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Theofanidis Piano Concerto West Coast Premiere
Christopher Theofanidis's Piano Concerto no. 2 will have its West Coast Premiere with the Rogue Valley Symphony, conducted by Music Director, Martin Majkut with guest pianist, Jeffrey Biegel, on January 25, 26 and 27 in Southern Oregon. This follows the successful World Premiere in November with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stuart Malina and guest pianist, Jeffrey Biegel. The commissioning of Mr. Theofanidis's concerto was created by its soloist, Jeffrey Biegel.
Mr. Theofanidis has had many performance by leading orchestras from around the world, including the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Moscow Soloists, the National, Baltimore, St. Louis and Detroit Symphonies, among many others.
The three movements are titled, Midnight Air, Troublemaker, and Astrolabe. According to Mr. Theofanidis, "Each of the three movements in the concerto has its starting point in poems of Rumi." (Program notes available upon request). Scored for piano, strings, harp and percussion, Mr. Theofanidis creates a unique sonic landscape, the likes of which most orchestras have experienced with his music. Perhaps the most notably performed work is, Rainbow Body, which has been performed by more than 150 orchestras internationally.
Mr. Biegel is best known for his interpretations through performances of standard repertoire, and has ventured further into the jazz and popular worlds with music by Claude Bolling, Keith Emerson, and new concertos by Jimmy Webb, Neil Sedaka, Peter Tork and Jeremy Lubbock. His commissioning projects and premieres since 1998 include new works by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Charles Strouse, Lowell Liebermann, Richard Danielpour, William Bolcom, Kenneth Fuchs (2019 Grammy-nominated recording in the Best Classical Compendium category), Lucas Richman, Peter Schickele (as P.D.Q. Bach), Jake Runestad, Marjorie Rusche and Dick Tunney. From his recordings "Bach On a Steinway" to the "Steinway Christmas Album", the "Complete Sonatas by Mozart" to the upcoming premiere in March 2019 of the new Peanuts Concerto based on the music of Vince Guaraldi, Mr. Biegel stretches the boundaries of the 21st century pianist to embrace the widest possible range of styles and repertoire without compromise to the individual genres.
Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), Martin Majkut graduated from the State Conservatory and served as Assistant Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic while earning his Ph.D. in conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts. While studying, he worked with the Slovak Philharmonic, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovak State Philharmonic and Slovak Sinfonietta. Majkut came to the U.S. as a Fulbright scholar in 2003 and earned a D.M.A., his second doctorate, in 2008, at the University of Arizona. He also studied with Gianluigi Gelmetti at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy and Salvador Mas Conde at the Wiener Meisterkurse in Vienna, Austria. Majkut has been serving as Music Director of the Rogue Valley Symphony (RVS) in Ashland, Oregon since 2010. The RVS has experienced a remarkable growth under his leadership and is enjoying an unprecedented level of support and enthusiasm in the community. The 50th season of the orchestra, with five world premieres and a star-studded line-up of soloists, earned him an invitation to the June 2018 League of American Orchestras conference as a featured presenter in the Frontiers: Risk Rewardsession.
Maestro Majkut’s ability to inspire the orchestra and deliver exciting, polished and powerful performances results in enthused audiences and many sold out concerts. He has been called “amazing, supremely gifted”and “an incomparable, unique and perhaps irreplaceable asset”by the press in Oregon.
For more information about Mr. Theofanidis, please visit www.theofanidismusic.com
For more information about Mr. Biegel, please visit www.jeffreybiegel.com
For more information about Mr. Majkut, please visit www.martinmajkut.com
For more information about the Rogue Valley Symphony, please visit www.rvsymphony.org
For information regarding Mr. Theofanidis's Piano Concerto no. 2, please send an email to info@jeffreybiegel.com
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