PROGRAM THREE | MIXED-BILL | FEB 20-MAR 2 2014
Included in the Principal Series 5 and 8
The program also includes Christopher Wheeldon's Ghosts, which recently wowed London fans and critics. The London Independent said, "Ghosts is original and astonishingly atmospheric...utterly gripping."
A program highlight came when the orchestra backed Winger on Sir Paul McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby" -- the song that initially inspired Winger to pursue classical composition. The orchestra also performed "Ghosts," a piece Winger wrote as a commission for the San Francisco Ballet.
Among a mix of Classical and popular music, Colorado Symphony will perform sections from Conversations With Nijinsky and Ghosts. I will also be performing a few of my rock songs with the orchestra.
Jan 18, 2013 7:30PM Boettcher Concert Hall
Jan 20, 2013 2:30PM PACE Center
Feature Review: San Francisco Ballet at Sadler's Wells
The Classical Source - Written by G. J. Dowler
The strongest work was Wheeldon's Edgar Allen Poe-inspired Ghosts to C. F. Kip Winger's fine score (finely played too). Here, costuming is spot on - dancers clad in diaphanous, floaty white over-garments - and Wheeldon deftly evokes the image of spirits at play, aided by Mary Louise Geiger's superbly atmospheric lighting. His choreography is eerie, inventive, haunting; it is a decidedly impressive essay in themed movement. Both Sofiane Sylve and the season's star Maria Kochetkova were superb but all praise to the entire cast, fully in style, working as one to create the impression of the beyond. A work that needs to be seen again.
Dance Review: San Francisco Ballet, Sadler's Wells, London
By Neil Norman
Wheeldon's Ghosts, is the prize: a spectral, faerie ballet full of ethereal mischief. A central pas de deux stops the show with a series of sultry curls and intimate lifts while the score by CF Kip Winger provides the perfect soundtrack.
Insouciant Elegance and Nonchalant Fireworks, Fueled by Ballet Power
By Roslyn Sulcas
Ms. Sylve was equally glorious as the central, enigmatic figure of "Ghosts," set to an eerie, shivery score for piano and strings by C. F. Kip Winger. The music shifts between a modernist, atonal idiom and a more lyrical romanticism, and Mr. Wheeldon responds with a similar choreographic range.
Most striking of the Wheeldon offerings was Ghosts .... Wheeldon exploits the dramatic potential of his ballerinas - Debussyan harmonies in a score from ex-rocker CF Kip Winger add to these seductions.
San Francisco Ballet - Programme B: Tomasson, Wheeldon, Page - London
in Dance Tabs - by By Jann Parry
18 dancers are a community of spectral souls who cluster together in the moonlight - as balletic spirits do. The atmospheric score was composed for Wheeldon's piece by C.F. Kip Winger, a versatile musician with his own rock band.
Christopher Wheeldon's Ghosts, in which a stageful of diaphanously white-clad dancers are driven to moonstruck madness by the eerie dissonances of CF Kip Winger's score.
Works by Balanchine and Wheeldon are among the highlights
by Clement Crisp
Wheeldon's Ghosts was a response to the sonorities and spectral implications of Kip Winger's intriguing orchestral suite - music that spoke to its choreographer...
London Premiere Review for Ghosts - The Ballet (Wheeldon/Winger)
San Francisco Ballet - Sadler's Wells Theatre
Christopher Wheeldon's Ghosts is a fantastic piece with brilliant lighting by Mary Louise Geigerthat creates an invigoratingly spooky translucent effect. The choreography shows Wheeldon at his imaginative best, veering from insectoid groupings to lyrically swooning partnerings, and there are some robust lifts and athletic rolling which make this work stand out from his usual, more elegaic, oeuvre. There's also a breathtaking duet towards the end, performed with uncanny synchronisation and emotion by Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith.
One of Wheeldon's great strengths is producing pieces that work in tandem with the music, something achieved to tremendous effect in Ghosts.
"Wheeldon's Ghosts, the centrepiece of the second programme, dresses its dancers in white, to misty, atmospheric music by C.F. Kip Winger. Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith dance in long, long phrases, going from floor work to a soaring lift in what feels like one breath. Other dancers throng and hover. Even when they circle the stage in flying jumps, the ballet remains soft and mysterious."
June 9th, 2012 at 7:30pm
Keller Auditorium, Portland Oregon
Oregon Ballet Theatre - Dance United
The creme of the international ballet community returns to Portland once again for Dance United, our celebration of the best of the best ballet performances from around the world. For each Dance United Christopher draws on his relationships with the national (and international) dance community to bring you an evening of performances you could only get from Oregon Ballet Theatre (or a 'round the world tour!)
Guest artists include Jeanette Delgado and Renato Penteado (Miami City Ballet), Victoria Jaiani and Temur Suluashvili (The Joffrey Ballet), Maia Makhateli and Tamás Nagy (Dutch National Ballet), Adrian Danchig-Waring (New York City Ballet) and Garen Scribner and Dana Genshaft (San Francisco Ballet).
Pas de deux to be performed by the visiting guest artists include Christopher Wheeldon's Ghosts (San Francisco Ballet) and excerpts from George Balanchine's Stars and Stripes (Miami City Ballet) with additional repertoire to be determined. Oregon Ballet Theatre will perform a sneak preview of both the white and black swan pas de deux from next season's Swan Lake and a trio of short Kurt Weill inspired pieces: Christopher Wheeldon's There Where She Loved, Kent Stowell's Jenny and a world premiere work by Christopher Stowell set to Kurt Weill's tango-infused Youkali. Rounding out the program will be Balanchine's Who Cares?
SF Ballet Returns to London with Three Mixed Bill Programs, Including Nine UK Premieres
San Francisco Ballet has announced programming for its engagement at London's Sadler's Wells Theatre, September 14-23, 2012. The Company will present three mixed-bill programs of 10 works over nine performances, featuring a diverse array of acclaimed works by George Balanchine, Edwaard Liang, Mark Morris, Ashley Page, Christopher Wheeldon, SF Ballet Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson, and SF Ballet Choreographer in Residence Yuri Possokhov. The Company last performed in London in 2004.
Program B (September 15 and 21 at 7:30pm; September 16 at 4:00pm) of the UK premiere will feature Wheeldon's Ghosts, a ballet set to music by C.F. Kip Winger and made for five soloists and a six-couple corps.
The 26th annual Isadora Duncan Dance Awards event is one of the most anticipated in its history to date.... "No less than 9 SFB dancers are nominated, 4 of whom are nominated/honored twice, as well as the entire company for its performances of Christopher Wheeldon's Ghosts to Kip Winger's rapturous score, the scenic/costume/lighting design team for Yuri
Possokhov's RAkU, and the person responsible for restaging Wayne McGregor's Chroma."
A Reflection on Recording "Conversations with Nijinsky"
by Marina Kifferstein '12
"Quite a few established institutions have taken Winger seriously as a composer"
In January, the Oberlin Orchestra recorded "Conversations with Nijinksy," a ballet suite by a very special guest composer. Although most of us in the orchestra had never heard of hair metal icon Kip Winger (among classical music majors in the con, '80's metal enthusiasts are something of a rarity), the multi-platinum recording artist, who is best known for his band Winger and his youthful days as a bass player with Alice Cooper, has had an extremely successful career both as a band member and a solo artist. He also turns out to be a really nice guy.
Oberlin isn't the only classically oriented community that embraced Winger's non-traditional background. In fact, quite a few established institutions have taken Winger seriously as a composer, including the Tuscon Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco ballet, which performed his first ballet, "Ghosts," in its 2010-2011 season. "Ghosts" had a very strong reception, earning Winger much critical praise and a nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Music/Sound/Text from the Isadora Duncan Dance Award Committee. Described as "Sibelius-meets-Stravinsky" by the San Francisco Examiner, "Ghosts" is by all definitions neo-romantic, which is rare coming from a contemporary composer outside of Hollywood.
Rockstar Kip Winger to Record Ballet at Oberlin Conservatory by Andrew Willens
"It was always one of my main goals to write for dance," Winger said, "When I was studying dance, emotionally I was struck by Stravinsky to the core."
Oberlin, OH - Students at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music will have the opportunity to gain professional recording experience with hair-metal icon Kip Winger this January, when the 1980s glam-rocker breaks ground on the Conversations with Nijinsky recording project in Oberlin's Warner Concert Hall.
Nijinsky, a new-music ballet Winger was asked to write by choreographer Chris Wheeldon, will be recorded entirely by Oberlin students and is being considered an invaluable professional opportunity by the conservatory.
Though many in the all-student, 62-piece orchestra are excited to work with Winger on what they expect to be a genre-defying piece, some are cautious of Nijinsky's pop-gone-classical background.
Dean of the Conservatory David H. Stull, however, says that students have much to learn from the experience, and Winger is confident they'll deliver an outstanding performance.
"Renaissance Dude"
Winger found Oberlin through his unique artistic influences, a blend of rock and roll, classical composition, and contemporary ballet music.
He's best known as the vocalist and bassplayer with his band "Winger" and heavy metal pioneer Alice Cooper. After playing with Cooper from 1984 to 1986, Winger released two platinum-selling albums with his own group, 1989's Winger and 1990's In the Heart of the Young.
Winger's music, however, is also influenced by his pursuit of ballet. He studied dance for more than twenty years and performed professionally for "a few seasons" with the Colorado State Ballet Company as a teenager.
C.F. Kip Winger to Record New Ballet at Oberlin Colege
Conversations with Nijinsky
"I always knew I'd end up writing orchestral music - Kip Winger"
Kip Winger, lead singer of the rock band Winger, is an accomplished, award nominated ballet composer. For his next symphonic piece, Conversations With Nijinsky, he wants to record exclusively with students of Oberlin College.
Kip Winger In the ballet suite "Ghosts," the composer creates an introspective tone where the orchestra follows meandering melodies only occasionally diverted to more bracing passages. He takes the 21st century listener on a ride of 20th century romanticism that in aesthetic mood straddles the here and the hereafter.
"The album features several musicians from the original album plus appearances by Cooper's former guitarists Kip Winger and Steve Hunter, Rob Zombie and some surprise names".
This month, the talented dancers of The Hong Kong Ballet will be joined by 8 guest stars from around the world, for Galaxy, a show in celebration of ballet. The programme for this gala promises to be hugely entertaining, with a broad range of styles.
Tan Yuan Yuan is a Principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet. Hailed a Hero of Asia by Time magazine, she has been Guest Principal Dancer of The Hong Kong Ballet since 2008. Here she is partnered by Damian Smith in a pas de deux from Ghosts that they danced in our programme Brilliant Steps last year.
Cast Change
Unfortunately Damian Smith will be unable to perform in Galaxy: International Ballet Gala 2011, due to injury. Anthony Spaulding, a soloist from the San Francisco Ballet, will replace Damian Smith as Tan Yuan Yuan's partner for the gala.
Galaxy International Ballet Gala 2011
Grand Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
May 27-28, 2011 (7:30 pm)
May 28-29, 2011 (2:30 pm)
$1000(VIP), $650, $400, $280, $140
Ticket available at URBTIX NOW
Ticketing Enquiries 2734 9009
Credit card booking 2111 5999
Internet booking www.urbtix.hk
Programme Enquiries 2105 9724 / marketing@hkballet.com
All the right moves - San Francisco Ballet Programs 6 & 7
Bay Area Reporter by Paul Parrish
San Francisco Ballet has risen in the world's esteem gradually over the last 20 years, moving up through the ranks of respectable provincial companies, gaining prestige every year. SFB now occupies a position as one of the most exciting dance companies that works from a classical base to be seen anywhere in the world....
