The New York City Ballet cancelled its
famous five-week run of “The Nutcrack-
er” Thursday, citing advice from govern-
ment officials and medical professionals
regarding dangers of the coronavirus. The
nixed Christmas spectacle means the
company won’t return to the stage until
2021. The news comes with a certain sense
of domino-tipping: Who will be next? The
Joffrey Ballet in Chicago already can-
celled their version of the show, and San
Francisco Ballet is waiting for news from
the city’s government to add sugarplums
to their calendar. As the pandemic builds
into a second wave cascading across the
United States, the future of in-person per-
formance jumps further and further into
an increasingly unstable future.
Cancelled shows are nothing new in
2020. At this point, NYCB has cancelled
its Spring, Summer and Fall seasons, along
with two galas — but losing the “The Nut-
cracker” is a much deeper wound, and it’s
one that will be much harder to heal.
The popularity of the beloved Christ-
mas show is underscored by its commer-
cialized success outside of the theatre:
The Tchaikovsky score makes its way into
December car commercials, the Sugar
Plum puns are well-exploited by Ameri-
can marketing and the Nutcracker doll
sometimes feels as well known as Santa
Claus himself. Put simply, the annual mass
production of Snowflakes and Rat Kings
makes “Nutcracker” the singular poster
child for all of ballet.
Behind the curtain, though, the Land
of Sweets is also one of opportunity.
Increased numbers of performances mean
longer cast lists — students earn spots in
the huge ensemble and young profession-
als gain breakout roles that they’d usually
never be in line for. The annual nature
of “Nutcracker” also makes progressive
reform more financially feasible: Recent
years have spurred positive conversations
about the restaging of previously prob-
lematic representations in the Chinese tea
and Arabian coffee divertissements. Older
(and sometimes still current) versions of
the two sections tend to include embar-
rassingly derogatory depictions of East-
ern cultures, but recent years have seen an
uptick in reform: Phil Chan and Georgina
Pazcoguin launched their “Final Bow for
Yellowface” campaign after successfully
petitioning NYCB to change their Chi-
nese divertissement in 2017. Other com-
panies have restaged the setting of the
whole show to reflect the communities
they serve. Joffrey Ballet’s version takes
place at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
Last year, NYCB also cast its first Black
“Marie,” the preteen main character of
the whole show. Albeit quite overdue,
“Nutcracker’ has operated as the catalyst
of many larger initiatives for the potential
of progressive reform in classical ballet.
The diversity of the ballet’s audience
also changes come December. Grandpar-
ents sit next to grandchildren and gaggles
of girlfriends make yearly pilgrimages to
the opera houses. Swarms of schoolchil-
dren attend matinee field trips and many
companies also take their dancers to nurs-
ing homes and hospitals. “The Nutcrack-
er” is very often the first piece of dance
anyone will see, and it’s often cited as the
reason a dancer begins taking lessons.
7
Community chamber orchestras are at the
heart of towns and cities across America. Vol-
unteer, amateur musicians often comprise
these ensembles, yet some ensembles employ
high-level, local freelance professionals and
students at nearby universities. The Ann Arbor
Camerata (AAC), founded in 2006, is of the
latter variety. Until 2019, the AAC existed as a
traditional community chamber orchestra that
regularly performed in local churches. Now,
they do things a bit differently, and they’re mak-
ing profound connections with the greater Ann
Arbor community in the midst of COVID-19.
Thomas Militello, University of Michigan
Music, Theatre & Dance alum and Ann Arbor
resident, is the current artistic director of the
AAC. In a phone interview with the Daily, he
spoke about the notable changes in the AAC’s
mission since taking over as artistic director,
and how the organization is not only staying
relevant, but also staying true to its mission of
serving the Ann Arbor community at large,
especially its most vulnerable members, dur-
ing this challenging time. Militello graduated
in 2019 with a master’s degree in horn perfor-
mance after completing his undergraduate
studies at the University of Southern California
in 2017. While he was primarily in school to
study horn, he also sought out opportunities in
conducting, despite not being in the official con-
ducting studio in the Music, Theatre & Dance
School. Through his involvement in Prof. Ken-
neth Kiesler’s conducting seminar and a con-
ducting cognate with Prof. Michael Haithcock,
he grew close with graduate students pursuing
conducting degrees. Before Militello took over,
that cohort of students ran the AAC.
