Around the Music Festival

The Vienna State Ballet has announced that Italian ballerina Alessandra Ferri will be its next artistic director, succeeding Martin Schläpfer, who has held the position since 2020. Her term will begin in September 2025. Schläpfer will step down at the end of his five-year term.

Ferri was born in Milan, Italy, in 1963 and is 60 years old. She studied at the Ballet School of La Scala Theatre in Milan and then at the Royal Ballet School in England, where she joined the Royal Ballet after winning the Prix de Lausanne in 1980.

At the age of 19, she was discovered by Kenneth MacMillan, who selected her for the leading role in “Mayerling. She was subsequently “MacMillan’s muse” and was awarded the Laurence Olivier Prize in 1983.

In 1985, she accepted an invitation from then Artistic Director Mikhail Baryshnikov to join the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Thereafter, she continued her career as a principal with ABT and La Scala Theatre Ballet, while also making guest appearances as a guest artist with ballet companies around the world.

In March 2007, she retired from La Scala Theatre Ballet with “La Traviata” choreographed by John Neumeier, and in June she retired from ABT with “Romeo and Juliet” by Kenneth MacMillan.

However, after her divorce, she returned to the stage in 2013 at the age of 50. She has continued to work as a freelance dancer, and in October 2021, she appeared again in a performance celebrating the 40th anniversary of her debut with the Royal Ballet.

Photo：Fabrizio Ferri


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