TURBINE – World premiere 2015

Mendelssohn Chorus gave the world premiere of Turbine, a site-specific work by composer Byron Au Yong, created in collaboration with Leah Stein Dance Company. The performance took place at the historic Fairmount Water Works. Rather than staying on a stage, singers and dancers moved through the landmark’s spaces and along the Schuylkill River. The site itself became part of the music, and the audience followed the performance as it unfolded around them.

“It’s hard to imagine that anyone walked away from Turbine unchanged.”
David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“After the last mingling of performers and audience on the plaza, we left transformed, released into the surroundings and suddenly seeing the colors of dusk as more saturated, the sounds more crisp, and every movement as a signal.”
Miriam Seidel

Photos: TURBINE 6/28/2015 by Sharon Torello and Michael Siles