This Sunday September 9, pianist Cédric Tiberghien debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir George Benjamin in Ravel’s Left Hand Concerto. His performance will be streamed live at 2PM EST via Digital Concert Hall.
Cédric returns to North America later this month to perform Bartók Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Vancouver Symphony and their newly appointed music director, Otto Tausk, followed by Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Quebec Symphony and Enrique Mazzola.
In commemoration of the centennial of the World War I Armistice, Cédric once again appears on the Chicago Symphony‘s Symphony Center Presents Piano Series, this time in a program of works composed between 1914 and 1918 by Scriabin, Frank Bridge, Debussy, Szymanowski, and Hindemith. He will premiere the program on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, November 10, at Wigmore Hall in London, and repeat it after Chicago on December 5 at Middlebury College in Vermont.
Cédric Tiberghien makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with François-Xavier Roth in Liszt’s First Piano Concerto beginning of March 2019.
TAFELMUSIK will bring SAFE HAVEN to the United States, March 4-15, 2020. In addition to sets, narration and projected images, the performance includes works by Lully, Bach, Purcell, Telemann, and Vivaldi’s “Winter” from The Four Seasons, led by new Music Director, Elissa Citerro. SAFE HAVEN explores the influence of refugee populations on the culture of their adopted countries, and taps into Mackay’s uncanny ability to examine the parallels between 18th-century Europe and the issues currently facing our world.
Mackay and her creative team employ scripted text narrated by Maryem Tollar, lighting designed by Glenn Davidson, and stunning projections designed by Raha Javanfar to create the kind of immersive concert experience for which Tafelmusik is world renowned.
“Throughout history, the effects of war, religious persecution, climate change, and poverty have caused people to abandon their homes and seek asylum beyond their borders,” says Mackay. “In the time of Tafelmusik’s baroque repertoire, waves of refugees had a huge influence on the music and culture of Europe. Today, when many refugees are finding their place in Canadian communities, the past can teach us about the cultural riches our newcomers have to offer.”
Safe Haven features music by European baroque composers including Corelli, Lully, Bach, Telemann, and Vivaldi — composers whose interactions with migrant musicians, impresarios, and artisans had a major influence on their work. In the final section of Safe Haven, Mackay brings the program full circle to Canada’s music scene, where cross-pollination has flourished thanks to the arrival of musicians and musical traditions from around the world. With guest artists Diely Mori Toukara, kora, Maryem Tollar, voice, and Naghmeh Farahmand, percussion, the second half explores some of the rich global cultural traditions passed along to a new generation of Canadian musicians.
Safe Haven also explores how the movement of refugees across baroque Europe changed and enriched the economy and culture of major cities. French Huguenots could be found in Amsterdam, Scottish Catholics in Warsaw, and Sephardic Jews in the cities of Northern Italy. Audiences will hear how the term refugee(or refugiés) first came into common usage during the forced exodus of Protestants from France, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685.
“It is so much more satisfying to experience a lesson than to simply be told about it. That’s the soul-lifting upshot of seeing and hearing Safe Haven, Tafelmusik Orchestra’s latest multimedia show, unveiled on Thursday night at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre.
The show’s premise is simple: to demonstrate to us through words, music and projected images how refugees have, for hundreds of years, improved the cultures that have welcomed them into their midst. Tafelmusik bassist Alison Mackay’s assembly of the music, narratives and images (with the help of videographer Rava Javanfar) into a tidy, two-hour presentation including intermission is anything but simple, but the complexity of the puzzle is hidden by the seamlessness of its execution.
….You can go for the excellent music, or for the compelling story about loss of homeland and redemption in the welcoming arms of strangers. Or you can go just so you can leave the concert with a big smile on your face.”
Pianist Adam Golka and Conductor Jayce Ogren make their San Francisco Symphony debuts on July 22, 2018 at the 81st annual Stern Grove Festival. They will present a program of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2.
We are pleased to welcome the brilliant, contemporary violinist Miranda Cuckson to the Colbert Roster.
Employing a tremendous knowledge of the classical canon and a native fluency with music of the 21st century, Miranda Cuckson is a compelling advocate of a broad range of repertoire, particularly noted for her ability to illuminate new works with musicality that engages listeners of all stripes.
