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NEW YORK CITY BALLETS OPENING NIGHT BENEFIT in NEWLY NAMED DAVID H. KOCH THEATRE

Date: 04 Jan 2008

Citywealth

NEW YORK CITY BALLET’S OPENING NIGHT BENEFIT
ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25
TO MARK FIRST PERFORMANCE IN
NEWLY NAMED DAVID H. KOCH THEATER

One-Time-Only Gala Performance to Showcase American Music
Featuring Singers from the New York City Opera and the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra
______________________________________

New York City Ballet’s annual Opening Night Benefit will be held on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 7 p.m. and will feature an evening of ballets set to American music by such composers as Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, Charles Ives, Wynton Marsalis, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and Ray Charles.

The gala evening will also mark the first performance in the newly named David H. Koch Theater, and for the occasion Mr. Koch and his wife Julia will serve as honorary chairmen for the evening. Chairmen for the event are Carol and Earle Mack and Whitney and Clarke Murphy.

The theater is being named in honor of Mr. Koch who recently made a $100 million gift to support the capital campaign for the theater, previously known as the New York State Theater, which is home to both New York City Ballet and New York City Opera. The theater, which opened its doors in 1964, is currently undergoing a major renovation, with the initial phase due for completion in the fall of 2009.

As part of this special evening, Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief of NYCB, has invited the New York City Opera to take part in this inaugural performance in the David H. Koch Theater. The program will open with Martins’ Chichester Psalms, to the music of Leonard Bernstein, which will feature the New York City Opera Chorus. City Opera soloists will also appear in excerpts from Jerome Robbins’ Ives, Songs and George Balanchine’s Who Cares?, and George Manahan, City Opera’s Music Director, will conduct the NYCB Orchestra in excerpts from Balanchine’s Ivesiana and Martins’ Calcium Light Night, both to music by Charles Ives.

Other works featured on the program include excerpts from Martins’ Barber Violin Concerto, Jazz (Six Syncopated Movements), and A Fool for You, as well as Susan Stroman’s “Blossom Got Kissed” from Duke!, NYCB’s Duke Ellington tribute which premiered in 1999.

The performances of Jazz (Six Syncopated Movements), “Rockhouse” from A Fool for You, and “Blossom Got Kissed,” will feature music performed by the acclaimed Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, which is comprised of students from The Juilliard School’s prestigious jazz program, which is a collaboration between Juilliard and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Performance-only tickets for the Opening Night Benefit are priced from $20 to $100 and are currently available at www.nycballet.com, through CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, or at the theater’s box office.

Gala tickets, which include a pre-performance cocktail reception, the performance, and a black-tie supper ball following the performance, are also available by calling the NYCB Special Events Office at 212-870-5585.

Following the Opening Night Benefit, NYCB will hold its annual holiday season of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker‚Ñ¢, November 28 through January 3, followed by the Winter Repertory Season, January 6 through March 1, 2009.

The theater is located on the Lincoln Center Plaza at Columbus Avenue at 63rd Street. For general information on tickets for any New York City Ballet performance, call 212-870-5570, or visit www.nycballet.com.

Chichester Psalms was made possible in part by a generous contribution from The Irene Diamond Fund.

Ivesiana was made possible in part through a generous contribution from Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation.

The creation and performance of works by Peter Martins is funded in part by an endowment gift from the Solomon family, given in loving memory of Carolyn B. Solomon.

New York City Ballet’s performances of ballets by George Balanchine are supported in part by the Balanchine Production Fund, an endowment created through The Campaign for New York City Ballet.

NEW YORK CITY BALLET
Opening Night Benefit
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 7 p.m.

Chichester Psalms
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Choreography by Peter Martins
Featuring the New York City Opera Chorus

Barber Violin Concerto (excerpt)
Music by Samuel Barber
Choreography by Peter Martins

Ives, Songs (excerpt)
Music by Charles Ives
Choreography by Jerome Robbins
Featuring a soloist from the New York City Opera

Ivesiana (excerpt)
Music by Charles Ives
Choreography by George Balanchine
NYCB Orchestra conducted by George Manahan,
Music Director of the New York City Opera

Calcium Light Night (excerpt)
Music by Charles Ives
Choreography by Peter Martins
NYCB Orchestra conducted by George Manahan,
Music Director of the New York City Opera

Intermission

Jazz (Six Syncopated Movements) (excerpt)
Music by Wynton Marsalis
Choreography by Peter Martins
Featuring the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra

A Fool for You (excerpts)
Rockhouse* – Music by Ray Charles
Hit the Road Jack – Music by Percy Mayfield
It Should’ve Been Me – Music by Memphis Curtis
Choreography by Peter Martins
*Featuring the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra

