Some pieces get a premiere and a polite farewell. Valse Etranger gets an encore… and then another.

New York’s OMNI Ensemble—virtuoso champions of new music and long-time co-conspirators—are revisiting Jeffrey Schindler’s Valse Etranger for the third time, returning to a work they originally commissioned in 1994. (Yes: last century. Everyone breathe.)

Scored for flute, string quartet, and piano, this compact tone poem takes a mischievous cue from Frank Zappa’s 1979 hit “Dancin’ Fool.” The story follows a young person who simply cannot dance: frustration erupts, strategies multiply, styles are bravely attempted, and at one point the whole thing detours into an improvised jazz waltz—because why fail in just one genre?

Then comes the twist ending: enlightenment. The hero gives up trying to look right, decides it doesn’t matter, and keeps dancing anyway. Which, honestly, is the only choreography worth mastering.

‍

Some pieces get a premiere and a polite farewell. Valse Etranger gets an encore… and then another.

New York’s OMNI Ensemble—virtuoso champions of new music and long-time co-conspirators—are revisiting Jeffrey Schindler’s Valse Etranger for the third time, returning to a work they originally commissioned in 1994. (Yes: last century. Everyone breathe.)

Scored for flute, string quartet, and piano, this compact tone poem takes a mischievous cue from Frank Zappa’s 1979 hit “Dancin’ Fool.” The story follows a young person who simply cannot dance: frustration erupts, strategies multiply, styles are bravely attempted, and at one point the whole thing detours into an improvised jazz waltz—because why fail in just one genre?

Then comes the twist ending: enlightenment. The hero gives up trying to look right, decides it doesn’t matter, and keeps dancing anyway. Which, honestly, is the only choreography worth mastering.

‍

Some pieces get a premiere and a polite farewell. Valse Etranger gets an encore… and then another.

New York’s OMNI Ensemble—virtuoso champions of new music and long-time co-conspirators—are revisiting Jeffrey Schindler’s Valse Etranger for the third time, returning to a work they originally commissioned in 1994. (Yes: last century. Everyone breathe.)

Scored for flute, string quartet, and piano, this compact tone poem takes a mischievous cue from Frank Zappa’s 1979 hit “Dancin’ Fool.” The story follows a young person who simply cannot dance: frustration erupts, strategies multiply, styles are bravely attempted, and at one point the whole thing detours into an improvised jazz waltz—because why fail in just one genre?

Then comes the twist ending: enlightenment. The hero gives up trying to look right, decides it doesn’t matter, and keeps dancing anyway. Which, honestly, is the only choreography worth mastering.

‍

Some pieces get a premiere and a polite farewell. Valse Etranger gets an encore… and then another.

New York’s OMNI Ensemble—virtuoso champions of new music and long-time co-conspirators—are revisiting Jeffrey Schindler’s Valse Etranger for the third time, returning to a work they originally commissioned in 1994. (Yes: last century. Everyone breathe.)

Scored for flute, string quartet, and piano, this compact tone poem takes a mischievous cue from Frank Zappa’s 1979 hit “Dancin’ Fool.” The story follows a young person who simply cannot dance: frustration erupts, strategies multiply, styles are bravely attempted, and at one point the whole thing detours into an improvised jazz waltz—because why fail in just one genre?

Then comes the twist ending: enlightenment. The hero gives up trying to look right, decides it doesn’t matter, and keeps dancing anyway. Which, honestly, is the only choreography worth mastering.

‍