Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French and American citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.
George Balanchine was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer who was one of the most influential 20th-century choreographers. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music.
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.
The American Ballet was the first professional ballet company George Balanchine created in the United States. The company was founded with the help of Lincoln Kirstein and Edward Warburg, managed by Alexander Merovitch and populated by students of Kirstein and Balanchine's School of American Ballet. Having failed to mount a tour, American Ballet began performing at the "Old Met." After being allowed to stage only two dance performances, Balanchine moved the company to Hollywood in 1938. The company was restarted as the American Ballet Caravan and toured North and South America, although it too folded after several years.
Webster A. Young is a composer of symphonies, ballets and operas. He was the most prolific composer for ballet in the US in the 1980s, before Martins-Torke, working with Eric Hyrst, formerly of the Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, New York City Ballet, and the Royal Ballet of England. Young appears with Eric Hyrst in the film "Two for Ballet", available from Cinema Guild, NY. "Two for Ballet" was seen on 63 PBS stations nationwide in 1992. The Jerome Robbins Dance Collection at Lincoln Center, NY, has an extensive file on Eric Hyrst's career that also includes videos of the first three Hyrst-Young ballets. Young became the artistic director of the Long Island Opera Company 1998–2003. Young was the first composer in many decades to set Shakespeare's "As You Like It" to music as an opera in four acts. Soprano, tenor, and baritone operas from it are published at MusicNotes.com, and several performances are in videos at YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Youku, and Toudou.com Now on his Opus 198. Among his most recent works are several pieces for unaccompanied cello. Other recent works include 20 tangos and 10 salsa pieces for orchestra, some also arranged for piano. Opera arias and piano music published at MusicNotes.com Young studied composition with Richard Swift, Andrew Frank, Giampaolo Bracali, and notably with Charles Jones - who was acquainted with Stravinsky and a close friend of Darius Milhaud. Young is related through his grandmother, Seena Harbach Purdy, to Otto Harbach, the Broadway lyricist and playwright, who was his great uncle. Otto Harbach's oldest brother, Adolphe, Webster Young's great grandfather, was a band conductor. Young's paternal grandfather, Owen Young, was a semi professional watercolor landscape painter, of whose works a few hundred paintings are extant. Webster Young is the author of three books: The Palaces of Music (2017), Music, Painting and Jung (2012), and The Little Flowers of the Desert Brothers (2017), all published at Amazon.com under his name.
Jewels is a three-act ballet created for the New York City Ballet by co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine. It premièred on Thursday, 13 April 1967 at the New York State Theater, with sets designed by Peter Harvey and lighting by Ronald Bates.
Apollo is a neoclassical ballet in two tableaux composed between 1927 and 1928 by Igor Stravinsky. It was choreographed in 1928 by twenty-four-year-old George Balanchine, with the composer contributing the libretto. The scenery and costumes were designed by André Bauchant, with new costumes by Coco Chanel in 1929. The scenery was executed by Alexander Shervashidze, with costumes under the direction of Mme. A. Youkine. The American patron of the arts Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge had commissioned the ballet in 1927 for a festival of contemporary music to be held the following year at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
John Taras was an American ballet master, repetiteur, and choreographer.
Agon (1957) is a 22-minute neoclassical ballet for twelve dancers with music by Igor Stravinsky. It was choreographed by George Balanchine. Stravinsky began composition in December 1953 but was interrupted the next year; he resumed work in 1956 and concluded on April 27, 1957. The music was first performed on June 17, 1957, in Los Angeles conducted by Robert Craft, while the first stage performance was given by the New York City Ballet on December 1, 1957, at the City Center of Music and Drama, New York. Between those dates the Südwestfunk in Germany made the work's first studio recording; the Sinfonieorchester des Südwestfunks Baden-Baden, as it was then called, was led by Hans Rosbaud. This was released on the Wergo label seven years later and remains in the catalog, for sale online from Amazon.de.
Tango is a ballet made by New York City Ballet balletmaster Peter Martins to Stravinsky's Tango (1940) arranged 1953 by the composer. The premiere took place September 14, 1983 at Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen; the NYCB premiere was in February, 1984.
Piano–Rag–Music is a ballet made by Todd Bolender to Stravinsky's eponymous music from 1919. The premiere took place on June 23, 1972, as part of New York City Ballet's Stravinsky Festival at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.
Piano–Rag–Music is a ballet made by New York City Ballet balletmaster in chief Peter Martins to Stravinsky's eponymous music from 1919. The premiere took place on June 10, 1982, as part of City Ballets's Stravinsky Centennial Celebration at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.
Circus Polka: For a Young Elephant was written by Igor Stravinsky in 1942. He composed it for a ballet production that the choreographer George Balanchine did for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The ballet was performed by fifty elephants and fifty ballerinas. In 1944, Stravinsky published an orchestration of the piece, which is now part of the repertoire of many orchestras.
Orpheus is a thirty-minute neoclassical ballet in three tableaux composed by Igor Stravinsky in collaboration with choreographer George Balanchine in Hollywood, California in 1947. The work was commissioned by the Ballet Society, which Balanchine founded together with Lincoln Kirstein and of which he was Artistic Director. Sets and costumes were created by Isamu Noguchi.
Élégie is a neoclassical ballet by George Balanchine, to Élégie-Elegy for solo viola by Igor Stravinsky. Balanchine had made three versions of the ballet, premiered in 1948, 1966 and 1982 respectively.
Variations is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to Stravinsky's Variations: Aldous Huxley in memoriam (1963–64). The premiere took place on Thursday, 31 March 1966 at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center; Balanchine made a new version for City Ballet's 1982 Stravinsky Centennial Celebration.
Variations for Orchestra is the last ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to Igor Stravinsky's Variations: Aldous Huxley in memoriam (1963–64). The premiere took place on Friday, 2 July 1982 at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.
Requiem Canticles is a ballet made for New York City Ballet's Stravinsky Festival by balletmaster Jerome Robbins to eponymous music from 1966 by Igor Stravinsky. The premiere took place June 25, 1972, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.
Scènes de ballet is a suite of dance movements composed in 1944 by Igor Stravinsky. It was commissioned by Broadway producer Billy Rose for inclusion in the revue The Seven Lively Arts that opened at the Ziegfeld Theater on December 7, 1944.
Stravinsky Violin Concerto, originally titled Violin Concerto, is a neoclassical ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Stravinsky's Violin Concerto. Balanchine had previously choreographed another ballet to the concerto in 1941 for the Original Ballet Russe, titled Balustrade, though it was not revived following a few performances. He then reused the concerto for New York City Ballet's Stravinsky Festival in 1972, a tribute to the composer following his death. The ballet premiered on June 18, 1972, at the New York State Theater.