Building Bridges Together Program

VERB BALLETS & BLUEWATER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

BUILDING BRIDGES

together

NOV 21 7:00PM ONLINE

Kolman Rosenberg

1987

2020

“classical ballet with a dash of American modern dance�

- International Dance Critic

For over 30 years Verb Ballets has presented performances that have moved audiences and critics alike. verbballets.org

Dr. Margaret Carlson, Producing Artistic Director Richard Dickinson, MFA, Associate Artistic Director Verb Ballets Dancers Daniel Cho, Emily Dietz, Kelly Korfhage, Lieneke Matte, Antonio Morillo, Benjamin Shepard, Kate Webb Apprentices: Hunter Hoffman, Noe Iwamatsu, Julie Russel Trainees: Ashley ForchĂŠ, Elizabeth Schaeffer Guest Dancer: Robert Carter Director, Verb Ballets

Director of Marketing & PR Jennifer Garlando Video Wasted Talent Media Photography Kolman Rosenberg Jackie Sajewski Bill Naiman

Center for Dance

Richard Dickinson, MFA

Company Manager Nakiasha Moore-Dunson

Coordinator, Dance For Everyone & Youth Programs Christina Lindhout

Finance Michelle Gregorczyk

Education & Outreach Desmond Davis

Front: Kolman Rosenberg, Bill Naiman

Board of Directors President, Robert M. Shwab, CEBS Vice President, James F. Koehler Secretary, Frederick Lautzenheiser Treasurer, Mary Anne Garvey Past Presidents Jeri E. Chaikin David M. Dusek Ann Ennis James P. Farley Dr. Margaret Carlson Laura Cleveland Mario Clopton-Zymler Antwon Duncan-Milczewski James D. Graham Leslie Kaufman Debra Light Deborah L. Neale Richard Rinehart Jr. Charles Sheehe Hema Steele Anna Soskic

Advisory Board David & Carola Bamberger Millie Carlson Deborah Coleman Robert Cutler Ann Elder Deborah Glosserman Carol Griffith Linda Thomas Jones Maressa A. Kuszewski Craig Miller David Pierce Alan Miles Ruben Jeanne Shatten Donna Rae Smith Karin Stone

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Heather Holdsworth | President Marian Patterson | Secretary Leo Zimmerman | Marketing Linda Sandhaus, MD Paul R. Keen Jacob Scott, PhD, MD Sarah Scott Ken Johnston | Musician Liaison Ed Rosenberg | Advisor

Daniel Meyer | Artistic Director* Denise Starkey | Orchestra Manager* Nancy Patterson | Personnel Manager and Librarian*

* Ex-Officio

MUSICIANS VIOLIN

Ken Johnston, Concertmaster Emily Cornelius, Principal Second Susan Britton Molly Fung-Dumm Rachel Englander Liesl Hook Callista Koh Nancy Patterson Diana Pepelea Sarah Schaft Kimberly Meier Sims Koko Watanabe

VIOLA

Laura Shuster, Principal Anna Gerber James Rhodes Alexandra Vago

CELLO

BASSOON

Kent Collier, Principal Linda Atherton Derek Snyder

Phillip Austin, Principal Mark DeMio

BASS

Neil Mueller, Principal David Duro

FLUTE

Ken Wadenpfuhl, Principal Sean Yancer

OBOE

Jody Guinn

Ann Gilbert, Principal Sue Yelanjian Sean Gabriel, Principal Linda White Martin Neubert, Principal Cynthia Warren

CLARINET

TRUMPET

HORN

HARP

KEYBOARD

Elizabeth DeMio

Amitai Vardi, Principal Alix Reinhardt

bluewaterorchestra.com

Susan Bestul

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra is committed to expanding the boundaries of what a chamber orchestra can be.

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra Building Bridges Together Musicians Artistic Director | Conductor Daniel Meyer Violin 1 Solomon Liang, Guest Concertmaster * Diana Pepelea Koko Watanabe Jennifer Snyder Amber Dimoff Violin 2 Rachel Englander * Nancy Patterson Sara Schaft Liesl Hook Yejee Kim Viola Laura Shuster * James Rhodes Esther Nahm Nina Kiken Cello Linda Atherton * Julie Myers King Daniel Pereira Bass Ann Gilbert Sue Yelanjian Keyboard Elizabeth DeMio *Quartet soloists in Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony

Verb Ballets & BlueWater Chamber Orchestra Building Bridges Together November 21, 2020 7:00pm DANIEL MEYER Conductor Adagio for Two Dancers (1973)

Choreography: Heinz Poll By permission of Jane Startzman Staged by: Richard Dickinson, MFA and Jane Startzman Music: Tomaso Albinoni, Adagio for Organ and Strings, G minor Original Lighting: Thomas R. Skelton Lighting Design Adaptation: Christopher Pepe Costume Design: Janet Bolick Original premiere by Ohio Ballet in March 9,1973 in the Akron Civic Theatre Kelly Korfhage

Benjamin Shepard

Dedicated to the memory of David Fisher

Langsamer Satz

Music: Anton Webern- Langsamer Satz

Broken Bridges (2016)

Choreography: Michael Escovedo Music: Dmitri Shostakovich, Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a Lighting Design Adaptation: Christopher Pepe Costume Concept: Shawna Hinton Kate Webb Lieneke Matte Robert Carter, Daniel Cho, Kelly Korfhage, Antonio Morillo, Noe Iwamatsu, Julie Russel In honor of Bridgett Escovedo 1932-2016.

Thank you for joining us. The program length is 45 minutes.

