On February 28 and
March 1, graduate musicians from Bard College’s The Orchestra Now will perform
with the exceptional dancers of the American Ballet Theatre’s ABT Studio
Company in a program that will benefit the artistically crucial orchestra. The back-to-back
evenings will feature works choreographed by George Balanchine, Kevin McKenzie,
Gerald Arpino, and others set to music by Verdi, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and more
performed live by a full symphony orchestra.
The junior company
of American Ballet Theatre, ABT Studio Company consists of 12 to 18 rising young
stars of the ballet world. The company prepares these outstanding young
dancers, who are between ages 17 and 21 and hail from around the world, to
enter the world’s leading ballet companies. ABT dancers perform masterworks of
the classical and neoclassical canons as well as contemporary works. The group
commissions choreographers to create new, custom ballets on the dancers each
season, with a special focus on female choreographers, and serves as an
ambassador for ABT by performing internationally.
The Orchestra Now,
or TON, will be led by conductor Charles Barker and was founded in 2015 to
train the next generation of music professionals to become creative ambassadors
of classical music. The members of the orchestra are graduates
of the world’s leading conservatories and hail from countries across North and
South America, Europe, and Asia.
The Orchestra Now and
dancers of the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company will perform to benefit The
Orchestra Now at the Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater in Annandale-on-Hudson on February
28 and March 1 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $25. (Premium Tickets on March 1 are $500
and include prime orchestra seat tickets for the performance, followed by an
intimate dinner with the dancers at nearby Blithewood.)
This article appears in February 2025.
