The Score | Tallahassee World Premiere

It’s not every day that a youth orchestra commissions a brand-new piece—with ballet. But on May 7 at Tallahassee’s Ruby Diamond Auditorium, the Tallahassee Youth Symphony Orchestra performed Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Ballet 2017: Celestial Dance, its first commissioned world premiere, led by Music Director Alexander Jimenez. The three-movement work, which the composer noted was meant to mimic the general concept of DNA, was presented jointly with the Tallahassee Ballet. Zwilich said in a pre-performance interview in the Tallahassee Democrat, “I’ve been very taken with the idea that these will all be young performers, both the dancers and the players, and that was very inspiring. I hope they enjoy playing it because there’s something wonderful about trying your best that enables you to enjoy something more. You have to have a love for it that drives you.”