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Debra Boraston

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Press Release date: February 2008

BBT News Update February 2008

Two World Premières

Simon Crawford-Phillips and Philip Moore

Finally, The Trust looks forward to two world premières (BBT co-commissions) which have been mentioned previously: Piano Duo Philip Moore and Simon Crawford-Phillips (2004 BBT Fellowship) and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins play Detlev Glanert's Double Concerto on March 15 at City Halls Glasgow; and percussionist Colin Currie (BBT Award 2005) plays Simon Holt's Table of Noises with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, also conducted by Brabbins on 14 May at Symphony Hall.
www.pianoduet.com www.colincurrie.net

Messiaen Festival, Southbank Centre, London

In conjunction with the Messiaen celebrations at London's Southbank Centre, BBT is sponsoring a Learning and Participation project which will run throughout the course of the 10-month festival. The project is focused specifically around Messiaen's Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps which will be performed several times in the Festival including in November with Mitsuko Uchida and BBT artists (see above). The project will work with a variety of young people towards producing a film to document their responses to the Quartet which has many themes to explore in terms of its colourful, apocalyptic and spiritual values. Fröst, Kim and Poltéra will all participate in intensive workshops, vodcasts, recordings and interviews leading up to the final performance when the film will also be premièred - an important and valuable opportunity for them to closely engage with their audience. www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Verbier Festival Academy 2008

Jermolaj Albiker (Photo by Benjamin Ealovega)

The Trust looks forward to its third year of sponsoring the Verbier Festival Academy Chamber Music Festival. BBT winners taking part this year (both from 2007) are violinist Jermolaj Albiker and the Navarra Quartet. More BBT artists also feature in the main Festival including Quatuor Ébène whom the Trust supported in the Chamber Music programme last year (details to be announced).

Patsy Rodenburg Associates

Patsy Rodenburg

As from 2008 BBT is offering all musicians and singers on its roster an introductory consultation and practical session with Patsy Rodenburg, Director of Voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and until recetly at the Royal National Theatre. She is recognised as one of the world's leading voice and acting coaches, tackling the problems all performers face in rehearsal and on stage including breathing and relaxation, communication with fellow performers and the audience and sustaining a performance through an entire evening and a long run/tour. BBT Executive director, Susan Rivers, has witnessed first hand her highly acclaimed methods:
"We are very keen to develop our relationship with Patsy as her methods will undoubtedly benefit any performer who wants to achieve the very best from themselves on the concert platform. Her work is certainly not just for actors, or indeed just for performers who are encountering difficulties. Her methods would enhance any successful artist's expressive powers."
www.patsyrodenburg.com

BBT Tours - USA and Europe

Martin Fröst, Christian PoltÃ©ra, Mitsuko Uchida, Soovin Kim and LlÅ·r Williams

BBT founding trustee Mitsuko Uchida is set to repeat the success of the first BBT tour in 2004 which featured the Trust's 2003 award winners and takes to the road for another two prestigious tours in 2008 with an ensemble of BBT winners from 2003 to 2005: clarinettist Martin Fröst, violinist Soovin Kim, cellist Christian Poltéra and pianist Llyr Williams. Concerts for the Trust's first American showcase in May are Kalamazoo (13th), Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (15th) and Carnegie, Zankel Hall, New York (17th). In November 2008 the ensemble tours to Perugia, Italy (2nd), Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (4th) and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London (6th). At the heart of the concert repertoire for both tours is Messiaen's iconic Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) performed by Uchida, Fröst, Kim and Poltéra plus other works including Liszt's La Lugubre Gondola (Williams), Schubert's Arpeggione (Poltéra/Williams) and Bartók's Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet and Piano (Kim/Fröst/Williams). www.bbtrust.com

Leopold String Trio The Series 11 & 12 BBT Award 2004

Leopold String Trio (Photo by Benjamin Ealovega)

March 2008 sees the final concerts in the Trio's acclaimed three-year survey of the string trio repertoire, The Series. A Bohemian theme links the last pairs of concerts which take place at Southampton's Turner Sims Concert Hall (2 and 4 March) and London's Wigmore Hall (7 & 8 March) ranging from Kodály and Kurtág to Dohnányi and Martinü. The trio, which has been joined on occasions during The Series by guest musicians including Natalie Clein and Pascal Rogé, welcomes celebrated pianist Paul Lewis for Dvorák's Piano Quartet in E Flat. Over the course of The Series the Trio has performed the great masterworks by the likes of Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart and Sibelius, but also lesser-known and rarely performed pieces by composers such as Judith Bingham, Boccherini, Hans Krása and Eugène Ysaye, among others. They have won consistent praise for the venture itself - "This is an ensemble with a mission - to re-ignite the public's interest in the string trio repertoire. Long seen as a poor relation to the mighty string quartet, this concert made a real statement about the integrity of the string trio genre." (Classical Source November 2006) - as well as their playing - "...virtuosity coupled to a sensitive restraint with vibrato and a winning rhythmic keenness - in short, a thrilling performance that set the masterpiece in a new light." (Daily Telegraph, November 2006).
www.leopoldstring.trio.com www.wigmore-hall.org.uk www.turnersims.co.uk

Martin Helmchen piano BBT Fellowship 2004

Martin Helmchen (Photo by Marco Borggreve)

Since winning his BBT fellowship award four years ago, Martin Helmchen's reputation has been thriving: he won the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2006 and a recording contract with PentaTone in 2007. BBT is supporting his LPO Live recordings of the Shostakovich Piano Concerti Nos 1 & 2 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski in April 2008 and April 2009 respectively. www.kdschmid.de

Lavinia Meijer harp BBT Fellowship 2007

Lavinia Meijer (Photo by Marco Borggreve)

Harpist Lavinia Meijer has used part of her BBT money to fulfil her desire to work within other arts disciplines - as an integral part of the performance and not just a musical accompanist. Theriak is an energetic and daring new contemporary dance production choreographed by acclaimed Dutch choreographers Andrea Leine & Harijono Robana which is currently touring to 20 different theatres across the Netherlands until 11 March. www.laviniameijer.com www.leineroebana.com

David Piano Trio BBT Fellowship 2006

David Piano Trio

One of the most interesting of Italy's growing generation of young ensemble players, The David Piano Trio will record Schubert's Piano Trios in London in April 2008 for Altara. www.davidtrio.com www.altaramusic.com

Christian Poltéra cello BBT Award 2004

Swiss cellist Christian Poltéra also sees the final fruits of his BBT recording project with BIS: the third in a trio of recordings featuring the neglected cello works of three Swiss composers. Christian Poltéra Plays Frank Martin is released this month (February 08) and, like the Honegger and Schoeck CDs that preceded it, features the Malmö Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tuomas Ollila, plus Kathryn Stott on piano. "...the Sonatina (Honegger) for violin and cello is a real revelation, with Poltéra and Christian Tetzlaff entwining their tone beautifully." Daily Telegraph January 2008. www.christianpoltera.com fe

Trust Undertakes Range of New Projects in 2008

At the beginning of 2008 the Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) looks forward to another stimulating year of new winners and the fulfilment of projects for many existing BBT young musicians. The Trust also continues to build and develop relationships with other prestigious cultural organisations and arts practitioners around the world on specific projects that give further opportunity and support to its winners.

Antoine Tamestit viola BBT Award 2006

Antoine Tamestit

French violist Antoine Tamestit, who has just added another prize to his remarkable collection with the prestigious Credit Suisse Young Artist Award 2008, has completed the recording of his second BBT-supported CD on the Ambroisie label: Schnittke's Viola Concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dimitri Kitajenko and Shostakovich's Viola Sonata with pianist Markus Hadulla. Release date is planned for May 2008. Tamestit's first CD of Bach and Ligeti Chaconne has been warmly praised: "The performance of the Ligeti - a magnificent, enthralling piece that's already emerged as a peak of the viola repertoire - is extraordinarily clean and accurate." Gramophone August 2007.

Jörgen van Rijen trombone BBT Award 2006

Jörgen van Rijen (Photo by Marco Borggreve)

Dutch trombonist Jorgen van Rijen collected critical accolades for his performance at the 2007 BBC Proms concert of Mahler's Symphony No 3 with the Luzern Festival Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado. The first of his two BBT-supported CDs (Channel Records) is released in April 2008: a unique recording with Holland's foremost early music ensemble, Combattimento Consort of baroque concerti by Albrechtsberger, Wagenseil and Leopold Mozart and rarely performed chamber music pieces by Bertali, Marini, Castello and Schmelzer. At the same time, a short video will be online at YouTube to preview the autumn release of his second CD which embraces the full range of trombone repertoire right up to a contemporary commission entitled I Was Like, WOW! www.jorgenvanrijen.com