Charles Dutoit conducts Walton, Elgar and Holst featuring Yo-Yo Ma
Event on 2016-10-21 13:30:00
For this first of two weeks celebrating Charles Dutoit's 80th birthday, the eminent Swiss conductor-who is also continuing a close, multi-season collaboration with the BSO-is joined by Yo-Yo Ma for Edward Elgar's substantial and popular Cello Concerto. The program of works by three 20th-century English composers opens with William Walton's Portsmouth Point Overture, a vibrant and jazzy early work inspired by a print of colorful activity at a seaport. Written between 1914 and 1916, Gustav Holst's astrologically inspired The Planets is by far his most enduringly popular work, a series of orchestrally rich character pieces, from fleet Mercury to mysterious Neptune. View biography in full page >
Captivating audiences throughout the world, Charles Dutoit is one of today's most sought-after conductors, having performed with all the major orchestras on most stages of the five continents.
Presently Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, he recently celebrated his 30-year artistic collaboration with the Philadelphia Orchestra, who in turn, bestowed upon him the title of Conductor Laureate. He collaborates every season with the orchestras of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles and is also a regular guest on the stages in London, Berlin, Paris, Munich, Moscow, Sydney, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, amongst others.
His more than 200 recordings for Decca, Deutsche Grammophone, EMI, Philips and Erato have garnered multiple awards and distinctions including two Grammys.
For 25 years , Charles Dutoit was Artistic Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, a dynamic musical team recognised the world over.
From 1991 to 2001, he was Music Director of the Orchestre National de France and in 1996, was appointed Principal Conductor and soon thereafter, Music Director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo). He is today Music Director Emeritus of this Orchestra.
He was for 10 years Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra's season at the Mann Music Center and for 21 years, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
Charles Dutoit's interest in the younger generation has always held an important place in his career and he has successively been Music Director of the Sapporo Pacific Music Festival and Miyazaki International Music Festival in Japan as well as the Canton International Summer Music Academy in Guangzhou. In 2009, he became Music Director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra.
When still in his early 20's, Charles Dutoit was invited by Von Karajan to conduct the Vienna State Opera. He has since conducted at Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the Rome Opera and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
In 1991, he was made Honorary Citizen of the City of Philadelphia, in 1995, Grand Officier de l'Ordre national du Québec, in 1996, Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France and in 1998, he was invested as Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada.
In 2007, he received the Gold Medal of the city of Lausanne, his birthplace and in 2014, he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Classical Music Awards.
He holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of McGill, Montreal, Laval and the Curtis School of Music.
A globetrotter motivated by his passion for history and archaeology, political science, art and architecture, he has traveled in all 196 View biography in full page >
Yo-Yo Ma's multi-faceted career is testament to his continual search for new ways to communicate with audiences, and to his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. Whether performing new or familiar works from the cello repertoire, coming together with colleagues for chamber music or exploring cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition, Mr. Ma strives to find connections that stimulate the imagination.
Yo-Yo Ma maintains a balance between his engagements as soloist with orchestras throughout the world and his recital and chamber music activities. He draws inspiration from a wide circle of collaborators, creating programs with such artists as Emanuel Ax, Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Kayhan Kalhor, Ton Koopman, Bobby McFerrin, Edgar Meyer, Mark Morris, Riccardo Muti, Mark O'Connor, Kathryn Stott, Michael Tilson Thomas, Wu Man, Wu Tong, Damian Woetzel, and David Zinman. Each of these collaborations is fueled by the artists' interactions, often extending the boundaries of a particular genre. One of Mr. Ma's goals is the exploration of music as a means of communication and as a vehicle for the migration of ideas across a range of cultures throughout the world. To that end, he has taken time to immerse himself in subjects as diverse as native Chinese music with its distinctive instruments and the music of the Kalahari bush people in Africa.
Expanding upon this interest, in 1998, Mr. Ma established the Silk Road Project, a nonprofit arts and educational organization that takes its inspiration from the historic Silk Road trading routes as a modern metaphor for multicultural and interdisciplinary exchange. Under his artistic direction, the Silk Road Project presents performances by the acclaimed Silk Road Ensemble, engages in cross-cultural exchanges and residencies, leads workshops for students, and partners with leading cultural institutions to create educational materials and programs.
