Cello Master
BERLIN SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
ORCHESTRA
Dubai, UAE
The 2024 InClassica International Music Festival continues on Saturday 3rd February, as Norwegian conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen returns to head the Berlin Symphony Orchestra once more, in a concert featuring the talents of French/Belgian cellist Camille Thomas, an Exclusive Deutsche Grammophon Artist since April 2017. Together, the musicians shall present audiences in Dubai with a lively programme starting with Johannes Brahms’ celebrated Hungarian Dance No. 5, a highly energetic, exciting and passionate Hungarian folk dance that is by far the most famous and renowned entry amongst the set of 21 dances that Brahms wrote between 1869 and 1879. Next comes Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor’s Cello Concerto No 2 in F Major, a much-loved work in three movements that saw its world premiere taking place in May 2021, and since then has quickly become one of Shor’s most popular pieces for the instrument. The concert shall then close with one of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s most beloved compositions – the Symphony No. 2 in E minor. Composed in 1907, the work was first performed in Saint Petersburg in January 1908 where it was met with great acclaim, marking the beginning of a stellar reputation that it has retained up to this very day.
Newly announced as Chief Conductor of the Noord Nederlands Orkest (starting from 2022/23 season) and Artistic and General Director of Bergen National Opera since 2021, Eivind Gullberg Jensen is equally comfortable on the concert platform as the opera house stage.
An experienced conductor with an extensive repertoire range, he is recognised for his knowledgeable and insightful interpretations. Following a majority vote by the orchestra musicians, his new role in The Netherlands runs for an initial period of three years.
During the 2021/22 season, Jensen debuts in North America with Orchestre symphonique de Québec and Utah Symphony Orchestra, and in Europe with Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife and Wermland Operas Orkest. He returns to Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, Kristiansand Symfoniorkester, Filharmonia Poznańska, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, and twice visits Noord Nederlands Orkest, including a performance at the historic Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
2020/21 season highlights include the French premiere of Waiting, a dramatised concert based on Peer Gynt by Calixto Bieito and Karl Ove Knausgård, with soprano Mari Eriksmoen in Strasbourg’s Opera National du Rhin, and debut with Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jensen has previously conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, Hamburger Symphoniker and WDR Sinfonieorchester in Germany, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vancouver, North Carolina and Oregon symphony orchestras in North America, and further in Europe the Royal Stockholm and Netherlands Radio philharmonic orchestras, Orchestre de Paris and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.
Over recent seasons he has worked with internationally renowned soloists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Truls Mørk, Alice Sara Ott, Javier Perianes, Hélène Grimaud, Gautier Capuçon, Sol Gabetta, Alban Gerhardt, Hilary Hahn, Gabriela Montero, Emmanuel Pahud, Yefim Bronfman, Alexander Toradze, Vadim Repin, Viktoria Mullova, Renaud Capuçon, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Mari Eriksmoen, Charlotte Hellekant, Albert Dohmen or Guy Braunstein.
Previous opera highlights include, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence with the new Simon McBurney production of The Rake’s Progress, the Wiener Staatsoper with Tosca and Rusalka, Opéra de Lille with Die Zauberflote and Der fliegende Holländer, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma with Rusalka, English National Opera with Janáček’s Jenůfa, a double-bill of Il tabarro and Djamileh (directed by David Pountney and Christopher Alden) in Lyon, Il corsaro and Rusalka for Opernhaus Zürich, Fidelio with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Bayerische Staatsoper and as part of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, as well as Rusalka, Eugene Onegin and La bohème (in Stefan Herheim’s production) at Den Norske Opera.
Eivind Gullberg Jensen studied conducting in Stockholm with Jorma Panula, and in Vienna with Leopold Hager. Previously, he studied violin and musical theory in Trondheim, Norway.
Optimism, vitality and joyful exuberance are elements of Camille Thomas’s rich and compelling personality. The young Franco-Belgian cellist, who signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in April 2017, understands art’s power to bring people together, to unite individuals from diverse cultures, countries and backgrounds. Her charismatic artistry is driven by a passion for life and a desire to inspire others to open their hearts to the wonder and emotion of classical music. “I strongly believe that music has the power to enlarge the heart, to make you feel everything with more intensity,” she says. “Music gives hope for the beauty and greatness of the human soul.”
Highlights of the 2022/2023 season are concerts with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Fazil Say Cello Concerto "Never Give Up", Houston Symphony Orchestra, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgium National Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Philharmonic, Hyogo PAC Orchestra. Together with the Metamorphosen Berlin Ensemble, Camille Thomas will be on tour in Europe.
Voice of Hope, her second DG album, was released in June 2020. At its heart is the world premiere recording of Fazil Say’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra ‘Never Give Up’, the composer’s response to terrorist attacks on Paris and Istanbul, written expressly for Thomas, who gave its world premiere performance in Paris in April 2018. It is the first classical album recorded in partnership with UNICEF, reflecting the cellist’s desire to help others through her music.
Camille Thomas was born in 1988 in Paris. She began playing cello at the age of four and made such rapid progress that she was soon taking lessons with Marcel Bardon. She moved to Berlin in 2006 to study with Stephan Forck and Frans Helmerson at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik, and continued her training in the form of postgraduate lessons with Wolfgang-Emanuel Schmidt at the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik in Weimar.
Camille is conquering the world stage at a staggering pace. She has already worked with such conductors as Paavo Järvi, Mikko Franck, Marc Soustrot, Darrell Ang, Kent Nagano, Stéphane Denève and with orchestras such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Academia Santa Cecilia, the Sinfonia Varsovia, Staatsorchester Hamburg in the Elbphilharmonie, the Lucerne Festival Strings in the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, and Brussels Philharmonic.
Camille Thomas plays the famous ‘Feuermann’ Stradivarius 1730 as a loan from the Nippon Music Foundation
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.
