International Evenings of Dance I

Celebrate the Beat

A free arts education dance program in partnership with the Vail Dance Festival, Celebrate the Beat Eagle County. Pop Hop is a one-week program focused on teamwork, creativity, and the joy of accomplishment through dance. This program culminates in a performance at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater during Vail Dance Festival’s International Evenings of Dance.

Robbie Fairchild

ROBBIE FAIRCHILD made his Tony nominated Broadway debut in 2015 as Jerry Mulligan in the Tony Award-winning musical An American in Paris, which he reprised in London’s West End in 2017. He was awarded the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theater World, National Dance and Astaire Award for this performance and was nominated for the Evening Standard and Drama League Awards. From 2009 to 2017, Fairchild performed as a Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet. His other theater credits include Monster in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (Signature Theater, Chita Rivera Award), Harry Beaton in Brigadoon (New York City Center), Will Parker in Oklahoma! (Royal Albert Hall, London), Mike Costa in A Chorus Line(Hollywood Bowl), and Bill Calhoun in Kiss Me Kate (Roundabout Theater Company’s 2017 Gala). Television: Étoile (Prime Video), Soundtrack (Netflix), Mixtape (FOX Pilot), Julie’s Greenroom (Netflix), Oklahoma! (BBC Proms), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Carousel Boy in NY Philharmonic’s Carousel (PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center), Dancing With The Stars, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Live with Kelly and Michael, CBS Sunday Morning, and 60 Minutes. Film: Tom Hooper’s Cats, An American in Paris Live (West End Production), The Chaperone and NY Export: Opus Jazz. Represented by CAA. @robbiefairchild

Roman Mejia

Roman Mejia is a Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas and began studying ballet at age 3 with his mother and father. At age 13, he entered the Mejia Ballet Academy. He attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet, NYCB’s official school, in 2014 and 2015, before entering SAB full-time for the 2015 winter term. In August 2017, he became an apprentice with NYCB and he joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in November 2017. He was promoted to Soloist in October 2021 and to Principal Dancer in February 2023. His repertory with NYCB includes featured roles in numerous ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon, and he has also originated featured roles in ballets by Kyle Abraham, Silas Farley, Edwaard Liang, Peck, Ratmansky, and Gianna Reisen. 

Outside of NYCB, Mejia was the 2022 Vail Dance Festival Artist in Residence, and he has appeared in Twyla Tharp’s TWYLA NOW and with Tiler Peck at New York City Center and Sadler’s Wells in London.  

In 2019, Dance Magazine featured Mejia as one of their “25 To Watch,” and he was also the recipient of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA Dance Fellowship. In 2020, Mejia was a finalist for the Clive Barnes Award. 

Mira Nadon

MIRA NADON was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and began her ballet training at the age of six at the Inland Pacific Ballet Academy in Montclair, California. She attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of NYCB, in 2014 and 2015, before entering SAB full-time for the 2015 winter term. In November 2017, Ms. Nadon became an apprentice with NYCB and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in November 2018. Ms. Nadon was promoted to the rank of soloist in January 2022, and to principal in February 2023. Nadon has performed featured roles in ballets by Kyle Abraham, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Sidra Bell, Ulysses Dove, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Peter Martins, Justin Peck, Tiler Peck, Alysa Pires, Alexei Ratmansky, Pam Tanowitz, and Christopher Wheeldon. Her awards include the 2021 Clive Barnes Award in Dance, the 2022 Princess Grace Award, and the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Tiler Peck

Tiler Peck has been a Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet since 2009. She made her Broadway debut at age 11 as Gracie Shinn in The Music Man and was seen on Broadway as Ivy Smith in the Tony Nominated On The Town. She originated the title role in Susan Stroman’s newest musical Little Dancer at the Kennedy Center and is attached to star in the Broadway production. Tiler made her choreographic debut at the Vail Dance Festival in 2018 and has gone on to choreograph and appear in episodes of Tiny Pretty Things and Ray Donovan, for the Boston Ballet and the box office smash hit film John Wick 3. She has also appeared on Dancing with the Stars, the Kennedy Center Honors and Live From Lincoln Center’s The Nutcracker and Carousel, Disney+’s The Hip Hop Nutcracker, and Josh Groban’s Great Big Radio City Show PBS special. As a guest star, she was the first ballerina ever to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. In film she has starred in “Ballet Now”, a Hulu documentary that followed her as she became the first woman to curate and star in The Los Angeles Music Center’s presentation ofBalletNOW, “Ballet 422”, “A Time for Dancing”, and “Donnie Darko”. She is a recipient of the Princess Grace Statue Award, The Dance Magazine Award and was named one of Forbes 30 under 30. She curated and directed the highly anticipated inaugural Artists at the Center for New York City Center that made it’s European debut as Turn It Out With Tiler Peck & Friend and received an Olivier Awards nomination. Most recently, she choreographed her first ballet for New York City Ballet, Concerto for Two Pianos. 

To keep the dance world connected during the pandemic, Tiler developed a free ballet class #TurnItOutWithTiler that airs on her Instagram. She is the designer of the Love,Tiler collection for Só Dança. She has released two children’s books with Simon & Schuster: Katarina Ballerina and Katarina Ballerina & The Victory Dance. Most recently, Ms. Peck has been seen as a recurring guest star on Amazon Prime’s newest tv show Étoile. 

More on Tiler at www.tilerpeck.com. Tiler can be found on Instagram & TikTok via @TilerPeck.

Ryan Tomash

This past fall, New York City Ballet welcomed to the ranks Soloist Ryan Tomash, who moved to the Big Apple from Copenhagen, where he was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet. Following a busy fall, which included a number of repertory debuts as well as originating a role in Jamar Roberts’ Foreseeable Future; the many wondrous delights of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker^®; and a jam-packed winter, including performances in the latest works from Resident Choreographer Justin Peck and Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky—The Wind-Up and The Naked King, respectively—Tomash was promoted to the rank of principal dancer.

We spoke to the Canadian dancer about his career prior to joining the company, how his first few months have gone, and what he likes best about the city, among other things. Get to know Ryan Tomash better before he takes the stage again this spring.

India Bradley

India Bradley was born in Detroit, Michigan and began her dance training at the age of four at The Link School of the Arts in Troy, Michigan. At the age of eleven, she attended the Academy of Russian Classical Ballet in Novi, Michigan, under the direction of Sergey Rayevitskey.

Ms. Bradley attended the summer program at Dance Theatre of Harlem in 2012, and entered DTH’s Professional Training Program under the direction of Andrea Long that fall.

She attended the 2014 summer session at the School of American Ballet, NYCB’s official school, and enrolled as a full-time student later that year.

Ms. Bradley was named an apprentice in August 2017 and joined the Company as a member of the Corps de Ballet in August 2018. As an apprentice, she performed a featured role in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®.

Ms. Bradley was promoted to the rank of soloist in October 2025.

Philip Duclos

Philip Duclos is a soloist with The Royal Danish Ballet. He joined the company as a member of the corps de ballet in 2022, and was promoted to soloist in 2025. He has danced roles such as Prince Desiré in the Sleeping Beauty, Albrecht in Giselle, one of the principal men in Harald Lander’s Études, Melancholic in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, the Sugarplum Cavalier in Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Benno in Swan Lake, and the Premier Danseur in August Bournonville’s Kermesse in Bruges. He has also danced featured roles in Raymonda, Don Quixote, Wayne McGregor’s Dante Project, John Neumeier’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Alexei Ratmansky’s The Art of the Fugue. He was also awarded the Ballettens Venner Talent Prize in the spring of 2025. 

Calvin Royal III

Calvin Royal III is an acclaimed internationally recognized Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre. After starting ballet at age 14, he gained recognition as a finalist in the Youth America Grand Prix in New York City, which led to a scholarship at ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. Within two years, he was promoted to ABT II, and his subsequent growth earned him a position with ABT Main Company in 2010, nominations for the Clive Barnes Award and the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship. Calvin has performed star turns throughout his tours with ABT worldwide including the ABT seasons at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City – as the title role in George Balanchine’s Apollo, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, The Prince in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Count Albrecht in Giselle, and has worked with notable choreographers such as Twyla Tharp, Justin Peck, Helen Pickett, Benjamin Millepied, Alonzo King, Mark Morris, Wayne McGreggor, Kyle Abraham, Michelle Dorrance, Jamar Roberts, and many more. In 2017, he was promoted to Soloist, and in 2020, Calvin made history as the third African-American to become Principal Dancer in ABT’s 81-year history. Calvin was the 2020/21 Artist-in-Residence at Vail Dance Festival, and in 2024, he curated and co-produced the Joyce Theater’s Ballet Festival program UNITE. His journey reflects resilience, mentorship, and the transformative power of dance. For more visit calvinroyaliii.com and follow Calvin on all social media platforms @calvinroyaliii

Veronika Rakitina

Vladyslav Detiuchenko and Veronika Rakitina are a contemporary dance duo from Ukraine. Vlad creates the choreography,  and together with Veronika they perform on stage.

Vlad was born in Kremenchuk and graduated from the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. He later became a leading soloist with Kyiv Modern Ballet. Veronika was born in Khmelnytskyi and graduated from the Kharkiv High College of Art, after which she joined Kyiv Opera Ballet.

Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they were forced to relocate to the Netherlands, where they joined the United Ukrainian Ballet and began integrating into the Dutch dance community while further developing their own artistic voice.

During this period, they established themselves as an independent creative duo and began collaborating with Korzo, Senf Production, Nederlands Dansdagen, and other Dutch production companies and festivals. They have also worked with Igone de Jongh, former principal dancer of the Dutch National Ballet, contributing choreography for her projects performed at the Royal Theatre Carré in Amsterdam.

In 2024, Vlad and Veronika were nominated for the Piket Kunstprijzen for their contribution to the cultural life of The Hague. In 2025, they became winners of Holland’s Got Talent. That same year, they created the large-scale project Wings of Light in collaboration with renowned photographer Pieter Henket. In 2026, the duo presented their first major tour, spanning approximately 40 cities across the Netherlands, with their dance program Revelation.

Most recently, they created a choreographic piece for the National Liberation Day Concert, which was broadcast online on Dutch national television to an audience of over 2 million viewers.

Vladyslav Detiuchenko

Vladyslav Detiuchenko and Veronika Rakitina are a contemporary dance duo from Ukraine. Vlad creates the choreography,  and together with Veronika they perform on stage.

Vlad was born in Kremenchuk and graduated from the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. He later became a leading soloist with Kyiv Modern Ballet. Veronika was born in Khmelnytskyi and graduated from the Kharkiv High College of Art, after which she joined Kyiv Opera Ballet.

Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they were forced to relocate to the Netherlands, where they joined the United Ukrainian Ballet and began integrating into the Dutch dance community while further developing their own artistic voice.

During this period, they established themselves as an independent creative duo and began collaborating with Korzo, Senf Production, Nederlands Dansdagen, and other Dutch production companies and festivals. They have also worked with Igone de Jongh, former principal dancer of the Dutch National Ballet, contributing choreography for her projects performed at the Royal Theatre Carré in Amsterdam.

In 2024, Vlad and Veronika were nominated for the Piket Kunstprijzen for their contribution to the cultural life of The Hague. In 2025, they became winners of Holland’s Got Talent. That same year, they created the large-scale project Wings of Light in collaboration with renowned photographer Pieter Henket. In 2026, the duo presented their first major tour, spanning approximately 40 cities across the Netherlands, with their dance program Revelation.

Most recently, they created a choreographic piece for the National Liberation Day Concert, which was broadcast online on Dutch national television to an audience of over 2 million viewers.

Catherine Hurlin

Born in New York City, Catherine Hurlin joined ABT as an apprentice in December 2013 and the corps de ballet in June 2014.  She was promoted to Soloist in September 2018 and to Principal In 2022. Her repertoire with the Company includes principal roles such as Kitri in Don Quixote, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Juliet in Sir Kenneth MacMillian’s Romeo and Juliet, Giselle and Myrta in Giselle, Lescaut’s Mistress in Manon, Lead Maiden in Firebird, and created the principal role Calirhoe in Alexi Ratmanski’s Of Love and Rage. She also performed leading roles in works by Twyla Tharp, Wayne McGregor, Jessica Lang, Mark Morris, Michelle Dorrance, Benjamin Millepied, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, George Balanchine and Alexei Ratmansky.

