Paul McCartney to write for New York City Ballet

Sir Paul McCartney is to co-write a new work for New York City Ballet, it has been announced.

He will collaborate with NYCB’s Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins for a production which will premiere at the Fall Gala performance on 22 September 2011. It is the first time McCartney has written an original orchestral score for dance.

I am always interested in new directions that I haven’t worked in before. So I became very excited about the idea. When I got back to England after meeting Peter I started writing music and am now in the very final stages of the orchestral score. What was interesting was writing music that meant something expressively rather than just writing a song. Trying to write something that expressed an emotion – so you have fear, love, anger, sadness to play with and I found that exciting and challenging.

McCartney met Peter Martins at the School of American Ballet’s Winter Gala in 2010, and afterwards discussed working together.

Like the rest of my generation, I grew up being a huge fan of The Beatles so I was thrilled to meet him. After I got to know him a bit, and knowing of his great love of composing classical music, I asked if he might be interested in doing something for New York City Ballet, and I am ecstatic that he has agreed to write a score for us.

Additional performances of the collaboration will follow during the 2011/12 season. A full schedule is to be annouced at a later date.