MUSIC PROGRAM NOTES Adagio in G Minor Program Notes by McKinley Glasser

“

The Adagio’s enduring

popularity and myriad

transcriptions attest

to the music’s power, whether or not it is truly Albinoni’s.

Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751) Classical music is littered with hoaxes and intentional misattributions. There’s the work of Fritz Kreisler, the violin virtuoso who “found” concerti by Vivaldi, Bocherini and others but admitted later in life that they were his own. As recently as the 1990s, Winfried Michel threw scholars into an uproar by “discovering” six Haydn sonatas only to reveal he had secretly composed them.

Whether this is done out of modesty, mischief, or for more selfish reasons, the practice is a documented part of music history. An infamous example is the Adagio in G Minor, attributed to 18th-century Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni but composed largely by 20th-century scholar and Albinoni expert Remo Giazotto. The story goes that Giazotto found a fragment of a manuscript

by Albinoni in the Saxon State Library after the end of World War II. He copyrighted and published it in 1958 under the title “Adagio in G minor for Strings and Organ, on Two Thematic Ideas and on a Figured Bass

by Tomaso Albinoni.” Giazotto never reproduced the fragment, and toward the end of his life claimed sole credit for the piece.

Regardless of the work’s true pedigree, it has earned its place alongside authentic works by Italian masters.

The single-movement work features a hauntingly beautiful melody that takes stylistic cues from Albinoni and his Baroque contemporaries, but also favourably resembles the arias of Puccini or Mascagni. A somber descending bass grounds the ethereal solo line, lending a timeless gravitas. Perhaps this ageless dignity has led to the work’s ubiquity; it was featured in the 2016 film Manchester by the Sea, prompting New Yorker critic Anthony Lane to ask, “Should Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor not be banned onscreen? Any piece of music that has been used for Rollerball, Gallipoli, and Flashdance has, by definition, been squeezed dry.” The Adagio’s enduring popularity and myriad transcriptions attest to the music’s power, whether or not it is truly Albinoni’s.

MUSIC PROGRAM NOTES Langsamer Satz (1905) Anton Webern (1883-1945) Like many other works of art, Webern’s Langsamer Satz was born of love. In 1905, the young Austrian composer wrote in his diary, “Our love rose to infinite heights and filled the Universe. Two souls were enraptured.” He had taken a holiday hiking in the mountains surrounding Vienna with the woman who would become his wife, Wilhelmine Mörtl.

Susan Bestul

Those familiar with Webern’s mature work, with its tight, miniaturized forms, mathematical precision, and atonal angularity, will be surprised to hear such highly Romantic music. Though intended to be part of a quartet, the larger work was left unfinished, perhaps because the 21-year-old composer soon embraced the modern idioms of his mentor Arnold Schoenberg.

Langsamer Satz retains its name of “slow movement,” and is among Webern’s longest works. The music is lush, chromatic, and emotionally charged, described by some as “Tristan and Isolde compressed into 11 minutes.” It is an interesting musicological artifact of a composer’s development, but it is foremost an outpouring of a young man’s love.

“

It is an interesting

musicological artifact

of a composer’s

development, but it is foremost an outpouring of a young man’s love.

MUSIC PROGRAM NOTES Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

“

-the music’s deep

pathos resonates to

present, from the

stillness of the final hushed chords

The work performed today was originally conceived as String Quartet No. 8, and was transcribed as the Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a by conductor and violinist Rudolf Barshai in 1978.

Written in only three days (July 12-14, 1960), the quartet interweaves various musical phrases from across Shostakovich’s output into one continuous, autobiographical work. Shostakovich had recently, and reluctantly, joined the Communist Party. In the preceding years, the composer had survived two denunciations by the Party and walked a tenuous line between self-expression and self-preservation.

This dissonance, and the tumultuous events of the mid-19th century, led to the acerbic, emotional, and complicated music for which Shostakovich is known.

The eighth quartet is dedicated “to the victims of fascism and war.” Various friends and family interpreted the statement as a testament to the victims of totalitarianism worldwide, as a reaction to the devastation in a firebombed Dresden where he wrote the work, or as a reference to Shostakovich’s personal struggle. Another close friend claimed that the composer was suicidal at the time, and that the work was his epitaph. This music is deeply and undeniably personal; in the liner notes of the Borodin Quartet’s 1962 recording, music critic Erik Smith writes, “The Borodin Quartet played this work to the composer at his Moscow home, hoping for his criticisms. But Shostakovich, overwhelmed by this beautiful realization of his most personal feelings, buried his head in his hands and wept. When they had finished playing, the four musicians quietly packed up their instruments and stole out of the room.”

The work unfolds with Shostakovich’s musical signature, the DSCH motif (the translation in German musical notation of D. Schostakowitsch), which is scattered around not only this work but the composer’s entire output. Each instrument,

MUSIC PROGRAM NOTES ruminating, passes the fragment around. An unsettled accompaniment rumbles beneath the surface, giving the starkly beautiful melodies a haunting quality. The movement is nostalgic, but tinged with grief. Listeners familiar with Shostakovich’s work will hear the ghosts of Symphonies No. 1 and 5 in this movement.

In a stunning transition, it quickly becomes clear that the second movement is driven by something visceral. Obsessive strings of notes, punctuated by razor-edged chords, propel the Allegro molto forward. The culmination of this movement quotes the Jewish theme used in Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2, but is here howled by the violins above chaotic arpeggios in the lower strings. The composer allegedly stated, “Jewish folk music has made a most powerful impression on me… it can appear to be happy while it is tragic. It’s almost always laughter through tears. This quality… is close to my ideas of what music should be. There should always be two layers in music. Jews were tormented so long that they learned to hide their despair. They express despair in dance music.”

