The Anima Trombone Quartet celebrated a great success last weekend: the ensemble with Polina Tarasenko, Tolga Akman, Elai Grisaru Drori and Amit Rozenzweig won the first prize at the 1st International Littin Competition for Trombone Quartet in Frankfurt/Main. The competition was attended by 25 ensembles from Europe, South America and East Asia. Congratulations!
The start to the new season could not have been more different for our conductors:
Svetoslav Borisov conducted performances of The Flying Dutchman and La Traviata at the Varna Summer Theatre and on the opera stage in Bansko in August and early September. Florian Csizmadia started the new season of the Vorpommern Philharmonic Orchestra with a world première by Sebastian Hilli and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. Paul Goodwin was once again a guest of the Baroque Vocal Academy Mainz in August to work with young singers and the Neumeyer Consort on Handel’s opera Alcina. Shao-Chia Lü travelled to South Korea, where he conducted works by Shostakovich with the KBS Symphony Orchestra and Leonidas Kavakos. Ewa Strusińska was also drawn to faraway places: at the end of August, she conducted two concerts with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra with works by Barber and Schumann.
An auspicious start to the 2024/2025 season!
The 2023/2024 season came to an end for our artists with wonderful concerts:
Ewa Strusińska concluded her time as Music Director of the Gerhart Hauptmann Theatre Görlitz/Zittau and the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie with five acclaimed concerts. Svetoslav Borisov delighted audiences at the Family Day in Grafenegg with the Tonkünstler Orchestra and made a guest appearance with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra at the Weilburg Music Summer. Florian Csizmadia ended the season of his Vorpommern Philharmonic Orchestra with a magnificent Brahms concert and made his debut with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra, while Shao-Chia Lü will conduct an exciting project with the Orchestra of Music Makers in Singapore in July.
Polina Tarasenko made her debut in Poland with the Filharmonia Sudecka and received standing ovations with Derek Bourgeois’ trombone concerto. Liv Migdal finished her residency with the Pfalzphilharmonie Kaiserslautern with Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1; Ania Vegry‘s season ended with Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang at the final concert of the Speyer Music Festival. It’s festival season in July and August: Zofia Neugebauer and Jean-François Heisser have been invited to the Ravel Festival in St. Jean-de-Luz, the Feininger Trio plays at Murten Classics, Adolfo GutiérrezArenas at MurciArt and at the Delft Chamber Music Festival, Paul Goodwin will conduct the Young Israel Philharmonic and will lead a masterclass at the Baroque Vocal Academy in Mainz. After a packed season, Piotr Pławner will appear in August at the Wawel Castle in Kraków with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
‘An impressive and atmospheric performance’ – wrote the digital newspaper ‘Kultur für Emden’ about the Anima Trombone Quartet’s concert in the marvelous natural setting of the Ökowerk Emden. The program included works from the Baroque to the modern era, both as original work, such as Eugene Bozza’s Trombone Quartet, and in arrangements, such as Desdemona’s aria from Verdi’s ‘Othello’. The highlight of the evening, which was moderated in turn by all four musicians, was an arrangement of John Lennon’s ‘Hey Jude’.
Following concerts with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc and at the Philharmonie Luxembourg earlier this year, flautist Zofia Neugebauer has now celebrated another success: on April 11, she made her debut in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie with C.Ph.E. Bach’s Flute Concerto in D minor and Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G major. As in 2020 at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, she was once again accompanied by the German Chamber Orchestra Berlin under the direction of Gabriel Adorján.
Two UR classics artists, flutist Zofia Neugebauer and trombonist Polina Tarasenko, were invited by the Philharmonie Luxembourg to take part in a major educational project “La mystérieuse inconnue” or “The mysterious stranger”, in which they were able to showcase not only their musical talent but also their acting skills and language knowledge. A new project is on the horizon!
Our artists are conquering other European countries: Zofia Neugebauer made her Czech debut on 11 January with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in Olomouc under the direction of Christian Knüsel. www.klasikaplus.cz wrote about her interpretation of Jacques Ibert’s flute concerto: “Zofia Neugebauer has developed into a top concert artist, her flute sounded with a beautifully arched cantilena and, above all, with sparkling runs and absolutely intonation-safe coloratura.” For Piotr Pławner it was a reunion with conductor Petr Vronský, this time with the North Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra Teplice and the magnificent 2nd Violin Concerto by Karol Szymanowski.
The last two months of the year at UR classics were dominated by Scandinavia and Spain: following her debut with the Royal Swedish Ballet at the beginning of the year, Ewa Strusińska returned to the Jönköpings Sinfonietta and the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra in November. Before conducting a New Year’s Eve concert at the Royal Swedish Opera, she made her debut with the Orquesta Filharmónica de Gran Canaria in a charity concert. In December, Paul Goodwin conducted a series of Christmas concerts in Madrid and the surrounding area with the Camerata of the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia. And Florian Csizmadia rehearsed shortly before Christmas with the Orquesta Filharmónica de Málaga for three New Year’s concerts. In November, Polina Tarasenko played the German premiere of the trombone concerto by Finnish composer Kalevi Aho with the Münster Symphony Orchestra under Golo Berg.
The whole spectrum of occidental music history was presented by Paul Goodwin in October with concerts in Kraków and Warsaw: with the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra he performed Karol Szymanowski’s rarely heard, extremely humorous composition Mandragora, the Flute Concerto by Stanisław Skrowaczewski and the complete Firebird by Stravinsky. Then, at the end of October, there was a most unusual programme conceived by Paul Goodwin, with compositions by Purcell, Handel, Elgar, Turnage, Ravel and an arrangement of Richard Strauss’ Dance Suite of piano pieces by François Couperin and passages from Couperin’s Nouveaux concerts.
Happy orchestra musicians, enthusiastic audiences of all ages and very positive press in both cities – it was an all round successful month for Paul Goodwin!
Two artists of UR classics have been nominated for the 2023 Award by Opernwelt magazine: Svetoslav Borisov as Best Conductor for Ariadne auf Naxos at the Theater Magdeburg and Ania Vegry as Best Soprano for her interpretation of the role of Violeta in La Traviata at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau. Congratulations!