Georg Friedrich Haas wrote (and dedicated) his new violin concerto for her, which she premiered at the Suntory Festival with Ilan Volkov and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in September 2017. In July she returns to the work, offering the European premiere with Sylvain Cambreling and the Staatsorchester Stuttgart, and in December with the Orchestra of the Casa da Musica in Porto with Baldur Brönnimann.
Cuckson explains:
“I was enthralled with his music from the start, its great specificity and nuance but also its very direct communicative impact. His melodic/harmonic language – his use of micro-tonality – awakened my ears and imagination to these small intervals and their new dimensions of meaning, the astonishing richness of expression conveyed in distances between notes. I was excited by its profoundly moving impact and the deep psychological and emotional sources that he connects to with his music.”
“Ms. Cuckson, who seeks out works that experiment with innovative sound possibilities on the violin and require intensely physical approaches to technique, began her solo set Donald Martino’s daunting “Romanza” (2002). This restless, fantastical music shifts from bursts of fidgety runs to fleeting passages of searching lyricism.”
LISTEN to a Miranda Cuckson INTERVIEW and PERFORMANCE, presented by SPCO/Liquid Music:
Miranda Cuckson harnesses the physicality and unique technicalities of her repertoire to “go organically with what the music needs” making her, as Downbeat Magazine notes, “one of the most sensitive and electric interpreters of new music.”
Zuill Bailey, cello. Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco. download
Michael Daugherty: Tales of Hemingway for cello and orchestra World Premiere: April 17, 2015 with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor Commissioned by the Nashville Symphony, the Asheville Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, the Erie Philharmonic, the Redwood Symphony, the South Florida Orchestra, and the Virginia Symphony 2016 GRAMMY for Best Classical Instrumental Solo
“Bailey — who gave the premiere of the concerto with the Nashville Symphony last year and recorded it for the Naxos label — was a charismatic soloist. He captured a breadth of color, texture, dynamics and feeling in the virtuoso solo writing.”
Cello Concerto by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich To be premiered in December 2019 with the South Florida Symphony Orchestra. Interest in co-commissioning please contact us.
From Ellen Taaffe Zwilich:
“I’m happily engaged in writing a Cello Concerto, something that’s been on my “wish list” for a long time. I’ve written a piece for cello and piano and many chamber works that include cello. I have a Double Concerto for Violin and Cello and my Symphony #2, subtitled “Cello Symphony”, features the entire orchestral cello section (including a cadenza!).
One of the things I love about the cello is that it has virtually the entire range of the human voice (I particularly like its mezzo soprano). But I sometimes refer to string instruments as “singers on steroids” because of the power they give to the composer to explore virtuosity as well as expressivity.
I can hardly wait to hear Zuill Bailey (whose sound is in my ear as I’m writing) bring this new piece to life!”
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone. Photo by Tatiana Daubek. download
Paul Moravec: Sanctuary Road World Premiere: May 7, 2018 at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York
“Sanctuary Road” is an episodic journey through history, narrated by William Still, a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Still, played by bass-baritone Dashon Burton, ushers the audience through the historic and deeply heartfelt experience.
“The bass-baritone of Dashon Burton was filled with dignity as William Still, whose writings provided the source for the libretto and he provided a sure and solid sound to narrate the story–sad, worried but always moving forward.”
“Burton’s stalwart voice was never lost within the enormous choir even in climactic moments; it managed to equal, but never exceed it. While he never steps directly into the spotlight, Burton’s presence was felt from beginning to end, all of this fittingly concluded as… a joyful, revelatory quintet of the principal singers and the chorus; they all exulted in one unified cry of “Shout from every rooftop, loud as can be: Free.”
Known for his searing performances of contemporary works, including Thomas Àdes’s Concentric Circles (written for and premiered by Marwood), violinist Anthony Marwood is also a noted advocate of a number of American composers and new works, including:
Steven Mackey: Four Iconoclastic Episodes Premiered October 2009 with Irish Chamber Orchestra
After Mackey and Marwood performed an electric guitar/violin duo work of Mackey’s (Physical Property) together at Marwood, they agreed that the combination should be further explored – and this resulted in this unique concerto for violin, electric guitar, and string orchestra.
