Mandarins Announce 2016 Program

For their 2016 program, the Mandarins are adhering to a creative design approach that is now in its fifth successful year. Over the course of four movements, the audience should be able to envision the forest of the title and hear the dark foreboding call of a mysterious woman/siren who attempts to lure the corps into its depths. The internal struggle to resist that pull causes tension, which is reflected in the music: all original work by composers Key Poulan, Mark Hunter, and Sean Womack, with the second movement nodding to Roger Julia’s “Devilish Love” from the soundtrack to the 2008 film The Garden of Eden (based on the Ernest Hemingway novel). The percussion feature uses color guard weapons and coordinated choreography to present a “battle,” from which the corps eventually emerges triumphant.

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