BlueWater Chamber Orchestra
Saturday, September 6, 2014 at 7:30PM
The Breen Center for Performing Arts
St. Ignatius High School
2008 W 30th St
Cleveland, OH 44113
Beethoven: Symphony No. 1
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1
Carlton Woods, conductor
Zsolt Bognár, piano
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra opens its fifth anniversary season with a concert of “firsts,” featuring the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. Pianist Zsolt Bognár solos in Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra, and then the orchestra performs Symphony No. 1. Both works helped to establish Beethoven’s reputation as a composer and herald the greatness of his works to come. Don’t miss this first concert of the season with one of the world’s most beloved composers.
Carlton Woods
Carlton R. Woods most recently held a joint position as Artistic Director/Conductor of the Midland Symphony Orchestra (MSO) and Director of Orchestral Studies at Central Michigan University (CMU). He has been named Conductor Emeritus upon his departure of the MSO in 2007. During his tenure with the MSO, Maestro Woods brought the ensemble state recognition for its high quality performances and creative programming. In addition, the MSO expanded its performances to include annual chamber orchestra concerts, an outdoor Fourth of July concert, run-out concerts throughout the state, special events such as its Halloween concert, and live broadcasts on public radio. In 2004 the MSO performed its first opera, Puccini’s Tosca. Its overwhelming success has afforded the opportunity of a 2006 performance of another great Puccini opera, La Boheme. Woods will return as a guest conductor for the April, 2008 performances of Puccini: Madame Butterfly. Maestro Woods gave regular public lectures featuring the music of the MSO season and oversaw the educational and outreach programs offered by the MSO.
During his tenure at CMU, the orchestra program grew to become a major ensemble at the institution. The Orchestra gave seven concerts a year including a yearly opera, a major choral work, a concerto-aria competition program, and a children’s program for 4th grade students in the Mt. Pleasant area.
Maestro Woods’ past appointments have included orchestras in Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Arkansas. As music director/conductor of the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and the Music Festival of Arkansas, he developed ensembles that received national attention in the press and on National Public Radio. In constant demand as a guest conductor, he has been on podiums of orchestras throughout the United States, Poland, Belgium, England, Russia, Canada, and South America. His recent return appearance with the Bardi Orchestra in Leicester, England resulted in reviews praising his musicianship and exciting interpretations. Dr. Woods is a frequent guest conductor for all state orchestras throughout the country.
Maestro Woods is a champion of new music, collaborating with John Corigliano, Stephen Paulus, George Crumb, Libby Larsen and Donald Erb. His recording of William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 3 received rave reviews from critics nationwide. He has also worked with world-renowned soloists including Itzhak Perlman, Edgar Meyer, Sarah Chang, Mark O’Connor, Nicole Benedetti, Philip Myers, Gary Hoffman, Richard Stoltzman, Ani Kavafian, Pascal Roge, Anne Akiko Meyers, Ewa Podles, Sharon Isbin, John O’Conor, Dave Brubeck, James McCracken, Eugenia Zuckerman and the Juilliard String Quartet.
Zsolt Bognár
Mr. Bognár won first prize in the 2000 Harvard Musical Association Competition, the Boston Musician’s Prize, the 2004 Allegro Vivo Competition in Austria, the 2005 CIM Concerto Competition, 2006 Kankakee Valley Concerto Competition, and was a winner in the 2008 Bradshaw and Buono Competition in New York. His recent debut performances took place in Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Tokyo, and Los Angeles, and participates in an ongoing series of tours in the Netherlands that started with concerts from the 2005 and 2006 Holland Music Sessions in Bergen as part of the “New Masters on Tour” series. In the United States, his performances have included appearances at Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, and the 92nd Street Y. Many of his full-length recitals and interview features have been broadcast live over NPR and telecast over the internet. In 2009 he was the Kenneth and Annette Hallock Chair of Piano at the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado, where he was also soloist. Mr. Bognár won the 2009 Artist Presentation Society Auditions and in 2010 he was presented in a solo German recital debut in Munich’s Rubinstein Hall, followed in America by two appearances on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts at the Chicago Cultural Center, broadcast live on WFMT. In November of 2010 he appeared in Los Angeles with Beethoven’s First Concerto with Case Scaglione and the Debut Orchestra, where an HD documentary was filmed about the project.
In December 2010, Zsolt Bognár completed a recording and film project with Grammy-winning producer Philip Nedel in Berlin, and a tour of the Netherlands. Also from Elyria Pictures in New York is a new series of short films in regular episodes entitled “Living the Classical Life” which seeks to raise awareness about the many issues of musical life, in conversation with prominent musical figures around the world, including recently with Daniil Trifonov and MacArthur Fellow Stephen Hough. “Living the Classical Life” was featured by Slipped Disc, the Examiner, and mentioned in the Washington Post.
Mr. Bognár also includes music scholarship and journalism in his interests and has published features, reviews, and program notes for international periodicals. Active in new music ensembles, Mr. Bognár has premiered works by award-winning young composers, including Dan Visconti (in collaboration with cellist Joshua Roman) and Louis Chiappetta, in projects that have included appearances in Cleveland, Chicago, and at New York’s Copland House.
Mr. Bognár’s sold-out 2012 Berlin Debut at the Young Euro Classic Festival praised by critics for playing that was “intellectually shaped, powerful, and of crystalline precision”, Zsolt Bognár has given performances throughout America, Europe, and Asia which have been similarly praised: “overwhelmingly visceral…a phenomenal sound world realized through maximum palette”. In October 2013 he was one of eight pianists selected to travel to Positano, Italy, for the Wilhelm Kempff Foundation Beethoven Festival and was invited back to the 2014 festival. The recipient of an International Festival Society award grant in 2013, he spent a week with Martha Argerich and Sergei Babayan at the Lugano Festival in Switzerland.