On the Cusp of His 20th Year with the Ballet, Welch Can 'Hear the Dance, See the Music' Now More Than Ever
Mar. 10, 2023
THIS WEEKEND, THE Houston Ballet returns with Summer and Smoke, a triple bill that, like much of the recent programming by the Houston Symphony, is a stimulating blend of past, present, and future.
The program includes the world premiere of Summer and Smoke, based on the Tennessee Williams play of the same name, with choreography by Cathy Marston and a commissioned score by Michael Daugherty; George Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco; and Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch’s Clear, set to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor and the first two movements from his Violin Concerto in G minor.
Now one of Welch’s most oft-performed ballets, audiences may not recall that Clear premiered in New York on October 25, 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 attacks. “It was the very first thing I did after the attacks,” says Welch. “I chose to finish it differently.”
Clear famously features a cast of seven men in flesh-toned costumes, with six of the seven representing different aspects of one man. The title refers to the mental and spiritual clarity that arises amid terrifying circumstances.
Welch (photo courtesy of the Houston Ballet)
For Welch, a panicked phone call home to Australia on that fateful day was that moment of surrender, when instead of obsessing over petty squabbles, one experiences “the essence of love,” as represented in Clear by the cast’s only woman dancer.
More than two decades after its premiere, which included recently appointed Houston Ballet co-artistic director Julia Kent, Welch feels the Clear’s concept and message still resonate, “perhaps now more than ever.”
For Welch, the music of Bach is perfectly suited for Clear. “There’s a simplicity and a math to it that lends itself to dance in so many creative ways,” says Welch, who next season celebrates his 20th year with the Ballet. “I think that’s its power.” He also names Vivaldi, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky (Welch is at work on a new ballet to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1) as composers who inspire him to move. “I can see steps when I hear the music,” says Welch.
“Hear the dance, see the music” is something dancers often say what they and ideally an audience will experience at a ballet, and Balanchine, one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century, may be the epitome of that statement. “He’s so extraordinarily musical,” says Welch. “You see in Concerto Barocco this simplicity of eight girls and the principal trio in very little costuming dancing and using completely ballet vocabulary and yet it seems so fresh and original. It seems like you’re seeing the music.”
Hearing and seeing the music is important, but so is feeling it, and for Welch, just listening to classical music is an emotional experience. “When I lost my husband a couple of years ago, I found classical music really hard to return to,” says Welch. (Welch’s husband was one of six lives lost in the 2019 Kerrville plane accident.) For a time, Welch found comfort in listening to the ’80s music he grew up with, but in the past year has begun listening to French and Russian masters Debussy, Ravel, and Prokofiev. “I can’t hear classical music and not feel something,” says Welch.
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AS AN ART form, Western composition in the 21st century isn’t all that different from what it was when Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven somehow, without the aid of computers and social media, managed to harness the forces necessary to get what they heard in their head to the ears of a (hopefully) appreciative audience.
Centuries later, the tools of the trade now include amplified instruments and digital recording software — but composing still requires a good set of ears, plenty of imagination, and free time to get your ideas down on paper (or tape).
Enter Houston guitarist and composer George Heathco, whose new album George Heathco Solo Ensemble, Volume One is a collection of electric and acoustic guitar instrumentals encompassing tightly scored orchestral arrangements, trippy soundscapes, and everything in between. It’s another impressive addition to Heathco’s already extensive resume, which includes composing music for Chapman Dance, Da Camera of Houston, and the University of Houston’s AURA Contemporary Ensemble, and is a great introduction for open-minded listeners to the compositional potential of the electric guitar.
Self-produced and self-released, George Heathco Solo Ensemble, Volume One will be available wherever music is streamed or sold on March 10. In the meantime, you can preview two tracks from the album, the dark, and brooding “Terlingua,” which wouldn’t sound out of place as the soundtrack to a Sergio Leone or Quentin Tarantino film, and “Dancer,” a stripped-down interlude of folkish counterpoint hovering over an ominous and shifting beds of reverb — evoking memories of sound minus the sound itself. Heathco’s playing throughout GHSE is expressive, tasteful, and conceptually tight, even in moments of noise and near-psychedelic weirdness
“I grew up playing a lot of ‘shred’ guitar and a lot of fast stuff,” says Heathco, who over time has found himself more interested in “space and silence” in his playing and composing. “We think we have to impress all the time,” says Heathco of himself and his axe-wielding brethren. “I think sometimes you get the most impact off of the smallest of gestures.”
Heathco recorded the album’s many layers of electric and acoustic guitars and occasional bass alone in his home studio in the hours after teaching music at The Tenney School. (Heathco now works for HGO as its community and learning programs coordinator.) A few major inspirations for the project include guitarist Les Paul’s pioneering experiments with multitracking; jazz guitarist Bill Frisell’s skill in creating music with loops and overdubbed guitars (“He’s always got some ever flowing, every evolving harmonic landscape that’s based on very simple things,” says Heathco.); and the music of Steven Mackey, a rock guitarist who composes chamber and orchestral pieces that include electric guitar.
Heathco also drew inspiration from a daily practice regimen he originated and named the “One Hour Minute,” a sort of “musical journal” in which Heathco sets himself the task to compose and fully produce one minute of music in exactly one hour, using the first idea that popped into his mind. The process helped him discover musical ideas that felt natural and provided a personal outlet apart from commercial work, where he isn’t necessarily working to satisfy a collaborator or please an audience.
As the recording’s digital release date approaches, on social media, Houston’s rock, jazz, and classical music community is rallying its support and enthusiasm for the project. Heathco is quick to acknowledge the support he received from his wife, a former oboist and now program director at American Festival for the Arts, and their 13-year-old daughter.
“It starts to feel more like a collective,” says Heathco of family life. “My daughter loves crafting and making and doing all sorts of things and putting out work as well. It becomes this kind of endless wave when everyone around you is sharing something of their own.”
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