ABT choreographers toy with tradition
from Friday, November2nd of the year2007.
The 26-year-old’s original score lays down a mushroom cloud of sound that miraculously breeds bird calls and light.
An Ephemeral Portrait of an Artist in a Hall of Mirrors
from Monday, October29th of the year2007.
Mr. Muhly’s score has, as the overture alone shows, a striking range of sonority and structure, and Mr. Millepied’s ballet has craft, discipline and a welcome energy.
The Happy Little Minimalist
from Monday, October8th of the year2007.
He’s referring to From Here on Out, the piece he’s scored for fellow young up-and-comer Benjamin Millepied, premiering October 26 during American Ballet Theatre’s City Center season. Millepied first heard about Muhly from friends at Juilliard and was immediately taken with his music; Muhly was equally enamored of Millepied’s choreography (they first worked together when Muhly was sent to conduct Millepied’s ballet version of Glass’s Einstein on the Beach in Paris). “For me, my relationship to my body is like meeting a long-distance relative,” says Muhly. “Like, I recognize I’m related to this thing I carry around with me, but I don’t necessarily know how to speak to it. And for dancers it’s so immediate.” Ballet, he says, “was always one of those things I’d wanted to do, but it just always seemed too complicated.”
High Scorer
from Friday, October5th of the year2007.
Life is sweet for the friendly, boyish-looking composer, who talks a mile a minute and would seem to think a good deal faster. Everything reminds him of everything else[…]
The Young and the Tireless
from Tuesday, August28th of the year2007.
In October, their first joint work””From Here on Out, a three-movement, 25-minute ballet for American Ballet Theatre””will premiere at City Center. The two got on the phone for a far-flung chat with Rebecca Milzoff: Muhly from a studio in Iceland, Millepied from Martha’s Vineyard.
Musings in the Garden
from Sunday, August19th of the year2007.
…the most all-around-lovely concert I’ve ever attended…
Stravinsky Meets Scrooge McDuck
from Tuesday, July24th of the year2007.
“I’m much happier with a zillion things in a huge stack, just being thrown at your face.”
Junkies Not Perfect for Pops
from Tuesday, June26th of the year2007.
Wish You Were Here, a fanciful, engaging composition by 26-year-old Vermont native Nico Muhly…
Polished Young Choristers Evoking Eternal Mysteries
from Tuesday, June26th of the year2007.
Nico Muhly conjured up the end of the world in “Syllables,” with bright, tricky snatches of English and Old Icelandic scattered against shimmering Minimalist pulsations and keyboard arpeggios.
At least I didn’t say “Chicken Piccata”
from Saturday, May5th of the year2007.
Muhly, who lives in a Chinatown loft with his cat, said he is less snobby about writing for an organization like the Pops than he might have been in years past. In fact, he spoke to Keith Lockhart on the phone, and contrary to the “complete nightmare” he expected, he found the Pops conductor “charming, smart and funny. “He was really great talking to me about Messiaen. I had an out-of-body experience.”