April 18-19: iMusic concert
Master Players Concert Series announces April iMusic program change
9:43 a.m., Dec. 16, 2014--The popular multimedia concert iMusic, an annual University of Delaware Master Players Concert Series season finale created and performed by Master Players director Xiang Gao, will have its eighth production in the spring.
The production “6ixwire Around the World – iMusic VIII,” originally scheduled to be presented in April 2015, has been switched with “CSI: Beethoven, A Chamber Music Play,” celebrating German-American heritage.
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Gao said the “CSI: Beethoven, A Chamber Music Play” presentation was originally planned for spring 2016 but has been moved forward due to the postponement of an international conference of which the “6ixwire – Around the World” event was to have been a part.
All tickets purchased for “6ixwire – Around the World” may be used for “CSI: Beethoven, A Chamber Music Play.”
The iMusic presentations are created, produced and performed by Master Players founding director and violinist Gao, Trustees Distinguished Professor of Music and recipient of the 2014 Delaware Governor’s Award for the Arts.
The presentations are an annual multimedia season finale designed for family audiences ages 5 and older.
About ‘CSI: Beethoven, A Chamber Music Play’
On April 18 and 19, iMusic will present the world premiere of a new genre with “CSI: Beethoven, A Chamber Music Play” to celebrate German culture and German-American heritage.
Produced and performed by Gao, this new work is a theatrical concert exploring the unsurpassed chamber music, personal life, deafness and mysterious death of the genius.
It is written and directed by the acclaimed playwright and director Didi Balle with research by UD faculty music historian Maria Anne Purciello, and is being conceived for Gao and world class guest musicians and actors invited by the Master Players. This event is made possible by funding from the President's Diversity Initiative at UD.
This is a new production based on and inspired by the original symphonic play version of “CSI: Beethoven, A Chamber Music Play” created, commissioned and premiered by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Marin Alsop, with Balle, its playwright-in-residence and stage director.
During the production, many never before seen images of Beethoven provided by the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San José State University will be presented to the audience.
"’CSI Beethoven’ used historical research, medical diagnosis, theatrical impersonation, slide projects and music in an innovative fashion,” wrote Tim Smith, music critic for the Baltimore Sun. “Beethoven himself held forth, having taken leave from the spirit world to see what he could learn about his sorry fate back in 1827 … Didi Balle's script achieved concision, naturalness and good flow. A look beneath the epidermis of a musical giant, ‘CSI: Beethoven’ cut smoothly and entertainingly."
Master Players will offer free workshops, master classes and open discussions led by the producer, playwright and guest artists on Beethoven’s music and life, and the creative process of the new iMusic production.
The times and locations of the free pre-concert presentations will be announced by March 28.