CELLO FUSION
BERLIN SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
ORCHESTRA
Dubai, UAE
On Thursday 26th May, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra continues their series of InClassica performances with a concert featuring the prodigious cellist, Narek Hakhnazaryan. The concert is conducted by maestro Gergely Madaras and features works by Dvořák, Shor and Tchaikovsky, and is proudly presented by SAMIT Event Group.
In the 2019/20 season Gergely Madaras begins his tenure as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. As well as curating several series in Liège and at the Bozar in Brussels, his inaugural season includes three CD recordings, a continued collaboration with Mezzo HD as well as a tour to the Bucharest Enescu Festival. Gergely also continues as Chief Conductor of the Savaria Symphony Orchestra in his native Hungary, a post he occupies since 2014. He was previously music Director of the Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne from 2013-2019.
Having forged strong professional relationships throughout Europe, Gergely regularly appears as a guest conductor with orchestras including the BBC Symphony, Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Filarmonica della Scala, Maggio Muiscale Fiorentino, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Hungarian National Philharmonic and Hungarian Radio orchestras, the Copenhagen, Oslo, Bergen, Luxembourg and Warsaw National philharmonic orchestras as well as with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Münchener Kammerorchester and Academy of Ancient Music. Further afield, he has appeared with the Melbourne, Queensland and Houston Symphony orchestras.
Highlights of the 2019/20 season include Gergely’s debut with Netherlands Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw, where he will also make a second appearance for his Netherlands Radio Philharmonic debut in August 2020. Gergely has further debuts with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the chamber orchestras of Lausanne and Geneva. Gergely returns once more to the Hallé for several UK appearances throughout the season. Other re-invitations include Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre National de Montpellier, BBC Scottish Symphony and the BBC Singers.
The previous season saw Gergely opening the 2018 Milano Musica Festival at La Scala, his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, his debuts at the Barbican and Royal Festival Hall in London as well as Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
While Gergely is grounded in the core classical and romantic repertoire, he maintains a close relationship with new music. He has collaborated closely with composers Geroge Benjamin, Péter Eötvös, György Kurtág, Tristan Murail, Luca Francesconi and Pierre Boulez, for whom he served as assistant conductor at the Lucerne Festival Academy between 2011- 2013. He conducted over 100 works written after 1970, including many world premieres.
Gergely has also established a fine reputation as an opera conductor. In 2012 he was the inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Fellow at the English National Opera. The fellowship culminated in his debut with the company, where he conducted Simon McBurney’s new production of Magic Flute at the London Coliseum. Since then he has conducted highly praised productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Otello, La traviata, La Bohème and Lucia di Lammermoor at such houses as the Dutch National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève (with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande) and Hungarian State Opera, among others. Prompted by a keen interest in re-discovering rarely performed works, Gergely has also conducted productions of Goldmark’s Ein Wintermärchen, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Barber’s Vanessa, Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma and Offenbach’s Fantasio.
Born in Budapest in 1984, Gergely first began studying folk music with the last generation of authentic Hungarian Gipsy and peasant musicians at the age of five. He then went on to study classical flute, violin and composition, graduating from the flute faculty of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, as well as the conducting faculty of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Besides his varied musical activities, Gergely retains a deep passion for Magyar music, and is an ambitious advocate of Bartók, Kodály and Dohnányi, both at home and abroad, having conducted nearly the complete orchestral repertoire of these composers.
Since winning the Cello First Prize and Gold Medal at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 at the age of 22, Narek Hakhnazaryan has performed with most major orchestras and in recital and chamber music across the globe at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals. Hakhnazaryan is a compelling artist, a true virtuoso with an innate musicality and an exceptional talent for connecting with his audience. He has been described as “dazzlingly brilliant” (The Strad) and “nothing short of magnificent" (San Francisco Chronicle) and of his LAPO debut, the LA Times said “His command of the instrument is extraordinary”.
