White Nights Live!

In 1985, Academy Award Winning director Taylor Hackford made the musical thriller film WHITE NIGHTS starring international ballet superstar MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV, tap dancing phenom, GREGORY HINES, and world renowned actor, Dame HELEN MIRREN. For the first time, BARYSHNIKOV, MIRREN and HACKFORD will appear LIVE ON STAGE at TEATRO NICCOLINI to accompany a screening of their film, WHITE NIGHTS, and to share stories of the making of the film, discussing the creation of the sequences and what it took to create one of the most iconic dance films, not to mention one of the first films to use a real 747 airplane to capture a crash scene.

A stunning “behind the scenes” event with the stars and artists who made a prescient film the story of which resonates today in our complicated world.

This evening at TEATRO NICCOLNI promises to be the cultural event of the season!

DAME HELEN MIRREN

Actor

Dame Helen Lydia Mirren is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.

Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren’s performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren’s other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
 
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021). Current projects include television’s 1923 (2024) with Harrison Ford, The Thursday Murder Club, (2024) .
In the Queen’s 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award

MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV

Dancer/Actor


Mikhail Baryshnikov is a Soviet-born American actor and ballet dancer who was the preeminent male classical dancer of the 1970s and ’80s. He subsequently became a noted dance director.


The son of Russian parents in Latvia, Baryshnikov entered Riga’s opera ballet school at age 12. The success that he achieved there convinced him to devote himself to dancing. In 1963 he was admitted to the Vaganova ballet school (the training school for the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Ballet in Leningrad [St. Petersburg]), where he was instructed by Aleksandr Pushkin. In 1966 he joined the Kirov Ballet as a soloist without having to serve the customary apprenticeship as a member of the corps de ballet. As the Kirov Ballet’s premier danseur noble, Baryshnikov appeared in the leading roles in Gorianka (1968) and Vestris (1969), two original ballets that had been especially choreographed for him.


Baryshnikov was extremely popular with Soviet audiences, but he began to chafe at the official restrictions that were placed upon him as an artist, particularly the prohibition on his performance of contemporary foreign ballets. While on a dance tour in Toronto in June 1974, Baryshnikov defected and was granted asylum by the Canadian government. Soon thereafter he began a series of highly successful appearances before North American audiences. As a dancer, his great physical prowess and unsurpassed leaping ability enabled him to perform the most difficult combinations of steps with remarkable elegance of line.

Baryshnikov joined the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in 1974 and danced with that company for four years, during which time he rechoreographed the Russian classics The Nutcracker (in 1976) and Don Quixote (in 1978). He danced with the New York City Ballet under George Balanchine in 1978–79, but from 1980 to 1989 he returned to the ABT as that company’s artistic director. In 1990 Baryshnikov created the White Oak Dance Project, a small touring company of experienced dancers, and served as its director until 2002. Three years later he founded the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City, a creative space that supports multidisciplinary artists from around the world.

In addition to his ballet career, Baryshnikov played a leading role as dancer and actor in the motion pictures The Turning Point (1977), White Nights (1985), That’s Dancing! (1985), and Dancers (1987). He played a dramatic role in the Franz Kafka play Metamorphosis (1989) and appeared as a recurring love interest of lead character Carrie Bradshaw in the television series Sex and the City (2003–04).


Baryshnikov has received numerous awards, including a Kennedy Center Honor (2000). In 2017 the Japan Art Association awarded him the Praemium Imperiale for theater/film, a prize recognizing lifetime achievement in fields not covered by the Nobel Prize.

TAYLOR HACKFORD

Director

In addition to helming the iconic feature hits An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Against All Odds (1984), Ray (2004), and the cult thriller The Devil’s Advocate (1997), Taylor Hackford has directed the films Dolores Claiborne (1995), Everybody’s All-American (1988), and Proof of Life (2000) and White Nights (1985). Taylor developed and produced La Bamba (1987), the most successful Latin-themed feature film in history. Mr. Hackford has been an active member of the Directors Guild of America for over 40 years, including twice as elected President of the DGA, beginning in 2009.

Chamber Music All Stars – Program 2

Featuring musical superstars from all around Europe and the world’s most beloved music
 
Artists:
Alessio Bax, piano
Lucille Chung, piano
Daishin Kashimoto, violin
Adrien La Marca, viola
Claudio Bohórquez, cello
Nabil Shehata, double bass 
 
Program: 

Francis Poulenc Sonata for piano four hands, FP 8
-Prélude
-Rustique
-Final
Chung/Bax

Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata for piano and violin no. 9 in A major, op. 47 “Kreutzer”
-Adagio sostenuto – Presto
-Andante con variazioni
-Presto
Kashimoto/Bax

—

Franz Schubert Quintet in A major, D. 667 “Trout”
-Allegro vivace
-Andante
-Scherzo: Presto
-Andantino – Allegretto
-Allegro giusto
Kashimoto/La Marca/Borórquez/Shehata/Bax

 
To Purchase all events in the Alessio Bax residency  With the NYE Party please click here
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Alessio Bax

(Piano)
 

Combining exceptional lyricism and insight with consummate technique, Alessio Bax is without a doubt “among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public” (Gramophone). He catapulted to prominence with First Prize wins at both the 2000 Leeds International Piano Competition and the 1997 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition and is now a familiar face on five continents as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist. He has appeared with over 150 orchestras, including the New York, London, Royal, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the Boston, Dallas, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Seattle, Sydney, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, and the Tokyo and NHK Symphony in Japan, collaborating with such eminent conductors as Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Fabio Luisi, Sir Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van Zweden.

Highlights of the 2023-24 season include his debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, return performances with the Dallas Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, and Buenos Aires Philharmonic, his fifth performance at the famed Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, a tour of Asia with violinist Daishin Kashimoto, and of Japan with flutist Emmanuel Pahud, numerous New York appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and a wide range of high-profile chamber music projects, recitals, and concerto performances in Europe, Asia, and across the United States.

As a renowned chamber musician, he recently collaborated with Joshua Bell, Lisa Batiashvili, Ian Bostridge, Lucille Chung, James Ehnes, Vilde Frang, Steven Isserlis, Daishin Kashimoto, François Leleux, Sergei Nakariakov, Emmanuel Pahud, Lawrence Power, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Paul Watkins, and Tabea Zimmermann, among many others.

Since 2017, he has been the Artistic Director of the Incontri in Terra di Siena Festival, a Summer Music Festival in the Val d’Orcia region of Tuscany. He appears regularly in festivals such as Seattle, Bravo Vail, Salon-de-Provence, Le Pont in Japan, Great Lakes, Verbier, Ravinia, and Music@Menlo.

In 2009, he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and four years later he received both the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award and the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists.

Bax’s celebrated Signum Classics discography includes his latest recital “Forgotten Dances,” “Italian Inspirations,” Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” and “Moonlight” Sonatas (a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice”); Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto; “Debussy and Ravel for Two” and Bax & Chung, two duo disc with Lucille Chung; Alessio Bax plays Mozart, recorded with London’s Southbank Sinfonia; Alessio Bax: Scriabin & Mussorgsky (named “Recording of the Month … and quite possibly … of the year” by MusicWeb International); Alessio Bax plays Brahms (a Gramophone “Critics’ Choice”); Bach Transcribed; and Rachmaninov: Preludes & Melodies (an American Record Guide “Critics’ Choice”). Recorded for Warner Classics, his Baroque Reflections album was also a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice.” He performed Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata for Daniel Barenboim in the PBS-TV documentary Barenboim on Beethoven: Masterclass, available on DVD from EMI.

At the age of 14, Bax graduated with top honors from the conservatory of Bari, his hometown in Italy, and after further studies in Europe, he moved to the United States in 1994. He has been on the piano faculty of Boston’s New England Conservatory since the fall of 2019 and serves as co-artistic director of the Joaquín Achúcarro Foundation for emerging pianists.

Bax lives in New York City with pianist Lucille Chung and their daughter, Mila.

Lucille Chung

(Piano)
 

Born in Montréal, Canadian pianist Lucille Chung has been acclaimed for her “stylish and refined performances” by Gramophone magazine, “combining vigor and suppleness with natural eloquence and elegance” (Le Soir).

She made her debut at the age of ten with the Montréal Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit subsequently invited her to be a featured soloist during the MSO Asian Tour in 1989. Since then, she has performed an extensive concerto repertoire spanning from Bach to Adams with over 70 leading orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Flemish Radio Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerífe, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, Staatskapelle Weimar, Philharmonie de Lorraine, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Belgrade Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, KBS Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Dallas Symphony, UNAM Philharmonic (Mexico), Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, MAV Symphony (Budapest), Lithuanian National Symphony, Israel Chamber Orchestra as well as all the major Canadian orchestras, including Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Calgary, Winnipeg and Métropolitain, among others. She has appeared with conductors such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Vladimir Spivakov, Vasily Petrenko, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Stéphane Denève, Peter Oundjian, Gerd Albrecht and Charles Dutoit.

As a recitalist, she has performed in over 35 countries in prestigious venues such as the Wigmore Hall in London, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Spivey Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional, the Great Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Seoul Arts Center, and Sala São Paulo. Festival appearances include the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Incontri in Terra di Siena in Italy, MDR Sommer Festival and Moritzburg Festival in Dresden, Lübecker Kammermusikfest, Salon-de-Provence Festival, Santander International Festival and Gijón International Piano Festival in Spain, Við Djúpið Festival in Iceland; Felicja Blumental Festival in Israel, Music@Menlo, Montreal International Festival, Ottawa Chamber Festival, Bard Music Festival in NY, International Keyboard Institute and Festival in NYC, Chang Chun Festival in China, and the Bravissimo Festival in Guatemala.

In 1989, she was recognized on the international scene as the First Prize winner at the Stravinsky International Piano Competition. She won Second Prize at the 1992 Montreal International Music Competition, at which she also won a Special Prize for the best interpretation of the unpublished work. In 1993, she received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Governor General of Canada and in 1994 won the Second Prize at the First International Franz Liszt Competition in Weimar. In 1999, she was awarded the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize by the Canada Council for the Arts.

She graduated from both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School before she turned twenty, where she studied with Seymour Lipkin. She decided to further her studies in London with Maria Curcio-Diamand, Schnabel’s protégée, at the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and received the Konzertexam Diplom from the Hochschule “Franz Liszt” in Weimar, where she worked with the late Lazar Berman. She was the first non-Italian recipient of the honorary title of “Master” upon graduating from the Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola, Italy. She also worked with Joaquín Achúcarro at Southern Methodist University, where she held the Johnson-Prothro Artist-in-Residence endowed position. Ms. Chung is the recipient of the Honors Diploma at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy and was named Honorary Professor of the Jilin Arts College in China.

Lucille Chung has been hailed as “a considerable artist, admirable for her bold choice of music” by The Sunday Times for her recordings of the complete piano works by György Ligeti on the Dynamic label. The first volume was released in 2001 to great critical acclaim, receiving the maximum R10 from Classica-Répertoire in France, 5 Stars from the BBC Music Magazine, and 5 Stars in Fono Forum in Germany. The final volume, which also contains works for two pianos, was recorded with her husband, Alessio Bax and once again received the prestigious R10 from Classica-Répertoire. Her all-Scriabin CD won the “Best Instrumental Recording” prize at the 2003 Prelude Classical Awards in Holland as well as the coveted R10 from Classica-Répertoire in France.

