All material found in the Press Releases section is provided by parties entirely independent of Musical America, which is not responsible for content.
Press Releases
Legato Arts and W Preserve present Nina Kotova, cello; Valentina Lisitsa, piano and Bella Thorne, actress in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall
Legato Arts is pleased to present cellist Nina Kotova, pianist Valentina Lisitsa and actress Bella Thorne in an evening of music, poetry and prose on Monday, March 25, 2019 at 8:00 PM in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. The performance will include works by Max Bruch, César Franck, Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt and the poetry of Bella Thorne.
Tickets are on sale now for the March 25th concert and are available through CarnegieCharge (212-247-7800), online at www.carnegiehall.org and at the Carnegie Hall box office located at 57th St. and 7th Ave. in New York City.
About the Artists
Bella Thorne has cemented herself as one of the most in demand young actresses in Hollywood. She was seen in the MTV series Scream, recreating the iconic Drew Barrymore scene from the original thriller, as well as CBS Films’ hit comedy The DUFF, in which she won Choice Villain at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. Embarking from her early roots on the hit Disney Channel series Shake It Up, she continued to charm movie goers with Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip during the 2015 holiday season. She made her film festival debut at SXSW 2016 with Awesomeness Films’ Shovel Buddies and her animated film, Focus Features’ Ratchet and Clank (Sylvester Stallone, John Goodman, Rosario Dawson). In 2014, Thorne kept close ties with her Disney family and appeared in Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, starred opposite Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in Warner Bros. Blended and in Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween.
Currently, Thorne is starring in the Freeform Series Famous in Love based on the novel of the same name from the creator of Pretty Little Liars, Marlene King and in Midnight Sun opposite Patrick Schwarzenegger. She produced and starred in Awesomeness Films’ You Get Me, which is now streaming on Netflix. Thorne can also currently be seen in Warner Bros. The Babysitter (2017). Recently, Thorne wrapped production on The Death and Life of John F. Donovan in which she appears opposite Natalie Portman and Kit Harington, Assassination Nation with director Sam Levinson, and I Still See You, which she filmed in Winnipeg.
Thorne has been a part of numerous national campaigns including being the face of the Candies brand as well as being the spokesperson for Neutrogena, following in the footsteps of Kerry Washington, Julie Bowen, and Jennifer Garner. Thorne frequently lends her voice to causes near and dear to her heart including the Boys and Girls Club SMART Girls initiative, The Thirst Project as well as the Dyslexia Foundation. Her social following continues to grow, and she has over 20 million followers across all of her social media platforms. Thorne also penned a three-part series entitled AUTUMN FALLS. Most recently, Thorne launched her record label Filthy Fangs Records from which she will release her forthcoming single and the labels first release, “B*tch I’m Bella Thorne.”
Valentina Lisitsa is not only the first YouTube star of classical music, she is the first classical artist to have converted her internet success into a global concert career in the principal venues of Europe, the USA, South America and Asia. Washington Post Online wrote: “It’s striking that her playing is relatively straightforward. ‘Straightforward’ is an inadequate term for virtuosity. She does not tart the music up. She does not seek to create a persona, much less impose one on what she is playing. She offers readings that are, when you penetrate through the satin curtains of the soft playing and the thunder of the loud playing, fundamentally honest and direct. You feel you’re getting a strong performer but also a sense of what the piece is like rather than of how Lisitsa plays it. I was impressed, sometimes dazzled and sometimes even taken aback by the ferocity of her fortissimos. And she is also a delicate, sensitive, fluid player who can ripple gently over the keys with the unctuous smoothness of oil.”
She posted her first video on the internet platform YouTube in 2007, a recording of the Etude op. 39/6 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The views increased staggeringly; more videos followed. The foundation stone of a social-network career unparalleled in the history of classical music was laid. Her YouTube channel now records 346.000 subscribers and 147 million views with an average 75.000 views per day.
In 2018/2019, Valentina will play concerts with orchestras in the USA, in Finland, in South Korea, in Italy and in Scotland. Moreover, recitals will bring her to South America (Bogota, Colombia and Joinville, Brazil), Portugal (Sintra and Porto), Italy (Messina and Catania), Istanbul, Prague, Paris, Barcelona and Beijing (NCPA). Furthermore, she will be Artist in Residence at the Internationale Musikfestspiele Saar and the Palermo Classica Festival.
According to Newsweek magazine, Russian-born cellist Nina Kotova “is a fantastically gifted cellist. Very expressive, imaginative… she has a powerful stage presence”. Time magazine states: “She is a musician of high seriousness and real talent”. She has been the subject of numerous features in Vogue, Elle, Hello, The Sunday Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal. Nina Kotova has appeared on the covers of Classic FM, Gramophone China, Il Venerdi Italia and Reader's Digest and on television on A&E’s “Breakfast with the Arts” and the “Charlie Rose Show.”
Nina Kotova studied at the Moscow Conservatory and the Musikhochschule in Cologne, giving her first performance as a soloist with orchestra at the age 11 and graduating summa cum laude. She made her Western debut at Wigmore Hall, performed at the Barbican Centre in London in 1996, released her chart-topping debut album for Philips Classics and made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1999.
Ms. Kotova has performed in recital and as a soloist with major orchestras across the globe touring the capitals of Europe, Asia and the Americas. Ms. Kotova has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and at the Berlin Philharmonic and has collaborated with leading artists and conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Jean Yves Thibaudet, Antonio Pappano, John Malkovich, Helene Grimaud, Jeremy Irons, Joshua Bell, Lang Lang, Sarah Chang, Sting and many more. She has had the distinction of performing live in broadcast from Red Square in Moscow, for the Imperial family of Japan and at Buckingham Palace in a special concert for Prince Charles.
A composer herself and a champion of contemporary music, Ms. Kotova has commissioned and premiered numerous works from leading composers. Her Cello Concerto was premiered in San Francisco to rave reviews. The San Francisco Chronicle said: “Like Rihm in 1974, so Kotova in 2000 stands in defiance of last century’s modernism and the new simplicity of so much recent music. Her Cello Concerto is a complex, gripping affair.”
The Program
Bruch: Kol Nidrei, Op. 47, for Cello and Piano
Glass, Songs and Poems for Solo Cello; Wichita Vortex Sutra
Pärt, Spiegel Im Speigel
Franck, Sonata in A Major for Cello and Piano
Contact: Norman Dunfee 917-592-8317
Press@legatoarts.com
FEATURED JOBS
RENT A PHOTO
