Solange Composed a Score for the NYC Ballet

August 17, 2022 E Jazz Reporter

The piece is set to premiere on September 28 at Lincoln Center as part of NYCB’s Fall Fashion Gala.

Solange Knowles seen at Levi’s brunch 2017 Coachella Weekend 1 on April 15, 2017 in Palm Springs, Calif.

Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Levi’s/AP Images

Solange Knowles is bringing her love for music and dance to the New York City Ballet.

The NYCB announced on Monday (Aug. 15) that the star will be composing a piece for the chamber ensemble. The piece will be choreographed by Gianna Reisen, became the youngest choreographer to work with the New York City Ballet in 2017. The commission is as-of-yet untitled, but it is set to premiere on September 28 at Lincoln Center as part of NYCB’s Fall Fashion Gala with a number of performances in October and May.

“Very excited to announce i’ve composed an original score for the New York City Ballet,” Knowles tweeted alongside a series of photos at Lincoln Center. “Choreography by Gianna Reisen, score performed by the City Ballet Orchestra + soloist from my ensemble.”

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🖤very excited to announce i’ve composed an original score for the New York City Ballet 🖤 choreography by Gianna Reisen , score performed by the City Ballet Orchestra + soloist from my ensemble 🖤

Shows : October 1, 8, 11, 16
May 2, 11, 13, 17, 18th at Lincoln Center pic.twitter.com/F0TvxzObDX

— solange knowles (@solangeknowles) August 16, 2022

Solange has been working as a performance artist for years, designing a number of performances for museums and galleries. At the Tate Modern in London, she exhibited “Seventy States,” a “digital dossier” of performance-art pieces that reference collagist of black spiritual ephemera Betye Saar. In spring 2017, Solange invited viewers to dress in white and come witness her occupy the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s blinding white rotunda in New York.

“On one hand, I feel really, really grateful and just really lucky that my mom introduced us to black art at a very young age. But I don’t think that I ever saw this idea of existing as a performance artist or a multifaceted artist as a possibility as a black woman,” she told Billboard in 2018. Over the last 10 years, we’ve become more understanding and supportive of multidimensional artists, but there’s still such a long way to go. I have made myself pretty clear that I’m not interested in entering these spaces unless I am wholeheartedly occupying the space. I can’t even tell you what going down that rotunda [at the Guggenheim] felt like, seeing all of those black and brown faces. I am constantly trying to keep [connected] to my 13-, 14-, 15-year-old self. Imagine what it would have meant to see that at that age.”

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