She also recorded the two Mendelssohn Piano Concerti on the Richelieu/Radio-Canada label, which was nominated for the Prix Opus in Canada. In August 2005, Bax and Chung recorded Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals with the Fort Worth Symphony under Maestro Miguel Harth-Bedoya, which was released in 2006. In 2007 she released a solo album for the Fazioli Concert Hall Series. Lucille then embarked on an exclusive contract with Disques XXI/Universal: Piano Transcriptions of Camille Saint-Saëns and Mozart & Me. 2013 marked the release of a piano duo disc with Alessio Bax, presenting Stravinsky’s original four-hand version of the ballet Petrouchka as well as music by Brahms and Piazzolla for Signum Records. In 2015, she released an all-Poulenc album for Signum Records, which was chosen as the “Recording of the Month” on MusicWeb and in 2018, her 13th album titled Liszt Piano Works was released to great acclaim. Her latest album for Signum Records featuring works by Debussy and Ravel was released in 2024.

Lucille is fluent in French, English, Korean, Italian, German, and Russian. She and husband, pianist Alessio Bax make their home in New York City with their daughter, Mila, and are artistic co-directors of the Joaquín Achúcarro Foundation, which seeks to further the careers of young pianists.

Daishin Kashimoto

(Violin)

Both as the soloist of international orchestras and as a sought-after chamber musician, Daishin Kashimoto is a regular guest of major concert halls around the globe. The tremendous wealth of experience gained in over 15 years as first concert master of the Berliner Philharmoniker benefits him in his equally adept role as a soloist, where he plays a wide repertoire ranging from classical to new music.

Recently, Daishin Kashimoto performed Bruch’s Violin Concerto with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabio Luisi and appeared with the City of Birmingham Orchestra under the baton of Kazuki Yamada, the Gürzenich Orchestra under the direction of François-Xavier Roth as well as the NDR Radio Philharmonic conducted by Thomas Søndergård. A highlight of 2023 is the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s new violin concerto Prayer with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Paavo Järvi at the Philharmonie Berlin, followed by the Swiss premiere at the KKL Luzern with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and the Asian premiere at the Suntory Hall with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. The new season also sees the start of his residency as soloist with the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim.< /p>

Daishin Kashimoto has appeared with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, the Bavarian, Hessian, and West German Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Yehudi Menuhin, Paavo Järvi, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniel Harding, and Philippe Jordan. He can also be heard as a soloist in concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Past engagements include Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante at the Grafenegg Festival and Lucerne Festival, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, and Tchaikovsky’s Sérénade Mélancolique and Valse Scherzo at Berlin’s Waldbühne under direction of Andris Nelsons.

As a chamber musician Daishin Kashimoto has appeared alongside Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Leif Ove Andsnes, Alessio Bax, Emmanuel Pahud, Itamar Golan, Tabea Zimmermann, Yefim Bronfman, Claudio Bohórquez and Konstantin Lifschitz, among others. With Konstantin Lifschitz, he also recorded a highly acclaimed CD of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas in 2014. His other recordings include a CD of Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Myung Whun Chung for Sony Music.

His parents introduced him to various instruments early on, with the three-year-old opting for the violin and receiving his first lessons in Tokyo. After moving to the United States, Daishin Kashimoto was accepted, at the tender age of seven, as the youngest student to ever attend Julliard School’s pre-college program; at age eleven, he transferred to the Lübeck University of Music under Zakhar Bron, before becoming a student of Rainer Kussmaul at the Freiburg University of Music from 1999 to 2004. He also had great success in major competitions as a teenager, taking first prize at the Menuhin Junior International Competition in 1993, the Cologne Violin Competition in 1994, and in 1996 at the Vienna Fritz Kreisler and the Long-Thibaud Competitions. Daishin Kashimoto has been the artistic director of the Le Pont Music Festival in Ako and Himeji (Japan) since 2007. He plays on a del Gesu 1744 “de Beriot” kindly loaned by Crystco, Inc. and its chairman Mr. Hikaru Shimura.

Adrien La Marca

(Viola)

Both as the soloist of international orchestras and as a sought-after chamber musician, Daishin Kashimoto is a regular guest of major concert halls around the globe. The tremendous wealth of experience gained in over 15 years as first concert master of the Berliner Philharmoniker benefits him in his equally adept role as a soloist, where he plays a wide repertoire ranging from classical to new music.

Recently, Daishin Kashimoto performed Bruch’s Violin Concerto with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabio Luisi and appeared with the City of Birmingham Orchestra under the baton of Kazuki Yamada, the Gürzenich Orchestra under the direction of François-Xavier Roth as well as the NDR Radio Philharmonic conducted by Thomas Søndergård. A highlight of 2023 is the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s new violin concerto Prayer with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Paavo Järvi at the Philharmonie Berlin, followed by the Swiss premiere at the KKL Luzern with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and the Asian premiere at the Suntory Hall with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. The new season also sees the start of his residency as soloist with the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim.

Daishin Kashimoto has appeared with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, the Bavarian, Hessian, and West German Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Yehudi Menuhin, Paavo Järvi, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniel Harding, and Philippe Jordan. He can also be heard as a soloist in concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Past engagements include Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante at the Grafenegg Festival and Lucerne Festival, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, and Tchaikovsky’s Sérénade Mélancolique and Valse Scherzo at Berlin’s Waldbühne under direction of Andris Nelsons.

As a chamber musician Daishin Kashimoto has appeared alongside Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Leif Ove Andsnes, Alessio Bax, Emmanuel Pahud, Itamar Golan, Tabea Zimmermann, Yefim Bronfman, Claudio Bohórquez and Konstantin Lifschitz, among others. With Konstantin Lifschitz, he also recorded a highly acclaimed CD of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas in 2014. His other recordings include a CD of Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Myung Whun Chung for Sony Music.

His parents introduced him to various instruments early on, with the three-year-old opting for the violin and receiving his first lessons in Tokyo. After moving to the United States, Daishin Kashimoto was accepted, at the tender age of seven, as the youngest student to ever attend Julliard School’s pre-college program; at age eleven, he transferred to the Lübeck University of Music under Zakhar Bron, before becoming a student of Rainer Kussmaul at the Freiburg University of Music from 1999 to 2004. He also had great success in major competitions as a teenager, taking first prize at the Menuhin Junior International Competition in 1993, the Cologne Violin Competition in 1994, and in 1996 at the Vienna Fritz Kreisler and the Long-Thibaud Competitions. Daishin Kashimoto has been the artistic director of the Le Pont Music Festival in Ako and Himeji (Japan) since 2007. He plays on a del Gesu 1744 “de Beriot” kindly loaned by Crystco, Inc. and its chairman Mr. Hikaru Shimura.

Claudio Bohórquez

(Cello)

The German-born cellist of Peruvian-Uruguayan descent is one of the most sought-after musicians in his field. As a student of Boris Pergamenschikow, Claudio Bohórquez achieved success at an early age at international competitions such as the Tschaikowsky Youth Competition in Moscow and the Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris.
This culminated in 2000 with three awards at the first International Pablo Casals Competition held under the auspices of the Kronberg Academy: Marta Casals Istomin presented Claudio Bohórquez with first prize, a special award for the best chamber music, and also the use of Casals’ Gofriller cello for a period of two years. He also won first prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva, an achievement that marked the start of his career as a soloist. Meanwhile he has become a teacher himself: from 2011 to 2016 he was professor at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, in September 2016 he was appointed to the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, where he has been a guest professor since 2003.

Among others, Claudio Bohórquez has performed with almost all German radio orchestras, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Collegium Musicum Basel, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In Japan, he performs with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In the US, Claudio Bohórquez recently gave concerts with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Renowned conductors Claudio Bohórquez has worked with include Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Manfred Honeck, Sir Neville Marriner, Eiji Oue, Krzysztof Penderecki, Leonard Slatkin, Tugan Sokhiev, Lothar Zagrosek and David Zinman.

Claudio Bohórquez is a guest at numerous festivals. Among them are the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, the City of London Festival, the Penderecki Festival in Warsaw and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. Appearances in the United States have included performances at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen Festival as well as the Hollywood Bowl. He participated in the chamber music festival Lockenhaus in Austria and at Gidon Kremer’s festival “Les Musiques” in Basel. As a passionate chamber musician, he has performed together with Jörg Widmann in Bilbao/Madrid, and with Viviane Hagner and Jonathan Gilad at the Beethoven Marathon at Konzerthaus Berlin.

The past seasons have led the artist to many festivals, including: a. to the Rheingau Music Festival with the Columbian Youth Philharmonic under Andrés Orozco-Estrada, to the Dresden Music Festival with a Chamber Music Project together with the violinist Philippe Quint and the pianist Boris Giltburg, to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival. The upcoming season includes, among others, the Elbphilharmonie debut on November 8, 2018 and an Elgar cello concert with the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg on February 15, 2019.

In addition to numerous CD recordings, radio recordings and television appearances Claudio Bohórquez worked as an interpreter for the soundtrack of Paul English by to the film “Ten Minutes Older – The Cello”, which was shown in theaters worldwide. Together with the painter Klaus-Peter Kirchner, Claudio Bohórquez developed the installation project “Raum für Pablo Casals” in homage to this great cellist. He was part of the ECHO-winning album “Four Seasons” (2017) of Daniel Hope, released by Deutsche Grammophon. In July 2018 Berlin Classics will release a new CD with the sonatas of Johannes Brahms and some bonus tracks together with Claudio Bohórquez’s duo partner Péter Nagy.

Since the season 2017/18 Claudio Bohórquez is Artistic Director of the Festival Winnenden.

Claudio Bohórquez plays a G. B. Rogeri violoncello presented to him by the Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg.

Nabil Shehata

(Double Bass)

“Giving space to music” runs like a thread through Nabil Shehata’s life, both literally and figuratively. As a nine-year-old, the double bass opens the door to, in his words, “the most beautiful repertoire there is” – namely that of classical music. As a young person, he feels the growing desire to be involved in this music as a conductor. Shehata follows this impulse, gives up his position as principal bass player of the Berliner Philharmoniker, and has since successfully embarked on a career as a conductor. A critic recently wrote that he conducts with “authority full of ease” an observation that corresponds precisely with what Shehata is aiming for. “It is about resonating with each other. This is what creates music. This is what I want to achieve with orchestras”. Shehata has developed a conducting style that is closely related to chamber music making, because he is convinced that “this is how music is created that can achieve what audiences, orchestras, and conductors alike desire:unforgettable concert experiences!”.

The BBC Music Magazine honoured Nabil Shehata’s realisation of this intention by presenting him with the BBC Music Award for the best orchestral recording 12|2021.

Nabil Shehata’s career began as principal bass player with the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic. As a conductor, he has been mentored and taught by Christian Thielemann, Rolf Reuter, and Lawrence Forster, among others. He was chief conductor of Philharmonie Südwestfalen from 2019 to 2024 and has recently< conducted as a guest, among other ensembles, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Robert Schumann Philharmonic, and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Not long ago, he made his conducting debut with great success at the sold-out Elbphilharmonie. Prior to his current position, he was the chief conductor at the Munich Chamber Opera, and broadened his experience at the Berlin State Opera as an assistant to Daniel Barenboim. As a professor of double bass in Munich and Berlin as well as a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, he has passed on his experience to younger musicians for many years. In his hometown of Verden, Shehata founded the “Maiklänge” chamber music festival, which is a heartfelt project for him to organize high-quality concerts where he grew up.

Chamber Music All Stars – Program 1

Featuring musical superstars from all around Europe and the world’s most beloved music.
 
This special concert is in honour of our dear friend and world class artist, Antonio Lysy, and the Tuscan music festival that he created, Incontri in Terra di Siena.
 