"The new Wheeldon piece closes Program 7. His last-but-one ballet, Ghosts, formed the opening of Program 6, and turned out to be the most satisfying of all the works."
SF Ballet - Program 6, A Power Packed Triple Feature
San Francisco Sentinel Review by Sean Martinfield
PROGRAM 6 is one of the finest triptych's ever assembled by San Francisco Ballet. It is a tempting three-course banquet of dance that is complex in flavor, rich in texture, and bold in presentation. Beginning with Christoper Wheeldon's Ghosts, an encore delight from the company's 2010 world premiere, the ballet is a reverie on unresolved hopes and fears, delayed passions and scattered longings. The images seem all at once cohesive, as if moving toward a narrative, then melting away into hazy impressions - the fleeting remnants of things certain and the vagueries of what might have been. The music is from composer and instrumentalist C.F. Kip Winger - of the hard rock band Winger and one-time member of Alice Cooper. The textures are dense and provocative, sometimes poignantly sweet, riddled with sudden shocks and elongated streams of scrambled tensions - as seen particularly in the pas de deux of Maria Kochetkova and Vitor Luiz. As with all ghostly tales, the evidence is unsettling, the energies are turbulent and fleeting, but the adventure remains in the heart and preys on the imagination.
San Francisco Chronicle Review - San Francisco Ballet Program 6
By Allan Ulrich, Chronicle Dance Correspondent
The evening opens with a revival of Christopher Wheeldon's enigmatic "Ghosts," enhanced with a romantic score by C.F. Kip Winger and well conducted by Martin West. The bodies leaping from the floor like dolphins and Laura Jellinek's descending abstract sculpture hint at a hidden narrative. But this is a piece that dispenses genuine pleasure in artful details, like the voluptuously phrased unison duets for the three corps couples or the volatile trio for Sofiane Sylve, Tiit Helimets and, in a fine role debut, Quinn Wharton.
San Francisco Ballet: Dances by Wheeldon, Tomasson, McGregor. Through April 20. War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., S.F. $20-$265. (415) 865-2000. www.sfballet.org.
CF Kip Winger's Ghosts - San Francisco Ballet's 2011 Season
Program 6 Tickets - On sale Nov 17, 2010
Ghosts
Composer C.F. Kip Winger
Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon
Set to a commissioned orchestral score by C.F. Kip Winger, Wheeldon's Ghosts is an ethereal, multi-layered journey of moods and movement that span from sharp and threatening to tender and lyrical.
Ghosts Review - San Francisco Examiner
By: Janos Gereben
"Danced to C.F. Kip Winger's dramatic and lyrical, Sibelius-meets-Stravinsky music composed for Wheeldon, and featuring exquisite diaphanous costumes "constructed" by Mark Zappone and company, "Ghosts" is all beauty in motion. The classically trained Winger spent some time as Alice Cooper's bassist, but one would never know that from this score."
Where: War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco
When: 8 p.m. Feb. 12 and 18, 2 p.m. Feb. 14, 2 and 8 p.m. Feb. 20
Isadora Duncan Dance Award Nomination - CF Kip Winger for Ghosts
Outstanding Achievement in Music - CF Kip Winger for Ghosts
The Isadora Duncan Dance Award Committee has just announced its Honorees and the nominees for its 2009-2010 Awards, and I am very pleased to announce that I have been nominated for Ghosts in the following category:
Outstanding Achievement in Music / Sound / Text:
Kip Winger, music, Ghosts, San Francisco Ballet
The Awards will be presented at its silver anniversary ceremony Monday March 14, 2011 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum, San Francisco. The ceremony will be preceded by a reception starting at 6:00 to be followed by the ceremony at 7:00.
Also nominated for Ghosts (San Francisco Ballet): Lighting Design, Scenic Design and Costume Design.
Here is more from another article: http://content.postnewsgroup.com/?p=11009
The Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee has announced the 2009-2010 performance season award nominees.
The Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, informally known as the Izzies, are awarded annually to acknowledge exceptional creative achievements in the performance and presentation of dance. Awards are given in nine categories to honor the dancers, choreographers, designers, composers, dance companies, scholars and other individuals who have made important contributions to the Bay Area's thriving dance community and to celebrate the excellence and diversity of dance in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
During each 12-month performance cycle, running September 1-August 31, the Committee collectively views over four hundred eligible performances. The final nominees are selected at an annual voting meeting held in September after the close of the viewing cycle.
We have now launched our Official Winger Store on Reverbnation. You can see our merchandise, listen to music and watch videos on our profile at the link below. Thanks for your support!
Ghosts has 4 movements. Chris asked me to extend the Ballet for 3 or 4 minutes.. and there was only 4 weeks to go before rehearsal.. so I wrote a new movement. Unfortunately I haven't been able to record it yet.
The MIDI version is available for anyone who wants to hear Ghosts in the Ballet form on my MySpace player or you may download it for free at the link below
The Ballet form is:
1. Misterioso
2. Lento
3. Adagio
4. Largamente
The other movements are available at iTunes and Amazon.
The multi-platinum recording artist, may be known best for his success with Winger and his early days as a bass player with Alice Cooper has also performed or recorded with Mark Farner, Roger Daltrey, Neal Schon and Bob Dylan. His passion for music however is most evident in his solo albums.
What you may not know about Kip, is that besides being a phenomenal "rock" musician he also composes orchestral pieces. His most recent composition, Ghosts, was choreographed as a ballet and most recently performed at the Opera House in San Francisco. In an interview with Noisecreep, Kip explained "rock is my day gig, and I''m a phantom composer by night."
Kip has offered up an impressive array of highly personal items, for The Rock Gods 'n Metal Monsters Auction. But most notably is his Warwick bass guitar. Ever since the start of the 2002 summer tour with Poison, Kip played this very guitar extensively. For the last eight years, it has been his most trusted sidekick, as is easily evidenced by the countless photos and videos. Better yet, Kip walked off stage with it after the most recent Winger show -October 8, 2010 at the Medina Entertainment Center in Minnesota.
To quote Kip: "Man, this really has been one of my all-time favorites. Originally, it had a green finish but I painted it black right after the tour with Poison. It's been with me ever since and anyone who's been to a Winger show in the last 8 years, here or overseas, has seen me playing it. During the last show, the front pick-up crapped out on me and I intended to have it repaired. But
now that it's going in the auction, I'll let the future owner decide what he or she wants to do."
In addition to touring with Winger and as a solo artist, composing classical music pieces and his gig as a camp counselor for the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, Kip's passion and love for music knows no boundaries.
Whether you collect instruments, handwritten lyrics, personal items, vinyl or signed pieces, Kip's collection has something for everyone in the auction and can be viewed in the auction section of Backstage Auctions under the Winger category.
The auction event, aptly titled the "Rock Gods and Metal Monsters Auction", is a not-to-miss opportunity for fans and collectors around the world to own an authentic piece of one of the most significant genres of music history. The auction, which will be held on-line at www.backstageauctions.com starts on October 31, 2010 and will run through November 7, 2010. A special preview of the entire auction catalog will be available to view beginning Sunday, October 24.
Besides his role as a counselor on VH1 Classic's 'Rock 'n' RollFantasy Camp,' '80s rocker Kip Winger continues working on his true passion: music for ballet. While the thought of a hair metaller enjoying the delicate art of ballet may be something you can't wrap your head around, Winger truly loves it. He studied ballet and was even in a company as a kid. He also readily admits that he considers it his biggest passion.
"Rock was my day gig, and I'm a phantom composer by night," Winger told Noisecreep. He has written an orchestral piece called "Ghosts," which was choreographed as a ballet and performed at the Opera House in San Francisco. "Ghosts' will be brought back for another run next year.
In addition to ballet composing and helping to make wannabe rockstar dreams come true on the VH1 show, Winger's new album "Karma,' has been out for several months. He and his band toured 19 countries in seven months in support of the latter.
Hair metal icon, ballet composer, camp counselor -- Kip Winger is a man of the arts.
Follow three bands as they go through the process of Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp! Featuring Rock Star and "Celebrity Apprentice" Bret Michaels, Ace Frehley (KISS), Michael Anthony (ChickenFoot/Van Halen) and many more! Watch all five episodes.
Put away your sleeping bags and pack up your guitar, as it's going to be blood, sweat and tears when VH1 Classic and executive producer Mark Burnett take viewers on the adventure of a lifetime on the new original series "Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp" premiering Saturday, October 16 at 10 PM ET/PT.
Hosted by Carrie Keagan, 15 "average Joe" musicians from a variety of backgrounds and cities will go through a transformative process of becoming true rock stars at "Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp." Broken into three groups of five, each group will be assigned a rock star counselor (Rudy Sarzo, Kip Winger and Mark Hudson) who will give tough love and guidance to the wannabe rockers, transforming the weak campers from quiet nice guys to loud rockin' front men.
For one week these professional football players, mechanics and realtors will form bands, rehearse and learn the ropes from other rock gods who drop by including Ace Frehley, Michael Anthony, Bret Michaels and many more. With the music know-how, fresh looks and rock star swagger in place, these transformed musicians will take the stage performing before a live audience and the stakes couldn't be higher. Fans will pick the best band, giving them an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform with a legendary rock artist. Only a true rock star can survive "Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp."
This five episode series documents the real life dream inside every music fan -- becoming a rock star! In Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp we'll follow 12 musicians ready to step out of their lives as 9 to 5'ers, truck drivers, teachers, dads and husbands and onto the stage. Over one week, our campers will form bands and rehearse...culminating in a live performance at an iconic venue their own rock idols have conquered. With a few hiccups along the way, the journey will be anything but dull...fights will erupt and stage fright will ensue, ensuring that only those with rock n roll in their blood will make it!
As if that doesn't sound hard enough, these campers will be learning the ropes from rock gods including Ace Frehley, Michael Anthony, Lita Ford, Lemmy Kilmister, Matt Sorum, Eddie Kramer, and Bret Michaels. Our camp counselors/rock stars Rudy Sarzo, Kip Winger and Mark Hudson will be doling out tough love to the wannabe rockers...but what doesn't kill them makes them stronger. We'll see campers evolve from quiet nice guy to loud sexy frontman...timid drummer to a drum-pounding rock hero...wannabe Slash to an ax-slinging force to be reckoned with...!
After being schooled by music legends, our campers will be taken out and shown how to dress the part. With the music know-how, looks and rock star swagger falling into place, we'll watch them take the stage in front of a live audience. Will they pass the test and be flocked with groupies...or booed off the stage? The stakes are high as the band voted best by the fans will win the opportunity rock fans can only dream about -- a once in a lifetime performance with a legendary rock artist.
