Legato Arts presents East Meets West in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall on Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 8:00 PM

Legato Arts will present East Meets West at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on Tuesday, March 24th at 8:00 PM. Soprano Mihaela Buhaiciuc and pianists Koichiro Kanno, Yukari Haga, Szabo S.L. Levente and Yu Ueda collaborate with AdCantus Ensemble from Transilvania University Brasov. 

Tickets are on sale now for the March 24th  concert and are available through CarnegieCharge (212-247-7800), online at www.carnegiehall.org and at the Carnegie Hall box office located at 57^th St. and 7^th Ave. in New York City. 

About East Meets West

Mihaela Buhaiciuc is currently serves as full-time voice faculty at Transilvania University of Brasov, where she coordinates the vocal performance area. Her operatic repertoire includes the roles of Handel’s Nerone, Britten’s Miles, Mrs. Hayes in Floyd’s Suzannah, Mozart’s Susanna, Despina, Zerlina; Bizet’s Micaela; Donizetti’s Norina, Seur Constance from Poulenc’s Dialogue of Carmelites, La Princess from Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortileges. Buhaiciuc toured and performed across the U.S.A. and Europe; collaborated with Mobile Opera and Mobile Symphony Orchestra, Alabama; Stony Brook Opera of SBU New York, and Brasov  Opera House,  Romania, and worked with conductors: David Lawton, Timothy Long, Hal France, Andy Anderson, Teresa Chung, Paul Hostetter, Ilarion-Ionescu Galati and Koichiro Kanno. Her repertoire also includes oratorios, cantatas, art songs and chamber music. Among the latest are included Telemann's 1725-6 cantatas, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, and Thierry Beçanson’s Strigoaicaria, premiered at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2011.

Koichiro Kanno currently conducts the Collegium Musicum Kronstadt Orchestra, in Brasov, Romania and Tokyo Chamber Orchestra, in Japan. He was a conductor for Brasov Opera House and Brasov Philharmonic in Romania; vocal coach and assistant conductor of Opernfestspiele Heidenheim, Germany; collaborative pianist and vocal coach of Opera Bergen, Norway; Vienna Opera Company, Wien Pygmalion Theater among others.  Kanno studied at the Toho-Gakuen School of Music,  Japan  and at the Universitätet für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Wien in Austria. Koichiro maintains an active profile as a conductor and collaborative pianist in Europe and Asia. He is a regular guest for the Brasov International Summer Music Program at Transilvania University, institution for which he taught several academic years.

Szabó S. L. Levente is a graduate of Gh. Dima Music Academy from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where he studied organ, harpsichord and piano performance. His repertoire for organ includes works by Rheinberger, Reger, Ritter, Liszt, Messiaen, Frescobaldi, Buxtehude, Bach and Rameau. Levente has been a chamber music performer, working locally with baroque ensembles, solo-violinists and singers. Among his mentors are:, Erich Türk, Ursula Philippi, and Maria Abrudan. He took part in masterclasses with Lorenzo Ghielmi (Academie d’Orgue de Fribourg, Switzerland), Christoph Bossert (Musikhochschule Trossingen, Germany) and Robert Levin (Harvard Music Department, USA). Along with Buhaiciuc, Levente has transcribed for voice and organ Telemann’s solo cantatas of the 1725-6 liturgical year.  A first collection of the Advent and Christmas cantatas was published in 2017 in the USA. In 2016 Levente has published his first composition Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, a motet for Male Chorus and organ, followed by Psalm 49 for solo voice, mixed chorus and orchestra.

Yu Ueda started the study of piano in Japan at the age of six. In 2000, she attended the Toho Music School for Children where she participated in various competitions and won different prizes. In 2011, Yu was awarded the 23rd Piano Performance Award in Tokyo and in 2012 she was admitted to the Toho-Gakuen School of Music where she studied with Keiko Takeuchi and Tomoko Yamada. Yu participated in masterclasses in Freiburg, Paris and Vienna working with Michael Leuschner, Stefan Arnold, Christopher Hinterhuber, Jan Jiracek von Arnim, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, Wolfgang Watzinger, Karl Barth, and Christoph Traxler. In 2011 Yu played Mozart's piano concerto K. 466 with orchestra in Innsbruck, Austria and, in 2012 and 2016 she was a guest pianist in the Youth Concert at Japan's Embassy in Berlin. Yu also performed Schumann's piano concerto op. 54 in Botosani, Romania and Mozart's K. 466 in Brasov with Collegium Musicum Kronstadt Orchestra, under the button of Koichiro Kanno. 

Yukari Haga has performed as a solo pianist with Opole Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland, Saint Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra in Russia, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Bulgaria and Czech National Symphony Orchestra at the Smetana Hall for the International Music Festival Prague Proms. A graduate of Kunitachi College of Music in Japan Yukari has studied under Georg Ebert, Wolfgang Watzinger, Noel Flores and Karl Barth. Yukari won an Honorable Mention at the 40th Japan Piano Teacher's  Anual Audition and the Excellence Award at the 10th Soleil Newcomer's Auditions performing in the Gala Concert at Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Yukari held solo piano concerts in Tokyo and in Vienna. She is currently the exclusive pianist of the Shonan Chorariar's Woman's Chorus.

AdCantus Ensemble consists of Romanian and Hungarian young performers: Bianca Timaru, Kitti Székely, Andrea Sándor, Valentina Popa and Erika Albu, under the direction of Mihaela Buhaiciuc from Transilvania University Brasov, Romania. The senior of the ensemble, Bianca Timaru has performed with the Brasov Opera House - Experimental Studio, in Romania the roles of Amore in Gluck's Orfeo (2016) and Nella in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (2017).  She is the winner of the Concerto Competition of the Music Department in Spring 2019 performing Olympia's aria with the UniTBv Orchestra. In 2016 Bianca has performed the role of Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Collegium Musicum Kronstadt Orchestra and Handel's Morgana aria from Alcina in 2019, with Koichiro Kanno conducting. The alto section of the ensemble: Andrea Sandor, Valentina Popa, and Erika Albu  joined Transilvania University in 2017, respectively in 2018. They became part of the group working in various performances covering lieder projects, sacred and chamber music repertoire. The current focus of the ensemble is Romanian and Hungarian music of the late 19th century.

The Program

Arias from Julius Caesar, Tales of Hoffmann and Der Freischutz

Japanese, Romanian and Hungarian Folk Songs

Piano works by Debussy, Busoni, Hirai, Goldmark and Liszt

Contact: Norman Dunfee  917-592-8317

Press@legatoarts.com