It is difficult to overstate the depth and breadth of the artistry and influence of choreographer George Balanchine. Called the ‘Father of American Ballet,’ he combined a reverence for the classical training he received as a boy in St. Petersburg with ferocious originality and commitment to modernism. He and his many brilliant collaborators, including Sergei Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky, Georges Rouault, and Karinska, among many, many others, transformed ballet into a 20th century artform. Balanchine’s influence as a teacher is every bit as paradigm-changing as the repertoire he created. When our own founder, Barbara Weisberger (herself a protégée of Balanchine) conceived of Philadelphia Ballet, Balanchine insisted, “But first, a school.”

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, like Igor Stravinsky, was the son of musical parents who planned for him to enter the civil service rather than become a musician. And for a few years, Peter Ilyich obliged. But when composer Anton Rubinstein founded the St. Petersburg Conservatory and invited Tchaikovsky to be one of its first students, the young composer dropped everything and never looked back.

Tchaikovsky’s orchestral music constitutes one of the pillars of the symphonic repertoire and the very foundation of classical ballet. His unforgettable melodies, inventive harmonies, and ground-breaking orchestrations make his music both loveable and eternal. Ballet audiences are fortunate to hear not only the works he intended for dance (Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker), but also a wide variety of orchestral pieces that have been choreographed by great dance-makers like George Balanchine.
– Beatrice Jona Affron