Press Releases

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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).

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

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

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.

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