The ''Barber Violin Concerto'' is a

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

made by

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...

ballet master in chief

Peter Martins Peter Martins (born 27 October 1946) is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. Martins was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and with the New York City Ballet, where he joined George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and John Taras as ...

Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...

Violin Concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

, Op. 14 (1939). The premiere was conducted by Robert Irving and took place on 12 May 1988 at the

New York State Theater The David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet, modern and other forms of dance, part of the Lincoln Center, at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Originally ...

, as part of City Ballet's American Music Festival, with lighting by

Jennifer Tipton Jennifer Tipton (born September 11, 1937) is an award winning American lighting designer. She has designed for dance, theater, and opera. She is known for working on many productions of American Ballet Theatre. Life and career Tipton was born in ...

and costumes by

William Ivey Long William Ivey Long (born August 30, 1947) is an American costume designer for stage and film. His most notable work includes the Broadway shows '' The Producers'', ''Hairspray'', ''Nine'', '' Crazy for You'', ''Grey Gardens'', ''Young Frankenstein' ...

. Two couples, one pair classical dancers, the other modern, perform a series of mix-and-match ''pas de deux''. All four are dressed in white, with the classical dancers in point shoes and ballet slippers, and the modern dancers typically barefoot and the man bare-chested.

Original Cast

Merrill Ashley Linda Michelle Merrill (born December 2, 1950), known professionally as Merrill Ashley, is an American former ballet dancer and ''répétiteur''. She joined the New York City Ballet in 1967, was promoted to principal dancer in 1977, and retired i ...

* Kate Johnson *

Adam Lüders Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as ...

* David Parsons

Reviews

NY Times review
by

Anna Kisselgoff Anna Kisselgoff (born 12 January 1938) is a dance critic and cultural news reporter for ''The New York Times''. She began at the ''Times'' as a dance critic and cultural news reporter in 1968, and became its Chief Dance Critic in 1977, a role she h ...

, May 14, 1988
NY Times review
by Jack Anderson, June 21, 2005

External links

Excerpts from ''Barber Violin Concerto'' performed by Pennsylvania Ballet
{{Samuel Barber Ballets by Peter Martins Ballets to the music of Samuel Barber 1988 ballet premieres New York City Ballet American Music Festival New York City Ballet repertory