Host Silas Farley opens the latest season of City Ballet The Podcast with a Hear the Dance episode devoted to George Balanchine’s Mozartiana. Choreographed for the 1981 Tschaikovsky Festival, the ballet was a moving representation of Balanchine's admiration not only for the composer, but also for the dancers of the corps de ballet and students of the School of American Ballet. Silas is joined by fellow NYCB alums Jerri Kumery, one of the original four “tall" dancers in the Minuet movement, and Amy Kobberger, one of the child dancers in the opening “Preghiera” or prayer section in the work’s premiere, to share their memories of Mozartiana’s creation. (1:24:26) Written by Silas Farley Edited by Emilie Silvestri Reading List: Balanchine’s Mozartiana: The Making of a Masterpiece by Robert Maiorano and Valerie Brooks Holding On to the Air: An Autobiography by Suzanne Farrell with Toni Bentley Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky: Interviews with George Balanchine by Solomon Volkov

Music:  Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major (1931) by Igor Stravinsky Suite No. 4, Mozartiana, Op. 61 (1887) by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky Apollon Musagète (1928) by Igor Stravinsky All music performed by the New York City Ballet Orchestra