TWIN SPIRITS Heads to Mark Taper with Sting & Trudie Styler

After it's highly successful staging in NYC in June 2010, Allan Buchman has announced the West Coast debut of Twin Spirits on Tuesday, February 15th at the Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center of Los Angeles County. Presented by Culture Project, Sting and Trudie Styler will reprise their roles as classical composer Robert and his wife, pianist Clara Schumann; reading the couple's poignant letters with accompaniment from a six-member ensemble of classical musicians. A portion of the evening's proceeds will be used to support the ongoing work of Culture Project, the Royal Opera House and Mustardseed Arts Trust.

Called "strikingly beautiful" by The New York Times, Twin Spirits was first performed in 2005 and was recorded before a small audience at London's Royal Opera House in 2007, which was released on the Opus Arte label in 2009. Since then, performances have been held at Windsor Castle, Salisbury Cathedral, and Cortona's Tuscan Sun Festival. Culture Project produced the most recent U.S. performance of Twin Spirits at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York on June 30, 2010.

The February 15th performance of this poetic meditation on the passionate relationship between composer Robert Schumann and his wife, Clara Wieck, will feature Sting and Styler reading from letters between Robert and Clara while their story is interwoven with music composed by Robert -- whose spirit will be embodied by violin, baritone Scott Hendricks and pianist JoNathan Kelly -- and by Clara, who is evoked by pianist Natasha Paremski, cellist Sara Sant'Ambrogio and soprano Camille Zamora.

Twin Spirits is devised and directed for the stage by John Caird.

Tuesday, February 15th - 8:00pm
Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center of Los Angeles County
135 N Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA

Tickets: $80-$150 Standard Reserved Seating, $350 VIP Seating (includes post-concert reception with artists). For more information, visit http://www.centertheatregroup.org/twinspirits

Culture Project is New York's premier destination for artistic work that investigates urgent social and political issues. By fostering innovative collaboration between human rights organizations and theatre, music and film artists, Culture Project aims to inspire and impact public dialogue and policy, encouraging democratic participation in the most urgent matters of our time.

Founded in 1996 by Artistic Director Allan Buchman, Culture Project has premiered celebrated shows including The Exonerated, Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, Lawrence Wright's My Trip To Al-Qaeda, Tings Dey Happen, the Lucille Lortel Award-winning world premiere of George Packer's Betrayed and Temple University's acclaimed production of In Conflict. Most recently, Culture Project produced Breaking the Silence, Beating the Drum, a groundbreaking concert at the United Nations to commemorate the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. For more information, visit cultureproject.org.