Artists:
Alessio Bax, piano
Lucille Chung, piano
Daishin Kashimoto, violin
Adrien La Marca, viola
Claudio Bohórquez, cello
Nabil Shehata, double bass 
 
Program: 

Franz Schubert String Trio in B-flat major, D. 471
-Allegro
-Andante sostenuto
Kashimoto/La Marca/Bohórquez

Gioacchino Rossini Duetto for cello and double bass in D major
-Allegro
-Andante molto
-Allegro
Bohórquez/Shehata

Astor Piazzolla Three Tangos (arr. Bax/Chung)
-Lo que vendrá
-Milonga del ángel
-Libertango
Bax/Chung

Camille Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals, with narration by Hershey Felder
Kashimoto/Violin 2 TBD/La Marca/Bohórquez/Shehata/Flute TBD/Clarinet TBD/Ideta

 
To Purchase all events in the Alessio Bax residency  With the NYE Party please click here
To Purchase all events in the Alessio Bax residency  Without the NYE Party please click here
 

Alessio Bax

(Piano)
 

Combining exceptional lyricism and insight with consummate technique, Alessio Bax is without a doubt “among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public” (Gramophone). He catapulted to prominence with First Prize wins at both the 2000 Leeds International Piano Competition and the 1997 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition and is now a familiar face on five continents as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist. He has appeared with over 150 orchestras, including the New York, London, Royal, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the Boston, Dallas, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Seattle, Sydney, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, and the Tokyo and NHK Symphony in Japan, collaborating with such eminent conductors as Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Fabio Luisi, Sir Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van Zweden.

Highlights of the 2023-24 season include his debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, return performances with the Dallas Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, and Buenos Aires Philharmonic, his fifth performance at the famed Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, a tour of Asia with violinist Daishin Kashimoto, and of Japan with flutist Emmanuel Pahud, numerous New York appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and a wide range of high-profile chamber music projects, recitals, and concerto performances in Europe, Asia, and across the United States.

As a renowned chamber musician, he recently collaborated with Joshua Bell, Lisa Batiashvili, Ian Bostridge, Lucille Chung, James Ehnes, Vilde Frang, Steven Isserlis, Daishin Kashimoto, François Leleux, Sergei Nakariakov, Emmanuel Pahud, Lawrence Power, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Paul Watkins, and Tabea Zimmermann, among many others.

Since 2017, he has been the Artistic Director of the Incontri in Terra di Siena Festival, a Summer Music Festival in the Val d’Orcia region of Tuscany. He appears regularly in festivals such as Seattle, Bravo Vail, Salon-de-Provence, Le Pont in Japan, Great Lakes, Verbier, Ravinia, and Music@Menlo.

In 2009, he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and four years later he received both the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award and the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists.

Bax’s celebrated Signum Classics discography includes his latest recital “Forgotten Dances,” “Italian Inspirations,” Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” and “Moonlight” Sonatas (a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice”); Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto; “Debussy and Ravel for Two” and Bax & Chung, two duo disc with Lucille Chung; Alessio Bax plays Mozart, recorded with London’s Southbank Sinfonia; Alessio Bax: Scriabin & Mussorgsky (named “Recording of the Month … and quite possibly … of the year” by MusicWeb International); Alessio Bax plays Brahms (a Gramophone “Critics’ Choice”); Bach Transcribed; and Rachmaninov: Preludes & Melodies (an American Record Guide “Critics’ Choice”). Recorded for Warner Classics, his Baroque Reflections album was also a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice.” He performed Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata for Daniel Barenboim in the PBS-TV documentary Barenboim on Beethoven: Masterclass, available on DVD from EMI.

At the age of 14, Bax graduated with top honors from the conservatory of Bari, his hometown in Italy, and after further studies in Europe, he moved to the United States in 1994. He has been on the piano faculty of Boston’s New England Conservatory since the fall of 2019 and serves as co-artistic director of the Joaquín Achúcarro Foundation for emerging pianists.

Bax lives in New York City with pianist Lucille Chung and their daughter, Mila.

Lucille Chung

(Piano)
 

Born in Montréal, Canadian pianist Lucille Chung has been acclaimed for her “stylish and refined performances” by Gramophone magazine, “combining vigor and suppleness with natural eloquence and elegance” (Le Soir).

She made her debut at the age of ten with the Montréal Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit subsequently invited her to be a featured soloist during the MSO Asian Tour in 1989. Since then, she has performed an extensive concerto repertoire spanning from Bach to Adams with over 70 leading orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Flemish Radio Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerífe, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, Staatskapelle Weimar, Philharmonie de Lorraine, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Belgrade Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, KBS Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Dallas Symphony, UNAM Philharmonic (Mexico), Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, MAV Symphony (Budapest), Lithuanian National Symphony, Israel Chamber Orchestra as well as all the major Canadian orchestras, including Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Calgary, Winnipeg and Métropolitain, among others. She has appeared with conductors such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Vladimir Spivakov, Vasily Petrenko, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Stéphane Denève, Peter Oundjian, Gerd Albrecht and Charles Dutoit.

As a recitalist, she has performed in over 35 countries in prestigious venues such as the Wigmore Hall in London, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Spivey Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional, the Great Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Seoul Arts Center, and Sala São Paulo. Festival appearances include the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Incontri in Terra di Siena in Italy, MDR Sommer Festival and Moritzburg Festival in Dresden, Lübecker Kammermusikfest, Salon-de-Provence Festival, Santander International Festival and Gijón International Piano Festival in Spain, Við Djúpið Festival in Iceland; Felicja Blumental Festival in Israel, Music@Menlo, Montreal International Festival, Ottawa Chamber Festival, Bard Music Festival in NY, International Keyboard Institute and Festival in NYC, Chang Chun Festival in China, and the Bravissimo Festival in Guatemala.

In 1989, she was recognized on the international scene as the First Prize winner at the Stravinsky International Piano Competition. She won Second Prize at the 1992 Montreal International Music Competition, at which she also won a Special Prize for the best interpretation of the unpublished work. In 1993, she received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Governor General of Canada and in 1994 won the Second Prize at the First International Franz Liszt Competition in Weimar. In 1999, she was awarded the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize by the Canada Council for the Arts.

She graduated from both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School before she turned twenty, where she studied with Seymour Lipkin. She decided to further her studies in London with Maria Curcio-Diamand, Schnabel’s protégée, at the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and received the Konzertexam Diplom from the Hochschule “Franz Liszt” in Weimar, where she worked with the late Lazar Berman. She was the first non-Italian recipient of the honorary title of “Master” upon graduating from the Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola, Italy. She also worked with Joaquín Achúcarro at Southern Methodist University, where she held the Johnson-Prothro Artist-in-Residence endowed position. Ms. Chung is the recipient of the Honors Diploma at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy and was named Honorary Professor of the Jilin Arts College in China.

Lucille Chung has been hailed as “a considerable artist, admirable for her bold choice of music” by The Sunday Times for her recordings of the complete piano works by György Ligeti on the Dynamic label. The first volume was released in 2001 to great critical acclaim, receiving the maximum R10 from Classica-Répertoire in France, 5 Stars from the BBC Music Magazine, and 5 Stars in Fono Forum in Germany. The final volume, which also contains works for two pianos, was recorded with her husband, Alessio Bax and once again received the prestigious R10 from Classica-Répertoire. Her all-Scriabin CD won the “Best Instrumental Recording” prize at the 2003 Prelude Classical Awards in Holland as well as the coveted R10 from Classica-Répertoire in France.

She also recorded the two Mendelssohn Piano Concerti on the Richelieu/Radio-Canada label, which was nominated for the Prix Opus in Canada. In August 2005, Bax and Chung recorded Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals with the Fort Worth Symphony under Maestro Miguel Harth-Bedoya, which was released in 2006. In 2007 she released a solo album for the Fazioli Concert Hall Series. Lucille then embarked on an exclusive contract with Disques XXI/Universal: Piano Transcriptions of Camille Saint-Saëns and Mozart & Me. 2013 marked the release of a piano duo disc with Alessio Bax, presenting Stravinsky’s original four-hand version of the ballet Petrouchka as well as music by Brahms and Piazzolla for Signum Records. In 2015, she released an all-Poulenc album for Signum Records, which was chosen as the “Recording of the Month” on MusicWeb and in 2018, her 13th album titled Liszt Piano Works was released to great acclaim. Her latest album for Signum Records featuring works by Debussy and Ravel was released in 2024.

Lucille is fluent in French, English, Korean, Italian, German, and Russian. She and husband, pianist Alessio Bax make their home in New York City with their daughter, Mila, and are artistic co-directors of the Joaquín Achúcarro Foundation, which seeks to further the careers of young pianists.

Daishin Kashimoto

(Violin)

Both as the soloist of international orchestras and as a sought-after chamber musician, Daishin Kashimoto is a regular guest of major concert halls around the globe. The tremendous wealth of experience gained in over 15 years as first concert master of the Berliner Philharmoniker benefits him in his equally adept role as a soloist, where he plays a wide repertoire ranging from classical to new music.

Recently, Daishin Kashimoto performed Bruch’s Violin Concerto with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabio Luisi and appeared with the City of Birmingham Orchestra under the baton of Kazuki Yamada, the Gürzenich Orchestra under the direction of François-Xavier Roth as well as the NDR Radio Philharmonic conducted by Thomas Søndergård. A highlight of 2023 is the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s new violin concerto Prayer with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Paavo Järvi at the Philharmonie Berlin, followed by the Swiss premiere at the KKL Luzern with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and the Asian premiere at the Suntory Hall with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. The new season also sees the start of his residency as soloist with the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim.< /p>

Daishin Kashimoto has appeared with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, the Bavarian, Hessian, and West German Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Yehudi Menuhin, Paavo Järvi, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniel Harding, and Philippe Jordan. He can also be heard as a soloist in concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Past engagements include Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante at the Grafenegg Festival and Lucerne Festival, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, and Tchaikovsky’s Sérénade Mélancolique and Valse Scherzo at Berlin’s Waldbühne under direction of Andris Nelsons.

As a chamber musician Daishin Kashimoto has appeared alongside Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Leif Ove Andsnes, Alessio Bax, Emmanuel Pahud, Itamar Golan, Tabea Zimmermann, Yefim Bronfman, Claudio Bohórquez and Konstantin Lifschitz, among others. With Konstantin Lifschitz, he also recorded a highly acclaimed CD of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas in 2014. His other recordings include a CD of Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Myung Whun Chung for Sony Music.

His parents introduced him to various instruments early on, with the three-year-old opting for the violin and receiving his first lessons in Tokyo. After moving to the United States, Daishin Kashimoto was accepted, at the tender age of seven, as the youngest student to ever attend Julliard School’s pre-college program; at age eleven, he transferred to the Lübeck University of Music under Zakhar Bron, before becoming a student of Rainer Kussmaul at the Freiburg University of Music from 1999 to 2004. He also had great success in major competitions as a teenager, taking first prize at the Menuhin Junior International Competition in 1993, the Cologne Violin Competition in 1994, and in 1996 at the Vienna Fritz Kreisler and the Long-Thibaud Competitions. Daishin Kashimoto has been the artistic director of the Le Pont Music Festival in Ako and Himeji (Japan) since 2007. He plays on a del Gesu 1744 “de Beriot” kindly loaned by Crystco, Inc. and its chairman Mr. Hikaru Shimura.

Adrien La Marca

(Viola)

Hailed by The Financial Times as  a truly pure talent  and described by Le Monde as  a new viola heroAdrien La Marca’s playing is characterised by a depth of expression, technical mastery and a sound with rich, deep, burnished quality. Gifted with a charismatic stage presence and ability to create an immediate emotional connection with his audience, Adrien La Marca is considered as one of today’s most compelling musicians.  

As a soloist, La Marca has performed with renowned Orchestras such as Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra (MDR), Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hong-Kong Sinfonietta, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège (artist in residence for 2018-19 season), Insula Orchestra, Les Siècles, L’Orchestre de la Loge, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre de Metz and more. 

