Profiles

MATTHEW NEENAN

Choreographer, The Solo Year Matthew Neenan began his dance training at the Boston Ballet School and with noted teachers Nan C. Keating and Jacqueline Cronsberg. He later attended the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York. From 1994-2007, Matthew danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet where he danced numerous principal roles in the classical, contemporary and Balanchine repertoire. From 2007-2020, Matthew was named Choreographer in Residence at the Pennsylvania Ballet where he created 20 ballets. Matthew’s choreography has been featured and performed by The New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Ballet West, Ballet Met, Colorado Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Milwaukee Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, OKC Ballet, Kansas City Ballet , BODYTRAFFIC, Juilliard Dance, USC Kaufman School of Dance, among many others. He has received numerous awards and grants for his choreography from the National Endowment of the Arts, Dance Advance funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Choo San Goh Foundation, and the Independence Foundation. In 2006, Matthew received the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute’s Fellowship Initiative Award. In 2008, he received a fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. This marks his fourth time receiving the PCA fellowship. He was also the first recipient of the Jerome Robbins NEW Program Fellowship for his work At the border for Pennsylvania Ballet. In June 2019, he directed the Contemporary Ballet Program at Jacob’s Pillow. In 2005, Matthew co-founded BalletX with fellow dancer Christine Cox. BalletX had its world premiere at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival in September 2005 and is now the resident dance company at the prestigious Wilma Theatre. BalletX has toured and performed Neenan’s choreography in New York City at The Joyce Theater, NY City Center, The Skirball Center, Symphony Space and Central Park Summerstage, Vail International Dance Festival ( where he has had 5 world premieres ), Jacob’s Pillow Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Cerritos Center, Laguna Dance Festival, Spring to Dance Festival in St.Louis, and internationally in Cali, Colombia, Seoul, Korea and Belgrade, Serbia. His ballet “The Last Glass” was the New York Times top 10 in 2013.

TREVOR NAUMANN

Choreographer, Resist Much, Obey Little Raised in New Paltz, New York, Trevor Naumann received his training from the New Paltz School of Ballet and the School of American Ballet. Among his most influential teachers are Jock Soto, Nikolaj Hubbe, Peter Boal, and Peter Martins, as well as his mother and father, Peter and Lisa Naumann, both of whom are New York City Ballet alumni. Trevor joined Ballet West II in 2009, and the main company in 2011.

ADRIAN FRY

Choreographer, With Assurance Adrian Fry has held the rank of Principal Dancer since 2017. Originally from Omaha, NE, he trained at Omaha Theater Ballet School, School of American Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. He joined Ballet West in 2010 after dancing with Oregon Ballet Theatre. Recent highlights of his performing career thus far are: Sir Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella; Adam Sklute’s adaptations of Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake; George Balanchine’s Apollo, Chaconne, and Diamonds; and the title role in John Cranko’s Onegin, among others. He has danced in many galas around the world including Gala de Danza’s inaugural Project Protégé, where professional dancers are paired with protégés from around the world in new works by world-class choreographers. In 2016, Adrian appeared with the contemporary dance company NOW-ID in the Copenhagen Opera Festival. He was also featured in the 25th International Ballet Festival in Havana, Cuba, where Ballet West was one of the first American companies invited to perform since relations changed between the nations. Adrian has choreographed since 2012. In July of 2016, he received the first-ever Ballet Commission from the Utah Arts Festival to create an original work for their 40th anniversary. In March of 2017, he premiered his first narrative work, The Emperor’s New Clothes for Ballet West. In addition to dancing, Adrian became a faculty member of the Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy in the autumn of 2018. His classes impart placement, musicality, and the joy of dance to all students. He also assists his wife, Artist Jordan Richardson, in building their business, Ballerina Baker, a luxury wedding cake company.

REX TILTON

Choreographer, With Assurance Rex Tilton, Principal Artist, has been with Ballet West since 2008, and is also the Artistic Director of artÉmotion. He was a featured cast member on seasons 1 & 2 of the CW Docu-series Breaking Pointe. Tilton has been featured in issues of Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit Magazine, and Pointe Magazine. He shared the cover of Dance Teacher Magazine, February 2018, with Allison DeBona. He was also the model for the August 2015 Grishko Pointe shoe ad featured in Pointe Magazine. Additional accolades include producing the I Am Your Friend Benefit Dance Performance alongside Allison DeBona, June 2015, to benefit the non-profit organization Fahodie for Friends. Tilton attended the Pacific Northwest Ballet Professional Division program on scholarship for one year before joining Ballet West. Additional training includes School of American Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. He grew up under the artistic direction of former Pacific Northwest Ballet Principal, Ben Houk, and Pacific Northwest Ballet Soloist, Lauri-Michelle Houk, at San Elijo Dance and Music Academy. In 2020, he was named a Nikolay Brand Ambassador.

NICHOLAS MAUGHAN

Composer, With Assurance Nicholas Maughan enjoys a busy career as a pianist, collaborator, and composer. His work in chamber music, musical theater and opera, and ballet has taken him from coast to coast. He has worked with musicians including members of the Vermeer String Quartet, the Amelia Piano Trio, Rahim AlHaj, Nelita True, and Jean Barr. As a student at Weber State University, he was a founding member of the award winning piano trio, Tria Fata. Currently the Company Pianist at Ballet West, Maughan plays class and rehearsal for company artists, and plays keyboards for the Ballet West Orchestra. He has played for dancers and choreographers including Colleen Neary, Karin Averty, Evelyn Cisneros, Val Caniparoli, and Lar Lubovitch. Maughan’s recent compositions include commissions for Art Emotion USA, Aubrey Adams-McMillan, and Ballet West.

