Alina Hernandez

Emerging local artists Alina Hernandez, After the Millenials, Thursdays in Suburbia, Victoria Elise, Hybrid Odyssey, Anneston, Matty Bloom and Jalen Parker have been chosen to participate in Music Forward Foundation's annual 'Bringing Down the House' artist development program which culminates with a free, live showcase for all-ages on Thursday, May 23, 2019, at The Wiltern at 7 p.m. Friends, family and fans are invited to attend and celebrate these rising young talents. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Ballet Concerto School in Miami, FL will close after 55 years. One of the oldest and arguably one of the highest quality classical ballet schools in the region, Ballet Concerto opened its doors in 1961 and subsequently Miami's first professional ballet company, Ballet Concerto Company, in 1964. The school produced some recognizable names, most notably Fernando Bujones, and the company set a precedent for classical ballet in the area by bringing the most extraordinary ballet artists of the twentieth century to South Florida for the first time. Guest artists included Rudolph Nureyev, Carla Fracci, Cynthia Gregory, Natalia Makarova, Ivan Nagy, Gelsey Kirkland, and Alexander Gudonov to name a few. Ballet Concerto will be remembered as a key player in the development of arts and culture in South Florida, especially within the Hispanic community. Artistic Directors Sonia Diaz and Martha del Pino, who defected from Ballet Nacional de Cuba, where they danced alongside Alicia Alonso and under the direction of Fernando Alonso, implemented and maintained the rigorous classical curriculum that Cuban ballet has since become known for. There is no question of the void left by the closing of this Miami establishment, mostly in the heart of the three generations, and thousands of students who studied and danced at Ballet Concerto and in the memory of those who witnessed the evolution of the cultural arts in Miami between the 1960's and 1980's, when the school and company were at its peak.