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In 2017-18, his fourth season as the BSO's Ray and Maria Stata
Music Director, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra
in twelve wide-ranging subscription programs at Symphony Hall,
repeating three of them at New York's Carnegie Hall in March. Also
this season, in November, he and the orchestra tour Japan together
for the first time, playing concerts in Nagoya, Osaka, Kawasaki,
and Tokyo. In addition, in February 2018 Maestro Nelsons becomes
Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, in
which capacity he will bring both orchestras together for a unique
multi-dimensional alliance; under his direction, the BSO celebrates
its first "Leipzig Week in Boston" that same month. In the summer
of 2015, following his first season as music director, Andris
Nelsons' contract with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was extended
through the 2021-22 season. Following the 2015 Tanglewood season,
he and the BSO undertook a twelve-concert, eight-city tour to major
European capitals as well as the Lucerne, Salzburg, and Grafenegg
festivals. A second European tour, to eight cities in Germany,
Austria, and Luxembourg, took place in May 2016.
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 first CD with the
BSO-live recordings of Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture and
Sibelius's Symphony No. 2-was released in November 2014 on BSO
Classics. April 2017 brought the release on BSO Classics of the
four Brahms symphonies with Maestro Nelsons conducting, recorded
live at Symphony Hall in November 2016. In an ongoing, multi-year
collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon initiated in 2014-15, he and
the BSO are making live recordings of Shostakovich's complete
symphonies, the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and other
works by the composer. The first release in this series (the
Symphony No. 10 and the Passacaglia from Lady Macbeth of
Mtsensk) won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral
Performance and Gramophone Magazine's Orchestral Award.
The second release (symphonies 5, 8, and 9, plus excerpts from
Shostakovich's 1932 incidental music to Hamlet) won the
2017 Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance. Also for Deutsche
Grammophon, Andris Nelsons is recording the Bruckner symphonies
with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Beethoven symphonies
with the Vienna Philharmonic.
In 2017-18, Andris Nelsons is artist-in-residence at the
Konzerthaus Dortmund and continues his regular collaboration with
the Vienna Philharmonic, leading that orchestra on tour to China.
He also maintains regular collaborations with the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic, the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Maestro Nelsons has also been a regular guest at the Bayreuth
Festival and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he
conducts a new David Alden production of Lohengrin this
season.
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. Mr. Nelsons is the subject of a 2013 DVD from
Orfeo, a documentary film entitled "Andris Nelsons: Genius on
Fire."
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Andris Nelsons, conductor
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Radu Lupu is firmly established as one of the most important
musicians of his generation and is widely acknowledged as a leading
interpreter of the works of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert.
Since winning the prestigious Van Cliburn (1966) and Leeds Piano
Competitions (1969), Mr. Lupu has regularly performed as
soloist and recitalist in the musical capitals and major festivals
of Europe and the United States. He has appeared many times with
the Berlin Philharmonic since his debut with that orchestra at the
1978 Salzburg Festival under Herbert von Karajan, and with the
Vienna Philharmonic, including the opening concert of the 1986
Salzburg Festival under Riccardo Muti. He is also a frequent
visitor to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and all of the major
London orchestras. He has played at most notable music festivals
and has been a regular guest at the Salzburg and Lucerne
Festivals.
In the 2015/16 season Mr. Lupu's engagements will include
performances with the Cleveland Orchestra at Teatro alla Scala in
Milan and Gasteig in Munich. His first major American appearances
were in 1972 with the Cleveland Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim in
New York and with the Chicago Symphony led by Carlo Maria Giulini.
Concerts with the New York Philharmonic soon followed and Mr. Lupu
has since appeared with all of the foremost American
orchestras.
Mr. Lupu has made more than 20 recordings for London/Decca,
including the complete Beethoven concertos with the Israel
Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, the complete Mozart violin and piano
sonatas with Szymon Goldberg, Grieg and Schumann Concertos, Debussy
and Franck Violin and Piano Sonatas with Kyung Wha Chung, and
numerous solo recordings of Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert. His
most recent London/Decca releases are of Schubert's Sonatas, D. 960
and 664, which won a Grammy® Award in 1995, and of Schumann's
"Kinderszenen," "Kreisleriana" and "Humoresque," which won an
Edison Award in 1995. He has also made two records with pianist
Murray Perahia (Sony Classical) and two albums of Schubert Lieder
with soprano Barbara Hendricks (EMI). In 1998, for Teldec, he
joined Daniel Barenboim for a disc of Schubert works for piano,
four hands. In 2001 Decca re-released a 2-CD set of Schubert's
music for violin and piano, featuring Mr. Lupu together with Szymon
Goldberg.
Born in Romania in l945, Mr. Lupu began studying the piano at
the age of 6 with Lia Busuioseanu. He made his public debut with a
complete program of his own music at l2, continuing his studies for
several years with Florica Muzicescu and Cella Delavrance. In l96l
he won a scholarship to the Moscow State Conservatory where he
studied with Galina Eghyazarova, Heinrich Neuhaus and his son,
Stanislav Neuhaus. During his seven years at the Moscow
Conservatory he won first prize in the l967 Enescu International
Competition in addition to the Van Cliburn and Leeds International
competitions. In 1989 and again in 2006, he was awarded the
prestigious "Abbiati" prize given by the Italian Critics'
Association. He is also the recipient of the 2006 Premio
Internazionale Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli award.
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Radu Lupu, piano
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Ben Johnson, tenor
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Morris Robinson is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the
most interesting and sought after basses performing today.
A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist
Development Program, Mr. Robinson made his debut at the
Metropolitan Opera in their production
of Fidelio. He has since appeared
there as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte(both in the
original production and in the children's English version),
Ferrando in Il Trovatore, the
King in Aida, and in roles
in Nabucco, Tannhäuser, and the new
productions of Les Troyens
and Salome. He has also appeared at
the San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera,
Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh Opera,
Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Cincinnati
Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Vancouver
Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Australia, and the Aix-en-Provence
Festival. His many roles include Sarastro in Die
Zauberflöte, Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem
Serail, Ramfis in Aida, Zaccaria
in Nabucco, Sparafucile
in Rigoletto, Commendatore in Don
Giovanni, Grand Inquisitor in Don
Carlos, Timur inTurandot, the Bonze
in Madama Butterfly, Padre Guardiano
in La Forza del Destino, Ferrando
in Il Trovatore, and Fasolt
in Das Rheingold.
Also a prolific concert singer, Mr. Robinson has appeared with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra,
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Houston
Symphony, L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Ft. Worth Symphony
Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Met Chamber Orchestra, Nashville
Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, New England
String Ensemble, and at the Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood,
Cincinnati May, Verbier, and Aspen Music Festivals. He also
appeared in Carnegie Hall as part of Jessye
Norman's HONOR! Festival. In recital
he has been presented by Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Savannah Music
Festival, the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, the
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York City.
Mr. Robinson's first album, Going
Home, was released on the Decca label. He also
appears as Joe in the newly released DVD of the San Francisco Opera
production of Show Boat.
This season, Mr. Robinson returns to the Los Angeles Opera as
Oroveso in Norma and the Dallas Opera
as Joe inShow Boat. He also appears in
concert with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Milwaukee Symphony,
and Baltimore Symphony, and as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's
2015-2016 Artist in Residence, he appears in several concerts and
recitals throughout the season. And in the fall of 2016, he makes
his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in the title role
of Porgy and Bess conducted by
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
An Atlanta native, Mr. Robinson is a graduate of The Citadel and
received his musical training from the Boston University Opera
Institute.
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Morris Robinson, bass
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