The New York City Ballet Presents the 2014 Fall Gala Tonight

New York City Ballet's annual Fall Gala will once again celebrate ballet and fashion with a program that will include three world premiere ballets by Justin Peck, Liam Scarlett, and Troy Schumacher, as well as existing works by Peter Martins and Christopher Wheeldon, all featuring costumes designed by an international roster of some of the fashion world's most renowned talents: Thom Browne, Sarah Burton, Valentino Garavani, Carolina Herrera, and Mary Katrantzou. The one- time-only gala evening will take place tonight, September 23, 2014, opening New York City Ballet's four-week Fall Season at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

This year's gala program will include world premiere ballets by three exciting young choreographers including Justin Peck, NYCB Soloist and the Company's newly named Resident Choreographer, who will collaborate with London-based Greek fashion designer Mary Katrantzou; British choreographer Liam Scarlett, who will work with Sarah Burton, the British designer who is Creative Director of the Alexander McQueen brand; and NYCB corps de ballet member Troy Schumacher, who will make his NYCB choreographic debut in collaboration with New York-based designer Thom Browne.

The evening will also feature Peter Martins' 2001 work Morgen, with all-new costumes by the world renowned luxury womenswear designer Carolina Herrera, as well as Christopher Wheeldon's This Bitter Earth, which premiered at the Company's 2012 Fall Gala featuring costumes by the legendary couturier Valentino Garavani.

The gala evening will take place at New York City Ballet's home at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the David H. Koch Theater, and will launch NYCB's four-week Fall Season, which will run from Tuesday, September 23 through Sunday, October 19. All five ballets on the September 23 gala evening will also be performed on Thursday, October 2; Tuesday, October 7; Thursday, October 9; and Saturday, October 11 (eve).

Sarah Jessica Parker, the actress, producer, and philanthropist, who is a Vice Chair of the NYCB Board of Directors and has been instrumental in bringing together the worlds of ballet and fashion for a special gala evening at NYCB, will serve as a chairman for the event for the third consecutive year. Other Chairmen for the 2014 Fall Gala include jewelry artist Cindy Chao, fashion advertising executive Trey Laird and his wife Jennifer, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Financial Officer and NYCB Board Member Marianne Lake.

World Premiere by Justin Peck Costumes Designed by Mary Katrantzou

Justin Peck, NYCB Soloist and newly appointed Resident Choreographer, will premiere the seventh work he has created for NYCB in less than two and a half years. The new work will be set to Ce?sar Franck's Untitled piece (Solo de piano), for piano accompanied by string quintet, Op. 10, marking the first time that Franck's music has been included in the NYCB repertory. Peck, who joined NYCB as a member of the corps de ballet in 2007, was promoted to Soloist in 2013, and was named NYCB Resident Choreographer in July 2014.

The costumes for Peck's Fall Gala premiere will be designed by London-based Greek designer Mary Katrantzou, who launched her first collection in 2009. Born in Athens, Katrantzou moved to the U.S. to study architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, before transferring to Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London, where she received a BA in Textile Design. After graduating in 2005, Katrantzou shifted her direction from textile design to womenswear with a focus on print, and went on to receive her MA in Fashion from Central Saint Martins. Her first ready-to-wear collection debuted at London Fashion Week in Spring/Summer 2009. Katrantzou received the prestigious Swiss Textiles Award in 2010, and in November 2011 was awarded the British Fashion Award for Emerging Talent in Womenswear. In February 2012, Katrantzou was awarded Young Designer of the Year at the Elle Style Awards.

World Premiere by Liam Scarlett Costumes Designed by Sarah Burton

The second world premiere of the evening will be choreographed by British choreographer Liam Scarlett. A former dancer with The Royal Ballet, Scarlett made his first work for that company in 2010, and was named The Royal Ballet's Artist in Residence in 2012. In 2009, Scarlett participated in the Fall session of the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of New York City Ballet. This is Scarlett's second work for NYCB, following the premiere of Acheron in January 2014.

For Scarlett's Fall Gala premiere he will collaborate with Sarah Burton, the renowned British designer and Creative Director of the Alexander McQueen brand. Burton studied fashion at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London and joined the Alexander McQueen company in 1996. In 2000, Burton was made Head of Design for womenswear at Alexander McQueen, and was promoted to Creative Director of the Alexander McQueen brand in 2010, having worked alongside McQueen for more than 14 years. In April 2011, she received global recognition as the designer of the wedding dress for HRH the Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine Middleton, on the occasion of her marriage to HRH Prince William. Burton was recipient of the Designer of the Year award at the British Fashion Awards in November 2011. Burton was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in April 2012 and was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to the British fashion industry in 2012.

World Premiere by Troy Schumacher Costumes Designed by Thom Browne

The final world premiere of the evening will be choreographed by NYCB corps de ballet member, Troy Schumacher, marking Schumacher's choreographic debut with the Company. The work will be set to a score by Judd Greenstein, the Brooklyn-based composer of contemporary classical music, who is also a Co-Founder of New Amsterdam Records. Schumacher joined NYCB as a member of the corps de ballet in 2005 and participated in the Fall 2012 session of the New York Choreographic Institute. In 2010 Schumacher founded BalletCollective (formerly Satellite Ballet), a creative collaboration of artists, poets, composers, musicians, choreographers, and designers that has performed the collaborative work of more than 30 artists since its founding.

