Pepperland—Mark Morris' Exuberant Homage to the 1960S Countercultural Touchstones in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Pepperland—Mark Morris’ exuberant homage to the 1960s countercultural touchstones in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band—makes its NY premiere at BAM, May 8—11

Pepperland Mark Morris Dance Group Choreography by Mark Morris

Music by The Beatles and Ethan Iverson Music arrangements by Ethan Iverson Set design by Johan Henckens Costume design by Elizabeth Kurtzman Lighting design by Nick Kolin

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave) May 8—11 at 7:30pm Tickets start at $30

Physically Integrated Workshop: Mark Morris Dance Group Led by Domingo Estrada Jr. and Nicole Sabella Co-presented by BAM and Mark Morris Dance Group May 4 at 4pm Mark Morris Dance Center (3 Lafayette Ave) Price: $20 For dancers with and without disabilities

April 1, 2019/Brooklyn, NY—Pepperland, a vivid work by the choreographer Mark Morris was created at the request of the City of Liverpool to inaugurate the “Sgt. Pepper at 50 Festival” in 2017, paying tribute to the Beatles’ groundbreaking album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Renowned for his profound understanding of musical forms, Morris teases out the album’s colorfully avant garde motifs through spirited movement and an inspired score by jazz composer Ethan Iverson.

The Pepperland score is performed by a unique music ensemble, featuring voice, theremin, soprano sax, trombone, piano, keyboard, and percussion. Iverson’s new arrangements of six songs from the album intermingle with six “Pepper-inspired” original pieces, illuminating the LP’s eclectic roots. An important work of British psychedelia, musical influences included Indian classical music, vaudeville, classical, jazz, avant-garde, and blues. The iconic work solidified the concept album form in popular music. It is described as one of the first art rock LPs, aiding the development of progressive rock, and is credited with marking the beginning of the album era.

In this slice of 20th-century culture, the kinetic costumes and sets reflect the album’s optimism, empowerment, and experimentalism that spoke to an entire generation—and in the process legitimized pop art, vibrant fashion, mysticism, freedom from parental control, and experimenting with altered states of consciousness.

Inspired by the fashion-forward Carnaby Street style of the era, Elizabeth Kurtzman’s costumes explode with color, providing a candy-hued palette for 15 dancers who combine Morris’ modern takes on 60s dance crazes with the company’s signature passion for musical interpretation.

Mark Morris, “the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical” (The New York Times), founded the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) in 1980. His work is acclaimed for its ingenuity, musicality, wit, and humanity. In addition to creating over 150 works for MMDG, he conducts orchestras, directs opera, and choreographs for ballet companies worldwide. Live music and community engagement are vital components of the Mark Morris Dance Group. It has toured with its own musicians, the MMDG Music Ensemble, since 1996. The Mark Morris Dance Center, opened in 2001, provides a home for the dance group, rental space for the community, free programs for children and seniors, and dance classes for all ages and abilities.

Ethan Iverson was a founding member of The Bad Plus (TBP), a game-changing collective with Reid Anderson and David King. The New York Times called TBP “…Better than anyone at melding the sensibilities of post-60’s jazz and indie rock.” During his 17-year tenure TBP performed in venues as diverse as the Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall, and Bonnaroo; collaborated with Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, and the Mark Morris Dance Group; and created a faithful arrangement of Stravinky’s The Rite of Spring and a radical reinvention of Ornette Coleman’s Science Fiction. Iverson also participates in the critically-acclaimed Billy Hart quartet with Mark Turner and Ben Street and occasionally performs with an elder statesman like Albert “Tootie” Heath or Ron Carter. In 2017 Iverson co-curated a major centennial celebration of Thelonious Monk at Duke University and in 2018 Iverson will be premiering an original piano concerto with the American Composers Orchestra and releasing a duo album with Mark Turner on ECM.

Elizabeth Kurtzman, a Manhattan native, began her career in the fashion industry after attending the Parsons School of Design. She has designed textiles and accessories for numerous New York design houses and has added costume design and book illustration to her list of vocations. For MMDG, she has designed costumes for many works, including Dancing Honeymoon, Sang-Froid, The Argument, Greek to Me, Empire Garden, Visitation, The Muir, Petrichor, A Wooden Tree, Crosswalk, and for the Gotham Opera Company, under Mark Morris’ direction, L’Isola Disabitata. Kurtzman lives and works in New York City.

For press information, contact Sarah Garvey at [email protected] or 718.724.8025.

Credits Bloomberg Philanthropies is the Season Sponsor

Leadership support for dance at BAM provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance

Major support for dance at BAM provided by The SHS Foundation

Support for the Signature Artists Series provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation

Delta Airlines is the Official Airline of BAM.

Your tax dollars make BAM programs possible through funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The BAM facilities are owned by the City of New York and benefit from public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with support from Mayor Bill de Blasio; Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl; the New York City Council including Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Finance Committee Chair Daniel Dromm, Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Jimmy Van Bramer, Council Member Laurie A. Cumbo, and the Brooklyn Delegation of the Council; and Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams. BAM would like to thank the Brooklyn Delegations of the New York State Assembly, Joseph R. Lentol, Delegation Leader; and New York Senate, Senator Velmanette Montgomery.

Pepperland is a Mark Morris Dance Group production in association with BAM, Brooklyn, New York; American Dance Festival, Durham, North Carolina; Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity with the Sony Centre, Toronto, Canada; Cal Performances, UC Berkeley, California; The City of Liverpool, England, U.K.; Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; International Festival of Arts & Ideas, New Haven, Connecticut; The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; La Jolla Music Society, La Jolla, California; Meyer Sound, Berkeley, California; Seattle Theatre Group, Seattle, Washington; UCSB Arts & Lectures, Santa Barbara, California; White Bird, Portland, Oregon.

Music commissioned by the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation.

General Information BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn’s only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, offers varied light fare and bar service prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances.

Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue Train: Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal – Barclays Center Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM

For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.

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