The third movement is a dance, but takes the form of a twisted waltz. Mockery ensues almost immediately with the DSCH theme in the violins, and menacing trills leer behind the melody. In a brief interlude, the ensemble takes up a march and quotes the first movement of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, which was composed the previous year. After a more subdued iteration of the waltz, the violins are left alone in a moment of repose before the ensemble breaks into the fourth movement with three jagged chords. It has been suggested that these interjections, which interrupt the DSCH theme repeatedly, represent gunfire or the knocks of the Soviet secret police at Shostakovich’s door. Even after the interludes of a 19th-century Russian revolutionary song (“Languishing in prison”) and a beautiful aria from Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, these blows pursue the movement relentlessly. Lady Macbeth led directly to his first censure and disgrace by the Communist Party, and the aria’s inclusion juxtaposed with the violent chords of this movement conveys a paralyzing dread.

Susan Bestul

The piece ends much as it began, with the solemnity of an elegy. Shostakovich’s dedication “to the victims of fascism and war” weighs heavily on the whole work, but it is only in this final movement that the listener has time to reflect on what has come before.

Whether it was intended primarily as a personal work or not, the music’s deep pathos resonates to present, from the stillness of the final hushed chords.

BIOGRAPHIES Daniel Meyer Artistic Director | Conductor

Kristi Hedberg

As Artistic Director of Cleveland’s BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, Music Director of the Erie Philharmonic, and Artistic Director of the Westmoreland Symphony, Daniel Meyer has reinvigorated orchestras with his innovative programs, engaging presence and keen musical intellect. Recently named Music Director of the Lakeside Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Meyer took the helm of this historic summer music festival in July 2019.

In addition to working with world-renowned soloists such as Marc-André Hamelin, Sharon Isbin, Gil Shaham, Jeremy Denk, Daniil Trifonov, Midori, and Emanuel Ax, Mr. Meyer has commissioned new works by Michael Torke, Vivian Fung, and Zhou Tian.

With a deep passion for connecting with audiences, Mr. Meyer continues to develop strong ties with the community through frequent radio and television appearances, newspaper interviews, music talks, appearances in local schools, and speaking from the concert stage. He has developed a brand new series of filmed performances with the Erie Philharmonic, broadcast on WQLN and streamed worldwide. He also leads the WSO in livestreamed concerts this season from the Palace Theatre and a groundbreaking virtual performance in collaboration with the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra and Verb Ballets.

In his role as Director of Orchestral Activities at Duquesne University, Meyer has embarked on a recording project of the concertos of Lynn Purse and collaborates with pianist David Alan Wehr and bassbaritone Guenko Guechev. Meyer recently recorded the music of Hanson, Diamond, and Daugherty for the Bavarian Radio with the Bamberger Symphoniker, and his recent guest appearances include the Detroit Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Portland Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, Württembergische Philharmonie, Staatsorchester Darmstadt, and the Nuremberg Symphony in Germany.

BIOGRAPHIES In his highly-acclaimed tenure as Music Director of the Asheville Symphony, Mr. Meyer created the Asheville Amadeus Festival, featuring sold-out weeks of film, lectures, community events, and concerts centered around the music of Mozart and pianist Emmanuel Ax in 2015 and violinist Midori in 2017. In recent seasons he has frequently conducted the Rochester Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony, as well as guest engagements with the Indianapolis, Columbus, Phoenix, Eugene, Alabama, and Knoxville Symphonies.

His critically-acclaimed European debut took place with the Staatstheater Stuttgart Orchestra and violinist Thomas Zehetmaier, and he returned to Germany soon after for concerts with the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, and to Austria with the Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna and the Wiener Jeunesse Orchestra. Mr. Meyer’s summer festival appearances have included the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom, the Aspen and Grand Teton Music Festivals, the Chautauqua Festival, Brevard Music Center, and Lakeside Chautauqua.

On the invitation of Mariss Jansons, Mr. Meyer was named Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony and Music Director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, where he served until 2009. A native of Cleveland, Mr. Meyer studied conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna as a Rotary

Susan Bestul

Ambassadorial Scholar, and is a graduate of Denison University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He composed and conducted works for ensembles at both schools, including a Stabat Mater for soprano, chorus and orchestra.

At Boston University, Mr. Meyer received the Orchestral Conducting Honors Award and was awarded the prestigious Aspen Conducting Prize from David Zinman. He received

BIOGRAPHIES Solomon Liang Guest Concertmaster Taiwanese-American violinist Solomon Liang is a violinist of ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, and the principal second violinist of Canton Symphony Orchestra. Before the pandemic, he frequently performed with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and Minnesota Opera. In summer of 2012, Solomon served as concertmaster under Christoph Eschenbach at Großes Festspielhaus with the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra.

Solomon has performed at chamber music festivals such as Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Banff Centre, Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, Perlman Music Program and Caroga Lake Music Festival. His quartets held residencies at Banff International String Quartet Competition and Interlochen Summer Arts Academy, where they presented concerts in both formal and unusual settings (e.g., in a camping ground on a flatbed truck). He has studied with renowned ensembles such as Emerson, Brentano, Tokyo, Cleveland, Artis and American Quartets, and collaborated with the 15x Grammy-Award banjoist Bela Fleck. Solomon was recently featured as a soloist with Holland Symphony, Canton Symphony and Earth and Air String Ensemble, where his performance of Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto was described

by ClevelandClassical.com as “musical sophistication that many musicians can only hope to achieve.

