World Music Day: 25% off all concerts until Sunday, 21 June at 10 AM.
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Italian conductor Claudio Vandelli’s acclaimed career takes him to prominent halls such as the Berliner Philharmonie and the Royal Albert Hall, working with orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gürzenich Orchestra Köln and the Hamburger Symphoniker. He is currently the first ever Chief Conductor of the Würth Philharmoniker, founded in 2017, and permanent guest conductor of the Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra in Moscow, with whom he recently celebrated his 10th year of residence. Vandelli is also devoted to bringing up the next generation of professional orchestral musicians, and the crown jewels of that work have been the creation of the Verbier Festival’s three international orchestras and, most recently, the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra resident at the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia, which launched in September 2019.
Kurt Masur is well known to orchestras and audiences alike as both a distinguished conductor and a humanist. In September 2002 he became music director of the Orchestre National de France in Paris, and, in September 2008, became that ensemble’s honorary music director for life. From September 2000 to 2007 he was principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1991 to 2002 he was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, and was subsequently named Music Director Emeritus — the first New York Philharmonic music director to receive that title, and only the second (after Leonard Bernstein, who had been named Laureate Conductor) to be so recognized. The New York Philharmonic established the Kurt Masur Fund for the Orchestra, which endows a conductor debut week at the Philharmonic in his honor in perpetuity. From 1970 until 1996 Mr. Masur served as Gewandhaus Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, a position of profound historic importance; upon his retirement in 1996 the Gewandhaus named him its first-ever conductor laureate. Mr. Masur is a guest conductor with the world’s leading orchestras and holds the lifetime title of honorary guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In July 2007 he celebrated his 80th birthday in a concert at the BBC Proms in London, where he conducted the joint forces of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France.
A professor at the Leipzig Academy of Music since 1975, Kurt Masur has received numerous honors, including the Cross of the Order of Merits of the Federal Republic of Germany (1995); Gold Medal of Honor for Music from the National Arts Club (1996); the titles of Commander of the Legion of Honor from the French Government, and of New York City Cultural Ambassador from the City of New York (1997); and the Commander Cross of Merit of the Polish Republic (1999). In March 2002 the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Johannes Rau, bestowed upon him the Cross with Star of the Order of Merits of the Federal Republic of Germany, and in September 2007 he received the Great Cross of the Legion of Honor with Star and Ribbon from the President of Germany, Horst Köhler.
In September 2008 Mr. Masur received the Furtwängler Prize in Bonn, Germany. He is also an honorary citizen of his hometown, Brieg. He has made more than 100 recordings with numerous orchestras, and in 2008 celebrated 60 years as a professional conductor.
Chilly Gonzales, Grammy-winning Canadian pianist and entertainer currently living in Europe, is known as much for the intimate piano touch of his best-selling Solo Piano album trilogy as for his showmanship and composition for award-winning stars.
“Gonzo” aims to be a man of his time, approaching the piano with classical and jazz training but with the attitude of a rapper. He performs and writes songs with Jarvis Cocker, Feist and Drake, among others and holds the Guinness world record for the longest solo concert at over 27 hours. In 2014 he won a Grammy for his collaboration on Daft Punk’s Best Album of the Year. 2018 saw the cinema release of a career retrospective documentary Shut Up and Play the Piano that premiered at the A-list Berlinale Film festival.
Most recently, Chilly Gonzales ventured into a new form of entrepreneurship. A culmination of recent years’ explorations in teaching, Gonzo inaugurated his very own music school: The Gonzervatory.
His first book Enya: A Treatise on Unguilty Pleasures was published in October 2020. In dazzling, erudite prose Gonzales delves beyond her innumerable gold discs and millions of fans to excavate his own enthusiasm for Enya’s singular music as well as the mysterious musician herself, and along the way uncovers new truths about the nature of music, fame, success and the artistic endeavor. In this musical memoir, he asks: Does music have to be smart or does it just need to go straight to the heart?
In Winter 2020, Chilly Gonzales released A very chilly christmas, his very own Christmas Album. From feudal oldies to newer holiday pop canon, A very chilly christmas surveys a broad scope of seasonal repertoire and sentiment. There’s grandeur and solemnity, there’s austerity and merriment, and there’s Mariah Carey.
For this tour, Chilly Gonzales is joined on stage for a portion of the show by Stella Le Page, Cello, Joe Flory, Drums & Marine Goldwaser, Clarinet.
Clarinettist, conductor and Sony Classical recording artist, Martin Fröst is known for pushing musical boundaries and has been described by the New York Times as having “a virtuosity and a musicianship unsurpassed by any clarinettist — perhaps any instrumentalist — in my memory”. Widely recognised as an artist who constantly seeks new ways to challenge and reshape the classical music arena, his repertoire encompasses mainstream clarinet works, as well as a number of contemporary pieces that he has personally championed. Winner of the 2014 Léonie Sonning Music Prize, one of the world’s highest musical honours, Fröst was the first clarinettist to be given the award and joined a prestigious list of previous recipients including Igor Stravinsky and Sir Simon Rattle. International Classical Music Awards voted him their 2022 Artist of the Year Award for his innovative global career, his impressive discography, and his philanthropy.
