NEW BRUNSWICK — A world-renowned conductor who currently resides in North Brunswick will lead Igor Stravinsky’s score in an upcoming production at Rutgers University.
The Mason Gross School of the Arts will celebrate its 40th anniversary year with a presentation of “The Soldier’s Tale” (“L’histoire du Soldat”) on Feb. 20.
The fully staged production, a school-wide collaboration of the Dance, Digital Filmmaking, Music, Theater and Visual Arts programs, includes a score composed by Igor Stravinsky and text by Swiss writer C.F. Ramuz. An ensemble of seven musicians, led by Rutgers Symphony Orchestra conductor Kynan Johns, of North Brunswick, will perform Stravinsky’s score.
Johns is the area coordinator of the Strings program, director of Orchestras, orchestral conducting, Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, HELIX! and Sinfonia.
He combines his position as director of orchestras at Rutgers with being assistant director at the Palau de les Arts, Reina Sofia, Valencia, Spain, to maestros Maazel and Mehta.
A native of Australia, Johns has conducted orchestras throughout the world, including the Israel Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Chinese National Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Symphony, Sydney Symphony and New Zealand Symphony.
In the field of opera he has conducted at La Scala, Maazel’s “1984″ and “Don Giovanni,” “Madame Butterfly” and “Don Carlos” in Valencia, working with Domingo, Frittoli, Wyn-Rogers and Koerl.
Johns has been the recipient of prizes in international conducting competitions such as the Dimitris Mitropoulos International Conducting competition and the Maazel/Vilar Conducting competition.
The Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, under Johns, released its first commercial CD of Flagello’s Saxophone Quartet Concerto under the Naxos label in 2006.
Johns could not be reached for comment.
“The Soldier’s Tale is a “remash of a few Russian folktales that are put into one story of a soldier who sells the devil his violin, which in a sense represents his soul,” said theater faculty member Christopher Cartmill, who voices the narrator. “And you can’t cheat the devil.”
“World War I was going on, and Stravinsky was at a pivotal point in his own career where his work was changing,” Cartmill added. “Instead of being stopped by it, he created something of lasting power. There’s something really extraordinary about that as we work to teach and to learn.”
“The Soldier’s Tale” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 in the Nicholas Music Center on the Douglass campus, 85 George St., New Brunswick.
Tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for Rutgers alumni and employees and seniors, and $5 for students with valid ID.
Following the performance on campus, “The Soldier’s Tale” will be presented Feb. 21 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City, with an opening showcase of short pieces performed by Rutgers’ Helix! New Music Ensemble. Tickets are $15-$20 and are available at lpr.com/lpr_events/lhistoire-du-soldat-february-21st-2016/.
