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Verdigris Ensemble is where the West is sung with ‘A Western' and ‘To The West'
Дата публикации: 07-03-2026 08:52:09



With images of cowboys, vast landscapes, and gunslingers, the mythology of the West is innately American. Verdigris Ensemble shatters that mythology with immersive performances of A Western and To The West, both composed by Michael Gordon. The Dallas-based choral group will perform the works at Hamon Hall at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in the Dallas Arts District March 13-15.
Verdigris Ensemble is known for challenging what a choir concert is, performing in unusual venues, employing technology to enhance storytelling and collaborating with an array of artists. This production is conceived and conducted by Sam Brukhman, Verdigris Ensemble’s Artistic Director and directed by Kevin Moriarty, Dallas Theater Center’s Executive Director.
“Verdigris has always been trying to build bridges, and so in this case, we’re taking ‘cowboy core’ which is something that Dallas loves and we’re flipping it on its head with new music,” Brukhman said.
“I think you can feel even just living here in Texas that Western stories, Western mythology, the relationship of the individual to the natural world  – you can feel how that is a part of the Texas identity and I think as I’ve been here for now – oh my goodness 18 years – that I’ve been in Dallas, the more and more that started to impact me, whether that’s Taylor Sheridan shows or whether that’s the old classic Western films like High Noon or even the art in Fort Worth at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and others where you can see there’s something about who Texans are,” Moriarty said.
For Moriarty, who served as Dallas Theater Center’s artistic director before moving to his current executive director position, staging a choir is a very different directing assignment.
“In a play or a musical, the actors have all of their lines memorized and they can use their full body, so if you want somebody to fight or to run or to kiss or to fall down and die or any of those things on stage, the actor can do that while acting. In fact, a huge part of acting is using your body as part of the tool of your expression. With choral singers, they are performing with music in their hands. They perform with iPads that are essential because they are actually, like an orchestra, they are reading the music while they are singing it. And they’re reading their music and they’re reading all the vocal parts that are around them and also like a symphony, they are watching the conductor all the time,” Moriarty said. “Those two things change what you can use when you’re trying to stage something or create a visual environment around the singers.”
A Western is a semi-staged retelling of the film High Noon, one of many films that defined the American West for the world.
“I’ve been watching a lot of plays and a lot of shows on Westerns because Westerns hold a specific cultural significance to people outside of the United States. So, when people outside of the United States look at the United States, the spaghetti Western and the Western films are the first thing that they go to, and I find that to be very fascinating,” Brukhman said.
Gordon explores preconceived ideas by shattering them and creating something new.
“It’s as if High Noon the movie is looking at itself in a mirror and someone takes a hammer to that mirror and breaks it apart. And in that way, there’s this really beautiful, really interesting and different take on this movie, because sometimes one voice is one voice, but sometimes 16 voices are one character. Four voices are one character. And that’s a really interesting dynamic to explore because in our mind, it’s so complex,” Brukhman said
The performance will open with To The West, a world premiere piece where the singers become the architecture, creating the landscapes and environments of the American West. Courtney Ware from Lightware Labs is creating the cinematic visuals, even projecting onto the singers.
“We’re going to open up the whole room. So, the room is a rectangle with four walls. The singers are going to stand against the four walls all around the room. The audience is going to be inside of the singers,” Moriarty said. “Then on the walls, floor to ceiling, we’re going to put the whole room into video projection so essentially you’ve got a room of immersive video with a choir with an audience inside of that and then at the very center of those overlapping circles is where Sam, the conductor, will be.”
Gordon takes the first phrase of lyrics of “Home on the Range” and repeats it several times, making it a texture in the music.
“You immediately recognize the melody of it, but he’s taking that phrase and asking you to think about it. What does that phrase mean within the context of the song and what does it mean within the context of today in Dallas?  What does that mean within the context of the times that we’re living in right now? And so, it’s constantly taking these words and stripping them of the actual context at times, and then putting that back into context, and then taking it out of context. And that’s how we’re redefining, because he’s literally taking these words, and he’s asking you to think about them in a 3D kind of way,” Brukhman said.
Beyond repetition, the music shifts moods, creating a portrait of the American West that is more complex and dramatic.
“That makes it so that you’re seeing both the beauty of the land and also the impact of the people on the land. Or the immense opportunity for creating something new, but also the destruction that comes to anybody who’s currently there when a new force comes in to make something new,” Moriarty said. “So, the music is doing that in really complicated, interesting ways, shifting from major to minor, shifting rhythms, shifting melodies. And so that, I think, is fascinating in and of itself.”
Learn more: Verdigris Ensemble
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Основное содержимое страницы с новостью.