His first album, « English Delight », released in 2016 for the Label La Dolce Volta, has been highly praised by the press (The Strad, Gramophone, Strings Magazine, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Diapason, Classica, etc. ) and awarded Diapason d’OR, FFFF Telerama, Coup de Coeur FNAC, France Musique, Radio Classique and Gramophone’s choice. His second recording “HEROES” includes Walton Viola Concerto with Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, a World Premiere of Gwenaël Mario Grisi’s Viola Concerto written for him and Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet. It is the first time this has been recorded for solo viola and orchestra. His latest recording, “Chanson Bohème” contains a wild range of styles, from unknown gem Hans Sitt cycle, through valses, film music and even french chansons.

Born in Aix-en-Provence, France in 1989 to a family of musicians, Adrien La Marca began playing piano and viola at the age of 4. He entered Paris Conservatoire at 16 and studied with Jean Sulem. He completed his studies in Leipzig with Tatjana Masurenko and further in Berlin with Tabea Zimmermann. During his studies, Adrien was regularly invited to take part in different Musical Academies and had the opportunity to work with inspiring musicians including Seiji Ozawa, Valery Gergiev, Gidon Kremer, Andras Schiff and Menahem Pressler. In 2016, La Marca was the first classical musician to receive the prestigious “Fondation Lagardère” Grant. He is a winner of the “Fondation Banque Populaire” and supported by “L’Or du Rhin” and the “Safran” Foundation. La Marca has additionally won numerous prizes in international competitions including William Primrose Competition, Lionel Tertis Competition and Johannes Brahms Competition.

La Marca plays an outstanding viola by Nicola Bergonzi made in Cremona in 1780, on generous loan from the Boubo-Music Foundation.

Claudio Bohórquez

(Cello)

The German-born cellist of Peruvian-Uruguayan descent is one of the most sought-after musicians in his field. As a student of Boris Pergamenschikow, Claudio Bohórquez achieved success at an early age at international competitions such as the Tschaikowsky Youth Competition in Moscow and the Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris.
This culminated in 2000 with three awards at the first International Pablo Casals Competition held under the auspices of the Kronberg Academy: Marta Casals Istomin presented Claudio Bohórquez with first prize, a special award for the best chamber music, and also the use of Casals’ Gofriller cello for a period of two years. He also won first prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva, an achievement that marked the start of his career as a soloist. Meanwhile he has become a teacher himself: from 2011 to 2016 he was professor at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, in September 2016 he was appointed to the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, where he has been a guest professor since 2003.

Among others, Claudio Bohórquez has performed with almost all German radio orchestras, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Collegium Musicum Basel, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In Japan, he performs with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In the US, Claudio Bohórquez recently gave concerts with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Renowned conductors Claudio Bohórquez has worked with include Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Manfred Honeck, Sir Neville Marriner, Eiji Oue, Krzysztof Penderecki, Leonard Slatkin, Tugan Sokhiev, Lothar Zagrosek and David Zinman.

Claudio Bohórquez is a guest at numerous festivals. Among them are the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, the City of London Festival, the Penderecki Festival in Warsaw and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. Appearances in the United States have included performances at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen Festival as well as the Hollywood Bowl. He participated in the chamber music festival Lockenhaus in Austria and at Gidon Kremer’s festival “Les Musiques” in Basel. As a passionate chamber musician, he has performed together with Jörg Widmann in Bilbao/Madrid, and with Viviane Hagner and Jonathan Gilad at the Beethoven Marathon at Konzerthaus Berlin.

The past seasons have led the artist to many festivals, including: a. to the Rheingau Music Festival with the Columbian Youth Philharmonic under Andrés Orozco-Estrada, to the Dresden Music Festival with a Chamber Music Project together with the violinist Philippe Quint and the pianist Boris Giltburg, to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival. The upcoming season includes, among others, the Elbphilharmonie debut on November 8, 2018 and an Elgar cello concert with the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg on February 15, 2019.

In addition to numerous CD recordings, radio recordings and television appearances Claudio Bohórquez worked as an interpreter for the soundtrack of Paul English by to the film “Ten Minutes Older – The Cello”, which was shown in theaters worldwide. Together with the painter Klaus-Peter Kirchner, Claudio Bohórquez developed the installation project “Raum für Pablo Casals” in homage to this great cellist. He was part of the ECHO-winning album “Four Seasons” (2017) of Daniel Hope, released by Deutsche Grammophon. In July 2018 Berlin Classics will release a new CD with the sonatas of Johannes Brahms and some bonus tracks together with Claudio Bohórquez’s duo partner Péter Nagy.

Since the season 2017/18 Claudio Bohórquez is Artistic Director of the Festival Winnenden.

Claudio Bohórquez plays a G. B. Rogeri violoncello presented to him by the Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg.

Nabil Shehata

(Double Bass)

“Giving space to music” runs like a thread through Nabil Shehata’s life, both literally and figuratively. As a nine-year-old, the double bass opens the door to, in his words, “the most beautiful repertoire there is” – namely that of classical music. As a young person, he feels the growing desire to be involved in this music as a conductor. Shehata follows this impulse, gives up his position as principal bass player of the Berliner Philharmoniker, and has since successfully embarked on a career as a conductor. A critic recently wrote that he conducts with “authority full of ease” an observation that corresponds precisely with what Shehata is aiming for. “It is about resonating with each other. This is what creates music. This is what I want to achieve with orchestras”. Shehata has developed a conducting style that is closely related to chamber music making, because he is convinced that “this is how music is created that can achieve what audiences, orchestras, and conductors alike desire:unforgettable concert experiences!”.

The BBC Music Magazine honoured Nabil Shehata’s realisation of this intention by presenting him with the BBC Music Award for the best orchestral recording 12|2021.

Nabil Shehata’s career began as principal bass player with the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic. As a conductor, he has been mentored and taught by Christian Thielemann, Rolf Reuter, and Lawrence Forster, among others. He was chief conductor of Philharmonie Südwestfalen from 2019 to 2024 and has recently< conducted as a guest, among other ensembles, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Robert Schumann Philharmonic, and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Not long ago, he made his conducting debut with great success at the sold-out Elbphilharmonie. Prior to his current position, he was the chief conductor at the Munich Chamber Opera, and broadened his experience at the Berlin State Opera as an assistant to Daniel Barenboim. As a professor of double bass in Munich and Berlin as well as a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, he has passed on his experience to younger musicians for many years. In his hometown of Verden, Shehata founded the “Maiklänge” chamber music festival, which is a heartfelt project for him to organize high-quality concerts where he grew up.

THE VAULT: STRONG WOMEN RISING

Women of The Vault will share their intimate stories about overcoming impossible obstacles, stepping into their power and achieving extraordinary success by identifying their passions, defining their strengths and rejecting cultural/societal limitations of what it means to be a woman in the Entertainment Industry, Technology, Food/Hospitality and Finance.

The Vault was founded in 2012 by Kim Moses as an organization that celebrates women — giving each woman a safe place to use her voice as she impacts the world in unique and brilliant ways.

Vault Members who will participate in the round table

(in alphabetical order):

Aiko Accame

(Los Angeles, CA; Italy)
Regional Sales and Private Clients Director, Dorchester Collection; Hospitality

Aiko Accame has recently celebrated her 21st anniversary with leading luxury hotel brand Dorchester Collection. Following an array of high-profile hospitality roles, she found her calling as associate director of sales at The Dorchester, before moving into her current position.

Based at The Beverly Hills Hotel, Aiko works closely with private clients and the West Coast travel and entertainment community, raising brand awareness, generating revenue for Dorchester Collection hotels worldwide, and cultivating partnerships and events with other luxury brands.

She successfully launched the industry-leading Dorchester Collection Diamond Club programme to the West Coast travel community. She has also been recognised by the Southern California American Society of Travel Agents as a Hotel Representative of the Year.

Her Italian/Japanese heritage gives her a unique insight into two of the best cuisines in world, a passion she’s always eager to share with her clients.

Gail Becker

(New York, NY)
Founder of CAULIPOWER; Food Entrepreneur

Gail is best known as an entrepreneur and the Founder of CAULIPOWER, the most disruptive company in the better-for-you frozen food space named as one of the top 10 World’s Most Innovative Food Companies in 2022 by Fast Company. The hyper-growth company reached more than $100m in revenue in less than four years under her leadership as CEO, capturing more than 2% of the $5 billion US pizza market. She has received recognition for her achievements from publications such as Forbes, Fast Company and Inc. and is a frequent media guest, sought out for her opinions on female leadership, healthy food trends and building great brands.

Her career path reflects her passions spanning journalism, government service and brand building. She has held senior positions in a myriad of industries and organizations including Edelman, Warner Bros. and the US Department of Health & Human Services.

As the mother of two sons diagnosed with celiac disease at an early age, Gail was disappointed with the gluten-free options lacking in nutrition and taste. Frustrated by the lack of action by the “big food” companies, Gail decided to solve the problem herself. She left corporate America behind with no regrets and launched CAULIPOWER in 2017 with a mission to reinvent America’s favorite comfort foods to be tasty, convenient and nutritious.

Gail’s idea was initially rejected by manufacturers and the investor community, but she ignored them all and proved them wrong.

CAULIPOWER is recognized as the true disruptor of what was one of grocery’s most stagnant categories, Within its’ first two years, CAULIPOWER became a top 10 frozen pizza brand and captured more than 2% of the $5 billion US pizza market.

CAULIPOWER did not stop at pizza; the brand has entered a myriad of new frozen food categories including chicken tenders, nuggets and now pizza bites. Today CAULIPOWER is the #1 Cauliflower Crust Pizza, #1 Gluten-Free Pizza. #1 Better-For-You pizza and is available in more than 30,000 stores and 5,000 restaurants nationwide.

Gail has been widely recognized for her contributions to business and entrepreneurship including 50 over 50 (Forbes); Woman Business Owner of the Year (National Association of Women Business Owners); Trailblazer Working Mother of the Year (She Runs It); Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young); Person of the Year (NOSH Best of Awards); Entrepreneur of the Year (Stevie Awards) Executive of the Year (Best in Biz). CAULIPOWER was also named one of the 100 Best Led Companies in America (Inc.) under her leadership.

On October 13th, 2021, CAULIPOWER hit the height of popular culture when the company (and Gail) were featured in a question on the television show Jeopardy!

Brooke Breton

(Los Angeles, CA)
Senior Producer/Executive Producer/Expert on Modern Film Making Techniques; Hollywood; Governor at the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences; Film/TV

Brooke Breton has been principally involved in a wide variety of prominent live action films, animated films, television series and theme park projects which have received Academy, BAFTA, Emmy, Annie and VES awards and nominations. Key projects include: Avatar, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow, Solaris, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Dick Tracy.

Ms. Breton has also served as a producer for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum, where she focused on modern filmmaking techniques and acquisitions.

Prior to that, Ms. Breton was a Senior Production Executive and in-house producer for Illumination Entertainment where she produced the film content for the Despicable Me theme park attraction, Minion Mayhem, for Universal. The attraction was awarded an Annie Award for “Best Animated Special Venue Production” as well as a VES award for “Best Visual Effects for a Theme Park Attraction.”

Ms. Breton was instrumental in launching James Cameron’s effects house Digital Domain, where she served as Senior Vice President of Production for several years. During Breton’s tenure, Digital Domain created the effects for such blockbusters as True Lies, Interview with a Vampire, and Apollo 13. They also created the theme park attraction Terminator 2 – 3D. Breton was also very involved in the start-up of DreamWorks Animation in addition to producing DreamWorks Pictures’ animated comedy adventure, The Road to El Dorado, which received eight Annie Award nominations.

Ms. Breton is a Visual Effects Branch governor for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and currently serves as VP on the Academy Foundation Board. She also serves on the AMPAS Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee and the Science and Technology Council. Breton is a long-standing member of the Producers Guild of America and has served as a three-term board of director member of the Visual Effects Society.

