By popular demand, two of the Astoria Music Festival’s most popular shows will combine for a night of New Media Futuristic Art and Modern Dance, featuring Academy-Award winning technical wizard J-WALT and Portland’s award-winning Agnieszka Laska Dancers, whose RITE OF SPRING was a highlight last summer. Astorians had a chance to see the glimpse of The Chopin Project, which was featured on the special (sold out) Mother’s Day concert last year. This year, ALDancers perform the complete work—Chopin’s 20 preludes from Op. 28 plus Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1 in B-Flat Minor—with pianist Alexandre Dossin, winner of the First Prize and Special Prize at the 2003 Martha Argerich International Piano Competition.
Robert Wachowiak of Chicago’s Dziennik Zwiazkowy says this of the Agnieszka Laska Dancers: “…the performance, authored by a renowned choreographer, running her dance company in Portland, Oregon for many years now, was incredible — beyond our imagination. As a result we started to sense the music of our greatest romantic composer not only through hearing it but by seeing it as well…” According to the American Record Guide, “Dossin’s Chopin is a model of how to avoid eccentricities and let the music speak for itself. (…) It is doubtful if listeners will be able to resist once they have listened.”
Saturday, June 28, 2014 | 7:30pm
Agnieszka Laska Dancers: The Chopin Project at the Astoria Music Festival
Liberty Theater Astoria
1203 Commercial St, Astoria, Oregon 97103
Info: astoriamusicfestival.org
[Source: press release]