Campers on the series include:
Cory - football player with Miami Dolphins from Gig Harbor, WA, currently living in Miami
Kieron - voiceover artist from Airdrie, Scotland, currently living in Los Angeles
John - salesman from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, currently living in Los Angeles
Adam - financial analyst from Torrance, CA, currently living in Los Angeles
Joe G - hot rod mechanic from Marlboro, MA, currently living in Los Angeles
Anup - photographer from Austin, TX, currently living in Los Angeles
Heather - realtor from Atlanta, GA, currently living in Atlanta
Ben - realtor from Juneau, Alaska, currently living in Los Angeles
Joe S - personal chef from Iowa City, currently living in Sherman Oaks
Janelle - wedding singer from St Petersburg Florida, currently living in Los Angeles
Michael - lawyer from Winnipeg, currently living in Los Angeles
Josh - photographer from Los Angeles, currently living in Los Angeles
Julie - communications expert from Hollywood, currently living in Los Angeles
Ricky - ad agency owner from Sherman Oaks, CA, currently living in Los Angeles
Galo - financial services professional from Los Angeles, currently living in Rancho Cucamonga
Backstage Auctions is proud to present the "Rock Gods and Metal Monsters Auction", an unprecedented hard rock and heavy metal online auction event. "Almost every item being offered in the auction is "iconic memorabilia" and is easily identifiable to a specific artist or band," explains Backstage Auctions founder Jacques van Gool.
The auction, which is scheduled to go live on Halloween, features amazing pieces direct from the private collections of Al Jourgensen, Rudy Sarzo, Graham Bonnet, Scott Rockenfield, Kip Winger and John 5, just to name a few. "When we designed the hard rock and heavy metal themed auction, we really tried to build an event that was not only unique but give fans and collectors access to pieces of rock history that were equally rare and one of kind and we have definitely achieved that goal," says Jacques. The auction catalog features over 50 Gold and Platinum records awards, guitars, stage props, artist stage worn apparel, master recordings, rare concert posters, original artwork, photos and the list goes on and on.
The auction, which will be held on-line at http://www.backstageauctions.com starts on October 31, 2010 and will run through November 7, 2010. A special preview of the entire auction catalog will be available to view beginning Sunday, October 24.
Kip Winger, the multi-platinum recording artist, may be known best for his success with Winger and his early days as a bass player with Alice Cooper. However the range and scope of his musical journey can be more fully experienced in his solo albums, This Conversation seems like a Dream, Songs from the Ocean Floor, From the Moon to the Sun and his most recent composition Ghosts, for string orchestra. piano and harp.
In 1995, after his hugely successful run with Winger, Kip built a studio in the hills of Santa Fe, New Mexico and started writing and producing music without limits. It is in Kip's solo work that he has been able to exercise the breadth of his talents as a composer. London's Classic Rock Magazine called him "one of the most gifted composers and arrangers in the rock genre" and praised his "compulsion to experiment."
Over the years Kip has continued to pursue his interest in composition. He patterned his course of study after the intensive one-on-one relationships favored by many composers he sought out, such masters as Edgar Grana, who holds a Masters from Juilliard, and currently teaches composition at the School of Visual Arts in New York City; University of New Mexico Professor of Theory and Composition, Richard Hermann; and Professor Michael Kurek from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. Professor Kurek has praised him for his "great ear and innate musical sensitivity" resulting in "beautifully crafted phrases and nuance."
Aside from his powerful solo acoustic shows and touring with Winger, Kip was the lead singer for the Alan parsons live project. He has performed or recorded with the likes of Alice Cooper, Mark Farner, Roger Daltrey, and Neal Schon, and Bob Dylan.
The fifth studio album by Winger was released in 2009 and The Tucson Symphony Orchestra became the first orchestra to perform a C.F. Kip Winger composition with the world premiere of Ghosts on the Master Works Chamber Orchestra Series in the 2009/10 season. The symphony performance was followed closely by the San Francisco Ballet's debut of Ghosts in February, 2010.
Kip is currently touring with Winger and doing solo gigs around the world as well as composing a new Ballet for Christopher Wheeldon. You can catch Kip in the television premier of Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp, October 16, 2010 on VH1 Classic.
This five episode series documents the real life dream inside every music fan -- becoming a rock star! In Rock N' Roll Fantasy Camp we'll follow 12 musicians ready to step out of their lives as 9 to 5'ers, truck drivers, teachers, dads and husbands and onto the stage. Over one week, our campers will form bands and rehearse...culminating in a live performance at an iconic venue their own rock idols have conquered. With a few hiccups along the way, the journey will be anything but dull...fights will erupt and stage fright will ensue, ensuring that only those with rock n' roll in their blood will make it!
As if that doesn't sound hard enough, these campers will be learning the ropes from rock gods including Ace Frehley, Michael Anthony, Lita Ford, Lemmy Kilmister, Matt Sorum, Eddie Kramer, and Bret Michaels. Our camp counselors/rock stars Rudy Sarzo, Kip Winger and Mark Hudson will be doling out tough love to the wannabe rockers...but what doesn't kill them makes them stronger. We'll see campers evolve from quiet nice guy to loud sexy frontman...timid drummer to a drum-pounding rock hero...wannabe Slash to an ax-slinging force to be reckoned with...!
After being schooled by music legends, our campers will be taken out and shown how to dress the part. With the music know-how, looks and rock star swagger falling into place, we'll watch them take the stage in front of a live audience. Will they pass the test and be flocked with groupies...or booed off the stage? The stakes are high as the band voted best by the fans will win the opportunity rock fans can only dream about -- a once in a lifetime performance with a legendary rock artist.
And don't forget to check out Rock Fantasy Camp when we hit the road in October. Check the camp's webite or my tour dates for details. http://www.rockcamp.com
A rock star reinvents himself with the help of Blair professor Michael Kurek
There's still a remnant of the cocky rock star in Kip Winger, a soft-spoken musician who scaled the heights of pop-metal stardom in the 1980s only to find himself on the wrong end of a massive sea change in popular music.
"They all took shots at me, dude," Winger said with a slight sneer during an interview at Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music. "For some reason they liked picking on me. (But) I'll take any of them on in an acoustic performance with no Pro Tools."
Despite criticism from everyone from Joe Elliott of Def Leppard to cartoon characters Beavis and Butt-Head, Kip Winger has no need for studio tricks that use technology to disguise performance flaws.
"His music has a transcendent spirit to it," said Michael Kurek, a prominent composer and associate professor of composition at Blair. "Kip Winger is a real musician with a unique voice."
With Kurek's help, Winger has found new musical life in orchestral music, debuting his composition "Ghosts" as part of a ballet with the San Francisco Ballet earlier this year. The San Francisco Examiner said that "Ghosts" was "fascinating, engrossing and fulfilling" and described Winger's score as "dramatic and lyrical, Sibelius-meets-Stravinsky music."
The son of two jazz musicians, Winger said he wanted to write orchestral music all through the reign of Winger as a pop-metal act with hits including "Seventeen" "Headed for a Heartbreak" and "Miles Away."
"I would put little breadcrumbs on my rock albums," he said. "I put a string quartet on the front of this song called 'Hungry' on my first record. On each record there would be something where I was trying to push the envelope further in that direction. It's really all I listen to. It's all I heard for years and years."
In the 1990s, the sudden popularity of grunge rock rendered bands like Winger passe' virtually overnight.
"I was the guy at the scene of the crime," Winger said ruefully. "I was John Travolta when disco sucked all of a sudden."
Sales and concert revenues dropped dramatically for Winger, and the band went on hiatus. Kip Winger was still famous - but as a punch line for those who now disdained the pop-metal era. In a Metallica video, the group's drummer was shown throwing darts at a photograph of Winger.
"That's why they call it show biz, right?" Kip Winger said with a shrug. "I spent my whole life trying to be a good musician and all of a sudden I'm the guy that represents everything that sucks."
"It's kind of a bummer. But on the other hand, it really forced me to do what I wanted to do."
After a few years living in Santa Fe, N.M., and some solo albums, Kip Winger moved to Nashville and began getting more serious about orchestral music. He attended a performance at Blair of music written by Kurek.
"I was sitting in Ingram Hall listening to this piece, and I was thinking, 'Who wrote this music?' I figured they must be dead, because it was so good. I guess Michael took a bow or something, and I just walked up to him and said, 'That was bad-ass.'"
Winger was impressed enough to enroll at Blair and take a composition course from Kurek, whose teaching technique was "revelatory."
"When I take a lesson from Michael, he really doesn't focus on the minutia," Winger said. "He's more likely to show me why a piece works or doesn't work. Every lesson I take from him, he pulls me out of the dungeon and helps me write myself out of the conundrum I'm in at the time."
After their first lesson, Winger and Kurek went out for martinis. "We became fast buddies after that," Winger said.
Kurek had no previous knowledge of the band Winger.
"During the years when they were huge, I was immersed in writing my own catalog," he said.
Kurek, who started his own musical career as a drummer in a garage band, soon checked out the work of Winger. He found it much better than its reputation.
"I thought it was a cut above the normal schlock you sometimes hear in the commercial music industry," Kurek said. "What he has done in classical work has borne that out. I think that a unique musical spirit is going to manifest itself in whatever style it is using."
Kurek is intrigued by Winger's orchestral niche, which he describes as "post-Debussy, early 20th-century style."
"Sometimes it's informed by his rock stuff, because there'll be a gritty bass line or something," Kurek said. Winger said one of his goals is to get the orchestra to "rock out a little more."
Curiously, the rock world has come around to at least a grudging respect for the band, which has re-formed and is successfully recording and touring again.
"Singing that music is really difficult now, because I'm almost ready to be put out to pasture," Winger said. "It's like glorified screaming."
For IV, the band's 2006 album and first in more than a decade, Kip Winger incorporated some of the orchestral lessons he'd been learning. The result was an album that fellow musicians loved, but one that was puzzling to hardcore Winger fans. For Karma in 2009, the band returned to a hard-rocking style and has rebounded as a concert attraction.
"I used to try and get it all in there, but now I've completely separated it, which is better for each of them," Winger said. "The rock music is more simple and riff-orientated, more to the point. I get my more complex musical ideas out doing the orchestral stuff."
In the long term, Kip Winger has managed to have the best of both worlds. His rock career appears set to continue as long as he desires and on his own terms. And his life as an orchestral music composer is just beginning.
"If I kept having hits, the machine wants you to make the same song over and over and over again," he said. "Artistically, you don't get anywhere. For me, that would be sudden death. The money would be great, but that's the only thing that would be great.
"To be honest with you, I just want to take more lessons with Michael and finish this piece I'm working on now," Winger said. "It's a much bigger idea than I have the skill for, so I'm trying to chip through it."
"With the help of Michael and Blair, everything turned out fine," Winger said. "Now, I'm really an orchestral music guy who used to do metal music."
Brilliant Steps Review - Hong Kong Ballet's "Ghosts"
"The pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon's Ghosts was exquisite
Created for the San Francisco Ballet, the pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon's Ghosts was exquisite. Depicting the dancers as spirits, Yuan Yuan Tan put the "brilliant" in Brilliant Steps. After watching other ballerinas onstage, she danced with such fluidity that you almost wonder how the human body can be trained to move like that. An HK Ballet guest principal dancer (she belongs to the San Francisco Ballet right now), she is the only principal dancer from China in the world...
The company's guest principal from San Francisco Ballet, Yuan Yuan Tan, gave an eloquent rendition of the passionate pas de deux from the new ballet Ghosts, created for her by Christopher Wheeldon in February. Tan was meltingly tender in her upper-body movements. Damian Smith was outstanding as her gallant partner.
Brilliant Steps -
Shining Moments in Neoclassical & Modern Ballet
Pas de Deux from Christopher Wheeldon's Ghosts
Inspired by a short musical piece by C.F. Kip Winger,Christopher Wheeldon, one of the hottest choreographers today, drew on the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe and their evocative phrases in choreographing Ghosts.The idea of a mass gathering of souls after a tragedy creates the atmosphere, working like 'perfume' than a literal ghost story. The mood conjures '"images of a community struggling to define itself, its people united by their search for understanding in a world unknown to them,'"according to Wheeldon.