With images of cowboys, vast landscapes, and gunslingers, the mythology of the West is innately American. Verdigris Ensemble shatters that mythology with immersive performances of A Western and To The West, both composed by Michael Gordon. The Dallas-based choral group will perform the works at Hamon Hall at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in the Dallas Arts District March 13-15.

Verdigris Ensemble is known for challenging what a choir concert is, performing in unusual venues, employing technology to enhance storytelling and collaborating with an array of artists. This production is conceived and conducted by Sam Brukhman, Verdigris Ensemble’s Artistic Director and directed by Kevin Moriarty, Dallas Theater Center’s Executive Director.

“Verdigris has always been trying to build bridges, and so in this case, we're taking ‘cowboy core’ which is something that Dallas loves and we're flipping it on its head with new music,” Brukhman said.

“I think you can feel even just living here in Texas that Western stories, Western mythology, the relationship of the individual to the natural world  - you can feel how that is a part of the Texas identity and I think as I've been here for now - oh my goodness 18 years - that I've been in Dallas, the more and more that started to impact me, whether that's Taylor Sheridan shows or whether that's the old classic Western films like High Noon or even the art in Fort Worth at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and others where you can see there's something about who Texans are,” Moriarty said.

For Moriarty, who served as Dallas Theater Center’s artistic director before moving to his current executive director position, staging a choir is a very different directing assignment.

“In a play or a musical, the actors have all of their lines memorized and they can use their full body, so if you want somebody to fight or to run or to kiss or to fall down and die or any of those things on stage, the actor can do that while acting. In fact, a huge part of acting is using your body as part of the tool of your expression. With choral singers, they are performing with music in their hands. They perform with iPads that are essential because they are actually, like an orchestra, they are reading the music while they are singing it. And they're reading their music and they're reading all the vocal parts that are around them and also like a symphony, they are watching the conductor all the time,” Moriarty said. “Those two things change what you can use when you're trying to stage something or create a visual environment around the singers.”

A Western is a semi-staged retelling of the film High Noon, one of many films that defined the American West for the world.

The Scene

“I've been watching a lot of plays and a lot of shows on Westerns because Westerns hold a specific cultural significance to people outside of the United States. So, when people outside of the United States look at the United States, the spaghetti Western and the Western films are the first thing that they go to, and I find that to be very fascinating,” Brukhman said.

Gordon explores preconceived ideas by shattering them and creating something new.

“It's as if High Noon the movie is looking at itself in a mirror and someone takes a hammer to that mirror and breaks it apart. And in that way, there's this really beautiful, really interesting and different take on this movie, because sometimes one voice is one voice, but sometimes 16 voices are one character. Four voices are one character. And that's a really interesting dynamic to explore because in our mind, it's so complex,” Brukhman said

Courtney Ware talks about how she created projected visuals for Verdigris Ensemble's Dust Bowl.

The performance will open with To The West, a world premiere piece where the singers become the architecture, creating the landscapes and environments of the American West. Courtney Ware from Lightware Labs is creating the cinematic visuals, even projecting onto the singers.

“We're going to open up the whole room. So, the room is a rectangle with four walls. The singers are going to stand against the four walls all around the room. The audience is going to be inside of the singers,” Moriarty said. “Then on the walls, floor to ceiling, we're going to put the whole room into video projection so essentially you've got a room of immersive video with a choir with an audience inside of that and then at the very center of those overlapping circles is where Sam, the conductor, will be.”

Gordon takes the first phrase of lyrics of “Home on the Range” and repeats it several times, making it a texture in the music.

“You immediately recognize the melody of it, but he's taking that phrase and asking you to think about it. What does that phrase mean within the context of the song and what does it mean within the context of today in Dallas?  What does that mean within the context of the times that we're living in right now? And so, it's constantly taking these words and stripping them of the actual context at times, and then putting that back into context, and then taking it out of context. And that's how we're redefining, because he's literally taking these words, and he's asking you to think about them in a 3D kind of way," Brukhman said.

Beyond repetition, the music shifts moods, creating a portrait of the American West that is more complex and dramatic.

“That makes it so that you're seeing both the beauty of the land and also the impact of the people on the land. Or the immense opportunity for creating something new, but also the destruction that comes to anybody who's currently there when a new force comes in to make something new,” Moriarty said. “So, the music is doing that in really complicated, interesting ways, shifting from major to minor, shifting rhythms, shifting melodies. And so that, I think, is fascinating in and of itself.”

Learn more: Verdigris Ensemble

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