present

BEAUTIFUL WORLD

June 2-4, 2022

The world premiere of A Million Alien Gospels

Michael Alec Rose, Composer
AJ Garcia-Rameau, Choreographer
Dorothy O’Shea Overbey, Choreographer
Daniel Kopp, Music Director

Draylen Mason Music Studio
KMFA Classical

The Story

Alice encounters the Four Elements: Earth, Water, Air, & Fire. They offer her the gift of Earthly Love, embodied through dance as a flower.  Overawed by the gift, she has difficulty accepting it, and the challenge of sharing it with others is harder still, when so many have refused the gift without realizing it. Alice learns what it means to make room for the flower:
to give and receive what belongs to us all.

The Team

Michael Alec Rose
Composer

AJ Garcia-Rameau
Ventana Ballet Director
Choreographer
Dancer

Daniel Kopp
Austin Camerata Director
Cellist

Dorothy O’Shea Overbey
Ventana Ballet Artistic Advisor
Choreographer
Dancer

Libby Jantz
Lighting Designer

Farid Zarrinabadi
Photographer, Videographer

Lynn Lane
Photographer

Navaji David Nava
Visual Artist

Meet the Quintet

Matt Lammers - Violin I
Marisa Ishikawa - Violin II
Nick Pelletier - Viola
Daniel Kopp - Cello
DoYoun Kim - Double Bass

Meet the Dancers

(in order of appearance)
Veronica Boccardo - Human
Sheila Jackson - Human
Kirsten Kemp - Human
Kirstyn Leschber - Human
Kanami Nakabayashi - Human
AJ Garcia-Rameau - Alice
Dorothy O’Shea Overbey - Earth
Rachael Hanlon - Fire
Rachel Culver - Water
Tikiri Shapiro - Air
Navaji David Nava - The Flower

Meet the Composer

Michael Alec Rose is a composer of symphonic, chamber, piano, vocal, wind ensemble, theater, and ballet music, including the upcoming June 2022 performances of A Million Alien Gospels by Ventana Ballet and Austin Camerata.  

In April, 2019, Rose’s opera Lolly Willowes premiered at the Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston, a production generously funded by the Houston Arts Alliance.

From 2005 to 2016, Rose co-directed an International Exchange Program between Vanderbilt University and the Royal Academy of Music, London.  The collaboration has inspired more than a dozen new compositions for violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved and friends, together with a growing community of international arts organizations and venues.  Two CD albums of the Rose/Sheppard Skærved catalogue are available on Toccata Records and Divine Arts Recordings. 

Rose has composed nine works for string quartet, all of them performed by distinguished ensembles at venues including Lincoln Center and the Library of Congress, Tate St. Ives in Cornwall, England, and the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas.

Rose is Professor of Composition at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.  He received 30 ASCAP awards and numerous commissions, including those from the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, The Spoleto Festival, the Nashville Symphony, Longbow Ensemble of London, the Cassatt Quartet, and the Brazilian Wind Orchestra.  He has won three teaching awards at Vanderbilt, including the Chair of Teaching Excellence.  His book, Audible Signs: Essays from a Musical Ground, was published by Continuum Books (2010).   

More information and lots of music can be found at https://michaelalecrose.com/ and https://soundcloud.com/michaelalecrose 

AJ Garcia-Rameau
Ventana Ballet Director & Choreographer

AJ Garcia-Rameau is a professional dancer, director of Ventana Ballet, partner of First Street Studio, and semiconductor engineer in Austin, Texas. AJ is the founder and director of Ventana Ballet, a professional contemporary ballet dance company based in Austin, TX whose mission is to bring more performance opportunities to local artists and to provide accessible performance opportunities to the community. AJ is also a partner owner of First Street Studio, an accessible performance, rehearsal, and education venue that is home to more than 75 Austin-based performing arts companies and individual professional artists. AJ’s formal training is in classical and contemporary ballet and modern dance. AJ was born in Houston, TX where she received her training at the Houston Academy of Dance and performed with the Exclamation Dance Company. AJ earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and Minor in Dance from the University of Texas while training at the Austin School of Classical Ballet and performing as a company member of BHumn Dance Company and the Austin Classical Ballet. AJDances.com

Daniel Kopp
Austin Camerata Artistic Director

Daniel Kopp, co-founder and artistic director of Austin Camerata, is an active cellist and educator in Austin, Texas. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed across the country at Tanglewood, Aspen, and Kneisel Hall. Notable performances include his Carnegie Hall debut as principal cellist for the New York String Orchestra Seminar and Seiji Ozawa Hall as principal cellist of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. 

Through Austin Camerata, Daniel creates collaborations of chamber music, dance, and storytelling at venues across central Texas. Austin Camerata has been praised for its “unadulterated beauty” and nominated by the Austin Critics Table for ‘best classical ensemble’. 

A devoted educator, Daniel is on faculty at the Manitou Chamber Music Festival, Clavier-Werke School of Music, and Austin Chamber Music Center, where he coaches chamber music and maintains a private cello studio.

Dorothy O’Shea Overbey
Ventana Ballet Artistic Advisor & Choreographer

Dorothy O’Shea Overbey is a dancer, choreographer, and producer, Artistic Advisor of Ventana Ballet. Born in Alaska and raised in Austin, Dorothy grew up training at Ballet Austin and studying classical piano with UT Professor Emeritus Amanda Vick Lethco. After earning a BFA in Dance Performance and a BA in Philosophy from Southern Methodist University, Dorothy danced for ballet and contemporary dance companies in New York, Colorado and California before returning to Austin and joining the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Dance at UT Austin. Dorothy is a partner/owner of First Street Studio, as well as the Founder and Director of Red Nightfall Productions, which creates films, live productions, and immersive experiences that seek to amplify the voices of emerging artists. Dorothy is also the co-founder of Austin Community Ballet, an organization of dancers in the Austin area that offers professional-level ballet classes in an open, collaborative, non-hierarchical environment. While in New York, Dorothy did introductory training at the Atlantic Theatre School, and appeared in commercials, indie films, and theatrical productions. dorothyoshea.com

Project Collaborators & Activities

Ventana Ballet & Austin Camerata created collaborative relationships with other local organizations whose mission aligns with BEAUTIFUL WORLD, especially as they relate to climate change, resilience, growth, community engagement, and relationships with the more-than-human world. Check out the schedule of Earth Month events below!

APRIL 19
Tuesday Twilights at LBJ Wildflower Center
5:00-8:00pm
Tickets & Info Here!

APRIL 24
Waterloo Green Day, a Planet Texas 2050 Earth Day Showing at Waterloo Park
3:00pm
More Info Here!

MAY 1
Keep Austin Rooted Picnic 2022, hosted by Tree Folks at Live Oak Brewery
1:00-5:00pm
Tickets & Info Here!

MAY 13 Deadline!
Nature Photography Contest
A collaboration with Capital Area Master Naturalists.
CAMN is looking for original images that capture the themes of BEAUTIFUL WORLD: earth, air, fire, water, and native Texas wildflowers. Two winners from each of the five categories will have their works displayed during the premiere performances on June 2, 3, & 4! Please submit your photos no later than Friday, May 13 to photos@camn.org, along with your name, the title of your photograph, and under which category you are entering your work. Multiple entries are accepted!

MAY 25
Curated Conversations: Cosmic Dialogues with Ventana Ballet
Make cosmic connections with the composer and choreographers behind the new ballet A Million Alien Gospels and its resonance with artworks at the Blanton.
12:00pm CST on Zoom
Register for FREE here