EuroStrings Scholarships

for young guitarists, aged between 18 and 25, with lower financial capability, to participate in international guitar competitions and masterclasses of EuroStrings Festivals

EuroStrings Scholarship offers the opportunity for a young guitarist of modest means to attend one of the 17 EuroStrings festivals, where in addition to attending concerts, they participate in workshops, masterclasses and outreach activities.

To be eligible for the EuroStrings scholarship programme, students should be studying at a music school and have undergone professional education for at least 2 years.

Full details are available at: https://eurostrings.eu/eurostrings-scholarships/

The online application form is at: https://eurostrings.eu/eurostring-scholarship-application/

Note: It is possible to win only one scholarship per candidate, and previous EuroStrings scholarship winners cannot apply again.

EuroStrings, which is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, is the first global collaborative platform of Classical Guitar Festivals, focusing on fostering European musical excellence. It is an ever-expanding collaboration of 17 European Festival partners with global partners in the USA and Asia. EuroStrings fosters excellence in musicianship, outreach work within the community, the creation of audience development opportunities, networking and, last but not least, world-class education for emerging young guitarists.

CONTACT

EuroStrings

Artistic Director: Mak Grgic

PR Queries: Larisa Lieberman, email: internationalpr@eurostrings.eu

Comms Queries: Dijana Oršoli Hrsti, email: communication@eurostrings.eu

Website: https://eurostrings.eu

English National Opera (ENO) is delighted to announce that Claire Barnett-Jones and John Findon are to become ENO Harewood Artists with immediate effect. 

The ENO Harewood Artist programme was established in 1998 as a means of providing a full-time training and performance scheme for exceptionally talented singers at the beginning of their careers. Both Claire and John will be provided with operatic training and will be fully supported for performance opportunities with ENO.

In ENO’s 2019/20 season there are 90 principal roles – 24 of which are filled by current Harewood Artists and seven by former participants of the scheme.

Claire Barnett-Jones studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In the 2019/20 Season, she will be covering in ENO’s production of The Mask of Orpheus, Madam Butterfly and Rusalka.  Claire makes her ENO debut in our 2020/21 season.

John Findon studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, before further study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has previously appeared in ENO’s production of Hansel and Gretel as “The Witch” at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and also covered in the world premiere of Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel. In the 2019/20 season John will be performing the roles of ‘Remendado’ in Carmen and the ‘Gamekeeper’ in Rusalka.

Claire said: ‘Being an ENO Harewood Artist is an absolute dream come true and I have already benefited hugely from the fantastic guest and in-house coaching and advice from all the staff here.”

John said: “Being an ENO Harewood Artist will allow me to work with some of the most distinguished coaches and singers in the UK. ENO is one of the most prestigious opera companies in the world, and to perform on one of the most iconic stages in London as part of English National Opera will be an amazing opportunity.”

“The idea of Beethoven as the grim, set-faced perpetual striver, far too intent on storming the heavens to allow himself the luxury of even a passing smile, has fortunately taken a bit if a knock in recent years.  There is also playfulness, wit…and nowhere more so than in the piano sonatas.  Not only is American pianist Jonathan Biss a highly refined and intelligent musician, but he also understands this aspect of Beethoven as well as anyone performing today… it’s hard to think of another pianist who communicates such a sense of sheer delight.” 

BBC Music Magazine, July 2018

Renowned American pianist Jonathan Biss’s fascination with Beethoven dates back to childhood and the composer’s music has been a constant throughout his life. His deep musical curiosity has led him to explore Beethoven’s music in a multi-faceted way, through concerts, recordings, teaching, writing and commissioning.

As Jonathan explains, Beethoven cannot be ignored: “Our relationship to Beethoven is a deep and paradoxical one. For many musicians, he represents a kind of Holy Grail: his music has an intensity, rigor, and profundity which keep us in its thrall, and it is perhaps unequalled in the interpretive, technical, and even spiritual challenges it poses to performers. At the same time, Beethoven’s music is casually familiar to millions of people who do not attend concerts or consider themselves musically inclined. Two hundred years after his death, he is everywhere in the culture, yet still represents its summit. ”

Starting in September 2019, in the lead-up to the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in December 2020, Jonathan will perform a whole season focused around Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, with more than 50 recitals worldwide. This includes performing the complete sonatas at the Wigmore Hall and Berkeley, multi-concert-series in Washington, Philadelphia and Seattle, as well as recitals in Rome, Budapest, New York and Sydney.

