A Celebration Of Culture, Tradition, & Music: The 69th Annual Viennese Opera Ball

In a celebration of culture, tradition, and timeless music, the 69th Annual Viennese Opera Ball returned to Cipriani 42nd Street for one of the most spectacular evenings in New York’s social calendar. This year’s gala held resonance, commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Johann Strauss II, the “Waltz King”.

Co-Chaired by Jean Shafiroff and Denise Rich, this year’s Ball benefited Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research and the music therapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, continuing the event’s legacy of supporting charitable causes through the arts.

The evening opened with the presentation of debutantes and their escorts choreographed by Sandra Stockmayer from Svabek Dance School Vienna, followed by a ballet performance featuring Christine Shevchenko, Principal Dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, joined by young dancers from the Rock School of Dance and members of the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), with the support of the Ballet Support Foundation. A highlight of the evening was the breathtaking performances by opera stars María Barakova, two-time Grammy Award winner J’Nai Bridges, Adam Smith, Mikayla Sager, Daniel Berryman, Aigul Akhmetshina, Maritina Tampakopoulos, and Johanna Will. Guests enjoyed a Viennese-inspired dinner and fine Austrian wines, followed by dancing to Waltzer by the Viennese Opera Ball Orchestra led by Maestro Rainer Sulzgruber, the traditional midnight Quadrille, and an after party with DJ and Austrian snacks.

Attendees included Denise Rich, Jean Shafiroff, Silvia Frieser, Sabine Riglos (Honoree and Board member), Stefan Ottrubay (Chairman of the Board, Esterhazy Foundation), Petra Schneebauer (Austrian Ambassador to the United States), Thomas Schlesinger (Austrian Consul-General) and spouse Susanne Keppler-Schlesinger (Austrian Cultural Forum NY), Ernst Woller (President of the Vienna Provincial Parliament), Peter Hanke (Federal Minister for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure of the Republic of Austria), Dominik Nepp (Member of the City Council of Vienna), Klaus Panholzer (Schloss Schonbrunn), Austrian painter Pablo Meier-Schomburg and Camillo Stepanek, Austrian fashion designer Carolin Sinemus (Madl, Salzburg), Julia Haart, Michael Spinks, Maribel Lieberman, TV personality Star Jones, Elizabeth Segerstrom, William Cavendish and Liliana Cavendish, Rebecca Seawright, David Hochberg, Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe, Lulu Sezercan Dalkanat and Lola Abigail Koch.

For more information, visit vienneseoperaball.com.