FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 2, 2006

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - Metropolitan Classical Ballet artistic directors, Paul Mejia and Alexander Vetrov, are pleased to announce that guest choreographer Tanju Tuzer will present his ballet, Songs of Mahler, for the Company's Winter Repertory program to be presented at the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth on January 16th at 8:00 PM.

Mr. Tuzer, born in Istanbul, Turkey, was a principal dancer with the Turkish State Ballet, the Strasburg Ballet, and the Hamburgishe Staatsoper Ballet in Europe. After coming to the United States, he became a principal dancer with the Harkness Ballet in New York City. He and his wife formed the Tuzer Ballet Company, which performs throughout the metroplex. For several years, Mr. Tuzer served on the dance faculty of Southern Methodist University.

Virginia Dupuy will sing the Mahler songs for Mr. Tuzer's ballet and will be accompanied by pianist Dale Dietert. Ms. Dupuy, who has earned a reputation as one of the finest concert and recital singers in the United States, is a professor of music at the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University in Dallas. .

The Winter Repertory program will open with Album For the Young a world premiere by Paul Mejia set to Lowell Liebermann's composition of the same name. Mr. Liebermann, one of today's most frequently performed and commissioned composers, will play the piano accompaniment for the ballet.

The program will conclude with Cross Winds by Anatoly Emilianov set to music by Frederic Chopin. Mr. Emilianov is a principal dancer with Metropolitan Classical Ballet as well as artistic director and chief choreographer of the Crown of Russia Ballet Theater. Alexei Melentiev, distinguished pianist from the Bolshoi in Moscow, will play the piano accompaniment for Cross Winds.

Tickets range in price from $10 - $30 and are available through the Bass Hall Box Office at (817) 212-4280, toll free at (877) 212-4280, or online at www.basshall.com. Season, group and individual tickets may be purchased by calling Metropolitan Classical Ballet at (817) 275-0598 or (817) 465-4644 and in person at 500 West Abram Street in Arlington, Texas.

Season sponsors include American Airlines, WRR Classical 101, and the law firm of Hill Gilstrap.

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Media Note: Further information and photo of Virginia Dupuy may be obtained by contacting Judy Puder at (817) 465-4644.