When:
June 14 & 15, 2019
Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday at 2:00 & 7:30 p.m.
Where:
Segerstrom Hall
600 Town Center Drive
Costa Mesa, CA
Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes back the Mark Morris Dance Group who will perform the Center Premiere of Pepperland June 14 and 15, 2019. Choreographer Mark Morris returns to Orange County with a dance tribute to the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
A Segerstrom spokesperson says, “Originally created for the city of Liverpool’s Sgt. Pepper at 50 Festival in May 2017, this colorful piece resounds with the ingenuity, musicality, wit and humanity for which the company is known. Pepperland revels in the eccentric charm and joyful optimism of the iconic Beatles album.”
The evening-length work also features an original score by composer Ethan Iverson, interspersing arrangements of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “With a Little Help From My Friends,” “A Day in the Life,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Within You Without You” and “Penny Lane” with six original Pepper-inspired pieces composed specifically to showcase Mark Morris’ understanding of classical forms: Allegro, Scherzo, Adagio, and the blues.
“Half the piece will be arrangements of the songs we all know,” said Iverson, “and half will be brand new danceable pieces responding to the strong undercurrent of classical music present on the original album.”
The Mark Morris Dance Group is distinguished as the only modern dance company with a commitment to live music at every performance, having founded the MMDG Musical Ensemble in 1996. An unprecedented chamber music ensemble of voice, theremin, soprano sax, trombone, two keyboards, and percussion accompany Pepperland helping to tease out and elaborate on Sgt. Pepper’s non-rock and roll influences.
“The music for Pepperland, arranged and extrapolating from tracks on The Beatles’, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is important to me because of the enormous impact the album caused in popular culture at large,” said choreographer Mark Morris, “When I was approached to participate in the commemorative project in Liverpool, I re-examined the recording and found so much of interest in it that I eagerly took on the big project of turning these very familiar songs into an evening length music and dance show. Pepperland is the exciting result.”
