Video: Clarinetist/Artistic Director Alan Kay talks about the upcoming concerts.

Accordionist Ksenija Sidorova embarks on a US tour with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and long-time musical partner Avi Avital.

They perform:
– 03 November, Weis Centre for Performing Arts within Bucknell University in Lewisburg;

– 06 November, at Mary Patricia Gannon Concerto Hall within DePaul University in Chicago;

– 07 November, at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City;

– 09 November, at the Staller Center within Stony Brook University;

– 10 November, The tour ends on at the Stern Auditorium in Carnegie Hall in New York where Ksenija makes her debut. 

The tour is premiering two new concertos: the Double concerto “Monomachia” for Mandolin, Accordion and Chamber Orchestra by Golden Globe®, GRAMMY® and Emmy® nominated British composer Benjamin Wallfisch and J-S Bach’s Concerto for Accordion and Mandolin in C Minor, BWV 1060R arranged by Paul Chihara.

Stars Aligned on Saturday, November 10, 2018 7:PM at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall. In a night of Stars Aligned two artists reinvent their time-honored instruments in a novel rendition of Bach. A world premiere by Golden Globe, Grammy, and Emmy-nominated composer Benjamin Wallfisch (Andy Muschietti’s It, Blade Runner 2049, Hidden Figures) is paired with evocative concert music from Waxman, Rota, and Rózsa, attesting to the skills that made these European immigrants early titans of Hollywood film scoring.

Performers include:
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Avi Avital, Mandolin
Ksenija Sidorova, Accordion

Program:
WAXMAN “Sinfonietta for String Orchestra and Timpani”
ROTA “Canzona”
BACH Concerto for Mandolin and Accordion in C Minor, BWV 1060R (arr. Paul Chihara)
BENJAMIN WALLFISCH “Concerto for Mandolin and Accordion”
RÓZSA “Hungarian Serenade, Op. 25”

Orpheus welcomes two innovative artists who are reinventing their time-honored instruments in a novel rendition of Bach and a brand-new work written for them by Golden Globe®, GRAMMY® and Emmy® nominated British composer Benjamin Wallfisch (Andy Muschietti’s It, Blade Runner 2049, Hidden Figures). Tickets start at $10.

Excerpts from Carnegie Hall website: Dodging war and chasing riches, top European composers like Hungary’s Miklós Rózsa, Italy’s Nino Rota, and Germany’s Franz Waxman immigrated to America and helped to fuel Hollywood’s golden age. Their concert music shows off the evocative tone painting and craftsmanship that made their film scores so indispensible to Hitchcock, Fellini, and Coppola, among others. Soloists Ksenija Sidorova (accordion) and Avi Avital (mandolin) each bring modern glitz and glamor to their old-world instruments, whether playing a reconfigured Bach concerto or debuting the brand-new work written for them by Golden Globe®, GRAMMY® and Emmy® nominated British composer Benjamin Wallfisch (Andy Muschietti’s It, Blade Runner 2049, Hidden Figures). This Orpheus commission is the latest addition to American Notes, a project that explores the landscape of new music from diverse perspectives.

About Ksenija from her website: Encouraged to take up the instrument by a grandmother steeped in the folk tradition of accordion playing, Ksenija started to play the instrument aged eight under the guidance of Marija Gasele in her hometown of Riga. Her quest for more exposure to both classical and contemporary repertoire took her to London where she became a prize-winning undergraduate at the Royal Academy of Music studying under Owen Murray. She subsequently received her Masters Degree with Distinction.

In 2009 Ksenija made her debut at London’s Wigmore Hall and appeared in the Park Lane Group Young Artists Showcase prompting The Times to single her out as“one of the real finds of the series”. In May 2012 she became the first International Award winner of the Bryn Terfel Foundation, and this year appears at the Royal Albert Hall as part of his 50th birthday celebrations alongside Sting.

A recipient of both the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Martin Musical Scholarship and Friends of the Philharmonia Award, as well as the Worshipful Company of Musicians Silver Medal, Ksenija has just been appointed a Junge Wilde Artist by the Konzerthaus Dortmund. Ksenija regularly collaborates with Miloš Karadaglić, Juan Diego Flórez, Nicola Benedetti, Thomas Gould and Joseph Calleja.

Ksenija works extensively with Avi Avital who, along with Itamar Doari, comprise the trio for the “Between Worlds” project which this year sees performances at Shakespeare’s Globe, throughout Germany and on a substantial US tour (including dates in Boston, Washington and New York) in spring 2016. She has also appeared on Arte’s “Stars von Morgen” with Rolando Villazón. Forthcoming highlights include performances of Erkki-Sven Tüür Prophecy with the NHK Symphony and Paavo Järvi; a tour with Latvian National Symphony Orchestra; and concerts with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, WDR Rundfunkorchester, and at the Cheltenham and Bad Kissingen Festivals. She made her debut at the Vancouver Recital Series in September 2016.

This season, Ksenija premieres three new concertos. In autumn 2018 she tours to the US, which includes her Carnegie Hall debut, and performances with Avi Avital and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra playing the premiere of Concerto for Accordion and Mandolin by acclaimed British composer Benjamin Wallfisch. In March 2019, Ksenija gives the world premiere of Vientos Del Sur, Concerto for Accordion by Latin Grammy winning Argentinean composer Claudia Montero with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Vasily Petrenko. This concerto is co-commissioned by Münchner Philharmoniker. The new concerto by Latvian composer Arturs Maskats will receive its premiere at the Riga Festival in June 2019.

Forthcoming engagements in 2018/19 include BBC Symphony Orchestra, as part of their residency in Dubai, London Chamber Orchestra with Leticia Moreno including a new arrangement of Vivaldi and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons, Orchestre National de Montpellier, Edmonton Symphony, a Swedish tour with Riga Sinfonietta, Belgrade and Basel symphony orchestras. Ksenija will also be presented in solo recital at the main hall of Kölner Philharmonie, in Bad Kissingen, Riga, and she embarks on a tour of Australia and Germany in December 2018 showcasing works by Kusiakov, Arkhipovsky, Rachmaninov, Voytenko and Schnittke.