Welcoming Michael Stern It it our very great pleasure to announce that conductor Michael Stern has joined Colbert Artists Management. Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony since 2004 (and widely credited with revitalizing the organization artistically and financially), Stern opened the KCS season with hometown artist and frequent Stern collaborator mezzo Joyce DiDonato. (Stern, DiDonato and the KCS recorded an acclaimed PBS Special in 2012: Homecoming.) Part of Stern's work with the KCS has included a diverse discography. Most recently they have released Miraculous Metamorphoses: Hindemith, Prokofiev, Bartok, praised by Gramophone Magazine in July 2014: "The Kansas City Symphony have been on a roll with Michael Stern, the ensemble's Music Director since 2005...these are works that provide conductor and musicians with a spectrum of atmospheres and colours into which they can sink their respective teeth. Stern and his orchestra do so to captivating effect..." This week he returns to Kansas City for a program of Wagner, Zemlinsky, Brahms, and Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony. (Learn more here.) Also recently Stern opened the IRIS Orchestra season with Pinchas Zukerman in a program of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. The Tennessee-based ensemble — which Stern founded — celebrates its 15th anniversary this season. Stern also completed a two-week stint in Australia this month, leading concerts with the Adelaide Symphony, and the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, where the program included the world premiere of Carl Vine's Concerto for Orchestra. Coming highlights include Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring with the Minnesota Orchestra; a gala program for the New Jersey Symphony; and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in November, where Stern will lead a tour and record an all-Tchaikovsky disc for 2015 release on Naxos. |
Catching up with Adam Golka
Pianist Adam Golka is in the midst of a busy season, shaped by concerto performances, international recitals promoting a new album, educational outreach, and more.
This weekend past, Golka performed the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 with Joshua Weilerstein and the Vancouver Symphony.
"This was a different Chopin, sharper and less flowing, always emphasizing the dramatic contrasts in the writing, but full of insight and youthful energy. The pianism itself was superb: I shall not soon forget Golka’s crisp articulation or his powerful and sharply-etched trills." — Vancouver Classical Music, Oct. 17, 2014
Golka also gave Vancouver audiences a quick-but-insightful video preview of the Chopin No. 2, in which he discussed the work's elements and themes; check out that video here.
He led off the season playing the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto with the San Diego Symphony. Next month Golka performs Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Brevard Philharmonic, and with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra.
Adam Golka's season is framed by an ongoing relationship with The Cliburn; this month he participated in educational outreach with performances of a theatrical work "Van Cliburn: An American Hero," with a number of young pianists (check out some of his Facebook photos of the outreach). He returns to Ft. Worth in March 2015 for a recital and chamber music in The Cliburn's Chopin Festival.
Golka's debut album — featuring Brahms' Sonata No. 1 and the Beethoven "Hammerklavier" — was released in the summer of 2014 by First Hand Records, and this season, he performs this repertoire in recitals throughout the world.
Several of these performances are featured in concert series curated by Andras Schiff, in New York, in Berlin, and in Zurich.
Adam Golka also will perform works from the album in London's Steinway Hall this December. While in the UK, he'll return to BBC Radio 3 for a live interview; watch for more information about this event from us soon!
Steven Isserlis in North America and beyond
Cellist Steven Isserlis began the month of October in California, with Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque for performances of concertos by Boccherini and C.P.E. Bach, and with Douglas Boyd and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 2.
He also performed a recital at the Maestro Foundation in Los Angeles, and offered masterclasses at The Colburn School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
This week, Isserlis is back in the UK, performing a recital program built around Brahms' two cello sonatas with pianist Kirill Gerstein, in Oxford, and at Wigmore Hall.
Next up, Isserlis performs the Elgar Cello Concerto on tour with the Duisburger Philharmoniker, and in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Paavo Järvi; Järvi, Isserlis and the Philharmonia also record the concerto for future release (stay tuned for more information about that disc soon).
Looking forward, Isserlis returns to North America in December, for recitals at The Paramount (Charlottesville, VA,) and Baltimore's Shriver Hall Concert Series. In March, he plays an all-Beethoven program with fortepianist Robert Levin at the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, and the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas for Vancouver Recital Society.
Levin and Isserlis' 2014 Hyperion album of the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas has been hailed by critics around the world:
"This set contains some of the finest Beethoven performances you are likely to hear. Steven Isserlis is on blazing form: every note lives, every movement is characterised with infectious relish; his range is breathtaking. The ensemble with Robert Levin is dynamic, intimate, often electric." — BBC Music Magazine, Feb. 2014
The duo will tour Beethoven programs in North America in the fall of 2015; contact Lee Prinz with any questions or inquiries!
