Conducting Ballet

Lawton's professional orchestral conducting debut in Germany took place in 1987 with a full production of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" at the Bielefeld Stadttheater, here in a historic picture. A year before, he had begun working as ballet pianist and coach at the theater. My duties were to prepare ballet versions of Saen-Saens "Carnival of Animals" as well as "The Nutcracker". The Tchaikovsky ballet was given a large-scale staging with the orchestral music performed nearly complete.

Tchaikovsky is a favorite composer, and since then he has led a concert with the Symphonisches Orchester Berlin in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall which featured large parts of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty" ballets, as well as highlights from the "Nutcracker".

Symphonic ballet repertoire conducted: