Philippe Quint to Premier New Violin Concerto by British Composer Errollyn Wallen CBE

World Premiere with the Calgary Philharmonic and Music Director Rune Bergmann, March 2024, followed by US premiere with Kansas City Symphony and UK premiere with Royal Scottish National Orchestra

New York City, May 3, 2023 --- Violinist Philippe Quint will premiere a substantial new violin concerto by Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen with the Calgary Philharmonic and Music Director Rune Bergmann on March 15 and 16, 2024.

Further regional premieres and performances will follow by these co-commissioning orchestras:

Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, Music Director | March 22-24, 2024 (US premiere)

Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Joana Carneiro, Conductor | April 26-27, 2024 (UK premiere)

Magdeburg Philharmonic, Germany, Anna Skryleva, Music Director| Dates TBC (EU premiere)

Brevard Music Festival, Keith Lockhart, Artistic Director | Summer 2024

North Carolina Symphony, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Music Director | dates 24/25 TBC

Quint says, "I am absolutely elated that Errollyn Wallen will be composing her first violin concerto for me. I am eagerly anticipating the opportunity to collaborate with her and be inspired by her exceptional artistic abilities and distinctive style in the creation of this new work."

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About Philippe Quint

One of the most versatile and imaginative artists on the concert stage today, multiple Grammy Award-nominated American violinist Philippe Quint is internationally recognized for his unique approach to classical core repertoire, championing new music, rediscovering neglected works and creating a new format of docu-concert experience; multimedia journeys about lives of Astor Piazzolla and Charlie Chaplin.“Truly phenomenal” is how BBC Music Magazine recently described him, also adding that “Quint’s tonal opulence, generously inflected with subtle portamentos, sounds like a throwback to the glory days of Fritz Kreisler.”

With an award-winning discography of 17 commercial releases that can be found on Warner Classics, Naxos and Avanti Classics, Philippe Quint regularly appears with major orchestras and conductors worldwide at venues ranging from the Gewandhaus in Leipzig to Carnegie Hall in New York, while making frequent guest appearances at the most prestigious festivals including Verbier, Aspen, Colmar, Hollywood Bowl and Dresden Festspiele.

Quint’s appearances in recent seasons have taken him to the London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Houston Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Weimar Staatskapelle, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, China National Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Komische Oper Orchestra, Leipzig’s MDR performing under the batons of such renowned conductors such as the late Kurt Masur, Edo De Waart, Andrew Litton, Tugan Sokhiev, Ludovic Morlot, James Gaffigan, Carl St. Clair, Michael Stern, Vladimir Spivakov, Cristian Macelaru, Kristian Jarvi, Krzysztof Urbanski, Jorge Mester, Jahja Ling, Krzysztof Urbanski, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Tugan Sokhiev, Tito Munoz, Steven Sloane and Bramwell Tovey.

Philippe Quint plays the magnificent 1708 "Ruby" Antonio Stradivari violin on loan to him through the generous efforts of The Stradivari Society®.

About Errollyn Wallen

Errollyn Wallen is a multi-award-winning Belize-born British composer and performer. Her prolific output includes twenty-two operas and a large catalogue of orchestral, chamber and vocal works which are performed and broadcast throughout the world. She was the first black woman to have a work featured in the Proms and the first woman to receive an Ivor Novello award for Classical Music for her body of work. Errollyn composed for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games 2012, for the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees, a specially commissioned song for the climate change conference, COP 26, 2021, and a re-imagining of Jerusalem for BBC’s Last Night of the Proms 2020. She is one of the top 20 most performed living composers of classical music in the world.

BBC Radio 3 featured her music across the first week of 2022 for its flagship programme, Composer of the Week and she has made several radio documentaries including Classical Commonwealth, nominated for the Prix Europa, which explored the impact of colonialism on music in the Commonwealth. Her carol, Peace on Earth was part of the Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast from King’s College, Cambridge on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2022.

Errollyn Wallen founded her own group, Ensemble X whose motto is “We don’t break down barriers in music...we don’t see any." Their orchestral album PHOTOGRAPHY on the NMC label was voted a Top Ten Classical Album by USA’s National Public Radio. Orchestra X performed Errollyn’s composition Mighty River, which was featured in PRSF’s New Music Biennial 2017 and which was performed at this year’s PRSF Biennial by National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain Inspire at Coventry Cathedral and the Southbank, London.

Errollyn Wallen collaborated with artist Sonia Boyce on her installation, Feeling Her Way, for the British Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale which won the Golden Lion prize for Best National Participation.

Errollyn’s albums have travelled 7.84 million kilometres in space, completing 186 orbits around the Earth on NASA’s STS115 mission.

Her critically acclaimed opera, Dido’s Ghost (commissioned by the Barbican Centre, Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera, Buxton Festival, Edinburgh Festival and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale) premiered at the Barbican, London, in June 2021 and will receive its US premiere in November 2023 in San Francisco by Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale.

New works for 2023 include a violin concerto, Dances for Orchestra for Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and a song cycle, JOY, for Erin Wagner. Her 40-part work for unaccompanied voices was released in February by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and her piano concerto is released in March on the Resonus label. Resonus will be recording several of her orchestral works later in the year. In October Errollyn will give her Wigmore Hall debut performing the songs from The Errollyn Wallen Songbook. Errollyn’s book, Becoming a Composer will be published by Faber this year.

Errollyn was awarded an MBE in 2007 in the Queen’s Birthday Honours and a CBE in 2020 in the New Year Honours, for services to music.

Errollyn lives and composes in a Scottish lighthouse.

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Wittenberg Artists is a New York-based boutique classical music artist management company, founded in 2020 by Martin Wittenberg. The current roster includes conductors David Greilsammer, John Kennedy, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Earl Lee, Lionel Meunier, Jaume Santonja, Chloe´ van Soeterste`de, and Naomi Woo; pianists Eric Lu and Schaghajegh Nosrati; violinists Stella Chen and Philippe Quint; cellists Steven Isserlis and Seth Parker Woods; harpist Parker Ramsay; and the Manchester Collective.