In 2014, Solomon was awarded Dr. Bennett Levine Memorial Award in Chamber Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he also earned his Artist Diploma in Violin Performance. He received his B.M from California State University, Long Beach, and M.M from Yale School of Music. Solomon’s principal teachers include Stephen Rose, Syoko Aki, Linda Rose, Peter Salaff and the Cavani String Quartet.

Solomon plays on a 2013 Collin Gallahue violin that received gold medals for the 2014 VSA Competition. He is honored to be guest concertmaster for the Bluewater Chamber Orchestra, and to continue sharing music creatively with the Cleveland community during this unprecedented time.

BIOGRAPHIES Heinz Poll Choreographer Heinz Poll was born in Oberhausen, Germany, in 1926. Poll was a champion ice skater before he became a dancer. His experience on the rinks imbued him with a love of speed that he expressed in his athletic baroque ballet, Cascade (1985). After World War II, he studied dance at Joss’s Folkwang School in Essen, began his professional career at the Municipal Theatre in Goettingen and became a principal dancer with the Berlin State Opera Ballet. In 1951, he joined the National Ballet of Chile as a dancer, ballet master, and teacher. The company’s tradition of bringing serious programs to indigenous people in remote mountain villages served as the model for Ohio Ballet’s Summer Festival of free outdoor performances. In 1962, Poll joined Ballet de Jeunesse Musicales de France as ballet master. Two years later, he came to the United States as a guest artist with the Chilean company. He performed in the American Dance Festival the following summer and stayed in New York to teach at Thalia Mara’s National Academy of Ballet.

In Akron, he developed Ohio Ballet into one of America’s most polished, respected, and widely traveled chamber dance troupes.

Poll was awarded the Association of Ohio Dance Companies Award in 1983, the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1995, and the Ohio Arts Council’s Governor’s Award in 1999. After his retirement, he wrote his memoir and has conferred a number of his ballets to former Ohio Ballet dancers. Poll passed away in 2006.

Michael Escovedo Choreographer Michael was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. He took his first ballet class at the age of 9 at Colorado Conservatory of Dance.

After that first class, he knew ballet was his calling. At the age of 15, Michael left for New York City to train with the School of American Ballet. While in New York, Michael worked with many of the dance worlds greatest, such as instructors, such as Jock Soto, Peter Martins, Darci Kistler, and Albert Evans. In 2014, Michael launched his professional career by accepting a position with Verb Ballet in Cleveland, Ohio. Michael has performed with Verb Ballet in many countries, including Taiwan and Cuba.

Michael has been featured in numerous works such as Tarantella, Don Quixote, Adam Hougland’s K281 and many more. While in Cleveland, Michael began his professional choreographic career.

He has choreographed countless works on different companies and schools in Cleveland, with his most famous pieces are Broken Bridges, Baby Birds, and The Leaving Song. In 2019, Michael moved back to Colorado and began working at Colorado Conservatory of Dance as the Conservatory Manager, but continues to dance, teach, and choreograph nationwide.

BIOGRAPHIES Dr. Margaret Carlson Producing Artistic Director Dr. Carlson has worked internationally in performing, teaching, choreographing, and in arts administration.

Dr. Carlson was an original member of the Cleveland Ballet, serving as a Principal dancer from 1972-1983.

Also a member of Actors Equity, she performed in numerous musical theatre tours throughout the 1970’s, including Sweet Charity, Ballroom, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Brigadoon, Mame, Hello Dolly! and The Merry Widow.

For many years, she choreographed for the Cleveland Opera. Dr. Carlson served as Director of the School of Dance at the University of Akron from 1985-1993.

In 1993, she became Dean of the School of Dance at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, until she returned to Cleveland in 1999. She then served as the Development and Education Director for the Cleveland San Jose Ballet. She consulted both nationally and locally through her company, Carlson Consulting Group, Inc., with groups that have included The American Dance Guild, Chinese Performing Artists of America, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Ohio Ballet, Dancing Wheels, Ohio Youth Ballet, Ohio Conservatory of Dance, Tom and Susana Evert Dance Theatre, and White Cloud Studios. Dr. Carlson founded the American Alliance of Dance Artists and served as its first President.

She has served as a Board member and officer for Fairmont Center for the Arts, Kids on Broadway, DANCECleveland, the Cleveland Ballet Council, the American Dance Guild, the Council of Dance Administrators, the Hong Kong Ballet, the Hong Kong Dance Company and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund. She served as the secretary of the International Organization for Transition for Professional Dancers, a sub-committee of UNESCO, based in Switzerland from 1998-2006, and was a Board member of the American Dance Guild in NYC for 20 years and served as its Treasurer and vicepresident for 10 years. Dr. Carlson currently serves on the board of trustees of Cleveland Dance Movement and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. She is known for her work as the regisseur for the works of Ian (Ernie) Horvath and has been working with Nel Shelby Productions on the documentary film, No Dominion, about his life. She received her doctorate from Durham University in the United Kingdom.

BIOGRAPHIES Richard Dickinson, MFA Associate Artistic Director

Jackie Sajewski

A former dancer with Ohio Ballet in Akron, OH, Dickinson’s association with that company began in 1988. He later became ballet master and director of company touring. He currently is Associate Artistic Director of Verb Ballets. Richard has served as Artistic Associate for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

He was most recently the Artistic Director of Ballet Western Reserve (Youngstown, OH) and the Artistic Director of Great Lakes Festival Ballet (Warren, OH). Dickinson has also directed Boston Ballet II and was a soloist with Boston Ballet for eight years. At age fifteen, he joined the Pasadena Dance Theatre and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Emerging Choreographer Award for a work premiered by the same company. He performed in the PBS television production of Frankie and Johnny with the Chicago Ballet and danced principal roles in Asian, European and American tours with Rudolf Nureyev and the Boston Ballet. In addition to an extensive dance career, including principal and soloist roles with Ohio Ballet, Boston Ballet, Honolulu City Ballet, various regional companies and Chamber Dance Theatre in Milwaukee, where he was also Artistic Director. Dickinson has adjudicated four Regional Dance America festivals held throughout the United States. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Contemporary Dance from Case Western Reserve University in 2005.

