Guest Artists
Roberto Diaz, viola
October 15, 2011
A violist of international reputation, Roberto Díaz holds the position of President and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music. He follows in the footsteps of renowned soloist/directors such as Rudolf Serkin, Gary Graffman, Efrem Zimbalist and Josef Hofmann. As a professor of viola at Curtis and former principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Díaz has already had a significant impact on American musical life and will continue to do so in his dual roles as performer and educator.
Some of Mr. Díaz’s recent and upcoming performances include the Kansas City Symphony with Michael Stern, Fort Worth Symphony with Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias with Krzysztof Penderecki, Orquesta Simfónica de Barcelona with James Judd, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra with Gabor Ötvös and the Bilbao Symphony with Juanjo Mena. Recital dates include appearances at the Gardner Museum in Boston, Cleveland Institute of Music, Library of Congress and the Festival Cultural de Mayo in Guadalajara.
An active chamber musician, Roberto Díaz has performed with artists such as the Emerson String Quartet, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Christoph Eschenbach, Yo-Yo Ma, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Isaac Stern. As a member of the Díaz Trio, with violinist Andrés Cárdenes and cellist Andrés Díaz, he has performed throughout the North and South America and China.
Roberto Díaz was principal violist of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich, a member of the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and a member of the Minnesota Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner. His recording of transcriptions by William Primrose with pianist Robert Koenig (Naxos) was nominated for a 2006 Grammy. Recent Naxos releases include an all-Brahms recital CD with Jeremy Denk and a recording of Jonathan Leshnoff's double concerto with Michael Stern, violinist Charles Wetherbee and the Iris Chamber Orchestra.
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Alexandre Moutouzkine, piano
December3, 2011
Russian pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine has appeared widely on the world’s great concert stages. His performance in London's Wigmore Hall was hailed by International Piano magazine as “grandly organic, with many personal and pertinent insights, offering a thoughtful balance between rhetoric and fantasy…technically dazzling.” His performance of Chopin Études in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory was recorded live and released on the Classical Music Archives label in Moscow. Mr. Moutouzkine burst onto the U.S. concert scene at the age of 19, when he received the Special Award for Artistic Potential at the XI Van Cliburn International Piano Competition; of his performance at Van Cliburn The Dallas Morning News wrote that he “played Brahms Op. 117 Intermezzi more beautifully, more movingly, than I’ve ever heard them. At once sad, tender and noble, this was playing of heart-stopping intimacy and elegance.”
In April 2011 Mr. Moutouzkine debuts at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts on the opening weekend of the inaugural Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, performing Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite live alongside specially commissioned animation entitled “Who Stole The Mona Lisa?” Other highlights of the 2010-2011 season include performances of “Between the Keys,” a program of the complete solo piano works of John Corigliano, and continued partnerships with such artists as violist Roberto Díaz, violinist Benjamin Beilman, and the Jasper String Quartet, among others. Recent performance highlights include debuts in the Great Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic in Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Symphoniker under the baton of Lior Shambadal, and at Lincoln Center’s Kaplan Penthouse with the Jasper String Quartet, as well as a performance of Scriabin’s Piano Concerto with the Stamford Symphony under Eckart Preu and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on Themes of Paganini with Symphony in C.
Mr. Moutouzkine has toured throughout Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Italy as well as in countries throughout North and South America. He has appeared as soloist with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Television Orchestra of Spain, Cleveland Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Valencia Philharmonic, Gran Canary Symphony and Tenerife Symphony in the Canary Islands, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Panama, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Cuba, and the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra of the Czech Republic, among many others. He has also toured the U.S. and has given concerts throughout Europe, including Rome, Madrid, and London.
Recently named the Second Prize winner of the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg International Piano Competition, Mr. Moutouzkine has captured top prizes at the Cleveland, Montréal, Tivoli (Denmark), Andorra (Spain), José Iturbi (Spain), New Orleans, Maria Canals (Spain), Shanghai, Città di Sulmona (Italy), Tongyeong (Korea), Calabria (Italy), Guerrero (Spain), Cervantes (Cuba), Pilar Bayona (Spain), St. Petersburg (Russia), and Panama international competitions. He is also a winner of Astral Artists’ 2009 National Auditions.
