concert:nova Brings "wild things" to Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center'

illustration by Till Lansmann for "Where the Wild Things Are"

The wild things will be at the Contemporary Art Center this year, just in time for Halloween..
   “Roaring their terrible roars, gnashing their terrible teeth, rolling their terrible eyes and showing their terrible claws” will be members of concert:nova, the innovative chamber ensemble founded in 2007 by members of the Cincinnati Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.

concert:nova. L to R: Owen Lee, Tanya Berman, Patrick Schleker, Mauricio Aguiar, Heidi Yenney, Cristian Ganicenco, Christine Coletta, Randolph Bowman, Ixi Chen, Elizabeth Freimuth, Eric Bates

concert:nova opens its second season with a multi-media performance of New York composer Randall Woolf’s 1997 “Where the Wild Things Are” based on the popular children’s book by  Maurice Sendak.
   The concert, which will include projections of new color drawings by German illustrator/animator Till Lassmann inspired by Sendak's book, is at 7 p.m. Oct. 30.
“Where the Wild Things Are” is the tale of Max, a mischievous little boy in a wolf suit who is sent to bed without his supper for shenanigans around the house, including chasing the family dog with a fork.  As a forest grows in his room, Max boards a boat which takes him “through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year” to a fantasy land “where the wild things are.”
   As it turns out, Max is the “most wild thing of all” and is made “the king of all wild things.”  After a “rumpus” in which everyone joins, Max becomes homesick and decides to return to “where someone loved him best of all” where he finds his supper waiting for him ("and it was still hot").
   Woolf’s colorful score calls for acoustic and electric instruments, including electric and acoustic violin, electric guitar, electric bass, sampler, flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, drum set and marimba. Stylistically diverse, blending contemporary classical, rock, jazz, funk and electronic music (also cartoon voices), the work was written for the American Repertory Ballet in 1997 and has been performed all over the U.S.
   (Kentucky Symphony Orchestra fans will remember the live premiere of the work as part of an all-American, up to date program at Devou Park Amphitheater in August, 2000.  Previously heard only on tape as accompaniment to the ballet, the KSO event included slide projections from Sendak's book and narration by WCPO channel 9 anchorman Randy Little.)
   Tickets are $20 at the door, $10 for students, CAC and Enjoy the Arts members.  There will be a reception in the UnMuseum following the concert with light beverages and snacks.  Audience members are invited to come in costume.
   concert:nova will continue its 2008-09 season in December with “Waiting for the End of Time" featuring Olivier Messiaen's “Quartet for the End of Time," to be performed with readings from Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot” by actress Julianna Bloodgood and slide projections by visual artist Trinidad Mac-Auliffe.  Exact date, time and venue will be announced.
   For more information, see www.concertnova.com.