Four Seasons

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchine is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet. He came to the United States in late 1933, at the age of 29, accepting the invitation of the young American arts patron Lincoln Kirstein (1907 - 1996), whose great passions included the dream of creating a ballet company in America. At Balanchine’s behest, Kirstein was also prepared to support the formation of an American academy of ballet that would eventually rival the long-established schools of Europe. This was the School of American Ballet, founded in 1934, the first product of the Balanchine-Kirstein collaboration. Several ballet companies directed by the two were created and dissolved in the years that followed, while Balanchine found other outlets for his choreography. Eventually, with a performance on October 11, 1948, the New York City Ballet was born. Balanchine served as its ballet master and principal choreographer from 1948 until his death in 1983. Balanchine’s more than 400 dance works include Serenade (1934), Concerto Barocco (1941), Le Palais de Cristal, later renamed Symphony in C (1947), Orpheus (1948), The Nutcracker (1954), Agon (1957), Symphony in Three Movements (1972), Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1972), Vienna Waltzes (1977), Ballo della Regina (1978), and Mozartiana (1981). His final ballet, a new version of Stravinsky’s Variations for Orchestra, was created in 1982. He also choreographed for films, operas, revues, and musicals. Among his best known dances for the stage is Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, originally created for Broadway’s On Your Toes (1936). The musical was later made into a movie. A major artistic figure of the twentieth century, Balanchine revolutionized the look of classical ballet. Taking classicism as his base, he heightened, quickened, expanded, streamlined, and even inverted the fundamentals of the 400-year-old language of academic dance. This had an inestimable influence on the growth of dance in America. Although at first his style seemed particularly suited to the energy and speed of American dancers, especially those he trained, his ballets are now performed by all the major classical ballet companies throughout the world. ©The George Balanchine Trust

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893), often anglicized as Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was a Russian composer of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884, by Emperor Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension.

Disha Zhang was born in Guizhou Province, China, where she began her training in Chinese Dance.  She graduated with a Modern Dance Choreography degree from the Beijing Dance Academy in 2002.  She was a member of the Beijing Modern Dance Company from 2002 until 2007. Her 2003 work Temporary Residence Permit (renamed The Beijing Story in 2004), on which she collaborated with Hu Lei, established her as a choreographer in China.  She has received numerous choreography awards in China and internationally. Her interdisciplinary collaboration of a full-evening musical theater production of The Petals Rain of the Osmanthus for the Guangxi Song and Dance Theatre received the Grand Prize of the prestigious Wenhua Award in 2010. Since 2006, Disha has choreographed contemporary dances for Chinese ballet dancers to compete at international ballet competitions. Her Sad Bird received the Choreography Award at the 2018 USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. In 2015, How Beautiful Is Heaven and Linen Braids were choreographed for the National Ballet of China and were performed in the Hamburg Ballet Nijinsky Gala. In 2017, Disha created Us for the Stanislavsky Ballet in Moscow, which premiered in 2018. Disha’s premiere of Elapse in 2019 for Houston Ballet is her first choreographic commission for an American company.  Elapse debuted as part of Houston Ballet’s 50th anniversary season.  In 2020, the dance drama Zhu Ziqing won the 12th China Lotus Cup Dance Drama Award and the Best Director Award, and the Zijin Culture and Art Festival Excellent Drama Award.  In 2024, the dance drama Li Qingzhao is being created and is expected to premiere in June.

Zeng Xiaogang was born in China, and he has studied at Academy of Music and Drama, Gothenburg University.  He plays Qin/Guqin which is Mandarin for "ancient string instrument". Zeng Xiaogang is a guqin soloist from China who lived for several years in Sweden where he studied world music. In Xiaogang’s words, “My associations on guqin are already much further than just the Chinese classical context, these rhythms are as free as breathing itself.” His understanding of music for guqin he learned from Western music, and extended diverse folk music such as Scandinavian and Arab music. Guqin is his spiritual path that he commits to every day, which he returns to again and again. “Guqin is the teacher and friend of my life.”

