Monday, March 3, 2008

Spring Forward to Rapture!

The weather is absolutely lovely today, and we can't help but hope March will be more lamb than lion. This Sunday, March 9, we turn the clocks forward and though we'll miss that extra hour of sleep, the extra hour of sunshine will make it totally worth it.

This weekend you can also spring forward to ASO's next performance, "Rapture," on Saturday March 8 at 8:00pm and Sunday, March 9 at 3:00pm (Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall, Alexandria). The program is a collaboration with the Alexandria Choral Society and Bowen McCauley Dance and will feature Mendelssohn’s Symphony #4 “Italian,” Fauré’s Pavane, Beethoven’s Elegischer Gesang, Opus 118, Handel’s Zadok the Priest, and Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances #1. Ticket prices are $20-$80 with special youth tickets (ages 8-18) offered on Sunday performance for only $5. Tickets can be purchased online at www.alexsym.org or via telephone at 703-548-0885.

Ccurrently a member of the Alexandria Arts Forum, the Alexandria Choral Society will add a mesmerizing voice to the stage with its chorus. The nationally recognized group has performed with Rosemary Clooney and the National Symphony Pops, and its high quality performances and programming have garnered it numerous awards. In 1992, ACS won the first American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) award ever presented to a chorus for Adventuresome Programming. Locally, it has twice received the coveted ALEX Award from the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce. Particularly unique to ACS is its commitment to regular performances of American choral music. Most seasons include a program of American works, with ACS premiering a new choral work approximately every two years since 1984.


Lucy Bowen McCauley’s dances will provide a stimulating visual journey that exposes something new about each musical selection. Beginning with the stately, elegant Pavane for orchestra and chorus by Fauré that builds on the court dance tradition inherent in the music, the Company will move to Beethoven’s Elegischer Gesang, Opus 118, a buoyant, intimate work for five dancers, and culminate in a high-octane, celebratory dance for the full seven-member company set to the sounds of Handel’s Zadok the Priest. In addition to her choreography for Rapture, founder Lucy Bowen McCauley has created over forty works since the company began in 1996. In 2003, Lucy Bowen McCauley was awarded the Alumni Path of Inspiration Award from the Interlochen Arts Academy and The Arlington Commission for the Arts STAR Award for Artistic Excellence.

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