Press

• Analyze This: Mahler and Freud - Review Clips

	“A sizable, age-diverse crowd turned out Saturday night at Meyerhoff Hall for the premiere and were genuinely taken with it. With good reason: the limitations and pitfalls of mixing dialogue and orchestral excerpts were overcome. Didi Balle, who co-created the show with BSO music director Marin Alsop, wrote a colorful script that imparted a lot of information without ever getting talky, and she directed the action with a fine sense of pacing. The non-traditional concert format was persuasive and engaging. With the musical selections neatly complementing the dialogue (and Alsop's occasional commentary), Analyze This: Mahler and Freud fulfilled its mission of shedding light on the personal side of Mahler, making him and his art seem all the more real and immediate. There was a palpable sense of connection between stage and hall Saturday night -- and you can't overestimate the value of that.” *- Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun Nov. 9, 2010*
	“Draws listeners into a composer's world by enfolding the music within a presentation of drama, projections and narration… Analyze This: Mahler and Freud, an imagined dramatization of a four-hour meeting and psychoanalytic session between the two titans the year before Mahler died in 1911. Freud made no notes of the session, and there are only indirect and cryptic mentions in a few letters of Mahler and his wife, Alma. Thus, dramatist Didi Balle had a blank canvas upon which to paint. As an exercise in drawing listeners deeper into a composer's world and engendering increased interest, the program is well thought out and worthwhile.” *- Robert Battey, The Washington Post Nov. 11, 2010*
	For a first hand report on the making of Analyze This: Mahler and Freud check out Bret McCabe’s fun and fascinating Q&A with writer-director Didi Balle published in the Baltimore Paper.
	FEATURED PREVIEW ARTICLE - Mahler On The Couch, Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun, Nov. 4, 2010 Given how Gustav Mahler's music generated so much antipathy in his lifetime, with critics pulling out words like "grotesque" and many listeners suspecting the composer harbored horrid neuroses, it's not surprising that he decided to consult Sigmund Freud.   But Mahler's famous four-hour meeting with the father of psychiatry in 1910 came about for somewhat less artistic reasons. Read more at the Baltimore Sun.
	Read Author Didi Balle and Marin Alsop’s engaging NPR essay “A Composer On The Couch: Mahler Meets Freud” depicting the events that led the celebrated conductor and composer to seek help from Vienna’s own shrink to the stars: Dr. Sigmund Freud.

• CSI: Beethoven - Review Clips

	“A theatrical presentation that’s an inevitable part of classical music’s future. And that’s not a bad thing.” “Concert fun enough that Beethoven wouldn’t be rolling over in his grave!” “CSI: Beethoven … a multi-media program the ever-innovative Alsop co-created with writer, director and producer Didi Balle … offered a fresh, fun take on the familiar composer that was informative … combining music with commentary, visual aids and theatrics.” - Kyle MacMillan, Denver Post Fine Arts Critic - The Denver Post, Oct. 9, 2010
	“Sound diagnosis for the BSO’s ‘CSI’ … an innovative program of Beethoven mixes music and medicine … Didi Balle’s script achieved concision, naturalness and good flow … this look beneath the epidermis of a musical giant, CSI: Beethoven© cut smoothly and entertainingly.” *- Tim Smith, Music Critic for The Baltimore Sun*
	“CSI: Beethoven© uses historical research, medical diagnosis, theatrical impersonation, slide projects and music in  an innovative fashion … Beethoven himself held forth, having taken leave from the spirit world to see what he could learn about his sorry fate back in 1827.” - Tim Smith, Music Critic for The Baltimore Sun
	“CSI: Beethoven© was wildly successful. It drew far larger audiences than anticipated for mid-week performances.  It exceeded our expectations in terms of attendance, and people are still talking about the show.” - Eileen Jackson, VP of Marketing, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
	“I attended both performances of CSI: Beethoven© and they were truly astounding … so entertaining and  thought-provoking.” *- Mary G. Ripple, M.D., Chief Medical Examiner, State of Maryland, Post Mortem Examiners Commission*