Boston Conservatory at Berklee Announces Center Stage Performances for Fall 2021
Boston Conservatory at Berklee is pleased to announce the fall lineup for its curated performance collection, Center Stage. This fall, the lineup will showcase five of the Conservatory’s most extraordinary performances in dance, music, and theater.
Center Stage will kick off with a free performance on September 28: Hemenway Strings: Remembrance and Hope, featuring Guest Poet Maya Giles. Student musicians, director Lynn Chang, and pianists Michael and Jessica Shinn will present a musical evening of remembrance and hope, with a special guest appearance by recent Conservatory graduate and poet Maya Giles (B.M. '21, violin). The performance will feature George Walker’s Lyric for Strings; Tan Dun’s “Peking Opera,” “Pink Actress,” and “Drum and Gong” from Eight Colors; Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet, op. 77, no. 2, Minuetto: Presto; Caroline Shaw’s Entr'Acte; Camille Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals; and Mozart's Serenata Notturna.
From October 21 to 24, Center Stage will present the annual Fall Dance Concert: From the Ground Up. The eclectic dance concert will feature five world premieres by guest artists Robert Moses, Gabrielle Lamb, T. Lang, and dance faculty members Daniel Pelzig and Jim Viera. All works will be performed by Conservatory senior, junior, and sophomore dance majors. Tickets for this performance can be purchased online (details below).
Following From the Ground Up, Conservatory theater students will perform the Broadway musical Head Over Heels from November 4 to 7. The outrageous Renaissance-era fable features pop songs by the iconic female rock band the Go-Go’s, including “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips are Sealed.” The pioneering, genderqueer plot follows the escapades of a royal family who sets out to save their kingdom and discovers the secret to their prosperity lies within their own hearts. The Village Voice praised its “philosophical thread about the need to evolve past gendered, binary hierarchies. Shrewd, funny, sexy, and with a glorious beat, Head Over Heels will have you flipping for joy.” It will be directed and choreographed by faculty member Larry Sousa with music direction by Bethany Aiken. Tickets for this performance can be purchased online (details below).
On November 14, Center Stage will present Rítmicas, a free performance by the school’s contemporary classical music ensemble, contraBAND, directed by assistant professor of orchestral studies and contemporary music Vimbayi Kaziboni. The dynamic concert features masterworks by the Japanese avant-garde impressionist Toru Takemitsu (Rain Tree), the French spectralist Gérard Grisey (Périodes) and two newer percussive opuses: Rítmicas by the Cuban-born and most recent Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León, and the American premiere of genre-bending composer Judd Greenstein's Move Like This for solo percussionist and ensemble, performed by associate professor of percussion Samuel Solomon as soloist.
Closing out the fall Center Stage season will be La clemenza di Tito, presented November 18 through 21. One of Mozart’s last operas, La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus) celebrates the eternal power for forgiveness. Set amidst the political intrigue of ancient Rome, the story is a timeless meditation on the struggle and ultimate triumph of love, beauty, and compassion in our world. La clemenza di Tito will be sung by Conservatory opera students in Italian with English supertitles. The music is conducted by music faculty member Andrew Altenbach and stage directed by dance faculty member Daniel Pelzig. Tickets for this performance can be purchased online (details below).
In addition to these five Center Stage picks, Boston Conservatory is thrilled to present dozens of other free and low-cost performances to in-person audiences this fall, including its revered Chamber Series, Piano Masters Series, and String Masters Series, a cutting-edge virtual Dance Film Festival featuring original student choreography created for film, the classic musical Candide, and numerous vocal and instrumental ensembles. The full performance lineup for the fall semester can be viewed at bostonconservatory.berklee.edu/events.
Berklee Live Event Attendance Policy
Any member of the public attending a live, ticketed event at Berklee will be required to provide a government-issued photo identification; and one of the following: proof of full vaccination (two weeks after the second of a two-shot vaccine, or the first of a one-shot vaccine); or proof of a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event, or a rapid antigen test taken within 24 hours of the event. Attendees may provide these documents in physical/paper form, by photocopy, or a photo on a phone, as long as all information is clearly visible and readable. Photos of at-home tests must be time-stamped.
Masks will be required indoors, regardless of vaccination or negative test status. Attendees must bring their own masks, and wear them over the nose and mouth.
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Box Office
Tickets for fall ticketed performances can be purchased online only beginning September 13, 2021 and can be purchased in person or by phone at 617-912-9222 at the Boston Conservatory Box Office beginning September 22. Contact the Boston Conservatory Box Office at boxoffice@berklee.edu.