Ms. Breton recently helped create an exhibit at the Academy Museum featuring the innovations of the Dykstraflex camera system and wrote, produced, and directed an AMPAS member program on AI. She was also the creative director and producer of the Sci-Tech Council’s public program: Virtual Production: Are you Game? and was creative director of the public program: Galactic Innovations: Star Wars and Rogue One, 40 years of Pioneering Cinematics.

In current development under the Breton Productions banner are three feature film projects.

Kim Campbell

(Florence) 

19th Prime Minister of Canada

After holding elected office at all three levels of Canadian government, Kim Campbell served as Canada’s nineteenth and first female Prime Minister in 1993.

Kim Campbell is a founding member of the Club of Madrid now the largest international forum of former heads of government and state who work to promote democratic values. She is also a member and Chair Emerita of theCouncil of Women World Leaders and a member of the International Women’s Forum, where she served as its global president.

Ms. Campbell’s most notable achievement in recent years has been the design and launch of a ground breaking leadership program for undergraduates at the University of Alberta:The Peter Lougheed Leadership College. She served as its Founding Principal from 2014-2018.

In 2021, Ms. Campbell joined the board of the Glen Gould Foundation and the advisory board of The Vancouver Anti-Corruption Institute. VACI is a project of The International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy (ICCLR), which was created during Ms. Campbell’s tenure as Minister of Justice.

Sara Christensen

(New York, NY)
Angel Investor/Advisor; Finance/Entrepreneurs

SARA R. CHRISTENSEN is an active angel investor, advisor and board member mainly focused on early stage, female founded consumer companies. Miss Christensen’s experience spans over 20 years working in both venture capital and family offices, investing in over 200 companies across tech, media, sports and consumer products. Prior to becoming an investor, Miss Christensen was a partner in the first all organic fresh pressed juice company which launched in NYC in 2000. Prior to that, Miss Christensen started her career in marketing compiling consumer insights, which helped hone her skills for studying consumer behavior and trend forecasting. She is currently based in New York.

Kay Kramer

(Los Angeles, CA)
Founder of Step-Up; Entrepreneur/Leadership Coach

Kaye Kramer is a dynamic entrepreneur, founder, senior executive, non-profit board member, and certified coach specializing in leadership, executive strategy, and career transitions. Her career story is distinguished by her ability to successfully transition between industries and leadership roles across the corporate, start-up, and non-profit sectors, where she has consistently fostered organizational growth and generated new business opportunities.

Kaye has held a variety of prominent roles, including talent agent at UTA (United Talent Agency), where she represented stars like Renee Zellweger; executive at Interscope Films, and Executive Vice President at Nielson Entertainment where she launched their film online testing division. Her entrepreneurial ventures include serving as COO of The Babybox Co., facilitating the company’s evolution from a social initiative to a venture-backed growth start-up, and co-founding Nursery works, a manufacturing firm specializing in design-savvy children’s furniture and accessories. Kaye expanded Nurseryworks into 300+ stores in 8 countries within 6 years, before selling it to Million Dollar Baby in 2010.

Kaye’s proudest achievement is founding the philanthropic network, Step Up, (www.suwn.org) in 1998. Over the past 25 years, Step Up has become a premier national mentorship nonprofit, empowering young women aged 14-29 to define and achieve their unique visions of success, As founder and CEO, Kaye has led the organization’s strategic direction, fundraising efforts, and the development and implementation of educational programming through strategic marketing, and corporate alliances with companies such as Mattel, Conde Nast, Lifetime, Coach, The Container Store, Dove, Ulta, Frame Denim and many more.

In addition to her ongoing role with Step Up, Kaye is a member of the President’s Council at Tufts University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree. She received her executive coaching certification from Columbia University, and holds certifications in Hogan Assessment, DISC, and NBI. Additionally, Kaye is a member of the International Coaching Federation.

Kaye’s commitment to philanthropy is reflected in her board service. In addition to Step Up, she has served on the boards of PHASE ONE Cancer Foundation, The Women’s Guild at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, and The Board of Directors at Oakwood, a K-12 independent Los Angeles school.

 

Debbie Liebling

(Los Angeles, CA)Film and TV Producer; Programming Executive; Hollywood

Deborah Liebling is a veteran and film and television producer and influential programming executive. She just completed production on CARVED, a horror comedy film that will premiere on Hulu in October 2024. She also just executive produced TV comedy pilot BUFFALO TENS, a new series for Fox. Also, now out on streaming is the film, JULES, starring Sir Ben Kingsley, which won the Audience Award at the 2023 Sonoma Film Festival and the 2024 Humanitas Prize for Comedy Feature Film, and Columbia Pictures’ film, 65, starring Adam Driver. She is Executive Producer of Emmy-nominated Hulu series, PEN15.

In television, Deborah is executive producing MAKING FRIENDS, a new comedy series developed for Netflix AU; CAMP NADA HALA, an animated comedy set up at Nickelodeon; OONA AND THE EGG, a comedy with Sundance-award winning Maryam Keshavarz set to direct; and the dark limited series, SHARK, written by Dave Flebotte, to be directed by Reed Morano, which she is partnered with Terence Winter; and RUDIMENTAL, an AI drama set up at wiip. Additionally, Deborah is executive producing a limited drama series with Daniela Lavender and Sir Ben Kingsley and a new high-concept comedy, TRASHED, with Cinetic Media.

On the feature side, Deborah is currently in pre-production as the Producer of TREES & P.H.D.’S, starring Sosie Bacon and Tig Notaro, written and to be directed by Stephanie Allynne; IKEAVILLE, starring Kit Harington, Maya Erskine, Ke Huy Quan, Kate McKinnon and Maude Apatow, written and to be directed by Michael Vukadinovich; and OLD PALS, starring Henry Winkler and Brian Cox, written by Rick Cisario and to be directed by Wendey Stanzler. She is also attached to produce GOOD MORNING, PLEASE, written and produced by Josh Gad, with Shawn Snyder set to direct.

In 2021, Deborah produced JANE, starring Madelaine Petsch, Chloe Bailey and Melissa Leo and UNPLUGGING, a romantic comedy starring Eva Longoria and Matt Walsh. Her film PLUS ONE, starring Maya Erskine and Jack Quaid, won the Audience Award at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and continues to stream on Hulu.

Deborah is attached to produce the following features: HOT MESS, written by Gabrielle D’Amico and to be directed by Katie Locke O’Brien; LOVE, MARIE TANNER, written by Kirsten King and to be directed by Sabrina Jaglom; GIRL ALIEN, starring Billie Lourd, written and to be directed by Cat Grieve; LILLIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK (based on the best-selling novel) at Shivhans Pictures, adapted by Karen Croner; and STONERS AND SELF-APPOINTED SAINTS, written and to be directed by Andrea Siegel (based on the book of poems), starring Matt Berry, Dylan Gelula, Molly Parker, Ricky Velez, Miles Robbins, and Devon Bostick. Deborah is also Executive Producer on a new animated feature for Sony Pictures Animation.

Deborah partnered with renowned film director Sam Raimi, under their POD 3 banner with a first-look deal at WIIP, where they are developing the series THE HOUSE ON HOARDER HILL, by John Glenn, Kelly Ngai, and Mikki Lish, with Rebecca Thomas attached to direct. Together they produced a horror anthology series, 50 STATES OF FRIGHT, which premiered on Quibi. Additionally, the pair teamed up with British writing duo The Stas Brothers and set up crime-thriller, SUNSET YELLOW, at Endeavor Content.

Previously, Deborah was President of Red Hour Films where she and her partner, Ben Stiller, produced four new television series: Comedy Central’s ANOTHER PERIOD (3 seasons), the critically acclaimed BIG TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA, and THE MELTDOWN WITH JONAH AND KUMAIL (3 seasons), and IFC’s THE BIRTHDAY BOYS (2 seasons), which she executive produced with Bob Odenkirk.

Deborah was President of Production at Universal Pictures where she oversaw the development and production of many hit films including BRIDESMAIDS, THE CHANGE-UP, PITCH PERFECT, TOWER HEIST, AMERICAN PIE 2, CONTRABAND, SAFE HOUSE, TED, and WANDERLUST.

In 2009, Deborah served as President of FOX Atomic Pictures, a start-up genre division of 20th Century FOX film studio that released JENNIFER’S BODY, I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER, and THE ROCKER. As Executive Vice President of Features at 20th Century Fox, Deborah was responsible for the hits BORAT, DODGEBALL, JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE, BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE, IDIOCRACY, STUCK ON YOU, and many other successful films.

Deborah was the chief development and production executive (Head of Original Programming) for Comedy Central for the previous 7 years. There she was solely responsible for the development and realization of the cultural phenomenon SOUTH PARK (where she was Executive Producer on the multiple Emmy-award winning series, as well as Producer on the film SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT), THE MAN SHOW (starring Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla), WIN BEN STEIN’S MONEY, BATTLEBOTS, PRIMETIME GLICK (with Martin Short) and many other original series on the channel. Prior to that, Deborah produced multiple series for HBO, NBC and ABC. She began her career as a producer at MTV in New York in the 80s, when MTV was cool.

Deborah is a graduate of Boston University, College of Communications where she was asked to come back and deliver the Commencement Speech in 2010 and received a Distinguished Alumni Award.

Deborah served on the board of Women In Film for 8 years and serves as an ambassador for Reframe, an organization that works to promote women in key roles behind the camera. Deborah is a proud member of the Producers Guild of America, the Television Academy, and Producers United, a recently formed organization of successful film and TV producers to create new dialogue around the role and rights of the career producer. She serves on the Screen Producers Australia (SPA)’s SCREEN FOREVER programming advisory board, the advisory board of The Harold Ramis Film School in Chicago, IL, and IOCUS (an LA-based film fund that invests, develops, produces and sells content in film, television & new media).

Ali McCartney

(New York, NY)
Managing Director with UBS Private Wealth Management

Alli McCartney is a Managing Director with UBS Private Wealth Management in New York City. She has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry working with families, endowments and foundations to streamline their financial, investment, trust and estate and philanthropic planning. Alli specializes in executive compensation working with founders and C-suite executives around complex liquidity situations. She is known by the moniker “Financial Feminist” for her passionate work around women and money & the imperative of women having a financial seat at all tables. She is a regular on CNBC & Fox Business, is frequently published and is a sought after speaker at industry conferences given her unique ability to make finance and macro-economics accessible. Alli lives between Soho in NYC, Montauk & LA with her two boys, is bi-lingual (Spanish) and spends her time obsessively following live music and supporting The Jazz Foundation of America & Vital Voices.

Catherine McCord

(Los Angeles, CA)
Founder of Weelicious/cookbook author/TV presenter/food & tech

Catherine McCord is the founder of the popular Weelicious brand, a trusted content resource synonymous with family, food and lifestyle. A graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education, she has created online how-to videos that have amassed more than fifty million views and celebrities like Jennifer Garner, Sarah Michelle Gellar & Keri Glassman, RD, swear by her food as a medicine approach to healthy meals.

Catherine has written four cookbooks including her latest Meal Prep Magic and the Smoothie Project. Catherine has appeared on TODAY, Good Morning America, California Live, The Doctors, and is a regular on the Emmy-winning NBC show Naturally, Danny Seo as well as Food Network’s #1-rated Guy’s Grocery Games. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.

Recent brand partnerships: Amazon, Williams Sonoma, Whole Foods Market, LOMI, Yasso, Nature’s Made and Dietz and Watson.

Catherine co-founded family focused meal company, One Potato, and exited in 2023.

 

Kim Moses

(Los Angeles, CA)
Founder of The Vault; Co-Founder of OptIn Studios; Executive Producer/Director; Hollywood

KIM MOSES is the proud Founder of THE VAULT — an organization that gives women a safe place to use their voices while impacting the world in unique and brilliant ways.

