Baltic Sea Philharmonic Baltic Sea Landscapes Tour 2016 Welcome We are delighted to welcome you to our ‘Baltic Sea Landscapes’ tour programme. With this April tour we launch our exciting new offshoot, Baltic Sea Philharmonic, and as our choice of repertoire reflects our deep love and care for the special natural environment through which we will be touring, as well as marking Prokofiev’s 125th anniversary, we have much to celebrate. We are happy to be able to do so together with you. Baltic Sea Philharmonic Baltic Sea Music Education Foundation Our educational ambitions continue to develop The birth and evolution of Baltic Sea Music Education Foundation; programme credits 32 Find out about our innovative teaching programme Discover how our pioneering and practical approach to training musicians is reaping rewards; meet our coaches and players 24 Baltic Sea Music Academy Baltic Sea Philharmonic Introducing our new orchestra Find out about Baltic Sea Philharmonic and our tour dates; welcome from Kristjan Järvi; pianist Alexander Toradze celebrates Prokofiev; learn about our tour repertoire 06 Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic How our original orchestra is evolving The future of our training orchestra, Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic (BYP); success stories from BYP 18 Baltic Sea Music Academy 04 05 Baltic Sea Philharmonic Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic performing at the Berlin Philharmonie, January 2014. Der Tagesspiegel wrote of the concert, ‘The music boils and steams like lava, repeatedly heralding the big eruption, until everything ends in a huge burst of sound. The public loved it’ Baltic Sea Philharmonic 06 07 Say hello to Baltic Sea Philharmonic We introduce our new orchestra and look forward to some of its 2016 highlights This tour we launch Baltic Sea Philharmonic, our exciting new initiative that marks the expansion of our educational aspirations for the region. Baltic Sea Philharmonic will become the main public-facing part of the Baltic Sea Music Education Foundation, coming together several times a year to tour specific projects across Europe and further. It will allow us to continue to develop Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic (BYP) and our Baltic Sea Repertoire for Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s Music Academy as progressive learning first ‘Baltic Sea Landscapes’ tour reflects centres for the region. this passion for the environment and that of the composers, who are all from the region. Baltic Sea Philharmonic includes current We take the listener on a journey of the and former BYP players from the ten imagination across seas and landscapes, countries of the Baltic Sea region meeting nature and wildlife, with works – Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, such as Jean Sibelius’s Karelia Suite, Arvo Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Pärt’s Swansong, Stravinsky’s Firebird, Russia and Sweden. Like BYP, it is a and Gediminas Gelgotas’s Mountains. young orchestra, but there is no age Waters. (Freedom). The orchestra also cap, so people of all ages can apply. The performs works by Prokofiev, whose 125th two orchestras share the foundation’s anniversary it will celebrate on 23 April ambitions, and are a platform for culture, with a concert in Moscow. society and the environment. As part of our advocacy for the environment, we partner with organisations that safeguard the cultural heritage and focus on environmental protection. For example, our Helsinki concert is presented by the John Nurminen Foundation to raise funds for their ‘Clean Baltic Sea’ projects. Baltic Sea Philharmonic Say hello to Baltic Sea Philharmonic ‘Repertoire for Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s first “Baltic Sea Landscapes” tour reflects our passion for the environment and that of the composers included’ This tour will be followed in September 2016 with ‘Baltic Sea Discovery’, in which repertoire takes the theme of the swan, with works by Pärt (Swansong) and Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake). The celebrated Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica will join the orchestra, with its players embedded in Baltic Sea Philharmonic, and Kremer performing Weinberg’s Violin Concerto. 2016 promises another exciting journey for Baltic Sea Music Education Foundation and we are pleased to have you on board with us! 08 09 ‘Baltic Sea Landscapes’ Tour, April 2016 Baltic Sea Philharmonic 15 April 2016, 6.00 pm, Kristjan Järvi, conductor Klaipeda (Concert Hall), Lithuania Alexander Toradze, piano 16 April 2016, 7.00 pm, Jean Sibelius: Liepāja (Great Amber Concert Hall), Karelia Suite, Op. 11 (Klaipeda, Liepāja, Latvia Tallinn, Helsinki) Sergei Prokofiev: 18 April 2016, 7.00 pm, Symphony No. 1 in D major Classical, Tallinn (Estonia Concert Hall), Op. 25 (Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Moscow) Estonia Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 19 April 2016, 7.00 pm, (except for Tallinn) Helsinki (Music Centre), *** Finland Arvo Pärt: Swansong (Littlemore Tractus) for orchestra 21 April 2016, 6.30 pm, Gediminas Gelgotas: St. Petersburg (Mariinsky Concert Hall), Mountains. Waters. (Freedom) Russia Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird (1945) 23 April 2016, 7.00 pm, Moscow (Tchaikovsky Concert Hall), Russia Baltic Sea Philharmonic ‘Baltic Sea Discovery’ Tour, September 2016 Baltic Sea Philharmonic 18 September 2016, 7.00 pm, Kristjan Järvi, conductor Gdansk (European Solidarity Centre), Poland Gidon Kremer, violin 20 September 2016, 5.00 pm, Arvo Pärt: Copenhagen (DR Concert Hall), Swansong (Littlemore Tractus) for orchestra Denmark Mieczysław Weinberg: Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 67 24 September 2016, 8.00 pm, *** Peenemünde/Usedom (Kraftwerk), P.I. Tchaikovsky: Germany Swan Lake Ballet Music (Arr. by Kristjan Järvi) Baltic Sea Philharmonic 8 December 2016, 11.00 am, Kristjan Järvi, conductor Vienna (Konzerthaus), Austria Special programme for employees of OMV Aktiengesellschaft 10 11 Welcome from Kristjan Järvi Our Founding Conductor and Music Director explains the philosophy behind ‘Baltic Sea Landscapes’ ‘This tour brings together all our commitments: to culture, music and education, and especially to the environment. That’s why we’re calling it the ‘Baltic Sea Landscapes’ tour. We’ll be touring on the actual Baltic Sea, stopping at ports of Klaipeda (Lithuania), Liepāja ‘It’s music that makes (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia), Helsinki (Finland) you feel the northern and St. Petersburg (Russia). We are bringing the environment into focus with lights, the ice, the cold pieces that come from the area and are wind, the forests, the written by composers who are inspired by incredible feeling when nature. It’s music that makes you feel the you jump into the lakes’ Northern Lights, the ice, the cold wind, the forests, the incredible feeling when you jump into the lakes. The whole mentality and way of being of the region is formed by nature, which is why we have these great composers. “Environment” is a very important word for Kristjan Järvi: Biography us, in two different senses. As humans we create the environment between each other. Born in Estonia, Kristjan Järvi emigrated It is also our neighbourhood. The sea gives to the United States as a child and grew us life, the trees give us air, and we all up in New York City. He has ‘earned a have to take care of it. We have to be reputation as one of the canniest, and connected to the greater environment in most innovative, programmers on the our daily lives, and then we realise that classical scene.’ (Reuters) Curating and there are no differences between peoples conducting his original, genre-fusing or nationalities. The whole planet is ours. projects and festivals with an individual It doesn’t matter where you come from or approach and style, his concerts have been what your story is: we must take care of proclaimed a ‘life-enhancing experience.’ each other, and of the Earth.’ (Herald Scotland). Kristjan realises his Baltic Sea Philharmonic Welcome from Kristjan Järvi pioneering ideas with his four ensembles: fresh look at the old, with concepts and as Music Director of the MDR Leipzig Radio presentation that transcend the borders of Symphony Orchestra and the Gstaad classical music. The latest release entitled Festival Orchestra, as creator of his New ‘Passacaglia’ is a collaboration with Arvo York-based classical-hip-hop-jazz band Pärt celebrating the composers 80th Absolute Ensemble, and as Founding birthday. Kristjan’s latest release on Sony Conductor and Music Director of the Baltic Classical is part of a series of Tchaikovsky Sea Philharmonic. theatre works that began with Snow Maiden, and will continue with Sleeping Beauty As a recording artist his range from and Nutcracker. Hollywood soundtracks such as ‘Cloud Atlas’ and ‘Hunger Games’ to Kristjan works with some of today’s award-winning albums on Sony and brightest creative minds, from film directors Chandos, to his eponymous series on Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis, to renowned French label Naïve Classique: composers and artists Arvo Pärt, Steve the ‘Kristjan Järvi Sound Project’. Launched Reich, Tan Dun, Giya Kancheli, Hauschka, in 2014, the series features projects across Dhafer Youssef, Anoushka Shankar, Max all of his ensembles and is characterised Richter and Esa-Pekka Salonen. by his unmistakable approach in taking a 12 13 Prokofiev at 125 We celebrate the anniversary of the great Russian composer in the company of one of the great Prokofiev proponents, Alexander Toradze This year marks the 125th anniversary of Prokofiev’s birth and we’re excited to be able to celebrate it in the company of one of the world’s leading Prokofiev champions, Alexander Toradze. He will be performing the Third Piano Concerto, his recording of He says: ‘One of the important things that which was chosen as ‘best recording ever’ Zak communicated to me was how unhappy by International Piano Quarterly. Prokofiev was that the lyrical, cantilena side of his music was often missed by players, Alexander brings special insights to critics and audiences. That became Prokofiev’s works, having several personal extremely important for me because it gave connections with the composer.