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NYCB dancers and guests dancing the night away under the Swarovski Crystal chandelier. |
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| Last Wednesday night at Lincoln Center, the New York City Ballet held its annual Spring Gala to celebrate the Company’s unparalleled commitment to new choreography. The one-time-only program featured the world premieres of the Ballet company’s Principal Dancer Benjamin Millepied’s Quasi Una Fantasia and Dresden SemperOper Ballet Principal Dancer Jiri Bubenicek’s Toccata. The program also included George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations. |
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The Promenade of the David H. Koch Theater. |
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DJ Samantha Ronson. |
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| Following the performance there was a black tie dinner on the Promenade of the David H. Koch Theater. The chairs of the evening were Franci Blassberg and Joe Rice, Lisa Maria and Philip Falcone and Lesley Stahl and Aaron Latham. |
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| The 2009 annual St. George’s Society’s English Ball honored Lionel Barber – Editor, Financial Times; Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., KBE – Retired Chairman and CEO, IBM Corp; Sir Terry Leahy – Chief Executive, TESCO and Sir John Rose – Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce, plc -- all of whom have transformed their businesses, industries and avocations. Attending the event at The Waldorf=Astoria’s Starlight Roof were the British Consul-General, Sir Alan Collins, and Lady Collins; and British actor Jim Dale with Julie Dale. Patrons of the event included Rolls-Royce, Tesco, John and Kazie Harvey, Ceasar N. Anquillare, R. Brandon Fradd, William and Irene Miller, the British Consulate-General and the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida. George McNeely of Christie’s was the guest auctioneer of the evening. Among the guests were Paul Whelan and Geoffrey Bradfield. The ball was chaired by Vicki Downey, Olivia Fussell, Hilda Frost Neis, June Briggs and Nancy Sakas. The evening’s highlights included presentation of medals to the four honorees and a brief Q&A led by the Society’s president, Victor Stewart, a live auction to sponsor a beneficiary or a scholar of the Society, music by the Alex Donner Orchestra and an entire evening peppered with dancing and merriment! |
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The Honorees: Sir John Rose, Sir Terry Leahy, Louis Gerstner, and Lionel Barber |
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| The English Ball raises much needed funds for the charity recipients of the St. George’s Society, one of the oldest private charities in America. The event was hosted by Francis Finlay, former CEO and Co-Founder of Clay Finlay and Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, CEO and President of the Sony Corporation. Founded in 1770 by Englishmen living in New York, St. George's Society is a private, member-supported charity. It one of the city’s oldest continuously operating private charitable foundations and receives no public funding. HRH The Duke of Gloucester, KG, GCVO is the Society’s royal patron. The Society assists elderly or disabled residents in the New York area of British and Commonwealth heritage. In addition, it provides scholarships to select students at City College of New York. |
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| On a Tuesday evening earlier in May, there was a reception and dinner at the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City in the Museum’s sculpture garden to recognize Leonard and Louise Riggio for their extraordinary promised gift to the Museum of nine Noguchi sculptures. The reception included a performance by jazz pianist Arturo O’Farrill, 2009 Grammy Award-winning pianist, composer, educator, and founder and artistic director of the internationally renowned Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. He performed with bassist Ricardo Rodriguez and percussionist Roland Guerrero. |
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The Museum and Sculpture Garden |
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Ricardo Rodriquez, Arturo O'Farrill, and Roland Guerrero performing |
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| About 200 attended, including artists, friends of the Museum, and representatives of the cultural community, Noguchi Museum Board Chairman Samuel Sachs II; Trustees Diana and Joseph DiMenna, Christiane Fischer, Milly and Arne Glimcher, Andrea and David Holbrook, Eileen and Peter Jachym, Lucy Lamphere, Mary and Richard Lanier, and Jennifer and Malcolm Nolen; Museum Honorary Life Trustee Priscilla Morgan; Richard Gluckman; Maya Lin and Daniel Wolf; Ellen Phelan and Joel Shapiro; Marla Prather and Jonathan Schiller; and Noguchi Museum Director Jenny Dixon and Curator Bonnie Rychlak, among others. |
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Jonathan Schiller, Sam Sachs, Jane Richards, Douglas Baxter, and Marla Prather |
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Robin Berrington, former United States cultural attaché in Tokyo, Jennifer Nolen, artist Wenda Gu, Kathryn Scott, and Noguchi Museum Trustees Malcolm Nolen and David Holbrook |
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| Designed by Isamu Noguchi and occupying a renovated 1927 industrial building, The Noguchi Museum exhibits a comprehensive selection of the artist’s works in all mediums, displayed in a series of indoor galleries and an internationally celebrated outdoor sculpture garden. Together, this installation and the Museum’s special exhibitions expand the context for Noguchi’s work and illuminate his influential legacy of innovation. For additional information: www.noguchi.org [3]. |
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| On May 11th, the Lower Eastside Service Center (LESC) held its 50th anniversary gala at Chelsea Piers. They celebrated the vital work of this service group, and it was a star studded affair. Supermodel Heidi Albertsen headed up the gala’s honorary committee and was joined by various guests including: Ramona Singer, Countess Luann De Lesseps, Justine Simmons and Daniel “Diggy” Simmons, Jill Larson, Kathy Brier, Bret Shuford, Stephen Hanna, Arlene Dahl and Marc Rosen, Carole Holmes, Edwina Sandys and Richard Kaplan, Barbara and Donald Tober, Gideon Lewin and Joanna Mastroianni, Caryl Stern, Karen Carpenter- Palumbo, Edward Tricomi and Joel Warren.
Today, LESC offers a variety of programs, including residential and out-patient chemical dependency treatment, a pregnant women and infants program, a housing complex for individuals living with HIV/AIDS, a Chinese program on the Lower East Side. The LESC's newest venture Bridge2Life Camp and Kids Club provides a safe harbor for children whose parents have substance abuse histories. The organization continues to grow and develop its unique approach to wellness, consistently offering “Help for Today, and Hope for Tomorrow.” Melissa Russo of WNBC was emcee. Edward Brown, the founder of the LESC, was honored posthumously for his landmark work. Other honorees, Bruce D. Tindal, Executive VP of Bollinger, Inc. and Stanley Zareff, VP of corporate communications of Credit Suisse, were recognized for their generosity of time and spirit to the LESC. |
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| Photographs by 2009 Sheri Low (NYC BALLET); Rob Rich/516-676-3939 (LES). | Click here [4] for NYSD Contents |