BIOGRAPHIES Daniel Cho

Daniel is first generation Korean American born and raised in San Francisco, California. He graduated with a BA special major in Dance and Education from Swarthmore College. He received his training from Point Park Conservatory, the Laban Conservatoire in London, the Ballet X Summer Intensive, the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and the Coastal City Ballet in Vancouver, British Columbia. Daniel is a recent graduate of the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program, where he had the pleasure of performing works by Alonzo King, Angela Dice Nguyen, Sidra Bell, Shannon Gillen, Alex Ketley, Gioconda Barbuto, Maurya Kerr, and Gregory Dawson. Daniel joined Verb Ballets in 2018 and has been featured in such works as Mowgli’s Jungle Adventures.

Emily Dietz Emily Dietz grew up in Mountain View, California, receiving most of her training at Western Ballet under Alexi Zubiria. She attended summer programs with ABT, Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet, Colorado Ballet, and American Repertory Ballet. She continued her dance education at Butler University, graduating with a BS in Dance Arts Administration in 2016. During her time at Butler, she performed in ballets such as Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake and toured with Butler Ballet to Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Following graduation, she has danced professionally with City Ballet of San Diego and American Contemporary Ballet, where she danced in repertoire such as Betsey Wistrich’s Raymonda, Balanchine’s La Source, and Geoff Gonzalez’s Four Seasons. Emily joined Verb Ballets in 2018.

Kelly Korfhage Kelly Korfhage, a native of Cleveland, began her training at age 10 under Joanne H. Morscher and Ana Lobe. She attended summer intensives at ABT Detroit, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, BalletMet, Cincinnati Ballet, and North Carolina Dance Theatre. She furthered her dance education at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music as a Corbett Award scholarship recipient, and graduated cum laude with a BFA in ballet performance. Following graduation, Kelly became a member of Kansas City Ballet’s second company, KCB2, for two seasons where she had the opportunity to perform with the company in repertoire such as Septime Webre’s Alice (In Wonderland) and Adam Hougland’s Rite of Spring. Kelly joined Verb Ballets in 2016 and has been featured in works such as Andante Sostenuto and Schubert Waltzes.

Lieneke Matte Lieneke Matte grew up in the Bronx and received her early training at Ballet Tech and the School of American Ballet. She then attended Fiorello H. La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York. Lieneke studied for a semester at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and graduated summa cum laude with a B.F.A in dance from SUNY Purchase College in May of 2013. There she also received the President’s Award for the dance conservatory.

BIOGRAPHIES She has performed in works by George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Nicolo Fonte, Nicholas Villeneuve and Xiao-Xiong Zhang.

Lieneke also was a dancer in the documentary No Dominion: The Ian Horvath Story which included re-stagings featuring dancers from Verb Ballets, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Boston Ballet and Ballet Tucson. Lieneke joined Verb Ballets in 2013 and has been featured in works such as Duet and Laura’s Women.

Antonio Morillo

Antonio is a first-generation Cuban American born in Orlando, Florida.

He received his Associate of Arts in Dance Performance from Valencia College and his BFA in Dance Performance from the University of South Florida. Antonio has performed with the Patel Conservatory’s Next Generation Ballet as well as Tampa City Ballet. He has performed works by Jon Lehrer, José Limón, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Robert Moses’ Kin, and Maurice Causey. Antonio joined Verb Ballets in 2016 and has been featured in works such as Aposiopesis.

Benjamin Shepard

Benjamin Shepard began dancing in Annapolis, Maryland and trained with Ballet Theater of Maryland, as well as attending summer programs at The Washington School of Ballet, The Kirov Academy, and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. He then continued his training and education on a full tuition scholarship at Butler University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Arts Administration and Dance. He had the privilege of performing as a guest artist during his time at Butler with Ballet Theater of Indiana; he performed the role of Gurn in La Sylphide as well as Dr. Seward in Dracula. While performing with Butler Ballet, his favorite roles were Rothbart in Swan Lake, The Flower Cavalier in the Nutcracker, a soloist in Viva Vivaldi by Gerald Arpino, and the Second Movement Soloist in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments. Benjamin joined Verb Ballets in 2018 and has been featured in works such as Rococo Variations and Paganini Rhapsody.

Kate Webb Kate Webb grew up in Richmond, Virginia where she danced both as a student and as a trainee with Richmond Ballet. She trained around the country at numerous intensive programs such as Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Upon graduating from Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts, she attended Butler University on both dance and academic scholarships. While dancing with Butler Ballet, she performed in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. After fulfilling her degree in three years, she graduated cum laude in May of 2015 with a BS in Dance-Arts Administration and high departmental honors. Kate joined Verb Ballets in 2015 and has been featured in works such as Peter Pan and Aposiopesis.

BIOGRAPHIES Robert Carter, Guest Dancer

Robert Carter has been an American primo donna ballet dancer for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo for over 25 years . As a lead dancer and its most senior member, Carter is the public face of the all-male dance troupe. Carter was born and was raised in Charleston, South Carolina. He trained at the Ivey Ballet School and the Joffrey Ballet School. He has performed with a number of dance groups, including the Florence Civic Ballet, Bay Ballet Theater, and the Dance Theater of Harlem.

