Moscow Chamber Orchestra And Conductor Vladimir Spivakov To Come To Carnegie Hall, 6/7

Eminent maestro Vladimir Spivakov and the acclaimed Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, who recently sold out a concert at the Barbican Center in London, return to Carnegie Hall onWednesday, June 7 at 8 PM as a part of their seven-city North American tour. Joining them are the brilliant soprano and Metropolitan Opera star Hibla Gerzmava - last heard at the Met in 2016 as Desdemona in Verdi'sOtello, and recently made her La Scala Opera debut in the title role in Donizetti's Anna Bolena - and 14-year old Israeli prodigy, cellist Danielle Akta.

The eclectic orchestral program will include Mozart's Divertimento No.1 in D major, K.136; Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony in C minor Op. 110, dedicated "To the Memory of Victims of Fascism and War," Max Bruch'sKol Nidrei Op. 47 for cello and orchestra; David Popper's Concert Polonaise, Op.14 for cello and orchestra;Grieg's Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34 ("The Wounded Heart" or "Hjertesår," and "The Last Spring" or "Våren"); and Friedrich Gulda's Hymn to Beauty. Ms. Gerzmava then joins the orchestra for an array of international opera hits and famous romances: Bellini's "Casta Diva" from Norma; Verdi's "Stretto" for Amalia from I Masnadieri; Francesco Cilea's "Ecco...Io son l'umile ancella" from Adriana Lecouvreur; Poulenc's "Les Chemins de l'amour"; and Ernesto De Curtis's "Ti voglio tanto bene."

This concert is the second offering of the 2017 Cherry Orchard Festival which celebrates the international arts in the heart of New York City and beyond. Tickets for the June 7 concert, priced at $35. - $200. are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or may be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org or Cherry OrchardFestival.org. There is a 20% student discount with valid ID when purchased in person at the Box Office. There is a 10% discount to groups of 20+ and 15% discount to groups of 50+. For group sales, please contact the Cherry Orchard Festival Foundation directly for groups at 800.349.0021 or by emailinginfo@cherryorchardfestival.org

More about the artists

Vladimir Spivakov, one of the world's most prominent violinists and conductors, has lead the Moscow Virtuosisince 1979, setting up the gold standard for chamber music performance. The Washington Post has hailed the Virtuosi as "a dramatically unified ensemble" with "a sound that would put many full orchestras to shame".

In 1979 Maestro Spivakov, an outstanding virtuoso violinist, with a group of his friends and artistic associates, who were mostly winners of international music competitions, as well as soloists and section leaders of the best Moscow symphonic and chamber orchestras, founded the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra.

Launching artistic groups at an artist's initiative was by no means a common practice in the Soviet Union of those years. Only governmental bodies could authorize the establishment of professional theaters, orchestras and museums. It took Spivakov and his friends several years to prove to the authorities that the orchestra's professional level and potential were of an order of magnitude higher than those of a great majority of State orchestras that boasted of marvelous conductors and musicians able to glorify any European or US orchestra in the 1970s and 1980s.

Only in 1983 did the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra gain the official status and the entailed governmental financial support for its performance activities.

Since 2003 the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra is permanently located and rehearses at the Moscow Performance Arts Centre which was recently built and opened December 26, 2002. The next year the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra celebrated its 25th anniversary and gave a world tour.

Every year the Moscow Virtuosi give over 100 concerts, mostly on tours where they are heard in the best and most prestigious concert halls of the world but also in ordinary venues of small towns. They frequently participate at the leading international music festivals. A special link connects the Moscow Virtuosi and the International Music Festival in Colmar (France), where Maestro Spivakov is Artistic Director. The orchestra had taken part in many Colmar Festivals since 1989 when the Festival was arranged for the first time. When in Moscow they are in residence at the Moscow International Performance Arts Center on Red Hills which was built under the initiative of the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, and Maestro Spivakov with the finance support of the Government of Moscow. Though Moscow is one of the biggest cultural centers of the world this center is the first concert hall for the classical music built in the city in the last 100 years.

Soprano Hibla Gerzmava is one of the most sought-after opera stars in the world. In addition to the tour with Moscow Virtuosi and her debut at La Scala, 2017 sees her singing the title role in Cherubini's Medée in July and in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in May in Moscow, and Elisabeth de Valois in Verdi's Don Carlos at Opera Bastille, Paris, in October and November. A national artist of both the Russian Federation and the Republic of Abkhazia, she rapidly established herself as a major force since becoming the Grand Prix winner of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition. Critics and audiences admired the raven-haired beauty's voice in the Metropolitan Opera productions of Don Giovanni, Otello, Turandot, and Les Contes D'Hoffman. She performed her sold-out debut recital at Carnegie Hall in October 2015.