Fröst was announced the Artist in Residence with the Royal Concertgebouworkest for the 2022/23 season, the first ever wind player to be given that honour. The residency include season opening concerts with Víkingur Ólafsson and Alain Altinoglu; the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s Clarinet Concert with Jaap van Zweden; and exciting performance of Sally Beamish double concerto with Janine Jansen and Klaus Mäkelä as well as chamber music projects interspersed throughout the season. In 2022/23 Fröst continues to focus on his activities as Chief Conductor of Swedish Chamber Orchestra, including SCO Festival “Fröstivalen”, concerts with international guest artists, recording projects and highly anticipated European tour in early 2023. Other highlights of this season include a residency at Wigmore Hall, returns to the Royal Festival Hall with Philharmonia Orchestra and Pekka Kussisto and to Berlin with RSB Berlin and Lahav Shani as well as a conducting debut with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
His latest album for Sony Classical Night Passages was released on the 22 April 2022. With acclaimed pianist Roland Pöntinen and legendary bassist Sébastien Dubé, it charts a nocturnal journey through the playful and the profound, reimagining favourites from the Baroque, while touching on jazz and folk music.
As a soloist, Fröst has performed with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. He regularly collaborates with prominent international artists, including Yuja Wang, Janine Jansen, Leif Ove Andsnes, Roland Pöntinen and Antoine Tamestit, as well as performs in international events such as Verbier Festival in Switzerland and Mostly Mozart in New York. Fröst has appeared in some of the world’s most important concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Konzerthaus Berlin and he has toured in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia.
In recent years he has made successful conducting steps with the most important being his appointment as Chief Conductor of Swedish Chamber Orchestra from the 2019/20 season. Together they have embarked on a music journey that explores Mozart’s historic footprint in Europe through his travels. The project, set to be recorded by Sony Classical over a period of four years, is the orchestra’s first comprehensive green tour initiative, making extensive use of rail travel across Europe.
Renowned for his multimedia performing projects in collaboration with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, in recent years Fröst has presented Dollhouse, Genesis and most recently Retrotopia – his latest project to perform both as soloist and conductor in a musical journey that explores new repertoire and challenges the traditional conventions of the classical concert.
A keen advocate of the importance of music education, in 2019 Fröst launched the Martin Fröst Foundation with the support of the world’s largest manufacturer of wind instruments, Buffet Crampon. The purpose of the organisation is to provide resources that can improve and enable children’s and young people’s access to music education and instruments. The Foundation aims to join forces with non-profit organisations and various sponsors across the world, having already established presence in Kenya and Madagascar.
‘A voice that can stop time, pure and rich and open and consummately expressive’ is how the Financial Times described Chinese soprano Ying Fang as Ilia in Peter Sellars’s production of Mozart’s Idomeneo at the 2019 Salzburg Festival. Mozart also featured prominently in her 2020/21 season as she made house debuts at Dutch National Opera and Santa Fe Opera as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. A former member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Fang has performed with conductors including James Levine, Alan Gilbert, William Christie, Emmanuelle Haïm and Manfred Honeck, and houses including Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra de Lille, Vancouver Opera, and The Juilliard School from where she holds a Master’s degree and an Artist Diploma. Her awards include the Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, and China’s prestigious China Golden Bell Award for Music.
Universally acclaimed as both conductor and pianist, and renowned for the breadth of his repertoire and the depth of his interpretations, Christoph Eschenbach belongs firmly to his native Germany’s intellectual line of tradition, yet combines this with a rare emotional intensity. Currently Musical Director of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, his previous appointments include musical directorships at the National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the Philadelphia Orchestra. His tireless support of young talent includes being Artistic Advisor and lecturer at the Kronberg Academy. Among his awards garnered over five decades of recording are the German Record Critics’ Prize, the MIDEM Classical Award and a GRAMMY. He has been awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, and is a Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a holder of the German Federal Cross of Merit and a winner of the Leonard Bernstein Award.
Quatuor Ébène began its rise to fame in 2004 as winner of the ARD Music Competition, following studies with the Quatuor Ysaÿe in Paris, and also Gábor Takács, Eberhard Feltz and György Kurtág. Today it is internationally fêted for its distinctive, charismatic playing, and the complexity of its oeuvre, including its trademark jazz and pop improvisations. The quartet celebrated its 20th stage anniversary in 2019 and 2020 by live-recording Beethoven’s 16 string quartets for its label Erato, in a Beethoven Around the World project on six continents. Its 2021 ‘Round Midnight album then placed a brand new jazz-inspired work by quartet cellist Raphaël Merlin between Dutilleux and Schoenberg. Beyond numerous awards for its recordings, including Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine and the Midem Classic Award, the quartet became in 2019 the first ever ensemble to be honoured with the Frankfurt Music Prize.