Brooks Landegger

Brooks Landegger recently joined American Ballet Theatre and has danced as a Principal Guest Artist for Czech National Ballet and New York City Ballet.Born in New York, Landegger began his training at School of American Ballet under Jock Soto, Arch Higgins, and Andrei Krameravsky. He performed the Children’s Repertory at NYCB, The Metropolitan Opera, and starred nationally as an award-winning Billy Elliot. Landegger later joined Boston Ballet II under Peter Stark, where he was awarded by National YoungArts Foundation, and Miami City Ballet under Lourdes Lopez, where he was named a Knight Arts Champion for his contributions to the cultural community of South Florida.His Repertory includes John Cranko’s Romeo & Juliet (Romeo), Alexei Ratmansky’s Swan Lake (Prince Siegfried), and many principal roles in the works of Balanchine and Robbins. He has been featured in The Art of Partnering with Peter Martins and as Fritz in Live from Lincoln Center’s George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. Landegger is delighted to return to Vail Dance Festival.

Sara Mearns

SARA MEARNS, Columbia, SC, principal dancer New York City Ballet since 2008. Originated roles with choreographers Justin Peck, Kyle Abraham, Alexei Ratmansky, Pam Tanowitz, Bobbi Jene Smith, Christopher Wheeldon, Guillaume Cote, Beth Gill, among others. Guest Performer: Paul Taylor Dance Company, The Cunningham Centennial Celebration, Jodi Melnick Dance, Bill T Jones/Lee Ming Wei, and Wang Ramirez. At NYCC, she starred in Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes, Encores! I Married An Angel, and Twyla Now as well as multiple Fall for Dances, and performed Dances of Isadora Duncan at Lincoln Center. At The Joyce in 2022, Sara performed a full evening with five world premier pieces, titled “A piece of Work”, awarded the Bessie Award for outstanding performer in 2018, awarded the Dance Magazine Award in 2019, and an Honorary Doctorate University of South Carolina in 2019. 

Gilbert Bolden III

Gilbert Bolden III is a Soloist with New York City Ballet. He was born in San Diego, California and began dancing at the age of nine in Las Vegas, Nevada. His ballet training began in 2011 at Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, CA, and he continued his studies at The Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia, PA in 2013. In 2014, Mr. Bolden enrolled at the School of American Ballet, NYCB’s official school. He became an apprentice with the Company in August 2017, joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in August 2018, and was promoted to Soloist in October 2023. Since joining the company Mr. Bolden has originated featured roles in ballets by Justin Peck, Silas Farley, and Gianna Reisen. He has also been featured in many works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. 

Brooklyn Rider

Johnny Gandelsman, violin
Colin Jacobsen, violin
Nicholas Cords, viola
Michael Nicolas, cello

“A string quartet of boundless imagination.”—NPR

Celebrating twenty years of shared musical exploration, Brooklyn Rider originated in a living room, four friends in search of an outlet for their curiosities. Inspired by the probing spirit of Germany’s pre-WW1 artistic collective Der Blaue Reiter, they recognized parallels with their creative community in Brooklyn at the time and began to build projects. In the following two decades, Brooklyn Rider has undertaken a staggering amount of work, carving a singular space in the world of string quartets. Through thoughtful programmatic framing, deep-rooted collaborations, and innovative commissioning projects, Brooklyn Rider has used the medium at every point in their adventurous journey as a vehicle for exploration and discovery. Inspired equally by the rich repertoire of the past and the limitless canvas of new creation, Brooklyn Rider seeks to create meaningful and memorable experiences for their audiences.

To mark the twenty year milestone, a wide range of projects are on the horizon for 2025 and beyond that celebrate the key elements of their work. Honoring a long-standing relationship with the string quartets of Philip Glass (String Quartet # 3, Mishima was on Brooklyn Rider’s first public program), Brooklyn Rider has embarked on the first ever retrospective of the composer’s complete works for the medium. Initially presented by the Yale Schwarzman Center this past fall, the retrospective is next happening in May 2025 at the Met Cloisters in NYC before heading further afield. A major commission by Gabriela Lena Frank, Frida’s Dreams is due for the 2025-26 season. A forthcoming recording, The Four Elements (slated for May 2025) servesas a dual metaphor for the complex inner world of the string quartet and the future of planet Earth, the latest example of the kind of programmatic concept long associated with Brooklyn Rider. The quartet expands their reach into the orchestral world in future seasons with a new work for quartet and orchestra by Nico Muhly, to be presented by a wide ranging consortium of orchestras across Europe and North America. Lastly, a special concert at Tanglewood this August will feature the Schubert Cello Quintet as the centerpiece alongside the quartet’s friend and mentor Yo-Yo Ma.