Hunter Hoffman, Apprentice

Hunter Hoffman is a first generation American raised by his Cuban family and born in Miami, Florida where he trained at the Mencia Pikeiris School of Dance and the Miami Youth Ballet. While studying on scholarship to receive his BFA in Dance Performance from Mercyhurst University, Hunter had the opportunity to work with The Mercyhurst Dancers, Lake Erie Ballet, New World Connection, and Ballet Concerto performing roles such as The Cavalier and Spanish in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. He also spent a summer in Texas studying under Margo Dean, founding member of Texas Ballet Theatre. He has trained under other prominent dancers and choreographers such as Nilas Martins of New York City Ballet, Maria Caruso of Bodiography, and Tauna Hunter of Ballet West. He joined Verb Ballets as an apprentice in 2019.

Noe Iwamatsu, Apprentice

Noe Iwamatsu was born in Japan and began her ballet training at Prendre Ballet Studio in Japan. In 2014, she was chosen to attend the summer intensive of Central School of Ballet in London. She moved to London after acceptance to the Central School of Ballet where she graduated with honors with a BA in professional dance and performance. She performed with Ballet Central, the junior company of Central School of Ballet, and toured the United Kingdom. Most recently, Noe was a trainee with American Repertory Ballet in New Jersey. She performed with the American Repertory Ballet Company directed by Douglas Martin in various roles in the Nutcracker and Coppelia. Noe joined Verb Ballets as an apprentice in 2019.

Julie Russel, Apprentice

Julie Russel was born in China and raised in Cedar, Michigan, trained at Dance Arts Academy under the direction of Betsy Carr. Julie spent summers training at the Washington School of Ballet, BalletMet Columbus, and Cecchetti Council of America. Julie graduated from the University of Oklahoma in May of 2019 with a BFA in Dance Performance and BA in Environmental Sustainability. While at the University of Oklahoma, Julie had the pleasure to perform works by Merce Cunningham, Ilya Kozadayev, Sonia Dawkins, David Hochoy, Trey McIntyre, Jean Guillaume Weis, Kevin Iega Jeff, Nilas Martins,

BIOGRAPHIES Amy Hall Garner, and Raimondo Rebeck. She has also performed with Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre. Julie joined Verb Ballets as an apprentice in 2019.

Ashley Forché, Trainee

Originally from Pickerington, Ohio, Ashley received her dance training from BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio. She has trained with several other companies including Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, Festival Ballet Providence, Orlando Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and BalletMet. In December 2019, Ashley graduated Summa Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in business from Belmont University.

Professional experience includes traineeships with Nashville Ballet and Oklahoma City Ballet. Works she has performed include The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake. Ashley joined Verb Ballets as a trainee in 2019.

Elizabeth “Betsie” Schaeffer, Trainee

Elizabeth “Betsie” Schaeffer was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan before returning home to New Hampshire at the age of 11. She began her dance career with Northeastern Ballet Theatre. Schaeffer graduated from Belhaven University in 2018 with a BFA in Dance where she received artistic and scholastic awards. Schaeffer has attended the Bates Dance Festival, guested in local theaters as Sugar Plum and Princess Florine, and performed for adjudicators at the Alabama Dance Festival and the National American College Dance Association Festival at the Kennedy Center. Schaeffer danced professionally with Ballet Hartford in Connecticut.

Betsie joined Verb Ballets as a trainee in 2019.

Proud to be the official Physical Therapy provider for the dancers of Verb Ballets.

Read the latest issue of verbiculture magazine online for inside stories, interviews, videos and more!

VERB BALLETS GENEROUS SUPPORT

The Carlson Trust Laub Foundation

This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Verb Ballets is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

CORPORATE SPONSORS

VERB BALLETS 2019-2020 Annual Fund Impresarios $45,000+ The Cleveland Foundation Presidents Club $20,000-$44,499 Cuyahoga Arts & Culture The George Gund Foundation The Director’s Circle $10,000-$19,999 The Carlson Trust James D. Graham & David M. Dusek National Endowment for the Arts Underwriters $5,000-$9,999 The Ohio Arts Council The Akron Community Foundation The Char & Chuck Fowler Foundation Cleveland Cliffs Inc, Dr. Margaret Carlson James P Murphy Foundation Footsteps Benefactor’s $ 1,000-$4,999 Dr. Bradford & Margaret Richmond Laura Cleveland The Cleveland Clinic Denver Brooker & Richard Dickinson, MFA Deborah & Mac Donley Ann & Charles Ennis Excess Reinsurance James P Farley JP Farley Corporation The Laub Foundation The Lubrizol Corporation The Lubrizol Foundation Mary Anne Garvey & A.J. Cianflocco Deborah Glosserman Anonymous Koehler-Fitzgerald LLC Frederick Lautzenheiser Marianne Lax & Charles Sheehe Debra Light & Bruce Sherman Leslie Kaufman Ken Milder Deborah Neal Anonymous Robert Perry Rich Rinehart

Richard Family Fund RPM International Inc. Jane Sembric Robert & Tuya Shwab Hema & Shaylor Steele Anonymous Test.com/Gauge VBA Vocon Design Sponsors $500-$999 Bob & Susan Webb Jeri Chaikin & Joel Newman Pauline Chen Rejeanne Desrosiers Eric & Marian Klieber Forrester Neilsen Charitable Fund GlaxoSmithKline Ann & David Lavelle William Li Karen Litterer Hannah, Joanna & Robert Matte Mary Mozer Anonymous Charlene & Marv Nevans Louis & Sylvia Rosenblum Memorial Philanthropic Fund Christine Skalko Louise Skalko Oliver Shirokauer Judith Wolf & Robin Richmond Charitable Fund Cheryl & Mickey Weinstein Brian Wynne & Pat Cozzens Margaret Wong Patrons $250-$499 Lynda Bender Anndria Ciabattoni David M. Douglass Anonymous Roy Lamberton En Pointe Danse James R & Marilyn Furry Halle Graham Carol JP Griffith James & Kathleen Hammett Clive Hamlin & Jane Sembric

