Live orchestra back for 'Nutcracker' ballet after almost 20 years

An amped-up “level of magic” will return to Southold Dance Theater’s production of “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 9-11, Executive Director Sarah Taylor says, as the South Bend Symphony Orchestra plays live for the ballet for the first time since 2006.

Taylor, who danced in this local production as a girl with a live orchestra, says you can expect more moments of awe — for both the audience and performers in South Bend’s Morris Performing Arts Center.

Those performers include a sizeable cast of children on stage that, in recent years, has gradually been becoming more diverse.

“There’s a sense of thrill and excitement to it, because anything can happen,” SBSO Music Director Alastair Willis, who will be conducting, says of the difference that a live orchestra makes. “There’s a synergy between the stage and the pit, which is palpable. There’s the grace of the moment — if the audience applauds for four or five seconds longer, I’m going to wait.”

The SBSO had accompanied the ballet for 16 straight years through 2002. Then, Southold turned to recorded music instead, with officials saying they couldn’t afford the orchestra and its paid musicians.

The two arts organizations reunited for “The Nutcracker” in 2006, apparently with an opportune shot of funding, then it’s been recorded music ever since.

A broader reach

Now, both have bolstered funding for this year. They hope to keep the twinned performances in years ahead like a recurring dream of sugar plum fairies.

Together, they tell the classic tale from the 1800s about young Marie (named Clara in some productions), whose magician godfather, Drosselmeyer, gifts her with a nutcracker after a Christmas party. As everyone else slumbers at night, Marie visits her nutcracker, who comes to life and leads gingerbread soldiers and other toys in battle against an onslaught of mice and the Mouse King. The Nutcracker eventually turns into a prince, who escorts Marie to a dreamy candy land.

Southold boasts one of its largest casts for this 41st annual in-person “Nutcracker,” with more than 200 dancers, including children and adults, Taylor says. A 43-member orchestra — the most that the Morris’ pit can accommodate — will take on the notably challenging music of Russian composer Tchaikovsky.

This comes as Southold also makes history by taking initial steps toward diversity. Out of 152 children in this year’s “Nutcracker,” at least 36 are of various racial and ethnic backgrounds, which is up from a maximum of just 12 in years going back to 2015, Taylor says. That doesn't include the roughly 50 teen-agers and pre-teens from Southold’s own company that are in this year’s production.

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Taylor, who Southold hired in August as its first Black executive director, says it isn't clear what led to this gradual increase over the years, but she plans to find out.

Matching the tempo

For many of Southold’s young dancers, this will be their first chance to dance to a live orchestra.

Fred Stuckwisch, who plays The Nutcracker, says he’s excited “just being able to perform with these professionals.”

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Turning 18, he’s been selected to compete early in 2023 in what's considered “the Olympics” for dancers ages 15 to 18: the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland.

Southold Artistic Director Calin Radulescu, who’s danced to several live orchestras around the world in his career, quips, “I don’t think they know what’s going to hit them.”

Until now, they’ve trained purely on recorded music and will have just one rehearsal together with the SBSO, on Dec. 8, the day before the shows begin. All performances will include the SBSO, except for the matinee show for area schools on Dec. 9, which will use recorded music.

Willis says he’s studied and is matching the tempo from the recorded music that Southold has used for years. But he’s also making “constant micro-adjustments.” He attended one of Southold’s full dance rehearsals, making notes on how the orchestra could help what the dancers are trying to do, for example, by holding notes longer.

“The role of the conductor is to serve the dancers,” he says.

To keep things on track, Willis says: “I’m looking at the stage as much as possible. That gives confidence to the dancers. It creates a connection.”

Willis has conducted “The Nutcracker” 70 times across 10 years, most of them as guest conductor alongside the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.

If the partnership with the SBSO continues year after year, Taylor attests from her own experience dancing in “The Nutcracker,” “You (dancers) get used to hearing that orchestral sound; it becomes second nature.”

As a bonus, she recalls how musicians would give after-the-show feedback to dancers, such as, “Oh, you did a great job.”

The opening night performance on Dec. 9 will include two professionals — a Joffrey Ballet dancer from Chicago to play the nutcracker and a Cincinnati Ballet dancer to play Marie — both of whom are dancing in their own company’s “Nutcracker” shows, too. Over the years, Radulescu says, he’s used professionals in this way so that his young leads and other dancers can switch off and take other roles in different shows.

