSMF Orchestra in the critically-acclaimed series, Now Hear This, conducting film scores by Aaron Copland alongside the original film. Nicholas is a strong advocate for contemporary music, having served as music director for the Atlantic Music Festival Contemporary Ensemble and as assistant conductor of the Atlantic Music Festival Symphony Orchestra where he premiered more than 20 new works for chamber and full orchestra.

A recipient of Bienen’s Eckstein Scholarship, Nicholas received his master’s degree in conducting from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music in 2018 and where he also received his doctorate of musical arts as the final student of Victor Yampolsky in 2022 with dissertation work leading to a U.S. premiere of a new chamber orchestra arrangement of Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. He served as assistant conductor with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra throughout his time at Bienen and accompanied the orchestra on its first international tour to China in the spring of 2018, highlighting the music of Gustav Mahler and Leonard Bernstein.

Originally from the Bay Area, California, Nicholas attended the University of California–Berkeley for undergraduate degrees in both molecular cell biology and music and it is where he began his conducting studies with the director of orchestras, David Milnes, while simultaneously studying choral conducting with San Francisco Symphony Chorus Director Emeritus, Vance George.