CLEVELAND, April 12, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Verb Ballets, Cleveland's National Repertory Dance Company, makes its debut at The Cleveland Play House on Thursday, May 18 and Friday, May 19 with a program of dances set to works by Cleveland composers: Eric Ziolek, Jonathan Sheffer and Klaus G. Roy. All dances are choreographed by Verb's Artistic Director Hernando Cortez, including a world premiere set to music by Klaus G. Roy, formerly with The Cleveland Orchestra. Tickets for FusionFest, a celebration of the performing arts, are on sale now and may be purchased by calling The Cleveland Play House at 216-795-7000 or clevelandplayhouse.com. Tickets are $35 and $45. Use code 'FEST' when ordering to receive $5 off on your ticket!
FusionFest Program
Thursday, May 18 and Friday, May 19
"Backlash," a revival, is set to Eric Ziolek's jazzy Verbtuosity for saxophone and percussion. Music and dancers are sultry and sleek in Cortez's retro modern ballet, which premiered at Cleveland Public Theatre's Random Acts series in 2005.
"Six Easy Pieces" (Repertory) is the title for Jonathan Sheffer's piano composition in which Cortez has woven a delicate dance poem for couples. Premiered at Playhouse Square's Ohio Theatre on March 24, 2006.
"Suite Francaise" (Christopher-Suite) (World Premiere) is a new ballet set to compositions by The Cleveland Orchestra's former program annotator and editor Klaus George Roy.
Cleveland Composers
Dr. Eric Ziolek, the composer for Backlash, received degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Iowa. His music has been performed throughout the United States and in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brazil. He is a member of American Composers Alliance. His music is published by TAP Music, American Composers Editions and Lingua Press, and is recorded on the Music and Arts label. He is pianist with Venner, a chamber ensemble that features music for diverse trios, and has served on the faculties of Grand Valley State University and the University of Iowa, where he was musical director of the Center for New Music. He is currently Chair of the Department of Music at Cleveland State University.
Jonathan Sheffer, the composer for Six Easy Pieces, is Artistic Director and Conductor for Red (an orchestra). Born in New York City, Mr. Sheffer graduated from Harvard University, where his teachers included Leonard Bernstein; he later attended The Julliard School and Aspen School of Music. In the early 90s, he led the Seattle Symphony in concerts that combined unusual new works and performers with the standard orchestral repertoire. A prolific composer, Mr. Sheffer's range of works comprises television and feature film scores, works for orchestra, solo piano, concertos, musicals, and short operas.
For the last ten years, Sheffer has turned his attention to the question of what constitutes a classical music concert in the contemporary world. He founded the Eos Orchestra in New York in 1995 as a laboratory of new programming ideas. In 2001, he was invited by a group of musicians and arts donors from Cleveland to lead a new organization with a similar mission. The result: Red (an orchestra). With the closing of Eos in 2004, Red is now the main outlet for these innovations.
Klaus George Roy, composer of Suite Francaise, served as program annotator and editor of The Cleveland Orchestra from 1958 to 1988. Born in Vienna in 1924 and living in the U.S. since 1940, he studied musicology with Karl Geiringer at Boston University and composition with Walter Piston at Harvard.
Dr. Roy has been active since the late 1940s as teacher, composer, lecturer, essayist, and music critic for The Christian Science Monitor. He taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art (1975-88) and the Cleveland Institute of Music (1986-94), and has received numerous commissions and honors for works in instrumental and vocal genres; his music is presented in performances around the globe. A collection of his special essays for The Cleveland Orchestra program book was published in 1993 in honor of the Orchestra's 75th anniversary, under the title "Not Responsible for Lost Articles -- Thoughts and Second Thoughts from Severance Hall."
About Verb Ballets. Verb Ballets is now in its fourth season under the leadership of Artistic Director Hernando Cortez, Executive Director Dr. Margaret Carlson, and its energetic staff and board of trustees. They have established Verb as Cleveland's premiere contemporary dance repertory company. Verb has been named as one of "25 to Watch in 2004" by Dance Magazine, the country's leading news magazine covering dance. Verb Ballets discovers, collects, interprets and stages choreography that matters to the region and to the world of dance. As a curator of expressive movement that is globally connected and nationally respected, Verb Ballets has a mandate to support and foster emerging talent, present excellence in contemporary choreographers, and revive and honor modern dance classics. Additional information may be found at www.verbballets.org.
The Company: Marcela Alvarez, Kallie Marie Bokal, Danielle Brickman, Erin Conway, Katie Gnagy, Damien Highfield, Catherine Meredith, Oren Porterfield, Anna Roberts, Mark Tomasic, Tracy Vogt, Robert Wesner. Hernando Cortez, Artistic Director; Dr. Margaret Carlson, Executive Director
Verb Ballets thanks The Plain Dealer & WVIZ/WCPN/Ideastream for their continued support.
DANSKIN IS THE OFFICIAL 2005-2006 SPONSOR OF Verb Ballets. Levy Media Group, JAKPRINTS.COM, Baumgarten & Company, LLP, TWIST Creative are proud business partners of Verb Ballets.
Major Support: The Abington Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, Lubrizol Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, Ohio Arts Council, The Laub Foundation, John P. Murphy Foundation, Eva L. and Joseph M. Bruening Foundation, Bascom Little Fund, Cuyahoga County ACE Grant, AHS Foundation, Francine Pilloff, Charles and Sandy Abookire, Millie L. Carlson, Chuck and Ann Ennis, Norma and Jeffrey Glazer, Aldona Titus.