'"Ghosts is a neoclassic delight. With its continuous flow and music materialized in movement, it is fascinating, engrossing and fulfilling.'" (SF Examiner) Tan Yuan Yuan and Damian Smith will perform a pas de deux from this new piece to Hong Kong audiences.
Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon
Music: C.F. Kip Winger
Guest Artists: Tan Yuan Yuan, Damian Smith
This four episode series documents the real life dream inside every music fan -- becoming a rock star! In Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp we'll follow 12 musicians ready to step out of their lives as 9 to 5'ers, truck drivers, teachers, dads and husbands and onto the stage. Over one week, our campers will form bands and rehearse...culminating in a live performance at an iconic venue their own rock idols have conquered. With a few hiccups along the way, the journey will be anything but dull...fights will erupt and stage fright will ensue, ensuring that only those with rock n' roll in their blood will make it!
As if that doesn't sound hard enough, these campers will be learning the ropes from rock gods including Ace Frehley, Michael Anthony, Lita Ford, Lemmy Kilmister, Matt Sorum, Eddie Kramer, and Bret Michaels. Our camp counselors/rock stars Rudy Sarzo, Kip Winger and Mark Hudson will be doling out tough love to the wannabe rockers...but what doesn't kill them makes them stronger. We'll see campers evolve from quiet nice guy to loud sexy frontman...timid drummer to a drum-pounding rock hero...wannabe Slash to an ax-slinging force to be reckoned with...!
After being schooled by music legends, our campers will be taken out and shown how to dress the part. With the music know-how, looks and rock star swagger falling into place, we'll watch them take the stage in front of a live audience. Will they pass the test and be flocked with groupies...or booed off the stage? The stakes are high as the band voted best by the fans will win the opportunity rock fans can only dream about -- a once in a lifetime performance with a legendary rock artist.
Having already established itself in London, Los Angeles and New York as the place where rock and roll fantasies come to life, Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp will hit the road this fall for a four-city tour.
Beginning October 22-24 in Philadelphia, Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp will offer aspiring musicians three-day "weekend warrior" packages in Philadelphia (October 22-24), San Francisco (November 5-7), Dallas (Nov 12-14) before wrapping in Chicago (Nov 19-21). The acclaimed musical adventure takes attendees through grueling and joyful days like those of their favorite musicians. Each day a new thrilling challenge exists for the "rock campers" from the audition process, to forming bands, writing and recording music and finally culminating in a "battle of the bands" concert at a legendary venue in each city: Chicago (House of Blues), Philadelphia (The Trocadero), San Francisco (Fillmore) and Dallas (House of Blues).
Onboard to mentor the rock campers through their weekend-long musical adventures: lead counselor, guitarist Dickey Betts (co-founder of the ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND who will also be performing an exclusive show each of the weekend's final nights), along with camp counselors Mark Farner (GRAND FUNK RAILROAD), Mark Hudson (AEROSMITH), Kip Winger (WINGER), Rudy Sarzo (QUIET RIOT, OZZY OSBOURNE) and Sandy Gennaro (JOAN JETT) and many others.
"These 'weekend warrior' passes will open up the unique Fantasy Camp weekend experience to a new audience," says Camp founder David Fishof. "By offering this opportunity close to home, the campers will be able to perform the final night concert surrounded by friends and family."
Just prior to the U.S. "weekend warrior packages," Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp will travel to the Bahamas for a destination Camp at the world-famous Atlantis resort with Roger Daltrey from October 7 to October 10.
Later this month, Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp will be in London for Memorial Day weekend. London campers will have the opportunity to rehearse and record at the legendary Abbey Road Studios before the week culminates with them taking the stage at the world's most famous rock club, The Cavern in Liverpool, where THE BEATLES first made their name. Meantime, VH1 Classic's weekly hour-long docu-series featuring 15 campers as they go through the transformative process of becoming "rock stars" will debut Friday, July 9.
For those looking for a Father's day gift, Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp (RRFC) "Weekend Warrior" packages start at $1999 for a once-in-a-lifetime weekend-long experience.
Rounding out the week's new entries in the Top 10 is Nickelodeon teen queen Miranda Cosgrove's first album Sparks Fly, which goes in at #8. We'll chalk it up to the track "Hey You" being co-written by Kip Winger.
The Top 10 of Billboard's Top 200 Albums:
1. B.o.B, The Adventures Of Bobby Ray *new*
2. Lady Antebellum, Need You Now
3. Bullet For My Valentine, Fever *new*
4. Justin Bieber, My World 2.0
5. AC/DC, Iron Man 2 soundtrack
6. Usher, Raymond v. Raymond
7. Melissa Etheridge, Fearless Love *new*
8. Miranda Cosgrove, Sparks Fly *new*
9. Various Artists, Now That's What I Call Music!
10. Glee Cast, Glee: The Music-The Power Of Madonna
Composer Johann Sebastian Bach
Choreographer Helgi Tomasson
Seven movements of Bach's most lyrical keyboard concertos of the Baroque era serves as the inspiration for this elegant, neoclassical work for eight dancers.
Ghosts
Composer C.F. Kip Winger
Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon
Set to a commissioned orchestral score by C.F. Kip Winger, Wheeldon's Ghosts is an ethereal, multi-layered journey of moods and movement that span from sharp and threatening to tender and lyrical.
Chroma
NEW SF Ballet Premiere
Music Joby Talbot and The White Stripes
Choreographer Wayne McGregor
Having won three Laurence Olivier awards and the Critics' Circle National Dance Award for best choreography, Wayne McGregor's contemporary work Chroma, set to music by America's alternative rock duo, The White Stripes, makes its SF Ballet debut.
Kip Winger: Dancing With Ghosts, Part One - Grammy.com
"I was actually a classical musician disguised as a metal guy."
by Bryan Reesman
Regarding classical music, Kip explains: "I always knew that I wanted to write music for ballet because as a kid I always heard the music and thought, "Wow." .... it's kind of been my own secret path. Secret in the sense that I never really hung out with anybody else who was into it ... with any of the people in the dance world, so I'm coming over into this world and knowing it really well and fitting in very well because I was always into it personally ... It's a strange existence in a way because in my heart I've lived in this other world for so long.."
Ghosts Ballet 2011 Repertory Season Encore Performance
San Francisco Ballet Press Release
San Francisco Ballet Press Release, April 21, 2010
The 2011 season includes two world premieres by Christopher Wheeldon and SF Ballet Choreographer in Residence Yuri Possokhov..
Program 6 opens Thursday, April 7, 2011 with the return of Tomasson's 7 for Eight, the encore presentation of Wheeldon's Ghosts, and the SF Ballet Premiere of McGregor's Chroma.
Wheeldon's Ghosts, which premiered during SF Ballet's 2010 Repertory Season, is set to a commissioned score by C.F. Kip Winger. The New York Times called the work "ethereal and substantial."
Program 6 calendar for the 2011 repertory season features Tomasson's "7 for Eight, "Wheeldon's "Ghosts," McGregor's "Chroma"
April 07, 2011 8:00pm
April 09, 2011 2:00pm
April 09, 2011 8:00pm
April 12, 2011 8:00pm
April 15, 2011 8:00pm
April 17, 2011 2:00pm
April 20, 2011 7:30pm
Beginning on April 8, 2011, Christopher Wheeldon's "Ghosts" will be performed again during Program 6, along with McGregor's "Chroma" (set to music by the rock band the White Stripes) and Tomasson's "7 for Eight." Program 8 will be the return of Neumeier's full-length "The Little Mermaid."
Here's the calendar for the 2011 repertory season for Program 6: Tomasson's "7 for Eight, "Wheeldon's "Ghosts," McGregor's "Chroma"
April 07, 2011 8:00pm
April 09, 2011 2:00pm
April 09, 2011 8:00pm
April 12, 2011 8:00pm
April 15, 2011 8:00pm
April 17, 2011 2:00pm
April 20, 2011 7:30pm
Individual tickets for the new season will be available at www.sfballet.org as of Nov. 17, or beginning Jan. 10 at (415) 865-2000.
Ghosts is now available on CD though Amazon. This is the piece Kip wrote for The San Francisco Ballet and World-Renowned Choreographer, Christopher Wheeldon. The Ballet's World Premiere took place last February to outstanding reviews.
Rock Solid Composition
GRAMMY.com by Bryan Reesman
Veteran rock/pop musicians are charting new courses in the realms of Broadway, film and ballet
Another artist with a classical background is Kip Winger, who rose to fame in the late '80s with his eponymous platinum rock band. A ballet dancer in his teens and a self-taught musician, starting in the mid-'90s Winger supplemented his musical growth with serious composition study. His first classical piece "Ghosts," was written for a ballet choreographed by the renowned Christopher Wheeldon and debuted in San Francisco in February to positive critical reviews. "The coolest thing about this for me was that the big rock radio stations wanted me to come in and promote it," says Winger. "So here I am on a morning drive show on the biggest station in San Francisco, talking about the ballet. I never expected that."
"Ghosts" will make its debut abroad in the ballet "Brilliant Steps" in May in Hong Kong, performed by Tan Yuan Yuan -- who Winger says "is like a national treasure in China"-- and Damian Smith.
Considering Winger is known by his fans for his hard rock songs, he has been slowly opening up minds on both sides of the aisle. "I understand that a lot of people don't know what it is that I do, and especially our band," Winger says of both his outside projects and his band, which released a new album, Karma, last November. "I'm not one of those people that can continue to repeat myself and play the same song over and over again. I'd rather just be this eclectic weirdo that's following the artist's way...I'm basically just a student of music."
SF Ballet Program 2: Of Dreams, Ghosts and Simpler Times
by Mike Ward
Ghosts: Christopher Wheeldon continues his successful artistic alliance with the company with this world premiere. The sumptuous nouveau romanticist score by Kip Winger (rocker Alice Cooper's former bassist; '80s hair-band "Winger") delivers waves of gorgeous, dimensional lushness that trickle away into sparse piano motifs. Though Wheeldon notes no ballet narrative exists, the music and movement nearly belie this - stories waft up then vaporize...
What Wheeldon does with large groupings of dancers in Ghosts is breathtaking - bringing them together then pulling them apart with the fascinating wonder of a kaleidoscopic, floral time-lapse photography, unfurling, blossoming, then decaying. Each time he does this, the collective sighs in the audience bear witness to the impact of these strong, evocative visuals.
A DAZZLING NEW WHEELDON BALLET!
By Paul Hertelendy
There is a captivating, almost hypnotic flow to the modern ballets of Christopher Wheeldon, who unveiled his new "Ghosts" at the San Francisco Ballet Feb. 9. For the SFB, this hottest of new choreographers lives up to being a major catch.
There's an air of mystery around the willowy figures that rise and fall and bend deep at the waist, with the women wearing tulle skirts suggesting an obscure romanticism. They whirl and turn in circles. But the moves are fresh and contemporary, with a dazzling pas de trois of Sofiane Silve interacting closely with, and being lifted a thousand ways by, Brett Bauer and Tiit Helimets---one of the most original inventions I've ever seen on the ballet stage.
Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith added a pas de deux which was more dutiful than inspired. Enhancing the environment is a huge, blackened sculpture by Laura Jellinek overhead, like an old dredged-up wreck of a plane or ship, moved about from time to time, adding to the precariousness of the scene (would it come tumbling down??). I trust the health-plan insurance is fully paid up for all involved.
