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PMF 2009 Artists
| Artistic Director 1990-2000 |
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Michael Tilson Thomas
PMF Orchestra
Program to include
Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor
Tilson Thomas : Street Song for Symphonic Brass
Michael Tilson Thomas is Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Artistic Director of the New World Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. In addition to guest conducting the major orchestras of Europe and the United States, he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1969-1974), Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (1971-1979), Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1981-1985), and Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (1988-1995). Active as an educator, he inaugurated the New World Symphony in 1988, an orchestral academy for the most gifted graduates of America's music conservatories. A highly regarded composer as well, he composed From the Diary of Anne Frank and presented a series of benefit concerts for UNICEF in 1991. As a Carnegie Hall Perspectives Artist from 2003 to 2005, he had an evening devoted to his own compositions. He was an Artistic Director of PMF from 1990 to 2000. In 1995, he led the PMF Orchestra in the premiere of his composition Showa/Shoah, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. |
| Artistic Director 1991/1993-1998 |
©Eric Brissaud |
Christoph Eschenbach
PMF Anniversary Orchestra
| Beethoven: |
Violin Concerto in D major Op. 61
Eric Schumann, violin |
Schumann: Symphony No. 2 in C major Op. 61
PMF Orchestra
Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor "Resurrection"
Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris since 2000, Christoph Eschenbach was recently named Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, posts that he will assume in 2010. He is also the Principal Conductor of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival International Orchestral Academy, a position he has held since 2004. In the 2008-2009 season, Eschenbach conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he was Music Director from 2003-2008, and also appears with the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the NDR Sinfonieorchester in Hamburg, where he served as Music Director from 1998-2004. In addition, he makes his conducting debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and has a return engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival where he was Music Director from 1994-2003. He appeared in PMF as an Artistic Director in 1991 and again from 1993-1998. He conducted various programs including concerts with the PMF Orchestra and the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, and he also appeared as a pianist in chamber music and recital series. |
©Rosalie O'Connor |
Xian Zhang
PMF Orchestra
| Beethoven: |
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major Op. 73 "Emperor"
André Watts, piano |
Ravel: La Valse - poème chorègraphique
Stravinsky: The Firebird, Suite (1919 Version)
Born in China, Xian Zhang made her professional conducting debut at the age of twenty in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Central Opera House in Beijing. Zhang has just ended her tenure as the New York Philharmonic's Associate Conductor, a post she has held since 2005. Since making her Philharmonic debut conducting a Young People's Concert in 2004, she has led numerous concerts with the Orchestra including subscription concerts. During the 2008-09 season, she will make her debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and she will make return appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. She is an annual guest with the London Symphony Orchestra and will make her debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2010. Other upcoming engagements include appearances with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. In 2008 she became the first female maestro to conduct the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden in their main hall. This is her first appearance at PMF. |
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Peter Schmidl
Born in Olmütz, Peter Schmidl serves as Principal Clarinet of the Vienna Philharmonic, as did his father and grandfather. In 1965, he joined the Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper and the Vienna Philharmonic and became Solo Clarinetist three years later. He assumed additional responsibilities with the orchestra as General Manager from 2001 to 2005 and was named Doyen of the Wiener Staatsoper in September 2006. He has made solo appearances with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Kammer Orchester, the Tonkünstler-Orchester, the New Japan Philharmonic, and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR under such distinguished conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Christoph von Dohnány, Riccardo Muti, André Previn, Karl Böhm, and James Levine. His passion for chamber music is highlighted by multiple concert appearances with various ensembles formed by the members of the Vienna Philharmonic, including Wiener Oktett and Wiener Bläser Solisten. He has been participating in every PMF since 1991, assumed Chairman of the Faculty in 1999, and became PMF Artistic Chairman in 2007. This is his nineteenth visit to PMF. |
| Conductor / Senior Artistic Administrator |
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Luis Biava
