Sonic Spectrum II
Click Here to Support CMS and our Extraordinary Artists →
PROGRAM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quintet in C major for Two Violins, Two Violas, and Cello, K. 515 (1787)
Sean Shepherd New Work for Violin and Cello (CMS CO-COMMISSION, NEW YORK PREMIERE)
Ye Xiaogang New Work for Cello and Piano (CMS COMMISSION, NEW YORK PREMIERE)
Charlotte Bray Mriya for Violin and Piano (CMS CO-COMMISSION, NEW YORK PREMIERE) (2023)
Jörg Widmann Selections from 24 Duos for Violin and Cello (2008)
| Title | Date |
|---|---|
| Streaming live | {{ViewModel.StreamingOn.date}}, {{ViewModel.StreamingOn.time}} |
| Off-sale on | {{ViewModel.OffSaleDate.date}}, {{ViewModel.OffSaleDate.time}} |
| Available on-demand until | {{ViewModel.AvailableUntil.date}}, {{ViewModel.AvailableUntil.time}} |
{{ViewModel.BuySubscription.prompt}}
John Novacek
Leila Josefowicz
Paul Watkins
Grammy-nominated pianist John Novacek regularly tours the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia as a solo recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist who has performed more than 30 concertos with dozens of orchestras. He has performed in major venues around the world including New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre, and Tokyo’s Suntory, Opera City and Bunkamura Halls, and is a frequent guest at festivals un the US and abroad. A highly sought-after collaborative artist, he has performed with Joshua Bell, Renaud Capuçon, Jeremy Denk, Matt Haimovitz, Leila Josefowicz, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Truls Mørk, Elmar Oliveira, and Emmanuel Pahud, as well as the Afiara, Colorado, Harrington, Jupiter, New Hollywood, St. Lawrence, SuperNova, and Ying string quartets. Novacek tours widely as a member of the Intersection, a piano trio that includes violinist Kaura Frautschi and cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper. He has given numerous world premieres and worked closely with composers including John Adams, Kenji Bunch, Gabriela Lena Frank, John Harbison, Jennifer Higdon, George Rochberg, Robert Sierra, John Williams, and John Zorn. Novacek is a Steinway Artist.
Leila Josefowicz’s passionate advocacy of contemporary music for the violin is reflected in her diverse programmes and enthusiasm for performing new works. A favourite of living composers, Josefowicz has premiered many concertos, including those by Colin Matthews, Luca Francesconi, John Adams and Esa-Pekka Salonen, all written especially for her.
Josefowicz’s 2024/25 season includes performances of Luca Francesconi’s Duende – The Dark Notes with New York Philharmonic and Susanna Malkki, and the British premiere of Helen Grime’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo at the Aldeburgh Festival. Further engagements include Minnesota Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, and Houston, San Diego, KBS, Singapore, City of Birmingham, Prague and BBC symphony orchestras. Highlights of recent seasons include appearances with Berliner Philharmoniker, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, London, Oslo, Helsinki and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Chicago, San Francisco, The Cleveland, and The Philadelphia orchestras, where she worked with conductors at the highest level, including Paavo Järvi, Matthias Pintscher, John Storgårds, Cristian Măcelaru, Thomas Søndergård, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Dalia Stasevska, Hannu Lintu and John Adams.
Josefowicz enjoyed a close working relationship with the late Oliver Knussen, performing various concerti, including his violin concerto, together over 30 times. Other premieres have included Matthias Pintscher’s Assonanza with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, John Adams’ Scheherazade.2 with New York Philharmonic, Luca Francesconi’s Duende – The Dark Notes with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Steven Mackey’s Beautiful Passing with BBC Philharmonic.
Together with John Novacek, with whom she has enjoyed a close collaboration since 1985, Josefowicz has performed recitals at world-renowned venues such as New York’s Zankel Hall and Park Avenue Armory, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, as well as in Reykjavik, Trento, Bilbao and Chicago. This season, their collaboration continues with a return to London’s Wigmore Hall, performing the world premiere of Charlotte Bray’s new commission Mriya. Other chamber collaborations for 2024/25 include Alexei Tartakovsky at Newport Classical, and Paul Watkins, with whom she will premiere a new violin/cello work by Sean Shepherd, at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Chamber Music Northwest.
Josefowicz has released several recordings, notably for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips/Universal and Warner Classics and was featured on Touch Press’s acclaimed iPad app, The Orchestra. Her latest recording, released in 2019, features Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Violin Concerto with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu. She has previously received nominations for Grammy Awards for her recordings of Scheherazade.2 with St Louis Symphony conducted by David Robertson, and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.
In recognition of her outstanding achievement and excellence in music, she won the 2018 Avery Fisher Prize and was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2008, joining prominent scientists, writers and musicians who have made unique contributions to contemporary life.
Paul Watkins enjoys a varied and distinguished career as soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. The cellist of the Emerson String Quartet from 2013 until its disbanding in 2023, he is also the Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and in 2019 he was appointed Professor of Cello at the Yale School of Music. He has performed as concerto soloist with prestigious orchestras throughout the world. A dedicated chamber musician, he was a member of the Nash Ensemble from 1997 until 2013 and is a regular guest artist at CMS. Watkins has held the positions of Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra. His extensive discography as a cellist includes more than 70 recordings, and his first recording as a conductor, of the Britten and Berg violin concertos with Daniel Hope, received a Grammy nomination.