Kim Moses is also an Executive Producer who has produced more than 700 hours of premium scripted content on traditional and non-traditional platforms and is a DGA Director. Creatively, fiscally and technically, Kim has managed well-over a half a billion dollars in development and production all over the world — delivering on time and on budget while hitting creative bullseyes (including GONE, RECKLESS, THIS IS EVERYTHING: GI GI GORGEOUS and GHOST WHISPERER which are all currently streaming.) As an innovator in the Entertainment Industry, Kim has achieved a series of ‘firsts’: NBC International’s first domestic-based straight-to-series drama with international partners; YouTube’s first feature film; American TV’s first Turkish format remake; Marriott Hotel’s first international feature film and created network TV’s first interactive digital experience embedded in a scripted drama series. Kim pioneered the Total Engagement Experience(c) — the strategic brand build-out on all platforms of series, feature films and products, creating new revenue streams, and exponentially increasing engagement loyalty. Before crossing over to scripted content, Kim worked in live broadcast sports productions, reality series and music specials. As Co-Founder of OptIn Studios, SLAM Digital Media and Sander/Moses Productions, Kim was named to Newsweek’s Women and Leadership Advisory Committee, honored with a Women In Film Woman of the Year award, was the recipient of the 36th Annual Vision Award as well as the Elly Impact Award, and had the honor of giving the Commencement Speech for USC’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism Class in 2016. (Oprah gave the commencement speech the following year
https://www.optinstudios.com/

Keri Selig

(Los Angeles, CA)
Founder and President of Intuition Productions; Executive Producer; Hollywood

Keri Selig is a Golden Globe and 5-time Emmy nominated producer and the Founder and President of Intuition Productions, a feature film and television production company in Hollywood. Before Intuition, Keri spent over a decade as a studio Executive. She was Executive SVP of Production at Warner Bros based Bel-Air Entertainment (Collateral Damage, Pay It Forward). Before that, Keri was SVP of Production for Kopelson Entertainment at Twentieth Century Fox (Se7en, The Fugitive), and SVP of Production for Cort/Madden at Paramount Pictures (Save the Last Dance, Run Away Bride). Keri most recently executive produced the miniseries, After Camelot starring Katie Holmes and Matthew Perry, based on the acclaimed book by fifteen-time NY Times bestselling author, J. Randy Taraborrelli. It received 3 Canadian Screen nominations and a Canadian SAG award. Prior, Keri executive produced the miniseries, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe for Lifetime, also based on a book by J. Randy Taraborrelli. The miniseries stars Susan Sarandon & Emily Watson and received 17 nominations, including three Emmys. Keri’s additional credits include Passengers, starring Anne Hathaway for Sony Pictures; The Stepford Wives starring Nicole Kidman for Paramount; Point of Origin for HBO starring Ray Liotta and John Leguizamo; Harlan County, the Golden Globe and triple Emmy nominated movie for Showtime starring Holly Hunter; Three to Tango starring Matt Perry for Warner Brothers & Village Roadshow; and the award winning In The Company Of Spies for Showtime starring Tom Berenger, written by Roger Towne (The Natural) and directed by Tim Matheson (West Wing). Keri recently wrapped production for Netflix’s upcoming Six Triple Eight written and directed by Tyler Perry, starring Kerry Washington, Oprah Winfrey, Sam Waterston, and Susan Sarandon. She also has projects set up with The CW, CBS, Sony, 101 Studios, PictureStart, The Tannenbaum Company, and ITV America, and is working with talent including Bryan Cranston, Benicio Del Toro, Scott Derrickson & C Robert Cargill, Anthony Kiedis, Rebecca Miller, Marc Forrester, Bill Collage, Dana Stevens, and Will Gluck, to name a few. Keri is an active member in the philanthropic world and works with a myriad of organizations including: A Sense of Home, Wags and Walks, Oceana and Selig serves on the board of advisors for Children Mending Hearts.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

(Madrid, Spain; Washington, DC)
Senior Executive; Thought Leader; Author; Journalist


Over the past two decades, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon has served as a senior executive and thought leader committed to mobilizing capital to spur innovation, development and decarbonization, and to expanding the way we think about the investable universe.

Prior to MBA study, her career began in media, covering public policy and presidential elections at the ABC News Political Unit and CNN.com. She was on the launch team for “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” She has written three New York Times bestselling books on women transforming their communities amid war; all have been translated into multiple languages. Two of her books are in the Hollywood screen adaptation process. She also has authored pieces for The World Bank, CNN, Fast Company, Foreign Affairs, HBR, and Bloomberg, among others. on the urgency of tapping global talent, including women, to spur economic development. Her first TED Talk, on new models to invest in global entrepreneurs, was a TED Talk of the Day. She has spoken at Harvard Business School, Aspen Ideas Festival, Clinton Global Initiative, the World Bank, the Supreme Allied Command in Europe and Aspen Security Forum, among others.

Currently, Gayle advises funds, founders and philanthropies focused on climate change and energy transition in developed and emerging markets. Gayle consults for a Silicon Valley-based impact fund investing directly in technology ventures at the intersection of emerging markets and climate. These include early-stage companies in West and North Africa whose technologies address climate change. She also is a consultant to The Rockefeller Foundation, focused on catalyzing private sector capital to speed the global transition to decarbonized power systems. Specifically, she is focused on leading private sector engagement for initiatives including the Energy Transition Accelerator, an innovative carbon finance platform aimed at unlocking private funding for the just energy transition in emerging economies. She also develops go-to-market strategies for venture capital-backed, early stage founders in the energy transition space focused on creating new markets for their climate-focused products. This work comes alongside her role as a senior fellow with Mission Possible Partnership, dedicated to decarbonizing the hardest-to-abate sectors.

Earlier in her career, Gayle served on the leadership team at Andreessen Horowitz-backed, early-stage AI companies. She also served in the Executive Office and as an Emerging Markets Product Manager at the financial services firm PIMCO. During the 2008 global financial crisis, she helmed policy analysis for the Executive Committee and the Investment Committee under Mohamed El-Erian and Bill Gross. She also worked for more than a decade as Deputy Director and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, focused on the intersections of finance, climate and economic development. In this capacity she regularly wrote about the urgency of investing in entrepreneurs in developing nations. She also regularly briefed members of Congress and the White House on these topics.

A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the Harvard Business School, she is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee and the International Center for Research on Women’s advisory council. A Fulbright Scholar and Robert Bosch Fellow, she speaks Spanish, German, conversational French, and is conversant in Dari and Kurmanci.

Dana Stevens

(Los Angeles, CA; Charleston, SC)
Screen writer; Executive Producer; Hollywood; Governor at the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences; Sundance Lab

Dana Stevens has had a long career writing features and television. Her most recent film was “The Woman King,” starring Viola Davis and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, for which she was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Other films include “Fatherhood,” starring Kevin Hart, “Safe Haven,” “City of Angels,” and “For Love of the Game.” She created and produced “Reckless,” a legal drama for CBS, and “What About Brian,” an ABC series. Dana was recently elected a Governor of the Writers Branch at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and is a frequent advisor at the prestigious Sundance Writing Lab.

Chiara Tilesi

(Florence, Italy; Los Angeles, CA)
Director; screenwriter; producer; activist; Founder of WE DO IT TOGETHER

Chiara Tilesi is an Italian Producer and Director. She has produced the 2023 Academy Award® nominated film “Tell It like a woman”. She is Founder of We Do It Together (WDIT), a 501(c)3 non-profit film production company dedicated to the advancement of women and minorities. In 2018, Chiara also established Frequency Production, a venture focused on creating media that fosters positive societal impact.

 The Academy Award® nominated film, “Tell It Like A Woman” features seven segments helmed by a diverse and internationally renowned group of women filmmakers: Margherita Buy, Cara Delevingne, Jacqueline Fernandez, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Hudson, Eva Longoria, Pauletta Washington, and Anne Watanabe. Moreover, Chiara took on the role of music video producer for the film’s theme song, “Applause,” composed by Diane Warren and performed by Sofia Carson. The song, which celebrates women’s empowerment, was also nominated for Best Original Song at the 2023 Academy Awards®. 

March 2023 presented WDIT at the UN Nation General Assembly, where she inaugurated the women’s month by hosting a “Tell It Like A Woman” screening in collaboration with UN Women, the Mission of Italy to the United Nations, and governments including the USA, UK, Japan, Chile, and Argentina. 

Chiara’s contributions extend to a multitude of impactful projects, including “All the Invisible Children,” “Teach Me Again,” “Giving Back Generation” (Seasons 1-3), “One Of Us” (Seasons 1- 2), “Be The Subject, Not The Object,” and “The Longevity Revolution,” among others. These undertakings underscore her unwavering dedicaHon to driving social transformation through the medium of film and media. 

Recognized as a Cultural Leader at the 2019 World Economic Forum, Chiara delivered an address titled “The Female Icon” at the organization’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This speech delved into the disruption of existing paradigms and the capacity of women’s narratives to effect change. Renowned as a compelling public speaker, Chiara has shared her insights and expertise at distinguished global institutions, including TED X WOMEN and the United Nations. Her potent messages of empowerment and societal change have captivated audiences, galvanizing individuals and organizations alike to take affirmative acHon and foster positive change worldwide.

Rachmaninoff and the Tsar

Performed in English with Italian Surtitles

Having safely fled Russia during the 1917 revolution, legendary pianist-composer Sergei V. Rachmaninoff made his home in the United States. In 1942, at the age of 68, he received American citizenship and bought a home in Beverly Hills, but his soul never left Russia. Six months thereafter, a terminal illness brought forth the memory of a long ago encounter with Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II, and the Tsar’s daughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia. This  memory would haunt him until the end.

RACHMANINOFF AND THE TSAR features Sergei Rachmaninoff’s most beloved and enduring compositions including Prelude in C# minor, The 2nd Piano Concerto, The Paganini Variations, Preludes, symphonic selections and more.

With  Hershey Felder as Sergei Rachmaninoff,  for the first time on stage, Felder will appear opposite another artist, British-Italian Jonathan Silvestri in the role of Tsar Nicholas II.

For More Information on Rachmaninoff and the Tsar visit https://RachandtheTsar.com

HERSHEY FELDER

(Sergei Rachmaninoff/Book)

Hershey Felder has recently been named Artistic Director of Florence’s historic Teatro della Signoria as well as Florence’s Teatro Niccolini. Creator and President of FirenzeOnStage, an international theatrical and presentation house in Florence Italy, American Theatre Magazine has said, “Hershey Felder, actor, Steinway Concert Artist and theatrical creator is in a category all his own.” Following 28 years of continuous stage productions and over 6,000 live performances throughout the U.S. and abroad, Hershey Felder created Live from Florence, An Arts Broadcasting Company, based in Florence, Italy, which has produced more than eighteen theatrical films to date. They include the recently-released Noble Genius – Chopin & Liszt; The Assembly; Violetta, the story of Verdi’s Traviata; Dante and Beatrice; Mozart and Figaro in Vienna; the world premiere musicals Nicholas, Anna & Sergei; the story of Sergei Rachmaninoff; Puccini, the story of famed opera composer Giacomo Puccini; Before Fiddler, a musical story about writer Sholem Aleichem; Great American Songs and the Stories Behind Them, Leonard Bernstein and the Israel Philharmonic, a documentary, and the popular Musical Tales in the Venetian Jewish Ghetto. Two seasons of programming are currently available at www.hersheyfelder.net  with season 3 being launched in spring of 2024. Hershey has given performances of his solo productions at some of the world’s most prestigious theatres and has consistently broken box office records. His shows include George Gershwin Alone (Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, West End’s Duchess Theatre); Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven; Maestro (Leonard Bernstein); Franz Liszt in Musik, Lincoln: An American Story, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, Our Great Tchaikovsky, and A Paris Love Story and Monsieur Chopin. His compositions and recordings include Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings; Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for Piano; and An American Story for Actor and Orchestra, and the opera IL QUARTO UOMO that premiered in Fiesole, Italy in the summer of 2023 with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Hershey is the adaptor, director, and designer for the internationally performed play-with-music The Pianist of Willesden Lane with Steinway artist Mona Golabek; producer and designer for the musical Louis and Keely: ‘Live’ at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford; and writer and director for Flying Solo, featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn. Hershey has operated a full-service production company since 2001. He has been a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music and is married to Rt. Hn. Kim Campbell.

