The Euterpides & George Balanchine's Serenade at Television City

ACB PREMIERES THE EUTERPIDES

A new ballet – from a new Mozart?

This June American Contemporary Ballet premieres The Euterpides, a new ballet by ACB Director Lincoln Jones and composing prodigy Alma Deutscher, based on a reinvented myth of the Greek Muse of Music Euterpe, her daughters, and their musical delights. Ms. Deutscher composed her first piano sonata at the age of 5, her first violin concerto at 9, and her first full opera at 10. Zubin Mehta called her “One of the greatest musical talents of today,” while The New York Times reported on her being called “a new Mozart.” Now 20, and commissioned by ACB, she has written her first-ever ballet.

“When I’m not composing, you’ll find me dancing; it’s my other great passion, so I was over the moon when American Contemporary Ballet asked me to write a short ballet for them to premiere in June,” said Deutscher. “This project is so special because the story itself is about music.”

Deutscher will travel from Vienna to conduct the first two performances of The Euterpides.

Jones provided Deutscher with an original libretto to interpret musically. He likened their close back-and-forth collaboration to the now-rare process that created classical ballets like Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty – just as Balanchine worked with Stravinsky, but across generations and continents and with video chats, emails and sound files. Jones found the result no less satisfying. “Alma not only has the rare gift of creating beautiful melodies that stay with you, but the even rarer ability to write great dance music.”

ACB will present The Euterpides with George Balanchine’s Serenade. Widely acknowledged as his first American masterpiece, it’s been called “a work of such emotional transparency and choreographic inevitability that it feels like a gift to the world." Its groundbreaking choreography makes a breathtaking painting of Tchaikovsky's luminous score, which will be performed live by a full string orchestra.

ACB brings the program to a soundstage at Television City for a rare – and uniquely Los Angeles – ballet experience.