April 6/7, 2013 – Kuchar/Martinez
Saturday, April 6, 2013, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 7, 2013, 2:00 p.m.
Theodore Kuchar, Music Director and Conductor
Gabriela Martinez, piano
Takemitsu: Requiem
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica”
Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez, first prize winner at the Anton G. Rubinstein International Piano Competition, performs Chopin’s beautiful Piano Concerto No. 2 with the RCO and Maestro Kuchar. Opening with the dramatic Requiem by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, this final concert of the RCO’s 2012-13 season concludes with Beethoven’s grand “Eroica” Symphony.
Gabriela Martinez
“Gabriela possesses a marvelous, contagious energy, working with her is very exciting, she transmits all of her energy to the orchestra. She is incredible, she is enormously talented, she is simply a genius.” — Gustavo Dudamel. Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez has already amassed an impressive list of recital, concerto, and chamber music performance credits, having performed as soloist and chamber musician in over 50 concert halls in the Americas and Europe. Ms. Martinez has won numerous national and international prizes and awards, most recently first prize and the audience award at the Anton G. Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Dresden. She was a semifinalist at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where she also received a Jury Discretionary Award. In 2008, Ms. Martinez was appointed Concert Artist Faculty at Kean University in New Jersey. Read more.
Theodore Kuchar
Theodore Kuchar, one of the most prolifically recorded conductors of the past decade, appears on over 100 compact discs for the Naxos, Brilliant Classics, Ondine and Marco Polo labels. For the past 17 years, he has served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of two of Europe’s preeminent orchestras, the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. He presently also serves as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Venezuela and the Fresno Philharmonic. An avid chamber musician, he served as the Artistic Director of The Australian Festival of Chamber Music (1990-2006), and has served as the Artistic Director of the Nevada Chamber Music Festival since 2005. Since 2004, he has served as Resident Conductor at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, the educational institution established by the late George Szell, in cooperation with The Cleveland Orchestra. Read More.
Gabriela Martinez performing the beginning of the first movement of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra.