CLASSICAL NOUVEAU - Overview
Classical Nouveau is a multidisciplinary, multimedia and multidimensional live performance ensemble created to perform the artsongs and instrumental music of composer/pianist/director Robert Bruce. Simultaneously retro and ultra-modern in sound and look, the unspoken focal point and guiding light of Classical Nouveau is the experience and enjoyment of beauty, pure and simple. This being always somewhat subjective to individual tastes, it might variously include the natural, artistic, expressive, inspirational, therapeutic, educational and other aspects of beauty.
The assumed foundational premise in Classical Nouveau is that the perception of true beauty, experienced through music and other artforms, can lift the spirit and soften the heart. Although certainly nothing new in itself, it is believed that this general direction has been largely ignored in many forms of art in recent decades, often in favour of aggression, shock value, experimentation for its own sake or harsh social commentary, and the effects of this trend are now sadly quite evident. The Classical Nouveau program offers a contemporary alternative that goes directly for the desired end result of experiencing beauty, and its many positive effects, with no cover-ups or apologies.
Musical elements include various combinations of piano, strings, woodwinds, harp, percussion and 1-3 female singers (soprano, mezzo and alto). The singers and instrumentalists in Classical Nouveau are some of the most gifted and most accomplished in Canada, coming from various classical, sacred and popular musical backgrounds. (Hear some of the music here).
Other key elements in the production which are integrated in various combinations are set design, original artwork, costumes, still and moving images projected on a large screen set at the back of the stage, special lighting effects, and a uniquely lyrical and slow-moving style of modern dance which has been developed specifically for this music and project since 1998. 3-6 dancers are generally part of the Classical Nouveau program.
3 original ink drawings by Nancy Winlove-Smith which are lightly animated and presented with live music in Classical Nouveau programs.
The program and music are generally slow-moving, introspective, streamlined, understated and somewhat meditative and are presented with the intent to offer listeners and viewers a sense of peace, comfort, depth, sincerity and upliftment.
Various combinations of musicians, singers, dancers and other visual elements come and go quite seamlessly throughout the program. Songs and/or musical interludes and their accompanying visual counterparts are presented in a more or less continuous succession so as to create and sustain the distinct suspended, otherworldly tone and atmosphere that is Classical Nouveau.
Variations in Production
The Classical Nouveau Ensemble can appear with as few as 6 members and as many as 25. Productions can be adapted to suit various venues and purposes. Please contact Robert Bruce for more information.
What is Unique, Special or Different About CLASSICAL NOUVEAU?
With a dedicated focus on aesthetics, or joy and beauty for their own sakes, Classical Nouveau differs from most current "new age", ambient, "meditation", "healing" or spa musical artists or music groups in that it maintains a solid footing in the artistic values and traditions of pre-1950 classical music and continues to strive for levels of artistic depth and purity of expression that have become almost forgotten in many forms of modern music.
Classical Nouveau acknowledges the artistic yardstick passed on by the greatest artists of the past few centuries; yet at the same time Classical Nouveau is a new, modern and highly streamlined musical/artistic expression that takes into account the current pace of life and the many influences of modern technology, all of which it seeks to embrace in tasteful and artistically relevant ways.
Classical Nouveau differs from most other new classical music groups or traditional classical music ensembles by its dedication to not only a new sound but ultimately a new purpose - a purpose that addresses the needs, concerns and conditions that are specific to our own modern times (see testimonials).
This music and program seek to reach out and appeal to busy, modern-thinking people of all walks of life and offer them rather something of a musical/artistic alternative to a spa, or perhaps even something mildly akin to a new form of church - an environment that will offer them new artistic expressions that are strong, calm, warm, true, deep and safe, expressions that will truly afford them an opportunity to reflect and perhaps get more inwardly in touch with themselves for a time, so in the end they may bring something home with them that might continue to be centering, motivating or inspirational in their lives.
While offering an impressive live show, Classical Nouveau does not at all focus on the popular one-two-punch brand of entertainment but upholds that if the sounds and images it presents are true and beautiful enough, then they will ultimately make a stronger impact and continue to resonate clearly and deeply in one's consciousness, perhaps in more subtle and longlasting ways.
Classical Nouveau maintains its title and status as strictly an arts group and has no formal or informal affiliations with any particular religious, political or philosophical path, group, method, institution, etc. Its dedication is to the many forms of beauty accessible to human experience and its voice and language are expressed through music and other forms of art.
Multi-Media
Performance Videos on YouTube
Audio Tracks - Click the links below to listen
Tracks from Spirit of Song
Angelfest - Passion Play - Spirit of SongTracks from Bound for the Tenderness of Eden
Dulciana - Face the Sun - Dance - The Tenderness of Eden