Mr. Moutouzkine holds a Master’s degree and a post-graduate degree from the Manhattan School of Music, and undergraduate degrees from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover and Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Music School.
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Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia
February 4,2012
Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, founded in 1874 and one of America's oldest musical ensembles, is performing in its 138th consecutive season. Mendelssohn Club has earned a prestigious reputation by giving the Philadelphia premieres of Brahms' German Requiem, Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible, Scriabin's First Symphony, and Bartók's Cantata Profana, among many others. Under the dynamic leadership of Artistic Director Alan Harler, the 140-voice chorus is known for its professional productions of choral/orchestral programs, as well as performances in guest engagements with prominent regional orchestras. Dedicated to the ongoing vitality of choral art, Mendelssohn Club and Alan Harler have made a significant commitment to the commissioning of new choral music, forty-eight new works since 1990, including three this season. Mendelssohn Club has also been honored with an award from the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations for "bringing the community together in song" through Harler's multicultural concert programming an ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming.
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Roberto Gonzalez, violin
March 17,2012
Born in 1988, Roberto began to play violin when he was 4 years old, with polish teachers Stefan Zabek, Wioleta Zabek and Krzysztof Wisniewski. He furthered his violin education with the Russian pedagogue Serguei Fatkulin, and at the moment he studies at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg, in the class of Igor Ozim.
He is First Prizewinner of several Spanish national competitions, as well as the First Medal of the Concours de musique et d’art dramatique Léopold Bellan in Paris.
Since his debut as a soloist when he was 15 years old, Roberto has performed several times with the Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra as well as the Ciudad de León Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alejandro Posada. In July 2007 he interpreted “The Red Violin Chaconne”, by John Corigliano, accompanied by the Freixenet Orchestra of the Music and Academy Encounter of Santander, all of them conducted by the Hungarian maestro Peter Csaba. Lately he played Mozart’s Rondo in C Major with the Symphony Orchestra of the Mozarteum University, conducted by Trevor Pinnock.
As regards to the world of chamber music, he has been given the opportunity to play with extraordinary musicians such as Lukas Hagen, Gil Shaham, Alessandro Carbonare, Iris Hagen-Juda, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Thomas Riebl, Wolfgang Redik, Horacio Lavandera and Claudio Martínez-Mehner.
Roberto’s orchestral experience is vast, especially in the concertmaster field. He is often required as a guest leader of professional ensembles like the Galician and Barcelona Symphony Orchestras, and he has led several youth orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of the Music and Academy Encounter of Santander with Vladimir Ashkenazy, and the Symphony Orchestra of the University Mozarteum with Gerd Albrecht. He was also leader of the second violins of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, performing all over the world with conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung, Philippe Jordan, Jonathan Nott, Franz Welser-Möst, Antonio Pappano, Herbert Blomsted and Sir Colin Davies.
Roberto has been deeply influenced by musical contact with musicians like John Corigliano, Nikolaj Znaider, Reinhard Goebel, David Takeno, Trevor Pinnock, Leonidas Kavakos, Zakhar Bron, Franz Melser-Möst, Wolfgang Boettcher, Daniel Gaede, Rainer Schmidt, Ferenc Rados and Daniel Baremboim.
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Matthias Bartolomey, violincello
March 17,2012
Matthias Bartolomey was born in Vienna in 1985 and received his first violoncello lessons at the age of 6 from his father Franz Bartolomey, solo cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic and member of a long dynasty of musicians of that orchestra. 2002-2007 Matthias studied with Prof. ValentinErben at the Vienna University for Music and Performing Arts and 2007-2010 with Prof. Clemens Hagen at the Salzburg Mozarteum.
2000 Matthias Bartolomey won the 1st prize at the youth competition “Prima la Musica” and 2004 the 1st prize of MusicaJuventutis. 2000-2003 he was member of the international OrchesterinstitutAttergau under the patronage of the Vienna Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev and MarissJansons.
2002 Bartolomey founded the Rock Band Metaphysis – a group of 3 cellos with the scope of widening the acoustical and musical spectrum of the violoncello, as well as freeing the instrument from its rigid traditional form.