Costumes for the new Schumacher work will be designed by New York-based designer Thom Browne, who introduced his first ready-to-wear collection in New York in 2003. Known for creating clothes that are based on hand-made tailoring, Browne's collections have evolved into creations which have drawn attention from the fashion and design industry worldwide, often pushing the boundaries of conventional conceptions. He has been honored with the Council of Fashion Designers of America Menswear Designer of the Year Award in 2013 and 2006 and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in 2012. Browne's women's ready-to-wear collection was introduced in 2011. The Thom Browne collections are available through his flagships stores in New York and Tokyo as well as at designer specialty stores around the world, such as Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys New York, Colette and Le Bon Marche? in Paris, Harrods, Selfridges and Dover Street Market in London and Tokyo, Isetan, Restir and United Arrows in Tokyo.

Peter Martins' Morgen
Costumes Designed by Carolina Herrera

In addition to the evening's three world premiere ballets, the Fall Gala will also include the return of Peter Martins' Morgen, featuring all-new costumes designed by internationally renowned fashion designer Carolina Herrera. Created in 2001, Morgen is set to 10 songs for soprano and orchestra by composer Richard Strauss and was last performed by the Company in 2010.

Peter Martins began his long association with the New York City Ballet as a guest artist in 1967, and has spent more than 40 years with the Company as a dancer, choreographer, and ballet master. In 1983, following the death of NYCB Co-Founder George Balanchine, Martins served as the Company's Co-Ballet Master in Chief with Jerome Robbins, assuming sole artistic leadership of NYCB in 1989. Martins began his career as a choreographer in 1977 and has since created more than 80 ballets for NYCB. Martins is also the Artistic Director and Chairman of the Faculty at the School of American Ballet, the official school of NYCB, and the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of NYCB that was created in 2000 to foster new choreography.

Establishing a globally recognized style aesthetic, Carolina Herrera has resided at the helm of her eponymous label for over three decades. With the endorsement of legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, Carolina Herrera presented her first collection of women's ready?to?wear at New York's Metropolitan Club in 1981. Herrera opened her New York?based atelier shortly thereafter, cultivating a team trained in haute couture craftsmanship and aligning her name synonymously with the city and all things luxury. With wedding gowns often included in her ready?to?wear runway shows, Carolina Herrera introduced her bridal collection in 1987. Herrera launched her first fragrance, Carolina Herrera Eau de Parfum in 1988. She has since released 13 additional fragrances for both men and women in collaboration with her daughter Carolina Herrera de Baez, the brand's fragrance Creative Director. Today, Carolina Herrera New York counts three flagship boutiques in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. In 2001 Herrera introduced CH Carolina Herrera, a lifestyle sportswear brand created in the spirit of Carolina Herrera's design ethos including ready?to?wear and accessories for men, women and children with 125 boutique locations worldwide. The House of Herrera's product portfolio of fragrance, apparel, accessories, and eyewear has over 15,000 points of distribution in 105 countries. Herrera was named the Council of Fashion Designers of America Womenswear Designer of the Year in 2004 and honored with the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. Acting as a mentor and critic to graduating design students for years, Herrera received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2012. In addition, she was awarded the 2012 Fashion Group International Superstar Award, and was recently presented with the Nat King Cole Award for her charitable works and contributions to the EIF Women's Cancer Research Fund.

Christopher Wheeldon's This Bitter Earth Costumes Designed by Valentino Garavani

The Fall Gala evening will also include a performance of Christopher Wheeldon's This Bitter Earth, a pas de deux set to a score by Dinah Washington and Max Richter, which premiered at the Company's 2012 Fall Gala featuring costumes by the legendary couturier Valentino Garavani.

Christopher Wheeldon joined New York City Ballet as a dancer in 1993, and created his first ballet for the Company in 1997. In 2000, he retired from dancing and served as the Company's first-ever Artist in Residence during the 2000-2001 Season before being named the Company's first Resident Choreographer, a position he held until 2008. In 2007, Wheeldon founded Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, serving as the Company's Artistic Director until early 2010. Wheeldon has created works for the Bolshoi Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, The Royal Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet, among others. His production of An American in Paris, which he is directing and choreographing, will premiere in Paris in November 2014 and will come to Broadway in 2015.

Valentino Garavani, often known simply as Valentino, founded his eponymous fashion house in Rome in the late 1950s and has since established an illustrious career designing for the world's most glamorous women, from royalty to Hollywood icons, including Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren. Throughout his career Valentino has been awarded the highest recognitions and achievements, including Italy's highest distinction, Cavalier di Gran Croce, and France's Chevalier de la Le?gion d'honneur, in addition to numerous awards in the fashion industry. In 2008 Valentino took his final bow at his haute couture show and officially retired from his career in fashion, though he continues to create and follow his passions. In 2009, Valentino designed costumes for the Vienna Ballet, and in 2011 he and Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino's long-time business partner, launched the Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum. In 2012 NYCB's inaugural fashion-themed Fall Gala celebrated the master couturier, who designed more than 15 original costumes for that gala evening performance.

Tickets

Benefit-priced tickets for the gala evening, which include the 7 pm performance, a pre- performance reception, and a black-tie supper ball following the performance, are available through the NYCB Special Events Office at 212-870-5585. Tickets for the performance only start at just $29 and will be available beginning August 11 at nycballet.com, by calling 212-496-0600, or at the David H. Koch Theater box office, located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue at Lincoln Center.

Major support for new work is provided by members of the New Combinations Fund and Jeffrey and Shiou-Der Kossak.

Major support for the new ballet by Justin Peck is provided by J.P. Morgan.

Major support for the new ballet by Troy Schumacher ballet is provided by Stephen Kroll Reidy. Additional support is provided by The Rudolf Nureyev Fund for Emerging Choreographers, established through a leadership grant from the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation, with additional grants from the Harriet Ford Dickenson Foundation and the Joseph and Sylvia Slifka Foundation, to support New York City Ballet's commissioning of emerging choreographers.

The Travelers Companies, Inc. is the Global Sponsor of New York City Ballet.