Highlights of Hakhnazaryan’s 21/22 season include performances in Madrid with the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia and Pappano, at the Dvorak Prague festival with Netopil, Pisa festival, with the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Residentie Orchestra with Collon in both The Hague and at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He will also tour Australia and New Zealand. In 20/21 he made his debut with the Vienna Radio Orchestra and Alsop in the opening concert of their season at the Musikverein, with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra receiving an immediate re-invitation and was invited for a residency with Finnish Radio Symphony and Lintu, performing two televised concerti and a solo recital. He performed a piano quartet programme with Lugansky, Boriso-Glebsky and Rysanov in Madrid, Vienna and Moscow (other major venues were cancelled) and he was due to perform in recital with Trifonov across the US including at Carnegie Hall.
Hakhnazaryan has enjoyed a truly global career since his rise to fame in 2011 and has played with orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio, Berlin Konzerthaus, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, NHK Symphony orchestras, and with conductors such as Gergiev, Koopman, Sokhiev, Robertson, Honeck, Noseda and Netopil. He has toured Spain with the WDR Symphony/Saraste, the US with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Neemi Järvi and Japan with the Czech Philharmonic/Bělohlávek. A former BBC New Generation Artist, he has performed with all the BBC orchestras and made a sensational debut at the BBC Proms. In 2017 the Vienna Konzerthaus invited Hakhnazaryan to be a “Great Talent” and during the two seasons that followed he performed there regularly in recital, chamber music and with orchestra, most notably with the Vienna Symphony and Hrůša.
In Summer 2019 he performed in recital at the Verbier and Rheingau Festivals with Daniil Trifonov, and in the 18/19 season was enjoyed a 4-concert residency at London’s Wigmore Hall. In North America he performs regularly in recital, most recently in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto and in past seasons has performed at Carnegie Hall and Jordan Hall (Boston). In 2017 he toured SE Asia, performing the complete Bach cello solo suites in Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo and Kyoto. An eager chamber musician, Hakhnazaryan has performed at most major festivals worldwide and in major halls across Europe with various chamber partners. With the ZEN Trio, he has toured the US and China, has released a recording on Deutsche Grammophon and upcoming plans include concerts in London and Barcelona.
Mentored by the late Rostropovich, Hakhnazaryan received an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music in 2011 where he studied with Lawrence Lesser.
Prior to this he studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov and at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan. Hakhnazaryan has received scholarships from the Rostropovich Foundation and the New Names Foundation, and his prizes include First Prize in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in Armenia and First Place in the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players. As First Prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Hakhnazaryan made his debut in Washington, DC and at Carnegie Hall.
Narek Hakhnazaryan was born in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of musicians: his father is a violinist, his mother a pianist, and he performs regularly with his brother, the conductor Tigran Akhnazarian. In September 2017 he was awarded the title of “Honored Artist of Armenia” by the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan. Hakhnazaryan plays the 1707 Joseph Guarneri cello and F.X. Tourte and Benoit Rolland bows.
For more than five decades, the Berliner Symphoniker have been an integral part of Berlin's musical and cultural life and have enriched the German orchestra landscape. Since 1990 they have been the orchestra for all Berliners.
In addition to the popular and long-established symphony concerts that take place in the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berliner Symphoniker perform throughout Berlin and the surrounding area: They are regular guests at the Konzerthaus Berlin, the University of the Arts, the Berlin Cathedral, the Kulturbrauerei and the Chorin Monastery, among others. With guest performances in Europe and tours to North and South America, Africa and Asia as well as appearances at international festivals (including in France, Italy, Austria, Spain and Israel), the Berliner Symphoniker have presented themselves successfully worldwide and see themselves as Berlin's cultural ambassadors.
In addition to the classical, wide-ranging and popular range of concerts, the repertoire of the Berliner Symphoniker also includes special rarities - unknown and forgotten works as well as contemporary compositions.
Music communication as a special focus has always been a trademark of the orchestra. It was the Berliner Symphoniker, for example, who were the first orchestra in Berlin to develop a music education profile with school concerts and children's and family concerts and who established and promoted work with young people in the long term. Numerous CD recordings and television recordings round off the multifaceted work of the Berliner Symphoniker.