The beginning days of Brooklyn Rider’s history included numerous self-produced concerts events, and the quartet has since cherished the live performance experience in its many guises. In more recent years, the quartet has made regular appearances in many of the major musical centers of North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia – from Zurich’s Tonhalle, Carnegie Hall, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Sydney Opera House, the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Comfortable in a wide range of performance outlets, they have also appeared on the main stage of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, at Austin’s South By Southwest Music Festival, and in two NPR Tiny Desk Concerts. Brooklyn Rider has been the long-standing resident string quartet of the Vail Dance Festival, collaborating with many of the finest dancers and choreographers of our time. They have also been privileged to use the balming powers of music at deeply challenging moments along the way. The quartet made a special appearance at a Buddhist Temple in the decimated fishing village of Kesennuma, Japan in the months following the devastating 2011 tsunami. Most recently, Brooklyn Rider played an all Glass concert at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills in the midst of the 2025 Los Angeles area fires.

Brooklyn Rider has remained steadfast in their commitment to generate new music for string quartet at every phase of their history. Through commissioning, collaborative exploration, and the inimitable works of BR’s own Colin Jacobsen, the quartet has left a lasting contribution tothe repertoire. Shared at the height of the US lockdown, the Grammy®- nominated recording and commissioning project Healing Modes (In A Circle Records) was described by The New Yorker as a project which “…could not possibly be more relevant or necessary than it is currently.” The upcoming season will unveil a new program called Citizenship Notes with commissioned works by Don Byron, Ted Hearne, and Angélica Negrón.

Brooklyn Rider has had a voracious appetite for collaboration since their inception, encapsulating their wide-ranging projects and programmatic frames and giving rise to NPR Music’s observation that Brooklyn Rider is “recreating the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble.” The Butterfly (In A Circle Records), an album which the Irish Times described as “a masterclass in risk-taking,” explored a collaboration with the legendary Irish fiddler Martin Hayes. The 2021-22 season boasted two unique partnerships: one with Israeli mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital, and the other a new chapter of work with Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter (following So Many Things on Naïve Records, 2016). 2022’s The Stranger (Avie Records) with tenor Nicholas Phan was nominated for a 2023 Grammy® award and made numerous best-of lists, including The New Yorker. In fall 2018, Brooklyn Rider released Dreamers on Sony Music Masterworks with Mexican jazz vocalist Magos Herrera which topped charts and garnered a Grammy® nomination for best arrangement (Gonzalo Grau’s “Niña”). Other collaborators include former NYC Ballet prima ballerina Wendy Whelan, banjo icon Béla Fleck, jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman, Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, and the Iranian kemancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor.

Michael Scales

Michael Scales is a musician for dance in New York City, where he serves as pianist at New York City Ballet, the School of American Ballet, and formerly at American Ballet Theatre and New York Theatre Ballet. Michael is pianist for Vail Dance Festival, and has collaborated with Martha Graham Dance Company and Limón Dance Company. Michael has performed at numerous venues around New York City including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, NY City Center, the 92nd Street Y, Rockefeller Center, and in halls across the country and internationally. Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with Dr. Maria Asteriadou, and a Masters of Music degree from James Madison University, where he studied with Dr. Lori Piitz.

Alberta Khoury

Coming from Australia, Dr. Khoury began her undergraduate studies at the Juilliard School with Sharon Isbin, awarded a full scholarship by the Augustine Foundation. She completed her Master of Music degree in Juilliard’s Accelerated Program and was the first guitarist to have been awarded the prestigious Kovner Fellowship. Dr. Khoury was the first guitarist to receive the William Schuman prize for distinguished musicianship and leadership in the Juilliard School. She has been heard at an event graced by Her Majesty Queen Sofía of Spain at the Metropolitan Club and the University Club.

She served as a Student Ambassador for Juilliard and in 2019, Dr. Khoury was an invited artist at the Vail Dance Festival. She was the first guitarist have been accepted and to have graduated from the Doctor of Musical Arts program at Juilliard. Her dissertation “Music in Every Corner: Expanding the Roles of the Classical Guitar” explores community engagement with her instrument. She performed at City Center in 2021 in the Fall for Dance Festival and her performance was described by the New York Times as “A seven-minute tour de force.” In 2022, she was awarded the Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach. She was one of the featured composers for Juilliard New Dances: Edition 2023 collaborating with choreographer Lauren Lovette. In 2024, she was awarded the Joseph W. Polisi Prize for exemplifying Juilliard’s values of the “artist as citizen” to a graduating student in Dance, Drama, and Music. She currently serves as faculty and staff at the Juilliard School and at Kaufman Music Center and performs, composes, and teaches in New York City.

Dario Natarelli

Dario Natarelli is a New York-based performer, choreographer, and dance educator specializing in tap dance. This is his 10th year as an artist at Vail Dance Festival, and he is honored to be dancing in the mountains with everyone again. Broadway/Off-Broadway credits include Justin Peck’s Illinoise (OBC), Masquerade (World’s 1st Immersive Musical), three Encores! musicals (Oliver!, Wonderful Town, The Tap Dance Kid), Tappin’ Thru Life with Maurice Hines, Fall For Dance soloist and co-choreographer with Michelle Dorrance, Ayodele Casel’s Artists at The Center. Other credits: Park Avenue Armory, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Postmodern Jukebox, Maestro (Netflix), SNL, Sugar Hill Nutcracker, Breaking Brooklyn (film), Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, national commercials, staging at Juilliard, and work with Jared Grimes, Michelle Dorrance, Joshua Bergasse, Damian Woetzel, Debbie Allen, and more. Dario is a graduate of LaGuardia High School and earned his BFA in Musical Theatre from Penn State. He is also the founder of the hand-dyed yarn brand, Knitarelli. Deepest thanks to his teachers and supporters, especially his late mentor, Robert L. Reed, who always said, “Respect the Dance.”

Lil Buck

Lauren Lovette

Lauren Lovette personifies the intertwining of dance and choreography, moving seamlessly from one to the other. Her work has been commissioned and performed by leading dance companies and festivals, including the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, the Vail International Dance Festival, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Nevada Ballet Theatre, Juilliard, Oregon Ballet Theater, Colorado Ballet, as well as a self-produced evening entirely of her own work in which she also danced, Why It Matters.

Born in Thousand Oaks, California, Lovette began studying ballet at the age of 11 at the Cary Ballet Conservatory in Cary, North Carolina. She enrolled at SAB as a full time student in 2006. In October 2009, Ms. Lovette became an apprentice with NYCB and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in September 2010. Promoted to soloist in February 2013 and to principal dancer in June 2015, she stepped down from her position at the company in 2021 in order to embark on a career devoted to dance and choreography in more equal measure. She is now the choreographer in residence at the Paul Taylor Dance Company and performs as a guest principal dancer around the world.

Ms. Lovette received the Clive Barnes Award for dance in December 2012 and was the 2012-2013 recipient of the Janice Levin Award.

Anne-Marie McDermott

One of the most dazzling American pianists of her generation, Anne-Marie McDermott has played concertos, recitals, and chamber music in hundreds of cities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is one of the most versatile, respected, and best-reviewed pianists of our time. McDermott continues her tenure as music and artistic director of the Bravo! Vail music festival, in Colorado, through 2026, which hosts world-renowned artists and orchestras from around the world. She is also the artistic director of the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival, in Florida; the artistic director of the McKnight Center’s Chamber Music Festival, at Oklahoma State University; and a former curator of the Mainly Mozart Spotlight Series, in San Diego.

Highlights of McDermott’s 2024-25 season include three performances of the Piano Concerto by the 20th-century American composer Amy Cheney Beach with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, with which she makes her subscription debut, and with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA); her debut in Galway, Ireland, performing music by Bach, Busoni, and Brahms at a Music for Galway recital; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra (KY); Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Des Moines Symphony, Palm Beach Symphony, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA (WA); performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, and on tour in Chicago, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, Ashland (OR), and Vienna (VA); a special chamber music program at the New World Symphony, in Miami Beach, that includes Mozart’s Quintet in E-flat major and Olivier Messiaen’s wartime masterwork Quartet for the End of Time; performances as a member of the SPA Trio—with soprano Susanna Phillips and violist Paul Neubauer—at the Rockefeller University (New York City), and at Arizona Friends of Chamber Music (Tucson); and a chamber music program at the McKnight Center for the Performing Arts, in Stillwater (OK).

