Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts - Concert Hall
Date: July 25, 2017
Duration: Approximate 120 mins (Intermission Included)
Programme
Richard Strauss
Don Juan, Op. 20
Jean Sibelius
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
——Intermission——
Beethoven
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
Conductor: Richard Pontzious
Richard Pontzious is the Artistic Director and conductor of Asian Youth Orchestra. Richard Pontzious founded the Hong Kong-based Asian Youth Orchestra in 1987 with the distinguished violinist, conductor and humanitarian Yehudi Menuhin.
The idea for the creation of an orchestra that would unite the region and celebrate the talents of East Asia’s brightest young musicians came as the result of Mr. Pontzious’ work as conductor, writer, teacher and mentor in China and Japan. Critics have called AYO “astonishing” and the “finest among youth orchestras around the world.” In 2010 the Orchestra was awarded Japan’s Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists, a global arts prize.
Violinist: Sarah Chang
Sarah Chang is recognised as a great violinist. Since her debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of eight, she has performed with great orchestras, conductors and accompanists internationally in a career spanning more than two decades.
Highlights from Ms. Chang's recent and upcoming seasons have included performances with such North American orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony, and Cleveland Symphony. She has also performed at the Hollywood Bowl and at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Aspen Music Festivals, among others. With a career that has blossomed internationally, her European engagements have included performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and all the principal London Orchestras. She performs regularly in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, and her engagements in Asia have brought her to audiences in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. As an accomplished recital and chamber musician, Ms. Chang regularly travels the world, performing with such artists as Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Leif Ove Andsnes, Yo-Yo Ma, Isaac Stern, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ms. Chang’s most recent recording for EMI Classics, performances of Brahms and Bruch violin concertos with Kurt Masur and the Dresdner Philharmonic has received excellent critical and popular acclaim and was her 20th album for the label. Her recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons attracted international commendation, with BBC Music Magazine stating: “She has never made a finer recording.” She has also recorded Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 and Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 live with the Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, Fire and Ice, an album of popular shorter works for violin and orchestra with Placido Domingo conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Dvorak concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis, as well as several chamber music and sonata discs with artists including pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and Lars Vogt.
In 2006, Ms. Chang was honoured as one of 20 Top Women in Newsweek Magazine’s “Women and Leadership, 20 Powerful Women Take Charge” issue. In March 2008, Ms. Chang was honoured as a Young Global Leader for 2008 by the World Economic Forum (WEF) for her professional achievements, commitment to society and potential in shaping the future of the world.
In 2005, Yale University dedicated a chair in Sprague Hall in Sarah Chang’s name and in 2012 Harvard University gave her the “Distinguished Leadership in the Arts Award”. For the June 2004 Olympic games, she was given the honour of running with the Olympic Torch in New York, and that same month, became the youngest person ever to receive the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame award. Also in 2004, Ms. Chang was awarded the Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana Prize in Sienna, Italy. She is a past recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize, Gramophone’s “Young Artist of the Year” award, Germany’s “Echo” Schallplattenpreis, “Newcomer of the Year” honours at the International Classical Music Awards in London, and Korea’s “Nan Pa” award. Ms. Chang has been named the US Embassy’s Artistic Ambassador from 2011.
Presenter: Asian Youth Orchestra
The 110 members of the Asian Youth Orchestra (AYO) are among the finest young musicians in China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Chosen through highly competitive auditions held throughout the region, they are together for six weeks each summer, initially for a three-week Rehearsal Camp in Hong Kong, then for a three-week international concert tour with celebrated conductors and solo artists.
Cellists Yo-Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, Steven Isserlis, WANG Jian and Alisa Weilerstein, violinists Gidon Kremer, Gil Shaham, Elmar Oliveira, Young Uck Kim, Stefan Jackiw and Cho-Liang Lin, soprano Elly Ameling, the Beaux Arts Trio, pianists Alicia de Larrocha, Cecile Licad, Leon Fleisher and Jean Louis Steuerman are among those who have performed with AYO under the direction of principal conductor James Judd, music director emeritus Sergiu Comissiona, Alexander Schneider, TAN Dun, and the orchestra’s co-founders, Yehudi Menuhin and Richard Pontzious.
Since its inaugural performances in 1990, the award-winning Orchestra has played some 395 concerts in Asia, Europe, the US and Australia to an audience of more than one million concertgoers. Millions more have seen and heard the orchestra around the world on CNN, CNBC, NHK and Radio and Television Hong Kong.
A staggering 20,000 musicians, ranging in age from 17 to 27, have auditioned for AYO. Those selected for the full scholarship programme study with an exceptional artist-faculty of principals from the Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Minnesota and San Francisco symphony orchestras, the Bergamo Festival Orchestra (Italy), the Triple Helix Trio, Harvard, and the Boston and Peabody music conservatories.
Recipient of Japan’s prestigious Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists in 2010 and Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture in 2015, highlights in AYO's history include the first concert by an international orchestra in 50 years in Hanoi, the world premiere performances of TAN Dun’s Symphony 1997 with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Hong Kong and Beijing, multiple performances in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, performances in the White House and at the United Nations, and around the world, in New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Berlin’s Shauspielhaus, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, the Sydney Opera House.
A tuition-free cultural exchange summer program that involves Asia’s brightest young musicians in exceptional opportunities for study and performance in an international environment, the Asian Youth Orchestra is designed to ignite a pride for what can be achieved by Asian musicians in Asia, while affecting a positive influence on the brain and talent drain that continues to frustrate all Asian nations.
