Imagine Ballet Theatre will present the ballet “Alice: Adventures in Wonderland,” based on the beloved novel by Lewis Carroll, this spring. The full-length ballet features choreography by IBT Artistic Director Raymond Van Mason. The company will offer three opportunities to see the show in Ogden on May 12th and 13th at the Allred Theater at Weber State University.
Van Mason’s ballet tells the story of Alice, a young girl who falls down a rabbit hole and finds herself in a magical and unusual world. In search of the elusive White Rabbit, Alice meets and interacts with the odd characters in Wonderland throughout her journey, which ultimately ends in mayhem in the Queen of Hearts’ court. Van Mason’s choreography stays true to the fun and often chaotic intertwining personalities in the classic Carroll book, and audience members can look forward to seeing all their favorite characters in a new yet familiar way, from the Cheshire Cat to the Mad Hatter and the Doormouse.
The buoyant score, composed by Joseph Horovitz, translates beautifully to the quirky and playful style of the overall story. Nicolas Maughan will play the score on just the piano. This music was commissioned by London Festival Ballet in 1953, Coronation year for Queen Elizabeth II. IBT is the only Company allowed to use this score for performances.
Keeping with tradition, Imagine Ballet Theatre’s “Alice” will also pull from the local community to bring the ballet to life. Sherry Ferrin, a well-known Ogden artist, hand-painted the enormous backdrop for the stage, while additional set pieces and props have been constructed by other artisans in the area.
Meet the Composer, Joseph Horovitz and the Pianist, Nicholas Maughan!
JOSEPH HOROVITZ was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1926 and settled in England in 1938. After gaining a music degree from Oxford, he studied at the Royal College of Music, London, and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His first contact with ballet was as rehearsal pianist for Boris Kochno. He became Music Director of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre in 1950 and then conductor of the Ballets Russes on its final UK tour under Serge Grigoriev, Diaghilev’s Ballet Master. They premiered his first major ballet score, Les Femmes d’Alger, at London’s Festival Hall in 1952.
In 1953 Anton Dolin commissioned him to write the music for Alice in Wonderland, London Festival Ballet’s contribution to Coronation Year. It ran for three years in Britain, Europe, North and South America and was televised by the BBC . Revivals have since been staged in USA, Britain, Germany, Austria and New Zealand. Ben Stevenson’s production for Houston Ballet in 1992 resulted in seasons in Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Fort Worth, Texas. A recent version has been performed by the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain (choreography Wayne Sleep) for three seasons.
In all Horovitz has composed twelve ballets, including Concerto for Dancers for the Edinburgh Festival and Miss Carter Wore Pink for Britain’s Northern Ballet Theatre, and has made a complete revision of the score for Giselle, commissioned by the Royal Ballet in 1990, with frequent revivals, the latest currently showing at the Royal Opera House, London.
His compositions range widely: concertos for oboe, clarinet, violin, euphonium, tuba, percussion, trumpet, oboe and Jazz Concerto for harpsichord or piano; wind and brass band works, five string quartets and other chamber music; choral works including an oratorio (Samson), humorous cantatas for the Hoffnung Concerts and the popular Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo, sung in six different languages and televised as an animated film and a children’s ballet; two one-act operas and a full-length opera, Ninotchka, and over seventy TV scores such as Lillie, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers series, two BBC Shakespeare plays (Twelfth Night and The Tempest), Dorian Gray and Rumpole of the Bailey.
A Fellow of the Royal College of Music, London, he was President of the International Council of Composers and Lyricists (CIAM) from 1981 to 1989. He holds two Ivor Novello Awards, the Commonwealth Medal for Composition, the Gold Order of Merit of the City of Vienna, the Nino Rota Prize of Italy, the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art First Class, and the Cobbett Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, UK.
Whether Nicholas Maughan is music directing a production of Rocky Horror at a barn in Kennebunkport, Maine, coaching a high school violinist on the Mendelssohn Concerto, or playing tunes from Wicked with Kristin Chenoweth and the Utah Symphony, he is at a piano doing what he loves: making music with other people.
Collaboration is the theme in Nic’s musical life. His first piano lessons, taught by his mother, included duets. He was accompanying choirs in middle school and high school. At Utah State (Charlene Shelzi Jarvis, Annette Colledge) and Weber State (Ralph van der Beek), Nic worked extensively with singers and string players. Nic credits much of his ability to adapt his playing to “styles-beyond-classical” to the work he did under the mentorship of Jim Christian (musical theater), Viktor Uzur (chamber music), and Cristin Tillinghast (voice).
Currently, Nic enjoys working as the full time Company Pianist at Ballet West, where he’s able to incorporate all kinds of musical favorites into his playlist for Company class. Dancers might hear anything from Scarlatti & Chopin to Jerome Kern & Katy Perry. Nic finds the ballet repertoire (Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and more) challenging and exciting. This season, he’s enjoyed performing Concerto Barocco (Balanchine/Bach), Rodeo (De Mille/Copland) and In the Night (Robbins/Chopin). Nic very much enjoys performing as a member of the Ballet West Orchestra.
Nic is looking forward to playing Alice in Wonderland with Imagine Ballet Theater this Spring.
Special projects during the 2022-2023 season included performing the world premiere of Alfonso Tenreiro’s Piano Concerto 1 with Dr. Michael Palumbo and Chamber Orchestra Ogden, the world premiere of J. Taylor Arnold’s The Bitter Price with NEXTensemble, and expanding Nic’s original score for choreographer Jessica Baynes’ modern dance piece, Bloom, a Grantee of Salt Lake City’s Arts Council’s 2022 Artist Career Empowerment Grant.
You can hear Nic on Aubrey Adams-McMillan’s 2021 album, Beautiful Dreamer, and Ginger Bess’s 2014 album, Give Me the Simple Life, available on all streaming services.