"by Lar Lubovitch and The Faraway - choreography by Matthew Neenan) ""Dracula"" (choreography by Michael Pink, music by Philip Feeney) ""The Nutcracker"" (music by P.I. Tchaikovsky) ""Romeo and Juliet"" (choreography by Alun Jones) ""Great Galloping Gottschalk"" (choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, music by Louis Moreau Gottschalk) ""Rodeo"" (choreographed by Agnes de Mille, music by A. Copland) ""Don Quixote"" (choreographed by Marius Petipa, music by Ludwig Minkus) ""The Nutcracker"" (music by P.I. Tchaikovsky) ""Beauty and the Beast"" (choreographed by Domy Reiter-Soffer, music by Seen-yee Lam) ""Echoing of Trumpets"" (choreographed by Antony Tudor) ""Celts"" (choreographed by Lila York) Since 1961, ""The Nutcracker"" has"
"Dance Panels Dance Panels is a ballet composed by Aaron Copland in 1959 for a planned collaboration with choreographer Jerome Robbins. After Copland had written the score, Robbins reneged on his commitment and the performance did not take place. Three years later, Copland revised the score for a ballet by the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany, where it premiered on 3 December 1963. The ballet was performed by the New York City Ballet in 1965 and the concert version received its first performance at the Ojai Music Festival the following year. According to Copland biographer Howard Pollack, ""Dance Panels"""
"easily by a mass audience. The ballet premiered in New York in 1939, with Copland recalling ""I cannot remember another work of mine that was so unanimously received."" Along with the ballet ""Rodeo"", ""Billy the Kid"" became, in the words of musicologist Elizabeth Crist, ""the basis for Copland's reputation as a composer of Americana"" and defines ""an uncomplicated form of American nationalism."" Copland's brand of nationalism in his ballets differed from that of European composers such as Béla Bartók, who tried to preserve the folk tones they used as close to the original as possible. Copland enhanced the tunes he"
"Coolidge commissioned Copland to write a ballet with ""an American theme"". Copland did the bulk of the work in 1943/44, and the work was premiered at the Library of Congress on Oct. 30, 1944, with Graham dancing the lead role. In 1945, Copland was commissioned by conductor Artur Rodzinski to rearrange the ballet as an orchestral suite, preserving most of the music. Copland cut about 10 minutes from the original 13-instrument score to make the suite. From the preface in the original Boosey & Hawkes publication of the suite: The original scoring called for a chamber ensemble of thirteen instruments."
"dedicated it to Rudy Burckhardt, who was a friend of Copland and his lover who accompanied them while on their trip to Havana. The score was published shortly after the premiere by Boosey & Hawkes in 1943. The ""Danzón"" was later expanded for a large orchestra in 1946. It was premiered by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in February 17, 1946, Reginald Stewart conducting. However, Copland revisited the piece many times during his professional career. Since then, it has been performed by many of the most important orchestras in the United States, such as the Cleveland Orchestra and the Los Angeles"
"Billy the Kid (ballet) Billy the Kid is a 1938 ballet written by the American composer Aaron Copland on commission from Lincoln Kirstein. It was choreographed by Eugene Loring for Ballet Caravan. Along with ""Rodeo"" and ""Appalachian Spring"", it is one of Copland's most popular and widely performed pieces. It is most famous for its incorporation of several cowboy tunes and American folk songs and, although built around the figure and the exploits of Billy the Kid, is not so much a biography of a notorious but peculiarly appealing desperado as it is a perception of the ""Wild West"", in"
"Copland remained concerned how the music would fare unstaged. The concert premiere, under Ingolf Dahl and the Ojai Festival Orchestra on May 24, 1966, proved this fear unfounded. Pollack writes, ""As a concise, plotless, beautifully crafted ballet ... ""Dance Panels"" easily accommodated itself to the concert format"" and enjoyed ""considerably more success than it has on the stage."" It has since been recorded under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, Dennis Russell Davies and the composer himself. Dance Panels Dance Panels is a ballet composed by Aaron Copland in 1959 for a planned collaboration with choreographer Jerome Robbins. After Copland had"
"Piano Concerto (Copland) The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is a musical composition by the American composer Aaron Copland. The work was commissioned by the conductor Serge Koussevitzky who was then music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It was first performed on January 28, 1927, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Koussevitzky with the composer himself as the soloist. The piece is dedicated to Copland's patron Alma Morgenthau Wertheim. Copland completed work on the piano concerto in November 1926. It is cast two connected movements: a short, slow first movement and a large, fast second movement. Like George"
