February/March Newsletter
Welcome to our February/March newsletter!
As the winter months recede, our artists are busy with projects spanning the world and different art forms, from Brahms and Britten to dance and animation. Here are just a few of their highlights.
We also wish a very happy 60th birthday to conductor Kazushi Ono, Music Director of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New National Theatre Tokyo and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.
To find out more about any of these artists or projects, please get in touch with us at info@maestroarts.com.
Kazushi Ono celebrates his 60th birthday on 4th March, with a performance in Tokyo Photo: Eisuke Miyoshi
Artists focus: Sommer Ulrickson and Alexander Polzin
Choreographer Sommer Ulrickson and visual artist Alexander Polzin have several exciting projects coming to fruition over the next few weeks.
Polzin has created the artistic concept for a double bill of George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill, which includes shadow theatre and Bunraku puppetry, as well as choreography by Ulrickson, and Toshio Hosokawa's Futari Shizuka. James Baker conducts the Talea Ensemble in the first performance on 7 March at New York's 92nd Street Y. Polzin has also designed the artwork for the venue's Inflection season brochure.
Bringing together dance, music and art in an exploration of what it means to exist, Polzin and Ulrickson collaborate with Phantasm Viol Consort, under the musical direction of Laurence Dreyfus, in The Art of Being Human at Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal, 20 to 22 March (see video below). An exhibition of Polzin's work, Sounds of Sculptures, runs until 22 March.
Later in the month, they take their production Love in Fragments to Lyon, 31 March. The show explores different aspects of love, with music by Bach and Jörg Widmann performed by cellist Alban Gerhardt and violinist Gergana Gergova.
The Art of Being Human opens in Berlin on 20 March
Coming Up
Giselle goes to Japan
Benjamin Shwartz conducts Giselle in Tokyo with the Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris, 27 February to 1 March.
Brahmsiana in Tasmania
Eivind Aadland takes up his new role as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra with a celebration of Brahms, 29 February to 14 March, in Hobart. He and the orchestra present four concerts of all four symphonies as well as the 'Double' Concerto, Piano Concerto No. 1 and Requiem.
Intimate Letters
Sjaron Minailo directs a staged production of Janáček's Intimate Letters and Elvis Costello's Juliet Letters, which starts its tour of the Netherlands on 1 March at Eindhoven's Musiekgebouw, performed by soprano Claron McFadden and the Ragazze Quartet.
Birthday party
Kazushi Ono celebrates his 60th birthday in musical style on 4 March, conducting Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Berlioz, Debussy and Britten's choral Spring Symphony, for which he will be joined by singers including tenor Topi Lehtipuu.
Beethoven and the metronome
George Jackson conducts the world premiere of Genia, in his debut with Theater an der Wien on 5 March. The opera tells the story of Beethoven and his role in the invention of the metronome, with music by Tscho Theissing and a libretto by Kristine Tornquist.
Animating the moon
James Bonas directs The Moon, a Brothers Grimm tale with music by Carl Orff, bringing it to life with animations by Grégoire Pont, at Opera de Lyon, 14–22 March.