Unmasking the Arts Episode 2: Patricia Kopatchinskaja
Our partners at Princeton University Concerts have created a new six-part series, Unmasking the Arts, with host Helga Davis and special guests in conversation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja is a trailblazing violinist, dedicating her unparalleled artistry to harnessing the fierce urgency of the present moment and championing the integral relationship between music and our humanity. She joins Helga Davis in the second episode of Unmasking the Arts: Looking to the Future in a personal discussion about the impact of the past year that reveals why her unorthodox approach to music-making is now more important than ever.
“This is a moment to understand that we are a part of nature…a continuation of this state of spirit is killing all of us. When I hear a bird outside who is not prohibited to twitter, I feel happy for him. We musicians are also a kind of bird, but we cannot twitter…” —Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin
Shared with kind permission of Princeton University Concerts.
About the Artists
Helga Davis
Helga Davis first appeared on UMS stages in our 2012 presentation of Philip Glass’s opera, Einstein on the Beach. We look forward to welcoming her back in the 2021/22 season as a featured performer in Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
Davis is a vocalist and performance artist with feet planted on the most prestigious international stages and with firm roots in the realities and concerns of her local community whose work draws out insights that illuminate how artistic leaps for an individual can offer connection among audiences.
Listen to the new season of her podcast series, Helga: The Armory Conversations, co-produced by WNYC Studios and Park Avenue Armory.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja
The Moldovan-born violinist brings a combination of depth, brilliance humour and theatrics to her music. Whether performing a violin concerto by Tchaikovsky, Ligeti, or Schoenberg or presenting an original staged project deconstructing Beethoven, Ustwolskaja, or Cage, her distinctive approach always conveys the core of the work. Kopatchinskaja often showcases the works of living composers such as Luca Francesconi, Michael Hersch, György Kurtág and Márton Illés.
Listen to Kopatchinskaja’s recording of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which was released in April 2021 and listed as an essential album by Gramophone magazine.
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