KATLYN ADDISON

Choreographer, Eden and With Assurance Born in Ontario, Canada, Katlyn Addison started her professional training at the age of ten with the National Ballet School of Canada and continued her training with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Houston Ballet Ben Stevenson Academy. She was a member of the Corps de Ballet with Houston Ballet from 2007 through 2011. Katlyn is currently a First Soloist for Ballet West where she has danced since 2011. She made history as Ballet West’s first Black ballerina to dance the role of the “Sugar Plum Fairy” in Frederick Ashton’s “The Nutcracker’’. At the yearly UN conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, 2019 Katlyn performed for the United Nations dancing the role of Mother Earth in “Way of Rain / Earth Movement”. Throughout the fall season of 2019-2020, Katlyn was a Guest Soloist with Scottish Ballet directed by Christopher Hampson in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2015 and again in 2018, Katlyn choreographed “The Hunt” and “Hidden Voices” for Ballet West’s Works from Within Choreographic Program, and Utah’s Arts Festival in the Summer of 2019, Ballet West Academy in Park City Nutcracker, creating new movement for the Snow Queen and Walts Queen, and a world premiere for the University of Utah Dance Department, “Saint-George, The Composer, Fencmen, and Creator all in 2020.

GEORGE WALKER

Composer, Eden Walker was first exposed to music at the age of five when he began to play the piano. He was admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory at 14, and later to the Curtis Institute of Music to study piano with Rudolf Serkin, chamber music with William Primrose and Gregor Piatigorsky, and composition with Rosario Scalero, teacher of Samuel Barber. He received his doctorate from the Eastman School of Music. Walker taught at Rutgers University in New Jersey for several years, retiring in 1992. Walker’s first major orchestral work was the Address for Orchestra. His Lyric for Strings is his most performed orchestral work. He composed many works including five sonatas for piano, a mass, cantata, many songs, choral works, organ pieces, sonatas for cello and piano, violin and piano and viola and piano, a brass quintet and a woodwind quintet. He published over 90 works and received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and many other ensembles. He was the recipient of six honorary doctoral degrees, and was the first African American to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his work Lilacs in 1996. Walker was the father of two sons, violinist and composer Gregory Walker, and playwright Ian Walker. He died on August 23, 2018 in Montclair, New Jersey at the age of 96.

EMILY ADAMS

Choreographer, The Thing With Feathers and With Assurance Emily Adams grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and has been a Principal Artist with Ballet West for the past six seasons. She joined Ballet West II in 2005 after graduating from the Professional Children’s School and the School of American Ballet in NYC. She performed with Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center in June 2007, and joined Ballet West as a company artist that fall. She is married to former Ballet West dancer, Beau Pearson and is the co-owner and co-founder of State of Bodhi, a sustainable lifestyle brand. Emily received the Utah Arts Festival’s 2017 Choreographic Commission for which she choreographed Laden with RUUDDANCES LLC. She has created four ballets for Ballet West’s Innovations programs- Homage (2015), Mixed Signals (2014), Forces at Play (2012), and Regarding Us (2011). In August 2019, in collaboration with Sibylle Szaggers Redford, Emily choreographed The Way of the Rain: Earth Movements, A Symphony for Ballet, which premiered at the Opening Night Gala for the UN Conference at the Eccles Theater. As a student at SAB, she created pieces for the Student Choreographic Workshop and was invited by Peter Martins to participate in the 2004 Spring New York Choreographic Institute.

KATY JARZEBOWSKI

Composer, The Thing With Feathers Katy Jarzebowski is a composer and lifelong cinephile. Driven by a love of the bold and unexpected, her work balances a strong background in string and orchestral writing with elements of sound design, electronics, and surprising instrumentations. She has scored numerous films and documentaries, including Lara Gallagher’s Clementine, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released as a soundtrack by Infinite Companion in 2021. Katy graduated from Yale University and earned a Masters in Music at NYU, where she studied with Julia Wolfe. In 2014, she was selected as a composer fellow at the Sundance Music and Sound Design Lab at Skywalker Sound. Katy coauthored a chapter in ‘Contemporary Film Music’ (PalgraveMacmillan) with her Sundance mentor, Peter Golub and her acknowledgements include the Elmer Bernstein Award, ASCAP Film Scoring Fellowship for Study Abroad, Sorel Scholarship for Women in Film Scoring, and Kosciuszko Foundation Fellowship for Graduate Studies. She is an avid traveler and polyglot, and has studied abroad both in Paris and Italy, where she researched the work of Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone under an ASCAP fellowship. In 2015, she participated as an artist fellow with The Backstory Group for their maiden trip to Israel. Katy is forever grateful to her parents for their fanatic support and encouragement, her grandparents for sharing their love of music, and her partner, Pete, ‘for the sake of a smile’... She wishes to wholeheartedly thank Ballet West and Peter Golub of the Sundance Institute for this opportunity, and choreographer Emily Adams for her passion, talent, and trust.