Cool news! The inaugural home of Sonia Plumb Dance will be the wonderful Carol Autorino Center for the Arts at St. Joseph’s College in Hartford, CT. The Hoffman Auditorium (part of the center) is a fantastic venue for dance, theater and more. I’ve teamed up with Sonia there in the past, as well as contributed music to a Hamlet production by Capital Classics.

Water Wars – the original full-evening piece on which Sonia and I are collaborating- will premiere June 15-16, 2012. The piece was workshopped last month – great feedback all around – things will get exciting as we start hitting the production home-stretch in the months to come!

Will post a few excerpts as we lock in the music and mix… – Cory

December 8, 2011

So, another December, another Joy for the Kids Christmas show with WFSB’s Scot Haney. This is the 6th year I’ve been a part of Scot’s craziness – a fun, truly “cabaret” style holiday show. Greg Candy – orchestrator extraordinaire – put together a number of tunes that had it ALL going on: orchestra, backing band (in which I play bass), live choirs – BIG numbers!

Scot and I did hook up for what has become an annual tradition – some kind of strange, hopefully cool acoustic/vocal duet mashup. This year, I pulled together a harmonized, up-tempo (Mellencamp-ish?) version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” – which morphed into rem’s “The One I Love”. Not that “The One I Love” is an Xmas tune – but that’s why I love Scot – he gives me free reign – and off we go!

Much fun, a great way to start the holiday – nearly $40,000 was raised for the Channel 3 Kids Camp. Good stuff… and I’m open to hearing any mashup ideas for next year.

(A direct note from Cory Gabel…)

In 2009, I had the fantastic experience of developing the ballet “The Casket Girls” with the talented artistic director Gregory Hancock. The production hit the stage Halloween weekend, and blended an original story, fully original score – and a team of talented dancers, lighting designers, board members and more.

It was truly a pinnacle moment of my music career, and thus, I was hooked.

I’m fairly obsessed with the idea of creating a Halloween version of “The Nutcracker” – a piece that dance companies worldwide could produce every fall in a multitude of ways. Obviously, that vision begins with the original production.

The goal: artistic, gothic, modern, eerie, sexy… even scary. As a true fan of “creepy things” – I’m convinced there is a LARGE portion of the potential ticket-buying public that would relish the opportunity to see a high-art, theatrical, beautiful modern ballet or contemporary dance production that gave them the chills – on multiple levels.

I’m looking to collaborate, partner and co-produce Red Wolf Moon. While I have a strong vision of the finished product, I do NOT have a vision of exact dance steps, actors, lighting or costumes. I understand the value, no – relish it – of the collaborative process. Do you?

If interested, drop me an e-mail, and I’ll forward the working synopsis, music drafts, and more. Let’s see what kind of “bite” we can put into this Halloween ballet.

“My, what big teeth you have…”

Cory

Cool news! The inaugural home of Sonia Plumb Dance will be the wonderful Carol Autorino Center for the Arts at St. Joseph’s College in Hartford, CT. The Hoffman Auditorium (part of the center) is a fantastic venue for dance, theater and more. I’ve teamed up with Sonia there in the past, as well as contributed music to a Hamlet production by Capital Classics.

Water Wars – the original full-evening piece on which Sonia and I are collaborating- will premiere June 15-16, 2012. The piece was workshopped last month – great feedback all around – things will get exciting as we start hitting the production home-stretch in the months to come!

Will post a few excerpts as we lock in the music and mix… – Cory