McDermott’s 2023-24 season included performances with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, both resulting in immediate re-engagements. She also performed Mozart with the New York Philharmonic at the McKnight Center in Stillwater. Recent international highlights include recitals in France at the famed Piano aux Jacobins, in Toulouse; performances with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra at the Cartagena International Music Festival; and an all-Haydn recital tour of China.

Chloe Misseldine

Chloe Misseldine began her classical training at Orlando Ballet School.  She attended ABT Summer Intensives in Orange County, California, and New York City as a National Training Scholar from 2016–2018.  In 2016, she performed a traditional Chinese fan dance called Mo Li Hua in the CCTV New Year’s Gala known as the Beijing Spring Festival Gala (Chunwan), broadcast to over 700 million viewers.  At age 15, Misseldine earned second place in the 2017 Youth America Grand Prix New York City Finals and performed at the YAGP “Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow” Gala.  In 2018, she was named a finalist at the Prix de Lausanne and joined American Ballet Theatre Studio Company.

Misseldine became an apprentice with American Ballet Theatre in December 2019 and joined the corps de ballet in September 2021. She was promoted to Soloist in September 2022 and to Principal Dancer in July 2024. Her repertoire includes a Flower Girl in Don Quixote, Myrta in Giselle, Rosaura in Like Water for Chocolate, Night Falls, Clara, the Princess, one of the Nutcracker’s Sisters, and the Spanish dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Queen of Babylon in Of Love and Rage, Tatiana in Onegin, Rosaline and Lady Montague in Romeo and Juliet, Ice in The Seasons, Odette/Odile, the pas de trois, and a big swan in Swan Lake, “Becomings” in Woolf Works, leading roles in Ballet Imperial, La Boutique, and Sylvia Pas de Deux, and featured roles in Bernstein in a Bubble, La Follia Variations, Petite Mort, and Songs of Bukovina.

Takumi Miyake

Courtesy of American Ballet Theatre Takumi Miyake was born in Kagawa, Japan, and began his training under his mother at the age of three. He has won first place in many major national competitions in Japan. In 2017, he took part in Youth American Grand Prix where he won first place and received a full scholarship to The Royal Ballet School. He studied at The Royal Ballet School from September 2017 to July 2022, having received The London Ballet Circle Dame Ninette Award for the most outstanding male graduate of The Royal Ballet School that year. Miyake joined ABT Studio Company in September 2022. In 2023, he performed the Flames of Paris pas de deux as part of Natalia Osipova’s Force of Nature Gala at New York City Center and partnered Maria Khoreva in the Le Corsaire pas de trois at the Nervi International Dance Festival in Italy. Miyake became an apprentice with the main Company in November 2023 and joined the corps de ballet in July 2024. He was promoted to Soloist in September 2025. His repertoire includes Principal role in Études, Chinese dance in Nutcracker, Benno and the Neapolitan Dance in Swan Lake and roles in all the Company’s full-length ballets.

Yoon Jung Seo

Seo joined American Ballet Theatre Studio Company in September 2019, became an apprentice with the main Company in November 2021, and joined the corps de ballet in February 2022.

Caroline Shaw // Composer-In-Residence

Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She works often in collaboration with others, as producer, composer, violinist, and vocalist. Caroline is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. This year’s projects include the score to “Fleishman is in Trouble” (FX/Hulu), vocal work with Rosalía (MOTOMAMI), the score to Josephine Decker’s “The Sky Is Everywhere” (A24/Apple), music for the National Theatre’s production of “The Crucible” (dir. Lyndsey Turner), Justin Peck’s “Partita” with NY City Ballet, a new stage work “LIFE” (Gandini Juggling/Merce Cunningham Trust), the premiere of “Microfictions Vol. 3” for NY Philharmonic and Roomful of Teeth, a live orchestral score for Wu Tsang’s silent film “Moby Dick” co-composed with Andrew Yee, two albums on Nonesuch (“Evergreen” and “The Blue Hour”), the score for Helen Simoneau’s dance work “Delicate Power”, tours of Graveyards & Gardens (co-created immersive theatrical work with Vanessa Goodman), and tours with So Percussion featuring songs from “Let The Soil Play Its Simple Part” (Nonesuch), amid occasional chamber music appearances as violist (Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, La Jolla Music Society). Caroline has written over 100 works in the last decade, for Anne Sofie von Otter, Davóne Tines, Yo Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, LA Phil, Philharmonia Baroque, Seattle Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Aizuri Quartet, The Crossing, Dover Quartet, Calidore Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Miro Quartet, I Giardini, Ars Nova Copenhagen, Ariadne Greif, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Britt Festival, and the Vail Dance Festival. She has contributed production to albums by Rosalía, Woodkid, and Nas. Her work as vocalist or composer has appeared in several films, tv series, and podcasts including The Humans, Bombshell, Yellowjackets, Maid, Dark, Beyonce’s Homecoming, Tár, Dolly Parton’s America, and More Perfect. Her favorite color is yellow, and her favorite smell is rosemary. 

