FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 19, 2006
Contact: Colin Byrne cbyrne@bachfestivalflorida.org
407-646-2182
Winter Park, FL — The Bach Festival Society is pleased to announce that two artists on its Visiting Artists Series this season, pianist Garrick Ohlsson and violinist Midori, will also appear on the "Great Performers" series at Lincoln Center in New York City. Ohlsson's appearance with the Bach Festival comes just two days before his performance in New York.
"The Bach Festival Society is thrilled to have two such outstanding artists on its series this year. Both Garrick Ohlsson and Midori exemplify the high artistic quality the Bach Festival Society is known for presenting in Central Florida" says the Bach Festival Society's Executive Director, Betsy Gwinn. "Each artist will play in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in New York, which seats 1,096. Our audience will have the rare privilege of experiencing these magnificent performers in the intimate 400-seat John M. Tiedtke Concert Hall—an acoustically outstanding venue."
"These concerts are a wonderful opportunity to see two world-renowned performers at the top of their game," notes Artistic Director, Dr. John Sinclair.
Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although he has long been regarded as one of the world's leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Mr. Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire, ranging over the entire piano literature. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Mr. Ohlsson has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. His concerto repertoire alone is unusually wide and eclectic—from Haydn and Mozart to works of the 21st century—and to date he has at his command some 80 concertos. Ohlsson will play an all-Beethoven program for the Bach Festival.
Midori was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971. She received her first violin at the age of 4 and studied with her mother, Setsu Goto, for several years, practicing with her every day. A visiting musician friend living in New York City heard Midori play and encouraged her mother to make a tape. Setsu Goto held a small cassette recorder in her lap, and, as the family's two dogs barked, Midori played the Paganini Concerto No. 1 and a Caprice, a Bach solo sonata, and the Saint-Saëns Third Concerto. The tape ended up coincidentally in the hands of the prominent American violin teacher Dorothy DeLay. In 1982, when Zubin Mehta first heard her play, he was so impressed that he invited her to be a surprise guest soloist for the New York Philharmonic's traditional New Year's Eve concert, on which occasion she received a standing ovation and the impetus to begin a major career.
In the years since, Midori has worked with artists such as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Emanuel Ax, Jonathan Biss, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Nobuko Imai, Mariss Jansons, Yo-Yo Ma, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Isaac Stern, and Pinchas Zukerman. In past seasons, she has also appeared with such orchestras as the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra (Hamburg), Orchestre de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic.
Midori will perform for the Bach Festival Society with American pianist Robert McDonald. McDonald has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Far East as a renowned solo recitalist and an esteemed recital partner. He has performed with Isaac Stern, Midori, and numerous other artists and has taken stage as soloist with the San Francisco, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Omaha, and Curtis symphony orchestras. He has also appeared with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Costa Rica and with the Orchestra Sinfonica Haydn di Bolzano e Trento in Italy. Mr. McDonald is an active chamber musician and has collaborated with the Juilliard, American, Muir, Takács, Brentano, Fine Arts, and Chicago quartets, as well as with Musicians from Marlboro on several of its tours.
Garrick Ohlsson performs Friday January 26th at 8 pm.
Midori and pianist Robert McDonald perform Saturday March 17 at 8 pm.
Tickets for these performances are $40 and $30. Available seating is limited.
For more information regarding the upcoming season or to order tickets, please call the Bach Festival Society at 407-646-2182 or visit us online at www.bachfestivalflorida.org.