Dynamic Duo

Mar 12, 2010, 8:00pm
Glenn Gould Studio (250 Front St. W)
SINFONIA TORONTO
NURHAN ARMAN, Conductor
HYUK-JOO KWUN, Violinist
HYEJIN KIM, Pianist
Winners of international competitions
BURGE A Light Fantastic Round
MENDELSSOHN Double Concerto
DVORAK Chamber Symphony op. 105

Sinfonia Toronto’s 2009/2010 Masterpiece Series continues March 12th at 8:00pm, with two young phenoms from Korea, both winners of international competitions. This concert’s guest soloists are Hyuk-Joo Kwun, violin and Sangwook Park, piano.

The winner of several prestigious violin competitions, 24-year-old violinist HYUK-JOO KWUN was born in Seoul, Korea, and moved to Russia at the age of 10 to study at the Tchaikovsky Central Music School in Moscow. He made his debut with the Moscow National Orchestra at the age of 11, and continued to study in Russia until recently relocating to Germany to continue his quest as a violinist. Having spent the majority of his life in Russia, he’s actually now more comfortable speaking in Russian than Korean, and that extends to his musicality, which has drawn comparisons to the long lineage of Russian violin virtuosos.

Praised by critics as “a pianist who is truly passionate, sensitive, and musical… an extremely polished and expressive pianist,” HYEJIN KIM has performed in Korea, United States, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia and many other countries.

She is the youngest prize winner of Busoni international Piano Competition in 2005. Most recently, she was a winner of Hong Kong International Competition. Ms. Kim appeared as soloist with the Yaroslavl Philharmonic, State Symphony Orchestra of St.Petersburg, Seoul Philharmonic, Pilzen Philharmonic, Citta Di Grosseto Orchestra, Slovak Sinfonietta of Zilina, Kharkov Philharmonic, Martinu Philharmonic, Nurnberger Symphoniker and many others .

Ms. Kim holds a Master of Musical Arts from the University of Hans Eisler in Berlin, a Bachelor Diploma from University of Berlin where she studied under Prof. Fabio Bidini. For the 200th Chopin anniversary, Ms. Kim is invited by to play Chopin’s two piano concertos in Vienna’s Musikverein Golden Hall.

This concert also features a piece by Canadian composer John Burge, Director of the School of Music at Queen’s University. He has written a large body of vocal, chamber, and orchestral compositions. A number of his works for large ensemble draw their influence from a distinctively Canadian perspective.

Sinfonia Toronto is comprised of thirteen virtuoso string players. “A world-class ensemble,” according to Germany’s Russelsheimer Echo, they perform standing, in the tradition of great chamber orchestras, under the direction of Music Director and conductor Nurhan Arman. A roster of Toronto’s finest woodwinds, brass and percussion joins the strings for select programs, drawn from the full range of chamber orchestra repertoire. The Toronto Star writes of "a remarkable range of colour," "ample eloquence" and "gripping authority," while La Scena Musicale declared: "Nurhan Arman and his orchestra literally conquered us." Their most recent CD, Flanders Fields Reflections features the 2009 Juno Award winner for Classical Composition of the Year, a Sinfonia Toronto commission composed by John Burge.

The programme for the evening consists of John Burge’s A Light Fantastic Round, Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto and Dvorak’s Chamber Symphony op. 105.

Tickets for this concert are $12 - $40 and are available through the Roy Thomson Hall box office at http://www.roythomson.com, 416-872-4255. Visit http://www.sinfoniatoronto.com for more information.

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Presented By

Sinfonia Toronto