Meet the Brussels Chamber Orchestra

 

In 1999, young virtuosos from different cultures gathered around a musical score for their fondness for chamber music. The specific sonority of the Brussels Chamber Orchestra, as well as an extremely profound stylistic research is the result of this union. Indeed, this group brings together six nationalities, each individual bringing their own country's cultural sensitivity, forging a fabulous covenant between Asian discipline and European fantasy.

The absence of a conductor infuses musicians into total commitment and personal investment, converting this ensemble into a real chamber music orchestra. In its short but active life, the Brussels Chamber Orchestra already counts a good number of concerts and has been invited to many international tours covering Germany, Spain, France, Japan, United States, Italy, Norway and Mexico. Their repertoire includes works spanning from Mozart to Britten, Elgar, Bartók, Hindemith and Schoenberg. They have premiered and commissioned contemporary works from young outstanding composers and are constantly looking for new projects.

The Brussels Chamber Orchestra has been graciously honoured with a residency at the prestigious institute of the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels. In 2008 with artist/writer Carrie Knowles, the Brussels Chamber Orchestra lauched the Cross Currents Chamber Music and Arts Festival. Become a fan of the Cross Currents Chamber Music and Arts Festival on Facebook and be the first to recieve our new program anouncements, news, and more.

 

Meet our 2010 Edition Guest Artists

Pierre Anckaert Quintet

 

As well as an apearance with the Brussels Chamber Orchestra in the 2010 Gala Concert, the BCO will present their collaboration with the Pierre Anckaert Quintet a new CD released in March 2010 titled "Strings Attached" on July at AJ Fletcher Hall 8pm; read his biography, reserve tickets, order an advance copy of the CD. Visit his Myspace

 

Will Scruggs, Saxophone

 

As Part of the 2010 Cross Current Music Festival's focus on Jazz, The Will Scruggs Fellowship will present both a solo concert and a collaboration with the Belgian Jazz Ensemble, the Pierre Anckaert Quintet ;see The Will Scruggs Fellowship web site. Find Will on Facebook , find Will on Myspace.

 

North Carolina Symphony Orchestra Soloists

After the huge success of the 2009 collaboration between the Brussels Chamber Orchestra and members of the NC Symphony: Dovid Friedlander, Christopher Fischer, Jeremy Preston, and Jacqueline Saed Wolborsky, the Brussels Chamber Orchestra will repeat the collaboration, soloists to be announced. The concert will take place at the beautiful Bond Park Ampitheatre in collaboraion with the Town of Cary. Read the review of last year's concert.

 

Pierre Anckaert Quintet - Biography

After being awarded First Prize at the Hoeilaart International Jazz Contest 2007 and recording his first trio album Candide, Pierre Anckaert decides to engage the dialogue between jazz and classical music with a classical chamber orchestra. Strings Attached is an apparent contradiction, a confrontation between old, older and new, a clash between two worlds, that nevertheless produces an irresistible melting pot of sounds and rhythms. The Pierre Anckaert Quintet and the Brussels Chamber Orchestra play music composed by Pierre Anckaert, Stefan Bracaval and Hendrik Vanattenhoven in which they blend Latin-American influences and a classical repertoire into an organic whole, challenging the audience to look at the world of jazz from a classical perspective as well as the other way round. With Strings Attached Pierre Anckaert takes the initiative to cross boundaries, to color outside the lines without falling off the page. Something that has become a rare phenomenon in the Belgian jazz and music scene, all the more when it attains the high level of quality that both groups as separate entities have already proved they can produce, and now also as an ensemble. The album Strings Attached will be released end February 2010 on PROVA records.

>top

Concert Agenda

!!! USA CD RELEASE "STRINGS ATTACHED" JULY 2010!!! Pierre Anckaert Quintet & Brussels Chamber Orchestra Strings Attached

Pierre Anckaert - piano & composition ; Stefan Bracaval - flute, bass flute & compositie (Amberes en junio) ; Hendrik Vanattenhoven - double bass & composite (For the record) ; Guy Nikkels - guitars ; Mimi Verderame - drums ; Brussels Chamber Orchestra - string orchestra.

