Renowned Pianist Ian Hobson Continues Celebrated Robert Schumann Cycle With 'The Violin sonatas' Program At Tenri Cultural Institute, Sept. 26, 2025

Mr. Hobson Will Be Joined By Renowned Violinist Andrés Cárdenes.

 

The immensely versatile and internationally lauded pianist and conductor Ian Hobson, whose playing has been described by Gramophone as “intensely alive to expressive nuance, textural clarity and elastic shaping,” will bring back his celebrated Robert Schumann Cycle with a piano-violin duo concert at New York’s Tenri Cultural Institute on Friday evening September 26, 2025, 7 p.m. EDT. Mr. Hobson will be joined by his colleague, renowned violinist Andrés Cárdenes. This program will feature Robert Schumann’s three violin sonatas:

 

The Violin Sonatas | Friday evening, September 26, 2025 | 7 p.m.

 

Robert Schumann

 

Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor, WoO 2

Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121

~ Intermission ~

Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105

 

Tickets at $40 are available online through Eventbrite and at Tenri Cultural Institute on the day of the concert.

 

Reviewing Mr. Hobson's concert in spring 2024 with Andrés Cárdenes (violin), Jun Iwasaki (violin), Csaba Erdélyi (viola), and Ko Iwasaki (cello), critic Walter Aparicio of New York Concert Review called the group of musicians "expert chamber music collaborators." He had this to say about the ensemble's performance of Schumann's Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47: "Each member of the ensemble demonstrated a profound affection for this melody, infusing it with deep sentiment every time it recurred...The ensemble exhibited excellent communication and demonstrated a keen understanding of Schumann’s adept transitions from Baroque elements to Romanticism within the piece—a skill finely executed."

 

Pianist and conductor Ian Hobson—called “powerful and persuasive” by The New York Times— is recognized internationally for his command of an extraordinarily comprehensive repertoire, his consummate performances of the Romantic masters, his deft and idiomatic readings of neglected piano music old and new, and his assured conducting from both the piano and the podium. Maestro Hobson serves as Guest Conductor of the Sinfonia Varsovia.

 

In addition to being a celebrated performer, Mr. Hobson is a dedicated scholar and educator who has pioneered renewed interest in the music of such lesser-known masters as Ignaz Moscheles, Johann Hummel, and Richard Stöhr. He has also been an effective advocate of works written expressly for him by a number of today’s noted composers, including Robert Chumbley, Benjamin Lees, John Gardner, David Liptak, Alan Ridout, and Yehudi Wyner.

 

Mr. Hobson is known for artfully programming recital series showcasing the complete piano works of noted composers, matching the subtleties of the composer’s works for each concert. Ian Hobson performed Sound Impressions at SubCulture, a six-concert series featuring the complete solo piano repertoire of Ravel and Debussy. Similar endeavors include Mr. Hobson’s 2015 Uptown/Downtown: Preludes, Etudes, and Variations series—focusing on outstanding examples of each genre by Fauré, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, and Szymanowski, with world premieres by Yehudi Wyner (Preludes), Robert Chumbley (Etudes), and Stephen Taylor (Variations)—and his performance of the complete solo piano works and chamber music with piano of Johannes Brahms, series entitled Johannes Brahms: Classical Inclinations in a Romantic Age.

 

Mr. Hobson has to date amassed a discography of some 60 releases, including the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven and Schumann and a complete edition of Brahms’s variations for piano. Recently, Mr. Hobson has been recording the solo and orchestral works of Polish composer Moritz Moszkowski; the first volume of orchestral works was awarded a 2020 ‘Diapason d’or – Découverte’ by the French magazine Diapason.

 

Reviewing the second volume of Moszkowski’s solo piano compositions, Henry Fogel wrote in the January/February 2023 edition of Fanfare, In addition to technical virtuosity, the other components necessary for successful performances of Moszkowski’s music are warmth, charm, and a gift for employing meaningful degrees of rubato without losing the music’s pulse. Hobson has long demonstrated that he has all of those qualities, resulting in a very enjoyable recital of Romantic pianism.

  

Mr. Hobson continues his concerts as music director of the Sinfonia da Camera, a professional chamber orchestra affiliated with the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and College of Fine and Applied Arts of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Mr. Hobson is the Swanlund Emeritus Professor of Music. He is also Professor of Music at Florida State University.

 

As guest soloist, Ian Hobson has appeared with many of the world’s major orchestras; in the United States these include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Florida, Houston, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and the American Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico. Abroad, he has been heard with Great Britain’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hallé Orchestra, ORF-Vienna, Orchester der Beethovenhalle, Moscow Chopin Orchestra, Israeli Sinfonietta, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

 

Since his debut in the double role of conductor and soloist with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in 1996, Maestro Hobson has been invited to lead the English Chamber Orchestra, the Sinfonia Varsovia (including an appearance at Carnegie Hall), the Pomeranian Philharmonic (Poland), the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra (Bass Hall), and the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra of Israel, among others.

