Dubai, UAE
For their penultimate concert at the 2023 InClassica International Music Festival, the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra return to the Coca-Cola Arena on Wednesday 1st March, led by Founder and Music Director Marios Papadopoulos (UK). The evening’s programme will open with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for two violins, a hugely successful Late Baroque work composed in 1730 that is characterised by its subtle yet expressive relationship between the violins throughout the work. The ensemble then welcomes the celebrated US violist David Aaron Carpenter to present Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor’s Seascapes, a four-movement concerto inspired by Shor’s intimate relationship with the sea, featuring hauntingly expressive melodic lines as well as a number of technical virtuosic passages that showcase the soloist’s skill. Originally written for violin, the piece was later adapted for viola by the composer himself, with this version being the one presented tonight. After the intermission, the programme turns to the famous Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. Composed in 1888, the symphonic suite is based on stories from One Thousand and One Nights, and has remained popular among audiences for its use of exuberant orchestral colours and vivid melodic inventions, flavoured with oriental harmonies and a rhythmic vitality which is absolutely outstanding within the context of 19th-century music.
Described by The London Times at his 1975 piano recital debut as having ‘all the attributes of one of the world’s greatest players’, Papadopoulos has gone on to enjoy an international career both as pianist and conductor.
He has appeared as soloist with and conducted many of the world’s greatest orchestras and worked with a host of eminent musicians including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Janine Jansen, Evgeny Kissin, Maxim Vengerov, Martha Argerich and Lang Lang. His recordings of the Beethoven sonatas have been set on a level with Schnabel, Brendel, Barenboim and Wilhelm Kempff.
A prolific recording artist, Papadopoulos’s catalogue includes his critically acclaimed Beethoven sonatas, performances of Stravinsky’s Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich. He conducts the Oxford Philharmonic in recordings of the Brahms and Sibelius violin concertos with Maxim Vengerov as soloist. As a pianist, he and Vengerov have recorded the complete Brahms violin sonata.
In the summer of 2021, Papadopoulos published his first book – a memoir titled Beyond Dreams and Aspirations: My Journey to Oxford which charts his early career, the creation of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, and his thoughts on musical interpretation.
Papadopoulos is dedicated to nurturing young talent and imparts knowledge to young artists through his vast experience, particularly during the annual Oxford Piano Festival which he founded in 1999. He served on the jury of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2015, as well as that of the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in 2016.
Marios Papadopoulos holds a doctorate in music and is a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. In 2010 and was awarded Oxford City’s Certificate of Honour and in 2014 he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for services to music in Oxford.
Recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award, First Prize Winner of the Walter E. Naumburg Viola Competition and the Avery Fisher Career Grant, David Aaron Carpenter is widely considered one of the most talented and charismatic musicians of his generation.
David is a former Rolex “Protégé” for which he was mentored by Pinchas Zukerman. David made his solo debut at the Kennedy Center after winning the Presidential Scholar Award and the first-ever Gold Medal Award at the National Foundation For Advancement In The Arts. Since then he has performed with leading musicians and orchestras around the world, from the Philadelphia Orchestra to the Philharmonia, the Dresden Staatskapelle to the Lucerne Symphony.
As a chamber musician, David has collaborated with such renowned artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Sarah Chang, Leonidas Kavakos, Gidon Kremer, Alan Gilbert, Julian Rachlin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Jan Vogler, and Yuja Wang. He is a regular guest artist at the Verbier Music Festival, and was proud to be an integral part of their 20th anniversary season. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Salomé Chamber Orchestra, which he co-founded with his brother Sean and sister Lauren.
David received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Relations from Princeton University in 2008. David was featured in The New Yorker article “Musical Gold” by Rebecca Mead in July, 2014, on the cover of The Strad magazine in August 2013, and a few months earlier was the subject of a three-page article in The New York Times. Along with the Salomé Chamber Orchestra, David released his Warner Classics recording featuring Vivaldi, Piazzolla and Shor's Twelve Seasons. His newest release on Warner Classics features the Bartok, Walton, Shor and Dvorak Concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestros Vladimir Jurowski, David Parry, and Kazushi Ono.
David plays on a viola made by Michele Deconet, Venice (1766).
