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ballet COPLAND REVISITED A new choreography of "Appalachian Spring" "has the ballet in a new milieu BY STEVEN MARK Minou Lallemand has listened to "Appalachian Spring," the Aaron Copland ballet work that has come to symbolize the American heartland, a few hundred times or so by now. It's part of the task involved in writing a new choreography for her Onium Ballet Project, which will perform the work tomorrow as part of Chamber Music Hawaii's series. Does she get tired of hearing the same music over and over? "No, not at all," she said. "It's just so beautiful." Since its premiere in 1944, Copland's suite of simple Avenue melodies, including the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts," has inspired that kind of comment, making it one of the most appreciated and popular of his works. Yet it also might also be the most misunderstood as Lallemand discovered.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning work was lauded for evoking images of the wide open spaces of frontier America. Modern dance pioneer Martha Graham's choreographed story of a young pioneer couple made a perfect pairing. LALLEMAND, the choreographer and artistic director at Onium, had rejected previous suggestions to choreo- HAWAII PREMIERE The Tony Award winning musical comedy by Robert Lopez. Jeff Marks Jeff Whitty. March 3-20, 2011 An adult musical recommended for ages 144 PHEATRE Valley 2833 E.

Manoa Rd. Box Office (808) 988-6131 www.manoavalleytheatre.com Season Sponsors: Richard Aadland Trust, Cades Schutte and The Cades Foundation, Hawaiian Airlines, Honolulu Star- Advertiser, "lolani School, Island Television KITV, Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Toyota Hawaii. This event is made possible with HAWAIU support from the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. 'APPALACHIAN SPRING Chamber Music Hawaii performs with the Onium Ballet Project Where: Paliku Theatre, Windward Community College, 45-720 Keaahala Road, Kaneohe When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow Cost: $35 Info: 489-5038, or visit www.chambermusichawaii.com Note: A 1 p.m.

Sunday show may be added. Call or check online for updates. Minou Lallemand: The founder of the Onium Ballet Project never tires of Aaron Copland's music graph the work. "It's such a famous ballet, it's Martha Graham, Copland wrote it specifically for her," she said. "I wasn't going to touch that." But then she learned that forge Selection of the Newest Designer Prom Gowns Open 7 days Serving Hawaii Since 1965 1249 S.

Beretania St. 591-6612 tached to it," she said. But she accepted the challenge, and she has found the music especially satisfying to work with. It's no surprise that "Appalachian Spring" is a favorite among musicians as well as dance enthusiasts. "What's really amazing to me about this music is the power of simplicity," said Norm Foster, who will have a featured role as clarinetist for the 13-member Chamber Music Hawaii ensemble.

"It's one thing that Copland really understood how you could write the simplest rhythm and melody and harmonies and just let it be a sonority, a sound." JUST BECAUSE it's simple, however, doesn't mean it's easy. Though much of the piece is harmonically based on just two chords, Foster said it has complex rhythms and many musical "surprises" for the musicians. "There's very little room for error here in terms of balance and intonation," he said. While "Appalachian Spring" has become a prime example of the "American" sound, tomorrow's performance also features a work that has become a symbol of Jewish culture. Serge Prokofiev wrote his "Overture on Hebrew Themes" in 1919 at the request of a group of touring Jewish musicians who were trying to raise interest in traditional Jewish music.

Although initially reluctant, he eventually produced an overture that conveys the energy and flair of klezmer music. "It was written before Israel was created as a nation, but 1 I think it was maybe part of a movement that was leading towards that," Foster noted. COURTESY DAPHNE HARGROVE Cole Horibe and Malia Yamamoto portray a soldier and his wife in the Onium Ballet Project's performance of Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring." Copland, dubbed the "dean of American composers," initially called the work "Ballet for Martha" and that he "never had Appalachia in mind at all" when he wrote it. It was Graham who coined it "Appalachian Spring," a reference to a verse from Hart Crane about a source of water. Lallemand's choreography, which uses mostly classical ballet movements, maintains the family aspect from the original but places them in a different milieu.

"Appalachian Spring' was written during World War II," she said. "So I came up with this story of this family and FRIDAY the soldier who has to go off to war, and the wife and family is left behind. And he ends up not coming back and how that affects everybody." "At first I felt a little strange about making 'Appalachian Spring' sad," she said. "But when you listen to that music, you hear a lot of sadness to it." Dancer Malia Yamamoto, who will portray the wife in the ballet, also recognizes that audiences are familiar with Graham's stamp on the composition. "I've actually had a lot of people say, 'It's going to be hard for me to watch because they're so at- HONOLULUPULSE.COM 11.