On
January 29, 2009 Miami City Ballet and The Cleveland Orchestra joined
forces to launch an unprecedented multi-year collaboration, beginning
with a one-night-only performance. See The Music, Hear
The Dancing took place at the Adrienne Arsht Center, Ziff Ballet
Opera House in Miami and featured two ballets by George Balanchine:
Symphony in Three Movements set to music by Igor Stravinsky and Symphony
in C with music by Georges Bizet.
To celebrate this collaboration, an elegant benefit dinner was held
immediately after the performance, on-stage at the Adrienne Arsht
Center's Knight Concert Hall, the venue directly across from
the Ziff Ballet Opera House. The proceeds from the event will go
to benefit both organizations.
Approximately 300 distinguished artists and guests of both organizations
attended the event, including the Artistic Director of Miami City
Ballet, Edward Villella, and the Music Director of The Cleveland
Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst.
The event was chaired by Jan R. Lewis and Dr. Margaret Eidson. The
host committee included: Adrienne Arsht, Ana Codina Barlick and Robert
Barlick, Jr., Audre Carlin and Don Carlin, Lora Drasner and Fred
Drasner, Dr. Margaret Eidson and Mike Eidson, Hector Fortun, Marvin
Ross Friedman and Adrienne bon Haes, Pamela Garrison and R.
Kirk Landon, Jan R. Lewis and Dan Lewis, Frances Sevilla-Sacasa,
Penny Stamps and Roe Stamps, and Janet Yulman and Richard Yulman.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation was the presenting sponsor
and awarded the project a grant from the Knight Foundation Arts Partnership,
a five-year $40 million initiative to transform the South Florida
arts. The effort includes endowment grants to leading arts institutions,
plus a community-wide contest to fund the best arts ideas.