Matthias Bartolomey has performed numerous times as soloist and as chamber musician in venues like the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, at the GroßesFestspielhaus, the Felsenreitschule and SchlossMirabell in Salzburg, and in Japan, the USA, Italy, Switzerland and Slovenia, with partners including Michaela Ursuleasa, Michael Barenboim, Magda Amara, Ernst Kovacic, Wolfgang Schulz, Stefan Vladar and Christian Altenburger.
As orchestra member Matthias has been part of a number of high profile projects with the Vienna Philharmonic in concert and at the Vienna State Opera. Orchestral tours of the last years include a Chamber Orchestra of Europe tour under NikolausHarnoncourt in 2008, Harnoncourt’sConcentusMusicus in March 2011, and Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado in April 2011.
In 2009 Matthias Bartolomey was awarded the Golden Medaille for Young Musician by the Mozart Society in Vienna.
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Augustin Hadelich, violin
May 5,2012
With his poetic style and dazzling technique, Augustin Hadelich has established himself as a rising star among the new generation of violinists. Winner of the 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant and gold medalist of the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, his versatility across the entire spectrum of the violin repertory is astounding.
This summer’s highlight was Mr. Hadelich’s sensational debut with the New York Philharmonicunder Alan Gilbert at the Bravo! Vail Festival playing the Mendelssohn concerto.
About the performance, the Denver Post wrote: “[Mr.Hadelich] wowed the capacity audience...with his self-assured, technically fluent and musically sensitive approach. And when he breezily performedPaganini’s Caprice No. 17 as an encore, he easily confirmed his place on the shortlist of today’s top violin virtuosos...” Other upcoming highlights include re-engagements with both the Cleveland Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as debuts with the symphonies of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Phoenix, Seattle, Utah and Vancouver.
Augustin Hadelich made three Carnegie Hall appearances in 2008: his orchestral debut in January, performing the Brahms Double Concerto under Miguel Harth-Bedoya with cellist Alban Gerhardt and the Fort Worth Symphony; his highly successful recital debut in March; and a performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with the New York String Orchestra under Jaime Laredo on Christmas Eve. Other orchestral engagements include the symphonies of Alabama, Colorado, Columbus, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Louisville, New Orleans, Santa Barbara and Syracuse, as well as the Pacific Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra in Memphis. Festival appearances include Blossom, Bravo! Vail Valley and Chautauqua, where he made his American orchestral debut in 2001.Outside the United States, Mr. Hadelich has performed with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken-Kaiserslautern, Dresden Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Nürnberg Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Tokyo Symphony, and chamber orchestras in Budapest, Cologne, Hamburg and Lucerne. He has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Lionel Bringuier, Justin Brown, Alan Gilbert, Giancarlo Guerrero, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Günther Herbig, Yakov Kreizberg, Hannu Lintu, Christof Perick, Christoph Poppen, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Larry Rachleff, Stefan Sanderling, Michael Stern and Mario Venzago.
Mr. Hadelich has recorded two highly acclaimed CDs for Naxos: Haydn’s complete violin concerti with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, and Telemann’s complete Fantasies for Solo Violin. A new CD of masterworks for solo violin (including the Bartók solo sonata) was released by AVIE in October 2009. In the words of the London Times, “Now in his mid-twenties, Augustin Hadelich is fast emerging as a significant talent. This recital of music for unaccompanied solo violin, however, is a step beyond...he is both a virtuoso violinist and a deeply thoughtful one.” A second disc for AVIE will be released in 2011.
Also an enthusiastic recitalist, Mr. Hadelich has appeared at the Frick Collection (New York), the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, Clark Memorial Library (Los Angeles), La Jolla Music Society, Kioi Hall (Tokyo) and the Louvre, among others. As chamber musician, he has been a participant at the Marlboro, Ravinia, and Seattle festivals, in addition to a collaboration with Midori at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. Born in Italy in 1984, the son of German parents, Augustin Hadelich holds a graduate diploma and Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Joel Smirnoff. He plays on the 1723 “Ex- Kiesewetter” Stradivari violin, on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society.
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