New Works to present three premieres at Palladium

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Saxophonist Cecily Terhune is eager to perform a new piece in a special setting.

“The opportunity to perform a new work for the New Works project is monumental,” the Carmel resident said.”I’m honored to be able to experience the Palladium’s precise acoustic capabilities as a solo performer performing a piece I’m passionate about.”

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Saxophonist Cecily Terhune’s New Works piece called “Boon Bestowed” will be performed June 10 at the Palladium. (Photo courtesy of Cecily Terhune)

Terhune’s project is one of three selected for the second season of New Works: An Arts Commission Project, an initiative of the Carmel-based Center for the Performing Arts to promote and sustain central Indiana’s working artists and arts communities in an inclusive way by supporting the creation of new works across the arts disciplines. The three winning proposals, selected by judges, will be presented in a free presentation at 8 p.m. June 10 at the Palladium, followed by a talkback discussion.

Instrumental and electronic music composer Katie Madonna Lee of South Bend composed “Boon Bestowed” for Terhune.

“We worked together to conceptualize the piece and she wrote the motifs,” Terhune said. “‘Boon Bestowed’ is composed of four separate movements and is 10 minutes long.”

Each movement will feature one instrument from the standard saxophone quartet: soprano, alto, tenor and baritone. Each movement represents a powerful female archetype, nurturer, leader, activist and teacher.

“The visual component began as a slideshow but is now a series of short videos representing each of the powerful female archetypes,” Terhune said.

Terhune, a 2011 Carmel High School graduate, teaches private woodwind lessons for CHS and Noblesville High School students. She performs regularly with Audiodacity and other groups.

Another New Works is Emily Franks’ original dance piece, “Suits.” She developed it with the help of Noblesville-based En Pointe Indiana Ballet, where Franks is a part-time instructor. Franks, who lives in downtown Indianapolis, previously was a dancer for Dance Kaleidoscope.

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Franks

“This was my first time being able to create a longer piece, which has always been a dream of mine,” Franks said. “After retiring from dancing professionally, I wasn’t sure where I would find my artistic outlet, but choreographing and creating works has been such a fun and new experience for me. I’m falling in love with it.”

The narrative is a mystery about a stolen document, set amid the human dynamics of corporate culture.

“I’m naturally more introverted, so I tend to be more of an observer than a talker,” she said. “I’ve always loved to people-watch and imagine their stories and lives. I imagine the people around me that I don’t even know live some pretty cool lives. After thinking about the corporate workforce, I wanted to tell a story through movement that would be close to watching a movie. I really wanted it to be accessible to all, where it wasn’t very abstract and anyone could see a plot line in the movement.”

The piece is made up of seven sections and runs 18 1/2 minutes.

“I retired from dancing professionally in June 2022 due to health reasons,” Franks said. “After getting diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, the athletic career of a dancer was just no longer sustainable. Seeing these incredibly talented students dancing my work up on the stage brings me just as much joy as performing did in my professional career.”

Franks has worked with the En Pointe dancers for several months on the piece.

“They’ve really impressed me with their dedication to their work as such young artists,” she said. “Their passion for the art shines through the choreography I gave them.”

Robert Moore, co-artistic director of En Pointe with his wife Polly Ribeiro, offered advice.

‘Rob has been such a wonderful mentor and watched me work through this process,” Franks said.

The third New Works is Jamey Guzman’s “Open Heart Surgery,” a contemporary opera piece modeled after a TV medical drama. It features three singers and several musicians from Bloomington-based New Voices Opera. Guzman collaborated with librettist Carolina Cao to tell a story of a young doctor caught between her dreams of film and her Immigrant family’s expectations of a career in medicine.

“To even call this opportunity a dream come true falls short: this isn’t just any dream,” Guzman said., “it is my first dream, held tightly ever since childhood: to put characters on a stage and make them sing, to bring something into this world that wasn’t here before, and to invite an audience into a story that could open their eyes to something new. As an emerging composer working in a field undergoing a beautiful and exhilarating transition, this opportunity is a turning point in my career, and I am so grateful for the chance to share a small piece of myself with this community.

Guzman said this chamber opera idea was born in the development program where lCao, dramaturg Jolie O’Dell, and Guzman all met, Really Spicy Opera’s Aria Institute for Composers and Librettists.

“The mission of centering communities rarely featured on the operatic stage is first and foremost in all our hearts and artistic practices, and this work exemplifies our commitment,” Guzman said. “‘Open Heart Surgery’  challenges all conventions of genre in opera: a telenovela-inspired, medical drama chamber opera celebrating immigrant stories, queer joy, and women working in STEM.”

For more, visit thecenterpresents.org.


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