The Project's ongoing affiliation with Harvard University has made it possible to broaden and enhance educational programming. In the 2013-2014 school year, with ongoing partnerships with arts and educational organizations in New York City, it continues to expand Silk Road Connect, a multidisciplinary educational initiative for middle-school students in the city's public schools. Developing new music is also a central undertaking of the Silk Road Project, which has been involved in commissioning and performing more than 60 new musical and multimedia works from composers and arrangers around the world. Through his work with the Silk Road Project, as throughout his career, Yo-Yo Ma seeks to expand the cello repertoire, frequently performing lesser known music of the 20th century and commissions of new concertos and recital pieces. He has premiered works by a diverse group of composers, among them Stephen Albert, Elliott Carter, Chen Yi, Richard Danielpour, Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Peter Lieberson, Christopher Rouse, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, John Williams and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky.
As the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, Mr. Ma is partnering with Maestro Riccardo Muti to provide collaborative musical leadership and guidance on innovative program development for The Negaunee Music Institute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and for Chicago Symphony artistic initiatives. Ma's work focuses on the transformative power music can have in individuals' lives, and on increasing the number and variety of opportunities audiences have to experience music in their communities. Mr. Ma and the Institute have created the Citizen Musician Initiative (www.citizenmusician.org), a movement that calls on all musicians, music lovers, music teachers and institutions to use the art form to bridge gulfs between people and to create and inspire a sense of community.
Yo-Yo Ma is strongly committed to educational programs that not only bring young audiences into contact with music but also allow them to participate in its creation. While touring, he takes time whenever possible to conduct master classes as well as more informal programs for students - musicians and non-musicians alike. At the same time, he continues to develop new concert programs for family audiences, for instance helping to inaugurate the family series at Carnegie Hall. In each of these undertakings, he works to connect music to students' daily surroundings and activities with the goal of making music and creativity a vital part of children's lives from an early age. He has also reached young audiences through appearances on "Arthur," "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and "Sesame Street."
Mr. Ma's discography of over 90 albums (including more than 17 Grammy Award winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests. He has made several successful recordings that defy categorization, among them "Hush" with Bobby McFerrin, "Appalachia Waltz" and "Appalachian Journey" with Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer and two Grammy-winning tributes to the music of Brazil, "Obrigado Brazil" and "Obrigado Brazil - Live in Concert." Mr. Ma's recent recordings include Mendelssohn Trios with Emanuel Ax and Itzhak Perlman, and "The Goat Rodeo Sessions," with Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile and Stuart Duncan, which received the 2013 Grammy for Best Folk Album. Across this full range of releases, Mr. Ma remains one of the best-selling recording artists in the classical field. All of his recent albums have quickly entered the Billboard chart of classical best sellers, remaining in the Top 15 for extended periods, often with as many as four titles simultaneously on the list. In fall 2009, Sony Classical released a box set of over 90 albums to commemorate Mr. Ma's 30 years as a Sony recording artist.
Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four and soon came with his family to New York, where he spent most of his formative years. Later, his principal teacher was Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School. He sought out a traditional liberal arts education to expand upon his conservatory training, graduating from Harvard University in 1976. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the Glenn Gould Prize (1999), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Dan David Prize (2006), the Sonning Prize (2006), the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award (2008), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010), the Polar Music Prize (2012) and the Vilcek Prize in Contemporary Music (2013). In 2011, Mr. Ma was recognized as a Kennedy Center Honoree. Appointed a CultureConnect Ambassador by the United States Department of State in 2002, Mr. Ma has met with, trained and mentored thousands of students worldwide in countries including Lithuania, Korea, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and China. Mr. Ma serves as a UN Messenger of Peace and as a member of the President's Committee on the Arts & the Humanities. He has performed for eight American presidents, most recently at the invitation of President Obama on the occasion of the 56th Inaugural Ceremony.
Mr. Ma and his wife have two children. He plays two instruments, a 1733 Montagnana cello from Venice and the 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius.
For additional information, see: www.yo-yoma.com, www.silkroadproject.org, and www.opus3artists.com.
at Boston Symphony Hall
301 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, United States
Orignal From: Charles Dutoit conducts Walton, Elgar and Holst featuring Yo-Yo Ma
No comments:
Post a Comment