December 2018 Alessandra Ferri returns to the Royal Opera House with TRIO ConcertDance, the first dance performance to be staged in the newly refurbished Linbury Theatre Thursday 17 – Sunday 27 January 2019 #ROHtrio Alessandra Ferri and Herman Cornejo. Photographed by Lucas Chilczulk World renowned ballerina Alessandra Ferri returns to the Royal Opera House with the UK premiere of TRIO ConcertDance, the first dance performance to be staged in the newly refurbished Linbury Theatre, the West End’s newest and most intimate theatre. TRIO ConcertDance is a joint collaboration between Alessandra Ferri, American Ballet Theatre Principal Herman Cornejo and acclaimed concert pianist Bruce Levingston. The three artists have come together to create an evening of classic and contemporary piano solos and innovative choreography featuring work by Herman Cornejo, Russell Maliphant, Angelin Preljocaj, Fang-Yi Sheu, Demis Volpi and Wayne For all Royal Opera House press releases visit www.roh.org.uk/for/press- and-media McGregor. The programme celebrates the intimate and inextricable connection between music and dance, exploring the common ground between these two art-forms. Alessandra Ferri will dance with Herman Cornejo, with Bruce Levingston accompanying the performances and playing a number of solos on stage. Music featured includes pieces by J.S Bach, Fryderyk Chopin, Nils Frahm, Philip Glass, GyÔrgy Ligeti, W.A Mozart, Erik Satie and Domenico Scarlatti. Alessandra Ferri is a former Principal dancer with The Royal Ballet. She returned as a Guest Artist in 2015 to dance in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works for which she won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance. ENDS NOTES TO EDITORS For further information or interview requests please contact Ashley Woodfield, Head of Ballet Press Tel – 0207 212 9165 / Mobile – 07984513676 [email protected] Images can be downloaded from the following link https://we.tl/t-vbG43dlHhL For images or press ticket requests please contact [email protected] TRIO ConcertDance Thursday 17 – Sunday 27 January 2019 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 January at 7.45pm 20, 27 January at 4pm Tickets available from the Royal Opera House Box Office £7 - £45 www.roh.org.uk +44 (0)20 7304 4000 Approximate timing – 65 minutes, no interval Co-produced by - AF DANCE LLC, The Joyce Theater’s Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Fund for New Work, The Jerome Robbins Foundation and Natalia and Veronica Bulgari Generously supported by Official TRIOConcertDance production pointe shoe sponsor Page 2 of 6 Credits Piano Solo – György Ligeti, Musica Ricercata No. 1 FLAIR Choreography Demis Volpi Music György Ligeti, Musica Ricercata No. 2 and Philip Glass, Étude No. 2 Piano solo - Philip Glass, Étude No. 2 MOMENTUM Choreography Herman Cornejo Music: Philip Glass Étude No. 16 Piano solo - Domenico Scarlatti, Sonata in A minor, K. 54 WITNESS Choreography and Direction Wayne McGregor Music: Nils Frahm, Immerse, Piano solo - Erik Satie Gnossienne No. 4 and J.S Bach Arrangement for piano by Alexander Siloti, Prelude in B minor Piano solo - J. S. Bach, Arrangement for piano by Alexander Siloti, Prelude in B minor SENZA TEMPO Choreography Fang-Yi Sheu Music: J. S. Bach, Gottes Zeit ist die Allerbeste Zeit, Piano solo - Philip Glass, Etude No. 5 and No. 6 ENTWINE Choreography Russell Maliphant Music Philip Glass Metamorphosis Two Piano solo - Fryderyk Chopin Nocturne in B at minor, Op. 9, No. 1 Page 3 of 6 PAS DE DEUX FROM LE PARC Choreography: Angelin Preljocaj Music: W A Mozart, Adagio from Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488 with accompaniment by Halcyon Quartet Lighting throughout by Clifton Taylor Biographies Alessandra Ferri Italian dancer Alessandra Ferri is a former Principal of The Royal Ballet. She trained at The Royal Ballet School and entered the Company in 1980, promoted to Soloist in 1983 and to Principal in 1984 aged 19. She left the Company in 1985, returning in 2003 to dance Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) as a Guest Artist. She returned in 2015 as a Guest Artist to create a role in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, for which she was awarded the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Best Female Dancer and a second Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance. She has since returned to dance Marguerite (Marguerite and Armand). Ferri was born in Milan and trained first at La Scala Ballet School, Milan. She joined The Royal Ballet School aged 15. In 1985 she joined American Ballet Theatre on the invitation of Mikhail Baryshnikov and went on to form a famed dance partnership with Julio Bocca. From 1990 she appeared as a guest artist with leading companies around the world, and joined La Scala Ballet, Milan, as a guest principal in 1992, remaining with ABT as a guest principal. Ferri temporarily retired from dancing in 2007 and the following year became Director of Programming at the Spoleto Festival. She returned to dance in 2013, starring in The Piano Upstairs, which she also choreographed, at Spoleto. Performances since have included Lea (Martha Clarke’s Chéri) for Signature Theatre and in Luca Veggetti’s The Raven for Gotham Chamber Opera. She was made a Cavaliere della Repubblica in 2006. Herman Cornejo Page 4 of 6 Argentine dancer Herman Cornejo is a principal of American Ballet Theatre. He made his Royal Opera House debut in 2015 as the title role in Martha Clarke’s Chéri, opposite Alessandra Ferri. Cornejo studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón and on a scholarship with the School of American Ballet. Aged 14 he was invited by Julio Bocca to join Ballet Argentino, and aged 16 he won gold medal at the Moscow Ballet Competition. Subsequent awards have included the Benois de la danse (2014). He joined ABT in 1999 and was promoted to principal in 2003. His repertory there includes more than ninety roles in classical, modern and contemporary ballet, including Basilio (Don Quixote), Albrecht (Giselle), Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Romeo (Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet), Solor (La Bayadère), Jean de Brienne and Abderakhman (Raymonda), Prince Désiré (Alexei Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty), Aminta (Sylvia), Rose (Le Spectre de la Rose), Apollo and in ‘Rubies’ (Jewels). He regularly works with such choreographers as Clarke, Russell Maliphant, Mark Morris, Ratmansky, Twyla Tharp, Natalie Weir and Stanton Welch. Bruce Levingston Bruce Levingston is one of today's leading figures in contemporary classical music. Many of the world's most important composers have written music for him and his Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center premieres of their works have garnered notable critical acclaim. The New York Times has praised his "mastery of color and nuance" and The New Yorker has called him “a force for new music”. Levingston's recordings have also received numerous accolades. His album Heavy Sleep was named one of the Best Classical Recordings of the Year by The New York Times and Gramophone has called his playing “masterly” lauding his “compelling, colourful pianism”. Levingston has appeared in concerts and music festivals throughout the world and collaborated with some of the most gifted artists of our time. He is founder and artistic director of Premiere Commission, a foundation that has commissioned and premiered over sixty new works. About the Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House’s aim is for many more people to enjoy and engage in exceptional ballet and opera. As The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, we bring together the world’s most extraordinary ballet and opera artists in more than 500 performances every Page 5 of 6 year: live events that thrill, move and excite and that transport people to other worlds though music, dance and theatre. 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