Hill Auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker with
Benjamin Beilman, violin
Violinist Benjamin Beilman has won praise both for his passionate performances and deep, rich tone, which The Washington Post called “mightily impressive,” and The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence.”
In the first of two programs by the Berliner Philharmoniker and chief conductor Kirill Petrenko, UMS welcomes back Benjamin Beilman to perform Erich Korngold’s heart-tugging and cinematic violin concerto.
Beilman is one of the leading violinists of his generation and one of the youngest artists ever appointed to the faculty of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music. And, he is no stranger to Ann Arbor and UMS! He attended Community High School, where as a freshman he performed in the very first Neutral Zone / UMS collaboration Breakin’ Curfew in 2005. While in high school, he made weekly treks to Chicago for violin lessons, which resulted in his winning first prize at the Montreal International Music Competition and the bronze medal at the Indianapolis Violin Competition, both in 2010. He graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2012, the same year he received an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He returned to perform with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at a UMS concert in 2016.
Also on the Berliner Philharmoniker’s program: Rachmaninoff’s first orchestral masterpiece, Isle of the Dead, and Dvořák’s dramatic Symphony No. 7, which the London journal Athenaeum declared at its 1885 premiere “not only entirely worthy of his reputation, but one of the greatest works of its class produced in the present generation.”
Note: Benjamin Beilman has replaced violinist Hilary Hahn as the featured soloist on this program. Ms. Hahn regrets to announce her withdrawal from the Berliner Philharmoniker’s US tour, including performances in Ann Arbor, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Her medical team has advised her to abstain from strenuous performance and travel as she continues to recover from a double pinched nerve. She shares the following message with our audience:
“I am extremely disappointed not to be touring with the Berliner Philharmoniker this month. Unfortunately, healing follows its own timeline, and I have to respect that if I want to be able to play far into the future. I hope to be on the road again very soon, and I deeply appreciate all the support I’ve received during this process. To my colleagues and concertgoers, I am so sorry that I can’t be there with you!”
Tickets to this performance are extremely limited. Tickets are still available for the Berliner Philharmoniker’s performance on Sunday, November 24.
Join host Doyle Armbrust for “The Society of Disobedient Listeners” — a special pre-performance talk, 6:45 pm in the Modern Languages Building.
Valet parking will be available beginning 1 hour before the performance for $30 per car (cash only) on N University Ave in front of Hill Auditorium.
PROGRAM (Sat 11/23/2024: Hill Auditorium)
Sergei Rachmaninoff Isle of the Dead, Op. 29
Erich Korngold Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 7 in d minor, Op. 70
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Berliner Philharmoniker with
Benjamin Beilman, violin
Hill Auditorium
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Kirill Petrenko, chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker since August 2019, was born in the Siberian city of Omsk in 1972. At the age of 18, he moved with his family to Vorarlberg in Austria. Following his training as a conductor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, he worked from 1997 as an assistant and conductor at the city’s Volksoper; afterwards he was music director at the Meininger Theater from 1999 to 2002.
In 2001, he first attracted international attention when he conducted Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in the production of Christine Mielitz with designs by Alfred Hrdlicka. From 2002 to 2007, Kirill Petrenko was general music director of the Komische Oper Berlin. He has also appeared at the state opera houses in Munich and Vienna, the Semperoper Dresden, the Royal Opera House in London, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, and the Maggio Musicale Florenz and the Salzburg Festival. From 2013 to 2015, he conducted a new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival.
In the autumn of 2013, Kirill Petrenko took up his post as general music director of the Bayerische Staatsoper, which he held until the end of the 2019/20 season. On the concert stage, he has conducted the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin and Dresden Staatskapelle, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Kirill Petrenko made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in February 2006 with compositions by Bartók and Rachmaninov. In 2015, the orchestra elected him its chief conductor.
Benjamin Beilman is one of the leading violinists of his generation. He has won international praise for his passionate performances and deep rich tone which The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence”, and the Strad described as “pure poetry.” Le Monde has described him as “a prodigious artist, who combines the gift of utmost sound perfection and a deep, delicate, intense, simmering sensitivity”.
Benjamin’s 2024/25 season includes returns to the Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and Antwerp Symphony. He also makes his debut with the Belgian National Orchestra in a performance of Stravinsky’s concerto, and with the Tokyo Metropolitain Symphony performing Korngold. In the US, he also embarks on a recital tour with pianist Steven Osborne.
Last season included Benjamin’s subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony with Semyon Bychkov, and six weeks of performances in Europe, including concerts with the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart alongside Elim Chan, a return to the Kölner Philharmonie with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, and appearances at the Grafenegg Festival, Festpielhaus St. Pölten, and the Musikverein in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchester and Tabita Berglund. He also returned to play-direct the London Chamber Orchestra, and re-united with Ryan Bancroft for his debut with BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Meanwhile, performances in the US included his debut with the St Louis Symphony under Cristian Macelaru, as well as returns to the Minnesota Orchestra with Elim Chan.
In past seasons, Benjamin has performed with many major orchestras worldwide including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Sydney Symphony, and Houston Symphony. He has also extensively toured Australia in recital under Musica Aviva, and in 2022, became one of the youngest artists to be appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music.
In recent seasons Beilman’s commitment to and passion for contemporary music has led to new works written for him by Frederic Rzewski (commissioned by Music Accord), and Gabriella Smith (commissioned by the Schubert Club in St. Paul, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music). He has also given multiple performances of Jennifer Higdon’s violin concerto, and recorded Thomas Larcher’s concerto with Hannu Lintu and the Tonkünstler Orchester, as well as premiered Chris Rogerson’s Violin Concerto (“The Little Prince”) with the Kansas City Symphony and Gemma New.
Conductors with whom he works include Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Cristian Măcelaru, Lahav Shani, Krzysztof Urbański, Ryan Bancroft, Matthias Pintscher, Gemma New, Karina Canellakis, Jonathon Heyward, Juraj Valčuha, Han-Na Chang, Elim Chan, Roderick Cox, Rafael Payare, Osmo Vänskä, and Giancarlo Guerrero.
Beilman studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank, and with Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy, and has received many prestigious accolades including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a London Music Masters Award. He has also recorded works by Stravinsky, Janáček and Schubert for Warner Classics. He perfoms with the ex-Balaković F. X. Tourte bow (c. 1820), and plays the “Ysaÿe” Guarneri del Gesù from 1740, generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.