VERB BALLETS 2019-2020 Annual Fund Anna Greenfield Charitable Foundation Nick Giori Lonnie Gronek Christine Havice Rachel Hayward Erin Hopkins Tauna Hunter and Michael Gleason Rosy Hong and Jeff Weil Andrean Horton Nancy Jacobson Stacy Jones Ruth Kabat Emily Koritz Wendy & Jason Kouvaras Martin Kohn and Marcia Silver Courtney Laves-Mearini Friends $100-249 George Leggiero Nozar Alaolmoki and Gary Levine Kathleen Ross-Alaolmoki Helen Ligget Pamela Barron Lan Lin Diane Collier Carrie & James Mayer Dolores Bastaich Joan Machovina Dr. John Bergeld Yolanda Maddox Eleanor & Charles Blackman Mariam Manoukian Diana Borcz & Fred Haek Dolores Martinez Mindy Carter & Sally Clem Lori Martinez Deborah Coleman & Dan Krista Mcfadden Polster Martin and Barbara Milder Chung Fu Chang Mary Milidonis Madison Clark Leslie & Bernard Davidson Eberhard & Denise Molesch Kathy Moses Salem Audrey DeClement Frances, Derek, and Aiden Iraj and Martha Dehnow O’Brien Anonymous Laura & Marc Pesetsky George Graham & Michael WilliamB. Petersen Fleenor Joanne Poderis Michael Ellis George Pope Michael Fabian John & Norine Prim David Foos Albert Reid Jean Frank Marilyn Roberson Stephen Fellman Richard & Alita Rogers James & Susan Freeman Family Foundation Judith Ryder Frumaker Kolman Rosenberg Jeannie Fleming-Gifford Patrons $250-$499 cont.

Mary Heeney & Lou Dietz William & Susan Kirchner Network for Good Elissa & Gary Okin Nils Reuter G L Robinson Paul Secunde Linda & Arnold Shepard Lorraine Szabo Barbara & John Schubert Tredegar Coporation Katie & John Winter Claudia & David Woods Ann Levin & Henry Mankowski

Charles & Sheila Royer Jennifer Rudolph Beverly Saylor Don & Claire Schuele Toni & Don Scherzer Michael J. Seider Sarah and Frank Shepard Janus Small Associates Ron and Marilyn Snyder Karin Stone Steve Szilagyi & Jodi Kanter Nathan Udell Nicole Ward William Watterson & Melissa Richmond Marry Warren Margaret Wendlandt Jorene Whitney Taylor Wesley

VERB BALLETS 2019-2020 Annual Fund Paulette Ziegfeld Mary Zoller Supporters up to $100 Anonymous Medhavi Ahuja Jodi Allen Shannon Allen Rhen Avner John Beckman Ann Marie and Terry Berk Alex Berk Joan Bendix Ted Bergman Milind and Theresa Bhanoo Cullen Bickle Martha Bifano Ana Blanco Marian Bleeke Rita Book Jefrey & Antje Bogart Lynn Deering David Bongomo Alex Britford Sarah Brody Matthew Brooks Maria Brooks Eva Brosnan E. John Brusser Steve Brusso Jill Buchanan Kaylee Buckley Richard & Marilyn Busch Sarah Carey Chi-Son Chen Kerry & Steve Clawson Richard and Judy Cohen Isla Cook Patricia Cangelosi-Williams Majory & Carolyn Craft Kate and Scott Crosby Nellie Coughlin Robert Cutler Tammy L Currier Cybergrants Colleen Damerell Paila Darte

Evan Davis Kaye Davis Mimi Davisson Joyce Daughterty Micheal Dean Sarah DeCarlo Kristen DeMoulpied Emily Dietz Ashley Dobay Patty Dowd Gayle and Stephen Doucette Laureen Drapp Stephanie Dziemianzuk Hillary Easom John Ebert and Joan O’Connor Rebecca Esterie Lad Etzol Lisa Evert Chloe Fargo Savannah Ferguson and Aiel Phames Linda Ferrato Karen Friedland-Brown Rob and Alison Forche Scott Frank Natalie Gainer Louis B. & M. Gayne Geneva Amy Gore Julia Galletta Robin Gau Mitch Glass Kim Marie Goedecker Cindy Goldberg Richard and Angela Gonzalez Dani Gonzalaz Joan Grace Amanda Grassi Debra Gressel Mary Greenlee Katie Gnagy Kathleen Good Bath Hannah Goodman John Scott Gordon Colleen and Naomi Grant

Leigh and Al Gruber Emilie Gruchow Hope Hagan Janet Hayashi Nancy Hartman Nicole Hennington Thomas Hermsen Monica Herron Robert Hickson Randal Hollopeter Hunter Vidal Hoffman Audrey Hudak Hana Jackson Hannah Jackson Denise and Erick Jensen Melanie Jensen Carol Jones Avis Johnson Susan Elizabeth Johnson Annie and Sean Jones Kathleen Cole-Kelly Shirley Klein Donna Knight Ruth and Ed Krise Stephanie Krise and Ben Sayer Denise Kohn Marie and Gary Korfhage Hannah Kulawiak Diana Kunze Dawn Kurderna and Lewis Zipkin Pavia Lewis Elena Li & Christopher Kitto Julie Libman Diane & Charles Link Maria Livers Katie Long Maria Lopez Yevdokiya Lopukhina Anne Lukas Madeleine Lucchetti Quisha Ma Marcia Madden Elize Manoukian Lieneke Matte Pam Melargno Alex Michaels

VERB BALLETS 2019-2020 Annual Fund Supporters cont.