Listen his music on MYSPACE

>top

 

 

 

 

Soloists residing in North Carolina

Dovid Friedlander | Violin 1 - Associate Concertmaster

The Assad Meymandi and Family Chair
Dovid Friedlander Dovid Friedlander joined the North Carolina Symphony as Associate Concertmaster in 2005. Mr. Friedlander is seated in the orchestra next to his former teacher, North Carolina Symphony Concertmaster Brian Reagin, with whom he studied until the age of l3 in his home town of Pittsburgh, PA. Another principal teacher was Huei Sheng Kao, Assistant Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony. From ages nine to sixteen, Mr. Friedlander attended the Meadowmount School for Strings, where he studied with Sally Thomas of The Juilliard School of Music. For two years following his time at Meadowmount, Mr. Friedlander toured Europe as the soloist and Concertmaster for the Blue Lake International Music Festival performing the Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn violin concertos. At age nineteen, he attended the National Repertoire Orchestra in Breckinridge, CO and the next summer was Associate Concertmaster under the leadership of Leonard Slatkin at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in Germany. Additionally, he studied under Kathleen Winkler at the Santa Barbara Music Festival and under the direction of great conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Robert Spano and Charles Dutoit at the Tanglewood Music Festival. At Tanglewood, Dovid studied chamber music with members of the Juilliard String Quartet and the Boston Symphony. After high school, Mr. Friedlander studied with William Preucil at the Eastman School of Music and when Mr. Preucil accepted the position of Concertmaster at the Cleveland Orchestra, Dovid continued his studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. While at CIM, Dovid won the Jerome Gross award for the most improved student and the Darius Milhaud award with his string quartet. He joined the San Antonio Symphony at age 23, becoming Assistant Concertmaster at age 24. Mr. Friedlander has been a violinist at the Columbus Symphony Orchestra for the past four years. Dovid enjoys cooking, watching movies and NFL and college football as well as playing with his German shorthaired pointer Bernstein. He is both an avid chamber music player and, for the last three years, an avid triathelete, as well.

>top

Jeremy Winslow Preston | Violin 2
Jeremy Winslow PrestonJeremy Preston, an emerging violinist, first came to public attention at age 16 when he performed Barber's virtuosic violin concerto with the Catskill Symphony Orchestra in New York. Since then, he has performed in Canada and Brazil as well as major concert halls in the United States including Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York City, Symphony Hall, Ozawa Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston, Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and Severance Hall in Cleveland. He has also performed at such major music festivals as Tanglewood and Blossom Music Festival.Trained at New England Conservatory's Walnut Hill School and Rice University, his distinguished teachers include Marylou Speaker Churchill, Lynn Chang, Kathleen Winkler and Sally Thomas. His chamber music coaches include Norman Fisher, Pamela and Claude Frank, and the Cavani and Cleveland Quartets. He has also played for a masterclass by Yo Yo Ma. While maintaining an active performing schedule, Jeremy is currently pursuing his Master of Music study at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a scholarship student; he is polishing his performance further with Cleveland Orchestra Concertmaster, William Preucil. Mr. Preucil states that "Jeremy Preston is a fantastic violinist who has the ability to touch listeners' hearts." He is a recipient of the Shepherd Society Award, A.W. Carter Music Scholarship, Arthur B. Cohn Scholarship and Nancy Byrd Award from Rice University, Molinary Foundation Scholarship as well as the Juliet Esselborn Geier Memorial Fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center. Recently appointed as a concertmaster of Cleveland's Red (an orchestra) for their January 2005 concert, Jeremy has performed with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra, and was a concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as well as the Shepherd School Orchestra at Rice University. He has performed under the direction of such celebrated conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Mazur, James Conlon, Roberto Spano, Federico Cortese, and Oliver Mussenen. Mr. Preston has recently been appointed as Co-Artistic Director of the Akron Summer MusicFestival with his duo partner, internationally acclaimed pianist Tatsuya Nagashima. A native of Oneonta, New York, Mr. Preston has taught at the Walnut Hill School as well as the Cleveland School for the Arts.

