The Proud Tradition Continues!
The Tuesday Musical Concert Series has touched three centuries and two millennia, blessing Omahans with a nonprofit concert series of international artists. The proud tradition continues. The first concert of the 2011-12 season will feature pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Nobuyuki Tsujii, piano
Blind since birth, Nobuyuki Tsujii
was joint winner of the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal at the
Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009. Since winning the
competition, he has appeared at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Aspen
Music Festival, and the Ravinia Festival, given recitals in Washington,
Indianapolis, Fort Worth, Houston and Abu Dhabi, and embarked on a
major recital tour of Japan. Future plans include appearances with the
BBC Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Moscow Virtuosi
Chamber Orchestra, and recitals in Berlin, Belgrade and Basel.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Peter Toth, piano
Unlike most concert pianists who
begin their studies at an early age, Peter Toth, having no piano in his
home, first touched one at a neighbor's house when he was 11, in 1994.
It was love at first sight, and he was soon enrolled in a music school
in his hometown of Bekescsaba. After two years of formal piano studies,
Toth won first prize in 1997 in an international piano competition for
young pianists in Wittenberg, Germany. His teacher, Jozsef Csontos,
encouraged him to apply for admission to the Franz Liszt Academy's
Preparatory Class for Exceptionally Gifted Children, which accepted
him. After a year, in 1998, he was chosen for the Sari Biro Memorial
Award. Toth studied at the Liszt Academy (later University) for five
years. In 1999, he won the Florestano Rossomandi International Piano
Competition in Bovino, Italy, and the Franz Liszt International Piano
Competition in Weimar, Germany, in 2000, after which he made a highly
praised debut at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Jonathan Biss,
piano
"There
are few headier thrills in the music world than the arrival of a major
new performing artist," said the San Francisco Chronicle of Jonathan
Biss. "Nothing flashy mars his playing or demeanor," said the Seattle
Post Intelligencer. "Jonathan Biss, a young virtuoso and poetic pianist
of the first order," said the Chicago Sun Times. Widely regarded for
his artistry and deeply felt interpretations, Biss has won
international recognition for his orchestral, recital, and chamber
music performances on four continents and for his award-winning
recordings. Noted also for his prodigious technique, intriguing
programs, and musical intelligence, he performs a diverse repertoire
ranging from Mozart and Beethoven, through the Romantics to Janacek and
Schoenberg, as well as works by contemporary composers, including
commissions from Leon Kirchner, Lewis Spratlan Bernard Rands. Described
by the Toronto Globe and Mail as "one of the most striking North
American pianists of the new generation," Biss made his New York
Philharmonic debut in 2001, and since then has appeared with the
foremost orchestras of North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. He is
a frequent performer at leading international music festivals and gives
recitals in major music capitals both at home and abroad. Biss has been
recognized with numerous awards, including the Leonard Bernstein Award
presented at the 2005 Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Wolf Trap's Shouse
Debut Artist Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award,
Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant,
the 2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and the 2002 Gilmore Young Artist
Award. He was an artist-in-residence on American Public Media's
Performance Today and was the first American chosen to participate in
the BBC's New Generation Artist program.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Kirill Troussov and Alexandra Troussova, violin and piano
Born in St. Petersburg in 1982, Kirill Troussov took his
first violin lessons at the Rimsky-Korsakov-Conservatory at age 4. He
made his debut at age 6 with the Russian National Orchestra in Moscow
under the direction of Arnold Katz. He studied with Zakhar Bron and
Christoph Poppen. His mentors included Igor Oistrakh and Sir Yehudi
Menuhin. Troussov gained international fame in Paris in 2009, when he
substituted for Gidon Kremer in a performance with the Orchestre
National de France at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées broadcast live by
Radio France. Troussov, who is regularly engaged as a soloist, has won
first prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin, Oleg Kagan and Wienawski violin
competitions. Together with his sister, pianist Alexandra Troussova,
EMI recorded their recital of works by Brahms, Beethoven and Wienawski.
Troussov plays Antonio Stradivari’s “The Brodsky” from 1702, on which
Adolph Brodsky performed the world premiere of Tchaikovsky’s violin
concerto on Dec. 4, 1881. At age 7, Alexandra Troussova gave her first
performance with orchestra at the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonie and
three years later won first prize at the 20th International “Young
Virtuosi” Piano Competition in Prague. In 1991, she moved to Germany
with her family. She was invited to perform with the Orchestra of the
Hamburg Opera under Gerd Albrecht and at the Verbier Festival, where
she received a Reuters Grant. Troussova performs regularly in Germany,
France, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Austria and Canada in such venues
as the Ludwigsburg Festival, the Madrid Auditorium, the Verbier
Festival, the Zurich Tonnhalle, the Châtelet Hall and the Lyon Opera
House. She played at the “Folles Journées Russes” in Nantes. She has
given recitals at the Saint-Denis Festival, at the “Piano aux Jacobins”
Festival in Toulouse and at “Piano à Auxerre” playing the Shostakovitch
Concerto No. 1 with trumpeter David Guerrier. With her brother Kirill,
they played at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, at the
Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, at the Brussels Conservatory and in the
“Next Generation” Series in Dortmund. In 2005-2006, she performed with
violinist Laurent Korcia in recital and performs in Monte Carlo and at
the Al Bustan Festival in Lebanon. She presently lives in Munich, where
she works with Vadim Suchanov.
All Tuesday Musical concerts are held at Witherspoon Concert Hall at Joslyn Art Museum, 2200 Dodge St. in Omaha, Neb.Listen and learn at 7:10 p.m. before each concert as Pat Will — teacher, keyboard artist and Tuesday Musical program committee member -- briefs us on the concert to come. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m.
Past Tuesday Musical artists have included such greats as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pablo Casals, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Marian Anderson, Artur Rubenstein, Isaac Stern, Ezio Pinza, Rudolf Serkin, Roberta Peters, Van Cliburn, Itzak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Jessye Norman, Midori, Denyce Graves, Andre Watts, Lang Lang, Kevin Kenner and the Guarneri String Quartet, to name but a few.