Dubai, UAE
On Tuesday 28th February, the 2023 InClassica International Music Festival will present a special chamber concert featuring the acclaimed Hungarian violinist Kristóf Baráti, the Winner of the Sixth International Paganini Violin Competition in 2010, First Prize Winner at the 1995 Gorizia Competition in Italy, and Kossuth Prize recipient. Known for his emotive and dynamic style, Baráti will be performing alongside the renowned Middle East Orchestra, providing audiences in Dubai with a unique opportunity to hear one of the world's most talented violinists in an intimate chamber setting. Together, Baráti and the Orchestra, under the baton of Italian conductor Gianluca Marcianò, the Principal Conductor of Orchestra ICO della Magna Grecia, Principal Guest Conductor of Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Founder and Artistic Director of the Festival of Lerici Music, and Artistic Director of Chelsea Opera Group, will join forces to present a number of seminal works in what is sure to be an unforgettable and delightful evening of musical entertainment.
Praised by the Sunday Times "for his unfailingly theatrical and idiomatic conducting", conductor Gianluca Marcianò made his debut in 2006 at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.
Originally from Lerici, in the province of La Spezia, he founded the Suoni dal Golfo Festival in his hometown overlooking the Gulf of Poets, renamed Lerici Music Festival in 2020, of which he is artistic director. Marcianò has very strong ties with the Opera Houses of
Oviedo, Minsk, Ljubjana, as well as in the UK (English National Opera, Grange Park Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North and Longborough Opera Festival). At Grange Park Opera, since 2010, he conducted La Traviata, Tosca, Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, The
Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan Tutte, Alzira, Nabucco, Don Carlo, Evgenij Onegin, Samson et Dalila and Madama Butterfly. He is Artistic Director of the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut and Principal Guest Conductor of Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. From 2011 to 2014 he was Music Director of the Tbilisi State Opera, conducting La Forza del Destino, Cavalleria Rusticana, Nabucco, Attila, Il Trovatore, Mithridates, King of Pontus and Aida.
From 2017 to 2019 Gianluca Marcianò has been Principal Conductor of the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad. Marcianò has worked with many great singers and instrumentalists, such as: Elina Garanča, Sumi Jo, Joseph Calleja, Simon Keenlyside, Sondra Radvanovsky, Olga Peretyatko, Danielle De Niese, Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Arabella Steinbacher, Anna Tifu, Francesca Dego, Vanessa Benelli Mosell, Steven Isserlis, Boris Andrianov, Maria João Pires, Gloria Campaner, David Geringas, Khatia Buniatshvili, Sergei Krylov, Nina Kotova, Giovanni Sollima, Sergei Nakariakov, Denis Kozhukin and Alexander Buzlov. He conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, Polish Baltic
Philharmonic, Wroclaw Philharmonic, Georgian Philharmonic, Tokyo New City Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Oviedo Filarmonia, Moscow City Russian Philharmonic, Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Classica de Madeira, State Youth Orchestra of Armenia, BBC Concert Orchestra, World Orchestra, Voivodina Symphony Orchestra, Macau Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and others. He recently recorded the album "Momento Immobile" for Rubicon Classics, with soprano Venera Gimadieva and Hallé Orchestra.
His 2021/22 engagements include Falstaff with Bryn Terfel at Grange Park Opera, Nabucco at Opera de Oviedo, a concert with Joseph Calleja at the Ljubljana Winter Festival, a concert with Carmen Giannattasio at the Inclassica Festival in Malta conducting the
Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, two new productions of Tosca and I Capuleti e I Montecchi at the Slovenian National Theatre of Ljubljana, concerts with Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica della Città Metropolitana di Bari, Tokyo 21c Philharmonic.
In 2017 Marcianò receive the Honorary Citizenship of the City of Lerici for his achievements and in 2018 has been awarded of the Pavlova Award.
He is Principal Conductor designated of Orchestra della Magna Grecia in Taranto and Matera.
Kristóf Baráti is recognised increasingly across the globe as a musician of extraordinary quality with a vast expressive range and impeccable technique. Applauded repeatedly for the poetry and eloquence that he brings to his playing, he has been described as “a true tonal aesthete of the highest order”. In recent seasons, Baráti has performed at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at London’s Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and he was the featured soloist in the opening concert of the 2019 Verbier Festival. Baráti has played with orchestras such as Zurich Tonhalle, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC Philharmonic and Hague Philharmonic orchestras. He performs regularly with Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra both in Russia and on tour around the world including in the US and China. Highlights of his 2020/21 season included performances with the Budapest Festival and Bern Symphony orchestras, and his debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and in 21/22 he looks forward to his debut with the Indianapolis Orchestra. A regular recital and chamber music player, Baráti has performed with partners such as Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet, Enrico Pace, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Zoltán Kocsis and Kim Kashkashian amongst others. He performs every year at the White Nights Festival and in 2019 made his debut at the Seattle Chamber Music and Aspen Festivals. In 2016 he made a sensational debut at the Verbier Festival when he performed the complete solo Sonatas and Partitas of Bach. Baráti has an extensive discography which includes the five Mozart concerti, the complete Beethoven and Brahms sonatas with Klára Würtz, and Ysaÿe solo sonatas for Brilliant Classics, and Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo violin on the Berlin Classics label. Of his disc of encores “The Soul of Lady Harmsworth” recorded in 2016, Gramophone magazine said “for those who like to hear the violin played at its sweet and acrobatic best, then Baráti is out of the top drawer.” Having spent much of his childhood in Venezuela, where he played as soloist with many of the country’s leading orchestras, Baráti returned to Budapest to study at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and was later mentored by Eduard Wulfson, himself a student of Milstein and Menuhin. Still resident in Budapest, Barati performs regularly across Hungary and together with István Vardái, is Artistic Director of the Kaposvár International Chamber Music Festival.
Baráti plays the 1703 "Lady Harmsworth" Stradivarius, by kind arrangement with the Stradivarius Society of Chicago.
Founded by SAMIT Event Group, the Middle East Orchestra (MEO) is an exciting new initiative which seeks to tap into the rich musical potential that is harboured in this fast-growing region.
For as long as history can recall, the Middle East has not only been a vital artery allowing the transfer of knowledge and wisdom around the globe, but has itself been a crucial multicultural melting pot, bringing together talented artists and innovative creators from all over the world, and enriching them with its own heritage.
This was the spirit that inspired SAMIT when it launched the MEO back in 2022, bringing together an eclectic group of international musicians for the Second Edition of the Middle East Classical Music Academy, which was organised together with the Fujairah Fine Arts Academy under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi. Taking on the role of Orchestra-in-Residence for the event, the ensemble performed to great acclaim in multiple concerts throughout the UAE alongside various esteemed soloists under the baton of internationally acclaimed conductors.
Now, heading into 2023, the MEO boasts a roster of musicians from more than 10 different nations, all communicating ideas through the international language that is Music!
Guided by the invigorating vision of Artistic Director Gianluca Marciano and the direction of Chief Conductor Howard Wong, the Orchestra now looks forward to a packed 2023, where they will be presenting a new concert programme that has been specially prepared for this season.
Through it all, the Middle East Orchestra will continue to celebrate the value of individual identity and global citizenship, while working tirelessly to provide a vital contribution to the cultural fabric of this region.