>top

 

Jacqueline Saed Wolborsky | Violin 2 - Associate Principal

The Blanche Martin Shaw Chair
Jacqueline Saed Wolborsky Jacqueline Saed Wolborsky joined the North Carolina Symphony as Assistant Principal Second Violin in 2003. Before coming to North Carolina, Jacqueline was a member of the Charleston Symphony and an adjunct professor of violin at the College of Charleston. In the summer of 2005, Jacqueline was featured as violin soloist with the North Carolina Symphony. She won first prize and a solo performance at the South Carolina Philharmonic Competition and received the Russell award at the Coleman International Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, CA. She has had the honor of performing for Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel in Chicago, Il, the late Itzhak Rabin's family in Israel, and in 2001, for the Vice President and other high government officials in Washington D.C. She has spent past summers on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, in the Chautauqua Symphony in New York, two summers with the Verbier Orchestra in Switzerland, at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut, at the Steans Institute for Young Artists in Highland Park, Il., at the Rome Festival in Italy, the Thessaloniki Festival in Greece, Keshet Eilon in Israel, and the Weathersfield Music Festival in Ludlow, VT. In 2002, Jacqueline was invited by the Verbier Orchestra to tour 10 European countries under the batons of James Levine and Mstislav Rostropovich. She has also had the pleasure of working with Kurt Masur, members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, and Vermeer Quartets, Yuri Bashmet, Bill Preucil, Claude Frank, Miriam Fried and Joseph Silverstein. Mrs. Wolborsky received her Bachelors of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory with renowned teachers Roland and Almita Vamos and her Masters of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Donald Weilerstein. Jacqueline has received her Suzuki teacher training at the Cleveland Institute of Music and has been a private teacher for over 15 years.

>top

 

Christopher Fischer | Viola - Assistant Principal
Christopher Fischer Violist Christopher Fischer began his musical training at the age of three on the violin. Mr. Fischer began experimenting with the viola in high school and immediately fell in love with the instrument, switching at the age of sixteen. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Missouri, studying with Leslie Perna, followed by a Master of Music degree from Indiana University under the tutelage of Atar Arad. Shortly after graduating from Indiana University, Mr. Fischer won the position of principal violist and resident string quartet member with the Midland-Odessa Symphony in West Texas. As a member of the Midland- Odessa Symphony’s resident string quartet, Mr. Fischer played quartet recitals on college campuses and in public schools across West Texas. In addition to teaching a private studio, he also joined the faculty of the University of Texas at the Permian Basin as adjunct professor of viola. After a year in Texas, Mr. Fischer joined the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. As both a principal and section player in the orchestra he frequently performed chamber music as a part of the New World Symphony’s chamber series, including a concert with the Borromeo Quartet. Mr. Fischer has participated in several chamber and orchestral music festivals, including Aspen, Aria, and Bowdoin, where he studied with Heidi Castleman, Daniel Avshalomov, Helen Callus, Ralph Fielding, and Graham Oppenheimer. He also performed with professional summer orchestras including Spoleto Festival USA, the Missouri Chamber Orchestra, and the Southern Illinois Music Festival. Playing with the International Sejong Soloists, a chamber orchestra based in New York City, he performed nationally televised concerts at the Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea. Mr. Fischer has worked with many of the world’s leading conductors, including David Robertson, Seiji Ozawa, Franz Welser Möst, Robert Spano, James DePriest, Gerhardt Zimmerman, and David Zinman. In addition to playing full time as the assistant principal violist with the North Carolina Symphony, Mr. Fischer teaches privately and is on faculty at Saint Mary’s School in Raleigh.

>top