Luis Biava, Conductor Emeritus of the Philadelphia Orchestra has served as Conductor-in-Residence and Principal Second Violin for nearly two decades. A native of Colombia, he is the Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and Artistic Director and Conductor of the Temple University Symphony Orchestra in Philadelphia. In recognition of his dedicated work during his musical career, Biava has been honored internationally by the Government of Italy with the Order of Merit, with the Medal of San Carlos from the President of Colombia and the Philadelphia Orchestra's C. Hartman Kuhn Award, given to a "musician who has shown both the musical ability and enterprise of such character as to enhance the musical standards and reputation of The Philadelphia Orchestra." This is his ninth appearance at PMF since 2001. |
©F. Reinhold |
Lera Auerbach
Born in Chelyabinsk, Lera Auerbach is one of the most widely performed composers of her generation. Auerbach's compositions have been commissioned and performed by a wide array of artists, orchestras and festivals including the SWR and NDR (Hannover) Symphony Orchestras, D?sseldorf Symphoniker, Verbier, Lucerne and Schleswig-Holstein. She has appeared as a solo pianist at such prestigious venues as the Bolshoi Saal of the Moscow Conservatory, Tokyo Opera City, Munich's Herkulessaal and New York’s Lincoln Center. She made her Carnegie Hall debut performing her own Suite for Violin, Piano and Orchestra with Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica. In 2001, she was Composer-in-Residence at the Lockenhaus Festival where twelve of her works were premiered. She was subsequently invited to be Composer-in-Residence of the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa and the American Youth Symphony in Los Angeles 2003. From 2005 to 2007 she was Composer-in-Residence at the Bremen Music Festival. In PMF 2007, her work String Quartet No. 2 “Primera luz” was premiered in Japan by the Tokyo String Quartet. This is her first appearance at PMF. |
©Masahide Sato |
Tadaaki Otaka
Tadaaki Otaka has been the Music Director of the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra since May 2004. In addition to guest conducting major Japanese Orchestras, he was invited as a guest conductor by the London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Banberger Symphoniker, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Symphony Orchestra, and others. He received the Suntory Music Award, an Honorary Fellowship from the Welsh College of Music and Drama, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wales, the Elgar Medal for his efforts in spreading the works by Elgar, and he was awarded the CBE in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music in Britain. He is Conductor Laureate of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Conductor Laureate of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Honorary Guest Conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and Honorary Conductor Laureate of Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo. He is a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts, is teaching at Soai University, and also has been serving as Artistic Consultant (Opera) of the New National Theatre, Tokyo since September 2008. |
©Masahide Sato |
Ken Takaseki
Born in Tokyo, Ken Takaseki won First Prize at the Herbert von Karajan Competition in Japan in 1977. After graduating from Toho Gakuen School of Music in 1978, he was invited to be an assistant to Karajan at the Orchester-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker. In 1981, he continued his studies at the Tanglewood Music Festival under conductors such as Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. In 1984, he won the Hans Swarowski Competition in Vienna and made his debut with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra the following year. He was a recipient of the Akeo Watanabe Music Foundation Award in 1996 and has been a guest conductor of major orchestras such as Wiener Symphoniker, Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester and WDR Sinfonie Orchester Koln. He served as Music Director and Permanent Conductor of the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Permanent Conductor of the New Japan Philharmonic, Permanent Conductor of the Century Orchestra Osaka, and Music Director of the Gunma Symphony Orchestra. Currently, he is Permanent Conductor of the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra and teaches at Toho Gakuen School of Music and Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. |
©Shigeto Imura |
Kentaro Kawase
Born in Tokyo, Kentaro Kawase graduated from the Tokyo College of Music in 2007 where he majored in conducting. His conducting teachers include Junichi Hirokami, Yasuhiko Shiozawa, Myung-Whun Chung and Arild Remmereit. He also studied piano and score reading under Reiko Shimada. In 2005 he appeared in the Rainbow 21 Debut Concert 2005 at Suntory Hall and conducted the Ensemble Endless, the Tokyo College of Music String Ensemble. In 2006 he participated in the Asia Philharmonic Orchestra Academy Conducting Workshop. He was second prize winner (no first prize awarded) of the Tokyo International Music Competition for conducting in 2006. At the competition's Prize Winners Gala Concerts in March, 2007, he conducted the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra and the Century Orchestra Osaka. Since then, he has conducted the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National d'Ile de France and the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra. This is his third appearance at PMF. |
| Artists and Programs are subject to change. |
| as of March 24, 2009 |
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