The ballet's name was surprisingly given not by the choreographer but by the composer, Kip Winger, who created an effective, unsettling new 26-minute score for piano and orchestra to back the effort in this most gratifying and thematic of SFB commissions of recent years.
Making waves
San Francisco Ballet's programs 2 & 3
by Paul Parish
Critics came from several New York papers to report on San Francisco Ballet's programs 2 and 3, excellent mixed bills which opened last week and continue through this Sunday at the War Memorial Opera House. The critics were here to see how the company dances the great Balanchine pieces on program 3, and most of all to check out the impact and potential staying-power of the new work on program 2, Ghosts, the fifth new ballet choreographed for SFB by the bright-shining young choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. It turns out to be a silvery, shimmering, floating tissue of melancholy, with dancers drifting in currents they make visible as if they were suffering a sea change before our eyes. The mood is not tragic but mysterious, and the dancers delivered the goods, the audience roared its approval, and the Times critic gave a lot of space to its praise. There is reason to hope it may become a classic and join the other ballets on the two bills, which are all of them more beautiful than they can be danced.
What do we mean when we say something is a classic? Aside from the throwaway slang sense, "classic" means it's something that you'd want to see or hear again, because there was more there than you could get the first time. If you still think it's a classic after the third time, it's because you're still sensing ways it coheres that make it answerable and speak to you from an even deeper level, as if it knew you in return.
Wheeldon can give you that feeling. He can let the dancers' weight pour down through the body into the floor (which was developed by postmodern contact-improv dancers) and make it into an oceanic spectacle. Ghosts might be showing us the Wreck of the Titanic in extreme slow motion. Waves of dancers pour across the stage, sometimes sliding down onto their backs, receiving the weight of another dancer as if the impetus came from beyond themselves. The corps dominates the ballet to the point where it seems an organism, though there is a gorgeous, melting pas de deux (danced ravishingly by Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith) and a very vivid trio dominated by the diva Sofiane Sylve, who alone of all the dancers seems to be fighting for control, and even at the end seems to be swimming as if on a dolphin's back to safety as the curtain comes down on the whole doomed world.
Wheeldon-Winger: No Pride in Prejudice
By Janos Gereben
It's truth-telling time. When I first saw the name "C.F. Kip Winger" as the composer for Christopher Wheeldon's sensational new ballet, Ghosts, I thought: This will be blues or rock.
And then the piece began and there it was - 30 minutes of terrific dramatic, lyrical, Stravinsky-meets-Sibelius neoclassical music. Shame on me, prejudiced by a name!
And then I read the program. Classically trained (guitar and composition), C.F. - ready? - played bass with Alice Cooper's band in the 1980s, formed his own band in the '90s, recording two platinum albums, Winger and In the Heart of the Young. And now this.
San Francisco Ballet Review - Program 2 was a Perfect Blend
by Barara Keer
"It is hard to say enough about Ghosts. This was the world premiere of the work by choreographer, Christopher Wheeldon to music by composer C. F. Kip Winger (they have known each other since 1997) featuring principal dancers; Sofiane Sylve, Brett Bauer, Tiit Helimets, Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith. The scenic design was by Laura Jellinek, with costume design by Mark Zappone and lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. If this isn't the most beautiful ballet I have ever seen, it surely ranks at the top of the list. There was the perfect other worldly feeling in the costumes' filmy quality, while the unusual steps felt just right and the partnering was amazing. I hope it will be added to ballet repertoire and I will be able to see this "delicious" ballet in the future."
"The thing that I remember the most isn't that one cool step or that one awesome partnering move, but the long--asting impression of poignant beauty. Awash in dark colors, the feel of the ballet is reminiscent of Anne Rice vampires doing ballet with the dusty white long dresses and loose unkempt hair for the women. But deeper than that, it was a veritable feast for the senses. Jam-packed with movement deeply rooted in classical ballet but experimenting with an off-center body, often radiating regret. These steps meld into the music by C.F. Kip Winger and the surging abstract storyline in a satisfying whole package. The music by C.F. Kip Winger is never translated literally, but served as a launching point for experimentation of movement. A meandering piano that drifts in and out backs the undulating quality in the choreography, contrasted with a sharp pointedness and seamless shifting directions."
"As it happens, the title comes from the music, composed largely to Mr. Wheeldon's specifications by C. F. Kip Winger, of the band Winger. Like Mr. Wheeldon's choreography, Mr. Winger's music recalls a range of sources, some late-Romantic, some thoroughly modernist. His 30-minute, four-movement composition - led by piano and strings, with the solo violin adding its voice at times - supplies Mr. Wheeldon with constant change.
San Francisco Ballet's 'Ghosts' - San Francisco Chronicle
by by Allan Ulrich, Chronicle Dance Correspondent
"No denying, however, that "Ghosts" is an alluring sensory experience. Made for five soloists and a six-couple corps, the piece arrives accompanied by a rapturously lyrical orchestral score by rock musician Kip Winger, conducted by Martin West."
Ghosts Premiere Performance featured on NBC's Bay Area news.
02-05-10
Event Inviation
Ghosts World Premiere - San Francisco Ballet
GHOSTS WORLD PREMIERE
Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon
Composer: C. F. Kip Winger
Performed by the San Francisco Ballet
"Lovely, serene passages face forceful, chilling interludes in this world premiere by Christopher Wheeldon that features music by two-time platinum recording artist, Kip Winger." ~SF Ballet Website
February 9, 2010 8:00pm
February 10, 2010 7:30pm
February 12, 2010 8:00pm
February 14, 2010 2:00pm
February 18, 2010 8:00pm
February 20, 2010 2:00pm
February 20, 2010 8:00pm
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PRESS and PROGRAM NOTES
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"Any new ballet by Christopher Wheeldon is an event; "Ghosts" is his fifth San Francisco commission, a large-scale work set to an original score by the pop world’s Kip Winger." ~ San Francisco Chronicle
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"Christopher Wheeldon has announced the music that will accompany his new work for the 2010 Repertory Season. The piece, Ghosts, will premiere on Program 2, and is set to a classical score by the same name composed by Kip Winger, lead singer of the band Winger." ~ Voice of Dance
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"A few personal picks from the many inviting local musical events of 2010....the world premiere of Christopher Wheeldon's Ghosts, to music by platinum recording artist Kip Winger. ~San Francisco Classical Voice
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"Ghosts: Suite No. 1 for Orchestra"
"Kip Winger studied ballet for years, and was in a ballet company at age 19. "Since then, in the back of my mind, I've known I would try to take on the idea of writing music for dance. I've always been wanting to write orchestra music for dance."
Between tours and rock recordings, he's studied music. He was encouraged by a professor at Vanderbilt University to translate his rock music writing "into these instruments and see what happens." The result "Ghosts," and there are more to come.
When he wrote the first movement for "Ghosts," Winger had "a particular choreographer in mind," Christopher Wheeldon. Wheeldon heard it, "liked it," and "asked me to make it 20 minutes. Strange things in life where it actually worked." Wheeldon, in fact, has choreographed a dance to "Ghosts" that'll premiere with the San Francisco Ballet in February. ~Explorer News
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Christopher Wheeldon goes out on a limb (Interview Excerpt)
Q: Your next San Francisco Ballet commission, "Ghosts," premieres February 9. Can you tantalize us with a few words about it?
A: The inspiration came from a short piece for violin and piano written for me by rock musician Kip Winger. I wished it could have been longer. In a couple of months, Kip had it fully scored, extended to 25 minutes, recorded and on my desk. I was surprised at how something this lyrical and beautiful could have come from a rock musician. The ballet seems to be about a group of people who have lost their lives together and may be drowning. ~San Francisco Chronicle
In Christopher Wheeldon's newest ballet, Ghosts, the title--that single, potent word--engenders lingering images in the mind. The name comes from the score, composed by C.F. Kip Winger. And though the music has its eerie moments--"it's kind of silvery, the way the piano creeps in and out," says Wheeldon--without that title it could have been interpreted in many ways. But once you hear the word "ghosts," there's no turning back. Lovely, serene passages face repeated attacks by forceful, chilling interludes, as if something out there doesn't want to be forgotten.
Composer C.F. Kip Winger, who became interested in classical music composition as a young dance student, met Wheeldon in 1997, when a friend took him to watch rehearsals at New York City Ballet. Ten years later, after seeing Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company perform three of the choreographer's ballets, Winger says he was "extremely inspired" and sat down to write a piece for him. At the time, Winger was working in a recording studio that had been a hospital in the early 1900s, and he "could sense a mystical presence in the atmosphere; several different characters were emerging in the text of the music," he says. "The title Ghosts popped into my head when I was writing the cello solo in the first movement."
Winger began his music career at a young age, performing professionally at age eight with his two older brothers. As a teenager, he studied classical guitar and composition with Sam Guarnaccia at the University of Denver and continued his training at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, the University of New Mexico, and Vanderbilt University in Nashville. A bassist with Alice Cooper's band in the 1980s, Winger formed his own eponymous band in the '90s, releasing two platinum albums, Winger and In the Heart of the Young.
What Winger gave Wheeldon was only one movement, and though the choreographer liked it, the six-minute piece was too short for a ballet. So he asked Winger if he would extend it. "About six to eight months later I got a box in my office, and it was a fully orchestrated, fully recorded and scored piece of music with a note saying, 'Dear Chris, hope you like it,' " Wheeldon says. He decided to use the score for his fifth commission for San Francisco Ballet; Ghosts brings the tally of his ballets in the Company's repertory to nine.
The score's title got Wheeldon thinking. He wondered if there might be a narrative in it, so he read Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts "in case [the play and the music] happened to align, and of course they don't," he says. "And then I thought maybe it's just the atmosphere of ghosts. Maybe [the dancers] are ghosts but they're not telling a specific story—they're just sort of there, sort of left." Drawing further on literature in his early explorations of theme, Wheeldon turned to the poems of Edgar Allen Poe: "The City in the Sea," "To One in Paradise," "Lenore," "The Valley of Unrest." With evocative phrases like "death looks gigantically down," "melancholy waters" and "lilies . . . that weep above a nameless grave," poems influenced Wheeldon's creative process without becoming literal onstage.
Wheeldon ended up with the idea of a mass gathering of souls, as there might be after a tragedy, but with the intention of creating only atmosphere, not story. "You're not quite sure where you are or whether these people are rea--are they characters or are they not? So it's more like perfume than a heavy sort of ghost story," he says. A forbidding stage environment and shreds of realism in the costumes combine with the choreography, music, and mood to create images of a community struggling to define itself, its people united by their search for understanding in a world unknown to them.
With four musical movements, the ballet is "big and complex," Wheeldon says, "[with] a lot of steps, a lot of quite complicated corps de ballet work." He worked especially fast on this ballet, creating classicism-entrenched contemporary movement, tossed with jazz and modern dance influences, that challenges even Damian Smith and Yuan Yuan Tan, the versatile principal dancers who dance the pas de deux.
"The pas de deux is extremely difficult," Tan says. "It's not very long, but it feels long because there are a lot of lifts, and Damian is never putting me down. We do a lot of intense movement, but it's so beautiful." She says Wheeldon didn't suggest images of ghosts and death to her, and she approaches the role as if "it's a relationship, like husband and wife. That's how it feel--just like moments of tenderness, and the movement, and the vision we're making." Sometimes, she says, dancers don't need much to work with: "Keep it simple and let the steps help you."
