This new evening-length work by Mark Morris, created at the request of the City of Liverpool will premiere May 2017, kicking off Liverpool’s Sgt. Pepper at 50 Festival, a season-long tribute to the groundbreaking album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Pepperland features an original score by composer Ethan Iverson inspired by the songs “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, “With a Little Help From My Friends”, “A Day in the Life”, “When I’m Sixty-Four”, “Within You Without You”, and “Penny Lane”.

An unprecedented chamber music ensemble of voice, theremin, soprano sax, trombone, piano, organ, harpsichord, and percussion will tease out and elaborate on Sgt. Pepper’s non-rock and roll influences. Arrangements of half a dozen songs from the album will intermingle with Pepper-inspired original pieces intended especially for Morris’ profound understanding of classical forms: Allegro, Scherzo, Adagio, and the blues.