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Solange is setting her sights on something greater than ever before. The multi-hyphenate artist will compose her first ballet score for the Fall Fashion Gala at New York City Ballet next month. Read more details inside.
Solo has the range. From music, film, choreography, visual art and more, the star has continued to push the envelope for Black artistry through her work and her multidisciplinary platform, Saint Heron. Now, Solange will add a new title as ‘ballet composer.’
New York City Ballet announced on Monday (August 15) that Solange will write an original score for an untitled piece by Gianna Reisen. It will premiere at the company’s annual Fall Fashion Gala, which pairs choreographers with designers, on September 28, 2022. The score is composed for a chamber ensemble that will be made up of some of Solange’s musical collaborators and members of the City Ballet orchestra.
Solange is no stranger to the many facets of creativity. The 36 year old entertainer began working in the industry as a singer and dancer alongside her sister, Beyoncé, in Destiny’s Child. Solange later bloomed into her own artistry with the debut of her 2012 album True and later releasing the critically acclaimed album A Seat at the Table in 2016.
The all-around talent is actively expanding the creative Black community with her creative and activist endeavors. Solange has been an avid activist for Black Lives Matter and countless other causes, which benefit both Black people and women artists.
Solange’s longtime theatrical background certainly prepared her for this moment. Her experiences led her to the Lincoln Center regulars and collaborators beyond music. She has worked with the designer Carlos Soto, a regular partner of the auteurist director Robert Wilson. She has organized programming and brought her own performances to spaces like the Guggenheim and Getty museums, as well as the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany.
Her newest venture will be to create music for Reisen which will debut in ballet, which was also formative for her growing up in Houston. She witnessed Lauren Anderson, a pioneering Black principal dancer at Houston Ballet, and once told the writer Ayana Mathis, “My dream was to go to Juilliard.”
The new dance is Reisen’s third for City Ballet. The show will feature costumes by Alejandro Gómez Palomo of Palomo Spain. The Fall Fashion Gala includes a premiere by Kyle Abraham, with costumes by Giles Deaco, and the first live performance of Justin Peck’s “Solo,” which premiered virtually in 2021 in a film directed by Sofia Coppola. The film now features costume design by Raf Simons. A performance from George Balanchine’s 1947 masterpiece “Symphony in C” will conclude the impressive gala evening.