According to Smith, all of the ballet's partnering is extremely difficult. "Every moment there is an intertwined, off-balance, tangled partnership that never seems to unwind, a kind of thread that's constantly knotted." His arm curving through the air as illustration, he explains that "if your arm is wrapped around her neck, you have to keep it there and lift her--no changing grips." Adding to the challenge, he says, is the layered movement quality. Though the music might be legato, "[Wheeldon] wants us to dance it very sharp, direct, and precise, to kind of go against the music, and then choose moments when we are more lyrical and soft with the arms." Although in previous ballets Wheeldon has matched movement to music in less symmetrical ways than is typical of classical ballet (perhaps most noticeably in his trio of ballets set to the music of György Ligeti), in Ghosts he emphasizes the shifts in contrast. "He wants a definite transition between those two qualities of movement," says Smith, "so strong and sharp and direct, and then soft and seamless."
In rehearsals Wheeldon often asked the dancers to shift their center of gravity off their supporting leg, at times yielding their weight to the floor, at others conveying a floating feeling. Twists on classical steps expand the vocabulary: chaînés (two-footed turns) speed up into spins; slow, leaden walks push across the floor; women on pointe drag one leg behind them ("an homage to Michael Jackson," Wheeldon says). "I love the freedom of not ever putting any restrictions on what I do in the studio. It's a wonderful feeling to go in there and think, 'I can do anythin--let’s see where we go with this.' "
As Wheeldon has matured as a choreographer, he has found that the rewards of his art have changed. Earlier in his career he was too fixated on the final product to appreciate his time in the studio. Now, although he concedes that what goes before audiences is still very important to him, he can see that he "wasn't fully absorbing the riches of the process itself. And now that's my favorite thing. Now it's about all the discovery with the dancers, with the designers--the first time you see the model, the first time you run the pas de deux, the first time you see the set onstage, the first time you hear the orchestra--those are all really magical moments."
Just got back from a European tour with Winger; we did 16 shows from Spain to Greece and everything in-between. And now I am really looking forward to experiencing the world premiere of Ghosts with San Francisco Ballet!
Most people don't know that writing music for ballet has been a life--ong passion of mine, but not just to write a rock/pop piece for dance, to write a legitimate classical piece of music.
When I was 16, a girlfriend of mine pressured me to take a ballet class! She hated it, but I was instantly hooked, especially by the music from the Ballet Russe era.
Over the years I studied music as much as possible. My schedule as a rock musician, which doesn't leave much time for anything, led me to an auto-didactic approach out of necessity, but I managed to stay with it, fueled by the passion and inspiration of someday seeing world-class ballet dancers performing to my music.
Years later I met Zippora Karz who at the time was a soloist with NYC Ballet. It was incredible for me to go backstage and meet the dancers and see performances. In the rock world you don't meet too many people who know the name Helgi Tomasson or Peter Martins. It was fantastic to have that experience.
After studying a few years with a new composition teacher, Michael Kurek, and being heavily impacted by the works of various composers, for example Honegger, Ravel, Adams, and Vaughan Williams, I began writing.
The 1st movement grew out of the first five measures of the cadenza. When I was finished, I sent it to Zippora and asked her to contact Christopher Wheeldon. In my mind, this piece was always for Chris. Not only from seeing his amazing work, but I had an instinct about it.
I emailed an mp3 to him and held my breath. Now, everyone in the creative world knows that there are many ups and downs. One hundred no's to one yes. For me this was one of those magical times when the universe is watching over you. A few weeks went by and I woke up to an email from Chris Wheeldon. subject : "I love it !" Wow!! I have to admit I let out a major rock and roll YEAH!!!!!!!!!!
He then said, "Now, can you make it 20 minutes?" So I set out to write two more movements; all in all the piece took about a year and a half to finish, given my schedule.
When I was finished, I scheduled a recording session in New York to record the piece. My orchestral contractor pulled together an amazing group of NY players and we got a great performance of the piece recorded. After editing and mixing, I mailed the CD to Chris and held my breath again. The next email from Chris said (drum roll.)
"I love Ghosts and hope to (with your permission) use it for San Francisco Ballet next year".
After several months the phone rang, it was Chris telling me he will be in San Francisco to set the ballet in a month or so, oh and by the way, is there anyway you can make the piece four minutes longer!? I was panicked for a few minutes and then the amazing flow of inspiration came over me and I wrote what is now the second movement in two weeks.
In June 2009 I was on the West Coast and came to see one day of the rehearsals for Ghosts. It was incredible to see it come to life! As expected, the dancing was world-class, and the choreography, awesome! As luck would have it, I happened to stop in on the day Chris was working on the new movement.
Next stop San Francisco! My job is easy now, I get to sit back and enjoy the show!
For other published stories and feature articles, please be sure to visit Kip's blogs on MySpace
Lovely, serene passages face forceful, chilling interludes in this world premiere by Christopher Wheeldon that features music by two-time platinum recording artist, Kip Winger.
Performed by the San Francisco Ballet
Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon
Composer: C.F. Winger
Performance dates are:
Tue Feb 9, 2010 8pm
Wed Feb 10, 7:30pm
Fri Feb 12, 8pm
Sun Feb 14, 2pm
Thu Feb 18, 8pm
Sat Feb 20, 2pm and 8pm
Website: http://www.sfballet.org
Be sure to read the San Francisco Chronicle's interview with Christopher Wheeldon below.
Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon Speaks of Ghosts
Interview - San Francisco Chronicle
Christopher Wheeldon goes out on a limb
San Francisco Chonicle
by Allan Ulrich, Chronicle Dance Correspondent
Three years ago, Christopher Wheeldon made trouble for himself. One of the most gifted and in-demand classical choreographers of his generation, the young Englishman severed his ties with New York City Ballet, reduced his load of international commissions and, with the collaboration of former NYC Ballet principal dancer Lourdes Lopez, started his own chamber ballet repertory company.
That company, Morphoses (named after the third of Wheeldon's ballets set to the music of György Ligeti), begins its first West Coast tour Friday evening with dances by Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Edwaard Liang and Lightfoot León making up the repertoire. All but "Continuum" and the Liang pas de deux will be new to the Bay Area, and all will be performed by an array of 18 dancers, a few of whom (Rory Hohenstein, Drew Jacoby) will be familiar to local audiences.
We caught Wheeldon in Morphoses' New York office just back from a gig in Spain and in the midst of the company's final rehearsal period:
Q: I would reckon that the mortality rate for new dance companies is about as great as that for new restaurants. So what prompted you to take the plunge?
A: Many reasons. I had a desire to see what I could do helming the ship. I had an interest in programming and in testing the waters to see what would work for an audience. With Morphoses, there's the possibility of having at my disposal a group of dancers working full time (though, economically, we haven't yet reached that stage). And I'd like to make ballet performances a bit friendlier.
Q: Friendlier?
A: There's a certain stigma that ballet, like opera, can be an elitist art form. People come away from abstract dance with the feeling that they didn't connect because they had no understanding of what went into it, or what it's about. So, at every performance, I both give them the ballets and let them in on a little bit of the process in a preperformance speech. It seems to have worked wonderfully well.
Q: Was Balanchine right? Do abstract ballets even exist?
A: Not in our minds. As a choreographer, you have to know what you're trying to say. You have to be aware of the relationships you are creating onstage; otherwise, ballet is just a series of steps, and that's how people will interpret them.
Q: I read these Cassandra-like predictions of doom for Morphoses from the East Coast media. Do they bother you?
A: We've not always had the greatest press, but I can tell you that the feedback from the public has softened some of the blows. At both Sadlers' Wells in London and at New York City Center, where we are guest residents, we have built tremendous loyalty with big audiences. And we've had great success with our year-end campaign, mostly with small donations. In this economic crisis, we've had to be terribly creative.
Q: I am happy that during this crisis, you haven't compromised on live music. The two big pieces on the tour program, "Continuum" and your new "Rhapsody Fantaisie," will have the original keyboard accompaniments. Was this planned from the beginning?
A: Absolutely. Live music is another big challenge, and it makes us rather expensive if we have an orchestral program. It's a big commitment, but it's also a major selling point for Morphoses.
Q: You are reviving "Continuum," a well-received 2002 San Francisco Ballet commission. Why?
A: For practical reasons. I think it's an interesting piece musically. I put it in the touring repertoire and there just wasn't the rehearsal time to substitute another work. But it will be fascinating to see how it looks with a different cast and in a more intimate setting than the Opera House. The first time I went to the Novellus Theater at Yerba Buena, I thought that if Morphoses is ever to have our own theater, this would be the perfect place. I think we will be able to connect with it.
Q: Your next San Francisco Ballet commission, "Ghosts," premieres February 9. Can you tantalize us with a few words about it?
A: The inspiration came from a short piece for violin and piano written for me by rock musician Kip Winger. I wished it could have been longer. In a couple of months, Kip had it fully scored, extended to 25 minutes, recorded and on my desk. I was surprised at how something this lyrical and beautiful could have come from a rock musician. The ballet seems to be about a group of people who have lost their lives together and may be drowning.
Q: Ratmansky and yourself have been linked as the potential saviors of classical dance? Does this weigh upon you?
A: I'm happy to have a partner in crime, finally. Alexei and I both love ballets and both love to create them. But, if the art form is to survive, there have to be more than two of us.
New York, NY-January 14, 2010 --Put away your sleeping bags and flashlights and pack up your guitar and drumsticks, as it's going to be blood, sweat, and tears when VH1 Classic takes you on the adventure of a lifetime with the new original series "Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp." Production is set to begin on the series in February 2010. The four-episode, one-hour series is set to premiere in July 2010.
VH1 Classic and Mark Burnett Productions have teamed up to give fans the ultimate music experience to fulfill their rock and roll fantasies. In a new, hour-long, weekly docu-series, viewers will get to watch as 15 musicians from a variety of backgrounds and cities will go through the transformative process of becoming "rock stars."
"Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp has allowed musicians around the world to make their dreams a reality," said Mark Burnett. "We are delighted to produce a series about this real-life process and work with the great team at VH1 Classic."
For more details and to see the official press release please visit
Today is the Official Release of my other band's new self-titled CD, Blackwood Creek. So far, the reviews have been great and we hope you dig the music! You can hear the tracks on our player and access links to purchase.
Thanks for your support!
Europe - Release Date December 4, 2009
Frontiers Records
Amazon UK
USA - Release Date January 12, 2010
NEH Records
Amazon USA
Japan- Release Date November 26, 2009
CD Japan
Amazon (Japan)
Kip will be counseling again at the upcoming Rock Fantasy Camp Feb 23-28, 2010 in Hollywood, CA.
For those of you not familiar with this, here is a little info from the camp: "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp is the ultimate music experience that allows musicians and enthusiasts alike the once in a lifetime opportunity to jam with legendary rock stars, play live on stage at major concert venues, and live their rock 'n' roll dreams."
