Dubai, UAE
On Friday 23rd February, the 2024 InClassica International Music Festival, organised by SAMIT Event Group, will come to a close with a special concert at the Zabeel Theatre in Dubai’s 5-star Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Hotel. Featuring the acclaimed Armenian State Symphony Orchestra (ASSO), who will be led by their Founder, Artistic Director, and Principal Conductor, Sergey Smbatyan, the evening will also showcase the talents of three renowned soloists, namely French pianist Nikita Mndoyants, First Prize winner of the 2016 Cleveland International Piano Competition, and 2007 Paderewski International Piano Competition; US violist David Aaron Carpenter, First Prize Winner of the Walter E. Naumburg Viola Competition, and recipient of the 2011 Leonard Bernstein Award and 2010 Avery Fisher Career Grant; and Belgian violinist Marc Bouchkov, First prize winner of the Montreal International Violin Competition, silver medallist of the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition and recipient of the London Music Masters Award and Kulturstiftung Dortmund music prize. Mndoyants and the ASSO will open proceedings, presenting a performance of the Suite for piano and orchestra No. 2, ‘From My Bookshelf’. Initially written by Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor, the eight-movement work that is inspired by a variety of seminal literary classics was later arranged by the distinguished pianist, conductor and composer, Mikhail Pletnev, and it is this version that will be performed tonight. Next, Bouchkov and Carpenter will take to the stage to interpret Shor’s Concerto for Violin and Viola, a contemporary offering that displays the mellifluous lyricism and focus on tonality that Shor has become known and loved for.
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).