 

In addition, Mr. Hobson is a much sought-after judge for national and international competitions and has been invited to join numerous juries, among them the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (at the specific request of Mr. Cliburn), the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Poland, the Chopin Competition in Florida, the Leeds Piano Competition in the U.K., and the Schumann International Competition in Germany.  In 2005 Hobson served as Chairman of the Jury for the Cleveland International Competition and the Kosciuszko Competition in New York; in 2008 he was Chairman of Jury of the New York Piano Competition; and in 2010 he again served in that capacity of the newly renamed New York International Piano Competition.

 

One of the youngest ever graduates of the Royal Academy of Music, Mr. Hobson began his international career in 1981 when he won First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, after having earned silver medals at both the Arthur Rubinstein and Vienna-Beethoven competitions. Born in Wolverhampton, England, he studied at Cambridge University (England), and at Yale University, in addition to his earlier studies at the Royal Academy of Music.

 

Recognized worldwide as a musical phenomenon, Grammy-nominated Andrés Cárdenes parlays his myriad talents into one of classical music’s most versatile careers. A ferocious, passionate and personally charismatic artist, Cuban-born Cárdenes has garnered international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for his compelling solo violin, conducting, viola, chamber music, concertmaster and recorded performances.

 

Since capturing the Second Prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, Mr. Cárdenes has appeared as soloist with over one hundred orchestras on four continents, including those of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Moscow, Bavarian Radio, Dallas, Helsinki, Shanghai, Caracas and Barcelona. He has collaborated with many of the world’s greatest conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir André Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Jaap van Zweden, David Zinman and Manfred Honeck.

 

Mr. Cárdenes is in great demand as a conductor. His appearances with the Bavarian Radio, Detroit Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Sinfónica Nacíonal de Bogota, San Diego Symphony, Sinfónica de Caracas, Orquesta Fundacíon Beethoven (Santiago, Chile), and the OFUNAM Orchestra of Mexico City have received rave reviews. Headlines proclaimed “Cárdenes conducts Pittsburgh Symphony with epic mastery” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) after stepping in for an ailing Robert Spano. Mr. Cárdenes served as Artistic Director and Leader of the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra from its inception in 1999 through 2009.

 

A prolific recording artist, Cárdenes has interpreted concerti by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Barber, Balada, Chausson, Gutíerrez, and David Stock on the Artek, Naxos and Albany labels. He has recorded the complete works for violin by Leonardo Balada, and the complete violin and piano sonatas by Hindemith and Schubert. This year and next Mr. Cárdenes continues his project to record many standard and contemporary concerti. Cárdenes’ discography includes over three dozen recordings of concerti, sonatas, short works, orchestral and chamber music on the Ocean, Naxos, Sony, Arabesque, Albany, Delos, RCA, ProArte, Telarc, Artek, Melodya and Enharmonic labels.

 

Cárdenes is the co-founder and Artistic and Music Director of the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival, a program geared towards educating young musicians in chamber music and solo repertoire, inspired by the teachings, legacy, humanity and ideology of the legendary violinist. He has been the violinist of the world-renowned Díaz Trio since 1995 and the Carnegie Mellon Trio since 1989.

 

A champion of contemporary composers, Cárdenes has premiered, commissioned and/or recorded over 60 works by diverse composers such as Ricardo Lorenz, David Stock, Leonardo Balada, Elbert Lechtman, Beatrice Bilbao, Marilyn Taft Thomas, Erberk Eryilmaz, Ramiro Cortés, Roberto Sierra and Gunther Schuller.

 

Mr, Cardenes has served on the juries of the Tchaikovsky, Schoenfeld, Osaka and Oliveira International Violin Competitions, and thriced served as President of the Jury of the Stradivarius International Violin Competition. It is his great honor to serve as the permanent President of the Jury for the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition.

 

The year 2025 marks the 48th anniversary of Mr. Cárdenes’ renowned teaching and pedagogical career, which began as an assistant to his teacher and mentor Josef Gingold at Indiana University. Today, Mr. Cárdenes continues Professor Gingold’s legacy and discipline while holding the title of Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Lynn Conservatory in Boca Raton, FL., after 36 years as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Violin Studies and the Dorothy Richard Starling/Alexander Speyer Jr. Endowed Chair at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music. In addition, Cárdenes gives master classes regularly at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Masterclass Al-Andalus, Sibelius Akademie, Manhattan School, Shanghai Conservatory, Moscow and St. Petersburg Conservatories, Cleveland Institute, Curtis Institute, Mt. Royal University, Arizona State University, Instituto de Música de La Habana, and at virtually every major university and conservatory in the United States, Europe, Asia and South America.

  

Among his many humanitarian awards are the Kollell Foundation Jewish Learning Award, the Kindness Award from Chabad, Mexican Red Cross, WQED Musician of the Year and the UNICEF Cultural Ambassadorship.

 

Mr. Cárdenes is the father of two young adults, Isabel, an accomplished young harpist with a Bachelors Degree from Manhattan School of Music and is attending the Curtis Institute for her Masters degree in the fall of 2025, and Tino, a talented classical and jazz pianist studying Music and Technology at Carnegie Mellon University.

www.andrescardenes.com

 

For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at 212-772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.

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