Other artists confirmed to appear:
The following artsists are confirmed to appear:
Sammy Hagar (CHICKENFOOT, VAN HALEN)
Michael Anthony (CHICKENFOOT, VAN HALEN)
Vince Neil (MÖTLEY CRÜE)
Mark Farner (GRAND FUNK RAILROAD)
Ace Frehley (KISS)
Bruce Kulick (KISS)
Rudy Sarzo (QUIET RIOT)
Mark Hudson (producer, songwriter AEROSMITH)
Kip Winger (WINGER)
Spike Edney (QUEEN)
Teddy Andreadis (GUNS N' ROSES)
Rami Jaffee (FOO FIGHTERS)
Limited-Edition Picture Discs Due In
January - Nov. 19, 2009
Inner Wound Recordings has announced the first releases on the
label. JORN's "Spirit Black", DANGER DANGER's "Revolve" and WINGER's
"Karma" will all be made available as limited 12" picture-disc
editions, strictly limited to 250 copies. A deal was inked with the
Italian label Frontiers Records and the release date is set for
January 21 for the three releases.
Mama's Fallen Angel's has put up a 2-part audio interview where they discuss Kip's Classical music, the recent TSO performance and the upcoming San Francisco Ballet debut. They also discuss Winger, Blackwood Creek, and his solo career, among other things.
Mama's Fallen Angel's has put up a 2-part audio interview where they discuss Kip's Classical music, the recent TSO performance and the upcoming San Francisco Ballet debut. They also discuss Winger, Blackwood Creek, and his solo career, among other things.
Arizona Spotlight airs Saturday Nov 14 at 7 pm on KUAZ 89.1. http://radio.azpm.org/kuaz
Lifestyle Tucson airs Sunday morning Nov 15 at 8 a.m. on KLPX, 96.1 FM http://www.klpx.com/ and KFMA 92.1 FM. http://www.kfma.com
I think both shows will be archived on the stations' websites at least for a while.
All times listed are Arizona times.
11-11-09
Mendelssohn, Haydn and the premiere of "Ghosts" by Kip Winger
Special Guest in Attendance
Man taking mom to symphony
Rock star Kip Winger has written a composition to
be performed by the TSO.
In this instance, C.F. 'Kip' Winger wrote the music, and he's a rock star
By Dave Perry, The Explorer
Published:
November-11-2009
C.F. "Kip" Winger is coming to Tucson this week to see his mother.
He'll take his mom Margo to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra's world premiere performance of a new symphony, "Ghosts: Suite No. 1 for Orchestra."
Kip wrote "Ghosts." It's a new, yet much contemplated, direction for a rock 'n' roller who sang lead for the Alan Parsons Project, played guitar with Alice Cooper, and is headed to Europe next week for a four-week tour with his rock band, Winger. Symphony to hard rock? "Opposite ends of the extreme there," he said Monday from Nashville, where he lives and is preparing for the Europe tour.
This weekend's performances, Friday at Canyon Del Oro High School in Oro Valley, Saturday and Sunday at Catalina Foothills High School, "couldn't have worked out better," Winger said. "Your first symphony performance happens to be in your mom's hometown. It doesn't get any better than that."
Winger is "very excited, and a little nervous" about the premiere,
he allowed. "You write the music and then you don't remember it.
I've got to look back over it and see what I did."
It's a new experience in many ways. For one, Winger is about to sit in an audience and hear his music performed by a symphony orchestra. He's attending Wednesday and Thursday rehearsals by the TSO, "which is really cool. I'm hoping they'll let me take a photo."
As a live performer, Winger knows "how to get myself through a few mistakes" It might be "kind of a helpless feeling" if the TSO were to err in "Ghosts." He doesn't expect it. "They're a great
orchestra. I just think it's going to be great."
Kip Winger studied ballet for years, and was in a ballet company at age 19. "Since then, in the back of my mind, I've known I would try to take on the idea of writing music for dance. I've always been wanting to write orchestra music for dance."
Between tours and rock recordings, he's studied music. He was
encouraged by a professor at Vanderbilt University to translate his rock music writing "into these instruments and see what happens."
The result - "Ghosts," and there are more to come.
When he wrote the first movement for "Ghosts," Winger had "a
particular choreographer in mind," Christopher Wheeldon. Wheeldon heard it, "liked it," and "asked me to make it 20 minutes. Strange things in life where it actually worked." Wheeldon, in fact, has choreographed a dance to "Ghosts" that'll premiere with the San Francisco Ballet in February.
Winger is a friend with Dan Coleman, former TSO composer-in-residence. Through that relationship, a recording of "Ghosts" caught the ear of TSO music director and conductor George
Hanson. Winger is "honored by the fact" Hanson decided to perform "Ghosts."
"To me, having the TSO do it is the ultimate compliment, because it isn't for dance" and there won't be dancers this weekend, Winger said. "You can't get by in the concert venue. It has to be good."
Winger said the transition from rock 'n' roll to classical music was
"more natural" than might be expected. "I always approach the rock albums like classical records," he said. "I'm not a jammer. I
approach them very orchestrated."
"Ghosts" is representative of a transition for Winger, who once
aspired to be a rock 'n' roll superstar.
"It's been very surreal," he said. "Now I'm thinking, 'what are you
going to do next?'"
For starters, Winger "added the C.F. (for Charles Frederick) to the
beginning of my name, even in the rock world. It's a transition into
that whole thing, to differentiate the old me and the new me."
"This is where I want to be," he said. "I've written every kind of
rock and pop song you could ever imagine, I've kind of been there, done that. I'm not seeking to be a super famous rock star; I'm kind of over it. I want to focus on composing, and trying to be a better composer."
TSO MasterWorks Chamber Orchestra
Mendelssohn, Haydn and the premiere of "Ghosts" by Kip Winger
Friday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. at Canyon Del Oro High School.
Saturday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m. at
Catalina Foothills High School.
Tickets, $30 to $40, at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Box Office, by phone at 882-8585, at www.tucsonsymphony.org, and at www.saaca.org, or 797-3959.
Long before C.F. Kip Winger could bring himself to fully immerse
himself in classical music, he poked a toe or two into the genre.
He penned a stirring string quartet to open his namesake glam rock band's 1989 monster ballad "Hungry"" and infused a classically informed arrangement on 1990's "Rainbow in the Rose."
"Every record I'll put something on there where I'm really blowing
out the composition," he said in a phone interview from Nashville
last week to talk about his first full-drawn classical work,
"Ghosts." The Tucson Symphony Orchestra will give it its world
premiere in concerts this weekend.
"For years I was sneaking in classical bits and pieces in my rock
stuff, planting seeds of my path, leaving bread crumbs to where I
was going," he said.
Winger's journey from glam rocker to classical composer did not
include time spent in classrooms studying music theory and
counterpoint. He did not have that luxury with his full-throttled
rock music career.
"I suffer from impostor syndrome: 'Oh my God, what are they going to think of my music?' So I have probably read more books on composition, theory and counterpoint than anybody in the world because I'm so freaked out that I won't know what I'm doing," said Winger, 48, with a quiet chuckle.
The closest he came to formal studies was working with New Mexico University composition professor Richard Hermann and Nashville composer Michael Kurek, who teaches at Vanderbilt University.
He counts Hermann and Kurek among his growing circle of classical friends, which includes TSO Composer in Residence Dan Coleman. Winger had given Coleman a recording of the first movement of "Ghosts," a piece he wrote on commission for a Christopher Wheeldon ballet that San Francisco Ballet will premiere in February. Coleman liked the 20-minute piece, which opens with an extended violin credenza and weaves in heavenly harps and slightly dissonant keyboards, and suggested the TSO give its world premiere.
Winger had never heard the TSO live, although he's very familiar
with Tucson: His mother and stepfather have lived here for about 20 years. But he researched the orchestra and found a kinship with conductor George Hanson because of Hanson's experience with the rock band R.E.M. (Hanson was the conductor for R.E.M.'s multiplatinum record "Automatic For the People.")
"If Kip Winger were 24 years old and graduated from Juilliard, he
would be performed by all the big orchestras and there would be
articles about him being one of the next great things," said Hanson, reached on his cell phone last week at a guest- conducting gig in Arkansas. "I don't know if he's the next big thing, but this piece is really attractive in many, many ways."
"It will be very satisfying to have achieved a goal I've been
dreaming of for 20 years," Winger said.
Meanwhile, Winger heads out on a European tour with his band the day after he returns from Tucson. The band is touring in support of its just-released album, "Karma," which he described as a full-tilt rocker with "really cool riffs, good melodies, big choruses" and fast guitar solos.
"On this record, I really went back to my roots and did like an
AC/DC record because the classical thing has shifted over to the
real deal now," he said.
"My approach was to study the real deal and find people who could teach me" CF Kip Winger
Executive editor Scott Barker talks to musician Kip Winger about what he will be bringing to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra's world premiere of Ghosts on Nov. 14 and 15.
Ghosts Story
TSO Masterworks
When Kip Winger arrives in Arizona this month, it will be like coming home. His mother has lived in Tucson for about two decades, he is friends with TSO composer-in-residence Dan Coleman, and back in the 1980's Kip used to play guitar for Alice Cooper, a longtime resident of Paradise Valley.
"I love Arizona," he says. "I go there a lot. I lived in Santa Fe for years so I love the desert. I really thrive in that environment. And it's a special treat for me to come to Tucson for the premiere of Ghosts."
Aficionados of classic arena rock groups remember Kip as the leader of the band Winger, well known for their intricate playing, lightning fast licks and unusually complex songs. But Kip, the son of jazz musicians, was always more than just an axe man. "When I was a kid I was really into impressionistic music," he notes. "Later, I was in a concert hall in Amsterdam for a pretty typical classical show. On the program was Beethoven, Haydn and a the end they played Arthur Honegger's Third Symphony , and it just blew me away. I started studying his music. And he was my template for the harmonic stuff that's happening in Ghosts."
Many a rock performer has forayed into other musical worlds --- sometimes successfully, some not --- and Kip was very careful not to be just another wannabe. "My approach was to study the real deal and find people who could teach me," he says of embarking on his new career. "If I was going to do this, I wanted to do it the right way. I'd had opportunities to write pieces for some big people but I'd passed because I wasn't ready. I've spent the last ten years honing my skills so my compositions sound very organic classically. So far I've gotten a very good response."
The Tucson Symphony Orchestra will world premiere Ghosts on Nov. 14 and 15 at Catalina Foothills High School in a concert that highlights Mendelssohn and Haydn (for tickets, call 882-8585). Not surprisingly for a multifaceted guy like Kip, there's a fascinating origin to the piece. "I had a studio in downtown Nashville that used to be a hospital in the 1920's, and it was a fairly mystical place," Kip reflects. "When I was writing the first movement of this piece, I kept feeling like there was some sort of supernatural thing around me. And as I was writing the cello section the term 'ghosts' came to me. I sort of felt like I was around a bunch of them... like there were extra people in the room with me giving me that inspiration."
Kip also has trained in ballet (which he says came in handy in learning to move gracefully on stage), and the first movement of Ghosts was actually written for Dancer/choreographer Chris Wheeldon. A chamber music group in Austin, Texas, cut a demo of it, and he sent it to Wheeldon, who asked him to expand it to about 20 minutes. The finished version has four movements, and that's what audiences will hear with the TSO. By the way, anyone looking for a preview should buy a copy of Kip's 2008 album From the Moon to the Sun, which features a chamber music rendition of the hauntingly beautiful first movement of Ghosts.
Almost immediately following the performances, Kip will leave for a tour of Europe with the original lineup of Winger in support of the new album Karma. Though he won't have a lot of time here, he is eagerly anticipating soaking up the ambiance, and hearing Ghosts played in a concert hall. "I can't wait to hear the whole thing played live... it will be the first time," he concludes. "In the studio there's always, 'Cut! Take that again.' It's just not the same." --- Scott Barker
Frontiers Records is pleased to announce the release of BLACKWOOD CREEK self titled debut album on December 4th 2009 in Europe and January 12th 2010 in the USA. Album will also be released in Japan November 26, 2009.
