The Hop Reveals Exciting Season of Commissions and Resident Artist Creations

The Hopkins Center for the Arts has revealed its 2023/24 season of artists, events and connections, including new residencies and commissions. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, August 29.

Resident artists

A number of pioneering artists will be in residence this season, including year-long residencies by Grammy award-winning violinist and producer Johnny Gandelsman as well as MacArthur Fellow and cellist Tomeka Reid. Both will be sharing new work, creating, collaborating and engaging with the community on and off campus. "With many artists visiting for longer than just a day or two, residencies give us opportunities to make memories, to get to know each other and to be transformed by sharing more deeply," says Mary Lou Aleskie, Executive Director of the Hop. "Our resident artists use their time in the Upper Valley connecting beyond the stage, engaging community, creating research and new works while lifting our common humanity." Throughout the year, Gandelsman will perform his complete anthology, This is America, and expand the project with new Hop-commissioned works. Each term will include a performance at Dartmouth as well as a venue in the local community, with the composer of each commission in attendance to shed light on their work. Reid will bring her newly formed 17-member ensemble, conducted by Coast Director Taylor Ho Bynum, as they create new avenues for international jazz and improvised music. Reid also shares the stage with the Coast in the fall concert, as part of Hear In Now alongside Mazz Swift and Silvia Bolognesi, and again in the winter in a collaboration with the DSO. The two ensembles will team up for a weekend of new music featuring four resident artists: Reid, Jessica Pavone, Angela Morris and Anna Webber, alongside repertoire from classical music and jazz. In addition, the Hop's resident orchestra led by our music director Filippo Ciabatti, welcomes back David Kim, the virtuosic concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as he returns with a program featuring The Four Seasons of Vivaldi and The Four Seasons of Piazzolla.

Science and the arts

Resident artists will also interweave science and the arts during their time with the Hop. Choreographer Richard Move kicks off the season with Herstory of the Universe@Dartmouth on September 15. Move has adapted the ambitious performance, which pays tribute to Earth's potential to renew itself, to draw inspiration from the college's natural surroundings. Each of the work's three performances culminates in a conversation with Dartmouth faculty, including ecologist Jessica Trout-Haney to discuss aquatic ecosystems, soil ecologist Bala Chaudhary to discuss the golf course land and senior lecturer Matteo Gilebbi to discuss environmental humanities and post-humanism. UK-based innovative theater company, curious directive, will also be in residence to present Frogman, a supernatural thriller experienced in virtual reality and live theater, and conduct research for new work, while engaging with faculty and staff on the lines that blur theater and science.

Fostering new work

The season also sees several Hop commissions coming to life. In addition to new works commissioned for Johnny Gandelsman as part of This is America, and Move's Herstory of the Universe@Dartmouth, British ensemble The Tallis Scholars performs a new Hop commission by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang, as part of their concert celebrating Easter. During their time on campus, composers Tomeka Reid, Jessica Pavone, Angela Morris and Anna Webber will be in conversation around making music that draws from both jazz and classical traditions. In a joint concert, the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra and the Coast will perform commissioned premieres from Morris and Webber.

Moments
The work of several artists this season conjures the ideas of "moments"-times that define our lives both individually and collectively and spur artistic creation. From contemporary experiences such as the strange time of the pandemic to historical events such as the rediscovery and safeguarding of 1600 Czech Torah scrolls during the WWII and the near extinction of The American Buffalo, our season artists capture these moments with their own voices and visions and share them through different forms, genres and styles: a 27-song anthology of violin works, a celebration of klezmer music and Jewish culture, a fierce and hilarious one-woman show, a riveting film and a choreographed journey through the restored lands of the college. The season's events and experiences also provide moments of connection for audience members, with artists and each other. "The act of gathering together in arts experiences creates lasting impact," says Mary Lou Aleskie, Executive Director of the Hop." It's what helps us better understand ourselves and each other, amplifying empathy while promoting joy and understanding among us. This is the unique power of the arts."

Innovative theater

The season includes eye-opening theatrical works by inventive artists. In addition to science-led company curious directive performing their pioneering work, Frogman, Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer, comedian and politician Kristina Wong returns to the Hop for a comedic show that crosses the aesthetics of solo theater and campaign rallies. Monica Bill Barnes & Company combine language and movement in a memory play that celebrates the awkward first steps we took following the pandemic as we moved forward and decided again, who we want to be.

Expansive music

From traditional Korean folk sounds by Coreyah to Ethio-jazz songs by Meklit and an immersive sensory experience exploring the elemental phenomenon of sound, music will resound throughout the season. Danbi Um and JIJI share the stage with a performance featuring violin and guitar traversing genres, styles and traditions. Classical music lovers will delight in pianist Frederic Chiu's smackdown between Bach and Glass, as well as a captivating performance by Isidore String Quartet exploring the epiphanic nature of life. In the winter, Hop pianist-in-residence Sally Pinkas explores music created by couples sharing their personal and professional lives, then in the spring, she is joined by the Julius String Quartet for a program reflecting the traditional "American" soundscape and its expanding, contemporary movement.

Hop on Tour

On the heels of their successful Mexico tour and collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble, led by Director of Bands Brian Messier, continues to advance the Mexican Repertoire Initiative with performances at Jordan Hall in the New England Conservatory and Cornell University-the latter as part of the 2024 College Band Directors National Association conference. In the fall, guest conductor Luis Manuel Sánchez and musicians from the UNAM Banda Sinfonica will join the ensemble at the storied Boston hall with a program of the Americas. Then in the winter, the ensemble performs a program centered on Mexican works titled MusicMexico, featuring Hop commissions and new works.

For younger audiences

The Hop's family series returns with a robust sale of performances and experiences. King of Kid-Hop 23 Skidoo and the Secret Agency deliver hip-hop for the whole family while the pioneering puppet/theater company Sandglass comes north for a suite of events for all ages and master pianist Frederic Chiu pits two iconic classical composers against one another as young audiences listen, debate and vote for the winner.

Looking toward the future

The season launches at a dynamic time for the Hop as the building undergoes a large-scale renovation and expansion. "This year we also begin thinking about the future of the arts and all that the new Hop will bring to our community," says Aleskie. "Our journey through this season is an opportunity to think together about the future and the kinds of experiences we hope for once we return to the building."

Season launch

All events can now be viewed on the website at hop.dartmouth.edu. Hop members are invited to hear more about the artists and inspiration behind the season's programming at a special event on August 17, and the public is invited to a free Season Launch Party on Tuesday, September 12.

About The Hopkins Center for the Arts

Situated on the Green of Dartmouth College, the Hopkins Center serves as a hub of performing arts and film for the College and Upper Valley. A leader in experiential education, it is dedicated to bringing together visiting artists, resident artists, student ensembles and academic departments to produce and present work that represents diverse voices and perspectives and engages with a wide spectrum of artistic forms and ideas. It acts as a laboratory for creative experimentation and an instigator for exploring the connections among different artistic disciplines, the Dartmouth curriculum, and the wider community.

The Hopkins Center for the Arts is currently in the process of a major transformation, which will include the creation of 70,000 square feet of newly functional space that will allow the Center to further develop its program and better serve its student and community audiences. To learn more about the project, please visit our website.

About Dartmouth

Founded in 1769, Dartmouth is a member of the Ivy League and consistently ranks among the world's greatest academic institutions. Dartmouth has forged a singular identity for combining its deep commitment to outstanding undergraduate liberal arts and graduate education with distinguished research and scholarship in the Arts and Sciences and its four leading graduate schools-the Geisel School of Medicine, the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Thayer School of Engineering and the Tuck School of Business.

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