Davóne Tines

Davóne Tines is a Grammy-nominated creator, curator, and performer working at the intersection of opera, art song, spirituals, gospel, and protest songs. Called “a singer of immense power and fervor” by The New Yorker, his work tells deeply personal stories that connect to broader cultural histories.

He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut in John Adams’s El Niño and released his first studio album, ROBESOИ, reimagining music associated with baritone Paul Robeson. Tines has premiered operas by John Adams, Terence Blanchard, and Matthew Aucoin, and has appeared with major orchestras, performing works from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic to his own devised concertos with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. 

Tines’ honors include the 2025 Harvard Arts Medal, 2024 Chanel Next Prize, 2022 Musical America Vocalist of the Year, and the 2020 Sphinx Medal of Excellence. He is a graduate of Harvard University and The Juilliard School.

Tony Siqi Yun

The Canadian-born pianist Tony Siqi Yun, Gold Medalist at the inaugural China International Music Competition (2019) and recipient of the Rheingau Music Festival’s 2023 Lotto-Förderpreis, is rapidly establishing himself as a sought-after soloist and recitalist. Praised as a “poet of the keyboard” (Pianist Magazine), his performances have drawn acclaim for their thrilling artistry and “interpretive flashes that point to an emergent big personality: moments of grandness or deep expressivity” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

Upcoming recital highlights include debut performances at Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Koerner Hall Toronto, the Ravinia Festival, and Davies Symphony Hall at the San Francisco Symphony. He will also return to the Vancouver Recital Society and Muziekcentrum Ghent in Belgium. Orchestral engagements feature his debut with the Louisville Orchestra under Robert Spano performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and a return to the Orchestre Métropolitain with Glass Marcano playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Recent appearances include performances with the Nashville Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony, collaborating with conductors Giancarlo Guerrero, Daniel Harding, Jacek Kaspszyk, and Christoph König, among others.

In the 2023–24 season, Mr. Yun made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Orchestre Métropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, following his 2022–23 debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Toronto Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Hamilton Philharmonic, and Rhode Island Philharmonic. Past recital engagements in North America include Stanford Live, La Jolla Music Society, the Gilmore Rising Stars Series, 92nd Street Y (New York), the Vancouver Recital Society, and Friends of Chamber Music Denver. In Europe, he has performed at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Muziekcentrum Ghent, among others.

Mr. Yun graduated from The Juilliard School in 2025 and will return as an Artist Diploma candidate. He is a recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship and studies with Professors Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio.

Alex Sopp

Alex Sopp creates flowering gardens of song and clouds of harmonious flute sound, rendering dreams and reimagining portraits, channeling a state of wonder and enchantment.  Her debut album of original songs, “The Hem & The Haw” was released on New Amsterdam Records in April of 2024.  She is a founding member and flutist of yMusic, The Knights, NOW Ensemble, and Between Worlds, and has played principal flute in the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at venues such as Suntory Hall, the Ojai Festival, and the Lucerne Festival.  As a soloist, she has played works written for her by Judd Greenstein, Gabriel Kahane, Nico Muhly, Chris Thile, and Allison Loggins-Hull.  Performing iconic vocal lines and whistle solos, Alex toured the world with yMusic in support of their album with Paul Simon.  yMusic redefines the chamber ensemble as a creative voice in its own right, debuting a self-titled record of original compositions at Carnegie Hall, while creating an outpouring of arrangements and collaborations with artists such as John Legend, Ben Folds, Bruce Hornsby, and Anohni.  Her unique visual artwork, ranging from meticulously detailed pen drawings to hand painted stop motion animation has been used by musicians such as Joshua Bell and cutting edge organizations like Castle of Our Skins to bring their projects to life.