Jonathan’s ambitious nine-year project to record the complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, reaches its conclusion in 2019 with the release of the final disc in his nine-volume set. Considered the cornerstone of the pianist’s repertoire, the cycle comprises thirty-two sonatas in a range of emotional expressions. For Jonathan these sonatas have been life-long companions and a source of constant inspiration as articulated in his 2011 publication Beethoven’s Shadow. The first Kindle eBook to be written by a classical musician, Beethoven’s Shadow explores the rationale behind the recording of the sonatas and gives an insight into the power of Beethoven’s music. Jonathan writes: “I am recording all of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas: Because he takes my breath away. Because he does so frequently, and in a way no other musical or life experience can replicate.”

Jonathan is passionate about bringing Beethoven’s music to a wider audience. In 2013 he launched Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, a collaboration between Jonathan, the Curtis Institute of Music – where he both studied and now teaches – and Coursera, the leading provider of “massive online open courses.” The free course continues to be updated and has reached over 150,000 learners in 185 countries. The lectures take an inside-out look at the 32 piano sonatas and are aimed at a wide range of abilities – from musical novice to expert.  To aid greater understanding and to answer students, Jonathan has hosted meet-ups and Google Hangout “office hours”. These continue into 2019/2020 when there will be a Coursera meet-up attached to each one of his Wigmore Hall Beethoven concerts.

Beethoven’s contemporary legacy is just as important for Jonathan, who initiated Beethoven/5, a project to commission five piano concertos as companion works for each of Beethoven’s piano concertos. The resulting pieces, from some of today’s most important composers, re-imagine Beethoven for the twenty-first century: Timo Andres The Blind Banister (2015), Sally Beamish City Stanzas (2017), Salvatore Sciarrino Il sogno di Stradella (2017), Caroline Shaw Watermark (2019) and Brett Dean Gneixendorfer musik – Eine Winterreise (2020).

London, Wigmore Hall, Beethoven Piano Sonatas Cycle

Date:        29 September 2019

Programme:    Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14, No. 1

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major, Op. 27 No. 1

                           Quasi una fantasia

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 12 in A-flat, Op. 26 Funeral March

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 Waldstein

              Post-concert talk Jonathan Biss

Date:         19 December 2019

Programme:    Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 4 in E-flat major, Op. 7

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 Tempest

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 5 in certain minor, Op. 10 No. 1

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 Appassionata

              Post-concert talk with Belcea Quartet

Date:         26 January 2020

Programme:    Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 Pastorale

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 20 in G Major, Op. 49, No. 2

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2 No. 3

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101

              Post-concert talk with Brett Dean

Date:        28 February 2020

Programme:   Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10 No. 2

       Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14 No. 2

             Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat major, Op. 31 No. 3

                          The Hunt

             Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106 Hammerklavier

             Post-concert talk with Sally Beamish

Date:        20 April 2020

Programme:   Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 25 in G major, Op. 79

       Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-flat major, Op. 22

       Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2

                          Moonlight

             Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major, Op. 78

             Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109

             Post-concert talk with Jan Swafford

Date:        9 May 2020

Programme:   Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minor, Op. 49 No. 1

             Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 31 No. 1

             Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10 No. 3

              Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110

       Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2 No. 2

             Post-concert talk with Mitsuko Uchida

Date:        25 June 2020

Programme:   Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 Pathetique

             Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 22 in F major, Op. 54

             Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat, Op. 81a Les Adieux

             Beethoven    Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111

             Post-concert talk Jonathan Biss

Tickets:     £40, £35, £30, £25, £18

Box Office:  020 7935 2141

Online:             https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/whats-on

Following three acclaimed discs on Resonus Classics, Dudok Quartet Amsterdam is soon to launch the first of two CDs featuring Haydn’s six quartets composed in 1772, collectively known as Opus 20 and considered a milestone in the history of composition.  After almost a decade of playing his works together and developing and defining their own feeling for Haydn, the Quartet instinctively decided the time was right to focus on a sole composer for these new recordings which are supported by its 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

With its imaginative approach and curiosity about programming, along with arranging repertoire outside of the string quartet oeuvre, the Dudok Quartet has set itself apart from its peers. Previous recordings with Resonus Classics established something of a pattern: Metamorphosis, Labyrinth and Solitude were all ‘concept’ albums featuring a classical work, a contemporary work and their own arrangement of work from a different genre. These Haydn recordings mark a significant change of direction.

The Dudoks also entered the recording studio with the added confidence that their new classical bows, specially commissioned for the project, had an important role to play. Tailored to their individual personalities and instruments, the bespoke bows were crafted by Netherlands-based Luis Emilio Rodriguez Carrington.  The Quartet believes they have made a dramatic difference to its playing of these highly emotional, virtuosic and experimental works and that they contribute another voice to its interpretations.

