Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre
Rosie Herrera, choreographer
Clyde Scott, video and production designer
Luke Kritzeck, lighting and production designer

Choreographer Rosie Herrera wants you to imagine that, after a night of gleefully overindulging in absinthe cocktails, filmmaker Federico Fellini stumbles down an alley in old Havana. A door cracks open and music washes over him like a sticky sunrise in September. He steps inside into a primordial soup of neon and sound and tropical heat. A wild undercurrent pulses through the room, whispering that anything (and everything) might happen.

These CSO Proof performances are supported by The Haile Foundation, Irwin & Melinda Simon, and the American Orchestras’ Futures Fund, a program of the League of American Orchestras made possible by funding from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

Christian Reif, conductor

Julia Bullock, soprano
Jasmin White, mezzo-soprano

Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor

Davóne Tines, baritone

In a new arrangement created by conductor Christian Reif, John Adams' massive revisionist opera-oratorio is transformed into an intimate setting for chamber orchestra. Interweaving biblical verse with poetry by Latin American writers, El Niño considers the Nativity story from Mary's perspective and explores in Adams' words, "what is meant by a miracle."

Matthias Pintscher, conductor

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
Hicham Berrada, video art

Inspired by his visits to Utah's Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, Messiaen's Des canyons aux étoiles ("From the Canyons to the Stars") depicts the birdsong and red rock hues he experienced during his time in the desert. Messiaen – who was also synesthetic – heard colors and saw sounds. Accompanied by immersive video-art from Hicham Berrada, Springer Auditorium will be transformed, allowing listeners to escape into the southwestern landscape and experience a synesthesia of their own.

Louis Langrée, conductor

Lutosławski’s interpretation of music for a funeral, and Bryce Dessner's Réponse Lutoslawski, which was inspired by the Musique funèbre, open this enlightening program. In his Tenebre, Dessner shares his take on the typical music for a Tenebrae service, where the extinguishing of candles symbolizes Christ's death. But unlike the service's descent into darkness, Dessner inverts it and takes listeners on a journey from darkness to light.