Sunday, September 24, 2017 - 3:00pm
1707 16th Street Vero Beach, FL 32960
GERSHWIN I’ve Got Rhythm Variations
GOULD Concerto for Tap Dancer & Orchestra
ELLINGTON Three Black Kings
GERSHWIN An American in Paris (presented with newly restored film)
SAINT-SAENS The Dying Swan from Carnival of the Animals
Alex Dugdale, tap dancer
Marius Tesch, piano
Kate-Lynn Robichaux, Orlando Ballet Leading Dancer
This riveting program features George Gershwin’s An American in Paris, a giddy love affair with the city of Paris, its rich blues harmonies rubbing shoulders with blaring taxi horns. Gershwin’s iconic suite will be presented with a newly remastered presentation of the 1951 film starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. Pianist Marius Tesch returns to perform Gershwin’s energetic and crowd-pleasing Variations on ‘I got Rhythm.’ Tap dancer extraordinaire, Alex Dugdale joins your SCSO to present Morton Gould's fun and exciting Concerto for Tap Dancer. Duke Ellington’s jazzy orchestral piece, Three Black Kings was inspired by a stained-glass window Ellington saw in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar, the great Catalan Gothic cathedral in the Ribera district of Barcelona, when one of his Sacred Concerts was performed there. Reflecting the window’s depiction of three biblical kings, Ellington eventually conceived his own triptych. The opening movement, in the words of Ellington, “represents Balthazar, the black king of the Magi. King Solomon is next, with the song of jazz and perfume and dancing girls and all that; then the dirge for Dr. King.” Rounding out the program is Orlando Ballet's leading dancer, Kate-Lynn Robichaux performing Camille Saint-Saen's gorgeous The Dying Swan with choreography by Mikhail Fokine.
Artist Information
Alex Dugdale was born in Cali, Colombia and was raised in Seattle from an early age. When he was six, he began taking tap dance lessons with Cheryl Johnson and Anthony Peters. At age 10, he began playing clarinet in his elementary school band and the next year he performed at the NYC Tap Festival. He started playing saxophone in 6th grade and continued through high school. Alex continued his musical studies in Rochester, NY at the Eastman School of Music, obtaining a degree in Jazz Performance. Alex returned to Seattle in December 2012, and continues to perform and teach music and dance in the Seattle area. He currently works for Bishop Blanchet High School in their Grade School Band Program as well as working with Edmonds-Woodway High School and Eckstein Middle School. He also performs in many big bands and leads his own small groups that perform regularly in the Seattle area. Alex started tap dancing at age 6 under the instruction of Cheryl Johnson and Anthony Peters. As a child he appeared in a number of productions and festivals including Dance This!, A Tap Dance Christmas Carol, The NYC Tap Festival, and Century Ballroom’s Masters of Lindy Hop and Tap. In 2002 he appeared in a KCTS piece about legendary tap dancer Gregory Hines and had the opportunity to share the stage with him in what would be his last Seattle Performance. Dugdale continued to dance through middle school and high school, starting the tradition of tap dancing at Roosevelt High School’s Ellington Jazz Nutcracker concert as a freshman. In 2006, Alex was invited to dance with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and has been appearing with them ever since. While attending the Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY, Alex still found outlets for his tap dancing, he became a choreographer and member of the Radiance Dance Theatre as well as collaborated with other students and ensembles at the University of Rochester and the Eastman School of music. He also had the chance to work with Jeff Tyzik and the Rochester Philharmonic and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, the Redline Saxophone Quartet, the Eastman Saxophone Project and renowned dancer and choreographer Bill Evans. He continues to perform and teach tap in the Seattle area.
At 13, Kate-Lynn Robichaux attended her first summer program at Orlando Ballet, where she decided to pursue a career in ballet. She trained at Florida Ballet School with Daniel Deal and then America’s Ballet School with Paula Nunez and Osmany Montano. Kate-Lynn won a gold medal at the 2010 YAGP Regionals. In 2011 she was the Senior Division prize winner at the American Dance Competition. This is Kate-Lynn’s 5th year as a company member with the Orlando Ballet.
Photography by Michael Cairn
Marius Tesch was born in Berlin, Germany, before moving to the United States in 1992. As a musician, he has performed all over the world, performing not only in solo recitals, but also in chamber ensembles and a handful of jazz ensembles. He worked as a professional pianist and accompanist for Dreamland Productions from 2006 until 2009, where he performed regularly in at shows at Walt Disney World hotels, and conventions across the country. Now he is a pianist and an educator, who earned a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and a Bachelor of Arts in History at the University of Central Florida. As a music student, Marius participated in lessons and master classes with famous concert pianists such as Laurent Boukobza, Tzimon Barto, Maxim Mogilevsky, Daniel Pollack, Rebecca Penneys, and many others. In 2009 he spent a semester studying music at festivals in Paris and Les Arcs, France. Additionally, he was selected as the accompanist of the University Choir in 2011, as well as other chamber groups. Marius has won several performance awards, including the first prize in the UCF Performance Excellence competition.
After completing his undergraduate studies, Marius moved to Berlin, Germany, where he was accepted to the graduate program in Musicology at the Freie Universität Berlin, and specialized in the history of music. As aa student at one of the most renowned institutes for music history in Germany, Marius had the opportunity to study with leading scholars in the field of music history and theory. His interests were complimented by a growth in his appreciation of the historiographical and methodological underpinnings of historical scholarship. He presented a wide variety of papers ranging in topic from a critical analysis of Gabriel Fauré’s song cycle La bonne chanson, the work of the music historian Carl Dahlhaus, and program music in the nineteenth century to music theory in late antiquity and musical philanthropy in Renaissance Italy. He graduated with his thesis on Kurt Weill’s earliest surviving symphony, a topic that he researched through primary sources at the Berthold Brecht Archiv and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.
In 2014, Marius Tesch became a faculty member at the Orlando Music Institute, where he taught dozens of young students both piano and rudiments in music theory and ear-training. Additionally, he worked as the school’s social media coordinator and contributor. A full-time educator, Marius’ primary occupation is teaching World History at Timber Creek High School, where he brings together his passion for history and the arts with his drive to motivate, educate, and inspire others.