Haydn’s quartets 2, 3 and 5 were recorded at Muziekcentrum va de Omroep in Hilversum (Netherlands) and will be released on 4 October 2019 to coincide with the 2019/20 concert season when some of these quartets will feature in recitals in America and Europe, including a Wigmore Hall debut on 6 October. The remaining quartets 1, 4 and 6 will be recorded at the same venue in August 2019 for release in 2020.

The Quartet is named after celebrated Dutch architect Willem Marinus Dudok (1884-1974) who was also City Architect of Hilversum.  He came from a musical family and composed in his spare time, saying “I feel deeply the common core of music and architecture: after all, they both derive their value from the right proportions”.

To coincide with the CD release, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust will release a short film made during the recording, featuring interviews with the Quartet and with the bow-maker.

Cadogan Hall presents its thirteenth Zurich International Orchestra Series with twelve concerts performed by eleven of the world’s most distinguished orchestras. This season sees five ensembles make their Cadogan Hall debuts, performances from international artists and contemporary music from female composers.

Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra

As part of its inaugural tour, the newly formed Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra, conducted by founding Artistic Director Jan Latham-Koenig, open the series. The ensemble, on a 7-date tour of the UK, is made up of young musicians from conservatoires from both countries: they perform music of their homelands, inspired by the great Cold War friendship between the two composers after whom the orchestra is named.

The orchestra’s only London date opens with Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and closes with Shostakovich’s Hamlet Op.116a with actors Edward Fox and Freddie Fox. Pavel Kolesnikov is the soloist for Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini before the focus returns to the UK with Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes (Wednesday 25 September 2019).

Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev

The Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev return to Cadogan Hall for a pair of concerts. They mark the 150th anniversary of Berlioz’s death with his Symphonie Fantastique and excerpts from Romeo and Juliet. Both dates feature a different soloist winner from the prestigious XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition: Gold Medal winner for Woodwind Matvey Demin performs Ibert’s Flute Concerto and Fantasy on Bizet’s Carmen by Borne. Silver Medal winner for Piano Mao Fujita plays Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Excerpts from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mlada as well as The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya complete each programme (Monday 7 & Tuesday 8 October 2019).

All-Russian Programmes

Alexandra Dariescu joins the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra for Rachmaninov’s much-loved Piano Concerto No. 2. Conducted by Yuri Simonov, ballet music permeates the rest of the programme with Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, as well as excerpts from Swan Lake and Khachaturian’s Gayane (Thursday 10 October 2019).

In its series debut, the Siberian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dmitry Vasiliev, open their concert with Shostakovich’s Festive Overture. Freddy Kempf makes a welcome return to Cadogan Hall to perform Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 before Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 closes the programme (Thursday 23 April 2020).

In a celebration of Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky, the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra is joined by Jennifer Pike for Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and excerpts from Prokofiev’s Cinderella Suite bookend the concert, which is conducted by Nikolai Alexeev (Wednesday 27 May 2020).

Contemporary Music

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra with conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier perform Aereality, the work written for them by fellow Icelander Anna Thorvaldsdóttir. Premiered in November 2011, it was nominated as Composition of the Year at the Icelandic Music Awards in 2012 and portrays the state of gliding with nothing to hold onto, as if flying. The music explores both the feeling of absolute freedom and unease gained from the lack of attachment. Also making up their debut programme at Cadogan Hall is Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2, Ravel’s jazzy Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with Yeol Eum Son, as well as excerpts from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet (Monday 10 February 2020).

The Brussels Philharmonic and conductor Stéphane Denève return to close the series. Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour, which premiered in November 2015, opens the concert and is inspired by poetry as well as the character and power of the lower strings of L’Orchestre national d’Île-de-France. Following this, Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the soloist in Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 before the final work: Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 1 (Thursday 11 June 2020).

Other International Artists

Guitarist Miloš Karadaglic brings Spanish repertoire to Cadogan Hall with Flanders Symphony Orchestra under José Luis Gomez. The programme opens with Rossini’s The Barber of Seville Overture and continues with music by Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos, de Falla and closes with Bizet’s Carmen Suite (Wednesday 30 October 2019).

Mezzo-soprano Ester Pavlu is the soloist with Prague Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, often referred to has his hymn to the natural world. Pietari Inkinen conducts. (Tuesday 12 November 2019).

Eric Lu performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, the work with which he won the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition and has subsequently released on Warner Classics to great acclaim. Orchestre National de Lille make its Cadogan Hall debut under the baton of Alexandre Bloch and completes the all-French programme with Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye Suite and La Valse as well as Debussy’s La Mer (Wednesday 29 January 2020).

Both performing for the first time at Cadogan Hall, the Swedish Philharmonia are joined by violinist Viktoria Mullova for Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, conducted by Jaime Martín. The other two works are Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 ‘Reformation’ and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 (Friday 13 March 2020).