Affording the pros

Willis has sought the SBSO’s return to “The Nutcracker” through his five and half years as music director. Not only is “The Nutcracker” iconic and a staple of both ballet and orchestral music, the event itself, Willis says, “is a celebration of community, of art.”

He says it took him three years to bring the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, where he was music director, back to live “Nutcracker” performances with a local ballet company. It was the same scenario: a dance company that had turned to recorded music because, he says, “orchestras are not cheap.”

Dan Pfeifer, Southold’s current board president, says Southold stopped using the SBSO for “The Nutcracker” purely because of the cost.

But, he says, Southold has wanted to bring the SBSO back in recent years. It might have happened three years ago but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, he says. Southold sponsors stepped forward this year to help pay for the added cost. And now, he adds, “That’s a collaboration we want to grow.”

Justus Zimmerman, SBSO’s executive director, says it also helps that the orchestra’s own fundraising is strong this year as it marks its 90th anniversary.

He didn’t disclose the deal between Southold and the SBSO but says a typical concert for the orchestra — not just “The Nutcracker” — can run between $15,000 and $35,000 just to pay the musicians, all of whom are professionals. That doesn’t include what Southold must pay for use of the Morris, including services such as lights, audio, front-of-house operations, security and housekeeping. The total cost for a big concert can run into six digits, Zimmerman says.

By comparison, as reported in a 2004 story in The Tribune, the SBSO’s price tag for the 2002 “Nutcracker” — four performances and two rehearsals for a trimmed-down orchestra of 38 — was $26,500. That grew to a proposed cost of $29,000 two years later, when Southold opted again for recorded music. Add the Morris’ costs, and the proposed bill rose well past $35,000.

Keeping the collaboration

Today, SBSO and Southold leaders express strong interest in continuing the “Nutcracker” collaboration next year and beyond, though Zimmerman notes it isn’t a given. After this year’s performances, he says, they’ll gather to look at ticket sales revenue and discuss whether — alongside fundraising on both sides — it remains feasible.

The model for operations today is different from 20 years ago, Zimmerman says. Back then, SBSO seemed to watch its bottom line, especially during a recession. It was a time, he says, when orchestras were “more insular” and when, it was thought, “We do concert music and we don’t need a lot of other things on stage, especially if it costs a lot more money.”

Today, he adds, the SBSO has more of a philosophy of “abundance,” explaining, “The more focused we are on our mission, the more that fundraising comes along.”

The “Nutcracker” partnership furthers that mission, he says: “It’s an opportunity to bring orchestral music to larger crowds.”

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Each partnership with another organization — and this was most especially true of its combined production this fall of “West Side Story” with South Bend Civic Theatre — brings “a ton of learning,” though, he adds, “We’re not afraid of challenging dynamics.”

He hopes partnerships grow with other local organizations, too, from the South Bend Lyric Opera to Shakespeare at Notre Dame and others. Limitations? Zimmerman said it’s a matter of what the SBSO’s staff of 10 can fundraise for and manage.

Meanwhile, “The Nutcracker” is nestling back into Southold’s familiar set, which hints at local history with artwork of the Studebaker mansion.

“’Nutcracker’ is full of joy, full of happiness, full of color, full of freshness, and those are things we need this time of year,” Willis says.

And to have the orchestra join the ballet, he says, “It’s a dream come true.”

Onstage

∎ What: Southold Dance Theater and South Bend Symphony Orchestra present “The Nutcracker”

∎ Where: Morris Performing Arts Center, 211 N. Michigan St., South Bend

∎ When: 7 p.m. Dec. 9 and 10 and 2 p.m. Dec. 11

∎ Great Wizards: Local celebrities play this role each year, replacing what's known as Mother Ginger in some productions. They will be Davion R. Lewis, CEO of the South Bend Empowerment Zone, at the Dec. 9 morning show for schools; WSBT news anchor Bob Montgomery at the 7 p.m. Dec. 9 show; Meghan Beard, Clay High School’s visual and performing arts facilitator, at the Dec. 10 show; and SBSO Executive Director Justus Zimmerman at the Dec. 11 show.

∎ Cost: $65-$25

∎ For more information: Call 574-235-9190 or visit morriscenter.org.

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend Symphony to perform with Southold Nutcracker ballet