Baryshnikov Arts Center Presents

Alexei Lubimov Calidore String Quartet
with Logan Coale, double bass 

Performing Haydn, Zagny, Karmanov 

Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 7:30pm

Baryshnikov Arts Center | Jerome Robbins Theater
450 W. 37^th St. | NYC

Tickets: $25 at bacnyc.org 866.811.4111 

“Lubimov owns every exquisitely calibrated nuance.” – BBC Music 

“Four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one" – The Washington Post on Calidore String Quartet

New York, NY – Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) concludes its Spring 2019 season on Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 7:30pm with esteemed pianist and BAC’s inaugural Cage Cunningham Fellow Alexei Lubimov premiering works he commissioned from accomplished Russian composers Pavel Karmanov and Sergei Zagny. Bass player Logan Coale joins Lubimov and the award-winning Calidore String Quartet, who opens the concert at BAC’s Jerome Robbins Theater (450 W. 37^th St.) with one of the groundbreaking Haydn Op. 20 quartets.   

BAC’s inaugural fellowship to support artists who embody John Cage and Merce Cunningham’s commitment to artistic innovation was awarded in 2016 to Alexei Lubimov—a creative visionary who has profoundly influenced the advancement of contemporary composers and the avant-garde. Lubimov generously applied his full $50,000 award to commission five composers he identified at the forefront of music innovation. In 2017 and 2018, BAC presented the works he commissioned from Julia Wolfe, Bryce Dessner, and Anton Batagov. During the May 30 concert, the final two commissions, by Pavel Karmanov and Sergei Zagny, will have U.S. and world premieres, respectively.

One of today’s most versatile keyboardists, Lubimov is renowned for his unusual, dual aptitude and passion for 20^th century works, as well as early instruments. He will perform on organ in Sergei Zagny’s nod to baroque music, Keyboard Music of XVII-XVIII Centuries for organ. In this work, Zagny considers the question of authorship and inspiration, drawing on music by master composers including J.S. Bach, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Henry Purcell, and Johann Pachelbel.

Pavel Karmanov’s ethereal 2017 piece, I Made My Home for narrator, prepared piano, string quartet, bass and tape will be performed by Lubimov with the award-winning Calidore String Quartet and bassist Logan Coale. The piece includes a poem by the ancient Chinese poet Tao Yuang Ming. Karamanov, considered a minimalist composer in Russia, uses a prepared grand piano in his piece that was scored in honor of John Cage.

The Calidore String Quartet will open the concert with Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 20, No. 2, written in 1772 when the composer was Kapellmeister to the Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. The piece is one of Haydn’s milestone compositions, for which he is known as the “father of the string quartet.” The Calidore String Quartet has enjoyed an impressive number of accolades, including a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, and $100,000 Grand-Prize winner of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition, the largest prize for chamber music in the world. The group is currently in residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). 

Program:

J. Haydn: String Quartet Op. 20, No. 2 (1772)
S. Zagny: Keyboard Music of XVII-XVIII Centuries for organ (2016) (World Premiere)
P. Karmanov: I Made My Home for narrator, piano, string quartet, bass, and tape (2017) (U.S. Premiere)

The performance will run 60 minutes with no intermission.

Leadership support for music programming provided by the Thompson Family Foundation. 

Born in Moscow in 1944, Alexei Lubimov was one of the last pupils of Henryk Neuhaus at the Moscow Conservatory. He founded both the avant-garde Alternativa Festival in Moscow, which features works by contemporary composers, and the Moscow Baroque Quartet. Lubimov has performed with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, as well as the orchestras of Helsinki, Israel, Los Angeles, and Munich. He has worked with such conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Neeme Järvi, David Oistrakh, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Marek Janowski, Christopher Hogwood, Sir Roger Norrington, Frans Bru¨ggen, David Robertson, Andrey Boreyko, Ivan Fischer, Kent Nagano, and Yan Pascal Tortelier. In recent seasons he has performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Austrian Tonku¨nstler Orchester, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Mu¨nchner Philharmoniker, SWR Stuttgart, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, and Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Lubimov has recorded for many labels, such as Melodya, Erato, BIS, and Sony, which have released his interpretations of the complete sonatas of Mozart, as well as works by Schubert, Chopin, and Beethoven, and 20th century composers, including Arvo Pärt.

