Performing Arts

Qingdao Symphony Orchestra

Conducted by Yongyan Hu, the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra filled the stage of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Sunday to celebrate the new Chinese year, the Year of the Ox. Part of the orchestra's first American tour, Sunday's event -- dubbed "Image China" -- was marked by an unusual blend of Chinese and Western musical styles.

Xiaogang Ye's exotic Pipa Concerto followed the tangy Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story." The afternoon's second half opened with Chen Yi's steely Piano Concerto and closed with Richard Rodney Bennett's Concert Suite from George Gershwin's pivotal opera "Porgy and Bess."

The Qingdao (founded in 2005) caught the full measure of the anxious despair Bernstein voiced in his score, with its tropical rhythmic patterns and percussive instrumental colors set against the chaotic noises of New York streets. With equal sophistication, Yongyan led his musicians in Xiaogang's daunting work featuring Hongyan Zhang as pipa soloist. Her nimble fingers dazzled the audience as she plucked, stroked and strummed the strings of her pear-shaped instrument -- a traditional Chinese lute. Sometimes alternating with the pipa's fireworks -- rather than playing simultaneously with it -- Xiaogang's orchestral writing leaned delicately on Western neoclassicism's spare textures spiced by gentle dissonances. Equally evocative, Chen Yi's spirited Piano Concerto strangely seemed to summon textures and harmonies one associates with French impressionism. Yet there were hints of Asian melodic motifs streaming through the score. Sa Chen's playing was commanding and exuberant yet finely balanced against the orchestra.

Soprano Janice Chandler-Eteme and bass-baritone Alvy Powell were joined by the Choral Arts Society of Washington in a spectacular version of "Porgy and Bess." Veterans of this music, the soloists totally lived their roles both dramatically and vocally in knockout performances. The orchestra met them head-on, completely involved in the passion of the moment.

-- Cecelia Porter

Karen Reedy

"Sleepwalking" begins at that gut-wrenching moment of the night when insomniacs open their bleary eyes to see the taunting red digits of an alarm clock. Karen Reedy, a local choreographer and George Mason University dance professor, explores those excruciating moments of wee-hour wakefulness in her newest work. "Sleepwalking" premiered last September at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage but was better flattered by the black box of Dance Place, where some of the area's best professional dancers performed it Saturday night before a capacity crowd.

Set to a mix of ambient sounds and international lullabies, "Sleepwalking" is a fascinating Lunestra-induced trip for two male and five female dancers. Some segments were more memorable than others, including Alison Crosby's solo to a Polish cradle song and a duet featuring Adriane Fang (a George Mason professor who spent 10 years with Doug Varone and Dancers) and Prentice Whitlow (one of Fang's promising students). The pair lie at center stage, Fang tucked into Whitlow's strong dark arms. But neither can sleep, and they alternately roll out of the embrace in frustration. When Fang finally rises she's trapped in a nightmare, menaced by her fellow dancers until a chorus of chirping birds intervenes. Digital bells toll, and the work closes with the ensemble engaging in a little morning tai chi.

The four pieces on the program prior to intermission included Reedy, Fang and Constance Dinapoli performing Robert Battle's lyrical "Enter," and members of CityDance's Studio Company in a creepily good 1997 Reedy piece, "Cheating, Lying, Stealing."

-- Rebecca J. Ritzel