Bright Sheng Named as NYCB Composer in Residence

[Helene]

Many thanks to kfw for finding this news and posting it in today's Links:

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...ndpost&p=172736

NYCB has announced the appointment of Bright Sheng to be its first composer in residence.

He will conduct the ballet's orchestra, take part in educational events and serve a variety of other functions. He will also compose two pieces of music that will be used for world premiere ballets during the 2007 and 2008 seasons. The residency is part of the ballet's Artist in Residence program, which began in 2000 with the intention of bringing artists of various disciplines to the company for extended periods of time.

I think this is great news for NYCB. A number of Bright Sheng's works have been performed by the Seattle Symphony, and his first opera, Madame Mao, was produced a few years ago by the Santa Fe Opera. I like his music very much; I often envisioned people moving to most of the pieces of his that I've heard.

[Michael]

They have also had Carolyn Kuan, an extraordinarily gifted young conductor as an artist in residence.

Funding, finding money for, paying for this musical talent is one of the very BEST things that City Ballet is doing. You have to look far and wide for another american company putting resources here.

I'm thinking that it's the very generous Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro Fund for Musical Excellence that is providing support for this -- from MOMA to here, the NYC arts owe this couple a major debt of gratitude. Money well spent is what drives the Arts. But it is comparatively rare to find it well spent and almost unprecedented to find it as well spent as it is being expended here (compare Cedar Lake). And as we also saw recently in the NY Observer, generosity without multliple strings attached is equally rare.