CSO To Showcase Concertmaster Joanna Frankel In The BEETHOVEN MARATHON

Concertmaster Joanna Frankel makes her solo debut with the Columbus Symphony, performing Beethoven's spiritual Violin Concerto. The epic Eroica Symphony completes this program devoted to the great German composer.

The Columbus Symphony presents the Beethoven Marathon: Joanna Plays Beethoven at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) on Friday and Saturday, January 25 and 26, at 8pm. Tickets start at $10 and can be purchased in-person at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), online at www.columbussymphony.com, or by phone at (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000. The CAPA Ticket Center will also be open two hours prior to each performance.

Prelude Patrons are invited to attend a 30-minute, pre-concert Subject Matter lecture titled Legacies of Revolution in Napoleonic Europe by OSU Assistant Professor of History Elizabeth Andrews Bond.

Postlude Directly following the performance, a string quartet of Columbus Symphony musicians will perform on stage.

Friday Coffee Dress Friday, January 25, 10am, Ohio Theatre

Experience a working rehearsal prior to that evening's opening-night performance. Seating is general admission for this 2.5-hour, open rehearsal, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the fine tuning and preparation behind a Masterworks main stage performance. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased in-person at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), online at www.columbussymphony.com, or by phone at (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000. Admission includes coffee and light fare.

Respected and admired by audiences and musicians alike, Rossen Milanov is currently the music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and the Orquesta Sinf nica del Principado de Asturias (OSPA) in Spain.

In 2017, Milanov received an Arts Prize from The Columbus Foundation for presenting Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as part of CSO's 2017 Picnic with the Pops summer series. Under his leadership, the organization has expanded its reach by connecting original programming with community-wide initiatives, such as focusing on women composers and nature conservancy, presenting original festivals, and supporting and commissioning new music.

Milanov has collaborated with some of the world's preeminent artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Midori, Christian Tetzlaff, and Andr Watts. During his 11-year tenure with The Philadelphia Orchestra, he conducted more than 200 performances. In 2015, he completed a 15-year tenure as music director of nationally recognized training orchestra Symphony in C in New Jersey. In 2013, he wrapped up a 17-year tenure with the New Symphony Orchestra in his native city of Sofia, Bulgaria. His passion for new music has resulted in numerous world premieres of works by composers such as Derek Bermel, Mason Bates, Caroline Shaw, Phillip Glass, Richard Danielpour, Nicolas Maw, and Gabriel Prokofiev, among others.

Noted for his versatility, Milanov is also a welcomed presence in the worlds of opera and ballet. He has collaborated with Komische Oper Berlin for Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk), Opera Oviedo for the Spanish premiere of Tchaikovsky's Mazzepa and Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle (awarded best Spanish production for 2015), and Opera Columbus for Verdi's La Traviata.

An experienced ballet conductor, he has been seen at New York City Ballet and collaborated with some of the best-known choreographers of our time, such Mats Ek, Benjamin Millepied, and most recently, Alexei Ratmansky in the critically acclaimed revival of Swan Lake in Zurich with the Zurich Ballet, and in Paris with La Scala Ballet.

Violinist Joanna Frankel joined the Columbus Symphony on appointment as concertmaster in 2016, and officially assumed the role in the 2017-18 season. Born in Philadelphia, she began studying the violin at age 3 with The Suzuki Method. She trained in New York at The Juilliard School and received the prestigious 'William Schuman Prize' upon graduation. Frankel's post-graduate work continued at Carnegie Hall, where she entered the inaugural class of The Academy, a groundbreaking initiative that trains ambitious young musicians to be 21st century arts leaders. Her concerto and recital appearances have included engagements across the US, and in The Netherlands, Russia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovakia, Finland, The Middle East, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Her festival appearances include Marlboro Music Festival, Harare International Festival of the Arts, Johannesburg Mozart Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Centro Cultural Internacional scar Niemeyer, La Jolla's SummerFest, Santa Fe New Music, The Aspen Music Festival, and Spoleto Festival USA. From 2013-16, Frankel served as first concertmaster of The KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic in Durban, South Africa, and first violinist of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Principal String Quartet. She performs on a Gaetano Vinaccia violin crafted in Naples in 1819.

German composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven was a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in classical music and today remains one of the most recognized and influential of all composers.

The first performance of his Violin Concerto in D Major by Franz Clement was unsuccessful, and for some decades, languished in obscurity. It was revived in 1844, well after Beethoven's death, with a performance by the then 12-year-old violinist Joseph Joachim and the orchestra of the London Philharmonic Society conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. Ever since, it has been one of the most important works of the violin concerto repertoire and is frequently performed and recorded today.

One of Beethoven's most celebrated works, Symphony No. 3 ( Eroica ) is a large-scale composition that marked the beginning of Beethoven's creative middle-period. Composed mainly in 1803-04, the work is grounded in the Classical symphonic tradition while also stretching boundaries of form, length, harmony, and perceived emotional and possibly cultural content. It has therefore widely been considered an important landmark in the transition between the Classical period and the Romantic era.

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