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Hugh Fiorato to be honored May 18


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This press release just in:

NEW YORK CITY BALLET TO NAME HUGO FIORATO

CONDUCTOR EMERITUS

Original Member of NYCB’s Artistic Staff Will Be Honored on Tuesday, May 18

Hugo Fiorato, the only current member of New York City Ballet’s artistic staff who has been with the Company since its founding, will be named Conductor Emeritus at a special tribute evening planned for Tuesday, May 18, 2004. Mr. Fiorato, who was concertmaster with NYCB when it was established in 1948, has been the Company’s Principal Conductor since 1989. Although he is retiring from this position, he will continue his association with the Company for future seasons, under his new title.

On May 18, the Company will perform a tribute to the music of Italy with an all-Balanchine program of Ballo della Regina, Square Dance, and La Sonnambula. Mr. Fiorato will conduct during the evening, and will be honored by the Company in a special onstage ceremony. As of that performance, he will be named Conductor Emeritus, a title that he will be the first to hold.

“Hugo Fiorato is one of City Ballet’s great treasures,” says Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief. “His respect for a score and his sensitivity to the dancers combine to make him an ideal leader of our orchestra. He is cherished by dancers and musicians alike, and it is a real pleasure to be able to honor Hugo in this way.”

Mr. Fiorato has conducted the NYCB Orchestra at the New York State Theater, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and on tour. On international tours, he has conducted various orchestras for NYCB’s performances, including the Japan Philharmonic and Lamoureux Symphonie Orchèstre de Paris.

Mr. Fiorato has also guest conducted the New York Philharmonic and the Boston, Cleveland, Miami, Houston, and Washington Symphonies, among others. He was conductor and Music Director of the Boston Ballet for eight years, and of the Long Island Symphony for three years. In addition, he has conducted command performances at the White House for Presidents Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, and Carter.

Mr. Fiorato, a native New Yorker, began studying violin at a young age and made his concert debut at the age of six at Carnegie Hall. He joined the National Orchestral Association, led by Leon Barzin, in the 1940s, and eventually became concertmaster. Barzin enlisted Mr. Fiorato’s aid when asked by Balanchine to assemble an orchestra for performances of Ballet Society. When Ballet Society became New York City Ballet, in October 1948, Mr. Fiorato was concertmaster, and he soon began conducting performances. He was named Principal Conductor in 1989.

During the 1940s and ’50s, Mr. Fiorato also was concertmaster for Leopold Stokowski, Bruno Walter, Georges Szell, and Sir Thomas Beecham. In the 1960s, he taught chamber music courses at Sarah Lawrence College, and Orchestration and Conducting at Teachers College at Columbia University. He formed and for 28 years played with the WQXR String Quartet.

Tickets for NYCB’s spring 2004 season, which runs from April 27 through June 27, are available online at www.nycballet.com, through Ticketmaster at 212-307-4100, and at the New York State Theater box office.

The New York State Theater is located on the Lincoln Center Plaza at Columbus Avenue at 63rd Street. For general information on tickets for any New York City Ballet performance, call 212-870-5570, or visit www.nycballet.com.

Leadership support of Balanchine 100: The Centennial Celebration is generously provided by Mr. and Mrs. Howard Solomon and Gillian Attfield/Harriet Ford Dickenson Foundation.

The European Festival is sponsored in part by Movado with major support from The Florence Gould Foundation for French programming.

The Balanchine Centennial Celebration is also made possible by gifts and grants from Altria Group, Inc., Perry and Marty Granoff, Geoffrey C. Hughes Foundation, Mattel, Inc., The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Ambrose Monell Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Point Gammon Foundation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Shen Family Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation.

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