READ this August 2017 interview with the Chautauqua Daily and Steven Mackey.
WATCH Steven Mackey speak about the work before a performance with Marwood and Les Violons du Roy (where Marwood is Principal Artistic Partner).
Samuel Carl Adams: Violin Concerto Premiered in February 2014 with the Berkeley Symphony Commissioned by the Berkeley Symphony
“The impeccable violinist Anthony Marwood, for whom the piece was written, confers on the third movement such intensity at such a wide range of dynamics that he seems to breathe with the players.“
“Marwood, the British artist who has become one of our leading interpreters of contemporary violin music, gave as radiant a performance as anyone could ask. His tone was full-voiced and fluid, even in the concerto‘s most abrasive passages, and he brought to the score a combination of urgency and serenity that was endlessly inviting.“
John Harbison: What Do We Make of Bach? for Orchestra and Obbligato Organ World Premiere: Friday, October 12, 2018 with the Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vänska, conductor
Wayne Oquin: Resilience World Premiere: October 6, 2017 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor LISTEN to an excerpt of the Oquin premiere on New Music USA.
“Organ soloist Paul Jacobs showed great taste and precision in accentuating and contrasting the instrument with the orchestra. Even though the cadenza is one of the quietest you’re likely to encounter, Jacobs made it speak with clarity.”
Christopher Rouse: Concerto for Organ and Orchestra World Premiere: November 16, 2016 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor Co-commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Paul Jacobs performs the final movement of the Christopher Rouse Organ Concerto with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Yolanda Kondonassis with Jennifer Higdon. Photo by Amanda Sachs. download
Jennifer Higdon: Concerto for Harp and Orchestra Premiered on May 10, 2018 with the Rochester Philharmonic led by Ward Stare, Commissioned by
The premiere series of performances will continue with Yolanda Kondonassis as soloist throughout 2018 and 2019 with consortium members the Harrisburg Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Lansing Symphony, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, and Baton Rouge Symphony.
“…there was something prayerful about Kondonassis’s playing, particularly in the quieter moments… …Sonically, the presence of Kondonassis’s harp seemed to signify magic at work, in the throes of a hectic and sobering reality, as played by the orchestra… Kondonassis’s mystical harp began a gorgeous dialogue with solo viola, before flute, cello, melodic percussion, and additional woodwinds joined the interplay.”
LISTEN to an interview with Kondonassis and Higdon and Stare, speaking with Julia Figueras on WXXI Classical 91.5 on the world premiere of Higdon’s Harp Concerto.
LISTEN to an interview with Harp Column Podcast host Kristina Finch on Yolanda’s collaboration with Jennifer Higdon
CONTACT US to learn more about this thrilling new work!
Zuill Bailey, cello. Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco. download
This month, cellist Zuill Bailey released a Prokofiev CD of the Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125 with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Grant Llewellyn and the Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 199 with pianist Natasha Paremski. The release has been met with great acclaim:
“Bailey’s mesmerizing, deeply committed performance puts this recording at the top, especially because of his warm, rounded tone and jaw-dropping clarity in lightning-speed runs.”
Zuill has already released a CD of Britten’s Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68 with Llewellyn and the North Carolina Symphony and, last month, performed and recorded with them again – this time in the Brahms Double Concerto with violinist Philippe Quint.
Bailey returned last weekend to the Asheville Symphony Orchestra to perform Michael Daugherty’s Tales of Hemingway for cello and orchestra in performances led byDaniel Meyer, and this week, plays a recital at the Piatigorsky Festival (Boccherini/Stravinsky/Piatigorsky’s Paganini Variations/Chopin/Foss’s Capriccio) at USC. He opens the Sitka Music Festival in Alaska where he is Artistic Director on June 1, and stays in the State of the Midnight Sun until July 24, when he plays the Elgar Concerto at Interlochen, of which he is an alumnus. Zuill closes out the summer season with an August 23 recital at Ravinia with Natasha Paremski in an all-Russian program of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff.