"de Mille out of a career of relative obscurity. The choreographer was given considerable creative control, choosing Aaron Copland as the composer after being impressed by his previous ballet, ""Billy the Kid"". Though Copland was initially reluctant to compose ""another Cowboy ballet,"" De Mille persuaded him that this show would mark a significant departure from his previous work. As de Mille found herself occupied with instructing a highly international cast in the mannerisms of American cowboys, Copland recommended that Oliver Smith design the sets, in what would prove to be a prescient action. De Mille herself played the lead, and"
"Leonid Lavrovsky Leonid Mikhailovich Lavrovsky (real name - Ivanov) (1905–1967) was a Russian ballet choreographer, most famous for choreographing the first full version of Sergei Prokofiev's ""Romeo and Juliet"". Lavrovsky was born in 1905 in St. Petersburg, the son of an industrial worker. He graduated in 1922 from the Petrograd Ballet Academy, where he had studied under V.I. Ponomaryov. He danced with the former Mariinsky Theater, performing such roles as Siegfried in ""Swan Lake"", Jean de Brienne in ""Raymonda"", and the lead in ""Chopiniana"". During the same period, Lavrovsky was also a member of the Molodoy Ballet (Young Ballet), an"
"Copland, the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos, the Hungarian Béla Bartók, the Spaniard Manuel de Falla, and the Russian Sergei Prokofiev. Despite its name, the most famous Parisian dance company, the Ballets Russes, never performed in Russia. Founded by Sergei Diaghilev in 1909, it performed in Paris and internationally until Diaghilev's death in 1929. Its set designers included Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Joan Miro, and Salvador Dali. Its choreographers included Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972), the younger sister of the star dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, and a young George Balanchine (1904-1983). In 1924, Balanchine, then a dancer, fled a Soviet dance company on tour"
"de Janeiro in 1947 as a lecturer and conductor. While there he made many drafts of the concerto. On August 26, 1948, Copland wrote that the concerto was still ""dribbling along"". A month later, he wrote in a letter that the piece was almost done. On December 6, 1948, he wrote to composer Carlos Chavez that he had completed the composition and was pleased with the result. Copland accepted a commission from conductor Serge Koussevitzky to arrange the concerto's first movement as an ""Elegy for Strings"", to be performed by the Boston Symphony. However, in a letter to Koussevitzky dated"
"Copland based his ending variations on was actually called ""Simple Gifts"". This same Shaker tune was used by Sydney Carter in a widely recognized hymn entitled ""Lord of the Dance"". Copland published independent arrangements of this section for band (1958) and orchestra (1967) titled ""Variations on a Shaker Melody"". For many years part of the seventh movement of the orchestral suite was used as the opening music to ""CBS Reports"". Appalachian Spring Appalachian Spring is a composition by Aaron Copland that premiered in 1944 and has achieved widespread and enduring popularity as an orchestral suite. The ballet, scored for a"
"Copland published the first blues (entitled ""Blues No. 1"") and left ""Blues No. 2"" unpublished. The other piece was originally entitled ""Hommage à Milhaud"", which he revised again in 1934, and was the basis for the Dove Dance in Copland's ""Hear Ye! Hear Ye!"". The other two pieces were composed in 1947 and 1948, and were, in turn, the basis for some melodies of Copland's Clarinet Concerto, which was completed in 1948. Upon finishing the concerto, Copland decided to revise all four previously unpublished sketches and published them as ""Four Piano Blues"". The order of the movements was as follows:"
"Clarinet Concerto (Copland) Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto (also referred to as the ""Concerto for clarinet, strings and harp"") was written between 1947 and 1949, although a first version was available in 1948. The concerto was later choreographed by Jerome Robbins for the ballet ""Pied Piper"" (1951). Soon after Copland composed his Symphony No. 3, in 1947 jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman commissioned him to write a concerto for clarinet. Goodman told Copland biographer Vivian Perlis: I made no demands on what Copland should write. He had completely free rein, except that I should have a two-year exclusivity on playing the work."
