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Immersion Experiences

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Cross-disciplinary immersion experiences, lasting weeks or months at multiple venues, are a PCE signature. These events typically include the participation of eminent scholars, and the publication of copious program books.

ARMENIAN ODYSSEY

Washington National Cathedral, National Gallery of Art, Freer Gallery, Washington Bible Museum

February-March, 2020


The centerpiece of this festival was the world premiere of a multi-media PCE production celebrating the arts as an instrument for human understanding. We collaborated with three exceptional Armenian artists – the animator Kevork Mourad, the composer Vache Sharafyan, and the cellist Narek Hakhnazarian. Other events included film screenings with commentary, and a tribute to the founder of Armenian classical music: Komitas.

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NATIVE AMERICAN INSPIRATIONS: FROM SPILLVILLE TO PINE RIDGE

Washington National Cathedral

October 2019

This unprecedented festival surveyed more than a century of music inspired by Native America. PCE brought to DC South Dakota’s Lakota Music Project, including eminent Native American musicians.

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BERNARD HERRMANN: SCREEN, STAGE, AND RADIO

National Gallery of Art, American Film Institute

April 2016

The first-ever tribute to Bernard Herrmann “in the round,” our month-long festival celebrated Hollywood’s supreme film composer, who was also the supreme composer for radio dramas, a concert composer of consequence, and an influential conductor. In sum: “The most under-rated 20th century American composer.”

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Watch More than Music film: “Beyond Psycho" – The Genius of Bernard Herrmann


Listen –"PostClassical" webcast


Listen PCE’s CD, with our world-premiere recording of the radio play “Whitman.”


Read  Joe Horowitz’s blog "Celebrating Bernard Herrmann"

DVORAK AND AMERICA

Clarice Smith Center, 2013


This landmark exploration of the American Dvorak (1892-95) featured the world premiere of the “Hiawatha Melodrama,” created by PCE’s Joe Horowitz and Angel Gil-Ordonez in partnership with the Dvorak scholar Michael Beckerman (and since performed by a dozen American orchestras).

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INTERPRETING SHOSTAKOVICH

National Gallery of Art, Dumbarton Concerts

2012


Partnering with leading musicians from the former Soviet Union, our festival included concerts, films scored by Shostakovich, and Tony Palmer’s film version of Solomon Volkov’s “Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich” – with both both Volkov and Palmer commenting.

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Watch More than Music film: SHOSTAKOVICH and the STATE


Read  Joe Horowitz’s blog: “Interpreting Shostakovich”

THE IVES PROJECT

Strathmore Performing Arts Center

2011


Collaborating with pianist Jeremy Denk and baritone William Sharp, we created “Charles Ives: A Life in Music” – a production subsequently seen throughout the US.

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Read Joe Horowitz’s blog: “Ives the Man”

INTERPRETING STRAVINSKY

Strathmore Performing Arts Center, The National Gallery of Art

2011


Collaborating with Alexander Toradze and his Toradze Piano Studio, our festival included a mega-survey of Stravinsky’s keyboard output – including a one-of-a kind pianola performance of the Danse Sacrale from “The Rite of Spring” – as well as a Stravinsky film festival.

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Read Joe Horowitz’s blog: “Interpreting Stravinsky (continued)"

FALLA AND FLAMENCO

Brooklyn Academy of Music, Harmon Center for the Arts

2010


These concerts included the American stage premiere of Falla’s “El Corregidor y la Molinera,” an early version of “The Three-Cornered Hat” – choreographed by Ramon Oller on commission from PCE. (PCE has also commissioned a new production of Falla’s “El Amor Brujo,” choreographed by Igal Perry, also seen both in DC and New York City.)

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THE RUSSIAN GERSHWIN

Clarice Smith Center

2010


In his lifetime, Gershwin was viewed as an interloper, a “Gershwin threat,” by American-born classical musicians. But the love affair between Russia and Gershwin was something else.

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Watch More than Music film: The Russian Gershwin


Listen "PostClassical" webcast