 

Jonathan Silvestri

(Tsar Nicholas II)

Jonathan Silvestri began his career at BAC Youth Theatre in London’s Clapham district later studying with Simon Furness. He is known for his roles in the international television HBO hit series “Borgia” as Cardinal Fonsalida; his recent film with Tim Rozon as a US Marine in “DAKOTA,” the television series “The Young Pope,” “ Dangerous Lies,” “Devils,” “Fangs,” and more. He is a regular on Italian TV, in particular RAI’s ‘Impazienti’ in a starring role with Max Tortora and Enrico Bertolino. Jonathan recently appeared as Eugene Delacroix in Hershey Felder’s feature film Noble Genius-Chopin & Liszt and the feature film “Hey Joe,” with James Franco. A regular on Roman stages, Jonathan’s notable theatre credits include “Closer” by Patrick Marber, “Julius Caesar,” “Our Country’s Good,” and “Chinatown” at the Teatro Manhattan as well as many other productions. He is both an actor specializing in International character accents and he is of British-Roman origin.

Love Letters, A Play

Performed in English with Italian Surtitles

LOVE LETTERS by A.R. Gurney

The story of Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III – their 50 years of love and loss, hopes and dreams, victories and defeats and love. A beloved play performed by many stars over the years, now Florence will have Linda Purl and Patrick Duffy, a couple in real life. Linda, known to audiences for her many television roles and Patrick, television star, beloved by Italian audiences for his role as “Bobby Ewing” in Dallas among many other character roles will be sure to move you. 

Linda Purl 

(Melissa Gardner)
 
Purl is known for her running roles on multiple, iconic television series. Besides being Richie Cunningham’s girlfriend, Fonzie’s fiancée on Happy Days, Matlock’s daughter Charlene Matlock, Pam’s Mom/Steve Carell’s girlfriend on The Office, she has starred in over 45 made-for-TV movies.  Current recurring, After Forever.  Theatre credits (partial listing) Broadway: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Getting and Spending. Off-Broadway, Mr. Toole, The Baby Dance. Westend, The Year of Magical Thinking. UK Bill Kenwright tour of Catch Me If You Can. Over 65 regional productions at such theatres as: Long Wharf, The Old Globe, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, Santa Fe Opera, Cleveland Playhouse, Laguna Playhouse, The Lensic Santa Fe, Williamstown Theatre Festival (six seasons); Theatre Princesse Grace, Monaco; Imperial Theatre, Tokyo, Japan; Westend’s The Other Palace. Highlights include, Mame, The Year of Magical Thinking, The Merchant of Venice, The King and I. Partial film: Paul’s Promise, Mighty Joe Young. Upcoming: Hollywood Grit .  Past concert venues include 54 Below, Dizzy’s and Rose all at Lincoln Center Jazz, Birdland, Catalina Jazz Club, Naples Philharmonic, Feinstein’s at Carmichael, Crazy Coqs in London, Club Raye in Paris and Satin Doll in Tokyo. She has performed with the Glenn Miller, Diva Jazz and Orlando Jazz Orchestras and Colorado Springs Symphony. Solo albums include, Midnight Caravan, Up Jumped Spring, Taking a Chance on Love and most recently This Could Be the Start.

Patrick Duffy

(Andrew Makepeace Ladd III)

A celebrated actor who discovered his talent as a young teenager, Patrick Duffy has captivated audiences for 34 years as a familiar face on some of television’s most beloved series. 

Duffy reprised his iconic role as “Bobby Ewing” in the TNT continuation of the 1980’s drama series Dallas.  Duffy was an original cast member of the 1978 series, starring in all 14 seasons. The series was nominated for numerous Emmy and Golden Globe Awards and won the People’s Choice Award for “Favorite TV Dramatic Program” for three consecutive years from 1980-1982 and again in 1987. In the 2012 series Duffy starred opposite a notable cast including original cast members Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, as well as new cast members Brenda Strong, Josh Henderson and Jesse Metcalfe, Jordana Brewster and Julie Gonzalo.  The series aired for three seasons. 

Patrick is the voiceover narrator of the avant-garde 2016 feature film “Hotel Dallas,” which riffs on the series “Dallas” and which was shot in Romania at the Hotel Dallas-a life-size replica of Southfork. The narrative alternates with documentary segments on the role of “Dallas” in Romanian history. The film is currently appearing at various film festivals in the U.S. and abroad.

Duffy was also previously seen on the popular ABC sitcom, Step by Step where he starred as “Frank Lambert,” the husband of Carol Lambert played by Suzanne Somers.  The series, which had a successful run from 1991 to 1998, was set in Port Washington, Wisconsin and was based on the typical situations that arise when two families are brought together under one roof, and as one big stepfamily.  The series was part of ABC’s TGIF lineup. 

Additionally, Duffy has had a longstanding role in the CBS daytime soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful, starring as “Stephen Logan.” Since its premiere in 1987, the show has become the most-watched soap in the world, with an audience of an estimated 26.2 million viewers.  Patrick reprised his recurring role in early 2023. Duffy was originally introduced to viewing audiences as the lead character in the sci-fi adventure series, Man From Atlantis starring as “Mark Harris,” who was believed to be the only surviving citizen of the lost civilization of Atlantis. He possessed exceptional gifts, including the ability to breathe underwater and superhuman strength. Harris is recruited by the Foundation for Oceanic Research, a governmental agency that conducts top secret research and explores the depths of the ocean in a sophisticated submarine called the “Cetacean.” In addition, Duffy has made dozens of movies for television and hosted dozens more specials. Other roles have included stints on Freeform’s “The Fosters” and a recurring role on Amazon’s “Welcome to Sweden.” Patrick guest-starred in the ABC series “Station 19” concluding episode of the 2018/19 season, having previously guest-starred on Fox’s “Cool Kids” and ABC’s “American Housewife.” Patrick’s recent work has included guest-starring appearances on CBS’ “All Rise” and “NCIS,” respectively. He also recurred on the recent series for Netflix “On The Verge.” Fall of 2021, Patrick completed the Hallmark movie “Christmas Promise.” For Lifetime, he co-starred in a supporting lead role opposite Linda Purl in “Doomsday Mom,” in 2021. He had appeared the previous Christmas season in Lifetime’s “Once Upon a Main Street.” In September 2023, Patrick completed the key leading supporting role in the Hungarian Made For Television Movie “Rebound.” Patrick plays a recurring role on the BET series “The Family Business,” which completed its fifth season Spring of 2024.

On the big screen, Duffy appeared in the 2010 romantic comedy “You Again” opposite Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis. Duffy played Weaver’s high school sweetheart, “Richie Phillips.”  Patrick is the voiceover narrator of the 2016 avant-garde feature film “Hotel Dallas,” which riffs on the series “Dallas” and which was shot in Romania at the Hotel Dallas-a life-size replica of Southfork. The narrative alternates with documentary segments on the role of “Dallas” in Romanian history. The film played at various film festivals in the U.S. and abroad. He could also be seen in Will Wallace’s directorial debut “Trafficked.”  It is written by Siddharth Kara and stars Ashley Judd, Elizabeth Rohm, Sean Patrick Flannery and Anne Archer.  Inspired by real characters, it follows three young women who are trafficked through an elaborate network and enslaved in a Texas Brothel from which they attempt a daring escape. Patrick appeared in the feature film “April, May And June,” in which he co-starred for director Will Koopman, in Amsterdam, which opened to a fall 2019 European premiere. Patrick has the feature film “Lady of The Manor,” which was directed by and stars Justin Long, currently in release through Lionsgate. He played a supporting role in the independent film noir feature film “L.A. Grit” late Winter of 2024.

As for the stage, Duffy appeared on the West End in London in Art in 2000 and also had a stint in the UK’s traditional Panto. Patrick toured the UK in 2022 in Producer Bill Kenwright’s production of Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert’s hit play, the thriller “Catch Me If You Can,” opposite Linda Purl. He preparation toured the UK late Fall of 2023 in Producer Bill Kenwright’s production of Playwright Reginald Rose’s celebrated play “Twelve Angry Men.”

Klezmerata Fiorentina

SUPERSTARS OF THE ITALIAN MUSICAL SCENE PLAY EASTERN EUROPEAN MUSIC!
 
The Klezmerata Fiorentina was established thirty years ago by Igor Polesitsky, first viola for 40 years of the Maggio Musical Fiorentino Symphony Orchestra. With Polesitsky on violin, Riccardo Crocilla on Clarinet, Francesco Furlanich on accordion and Riccardo Donati on Double Bass, the KLEZMERATA FIORENTINA known throughout the world for their staggering virtuosity and sense of fun will play in their home town and light up the Teatro Niccolini with sounds that will stay with you for a long time!

Klezmerata Fiorentina is a quartet comprised of principal players of one of the leading Italian operatic and symphonic orchestras, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino,In 2005, the violinist and violist Igor Polesitsky, clarinetist Riccardo Crocilla, accordionist and bassoonist Francesco Furlanich, and double bass player Riccardo Donati formed the ensemble to explore new ways of creative, unwritten elaboration of authentic Yiddish folk material, the musical heritage of the group’s founder, Igor Polesitsky.

Old traditional melodies, collected in the early twentieth century through the groundbreaking fieldwork of a handful of pioneering ethnomusicologists, are seen in their full emotional complexity and interpreted by Klezmerata as the living voice of a now vanished, European Yiddish civilization.

Since the group’s debut in 2005 at the Progetto Martha Argerich Festival in Lugano, Switzerland, Klezmerata Fiorentina has appeared on some of the world’s most prestigious stages. Of special note are their performances at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, the official residence of the President of the Republic of Italy, at the Great Hall of Congresses in the Kremlin, Moscow’s Dom Musyki, the Rachmaninov Hall of Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic society, Società di Quartetto in Milan, Amici della Musica in Florence, the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, the Italian Festival delle Nazioni, the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Natalia Gutman’s Kreuth Festival in Germany, the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto, the Chutzpah! Festival in Vancouver, the Telavi Festival in the Republic of Georgia, the Summertime Festival in Jurmala (Latvia), etc.

The Italian state broadcasting company RAI, as well as Canadian, Slovenian and Russian television networks, have devoted a number of specials to the group.
Klezmerata Fiorentina’s work has attracted the attention and support of some of the world’s foremost classical music personalities. Zubin Mehta described the ensemble’s art as the “…perfect expression of both joy and sorrow. It is not just great entertainment, it is great music making!”

Santino Fontana

Tony Award winner Santino Fontana known for his Broadway leading roles in TOOTSIE, for the voice of Prince Hans in Disney’s animated feature FROZEN, for his beloved role of Greg on televisions CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND and much more, joins us in Florence at Teatro Niccolini for a concert featuring some of Broadway’s greatest music of the last 100 years and the stories behind them. Accompanied by cherished Broadway performer and maven Seth Rudetsky of Sirius/XM Satellite Radio’s SETH SPEAKS – ON BROADWAY and SETH’S BIG FAT BROADWAY. An evening of Broadway Bliss in Florence like none other.

