12/08/2026
🎶 A violinist who accidentally became the author of one of the most famous scores in the history of ballet!
In his youth, Ludwig Minkus led an orchestra that rivaled the one led by Johann Strauss himself. He later found himself in Russia, where he became a professor of violin at the Moscow Conservatory. Nothing about his path was preparing him to become a ballet composer.
In 1869, Marius Petipa asked him to write the score for “Don Quixote,” based on Cervantes. Minkus approached it as a violinist who knew from experience: in ballet, the melody shouldn’t just sound beautiful, it has to carry the dancer forward, hold the rhythm, speed up a turn, and freeze right along with the pose.
The result was music that makes it impossible to sit still, even in the audience.
It was exactly these qualities that kept Petipa coming back to him — together, they created 16 productions, including “La Bayadère.” According to accounts from their contemporaries, for the choreographer, the practical sensitivity of Minkus’s compositions mattered more than Tchaikovsky’s genius, simply because it was so much easier to build choreography around it.
🎟️ This musical masterpiece deserves to be heard live. Join us for the “Don Quixote” ballet on September 25–26, and let Minkus’s music sweep you up in a whirlwind of Spanish passion you won’t soon forget.
