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