Santino Fontana

Santino Fontana has cemented himself as one of Broadway’s foremost leading men as well as a formidable screen talent. In 2019, Santino won the Tony Award for “Best Actor in a Musical” for his tour de force performance as “Michael Dorsey”/”Dorothy Michaels” in Tootsie. His dual role also garnered him a Drama Desk and an Outer Critics Circle Award. 

He is widely known for lending his voice to the villainous “Prince Hans” in Disney’s Academy Award-winning animated feature, Frozen. He was also seen in Universal Studio’s Sisters, opposite Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. 

He will soon be seen starring opposite Martin Sheen, Dennis Haysbert, and June Squibb in Lost and Found in Cleveland, opposite Tommy Sadoski in the drama Stalking the Bogeyman, and in the dark comedy Brenda & Billy and the Pothos Plant at the Tribeca Film Festival. 

His independent film work includes the romantic comedy Off the Menu, psychological thriller Impossible Monsters, and comedy Papercop, for which he won a Best Actor Award at the Williamsburg International Independent Film Festival. 

On television, Santino was featured on Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He also starred on The CW’s critically acclaimed hour-long musical comedy series, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, as fan favorite “Greg” while appearing on NBC’s drama series Shades of Blue, opposite Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta, simultaneously. Other television credits include Singularity, an FX pilot from producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, as well as roles on Fosse/Verdon, The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, Brain Dead, Mozart in the Jungle, and Royal Pains. 

One of Broadway’s brightest stars, Santino is highly regarded for his work onstage. The New York Times wrote, “Santino Fontana [is] one of the most promising actors to emerge in the New York theater in recent years.” Santino received a Tony Nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of “Prince Topher” in Cinderella. His other Broadway credits include his roles in Scott Rudin’s Tony-winning mega-hit, Hello Dolly!opposite Bernadette Peters, as “Moss Hart” in the Tony-nominated Act Oneopposite Tony Shalhoub, The Importance of Being Earnest (Clarence Derwent Award), A View from the Bridge, Brighton Beach Memoirs (Drama Desk Award), Billy Elliot, and Sunday in the Park with George. Santino won a Lucille Lortel Award, Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and Drama League Award for his acclaimed performance in Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet. He also starred as “John Adams” in 1776 and “Elliot Rosewater” in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, both for New York City Center Encores!. 

As a vocalist, Santino has performed in jazz venues such as Lincoln Center’s Appel Room and Birdland. As an orchestra soloist, Santino has sung at Carnegie Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and other top-tier venues with symphonies, big bands, and smaller ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 

@santinofontana

SETH RUDETSKY

(Pianist) 

Seth Rudetsky When Broadway shut down, Seth and his native Texan husband James Wesley started hosting the livestream “Stars In The House” which raises money for The Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund). So far, they’ve raised over $1.2 million dollars and recently celebrated their three-year anniversary of the show. Before that, Seth spent many years on Broadway as a pianist and conductor as well as two years as a comedy writer on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” (three Emmy nominations with his co-writers). He is now the afternoon deejay on the Sirius-XM Broadway channel as well as the host of “Seth Speaks.” He performed his show, Deconstructing Broadway, in London, Boston (Irne award), and L.A. (with Barbra Streisand in the audience!). He co-wrote and co-starred in Disaster! (New York Times’ critics’ pick) on Broadway which was licensed by Music Theater International and is being performed around the country. He’s written the books Seth’s Broadway Diary Volume 1 and 2 (Dress Circle publishing) and has also authored two young adult novels My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan and The Rise and Fall of a Theater Geek (Random House) and the just available Musical Theatre for Dummies. Seth and James co-produced the “What the World Needs Now Is Love” recording with Broadway Records (number one on iTunes) featuring amazing singers like Jessie Mueller, Carole King, Audra McDonald, Lin-Manuel Miranda and so many more to help the victims and families of the Orlando Pulse Nightclub Shooting. He and James also produce and host the yearly “Voices for the Voiceless” concert to benefit You Gotta Believe which helps older foster kids find families (stars have included Tina Fey and Megan Hilty) as well as producing/hosting 13 Concert For America benefits which help non-profits like National Immigration Law Center and MAACP (stars have included Barry Manilow and Chita Rivera). James and Seth run “Seth’s Big Fat Broadway Cruise” which brings Broadway stars and Broadway lovers together to fabulous destinations!

Boris Giltburg

Titans of the Piano Across Time

Fryderyk Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Towering Bb Minor Sonatas.

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943) revered and performed Fryderyk Chopin’s “Funeral March” Sonata in his performances, and went on to create a mirror of this sonata in his own magnificent sonata in the same key. Played by International piano superstar, Boris Giltburg, this promises to be an evening that takes us traveling through time.

Boris Giltburg, Piano

Boris Giltburg is lauded across the globe as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling interpreter. Critics have praised his “singing line, variety of touch and broad dynamic palette capable of great surges of energy” (Washington Post) as well as his impassioned, narrative-driven approach to performance.

Giltburg regularly plays recitals in the world’s most prestigious halls, including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Brussels’ Bozar, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, London’s Southbank Centre and Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Prague’s Rudolfinum and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. Throughout the 2024/25 season, he embarks on a series of eight concerts performing the entire cycle of Beethoven Piano Sonatas at the Wigmore Hall, all of which will be live-streamed.

Giltburg is widely recognized as a leading interpreter of Rachmaninov: “His originality stems from a convergence of heart and mind, served by immaculate technique and motivated by a deep and abiding love for one of the 20th century’s greatest composer- pianists.” (Gramophone). To celebrate Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary in 2023, Giltburg released the last disc in his acclaimed Rachmaninov concerto cycle which received a Choc de Classica award and a 5* review in The Times. In recent years Giltburg has engaged in a series of in-depth explorations of other major composers, including Ravel (performing solo works at Bozar, Flagey, the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw and the Wigmore Hall, and concerti with the Orchestre National de France, Brussels Philharmonic and Residentie Orkest) and most recently Chopin, including three recitals at the Wigmore Hall last season.

This season’s Beethoven cycle continues such an exploration as, in 2020 to celebrate the Beethoven anniversary, Giltburg embarked upon a unique project to record and film all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas across the year: “these interpretations are enormously pleasurable and at times revelatory… Giltburg’s pianism is ideally suited to late Beethoven” (five stars, BBC Music Magazine). He also recorded the complete concerti with Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, appeared in the BBC TV series Being Beethoven.

Giltburg’s list of orchestral collaborators includes the Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Oslo Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra and Santa Cecilia di Roma. In the 2024/25 season, Giltburg explores concerti by a range of composers: he performs Rachmaninov with the Hallé, Bournemouth Symphony and Gulbenkian Orchestra, Prokofiev with Belgian National and Stavanger Symphony, Tchaikovsky with London Philharmonic, Mozart with Hamburger Symphoniker, Shostakovich with Enescu Philharmonic, Bartók with Teatro Colon, and Grieg with Dresden Philharmonic.

Giltburg is a consummate recording artist and has been exclusive to Naxos since 2015, winning the Opus Klassik Award for Best Soloist Recording for Rachmaninov concerti and Etudes Tableaux; a Diapason d’Or for Shostakovich concerti and his own arrangement of Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet; and a Choc de Classica Award for Rachmaninov concerti. He also won a Gramophone Award for the Dvořák Piano Quintet on Supraphon with the Pavel Haas Quartet, as well as a Diapason d’Or and Choc de Classica for their joint release of the Brahms Piano Quintet.

Giltburg feels a strong need to engage audiences beyond the concert hall. His blog “Classical Music for All” is aimed at a non-specialist audience, which he complements with articles in publications such as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, The Guardian, The Times and Fono Forum.

Rhapsody and the Blues

Rhapsody and the Blues

Featuring International Trumpet Virtuoso Jens Lindemann and
The FIRENZE ALL STAR JAZZ BAND

Music of Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Glenn Miller and more!

ARTISTS:

International Trumpet Virtuoso Jens Lindemann With Guest Stars

  • Andrea Tofanelli – Trumpet
  • Hershey Felder – Piano

  • And the FIRENZE ALL STAR JAZZ BAND
    • Andrea Tofanelli – trumpet / tromba
    • Federico Trufelli – trumpet / tromba
    • Francesco Cecchetti – trumpet / tromba
    • Francesco Cangi – trombone
    • Marcello Angeli – trombone
    • Renzo Telloli – alto sax / sax contralto
    • Michele Tino – alto sax / sax contralto
    • Luca Signorini – tenor sax / sax tenore
    • Dario Cecchini – baritone sax / sax baritono
    • Antonino Siringo – piano / pianoforte
    • Guido Zorn – acustic bass / contrabbasso
    • Michele Vannucci – drums / batteria

Featuring a brand new big band arrangement of George Gershwin’s iconic “Rhapsody in Blue” which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

“Jens Lindemann gave a sizzling, high energy performance in the American premiere of the trumpet concerto ‘Dreaming of the Masters’ at Carnegie Hall”
-New York Times

 

Jens Lindemann

As the first classical brass soloist to ever receive the Order of Canada, Jens Lindemann is hailed as one of the most celebrated artists in his instrument’s history and was recently named “International Brass Personality of the Year” (Brass Herald). Jens has played both jazz and classical in every major concert venue in the world: from the Philharmonics of New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Moscow and Tokyo to Carnegie Hall and even the Great Wall of China. His career has ranged from appearing internationally as an orchestral soloist, being featured at the 2010 Olympics for an audience of 2 billion people, national anthems at the Rose Bowl and for the San Francisco Giants on Memorial Day, performing at London’s ‘Last Night of the Proms’, recording with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to playing lead trumpet with the renowned Canadian Brass and a solo Command Performance for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Jens has  also won major awards ranging from Grammy and Juno nominations to winning he prestigious Echo Klassik in Germany and British Bandsman 2011 Solo CD of the year as well as receiving several honorary doctorates.

Classically trained at the renowned Juilliard School in New York and McGill University in Montreal, Jens’ proven ability to perform as a diverse artist places him at the front of a new generation of musicians. He has performed as soloist and recording artist with classical stars such as Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Angel Romero, Pinchas Zukerman, Doc Severinsen, Charles Dutoit, Gerard Schwarz, Eiji Oue, Bramwell Tovey, Kent Nagano, Lior Shambadal, Boris Brott and Jukka Pekka Saraste. Having recorded for BMG, EMI, CBC and the BBC, Jens is helping to redefine the idea of the concert artist by transcending stylistic genres and the very stereotype of his instrument by performing with “impeccable attacks, agility and amazing smoothness” (The Clarin, Buenos Aires).

A prodigious talent, Jens Lindemann performed as a soloist with orchestras and won accolades at numerous festivals while still in his teens. A prizewinner at numerous jazz and classical competitions including the prestigious ARD in Munich, Jens also placed first, by unanimous juries, at both the Prague and Ellsworth Smith (Florida) International Trumpet Competitions in 1992. Since then, he has performed solos with orchestras including, the
London Symphony, Berlin, Philadelphia, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Beijing, Bayersicher Rundfunk, Buenos Aires Chamber, Atlanta, Washington, Seattle, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Montreal, Toronto, National Arts Centre, Vancouver, Warsaw, Mexico City, Costa Rica, Bogota, Welsh Chamber, I Musici de Montreal, St. Louis, and Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center.

Heralded internationally as an outstanding artist, critics have stated: “He played with golden timbre and virtuosic flair” (New York Times)“, “a world-class talent” (Los Angeles Times), “it was one of the most memorable recitals in International Trumpet Guild history” (ITG), “performed brilliantly in the North American premiere of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Concerto with the Toronto Symphony” (Toronto Star), and “he gave the virtuoso highlight of the evening with the Montreal Symphony”.

Based in Los Angeles as Professor with High Distinction at UCLA, Jens is also director of the summer brass program at the Banff Centre in Canada. Jens Lindemann is an international Yamaha artist playing exclusively on 24K gold plated instruments.