ROMAN & FRIENDS

2019-08-06 21:30

Church of the Holy Spirit

Tuesday, August 6
Church of the Holy Spirit, 9:30 p.m.
ROMAN & FRIENDS
 
ROMAN SIMOVIĆ, violin (Montenegro / Great Britain)
FRANCESCA DEGO, violin (Italy / Great Britain)
MILENA SIMOVIĆ, viola (Serbia / Great Britain)
BLYTHE TEH-ENGSTRÖM, viola (USA)
NAREK HAKHNAZARYAN, cello (Armenia)
SIMON CRAWFORD-PHILLIPS, piano (Great Britain / Sweden)
 
PROGRAM
 
César Franck (1822–1890)
Piano Quintet in F minor
Molto moderato quasi lento – Allegro
Lento con molto sentimento
Allegro non troppo ma con fuoco
 
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
Piano Quartet in C minor, No. 3, Op. 60
Allegro non troppo
Scherzo: Allegro
Andante
Finale: Allegro comodo
 
Tickets for this program are available HERE.
 
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Roman Simović, violinist and concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra, with his brilliant virtuosity and inborn musicality, has conquered the world’s most important concert stages, such as the Bolshoi Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Mariinsky Hall in St. Petersburg, the Grand Opera House in Tel-Aviv, and the Rudolfinium Hall in Prague, among others. He has won some of the most esteemed violin competitions: Premio Rodolfo Lipizer in Italy, Sion-Valais in Switzerland, Henryk Wieniawski in Poland, and many more. As a soloist, Simović has performed with many of the most renowned orchestras and most sought-after conductors, most notably with V. Gergiev, A. Pappano, D. Harding, K. Jarvi, J. Belohlavek, P. H. Casado, and J. Williams. He regularly performs at the world’s  most lauded music festivals, such as the Verbier Festival, the White Nights Festival, the Easter Festival of Valery Gergiev, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Kotor Art, BEMUS, and NOMUS, collaborating with artists such as L. Kavakos, E. Kissin, Y. Wang, G. Capuson, M. Maisky, S. Mintz, I. Golan, and J. Rachlin, among many others. Simović has held masterclasses in the USA, the UK, South Korea, Serbia, Montenegro, Israel, and Italy. He plays a 1709 Antonio Stradivari violin. Roman Simović rounded off the previous season with compact discs featuring Paganini’s Caprices for the London Symphony Orchestra label – LSO Live and the Tchaikovsky and Glazunov Concertos, which he recorded with conductor Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra for the Mariinsky label.
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Francesca Dego, violinist, is one of the most sought-after artists of the younger generation on the international scene. Signed by Deutsche Grammophon, she released a compact disc featuring the works by Paganini and Wolf-Ferrari alongside the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and conductor Daniele Rustioni, and then, in 2018, the CD Suite Italienne. Francesca has appeared with the Hallé Philharmony, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia, and numerous Italian orchestras, collaborating with conductors such as C. Franklin, P. Goodwin, C. Hogwood, W. Marshall, S. Mintz, and others. As a chamber musician, she has performed with artists such as S. Accardo, B. Giuranna, M. Maisky, D. Nordio, and F. Leonardi. In 2008, Francesca Dego garnered worldwide attention for being the first Italian female prize-winner of the International Paganini Competition in Genoa since 1961. She also writes columns and articles for BBC, Suonare News, Classical Music Magazines, and The Strad, among others publications Francesca plays on precious violins by Cremona makers Francesco Ruggeri from 1697 and Guarneri del Gesù from 1734, the latter of which was played previously by Ruggiero Ricci, one of the most famous violinists of the 20th century.
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Milena Simović, violist, completed her bachelor’s studies in Violin at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, under Professor Maja Jokanović, and her master’s at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, under Professor Krzysztof Smietana. She studied viola with the renowned Lawrence Power at the Zurich University of the Arts. Milena has appeared at every distinguished music festival in the region, as well as at festivals in the UK, Italy, Switzerland, Israel, Brazil and the USA. She regularly performs as a soloist and in chamber ensembles with renowned artists, such as Alëna Baeva, Vadym Kholodenko, Julian Rachlin, Vadim Repin, Itamar Golan, Danilo Rossi, Gordan Nikolić, Roman Simović, Ksenija Janković, Giovanni Gnocchi, and Olga Sitkovetsky, while during a three-year collaboration with violinist Nigel recorded three compact discs. She has collaborated with esteemed conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Noseda, Daniel Harding, Maxim Vengerov, Gustavo Dudamel, and others. Milena Simović regularly performs as a member of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, while in 2017 she was invited to occupy the position of solo violist in the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Milena Simović plays a 1740 Paolo Antonio Testore viola.
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Blythe Teh-Engström, violinist and violist, completed her studies for Violin at Indiana University in Bloomington under Professors Nelli Shkolnikova, Mimi Zweig, and Josef Gingol, and for Viola under Atar Arad, before continuing her studies under Professor Andres Cardenes in Pittsburgh. As a passionate chamber musician, she has collaborated with Menahem Pressler, Yuja Wang, Lisa Batiashvili, Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Gautier Capuçon, and many others. Blythe is currently a member of the Serafino String Quartet. She has performed in numerous international festivals, such as the Miyazaki Festival in Japan, at festivals in Elmau and Cappenberg castles in Germany, and at Bellerive and Verbier Festivals in Switzerland. She was instrumental in creating the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and has closely worked with the Orchestra’s director Gábor Takács-Nagy. With this ensemble, Blythe has performed on internationally tours together with prominent artists such as Martha Argerich, Joshua Bell, and Martin Fröst, and this collaboration resulted in her first compact disc, which  she recorded with Maxim Vengerov for EMI. She has served as the Chamber Orchestra’s concertmaster and currently leads the viola section.
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Simon Crawford-Phillips, pianist, has developed his career as a soloist, chamber musician, and, more recently, conductor. As Artistic Adviser and Chief Conductor of the Västerås Sinfonietta in Sweden since 2017, he has performed to audiences at the Baltic Sea Festival and in the concert halls of Stockholm and Gothenburg. His current engagements as conductor include working with the Aalburg Symphony Orchestra in the Netherlands, the Nash Chamber Ensemble, the English Chamber Orchestra, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. As a pianist, Crawford-Phillips is a member of the Kungsbacka Piano Trio, the Stockholm Syndrome Ensemble, and the Nash Ensemble. He has premiered works by numerous contemporary composers, such as Thomas Adès, Britta Byström, and Mark-Anthony Turnage, and, alongside pianist Philip Moore, Simon premiered Steve Reich’s Quartet for Two Pianos and Two Vibraphones, listed by New York Magazine as one of the ten best classical performances of that year. He has recorded for radio and television broadcasts in Europe, Australia, and Japan, and for BIS, Channel Classics, Harmonia Mundi, LSO Live, Naxos, and others. As a lecturer, Simon Crawford-Phillips has served at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music in London. He currently teaches at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama.