PROJECTS
Passionate about cross-discipline artistic collaboration, the Delachaise Ensemble regularly collaborates with dancers, visual artists, composers, musicians across genres, and other artists. Recent projects include performing with the Marigny Opera Ballet in their production of the original contemporary ballet "Here," featuring an original score by Ted Joyner and Jeff Pagano including strings and electronic-based music. Partnering with the Melange Dance Company, Delachaise Ensemble also curated the music and performed in "Hope Springs Eternal," an inspirational evening designated to reignite hope, collective action, and direct support for Rise St. james, a faith-based organization fighting against petrochemical expansion in Southern Louisiana. Featuring a curated soundscape of music for string quartet with original dance choreography, and using tested soil collected from the contested Buena Vista site used to communally create a painting during the performance, artist Heather Bird Harris' finished painting was raffled off to raise funds for Rise St. James in their fight against Formosa.
New music projects include performances by living composers, including Caroline Shaw, Anne Cawrse, and Jeff Beal. The Delachaise Ensemble has presented several silent films with original live music scored by Jeff Pagano, including A Page of Madness, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
Marigny Opera Ballet: "Here"
December 2024, Marigny Opera House
HERE presents movement and musical collaboration exploring our journey through time—honoring the past, embracing the present, and looking toward a hopeful future. With uplifting choreography by Christian Denice and Diogo De Lima, as well as live music by Ted Joyner, these performances aim to inspire with a sense of hope and positive momentum.
HERE is an immersive exploration of time and place, centered around the history and present-day significance of the Marigny Opera House, originally built in 1847 as Holy Trinity Catholic Church by New Orleans’ German immigrant community. With choreography by internationally acclaimed choreographer Christian Denice and Artistic Director Diogo de Lima, this program of two contemporary ballets reflects on the passage of time, the power of presence, and the historical narratives embedded in the Marigny Opera House, and the Marigny Opera Ballet achieves yet a higher level of artistic and technical achievement.
This program fuses classical and contemporary elements to bring the past into conversation with the present. Music for HERE is composed by Ted Joyner (of Generationals) and performed live by The Delachaise Ensemble (featuring string quartet, bassoon, and piano). Jeff Pagano collaborates on orchestration and arrangement, while Brian Danos – composer, producer, and electronic experimentalist – will assist with both arrangement and performance, utilizing sequencers, samplers, and analog synthesizers to enhance the score.
Melange Dance Company: "Hope Springs Eternal"
April 2024, New Marigny Theatre
As flowers bloom, leaves unfurl, and days grow brighter, the time is ripe to reflect, recharge, and redirect Winter’s lessons. It’s a time to consider our collective humanhood in relation to nature, understanding that we ARE nature; diverse ecosystems that have evolved and endured for eons. We yearn for love, balance, and justice; yet humanity’s connection to nature has been severed and numbed by individualistic and extractive culture. We are alive at a pivotal moment in history as the last generation that can act to prevent the most catastrophic effects of global warming. To love Mother Earth, we must reestablish a vision of harmony between all beings, realizing that our interconnected web is only balanced when there is justice for all.
Mélange is elated to collaborate with Delachaise Ensemble, artist Heather Bird Harris, Climate Clock, and Rise St. James to present a reflective, multidisciplinary evening of dance, music, spoken word, and art to foster hope and stimulate collective action, as the climate clock ticks on. Drawing inspiration from author Willow Defebaugh’s The Overview: Meditations for a World in Transition, we explore a winding path back home exploring themes of reverence, balance, evolution, and healing, seeking guidance from our native oak trees, whose roots spread wide to hold one another down. Hope Springs Eternal...but we don’t have eternity. Like the chaos of Earth’s creation, it is generations of humans confronting chaos that have progressed us forward with stubborn optimism in the face of devastation.
Northern Neck Chamberfest: Ensemble In-Residence
June 2023 and June 2024
As the ensemble in-residence at the Northern Neck Chamberfest, the Delachaise Ensemble has presented iconic pieces of the chamber music repertoire, contemporary by living composers, and unexpected and unique chamber music pieces. New music projects include performances by living composers, including Caroline Shaw, Anne Cawrse, and Jeff Beal.
Silent Films & Original Live Music
The Delachaise Ensemble has presented several silent films with original live music scored by Jeff Pagano, including A Page of Madness, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