The Calidore String Quartet has enjoyed an impressive number of accolades, including a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. The Calidore made international headlines as winner of the $100,000 Grand-Prize of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition, the largest prize for chamber music in the world. The quartet was also the first North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and was named BBC Radio 3 new Generation Artists, an honor that brings with it recordings, international radio broadcasts and appearances in Britain's most prominent venues and festivals. 2018-19 is the Calidore’s third year in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). Within two years of their founding in 2010, the Calidore String Quartet won grand prizes in virtually all the major U.S. chamber music competitions, including the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs competitions and captured top prizes at the 2012 ARD Munich International String Quartet Competition and Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition.The Calidore String Quartet regularly performs in prestigious venues throughout North America, Europe and Asia such as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Brussels BOZAR, Cologne Philharmonie, Seoul’s Kumho Arts Hall and at many significant festivals, including the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Music@Menlo, Rheingau, East Neuk and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. 

Composer Pavel Karmanov graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1995. He has participated in major Russian festivals of contemporary music, including Alternativa Festival. Karmanov’s work has been commissioned and performed by renowned artists including Yuri Bashmet, Alexei Lubimov, Alexei Goribol, Polina Osetinskaya, Vladislav Pesin, Nazar Kozhukhar, Tatiana Grindenko, Mark Pekarsky, Yuri Kasparov, and others. Karmanov performs flute and piano as a member of the Moscow rock band Vezhlivyi Otkaz, directed by Roman Suslov. He has written a number of scores for documentaries and films by Alexei Khanutin, Timur Bekmambetov, Andrei Proshkin, Nurbek Egen, Alexander Kott, and Anna Fenchenko.

Sergei Zagny studied composition with Albert Leman and music theory with Vsevolod Zaderatsky at the P.I. Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in Moscow. His honors include the John Cage First Russian Prize in Moscow (1992). Zagny’s work has been performed in Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S. As a performer, Zagny improvises on non-traditional instruments, organ, and piano. He conducted the Small Garden Orchestra of the School of Individual Directing in Moscow (1992–96) and worked at the Theremin Centre for Electroacoustic Music of the P.I. Tchaikovsky State Conservatory (1993–95). Zagny has written for publications in Russia and U.S., including the journal Perspectives of New Music. He has been a teacher of analysis, harmony, and polyphony at the P.I. Tchaikovsky State Conservatory since 1992. He has written music for films and stage productions.

Bass player Logan Coale’s projects help illuminate paths forward for the tradition of art music while recognizing the importance of the conversation between art music and popular music. He is currently bass player for Natalie Merchant and is a member of The Knights Chamber Orchestra and contemporary music group NOW Ensemble. He has performed and toured with The National, Lisa Hannigan and Aaron Dessner, Silk Road Ensemble, Abigail Washburn, Lanz Projects, Helado Negro, The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Mark Morris Dance Group, A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, Wordless Music Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Alarm Will Sound. He has recorded commercially for David Lang, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Missy Mazzoli, Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, Lisa Hannigan, Jesse Marchant, The Lone Bellow, Mum, The National, Olga Bell, Sharon Van Etten, Local Natives, Joanna Newsom, Luluc, and Jonsi Sigursson of Sigur Ros, among others. He was a scholarship student of both Todd Seeber and Edwin Barker of the Boston Symphony, and a fellow at the Tanglewood and Schlesswig-Holstein Festivals. Logan grew up in Portland, Oregon, and currently lives in Brooklyn.

ABOUT BARYSHNIKOV ARTS CENTER (BAC)
BAC is the realization of a long-held vision by artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov to build an arts center in Manhattan that would serve as a gathering place for artists from all disciplines. BAC’s opening in 2005 heralded the launch of this mission, establishing a thriving creative laboratory and performance space for artists from around the world. BAC’s activities encompass a robust residency program augmented by a range of professional services, including commissions of new work, as well as the presentation of performances by artists at varying stages of their careers. In tandem with its commitment to supporting artists, BAC is dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary, innovative work at affordable ticket prices. For more information, please visit www.bacnyc.org.