Discovered at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2015, Lucas Debargue is today one of the most sought-after young pianists in the world and continues to impress with the originality of his musical talent. His encounter with Rena Shereshevskaya at the age of 10 marked the beginning of his commitment to a career as a concert pianist. Debargue draws his inspiration from literature, painting, cinema and jazz and offers interpretations that revisit the classics. He brings to light little-known parts of the repertoire, such as pieces by Karol Szymanowski, Nikolai Medtner or Milosz Magin. The Frenchman also devotes time to composition and has written about twenty pieces for solo piano and for chamber music ensembles.
Alexandra Conunova won in 2012 the first distinction of the Joseph Joachim of Hanover’s international violin competition : impressed by her master technique and her sensitivity, the jury unanimously commended her virtuosity. In 2015 ; while she was rewarded at the Singapour’s International Competition, she reached the final step of the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, where she won the third prize – the first prize having remained non awarded – before becoming the 2016’s BorlettiBuittoni Fellowship laureate in London.
From then on, Alexandra makes it a rule as a leading soloist and performs alongside important orchestra such as Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra de la Svizzera Italiana, NDR Hannover, Radio Saarbrück, Mariinski Orchestra, Camerata Bern, Orchestre du Teatro Regio de Turin, Orchestre de Seville, Orchestre de Toulouse, Stuttgart and Vienna chamber orchestras, under the direction of Valery Gergiev, Theodor Curentzis, John Axelrod, Vladmir Spivakov, G. Noseda, …touring in Japan with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and Yuri Simonov, or even recently touring with Laurence Equilbey and her Insula Orchestra – Budapest, Aix en Provence, Paris, London.
Alexandra performs also in various festivals, such as Verbier, Montreux Septembre Musical, Gstaad, BBC London, Ferrara Musica, Accademia Santa Cecilia Roma, Hamburg Martha Argerich Festival, Bonn, Colmar, Menton, Radio France Montpellier, Aix-en -Provence Festival de Pâques, les Folles Journées de Nantes and Tokyo…and chamber music with Michail Lifits, Renaud Capuçon, Edgar Moreau, David Kadouch, Andreas Ottensamer, Gérard Caussé, Boris Brovtsyn, Jean Rondeau…
Appointed « Maitre ès Arts » by the Republic of Moldavia’s President, her native, country, she founded the charity « ArtaVie » , aiming to help disadvantaged families and children from her former school.
Discography : Prokofiev’s violon and piano sonatas with Michail Lifits (Aparté) . and the Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major op. 56 with the Insula orchestra under Laurence Equilbey, (Erato). Alexandra plays a « del Gesu » ca.1730 « von Vecsey ».
Leonardo García-Alarcón, originally from Argentina, moved to Europe in 1997 to study at the Geneva Conservatory under harpsichordist Christiane Jaccottet. His journey into Baroque music began with Gabriel Garrido, and soon after, he founded his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea. In 2010, he became the artistic director of the Namur Chamber Choir and formed the Millenium Orchestra to accompany the choir. Alarcón divides his time between Geneva, where he teaches at the Haute Ecole de Musique, and various European cities, including France, where he is a key figure at the Ambronay Festival and artist-in-residence at the Dijon Opera. He also makes occasional trips back to South America.
Alarcón is credited with reviving Cavalli’s operas, including Elena and Erismena at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Eliogabalo at the 2016 Paris Opera season opener, Il Giasone in Geneva, and La Finta Pazza in Dijon. He also led the rediscovery of Antonio Draghi’s El Prometeo in 2018. As a conductor and harpsichordist, Alarcón is invited to prestigious festivals and concert halls worldwide. In 2018, he conducted Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Berlin Staatsoper, and in 2019, he triumphed with Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes at the Opéra Bastille, marking the Royal Academy of Music’s 350th anniversary. He was recognized as the best conductor in Forum Opéra’s 2019 Palmarès.
In 2020, despite disruptions due to the pandemic, Alarcón adapted his concert programs and participated in virtual festivals. He conducted Rossi’s Il Palazzo Incantato in a video recording that was widely praised. His acclaimed discography includes I 7 Peccati Capitali (2016), De vez en cuando la vida (2018), and El Prometeo (2018). His 2021 releases include Rebirth with soprano Sonya Yoncheva, Lamenti & Sospiri with sopranos Mariana Flores and Julie Roset, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, and Le violon selon Bach with violinist Chouchane Siranossian.
Alarcón is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.