(Founding Artistic Director / Choreographer of Complexions Contemporary Ballet)  Dwight Rhoden has established a remarkably wide-ranging career, earning distinction from The New York Times as “one of the most sought out choreographers of the day.”  Rhoden performed with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Les Ballet Jazz De Montreal, as a principal dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.  In 1994, Rhoden and Desmond Richardson founded Complexions Contemporary Ballet, widely considered “America’s Original Multicultural Contemporary Ballet Company” bringing their unique brand of contemporary dance to the world.  Rhoden has created over 100 ballets for Complexions, as well as numerous other companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Arizona, The Atlanta Ballet, BalletMet, The Dance Theater of Harlem, Colorado Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Miami City Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Pennsylvania Ballet, Philadanco, Mariinsky Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Ballet Nice Méditerranée, Tulsa Ballet, The Washington Ballet, The San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Houston Ballet, Rome Opera Ballet, among others. He has also choreographed for TV, film, theater and live performances.  Mr. Rhoden received the New York Foundation for the Arts Award and is in the NYFA Hall of Fame. Nominated for a Benois De La Dance award for his libretto for Gatsby The Ballet, he also received an Honorary Doctorate degree from The Boston Conservatory in recognition of his extensive contributions to the field of dance. Mr. Rhoden is currently an Artistic Professor of Dance at Chapman University.

Grammy-nominated and platinum-selling percussionist and composer, David Rozenblatt, has collaborated with some of the finest talents in pop, jazz, and classical music. This premiere marks Rhoden’s and Rozenblatt’s sixth ballet collaboration: Three Point Turn—written for legendary prima ballerina Diana Vishneva, Desmond Richardson, and the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Ballet—won numerous Golden Mask Awards including “Best Ballet” and “Critic's Prize.” Othello—written for The Charlotte Ballet—premiered to stellar reviews. And Dirty Wire, Imprint Maya, and Chronicle—written for Complexions Contemporary Ballet—had their respective premieres at The Joyce Theater in New York.  Rozenblatt’s most recent work, Dispute In Conclusion Unplugged, was commissioned by Seattle Symphony for its Chamber Series. Bachtrack wrote, “Of the 21st-century composers, David Rozenblatt stole the show [and] left the audience breathless before they shouted a collective ‘Wow!’” Another orchestral work, Flux, for Baltic Sea Philharmonic, was premiered entirely by memory at Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace and The Dubai Opera House.  Rozenblatt has collaborated, performed and/or recorded with Tony Bennett, Andrea Bocelli, Pierre Boulez, Elliot Carter, Ornette Coleman, Neil Diamond, Babyface, Will Ferrell, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Hudson, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Kesha, John Legend, Barry Manilow, Reba McEntire, Bill Murray, Paul Simon, Vladimir Spivakov, Usher, and Stevie Wonder.  Born in Ukraine, Rozenblatt moved to the United States at the age of four. He received a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School and devotes most of his artistic life to composing, recording and performing to sold out stadiums, arenas, concert halls, and clubs all over the world.

In July 2003, Australian choreographer Stanton Welch AM assumed leadership of Houston Ballet. Since then, the company has grown to 60 dancers, making it America’s fifth largest classical ballet company. Mr. Welch has revitalized Houston Ballet by raising the level of the company’s classical technique and commissioning new works from the world’s best dance makers. The company has made numerous appearances in the US and internationally including London, Germany, Spain, Montreal, Ottawa, Paris, Australia, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Mr. Welch has created works for some of the world’s most prestigious companies such as San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Australian Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Royal Danish Ballet. He has choreographed more than 40 works for Houston Ballet including the full-length narrative ballet Marie (2009), Romeo and Juliet (2015), Giselle (2016), The Nutcracker (2016) as well as spectacular stagings of Swan Lake (2006), La Bayadère (2010). Under his leadership, the Houston Ballet Academy teaches over one thousand students every year, and approximately 50% of the current company was trained by the Academy.

Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music.  He is one of the most renowned composers of European and Baroque-style classical music.  Vivaldi was born in Venice, Italy in 1678.  He pioneered many developments in orchestration, violin technique and programmatic music.  He composed a huge collection of works during his life, including more than fifty operas, instrumental concertos, and sacred choral works.  His best-known composition is a series of violin concertos The Four Seasons.  A set of four violin concerti, Four Seasons, was considered a revolution in the music world.   With each concerto, Vivaldi gave musical life to the seasons, from flowing creeks and buzzing flies to cold winter winds. His influence was widespread across Europe and paramount to the development of numerous composers, most notably, Johann Sebastian Bach. Regarded today as one of the greatest Baroque composers and innovators of classical music of all time, Vivaldi died in Vienna in 1741.