BLACKWOOD CREEK is a Kip Winger side project put together with his brother Nate on drums and childhood friend Peter Fletcher on guitar. It all actually started in 1969 in Littleton, Colorado where they went on to play every Jr. High and High school and eventually night clubs in their path, performing songs by their favourite bands like Grand Funk, Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin and their original songs which they were particularly passionate about, to the point of getting fired from jobs for not playing enough popular material.
In 1980 they went their separate ways. Nate and Fletcher went to Los Angeles, Kip went to New York, where he landed a gig with Alice Cooper and then went on to form Winger. Nate recorded with many bands in L.A. including Ratt, Kix, Europe. Fletcher formed the Pigmy Love Circus, including drummer Danny Carey from Tool.
Blackwood Creek reformed in 2007 to record 11 new songs. It's obvious that the chemistry is still rock solid. These 11 tracks embody 40 years of blood, sweat and tears of 3 musicians who started out together, went their separate ways and reform on common ground.
Mendelssohn, Haydn, and a World Premiere by a Rock Star
Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance
The Tucson Symphony MasterWorks Chamber Orchestra comes to the Northwest with its first program of the 2009-'10 season, performing Mendelssohn and Haydn as well as the world premiere of a composition by rock star C.F. "Kip" Winger.
The Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance brings the world premier of Winger's "Ghosts" to Oro Valley on Friday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. at Canyon Del Oro High School. Other TSO performances are Saturday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m. at Catalina Foothills High School.
Music Director and Conductor George Hanson conducts the TSO in the Overture to Felix Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave, Franz Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 101, "The Clock," and in Winger's "Ghosts: Suite No. 1 for Orchestra."
Musician/composer C.F. Winger discovered his passion for music at an early age. His parents were jazz musicians, and he began studying piano at age six. Two years later, he began playing professionally with his two older brothers. He began studying classical guitar and composition when he was still in his teens.
In the early 1990s with his band, Winger, he released the platinum recordings Winger, In the Heart of the Young and Pull, and led the quartet on sold-out world tours. Winger played bass with Alice Cooper, sang with the Alan Parsons Project, played with The Who's Roger Daltrey and has performed with Bob Dylan.
London's Classic Rock Magazine called him "one of the most gifted composers and arrangers in the rock genre" and praised his "compulsion to experiment."
While topping the charts, Winger continued to pursue his interest in composition.
Professor Michael Kurek from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University praised Winger for his "great ear and innate musical sensitivity" resulting in "beautifully crafted phrases and nuance."
A recording of Ghosts conducted by Lynn Bingham, assistant conductor of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, featuring New York Philharmonic associate principal Lisa Kim on violin, drew the attention of the TSO's composer-in residence, Dan Coleman.
The TSO's world premiere performance of "Ghosts" will be followed by the San Francisco Ballet's February premiere of the new ballet top choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has created to accompany the 20-minute composition. Later in November, Winger and his band start a world tour in Rome, with stops in Paris, Belgium, Holland, Moscow, Greece, Denmark, Eastern Europe, Spain and England.
The Mendelssohn and Haydn program opens with Felix Mendelssohn's sonic interpretation of Fingal's Cave in the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. The cave's Gallic name means "the cave of music," because when the water is calm enough, visitors can row into the 227-foot-long cave and revel in the sound of the waves. Closing the program is Haydn't Symphony No. 101, later subtitled "The Clock" because of the sound of the tick-tock accompaniment of bassoon and plucked strings in the second movement.
The MasterWorks Chamber Orchestra Series receives generous support from Drs. John P. and Helen S. Schaefer.
MasterWorks Series single tickets, priced at $30 to $40, are available at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Box Office located at 2175 N. Sixth Avenue, or by phone at 882-8585. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.tucsonsymphony.org.
For tickets to the SAACA presentation at CDO, visit www.saaca.org or call 797-3959.
TSO MasterWorks Chamber Orchestra
Mendelssohn, Haydn and the premiere of "Ghosts" by Kip Winger
Friday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. at Canyon Del Oro High School.
Saturday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m. at Catalina Foothills High School.
Tickets, $30 to $40, at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Box Office, by phone at 882-8585, at www.tucsonsymphony.org, and at www.saaca.org, or 797-3959.
In addition to the two world premiere performances of C.F. Kip Winger's Ghosts by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra November 14 and 15, 2009, two additional performances are being presented by the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance on Friday, November 13 at 8:00 pm and Green Valley Recreation on Tuesday, November 24 at 7:30 pm. Location and ticket information can be found on the Tucson Symphony Press Release
"I'm increasingly interested in orchestral music because
of the vast landscape of emotion I can create, "says rock
musician/dancer/composer Kip Winger.
Brought to you by AmericanOrchestras.org and Symphony Magazine
New Voices
Dylan Thomas Songs is one of three big, imaginative commissions scheduled for the Tucson Symphony's 2009-10 season.
The eyebrow-raiser of the group is Ghosts, a piece by rocker Kip Winger scheduled for its world premiere on November 14, 2009. Winger doesn't fit the typical profile of the symphonic composer; he's founder and front man of the band Winger (1987-94, reformed in 2006), who also was lead singer of the Alan Parsons Project and, earlier, a bass player in Alice Cooper's band.
But then, there's not much about Winger that is typical. He has performed as a dancer, and says he originally wrote Ghosts as a work for ballet, "specifically for the choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, formerly of New York City Ballet and currently the director of his own company, Morphoses." (The world premiere of the ballet version of Ghosts is set for February 9, 2010 at the San Francisco Ballet.)
Meanwhile, Winger explains, the Tucson Symphony's composer-in-residence, Dan Coleman, had gotten a copy of the Ghosts score and showed it to Music Director George Hanson, who liked it and scheduled the 2009 world premiere. Because Winger has performed as a dancer, that kinetic experience led him to "imagine dance" as he was writing the music. And although he's most famous as a rock musician, he says this new work isn't really a departure for him. "I've been working in this direction for many years," says Winger. "Given my professional background in pop music, I never had the time to go to school for composition. My approach was to study privately with various composers throughout the years, similar to the way it was done before the institution of music conservatories. I believe that different styles of music can coexist - one can actually inspire another. I'm increasingly interested in orchestral music because of the vast landscape of emotion I can create."
Frontiers Records proudly announces the release of WINGER's fifth studio album entitled "Karma" on October 16th in Europe and October 27th in the USA.
WINGER reunited after more than a decade in 2006 for the release of the successful come back album entitled "IV" a record that pushed forward the boundaries of WINGER classic sound to new heights. Dealing with the concept of the military life and what it was like to be a soldier, from a soldier's perspective, leaving politics at the door. "After Winger IV we toured the United States, Europe, Australia and Japan during which made a live record" says Kip Winger. "When the chance came up to do a new Winger record, I envisioned a upbeat totally rocking record that was a cross between the 1st Winger album and Pull. So Reb and I sat down and wrote all the music in a month or so. I worked for 6 months to finish it in the classic Winger style".
The result is an amazing new record where the four band members: Kip Winger (bass and vocals), Reb Beach (guitars now also in Whitesnake), Rod Morgenstein and John Roth shine with an incredible instrumental and vocal prowess at the service of superb Hard Rock songs but with an uncanny sense of melody. The title itself "Karma" represents Winger completing its full musical circle as Kip Winger explains "We were discussing the very interesting path the band has had and we have all been through so much together. So we went for "Karma" as this is a word that truly sums up the experience of being in the band".
WINGER debut album in 1988 on Atlantic achieved platinum status in the United States, and gold in Japan and Canada sporting such hits as "Madalaine", "Seventeen" and "Headed For A Heartbreak". In 1990, the band was nominated for an American Music Award for "Best New Heavy Metal Band". Shortly after, WINGER released its second album "In the Heart of the Young", which went platinum in the U.S. and gold in Japan. The album included WINGER's biggest hit "Miles Away", who topped at #12 of Billboard charts in the USA. Their third and last studio album, "Pull", was recorded in 1992/93 as a three-piece band, following the original keyboard / guitar player Paul Taylor's departure. Produced by Mike Shipley, on the following tour John Roth was called in to replace Paul Taylor.
"Usually Winger fans don't "expect" anything because they know we do what we feel like doing artistically" explains Kip. "It is not a commercially driven band. I can say that the songs are very upbeat". Reb Beach adds: "It's a very up-tempo riff driven rocking record. It has the elements of vintage Winger from '89 but has the blood, sweat and tears of years 20 years of writing, recording and touring!"
"Karma" will be released with the first pressing in limited digipak edition and includes the following songs:
Deal with the Devil; Stone Cold Killer; Big World Away; Come A Little Closer; Pull Me Under; Supernova; Always Within Me; Feeding Frenzy; After All This Time; Witness; First Ending (Bonus Track). Also included there will be an Electronic Press Kit, with footage filmed in the studio during the recording sessions, that is playable on all computers as an interactive bonus.
Samples can be heard on the Official Winger Website: http://www.wingertheband.com
Winger also announced their forthcoming European tour in support to the new album's release:
20-Nov ITALY - Roma, Crossroads
21-Nov ITALY - Pinarella di Cervia (RA), Rock Planet
22-Nov ITALY - Pavia, Thunder Road
24-Nov FRANCE - Paris, Maroquinerie
25-Nov BELGIUM - Verviers, Spirit of '66
26-Nov HOLLAND - Weert, Bosuil
27-Nov RUSSIA - Moscow, Plan B
28-Nov RUSSIA - Ufa, Rock Club
30-Nov GREECE - Ioannina, n.a.
1-Dec GREECE - Athens, Gagarin/tbc
3-Dec GREECE - Thessaloniki, n.a.
4-Dec DENMARK - Copenhagen, The Rock
6-Dec POLAND - Warsaw, Progresja
7-Dec CZECH REP. - Prague, Exit/tbc
8-Dec AUSTRIA - Wien, tbc
9-Dec HUNGARY - Budapest, A38
11-Dec SWITZERLAND - Worblaufen, Tibis
12-Dec SPAIN Madrid - Ritmo y Compas
More dates will follow in 2010 in Europe, USA and elsewhere !
How would you like to fly down to Los Angeles, learn rock 'n' roll from masters like Grammy-winner Mark Hudson, hang out with Steven Tyler and Todd Rundgren, record at Capitol Records Studios and play a gig at the Whiskey a Go Go?
U.S. Government Presents Kip Winger with American Flag
A plaque & the American flag was presented to Kip Winger on April 24, 2008 by the Government of the United States of America.
The flag was the last United States of America flag to fly over Forward Operating Base (FOB) Kalso, located in Iskandaria, Iraq, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Before it was turned over to the Iraqis, FOB Kalso was the U.S. Army soldiers broadband internet services facility in Iraq as well as a base to stop enemy activity in the Sunni Triangle.
The inscription on the plaque reads:
Department of Defense Seal
IN APPRECIATION OF RECORDING ARTIST
KIP WINGER
AND HIS MUSICAL COMPOSITION
"BLUE SUEDE SHOES"
HONORING THE SERVICE AND SACRIFICE
OF OUR UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES
AND THEIR FAMILIES.
OUR SINCERE THANKS,
GENERAL HAROLD CROSS
(FOUR STAR GENERAL)
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