NBT Artistic Director Roy has a recommendation for those looking to explore music as an outlet for happiness during these unusual times:

I know many of us are doing our best to stay positive during this strange time; some are revisiting hobbies, virtually reconnecting with friends and family, and getting in shape by running, taking Pilates, practicing yoga, or our personal favorite, participating in online dance classes.

Music is such a wonderful (and necessary for some people) accompaniment for these activities; and so, I thought this would be the perfect time to share one of my favorite classical music albums with you: A Balanchine Album by New York City Ballet Orchestra, conducted by Robert Irving.

I’ve made the link available to you here via my Spotify account:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1tb0IGyLoCYC9idQMFqpe3?si=g_CaJulDRIu4lT5F72cq5A

Spotify is free and can be accessed via your web browser or by downloading the app onto your mobile device.

Hopefully, you will recognize the music from a couple of the ballets that NBT has performed including Serenade (Peter Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings), and most recently, The Four Temperaments (Paul Hindemith’s The Four Temperaments). The music for Emeralds (Gabriel Fauré Pelléas et Mélisande and Shylock) is also featured, part of Balanchine’s famous triptych ballet, Jewels–which NBT presented in 2012 as a first-ever collaboration between three companies: NBT, Ballet West and Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB). Lastly, the album features Agon, (Igor Stravinsky’s Agon) which I hope our company will present in the future.

As Mr. Balanchine once said, “See the music, hear the dance.”