Programme:
Alexey Shor
"Childhood Memories" –
Suite for piano and orchestra No. 3
Piotr Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 4 in F minor
Alexey Shor
"Childhood Memories" –
Suite for piano and orchestra No. 3
Piotr Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 4 in F minor
Sergey Smbatyan
Armenian conductor Sergey Smbatyan is the Founding Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra performing internationally to great acclaim. Under Smbatyan’s artistic direction, its players are energetic, enthusiastic musicians with the shared objective of raising cultural awareness in Armenia and pursuing spiritual excellence through classical music.
Smbatyan has presented the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and the Malta Philharmonic throughout Europe, Russia and the United States. Performances include Vienna’s Musikverein, the Berlin Philharmonie, Salzburg’s Großes Festspielhaus, London’s Barbican Centre, the Gasteig Munich, Rudolfinum in Prague, Grand Hall of the Moscow State Conservatory and New York’s Carnegie Hall where he made his debut at the age of 28.
The 2022-23 highlight includes touring with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and the Romanian National Philharmonic Orchestra in the United Kingdom in a series of venues including Cadogan Hall, London; Usher Hall, Edinburgh; Bridgewater Hall, Manchester; Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham.
Born in Yerevan, Smbatyan was first introduced to music by his grandmother, the violinist and teacher Tatyana Hayrapetyan, who gave him violin lessons from an early age. He later studied at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan and the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory, receiving lessons from Bagrat Vardanyan and Zakhar Bron. Whilst studying for a PhD in Fine Arts in Yerevan with Yuri Davtyan, Smbatyan developed his passion and conducting skills working with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra which he founded aged 18. As a conductor, Smbatyan has been significantly influenced by his lessons with Riccardo Muti and Sir Colin Davis which he undertook during his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
A winner of multiple European conducting and violin competitions, Smbatyan has developed an international reputation that includes guest conducting engagements at the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, and many others.
In 2015, Smbatyan became the youngest recipient of the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. He was presented with the award by the French Minister of Culture attended by Krzysztof Penderecki and Charles Aznavour, among other guests of honour. In recognition of his efforts to promote Armenian music and culture, the President of the Republic of Armenia presented Smbatyan with the title of Honoured Artist of the Republic of Armenia.
Smbatyan’s championing and commissioning living composers, promoting cultural heritage and developing new audiences are central to his artistic life and are reflected in his work as the Founder and Artistic Director of the Armenian Composing Art Festival; the Penderecki Contemporary Classics' Festival; the “Armenia” International Music Festival and the Khachaturian International Festival. The latter has its distinct positioning in Smbatyan’s cultural activities as a calling card for the Armenian performing arts. These values also define his work as Artistic Director of the Khachaturian International Competition.
Smbatyan deeply believes that only culture can shape our future and unite everyone by spreading harmony and peace. This is the main message conveyed in the orchestras he has founded: 24/04 World Orchestra, the “Generation of Independence” All-Armenian Choir and Orchestra and the Pan-Armenian Symphony Orchestra. Smbatyan’s passionate advocacy for increasing the level of cultural education and engagement, and social responsibility among young people was fulfilled by founding the UNICEF Children’s Chamber Orchestra and DasA, an educational program for high school students offering a close-up experience with classical music.
Sergey Smbatyan founded the "Music for Future" Cultural Foundation (M4FF) in 2019 and has been the President of its Board of Trustees since then․
A recognised pioneer in the uses of AI and other technologies in classical music, Smbatyan has developed multiple collaborations with leading institutions. As part of the 2019 World Congress of Information Technology he conducted the first-ever concert of music written live by AI. An audience of over 75,000 people watched the open-air concert performed by the WCIT World Orchestra, a specially created orchestra of players from the fifteen countries that had ever hosted the Congress.
A creative concert programmer, Smbatyan has worked with the world’s leading soloists and actors including John Malkovich who performed and toured with him several projects in Latin America, Asia and Armenia including narrating excerpts from The Book of Lamentations by the Armenian medieval poet Grigor Narekatsi.
Smbatyan’s discography is rich and includes many recordings for ArmSyphony Records including Khachaturian’s Symphony No.2, The Bell, which was made to celebrate the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra’s 15th anniversary. The recent collaboration included the release of Joseph Calleja’s new album of sacred music AVE MARIA with Decca Records.
A particular focus of Smbatyan’s recording activities is contemporary music which he primarily records with the Armenian State Symphony and Malta Philharmonic orchestras, alongside other orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra.
Sergey Smbatyan has been UNICEF Armenia Ambassador since 2023.
Denis Kozhukhin
piano
Winner of the First Prize in the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Belgian pianist Denis Kozhukhin has established himself as one of the greatest pianists of his generation.
