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Cellist Mark Kosower kicked off 2016 with a series of orchestral dates, performing the Brahms Double Concerto with Franz Welser-Moest and the Cleveland Orchestra as part of their winter residency at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, and the Victor Herbert Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Dayton Philharmonic.

This month, Kosower performed Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote with Andrey Boreyko and the Indianapolis Symphony, and the Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major with Robert Moody and the Columbus Symphony.

“Kosower delivered the initial cadenza with a large, warmly colored tone…Throughout the concerto, both players displayed their wide experience as chamber players, phrasing spaciously in perfect unison.” – South Florida Classical Review, Jan. 30, 2016

“Mark Kosower’s cello sang out with an exceptionally resonant tone in his opening solo…The music’s charm emerged unfailingly.” – The Classical Source, Jan. 29, 2016

“Kosower’s cello work was largely quite splendid, his well centered tone underlay an occasionally nervous vibrato which, in fact, helped reveal the Don’s demented character.” – Nuvo, March 14, 2016

“Kosower’s nearly imperceptible entrance blossomed in its own time into an aria-like melody with tasteful nuances of time and color…With astonishing technical assurance, Kosower beamed through the quicksilver passagework of Haydn’s finale.” – The Columbus Dispatch, March 19, 2016

Looking forward, Kosower offers a recital tour with his wife and duo partner, pianist Jee-Won Oh, February 13-March 5, 2017 with a program featuring Chopin, Ginastera and short virtuosic works by Popper, Debussy, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Kodaly and de Falla. (Contact us to learn more.)

And in April of 2016, Naxos will release Kosower’s latest recording, the two Victor Herbert Cello Concertos with JoAnn Falletta and the Ulster Orchestra.

Learn more about the recording on the Naxos site, and watch a beautiful video from the recording session, below.

After Fall 2015 dates with the Boston Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, Maestro Christoph von Dohnányi returned to North America this month, leading the New York Philharmonic in the Brahms Requiem:

“Mr. Dohnanyi, looking hale at 85, almost seemed at times to be playing an organ, pulling this or that stop to shift colorations seamlessly and blend sonorities smoothly.

His pacing was everywhere persuasive, and it paid special dividends in the second movement, ‘Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras’ (‘For all flesh is as grass’). As Mr. Dohnanyi built to the two explosive climaxes — inexorably but without speeding up, everything in its own good time — the restraint was palpable, almost painful…The orchestra, obviously well rehearsed for a short program, responded superbly to Mr. Dohnanyi’s vigorous direction.

“This performance is indeed an occasion, and not to be missed.” – James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, March 4, 2016.

Looking forward, Dohnányi returns to the Chicago Symphony for two weeks of subscription concerts in June, in two all Mozart and Beethoven programs. He leads the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in July, with a program of Ives, Strauss, and Tchaikovsky with Renée Fleming, and returns to lead the closing Beethoven 9 concert at the end of August.

Next season, Dohnányi’s US dates include subscription weeks with the Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Chicago symphony orchestras.

In the video below, Christoph von Dohnányi in conversation with Tom Service, celebrating the 70th Birthday of the Philharmonia Orchestra in December 2015, where Dohnányi is Honorary Conductor for Life.

This week Zuill Bailey launched the Northwest Bach Festival (where Bailey is Artistic Director), joining the Matt Herskowitz Piano Jazz Trio in an opening-night performance, offering his “Bach’s Lunch” today, and leading chamber concerts through March 6.

He takes a break to come East this weekend, playing a Bach-inspired recital program at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College.

Well established in Europe and Australia as leader/soloist with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Norwegian and Swedish Chamber Orchestras, Camerata Bern, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Anthony Marwood is quickly developing a singular North American presence, both as a soloist and as a leader who directs from the violin.

In March 2015, Anthony Marwood was named Principal Artistic Partner of Les Violons du Roy, where he has been a frequent guest soloist/leader since 2011 in an eclectic mix of Baroque, Classical and contemporary programs.

Marwood began February with a return to the St. Louis Symphony (an orchestra with whom he has a long-standing artistic relationship), doing a play/direct program featuring Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Dvorák’s String Serenade, and Peteris Vasks’s violin concerto, Distant Light, which he’s recorded on the Hyperion label with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Hear Marwood speak about Distant Light’s compelling, ethereal beauty in this video:

“British violinist Anthony Marwood performed both as soloist and leader in three chamber works for strings from three very dissimilar eras…as both leader and soloist, he was top-notch, with every idea beautifully expressed.” – Sarah Bryan Miller, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Feb. 6, 2016

This spring, Marwood returns for a special appearance with A Far Cry, Boston’s chamber orchestra, to perform Bernstein’s Serenade in an all-American program of 20th and 21st century works. He also appears with the New World Symphony, performing Thomas Adès’s Concentric Paths, the 2005 violin concerto written for Marwood (Adès and Marwood are longtime collaborators and duo partners).

Watch Marwood perform the work with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Adès at the podium, below.

Alina Ibragimova’s debut performances at the Boston Symphony included the Hartmann Concerto funebre and the Haydn Violin Concerto in C Major: “Ibragimova’s faultlessly elegant playing captured it adroitly.” – The Boston Globe, Feb. 19, 2016

Ibragimova also performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Madison Symphony:

“Alina Ibragimova, soloist, was brilliant. She is both expressively and technically nimble, and she owned the material, prodding and pulling on the tempo, balancing the decorum of the classical era with ease and play.” – The Capital Times, Feb. 13, 2016

This weekend, Ibragimova performs the Beethoven Concerto with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony.