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Casual FridaysAndris Nelsons conducts Maskats, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich

Casual Fridays
Andris Nelsons conducts Maskats, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich

Boston Symphony Orchestra

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Four Friday-evening concerts—one each in November, February, March, and April—are designated “Casual Fridays” this season. You are invited to wear your favorite casual attire, and to arrive early to enjoy a free, pre-concert reception before you take your seat. This lower-priced series also features a special section for Conductor-Cam seating, which allows patrons to watch the conductor from the orchestra's perspective. Then, immediately after the performance, head to the post-concert reception, where, besides enjoying live music, snacks, and a cash bar, you are invited to mingle and share what you’ve just experienced at the BSO concert.

Featured Performers & Ensembles

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Andris Nelsons, conductor View biography in full page >

The 2019-20 season, Andris Nelsons’ sixth as the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Ray and Maria Stata Music Director, marks his fifth anniversary in that position. Named Musical America’s 2018 Artist of the Year, Mr. Nelsons leads fifteen of the BSO’s twenty-six weeks of concerts this season, ranging from repertoire favorites by Beethoven, Dvořák, Gershwin, Grieg, Mozart, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky to world and American premieres of BSO-commissioned works from Eric Nathan, Betsy Jolas, Arturs Maskats, and HK Gruber. The season also brings the continuation of his complete Shostakovich symphony cycle with the orchestra, and collaborations with an impressive array of guest artists, including a concert performance of Tristan und Isolde, Act III—one of three BSO programs he will also conduct at Carnegie Hall—with Jonas Kaufmann and Emily Magee in the title roles. In addition, February 2020 brings a major tour to Asia in which Maestro Nelsons and the BSO give their first concerts together in Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

In February 2018, Andris Nelsons became Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester (GHO) Leipzig, in which capacity he also brings the BSO and GHO together for a unique multi-dimensional alliance including a BSO/GHO Musician Exchange program and an exchange component within each orchestra’s acclaimed academy for advanced music studies. A major highlight of the BSO/GHO Alliance is a focus on complementary programming, through which the BSO celebrates “Leipzig Week in Boston” and the GHO celebrates “Boston Week in Leipzig,” thereby highlighting each other’s musical traditions through uniquely programmed concerts, chamber music performances, archival exhibits, and lecture series. For this season’s “Leipzig Week in Boston,” under Maestro Nelsons’ leadership in November, the entire Gewandhausorchester Leipzig comes to Symphony Hall for joint concerts with the BSO as well as two concerts of its own.

In summer 2015, following his first season as music director, Andris Nelsons’ contract with the BSO was extended through the 2021-22 season. In November 2017, he and the orchestra toured Japan together for the first time. They have so far made three European tours together: immediately following the 2018 Tanglewood season, when they played concerts in London, Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna, Lucerne, Paris, and Amsterdam; in May 2016, a tour that took them to eight cities in Germany, Austria, and Luxembourg; and, after the 2015 Tanglewood season, a tour that took them to major European capitals and the Lucerne, Salzburg, and Grafenegg festivals.

The fifteenth music director in the history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons made his BSO debut at Carnegie Hall in March 2011, his Tanglewood debut in July 2012, and his BSO subscription series debut in January 2013. His recordings with the BSO, all made live in concert at Symphony Hall, include the complete Brahms symphonies on BSO Classics; Grammy-winning recordings on Deutsche Grammophon of Shostakovich’s symphonies 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 11 (The Year 1905) as part of a complete Shostakovich symphony cycle for that label; and a recent two-disc set pairing Shostakovich’s symphonies 6 and 7 (Leningrad). This November, a new release on Naxos features Andris Nelsons and the orchestra in the world premieres of BSO-commissioned works by Timo Andres, Eric Nathan, Sean Shepherd, and George Tsontakis. Under an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, Andris Nelsons is also recording the complete Bruckner symphonies with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic.

During the 2019-20 season, Andris Nelsons continues his ongoing collaborations with the Vienna Philharmonic. Throughout his career, he has also established regular collaborations with the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, and has been a regular guest at the Bayreuth Festival and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra before studying conducting. He was music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2015, principal conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany, from 2006 to 2009, and music director of Latvian National Opera from 2003 to 2007.
Andris Nelsons, conductor Daniel Lozakovich, violin
Daniel Lozakovich, violin View biography in full page >

Daniel Lozakovich was born in Stockholm in 2001, and began playing the violin in 2007, making his concerto debut with the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and Vladimir Spivakov two years later. Daniel has already performed as a soloist throughout Europe with orchestras including the the Orchestre national de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, National Philharmonic of Russia, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra.

Recently, Daniel made his debuts with Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre National de Lyon, Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse and Lorenzo Viotti, the Swedish Radio Symphony with Robin Ticciati, the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and Adam Fischer.

Daniel has a close collaboration with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, since they played together during the New Year’s concert 2015 at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow. He returned to the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra to perform the Beethoven violin concerto at the closing anniversary concert of the 15th Moscow Easter Festival, and later at the Stars of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, also the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm’s Berwaldhallen and at the Rotterdam Gergiev Festival with Prokofiev concerto. Daniel opened the Münchner Philharmoniker festival, MPHIL 360°, alongside Maestro Valery Gergiev and Munich Philharmonic Orchestra with Mozart violin concerto. He also performed the Bach Concerto for Two Violins with Shlomo Mintz and the Cameristi della Scala and Daniel Cohen at the Crans-Montana Classics 2016 New Year’s Concert.

Daniel has a love of chamber music and has enjoyed collaborations with, among others, Ivry Gitlis, Daniel Hope, Martin Fröst, and Maxim Vengerov. In September 2015, Daniel recorded a selection of Bartók’s Violin Duos with Daniel Hope for Deutsche Grammophon, having previously performed together on ARTE’s Concert television program.

Daniel is a regular performer at the Verbier Festival and many other international music festivals, the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, Corinthian Summer Music Festival in Austria, the Colmar Festival, Moscow Meets Friends, the International Mstislav Rostropovich Festival in Baku, and the Sommets musicaux de Gstaad, where he returned in February 2016 to perform both the Bach Concerto in A minor BWV 1041 and Concerto for Two Violins BWV 1043 with Renaud Capuçon and the Festival Strings Lucerne. He also made his chamber music debut at the Aix en Provence Festival de Pâques in 2016 with Renaud Capuçon, and Khatia Buniatishvili.

Highlights for the 17/18 season include: tours in Japan with Valery Gergiev at the Pacific Music Festival (PMF); Japan tour with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra conductor Andreas Orozko-Estrada; a return to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic with Semyon Bychkov and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Tugan Sokhiev; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Krzysztof Urbanski; Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra with Lahav Shani. Daniel will have his debut concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood; Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; Liege Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Christian Arming; Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin; Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai Torino; Gothenburg Symphony; Orchestra of Staatstheater Karlsruhe and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra with Nikolaj Znaider. Furthermore, he will perform recitals at the Aix en Provence Festival; Salle Molière de Lyon; Les Grandes Voix – Les Grands Solistes; Tonhalle Zürich and return to the Verbier Festival.

At the Festival of the Nations Daniel has been awarded the prize of “The Young Artist of the Year 2017” and will perform with Munich Radio Orchestra and Mischa Damev.

Daniel has been awarded numerous international prizes including the 1st prize at the 2016 Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition; both the 1st Prize and the “Grand Prix” at the 2012 EMCY international music competition, “Ohrid PEARLS”, Macedonia; 1st Prize and the “Gulda Nutcracker” at the 12th Nutcracker International Television Contest for Young Musicians in Moscow, 2011; 2nd Prize at the “Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists”, Austin, USA, 2014, and the 2015 Manfred Grommek Prize from Kronberg Academy. Daniel won three prestigious awards: the “Viennese Classics”, “String Soloists”, and “Best Interpretation of Sarasate ‘Gypsy Airs’” at the 2014 International Summer Academy of the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Excelentia Prizes under the Honour Presidence of Queen Sofia of Spain.

In June 2016, Daniel Lozakovich signed an exclusive recording deal with Deutsche Grammophon and will begin his long-term cooperation with the label by recording two orchestral albums and a recital disc.
Since 2012, Daniel studies at the Karlsruhe University of Music with Professor Josef Rissin, and he is mentored by Eduard Wulfson. Currently, he is a student at the Collège du Léman in Geneva. In his limited spare time, Daniel enjoys playing football, boxing, tennis and chess.

 
Daniel Lozakovich, violin
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, (TFC) View biography in full page >

Tanglewood Festival Chorus
James Burton, BSO Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver (1939-2018), Founder

Originally formed under the joint sponsorship of Boston University and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus was established in 1970 by its founding conductor, the late John Oliver, who stepped down from his leadership position with the TFC at the end of the 2015 Tanglewood season. In February 2017, following appearances as guest chorus conductor at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, and having prepared the chorus for that month’s BSO performances of Bach’s B minor Mass led by Andris Nelsons, the British-born James Burton was named the new Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, also being appointed to the newly created position of BSO Ch

The Tanglewood Festival Chorus joins the BSO this season for performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (October 25-30), Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (November 29-December 1), Puccini’s Suor Angelica (February 21 and 22), and Dvořák’s Stabat Mater (February 28-March 2) all under Andris Nelsons, and Estévez’s Cantata Criolla (April 11-13) with guest conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Also in October, the TFC performed Maija Einfelde’s Lux aeterna with James Burton, BSO Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, making his subscription-series conducting debut. Originally formed under the joint sponsorship of Boston University and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus was established in 1970 by its founding conductor, the late John Oliver, who stepped down from his leadership position with the TFC at the end of the 2015 Tanglewood season. In February 2017, following appearances as guest chorus conductor at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, and having prepared the chorus for that month’s BSO performances of Bach’s B minor Massled by Andris Nelsons, James Burton was named the new Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, also being appointed to the newly created position of BSO Choral Director. Mr. Burton occupies the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Chair on the Boston Symphony Orchestra roster.

Though first established for performances at the BSO’s summer home, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus was soon playing a major role in the BSO’s subscription season as well as BSO concerts at Carnegie Hall; the ensemble now performs year-round with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops. It has performed with the BSO on tour in Hong Kong and Japan, and on two European tours, also giving a cappella concerts of its own on those two occasions. The TFC made its debut in April 1970 at Symphony Hall, in a BSO performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Leonard Bernstein conducting. Its first recording with the orchestra, Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust with Seiji Ozawa, received a Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance of 1975. The TFC has since made dozens of recordings with the BSO and Boston Pops, with Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Colin Davis, Keith Lockhart, and John Williams. In August 2011, with John Oliver conducting and soloist Stephanie Blythe, the TFC gave the world premiere of Alan Smith’s An Unknown Sphere for mezzo-soprano and chorus, commissioned by the BSO for the ensemble’s 40th anniversary. Its most recent recordings on BSO Classics, all drawn from live performances, include a disc of a cappella music marking the TFC’s 40th anniversary; Ravel’s complete Daphnis et Chloé (a 2009 Grammy-winner for Best Orchestral Performance), Brahms’s German Requiem, and William Bolcom’s Eighth Symphony for chorus and orchestra (a BSO 125th Anniversary Commission). On July 4, 2018, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus joined Keith Lockhart for the “Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular” on the Charles River Esplanade.

Besides their work with the BSO, TFC members have also performed with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic and in a Saito Kinen Festival production of Britten’s Peter Grimes under Seiji Ozawa in Japan. The ensemble had the honor of singing at Sen. Edward Kennedy’s funeral; has performed with the Boston Pops for the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics; and can be heard on the soundtracks of Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, John Sayles’s Silver City, and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. TFC members regularly commute from the greater Boston area and beyond to sing with the chorus in Boston and at Tanglewood. For more information about the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and upcoming auditions, please visit www.bso.org/tfc.

 

 
James Burton
James Burton, conductor View biography in full page >

James Burton was appointed Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and to the newly created position of BSO Choral Director, in February 2017. He made his BSO subscription-series conducting debut in October 2018, leading the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Maija Einfelde’s Lux aeterna. In August 2019 he led the Boston Symphony Children’s Choir and Boston Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of his The Lost Words, a BSO co-commission, as part of the summer’s gala Tanglewood on Parade concert. In April 2020 he will conduct the Tanglewood Festival Concert in a post-concert Casual Friday performance of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil to celebrate the TFC’s fiftieth anniversary. Mr. Burton made his debut with the Boston Pops in December 2017, returned to the Pops podium last December—as he will again for Holiday Pops concerts in December 2019—and led the Pops this past June at Tanglewood in a program celebrating Queen with Marc Martel.

Born in London, James Burton holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier. He began his training at the Choir of Westminster Abbey, where he became head chorister, and was a choral scholar at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He has conducted concerts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hallé Orchestra, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, and Manchester Camerata. Opera credits include performances at English National Opera, English Touring Opera, Garsington Opera, and the Prague Summer Nights Festival, and he has served on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera and Opera de Paris. Mr. Burton’s extensive choral conducting has included guest invitations with professional choirs including the Gabrieli Consort, the Choir of the Enlightenment, Wrocław Philharmonic, and the BBC Singers, with whom he performed in the inaugural season of Dubai’s Opera House in 2017. From 2002 to 2009 he served as choral director at the Hallé Orchestra, where he was music director of the Hallé Choir and founding conductor of the Hallé Youth Choir, winning the Gramophone Choral Award in 2009. From 2002 to 2017 he was music director of the Schola Cantorum of Oxford. Well known for his inspirational work with young musicians, he was director of the National Youth Choir of Japan in 2017 and founded the Boston Symphony Children’s Choir in 2018. Mr. Burton has given conducting master classes at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Tanglewood Music Center, and founded a scholarship for young conductors at Oxford. His growing composition portfolio includes works for commissioners including the National Portrait Gallery in London, the 2010 World Equestrian Games, the Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge, and the Exon Festival, where he was composer-in-residence in 2015. His works are published by Edition Peters. As BSO Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton occupies the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Chair, endowed in perpetuity.

 
Program Notes Audio
Arturs MASKATS - “My River runs to thee…”
(Homage to Emily Dickinson)
(world premiere; BSO co-commission)
TCHAIKOVSKY - Violin Concerto Download Program Notes Download Program Audio
SHOSTAKOVICH - Symphony No. 2, To October