"clear. It should say, this is Dance; it's the way we use our European heritage (classic technique) in America. At the top of his proposal to Copland, Robbins wrote, ""These are only ideas,"" Pollack writes that the choreographer ""went on to suggest over twenty different types of waltzes, including 'circus waltz' and 'tea-room waltz'; at the same time, he recognizes the advantages of working with 'more abstract and evocative' forms."" Copland finished the ballet in early 1959, in the hope the work would be premiered at that year's Spoleto Festival in Florence, Italy. However, Robbins, to the dismay of ANTA,"
"Philharmonic, conducted by Alfred Wallenstein. Set 2 was first performed by William Warfield and Aaron Copland (piano) on 25 May 1958 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and later, in its orchestral form, by Grace Bumbry (mezzo-soprano) and the Ojai Festival Orchestra, conducted by the composer, in Ojai, California. Set 2 was recorded by Warfield and Copland on August 18, 1953, for Columbia Records but apparently not publicly performed until the above-mentioned date in Ipswich. Both sets are published by Boosey & Hawkes. The voice and piano versions are easily transposed to any register; the orchestral sets can also be transposed but are"
"18 May 1950, with soloist Alice Howland accompanied by the composer. It was not especially well-received by critics, prompting Copland to note wryly to Leonard Bernstein, ""that I decided I must have written a better cycle than I had realized."" The premiere of the orchestration was given on 14 November 1970 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with soloist Gwendolyn Killebrew and the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Tilson Thomas subsequently recorded the cycle for EMI with Barbara Hendricks and the London Symphony Orchestra. Both versions have been recorded many times since their respective premieres."
"scenario he created and called ""Zenatello"". From 1913 to 1917 he took piano lessons with Leopold Wolfsohn, who taught him the standard classical fare. Copland's first public music performance was at a Wanamaker's recital. By the age of 15, after attending a concert by composer-pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Copland decided to become a composer. After attempts to further his music study from a correspondence course, Copland took formal lessons in harmony, theory, and composition from Rubin Goldmark, a noted teacher and composer of American music (who had given George Gershwin three lessons). Goldmark, with whom Copland studied between 1917 and"
"Appalachian Spring Appalachian Spring is a composition by Aaron Copland that premiered in 1944 and has achieved widespread and enduring popularity as an orchestral suite. The ballet, scored for a thirteen-member chamber orchestra, was created upon commission of choreographer and dancer Martha Graham with funds from the Coolidge Foundation. It premiered on Monday, October 30, 1944 at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., with Martha Graham dancing the lead role. The set was designed by the American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Copland was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his achievement. In 1942, Martha Graham and Elizabeth Sprague"
"Copland's ""Statements"" for orchestra, occurs in the third section. Pollack calls ""Dance Panels"" one ""of the most accessible scores of [Copland's] later years."" He adds that some sections are reminiscent of the composer's earlier stage and screen music, while others seem to presage Copland's 12-tone scores such as ""Connotations"" and ""Inscape"" in their thick textures and harmonic dissonance. Copland conducted the world premiere of ""Dance Panels"" on December 3, 1963 at the Bavarian State Opera. While the work ""was greeted with great applause,"" the composer was disappointed with the choreography by Heintz Rosen. He said he felt Rosen lacked ""feeling"
"is closely intertwined with that of Aaron Copland's ballet ""Appalachian Spring"" and, to a lesser extent, with Samuel Barber's ballet, ""Medea"". In February 1941, Martha Graham offered a commission for a ballet to Copland, suggesting a ""bitter, sardonic, murderous, and despairing"" dance about Medea, the character from Greek mythology. She was only able to offer $100 in advance and $150 in royalties, and Copland declined the offer. A little more than a year later, in June 1942, Erick Hawkins, business manager and chief male dancer in Martha Graham's company (who later became her husband), approached Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge about commissioning"
"Coppélia Coppélia (sometimes subtitled: The Girl With The Enamel Eyes) is a comic ballet originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes, with libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter. Nuitter's libretto and mise-en-scène was based upon two stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann: ""Der Sandmann"" (""The Sandman"") and ""Die Puppe"" (""The Doll""). In Greek, ""κοπελιά"" means ""girl, young lady"". ""Coppélia"" premiered on 25 May 1870 at the Théâtre Impérial l'Opéra, with the 16-year-old Giuseppina Bozzacchi in the principal role of Swanhilda and ballerina Eugénie Fiocre playing the part of Frantz ""en travestie"". The costumes were designed by Paul Lormier"
"at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. Lavrovsky married former ballet dancer Elena Chikvaidze; their son, Mikhail Lavrovsky, was a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Theater. Leonid Lavrovsky Leonid Mikhailovich Lavrovsky (real name - Ivanov) (1905–1967) was a Russian ballet choreographer, most famous for choreographing the first full version of Sergei Prokofiev's ""Romeo and Juliet"". Lavrovsky was born in 1905 in St. Petersburg, the son of an industrial worker. He graduated in 1922 from the Petrograd Ballet Academy, where he had studied under V.I. Ponomaryov. He danced with the former Mariinsky Theater, performing such roles as Siegfried in ""Swan Lake"","
"Copland led the original 13-instrument version of ""Appalachian Spring"" and Richman conducted Copland's ""Music for the Theatre"". A film, ""Copland at 80: A Self-Portrait,"" including the composer conducting Harmonie Ensemble/New York, has been broadcast internationally and released on video worldwide. Leonard Bernstein spoke, and was among the many prominent musical figures in attendance. At New York's Lincoln Center, Richman conducted a Handel 300th Birthday Concert at Damrosch Park featuring the first fireworks show in the history of Lincoln Center, a Gershwin Memorial Concert that drew the largest audience (10,000 people) in the history of the center, and a Leonard Bernstein"
"a satisfactory premiere of his masterpiece. Unfortunately, Gieseking (who had performed in the premiere of the piano trio ""Vitebsk"" in New York in 1929) turned down Copland's request for a premiere due to the piece's ""crude dissonances"" and ""severity of style"" . Copland thus premiered the piece himself at a League of Composers Concert in New York on January 4, 1931. The Piano Variations were praised in some esoteric circles, but the public was generally courteous but lukewarm in its reception. The work was variously described as new, strange, dissonant, stark, bare, and disconcerting. Critic Paul Rosenfeld contemplated its ""flinty,"
"which the composer labeled his ""vernacular"" style. Works in this vein include the ballets ""Appalachian Spring"", ""Billy the Kid"" and ""Rodeo"", his ""Fanfare for the Common Man"" and Third Symphony. In addition to his ballets and orchestral works, he produced music in many other genres including chamber music, vocal works, opera and film scores. After some initial studies with composer Rubin Goldmark, Copland traveled to Paris, where he first studied with Isidor Philipp and Paul Vidal, then with noted pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. He studied three years with Boulanger, whose eclectic approach to music inspired his own broad taste. Determined upon"
"wrote, ""Cornejo owns the role now"". Up to 1979, ""Rodeo"" was staged mainly by deMille and Vernon Lusby, for many years one of her most trusted assistants on numerous projects. When illness precluded his ability to continue setting Rodeo in 1981, deMille asked Paul Sutherland, a former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, and Harkness Ballet who had danced leading roles in several of her ballets, to begin staging Rodeo. With the passing of Agnes deMille in 1993, ownership and all rights to Rodeo passed to her son, Jonathan Prude. For the next several years, several people staged"
"Robert Garland Robert Garland is a former Principal Dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and their first official Resident Choreographer, creating dances for the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company and their School Ensemble. He has also choreographed for the New York City Ballet, The Royal Ballet, and the Oakland Ballet among many others. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Robert Garland began his dance training with John Hines at the Philadelphia School for the Performing Arts in North Philadelphia. While there, he studied all forms of dance under the tutelage of a variety of instructors, including John Hines, Marion Cuyjet, Morton"
"arrangement by Aaron Copland. He adopted the name ""Michael Kidd"" in 1942. At the time he was performing with Ballet Caravan and all the dancers were urged to adopt ""American"" names. He chose Kidd because it was short, easy to remember, and evocative of the pirate, Captain Kidd. In 1941, Kidd became a soloist and assistant to Loring in his Dance Players. He moved on to become a soloist for Ballet Theater, later known as the American Ballet Theatre. His performances there included ""Fancy Free"" (1944) choreographed by Jerome Robbins and with music by Leonard Bernstein, in which he played"
"and Fred Astaire to the ballets of George Balanchine and Martha Graham, to both democratize and Americanize dance as an art form. In 1939, Copland completed his first two Hollywood film scores, for ""Of Mice and Men"" and ""Our Town"", and composed the radio score ""John Henry"", based on the folk ballad. While these works and others like them that would follow were accepted by the listening public at large, detractors accused Copland of pandering to the masses. Music critic Paul Rosenfeld, for one, warned in 1939 that Copland was ""standing in the fork in the highroad, the two branches"
"really want. Nobody wants to be an 'American' composer now as they did."" He told another friend, ""Young composers today wouldn't be caught dead with a folk tune!"" He heard a considerable amount of new music through his association with Tanglewood and might not have wanted to be left behind. At the same time, he might not have become totally at home with serialism. He confided to Verna Fine, ""I don't feel comfortable with the twelve-tone system, but I don't want to keep repeating myself."" Choreographer John Neumier, noted for his ballets based on literary themes, received permission from Copland"
"Stewart Copeland Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is an American musician and composer. He was the drummer for the British rock band the Police, has produced film and video game soundtracks and written various pieces of music for ballet, opera and orchestra. According to MusicRadar, Copeland's ""distinctive drum sound and uniqueness of style has made him one of the most popular drummers to ever get behind a drumset."" He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Police in 2003, the ""Modern Drummer"" Hall of Fame in 2005, and the ""Classic"