NCB Presents Music And Dance Tribute To Composer Ursula Mamlok At Germany Academy New York

Miro Magloire's New Chamber Ballet presents Stray Bird, a site-specific evening of dances to music by URSULA MAMLOK, April 11 & 12 at 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM (4 performances) at the German Academy New York, 1014 Fifth Avenue. The evening, a tribute to the late composer, features live music by the Momenta String Quartet and dance by Miro Magloire's New Chamber Ballet in choreography by Magloire, Rebecca Walden and Mara Driscoll.

Composer Ursula Mamlok was born in Berlin to a Jewish family, and as a teenager fled from the Nazis, first to Ecuador and eventually to New York, where she established herself as a trailblazing musical voice. In 2006, Mamlok returned to live in Berlin, where she passed away last year at age 93.

New Chamber Ballet's tribute presents six chamber music works by Mamlok - Haiku Settings, Sintra, From My Garden, Five Bagatelles, 2nd String Quartet and Stray Birds - with original choreography ranging from ballet to contemporary dance, performed in the intimate rooms of the German Academy New York's historic Fifth Avenue Building.

Musicians for the evening include the Momenta String Quartet, which was recently praised by The New York Times for its "diligence, curiosity and excellence," joined by soprano Cree Carrico, clarinetist Pascal Archer, and flutist Roberta Michel.

Choreographers are Miro Magloire, and Rebecca Walden and Mara Driscoll, who both trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts and recently began to choreograph as a team.

Originally trained as a composer in his native Germany, Miro Magloire is known for his ballets to contemporary music and his collaborations with composers. "In Magloire's world, music and dance are given equal weight, both visually and aurally. In Magloire's world, small isn't just beautiful, it expresses something of the divine." (Rachel Straus, Musical America, September 2013)

Stray Bird was commissioned by the Dwight und Ursula Mamlok Foundation.