“The role of artistic director and conductor
of the Camerata has been passed down through
the orchestral conducting students at Michi-
gan. I wasn’t next in line, so I got kind of lucky.
When my class was graduating, they passed it
to me because they figured I needed a vessel for
experience if I wanted to pursue conducting at
the level I was aiming for,” Militello said.
As artistic director, Militello wears many
hats. Day to day, his responsibilities include
being in touch with venues, curating perfor-
mances, contracting players, conducting the
larger ensembles, managing the ensemble’s
online presence and reaching out to current and
potential donors. His most significant responsi-
bility, however, has been completely rebrand-
ing the organization’s mission with significant
changes to its core values.
While the AAC was already a beloved com-
munity orchestra before Militello became its
artistic director, he felt that there was more that
could be done to provide accessible engagement
with classical music to the entire Ann Arbor
community, not just to those who frequent clas-
sical music concerts. With that direction, the
ensemble has taken an intentionally accessible
approach to bring classical music to unconven-
tional spaces and underserved communities.
One of the biggest organizational changes
to the AAC was the pivot to a project-based
“cohort of musicians,” as Militello called the
ensemble, from the traditional, season-based
schedule that most orchestras follow. Instead
of having a set, programmatic agenda for the
entire year consisting solely of orchestral reper-
toire, the AAC now sets up concerts with both
orchestra and smaller chamber ensembles that
are planned in succession.
“With the Camerata being not just function-
al as a chamber orchestra, we gained so much
flexibility in performance locations, reper-
toire and audiences, as a result,” Militello said.
“Chamber music has become a performance
medium that’s essential to who we are.”
The AAC had a remarkably innovative con-
cert series centered around bringing diverse
chamber music repertoire to unconventional
audiences and venues when COVID-19 hit
Michigan. The series, called Main Street Bar
Crawl, was the first major performance project
the AAC had planned since the radical change
in artistic direction. The concerts were cen-
tered around bringing thematically relevant
standard and nontraditional chamber music
to popular bars along the Main Street stretch,
like a brass quintet playing Irish music at Conor
O’Neill’s and jazz-inspired repertoire at the
Raven’s Club. The series highlights the ensem-
ble’s motto of “come as you are” — no expecta-
tions, unspoken rules or frills; audiences can
attend live classical music concerts from the
comfort of their favorite hangouts and watering
holes. Main Street Bar Crawl was unfortunate-
ly cancelled for social distancing measures, but
Militello’s creative, innovative planning did not
end with its cancellation.
“When all the shutdowns started happen-
ing, it was disappointing for everyone, both
for audiences and musicians in the Camerata.
When thinking about how to move forward
with the ensemble and stay relevant, I was try-
ing to think about who really needed music
right now, and what communities were most
vulnerable during this time of need,” Militello
said.
The first people who came to mind were res-
idents in senior living homes who were not only
most susceptible to contracting the virus and
enduring significant trauma with their health,
but also unable to have in-person contact with
their families and closest friends. With those
residents in mind, Militello put a new concert
Thursday, June 25, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS
COMMUNITY CULTURE
COMMUNITY CULTURE
ZOE PHILLIPS
Daily Arts Writer
SUMMER SERIES
SUMMER SERIES
ELLEN SIROWER
Daily Arts Writer
Ann Arbor Camerata
adapts to quarantine
Read more at michigandaily.com
Read more at michigandaily.com
‘The Nutcracker’ and
the uncertain future