BALLET Under the Stars is back this summer, featuring works by George Balanchine, Sir Frederick Ashton, Petipa and many more, and audiences are set for four fabulous nights of world class ballet and dance in Wiltshire from July 25th-28th.

This year, the production will continue to not only bring some of the most talented and lauded dancers and choreographers from around the world but introduce virtuosic live music for the first time in the form of Arne-Christian Pelz, the First Principal Cellist of the Deutsche Oper.

Covent Garden Dance director Matt Brady said it’s a “massive honour” to have Arne-Christian at Ballet Under the Stars.

He said: “This is the first time we have had live music and his virtuosity brings yet another level to the programme and audience enjoyment.”

This unique summer event is now celebrating its 15^th year at Hatch House. The sell-out shows are held in the beautiful and romantic 17^th century walled Dutch garden of privately owned Hatch House in Wiltshire.

Over the past decade and a half, the Covent Garden Dance Company July shows have become a red-letter day of the summer social calendar.

The shows are presented in the magical walled garden (fully covered for the event) which is, without doubt, one of the UK’s most intimate and delightful dance theatre settings.

Arne-Christian was interviewed ahead of the show.

What is your musical education?

He said: “I was born in Rostock, started playing the cello at five, then went to the local conservatory and studied with a professor before going to Houston at 17 for a high school exchange year, where I studied the cello at Houston University School of Music.

“I went to a performing arts high school there, it was pretty life changing, I performed for the first time with a symphony orchestra as a soloist, a big deal for a cellist.

“I won two competitions and I played Dvorak and Haydn concertos for the first time. I became really motivated to pursue the cello as a career.

“I came back to Germany and studied in Berlin at the renowned Hanns Eisler Academy then transferred to Leipzig, three more years of study followed and then I got my first job as First Principal with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, aged 25, it was a very prestigious position.

“I stayed four years, then auditioned for Berlin Opera. There was much more opportunity to play and it meant I could play with the ballet. I have always been drawn to dancing.

Was it always the cello? Do you play any other instruments?

“When I was a small child, four or five, I thought I wanted to be a percussionist, there were toy instruments at home, fun to hit those and make a sound, then I realised you can actually train to do that.

“My mum enquired at the local school but I was too small then to become a percussionist so my mum was keen for me to start learning the cello.

“My uncle is a doctor but also leads a local chamber orchestra in the UK so I perform with them every so often. I love being in the UK and the opportunities it brings.

Arne-Christian Pelz will be performing live music for the first time at Ballet Under the Stars Picture: Chiara von Galli

Your Alexandre Breton cello, was it made especially for you?

“The Alexandre Breton cello wasn’t especially made for me but I was the first person to play on it when it was white, before it’s varnished. When it was finished I found myself next in line, it was offered to me and I fell in love with it immediately.

“When you have a new modern cello (one/two years for me) it takes time to make it your own, engrave your idea of the sound into a newly built instrument. Now it’s really my own voice, it’s a mutual piece of art, it looks beautiful.

“Alexandre is a true artist. I’ve had a beautiful journey with this instrument and it’s the one I am bringing to Hatch.

What is your favourite cello piece?

“My approach to any music I play is to make it my favourite in the moment. You really connect with the music you are playing and you try to transform yourself, all you want to do is express the music.

“I love playing Bach and Max Reger, who took a romantic approach to the same idea of Bach. I hope to play some Reger at Hatch.

“The Dvorak concerto I love because you need a full orchestra. There are so many wonderful composers who really explore the sound box the cello can be with scratches, harmonics, all sorts of experimental sounds that this instrument can play.

“I aim only to perform favourite pieces at Hatch.”

Where would you like to perform, your dream location or stage?

“There are those stages, lots of which I have been lucky enough to perform on, all over the world and I love being on those stages.

“For me a stage could be just a room though. I feel you have to be very present in the moment, have a purpose of what you are playing, who are playing for, why you are playing it and feel a spirit there.

“A nice acoustic always helps, an echo, reverb. I’m looking forward to playing at Hatch, we are going to amplify the cello, not just relying on the natural sound of that particular location, an outdoor venue, so we are going to use modern technology to create our own room.

“It makes me feel liberated to perform in a space that might not be fitting to the repertoire. You need a bit of reverb to help the sound take off.

“I have played on many many stages but my most beautiful memories are occasions and to become one with the music and the audience and sometimes the colleagues you play with.

“When that happens it becomes the perfect stage and I dream of that stage for every performance, when everything comes together. I want it to support the message we want to get out.

“I am very much looking forward to Hatch because it is a very unusual place but I think it will be magical and I will make sure the sound won’t lack anything that people would expect from a concert hall. It will be different and more exciting as we are outside, there may be some bird noises, noises of nature.

Aside from classical what other genre of music do you love to listen to?

“I grew up almost entirely listening to classical music, some choral, church music but I discovered other genres much later. I really enjoy listening to jazz.

“I have also got in touch with electronic music, experimenting with it with synthesisers and I love when it cross fades into the classical sound.

“I really enjoy the possibilities that modern music can provide. I do have an interest in it and the state of mind it takes you too.

What do you love about playing music to dance works? You will be playing for Ksenia Ovsyanick, Principal with the Staatsballett Berlin.

“Over the last few years I have been fortunate to work with dancers and choreographers and there’s something very special about it when you perform with a dancer live because it’s like chamber music, it’s like a dialogue, energies flow together and they inspire each other.

“I love to know the choreography and to watch it and to be present and to make it influence my playing. It also takes away the idea that music needs an absolute pure freedom of any purpose and should exist by itself.

“I think it’s beautiful to have it serve a purpose, to have it be part of another art form so to me it’s a dialogue with movement, to feel the energy of the dancer. I enjoy working with the choreographers and to ask what they need, what they can react to best, to get inspired, to get a conversation.

“I like how we create music for a dance performance, how we don’t just take a piece and say this is the music and we play it from a–z but to be able to alter everything for it and that gives me a freedom that doesn’t exist in the classical world.

“That freedom to add a little intro or stop somewhere, to write your own things, improvise a little bit, to be free with the art itself is something I really enjoy when working with dancers. Working with Ksenia, she is really able to create movement in the moment, you can really feel the energy of where the music is going, what the tension is, how long one can hold a certain plateau of energy.

“Everything during the performances I have been fortunate to be part of with Ksenia,  have made so much sense. I always feel very connected to her movements and she really listens to what I am doing, taking those cues and making it into something, a new entity.

Ksenia Ovsyanick Picture: Alice Pennefather

“You need a dancer who can really listen and really has a sense of the music and a high musicality inside and to also understand sound and to really understand where that sound and energy wants to go to.

“It’s like having a chamber music partner but instead of playing an instrument Ksenia uses her movements to play with the music she is listening to. This collaboration helps the music to get out of this box and to be part of something bigger, part of something else.”

For more information and to book tickets for Ballet Under the Stars 2024 call 01749 813313, email events@coventgardendance.com or visit www.coventgardendance.com