Hibla Gerzmava graduated from the Vocal Department of the Moscow Conservatory in 1994, and finished her postgraduate course there in 1996. Since 1995 she has been the soloist of the Moscow Academic Music Theatre of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, and a guest soloist at leading opera houses worldwide, including the Mariinsky Theatre, London's Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and opera houses in Vienna, Paris and Rome. Miss Gerzmava won the Grand Prix at the Tchaikovsky International Competition, the first and only time in the competition's history that the highest prize has been awarded to a vocalist. She has performed with such outstanding musicians and conductors as Lorin Maazel, Antonio Pappano, Marco Armilyato, Adam Fischer, Irzhe Belohlávek, Vladimir Spivakov, Valery Gergiev, Alexander Rudin, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Basil Sinai, and many others. In February 2014 she took part in the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, performing the final song Olympic Waltz, accompanied by the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Valery Gergiev.

She is the winner of the Golden Orpheus Theatre Award and the Casta Diva Prize in the Best Singer category, the Russian National Theatre Award Golden Mask, as well as the Moscow Prize in literature and art. She is also a first prize winner of the Triumph award for the highest achievement in art and literature. She began 2015 performing the role of Antonia in Jacques Offenbach's opera Les Contes D'Hoffman with the Metropolitan Opera. She returned to the Met that year to sing the part of Liu in Puccini's Turandot, and again in April 2016 for the role of Desdemona in Verdi's Othello.

In May2015 she performed the lead role of Médée in Luigi Cherubini's opera of that name, at the Moscow première at the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre and in June 2015, she returned to Vienna for a second series of performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni, in which she sang Donna Anna.

Miss Gerzmava also has her own unique project - a crossover concert program entitled 'Opera Jazz Blues', featuring the Daniel Kramer trio - in which she brings together classical singing styles with jazz improvisation, performing original and highly distinctive interpretations of music by a wide range of composers including Handel, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti and Gershwin. In the Abkhaz language, Hibla means 'golden-eyed', but her most precious gift is the one that has captivated millions of listeners - the gift of her golden voice.

An active soloist from an early age, cellist Danielle Akta was born in Israel on August 29, 2002 into a family of musicians, she began to play the cello at age four at her own request, after listening to a recording of Jacqueline du Pré. In addition to the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Spivakov, she has performed with the Israel Philharmonic IPO, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt, at the Trans-Siberian Arts Festival under Vadim Repin, on tour of the US with the Jerusalem Symphony, the Israel Symphony Rishon LeZion, Israel Netanya Kibbutz (NKO), the Israel Sinfonietta Beer-Sheba, the Ashdod Symphony, in recital at the AIPAC Conference 2016 in Washington D.C and she participated at the Verbier Festival Academy 2016.

Engagements for 2016-2017 include concerts with the Moscow Virtuosi (Moscow, Paris, Brussels, London) as well as the USA concert tour and concert series with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (Israel, Mexico), NKO, Tel Aviv Soloists (Israel and Poland), concert tours with LGT Young Soloists, participation at Kol Hamosika Spring Festival, a concert with the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra under maestro Spivakov at the Colmar Festival, France, and more.

She is a grant-holder of the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation, a recipient of the Oleg Yankovsky prize (Artistic Discovery of 2015-2016), of the Young Artist Award for young promising artist awarded by Maestro Vladimir Spivakov, winner of the competitions FLAME International Paris 2014, Muse International Athens 2014 and 2015, and the Israeli National Cello Competition 2013. As a recipient of the AICF Scholarships with Distinction, she performed at Lincoln Center in the AICF 75th Gala event hosted by Itzhak Perlman.

She was also awarded the Zfunot Tarbut scholarship for Outstanding Young Musician, and she is an Ambassador of the iClassical-Academy.

?A student of Frans Helmerson at the Barenboim-Said Music Akademie in Berlin, previously Danielle studied at the Raanana Music Conservatory (RMC) with Luba Rabin and previously with Galina Aaronovitch. Additionally she has participated in master classes with Laurence Lesser, Torlief Thedeen, Pamela Frank, Gabor Takcs-Nagy, Maria Tchaikovskia, Dmitry Yablonsky, Rafael Wallfisch, Ralph Kirshbaum, Gary Hoffman, Evangeline Benedetti, Raphaël Pidoux, and Paul Katz.

She plays an Enrico Orselli cello; master Italian luthier student of Ettore Soffritti. This exceptional instrument, build in Pesaro around 1925 to1930, is graciously put at her disposal by Dr. Moshe Kantor through the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation.

She plays a Claude Thomassin bow built in Paris around 1900 to1920 also put at her disposal by the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation.

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The annual Cherry Orchard Festival, a production of the Cherry Orchard Foundation, is a celebration of the international arts in the heart of New York City and beyond. Each of its world-class, multi-disciplinary performing and visual arts attractions is unique and never has been presented before in the US. Festival's creative team finds the newest and most daring projects in the international arts arena and introduces it to audience. Festival's mission is to initiate and promotes global cultural activity and exchange of ideas to an inter-generational audience through entertaining and educational programming and events in all genres. The team is committed to providing the finest entertainment, exceptional musical performances and enlightening educational programs to its patrons. Visit CherryOrchardFestival.org for more information.

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