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
Gavriel Lipkind, cello solo
“For me, working with the Brussels Chamber Orchestra reaches far beyond a soloist's day-in day-out collaboration with an orchestra. This special artistic acquaintance which started a few years ago and took me and the orchestra to many beautiful stages in many countries, has finally found a home in Raleigh. Being a true consortium of musical friends and creative minds; a highly professional and engaged group of musical individuals, the Brussels Chamber Orchestra sets new standards in merging an ensemble with the voice of a soloist. The possibility to work in Raleigh, in beautiful surroundings and the special atmosphere, rehearsing and performing in front of a knowledgeable and enthusiastic audience, is unparalleled. Such moments as the ones the Cross Currents Festival offers in abundance have become truly rare in the hectic hitch-hiking reality of the 21st century's musical market.”
-Gavriel Lipkind
Read his biography, Visit his website.
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 3rd 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 concert collaboration this year with Dovid Friedlander and Bonnie Thron. The concert will take place at the beautiful Sertoma Ampitheatre at Bond Park in collaboraion with the Town of Cary on July 9th 7:30 pm. Read the review of last year's concert.
Gavriel Lipkind, born in Tel Aviv in 1977, enjoyed an early stellar rise to international renown as a young cellist, before making the decision to question a predefined life and halt a predictable path. He decided to take a three-year period of retreat from stage life, during which he devoted himself to further studies and recording. An iconoclastic thinker, Mr. Lipkind’s work today stands for consistent thought and intrinsic musical inspiration without compromising quality — an almost unattainable goal in the life of performing soloists today. Being a genuine fanatic of musical detail and audio documentation, Mr. Lipkind has chosen a radical path of innovation in his profession.
" [...] Lipkind is a total one-off [...] he plays as if possessed [...]
This was edge-of-the-seat, white knuckle playing [...] "
The Independent (five star review *****)
Solo
Gavriel Lipkind has appeared in some of the world's most prestigious venues, including the Concertgebouw, Suntory Hall, Kennedy Center and Berlin Philharmonie, with preeminent orchestras like the Israel Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony. He has worked alongside outstanding musicians – Zubin Mehta, Philippe Entremont, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Yehudi Menuhin, Pinchas Zukerman, Yuri Bashmet and Gidon Kremer.
A major recording endeavor featuring Saint-Saëns, Schumann and Shostakovich concerti marked the beginning of this year's ongoing partnership with Sinfonia Varsovia. This collaboration also started Gavriel's Cello Heroics series of recordings – A Soloist's Diary – and leads to further performances with that orchestra in the Benelux.
Two return concert tours to Japan this year, both including performances at Suntory Hall, resulted in Tokyo's audiences standing in exuberant sustained ovations. The first tour included the rarely performed Pfitzner Concerto No. 3 with the New Japan Philharmonic; the second tour featured a Tchaikovsky Gala performing Rococo Variations and Andante Cantabile at Suntory Hall, a concert that launched National Philharmonic of Russia's debut tour in Japan, conducted by Vladimir Spivakov.
The Cello Concertante project — in which Lipkind both conducts and plays an entire program of works for cello and chamber orchestra — gave him the opportunity to direct the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, the Brussels Chamber Orchestra and the Kremerata Baltica, the latter collaboration offering a revised rendition of Schumann's cello concerto.
Among the larger concerti, Lipkind now concentrates on Saint-Saens’ concerto with the Kyoto Symphony, Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante last performed with the American Symphony under Leon Botstein, as well as the concertos by Dvořák and Elgar, and the Shlomo Rhapsody by Bloch, all of which he performs extensively across Europe and Japan.
Dohnányi’s Konzertstück at Queen Elizabeth Hall concludes Lipkind's concerto activity for the year.
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.
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
Soloists residing in North Carolina
Dovid Friedlander | Violin 1 - Associate Concertmaster
The Assad Meymandi and Family Chair
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.
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