Blossom Got Kissed (from Duke!)
Music by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn
Choreography by Susan Stroman
Featuring the Julliard Jazz Orchestra

Who Cares? (excerpts)
The Man I Love* and I Got Rhythm
Music by George Gershwin
Choreography by George Balanchine
*Featuring a soloist from the New York City Opera

Donor profile

David H. Koch

David H. Koch is an executive vice president and a board member of Koch Industries, Inc., which owns a diverse group of companies with more than $100 billion in revenues, 80,000 employees, and a presence in nearly 60 countries. Based in Wichita, Kan., Koch Industries is involved in refining and chemicals; process and pollution control equipment and technologies; minerals and fertilizers; fibers and polymers; commodity and financial trading and services; and forest and consumer products. Familiar Koch companies’ brands include STAINMASTER carpet, LYCRA spandex, Quilted Northerni‚Ć√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢’ tissue and Dixie cups and tabletop products.

Mr. Koch, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, applies that scientific expertise in his other role as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Chemical Technology Group, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries.

The Chemical Technology Group serves municipalities, oil refineries and chemical plants around the globe with research and development, manufacturing and sales of process and pollution control equipment. This group employs nearly 5,000 people and includes these businesses:

• Koch-Glitsch, LP (Wichita, Kan.)
• Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. (Wilmington, Mass.)
• Koch Heat Transfer Company, LP (Houston)
• Unifin International (London, Ontario, Canada)
• John Zink Company (Tulsa, Okla.)
• Optimized Process Designs, Inc. (Houston)

Prior to joining Koch Industries in 1970, Mr. Koch worked as a research engineer and process design engineer for Amicon Corporation, in Cambridge, Mass.; Arthur D. Little, Inc., also in Cambridge, Mass.; and Halcon International, Inc. and its affiliate, the Scientific Design Company in New York City.

In addition to his business activities, Mr. Koch has personally pledged and contributed more than $400 million to a wide variety of organizations and programs which further cancer research, enhance medical centers and support educational institutions, as well as programs that sustain arts and cultural institutions.

In 2005, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Cambridge College, and was honored by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for Excellence in Corporate Leadership. Mr. Koch was honored with the prestigious Corporate Citizenship Award from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2004, and other recognition includes the Manhattan Republican Party’s Business
Statesman of the Year award in 2002 and the Entrepreneurial Leadership Award from the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Mr. Koch received a presidential appointment to the National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute in 2004, and was honored by The New York Academy of Medicine for his support of biomedical research, healthcare and education. The David H. Koch Cancer Research Center on Johns Hopkins University’s East Baltimore medical campus was dedicated in December 2006, honoring Mr. Koch for his $20 million commitment to the center.

Mr. Koch is also the prime contributor to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s plans to build an integrative cancer research center which will be called The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Other contributions to MIT have established The David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice, and he has been honored with the dedication of the David H. Koch Biology Building at the university.

Mr. Koch’s donation to the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center will create a cancer research center there. He has been honored by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for his corporate leadership.

In 2006, he made a $20 million gift to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to support the dinosaur exhibits, creating the David H. Koch Dinosaur Wing.

He has also been active in the public policy field, serving on the boards of the Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation. These organizations are focused on applying market-based concepts to enhance peace, prosperity and social progress.

Mr. Koch serves on more than 20 non-profit boards, including:

Member, National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md.
Governor, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York City
Member, Board of Trustees, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City
Member, Board of Visitors, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
Member, Board of Trustees, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City
Member, Board of Directors, Rockefeller University, New York City
Member, Board of Trustees, House Ear Institute, Los Angeles
Member, Board of Associates, Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, Mass.
Life Member of the Corporation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Member, Board of Trustees, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.
Member, Board of Trustees, The Prostate Cancer Foundation, Los Angeles
Vice Chairman, Board of Directors, American Ballet Theatre, New York City
Member, Board of Directors, American Museum of Natural History, New York City
Member, Board of Directors, Aspen Institute, Aspen, Colo.
Member, Board of Directors, Institute of Human Origins, Phoenix, Ariz.
Member, Board of Trustees, Educational Broadcasting Corporation, New York City
Member, Board of Overseers, WGBH, Channel 2, Boston
Member, James Madison Council, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Member, Board of Directors, The Cato Institute, Washington, D.C.
Member, Board of Directors, The Reason Foundation, Santa Monica, Calif.

Mr. Koch was born in Wichita, Kansas. He and his wife, Julia, have three children.

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