World Premieres by Ratmansky & Peck, Festival of Balanchine Black and White Ballets, & More Set for NYC Ballet's 2014-15 Season

New York City Ballet will open its 2014-15 season at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, September 23, 2014, which will continue through Sunday, June 7 with three repertory seasons - Fall (September 23 through October 19); Winter (January 20 through March 1); and Spring (April 28 through June 7); as well as the Company's annual holiday performances of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, which will be performed from Friday, November 28, 2014 through Saturday, January 3, 2015.

During the course of these 21 weeks of performances at the David H. Koch Theater, the more than 90 dancers of the New York City Ballet will perform 56 different works. The season will also feature the 62-piece New York City Ballet Orchestra performing musical scores by 38 composers.

In keeping with New York City Ballet's ongoing commitment to new choreography, the 2014-15 season will feature five world premiere ballets, two from Justin Peck, and one each from Alexei Ratmansky, Liam Scarlett, and Troy Schumacher. In addition, the season will also include the New York City Ballet premieres of Peter Martins' staging of La Sylphide, which was created in 1985 for the Pennsylvania Ballet, and Varied Trio (in four), which was created in 2013 for New York City Ballet MOVES by Jean-Pierre Frohlich.

All performances take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, which is located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue. Subscription tickets are currently on sale at nycballet.com, or by calling 212-496-0600. Single tickets for repertory performances will go on sale on August 11; and single tickets for performances of George Balanchine's The NutcrackerTM will go on sale on September 21.

2014 Fall Performances - September 23 through October 19
Featuring World Premiere Ballets by Alexei Ratmansky, Justin Peck, Liam Scarlett and Troy Schumacher; a New York City Ballet Premiere by Jean-Pierre Frohlich; and the NYCB Farewell Performance for Principal Dancer Wendy Whelan.

New York City Ballet will open its 2014-15 season on Tuesday, September 23 with a Fall Gala performance consisting of World Premiere Ballets by Justin Peck, Liam Scarlett, and NYCB corps de ballet member Troy Schumacher, who will be making his first work for New York City Ballet. The gala evening will also include Christopher Wheeldon's This Bitter Earth, and Peter Martins' Morgen, which was created in 2001 and has not been performed by New York City Ballet since 2010.

The Peck premiere will be set to a score by Ce?sar Franck, marking the first time that the composer's music has been included in the NYCB repertory. The music for the Schumacher premiere will be by Judd Greenstein, the Brooklyn-based composer of contemporary classical music, who is also a co-founder of New Amsterdam Music.

In addition to the fall gala premieres, on Wednesday, October 2, NYCB will present a world premiere by choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, who will be making his fourth work for the Company. Ratmansky's previous works for NYCB are Russian Seasons, Concerto DSCH, and Namouna, A Grand Divertissement. For the score for his new ballet, Ratmansky is planning to use Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Beginning on Wednesday, September 24, the second night of the fall season, NYCB will present a week of all-Balanchine programming featuring 12 works by NYCB's co-founder. Included is an all-Tschaikovsky program consisting of Serenade, Mozartiana, Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, and Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3; and an all-Stravinsky program consisting of Apollo, Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, Duo Concertant, and Agon; and a final all-Balanchine program consisting of Donizetti Variations, La Sonnambula, and Firebird.

The Fall Season will also include the New York City Ballet premiere of Jean-Pierre Frohlich's Varied Trio (in four) on Wednesday, October 15. The ballet, which is set to a score by Lou Harrison, was premiered by NYCB MOVES in the summer of 2013. Frohlich, who is a ballet master and former soloist with NYCB, is also the artistic administrator for NYCB MOVES.

The final weekend of the Fall Season will feature a special farewell performance for NYCB Principal Dancer Wendy Whelan, which will take place at 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 18. Whelan, who has performed with NYCB for 30 years, and has had numerous roles created for her by a vast array of choreographers, will continue to perform and develop new works following her retirement from NYCB. The program for Whelan's farewell performance with NYCB will be announced at a later date.

George Balanchine's The Nutcracker November 28, 2014 through January 3, 2015

New York City Ballet will present its annual engagement of the holiday classic George Balanchine's The NutcrackerTM from November 28, 2014 through January 3, 2015.

Balanchine's beloved production, which premiered on February 2, 1954 at the City Center of Music and Drama in New York, helped to establish The Nutcracker and its score as perennial favorites in the United States, evident by the now countless versions of the ballet performed all over the country. NYCB's acclaimed production is seen by more than 100,000 people annually and has been performed more than 2,000 times.

Set to Tschaikovsky's glorious score, George Balanchine's The NutcrackerTM features choreography by Balanchine, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska, and lighting by Mark Stanley, after the original designs by Ronald Bates. The production includes the Company's entire roster of more than 150 dancers and musicians, as well as more than 125 children, in two alternating casts, from the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet.

2015 Winter Performances - January 20 through March 1
Featuring a World Premiere by Justin Peck, the return of George Balanchine's Harlequinade, Peter Martins' Full-Length Production of Romeo + Juliet, and Jerome Robbins' The Goldberg Variations

New York City Ballet will open its 2015 Winter season with a week of ballets by the Company's co-founding choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, and current Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins. Included are two all-Balanchine programs -- one consisting of Serenade, Agon, and Symphony in C; and one consisting of Donizetti Variations, La Valse, and Chaconne. A third program of all-Russian music will include Symphonic Dances by Martins, The Cage and Andantino by Robbins, and Corte?ge- Hongrois by Balanchine.

The winter season will also include a World Premiere by Justin Peck, set to a score by Aaron Copland, that will premiere as part of the Company's annual New Combinations Evening on Wednesday, February 4.

The winter season will also include the return of Jerome Robbins' The Goldberg Variations, last performed by NYCB in 2008, on Thursday, January 29. The ballet, which was created in 1971 and is set to Bach's eponymous score, will be performed on a program with Balanchine's Concerto Barocco, which is also set to Bach's music. 2015 will mark the 330th anniversary of Bach's birth.

Other highlights of the winter season include the return of Peter Martins' full-length production of Romeo + Juliet, which will be given nine performances beginning Friday, February 13, including a special added Sunday evening performance on February 17 at 7:30 p.m.

The season will also feature the return of George Balanchine's delightful Harlequinade, which will be performed in repertory with the choreographer's Square Dance for five performances only beginning Wednesday, February 18.

SPRING PERFORMANCES - April 28 through June 7
Featuring the New York City Ballet Premiere of Peter Martins' La Sylphide and a Nine-Performance Festival of All Balanchine Black and White Ballets

New York City Ballet will open its 2015 Spring Season on Tuesday, April 28 with a nine-performance festival of All Balanchine Black and White ballets. Featured over the course of three programs will be 12 landmark ballets by George Balanchine, including Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, Concerto Barocco, Episodes, The Four Temperaments, Apollo, Agon, Duo Concertant, Symphony in Three Movements, Square Dance, Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Stravinsky Violin Concerto.

Following the Balanchine Black and White performances, the Company will present the New York City Ballet premiere of Peter Martins' La Sylphide at the annual Spring Gala performance on Thursday, May 7.

Originally staged for the Pennsylvania Ballet in 1985, Martins' production is after August Bournonville's 1836 production for the Royal Danish Ballet, where Martins trained and danced before joining New York City Ballet as a Principal Dancer in 1970.

Set to the score by the Norwegian composer Herman Severin Løvenskjold, La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving Romantic ballets and tells the story of a Scottish farmer who deserts his bride-to-be when he is enticed into the woods by a sylph. The sets and costumes for Martins' La Sylphide are by Susan Tammany who designed the original production for the Pennsylvania Ballet, with lighting designs by Mark Stanley.

At each performance of La Sylphide, New York City Ballet will also present Bournonville Divertissements, a series of the Danish choreographer's most popular dances, which were originally staged for New York City Ballet by the great ballet teacher Stanley Williams in 1977. La Sylphide and Bournonville Divertissements will be given eight performances during the course of the 2015 spring season.

New York City Ballet will close the 2015 spring season with George Balanchine's full-length staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream for one week of performances from June 2 through 7.

See the attached season calendars for a complete schedule of programming. For more information on New York City Ballet's performances, visit nycballet.com.