New York City Ballet has announced that award-winning singer and actress Queen Latifah and the legendary clarinetist Richard Stoltzman will appear as guest artists at the company’s 2013 Spring Gala on Wednesday, May 8 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City.

A celebration of the 25th Anniversary of NYCB’s 1988 American Music Festival, and the centerpiece of NYCB’s six-week spring season (April 30 through June 9), the one-time only gala performance will feature Latifah performing George Gershwin’s The Man I Love with the New York City Ballet Orchestra as part of an excerpt from Who Cares?, George Balanchine’s 1970 classic ballet set to the music of Gershwin.

Stoltzman will perform the “Interlude” from André Previn’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, as well as Leonard Bernstein’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, both of which choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is using as the score for a world premiere pas de deux that will debut as part of the gala evening. The program will also include the NYCB premiere of a new version of Wheeldon’s Soirée Musicale, which is set to Samuel Barber’s Souvenirs, and was originally created for the School of American Ballet Workshop performance in 1998.

Clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzuco. Courtesy of New York City Ballet.

In addition, the gala performance will also feature Cool from West Side Story Suite, and the third movement of Glass Pieces, both choreographed by Jerome Robbins, as well as the pas de deux and finale from Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes set to the music of John Philip Sousa.

Originally from Newark, New Jersey, Queen Latifah (born “Dana Elaine Owens”) is an actor, rapper, singer and producer whose work in a variety of disciplines has earned her a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, a Grammy Award (plus six nominations), an Emmy nomination and a 2002 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the prison matron Mama Morton in the award-winning film adaptation of the Broadway hit Chicago.

Richard Stoltzman, originally from Omaha, Nebraska, is widely regarded as the world’s foremost clarinetist, and was responsible for bringing the clarinet to the forefront as a solo instrument, giving the first-ever clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall. During his acclaimed career he has appeared with more than 100 orchestras around the world, and has produced an extensive discography of recordings. Stoltzman is the recipient of two Grammy Awards for Best Chamber Music Performance, the Yale School of Music’s Sanford Medal, and in 1986, he was the first wind player to be awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, which is bestowed upon American instrumentalists for outstanding achievement in classical music.

Benefit-priced tickets for the gala evening, which include the performance, a pre-performance reception and a black-tie supper ball following the performance, are available through the NYCB Special Events Office at 212-870-5585. Tickets to the performance only start at just $29 and are available at the David H. Koch Theater box office, online at nycballet.com, or by calling 212-496-0600.

New York City Ballet’s 2013 Spring Season will open on Tuesday, April 30 with a three-week American Music Festival featuring 25 ballets and the music of 18 American composers. The six-week season will continue through Sunday, June 9 with the final three weeks devoted to a retrospective of NYCB’s entire 2012-13 performance year with highlights from the Stravinsky, Tschaikovsky and American Music festivals, featuring performances of 33 different ballets with no two performances alike. For more information or to order tickets, visit nycballet.com.

Photo (top): Queen Latifah. Photo by Cover Girl. Courtesy of New York City Ballet.

New York City Ballet’s 2012 Spring Gala on Thursday, May 10 will feature a one-time-only salute to France titled À La Française, and will feature two World Premiere ballets, one by NYCB’s Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins to a score by the French composer Marc-André Dalbavie, and the other by French-born choreographer and former NYCB Principal Dancer Benjamin Millepied. The evening will also include a major revival of George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, which was created for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1947 to a score by the French composer Georges Bizet.

Actress Natalie Portman will serve as the Honorary Chairman for the gala evening, with Emily and Len Blavatnik, Charlotte Moss and Barry Friedberg, and Marie-Nugent-Head and James C. Marlas as the gala’s Chairmen. The entire evening, which will take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, is sponsored by Christian Dior and Swarovski.

The new work by Benjamin Millepied will be set to a commissioned score by contemporary classical composer Nico Muhly who is a graduate of Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music. Muhly is currently one of the music world’s most sought-after young composers, and has written numerous orchestral and choral works, as well as scores for dance, opera, and film.

A former dancer with New York City Ballet, Millepied joined NYCB in 1995 and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2002. Before retiring from dancing with NYCB last year, Millepied danced a wide variety of works in the NYCB repertory and originated roles in ballets by Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, and Mauro Bigonzetti, among others. As a choreographer, Millepied has created three previous works for New York City Ballet – Quasi Una Fantasia (2009), Why am I not where you are? (2010), and Plainspoken (2010).

This will be the fourth time that Muhly and Millepied have collaborated on a ballet, following previous works for American Ballet Theatre in 2007 (From Here on Out), the Paris Opera Ballet in 2009 (Triade), and the Dutch National Ballet in 2010 (One Thing Leads to Another).

Peter Martins rehearsing Lauren Lovette and Taylor Stanley for his upcoming ballet which will premiere on May 10, 2012. Photo Paul Kolnik

The new work by Martins will be set to the French-born composer Marc-André Dalbavie’s Trio No. 1, for violin, cello, and piano, which was composed in 2008. A graduate of the Paris Conservatory of Music, Dalbavie is one of the most frequently performed composers of his generation, having received commissions from such prestigious orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Orchestra de Paris, where he served as composer in residence for four years. The new Martins ballet will mark the first score by Dalbavie to enter the repertory of the New York City Ballet.

The final ballet on the 2012 Spring Gala program will be a major revival of the George Balanchine masterpiece Symphony in C, which NYCB last performed in 2008. Balanchine created the piece in Paris in 1947 to an early, and at the time, mostly unknown score by the French composer Georges Bizet. The four-movement ballet was originally called Le Palais de Cristal when it was first performed by the Paris Opera Ballet. The year after its premiere Balanchine staged the work in New York for Ballet Society, a precursor of New York City Ballet, and renamed the work Symphony in C. The ballet was also included on the program for NYCB’s first performance on October 11, 1948.

Now a signature work of the New York City Ballet, Symphony in C returns to the repertory this spring in a major revival with new costumes designed by Marc Happel, NYCB’s Director of Costumes. The fully-redesigned costumes will be embellished with Swarovski Elements, and the production design will also feature all new crystallized tiaras and headpieces created by jewelry designer Robert Sorrel.

Former NYCB corps de ballet dancer Jamie Wolf, now a well-known jewelry designer, is creating original earrings, also made with Swarovski Elements, which will be worn in the production. Wolf will also launch a line of earrings inspired by Symphony in C that will be available for sale with a portion of the proceeds benefiting NYCB.

New York City Ballet’s 2012 Spring Season will take place from May 1 through June 10 at the David. H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, NYC. For more information and tickets visit www.nycballet.com or call 212-496-0600.

Top photo: Benjamin Millepied rehearsing Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle for his upcoming ballet which will premiere on May 10, 2012. Photo Paul Kolnik.

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