He has appeared with many of the leading international orchestras, such as the Chicago, London and San Francisco Symphony orchestras, Israel, London and Rotterdam Philharmonic orchestras, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Philadelphia Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. He is also frequently invited to play at the prominent festivals of Verbier, Gstaad, Grafenegg, Dresden, Intonations, Tsinandali, Klavier Ruhr, Lanaudiere and Jerusalem, as well as the BBC Proms.
The past season has featured collaborations with a number of European orchestras, including the return at the BBC Proms with BBC Symphony, debuts with Danish National, Gulbenkian and Indianapolis Symphony orchestras, a tour with the HR-Sinfonieorchester, a residency with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra performing Rachmaninov’s four piano concertos, and concerts with the Oslo and Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras, the NDR Radiophilharmonie (Hannover) and WDR Sinfonieorchester (Cologne). He has appeared in recital at the Chicago Symphony Hall, Boulez Saal, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Zurich Tonhalle and Bozar.
In 23/24 Kozhukhin will celebrate the anniversaries of Ligeti, Schönberg and Lutoslawski, performing their piano concertos. Highlights of the next season include the debuts with Dallas, Dusseldorf and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and the returns to NHK Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra (USA), Oslo and Copenhaghen Philharmonic Orchestras, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liege, Resident Orkester, Gulbenkian Orhcestra, Iceland Symphony, Barcelona Symphony and Queensland Symphony. He will perform solo recitals in Berlin, Barcelona, Prague, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Lisbon and San Francisco, and will tour with Janine Jansen appearing at Schloss-Elmau, Wigmore Hall, Zurich Tonhalle, Utrecht Musikgebouw and Megaron in Athens.
As Pentatone Artist he has released several albums, including César Franck’s Symphonic Variations with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Gimeno, Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words with Grieg’s Lyric Pieces (nominated for an Opus Klassik Award), and discs of Haydn, Brahms and Prokofiev, as well as concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Ravel and Gershwin.
Kozhukhin studied at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid with Dmitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez-Mehner, and later completed his studies at the Piano Academy at Lake Como where he received advice from Fou Ts’ong, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Peter Frankl, Boris Berman, Charles Rosen and Andreas Staier, and with Kirill Gerstein in Stuttgart.
“[Kozhukhin’s] dazzling performance ... must have lifted Orchestra Hall a few feet off its foundation. It was hard, in fact, to imagine any pianist seizing this formidably difficult concerto in a mightier grip than this Russian firebrand... Even in a day when keyboard virtuosos are thick on the ground, Kozhukhin is special.”
Chicago Tribune
Orchestra del Teatro Goldoni di Livorno
The Teatro Goldoni Orchestra established in 2020 from the main reference staff of the opera and symphonic seasons of the Theater has, over time, assumed connotations of stability, refinement and search for sonorities.
It represents a national and international point of reference for its Symphony Season and its productions such as Sheherazade by Rismky Korsakov performed for the first time in Livorno in November 2022 or Tchaikovsky's Symphony VI repeated 90 years after the first Italian performance conducted by Pietro Mascagni.
The artistic specificities of the orchestra are to be found in the Mascagnano, Pucciniano and Verdian opera repertoire. He actively participates every year in the Mascagni Festival in Livorno, giving new life to works by the composer from Livorno par excellence.
The conductors and soloists with whom the orchestra has collaborated have appreciated its dynamism and availability. The artists who have been able to appreciate it over time are: Anderson Dean, De Lorenzo Giancarlo, Fratta Gianna, Madaras Gergely, NG Wilson, Raskin Daniel, Smbatyan Sergey, Warner John, Blaumane Kristīna – Cellist, Brovtsyn Boris – Violinist, Cafaro Nicolò – Pianist, Chiacchiaretta Cesare – Bandoneonist, de Niese Danielle – Soprano, De Palma Dino – Violinist and Violist, Furia Fabio – Bandoneonist, Itamar Zorman – Violinist, Meloni Fabrizio – Clarinetist. Pellegrino Ettore – Violinist, Quaranta Salvatore – Violinist, Ruggiero Salvatore – Oboist, Semchuk Olexander – Violinist, Taverna Alessandro – Pianist, Yeol Eum Son – Pianist, Zhou Nancy – Violinist.
The Principal Conductor of the Orchestra is Maestro Eric Lederhandler, the Associate Conductor is Gianluca J. Greco.
In 2022, the Orchestra performed 82 concerts, 60% of which at the Teatro Goldoni in Livorno, and the remainder at important theaters such as the Ariston Theater in Sanremo, the Teatro Sociale in Camogli, the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome and made co-productions with important symphonic institutions such as the Sanremo Symphony Orchestra, the Abruzzese Symphony Orchestra, the Bari Symphony Orchestra and the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra. He took part in the staging of 6 operas and strengthened institutional connections through the EU-funded project “Accordi Musicali”.
The YOM 2022 Competition saw the participation of 287 young instrumentalists for scholarships of €10,000.