Composer/Artistic Director - Aidan Teplitzky
Designer/Collaborator - Alisa Kalyanova
Lighting Designer - Benny Goodman
Drag Artists - Frankie Mulholland, James Primmer, Samantha Son - Dokidis, Laura Fisher, and Aidan Teplitzky
Wardrobe - Amy Copland, Eilidh Fraser, Kayrin Fraser, Jennifer Grubb, Troen Halvarson, Lotta Heikkinen, Sara Miller
Conductor - Raffaele Giacometti
Ensemble - RCS MusicLab
Premiered on the 12th of May as part of Plug 2017 and dedicated to the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
Funding provided by the RCS Equality and Diversity fund.
The idea for this project came about from discussion between myself and Alisa in late November when we were trying to come up with an idea as to how to combine the world of Drag art and classical music in order to transform the typical concert into a more immersive performance experience. After talking back and forth we came up with the idea to transform my piece, "How to Own the Room" by having five drag queens perform a choreographed routine while the music played in order to reflect the subject matter of the work. Once we came to this conclusion we spread the word around the RCS and had a huge number of artists wanting to participate but due to funding, we could only accommodate five. From here we began to have a number of conversations with these artists in what drag means to them (be it as a means of escapism, to become a physical representation of their art or simply an exaggerated performance identity) from which Alisa came about with the designs for the costumes.
Once the designs were confirmed we began to choreograph the performance alongside the rehearsals for the piece in order to make sure that the drag element of the performance didn't feel outside of the musical performance, but felt like a natural occurrence to the subject matter of the piece. In creating the choreography I wanted to make sure that all of the drag artists felt they had some control as to what they did in the performance which I believe comes across.
From this project, I wish to continue to explore the different ways in which my music can be transformed and improved upon through collaboration with other artistic mediums in order to make a performance of my music into a more fabulous experience for an audience to be a part of than the standard classical music concert.
Photos courtesy of Alisa Kalyanova, Beki Smith, and Aidan Teplitzky.
Designer/Collaborator - Alisa Kalyanova
Lighting Designer - Benny Goodman
Drag Artists - Frankie Mulholland, James Primmer, Samantha Son - Dokidis, Laura Fisher, and Aidan Teplitzky
Wardrobe - Amy Copland, Eilidh Fraser, Kayrin Fraser, Jennifer Grubb, Troen Halvarson, Lotta Heikkinen, Sara Miller
Conductor - Raffaele Giacometti
Ensemble - RCS MusicLab
Premiered on the 12th of May as part of Plug 2017 and dedicated to the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
Funding provided by the RCS Equality and Diversity fund.
The idea for this project came about from discussion between myself and Alisa in late November when we were trying to come up with an idea as to how to combine the world of Drag art and classical music in order to transform the typical concert into a more immersive performance experience. After talking back and forth we came up with the idea to transform my piece, "How to Own the Room" by having five drag queens perform a choreographed routine while the music played in order to reflect the subject matter of the work. Once we came to this conclusion we spread the word around the RCS and had a huge number of artists wanting to participate but due to funding, we could only accommodate five. From here we began to have a number of conversations with these artists in what drag means to them (be it as a means of escapism, to become a physical representation of their art or simply an exaggerated performance identity) from which Alisa came about with the designs for the costumes.
Once the designs were confirmed we began to choreograph the performance alongside the rehearsals for the piece in order to make sure that the drag element of the performance didn't feel outside of the musical performance, but felt like a natural occurrence to the subject matter of the piece. In creating the choreography I wanted to make sure that all of the drag artists felt they had some control as to what they did in the performance which I believe comes across.
From this project, I wish to continue to explore the different ways in which my music can be transformed and improved upon through collaboration with other artistic mediums in order to make a performance of my music into a more fabulous experience for an audience to be a part of than the standard classical music concert.
Photos courtesy of Alisa Kalyanova, Beki Smith, and Aidan Teplitzky.