International Evenings of Dance III

Dominika Afanasenkov

Lil Buck

Cameron Catazaro

Cameron Catazaro was born in Canton, OH and began his dance training at the School of Canton Ballet under the tutelage of Cassandra Crowley, Angelo Lemmo and his mother, Jennifer Catazaro Hayward. In 2017, he began training with Darla Hoover at Ballet Academy East in New York City on full scholarship. There, he was awarded the prestigious David Howard Foundation Scholarship and performed the lead in George Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht. In 2018, Cameron was accepted into Miami City Ballet School on a full scholarship, where he performed the lead role in George Balanchine’s Serenade. In 2023, he was included in Dance Magazine’s yearly top 25 to watch.

He joined MCB as a corps de ballet dancer in 2019, was promoted to Soloist in 2023, and principal soloist in 2024.

Preston Chamblee

Preston Chamblee was born in Wendell, North Carolina and began his dance training at the age of 14 at the Raleigh School of Ballet under Mary Legere and Pablo Perez. He continued his training at the International Ballet Academy in Apex, North Carolina from 2010 to 2013. Mr. Chamblee studied at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, during the 2012 and 2013 summer courses, and enrolled as a full-time student in 2013. Mr. Chamblee was named an apprentice with NYCB in August 2014 and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in February 2015. Mr. Chamblee was promoted to the rank of soloist in January 2022.

Michelle Dorrance

Michelle Dorrance

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

Daisy Kate Jacobson

Colin Jacobsen

Colin Jacobsen is a violinist, composer, and Artistic Director of Santa Fe Pro Musica whose work is driven by a passion for collaboration, storytelling, and musical exploration. As a founding member of the acclaimed string quartet Brooklyn Rider and the orchestral collective The Knights, Jacobsen has become known for creating bold, genre-defying performances that bring together classical music, global traditions, and contemporary voices in fresh and unexpected ways. His wide-ranging collaborations have included artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Philip Glass, Béla Fleck, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Kayhan Kalhor, reflecting a career shaped by curiosity and artistic openness.

In addition to his chamber and ensemble work, Jacobsen has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony, and has toured internationally with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble since its founding in 2000. His compositions draw inspiration from musical traditions around the world and have been commissioned and performed by leading artists and ensembles internationally. Jacobsen is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

View full bio here.

Photo by Marco Giannavola

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.

Kayla Mak

Kayla Mak is an apprentice member of American Ballet Theatre, joining in the fall of 2025 shortly after graduating from Juilliard with a BFA in Dance. At Juilliard, she performed works by today’s leading choreographers, including Justin Peck, Caili Quan, Jamar Roberts, and Shen Wei, in addition to receiving a grounding in the techniques of José Limón, Martha Graham, and other foundational dance figures. Before joining the main company, Mak danced with the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, performing a wide range of ballet repertory, from Twyla Tharp to Balanchine, along with works by contemporary ballet voices. Kayla reached a global audience through appearances on NBC’s World of Dance, at the Vail Dance Festival, and through other professional performance opportunities. Mak recently became a recipient of the 2025 Princess Grace Award for dance performance.

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. 

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. 

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.

Ron Myles

Ron Myles (Performer) admits that he has always been one looking to “shine in front of a camera.” Born and raised in the city of Memphis TN. As a kid Myles developed a passion for music. Influencers such as his dad, older brother and childhood friend, would have sessions of free-style rapping or sitting in on sessions to watch and learn. Growing up around the best of Memphis artists such as 3–6 mafia, 8ball and MJG, Issac Hayes,The Bar-Kay’s, Kingpin Skinny Pimp and Tommy Wright the 3rd just to name a few. Taking his southern ways of rap to California in 2009 where he initially branched himself out learning new cultural music becoming a self writer. Much time was spent for Myles working with various producers perfecting his craft along the way. This young and talented artist sets himself for higher grounds working alongside super producer Timothy (Bos) Bullock. Working together these two has created heat during score sessions for featured films as well for the KPop industry. As of today Myles has released a few singles Babbage,Boss Moves and Michael Jackson from his upcoming EP (Orange Mound Baby) where you will find what it’s like to be a part of what he calls “Yachts World” giving a taste of new trap sounds from the dirty south and taking it globally.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Melissa Toogood

Melissa Toogood has been a prominent presence on the Vail stage since 2015. She is a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie)–winning, internationally recognized dancer and master teacher celebrated for her work with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, where she was one of the last dancers to work directly with Cunningham himself. A 2013 and 2015 Merce Cunningham Fellow and an official stager for the Merce Cunningham Trust, Melissa has taught his technique worldwide since 2007 and continues to stage his work for renowned companies, including the Stephen Petronio Company and the Washington Ballet. Most notably, Melissa is a longtime dancer with choreographer Pam Tanowitz, where she also served as Rehearsal Director and Artistic Associate, assisting on new works for major institutions such as The Australian Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, The Royal Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company and others. Melissa’s freelance career spans performances with leading artists including Tanowitz, Kyle Abraham, Kimberly Bartosik, Michelle Dorrance, Rosie Herrera, Jodi Melnick, Rashaun Mitchell, Jamar Roberts, Sally Silvers, Bobbi Jene Smith, Christopher Williams, the Bang Group: Tap Lab, and the Stephen Petronio Company. Her own work has been commissioned by Boston Ballet, New York Theater Ballet, and the Vail Dance Festival. She most recently premiered Johnny Loves Johann, a collaborative creation and performance led by violinist Johnny Gandelsman, with John Heginbotham, Caili Quan, and Jamar Roberts. In 2025, Melissa was appointed Dean and Director of the Juilliard Dance Division and continues to shape the future of dance through education and mentorship.

Derek Wang

With virtuosity and “enviable idiomatic rigor” (The Wall Street Journal) at the service of “pure poetry” (Seen and Heard International), pianist Derek Wang is drawing increasing acclaim in the roles of soloist, collaborator, curator, and communicator. A proponent of the music of Franz Liszt, Derek was awarded second prize at the 12th International Liszt Competition (Liszt Utrecht) in the Netherlands in 2022, which followed on the heels of first prize at the inaugural New York Liszt Competition in 2021. He held a three-summer-long fellowship position as pianist of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival under conductors Donald Crockett and Timothy Weiss, performing a total of over fifty works of the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2025, Derek began a role as Creative Enterprise Fellow at Juilliard, curating a range of programs including sesquicentennial celebrations of composer Charles Ives and poet Rainer Maria Rilke, an interdisciplinary program interweaving ecological texts with George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale), and an all-Philip Glass marathon concert on the composer’s 88th birthday. Derek holds degrees from Juilliard and from the Yale School of Music. His principal teachers have included Stephen Hough, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Matti Raekallio, and Boris Slutsky. He continues his studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover, Germany in the studio of Arie Vardi. Derek returns to the Vail Dance Festival in 2025 after last summer’s performances in premiere works by Lauren Lovette, with music by Caroline Shaw, and by Tiler Peck, with music by Meredith Monk. The latter work, danced by Aran Bell, was reprised to critical acclaim at the Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center. For more information and the latest concert schedule, please visit www.derek-wang.com.