{"id":31654,"date":"2016-02-03T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T06:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=31654"},"modified":"2016-02-07T12:15:50","modified_gmt":"2016-02-07T18:15:50","slug":"a-new-maestro-at-the-ballet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/a-new-maestro-at-the-ballet\/","title":{"rendered":"Tara Simoncic: A New Maestro at the Ballet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"tara\"

Tara Simoncic was appointed as Ballet West’s Principal Conductor in November, 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019re planning on attending Ballet West\u2019s production of Romeo and Juliet<\/em> this month, you might notice the company has hired a new maestro: Tara Simoncic. Artistic Director Adam Sklute has brought her in over the past several years for projects, but she was appointed as the orchestral conductor in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was attracted to Ballet West because it is an amazing company to work with,\u201d says Simoncic. \u201cIt\u2019s a company in which you feel like you are a part of something very special. I really enjoy working with the dancers, the staff, and the musicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simoncic\u2019s interest in music started when she was only 6 years old as she studied the trumpet. She would later go on to earn a bachelor’s degree in music (in trumpet performance) from the New England Conservatory, a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University, and a professional studies diploma in orchestral conducting from the Manhattan School of Music.
\nShe was born and raised in California, and admits that perhaps she was drawn to Utah because it has a similar, laid-back vibe. She likes that everyone is friendly and it reminds her of home.<\/p>\n

Some might see being a ballet conductor as limiting because they are at the mercy of a choreographer and performers, but Simoncic sees it differently. \u201cA conductor who works with ballet has to be able to interpret the movement of the dancers and must be able to adjust tempos accordingly to fit their movements and timing,\u201d she says. \u00a0\u201cA lot of what you do depends on what is necessary for the choreography and for the story to unfold onstage while continuing to serve the music. It\u2019s extremely challenging, and that\u2019s one of the many things that I love about it.\u201d
\nNot only does a ballet conductor have to communicate with the instrumentalists, she must communicate with the dancers onstage at the same time. \u201cI communicate with the individual dancers when they are dancing solos or if there is a pas de deux,\u201d Simoncic explains. \u201cIt\u2019s important to know what the dancers prefer as far as tempo and the overall interpretation so that I can translate that into what needs to happen with the music. It\u2019s the best feeling when you know that what you have done musically connects with the dancers. There is an electricity that can occur between the music and dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tara Simoncic fell in love with ballet when she first moved to New York City to attend the Manhattan School of Music and saw American Ballet Theatre\u2019s production of Swan Lake<\/em>. \u201cBefore that, I was mainly a symphonic conductor and ballet conducting didn\u2019t cross my mind. During that performance, I was swept up in the story, choreography, music, and the beautiful art forms being combined together.\u201d To this day, Swan<\/em> Lake<\/em> is her favorite ballet to conduct. She loves seeing how dance can change one\u2019s perception of the music. \u201cDance can heighten music to an entirely different level. It can help the music tell a story and bring so much beauty, emotion, and understanding to a piece of music.\u00a0The audience member is able to see the phrasing, articulations, dynamics, and colors through the dancers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simoncic believes Ballet West is a special company. \u201cThere are very few companies who continue to use live music for their performances.\u00a0The dancers and musicians are extremely talented and lovely to work with and there is a feeling that everyone at Ballet West is inspired to bring together a beautiful collaboration of the two art forms,\u201d she observes.<\/p>\n

Ballet West’s<\/em><\/a> \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d runs February 12 – 22 at the Capitol Theatre. Tickets are available through arttix.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re planning on attending Ballet West\u2019s production of Romeo and Juliet this month, you might notice the company has hired a new maestro: Tara Simoncic. Artistic Director Adam Sklute has brought her in over the past several years for projects, but she was appointed as the orchestral […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":31655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,58,34],"tags":[1450,2727],"class_list":["post-31654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-bytes","category-music","category-performing-arts","tag-ballet-west","tag-tara-simonicic"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/tara.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 16:01:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31654"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31893,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31654\/revisions\/31893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}