Moe and Luna Deborah Monaco Josh Murdoch Bill Naiman Bill Noble & Lynda Sackett Srob Oberman-Breindel Isabella Overstreet Catherine Pace Stephanie Palomo Suwan Park Amy, Lacy and Lloyd Park Vai Pathak Noriko Paukert Myritta Paul Kelley Pelini Sheila Pearson Christine Peters Lili Pigott Kathleen Poole Linda Rademaker Noor Ramahi Amara Ramano Victoria Ratliff Malina Rauschenfels Elliot Rigsby Maria Rivers Kelsey Rohr Butch Robbins Barbara Robinson Brian Robinson Molly Rumble Thomas Sabella Julie Sabroff Stephanie Saccone Flavia & Carlos Santos Laurie Saunder Felicity Sanchez Jackie Sejewski Shellie Sedlak Peter Selover Sharon Sellers Sharon Shapiro Sherry Skalko Valerie Smith Celine Spinka Allison Schlosser Tim Shaw

Ben Shepard David and Peggy Shepard Carol Stevens Anna Soskic Patty Terstenyak Ellen and Harold Ticktin Bethany Tinlin Donna Tuturici Ellen Ulinksi Robert Volkmer Daniel Wagner Kate Webb Steven Welch Patty Vicek Jene Wilson Judith Wiseman Nan Wiggins Julia White Anonymous Lisa Zuppert

BLUEWATER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA FOUNDATIONS

The BlueWater Chamber Orchestra deeply appreciates the support of all who make our concerts and educational programs possible.

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

BLUEWATER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA SUPPORTERS CONCERT SPONSOR $10,000+ Anonymous The Fung Family Fund Rod Keen and Denise Horstman MAESTRO $5,000+ CONCERTMASTER $1,000+ Arts Plymouth David and Bonnie Cook Isaac and Mabel N’omi Greber Fund Gretchen Hallerberg and J. Walton Tomford Heather Holdsworth Family Gift Trust Dr. Laura Lengel William Marx Mitchell Family Fund James and Marian Patterson Roland Philip and Linda M. Sandhaus Giving Fund Peter Reinhardt Ladonna Woods MEMBER $100+ Anonymous (2) Phillip and Emily Austin Mark and Patricia Averbach Sandra Baxter David Bergholz John Bertsch Donald Brandt David Chew Nathaniel and Nancy Cooke Rob and Mia Coulton Thomas and Janet Daniel Mark and Rosemary DeSilvio Barbara Domski David Duro Ed Erbach Anneliese Fricke and Robert Schwartz Mary Gabriel Bruce Golden Jody Guinn Mary Hall Marion Hill

Heather Holdsworth Michael Hugill Paul Jenks Jiyoun Kang Richard and Julie King Eric and Marian Klieber Dr. Brian Kresevic Rhea Krull Donna Lalewicz Colleen Lance Jim Mass Jan Milic Antoinette Miller Jane Mueller Neil Mueller Beatrice Muller Martin Neubert Sharon Newman Larry Osher and Margaret Konecky Robert Perry Joanne Poderis Aaron Proweller and Diana Ramirez Benjamin Reidhead Ed Rosenberg Gloria Rule Katherine Samuels Mari Sato Robert Schmidt Richard and Michelle Schultz Drs. Jacob and Sarah Scott Charles and Yvonne Shuster Dr. Howard Simon Nan Sims Tom and Veronica Slavin Theresa Tarar Timothy and Linda Tuthill Mary Warren Tim and Deidre Weeks Meg and Sam Weingart Jennifer Welsch

BLUEWATER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA SUPPORTERS FRIENDS Anonymous (5) Elaine Ames Ruth Bertrand Tammy Bertrand Kimberly Brandt Peter Briedis Barbara Caldwell James Vincent Carontenuto Robert and Sharon Cohen Kimberly Dimond (in memory of Carlton R. Woods) Gloria Drummond Maxim Dzero Nancy Eiler Harvey Finkel Mary Gabriel Ann Gilbert Mary Griffin Rebecca Holdsworth Anne Hunter Susan Lesko Laura Martin Sandra McCourt Robert and Kathleen Meyer Ann Palomo John Patterson Tom Pavlinsky Dr. and Mrs. Quentin Quereau Joanne Poderis Gail Raabe Francisca Richter Almuth Riggs Daniel Rose Emily Russell Dr. Martin Saltzman Laura Shuster Brigitte Stonitsch Valerie and Robert Vernon David Tidyman Ken Walsh and Rachel Tschantz Elizabeth Warshawsky Sue Yelanjian Jeeyoun Yoo Leo Zimmerman

Dreams can come true

Cleveland Public Theatre’s STEP Education Program Photo by Steve Wagner

... WITH INVESTMENT BY CUYAHOGA ARTS & CULTURE Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC) uses public dollars approved by you to bring arts and culture to every corner of our County. From grade schools to senior centers to large public events and investments to small neighborhood art projects and educational outreach, we are leveraging your investment for everyone to experience.

Your Investment: Strengthening Community Visit cacgrants.org/impact to learn more.