Gershwin Piano Quartet Mischa Cheung | André Desponds | Benjamin Engeli | Stefan Wirth Gershwin Piano Quartet

Christoph Müller & Stefan Pavlik artistic management GmbH Byfangweg 22 CH-4051 Basel T: +41 61 273 70 10 F: +41 61 273 70 20 [email protected] www.artisticmanagement.eu

gershwin piano quartet Mischa Cheung | André Desponds | Benjamin Engeli | Stefan Wirth gershwin piano quartet www.gershwinpianoquartet.com

index /4 pianos ...... 3 /repertoire ...... 4 /4 pianists ...... 6 /concerts ...... 8 /suggested programs ...... 9 /press reviews ...... 11 /requirements ...... 12 /contact & booking ...... 13

2 4 pianos

The Gershwin Piano Quartet sheds new light on the music of George In its new program, the quartet does not limit André Desponds in 1996 and has presented its Gershwin. It features 4 pianists on itself solely to the music of Gershwin but also program in Europe, South America, China and 4 grand pianos, playing, arranging and includes important works by some of the Middle East with great success and to broad improvising on some of Gershwin’s most Gershwin’s contemporaries, namely Ravel’s critical acclaim. Some of the places where the popular songs and orchestral works, such as „La Valse“ and Bernstein’s „West Side Story“. Quartet has performed include the Schleswig- Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Porgy In this way, the many cross-references between Holstein Music Festival, the Tonhalle Zurich, the and Bess and I Got Rhythm. The originals are the old world and the new, between classical Musikfest Stuttgart, the Menuhin Festival rescored for the unfamiliar combination of 4 music and jazz, classical ballet and Broadway Gstaad, the National Palace of Culture Sofia, pianos by the members of the quartet theater, become apparent, thus creating a the Oriental Art Center Shanghai and the Sala themselves and make for a novel and exciting lively and highly virtuosic concert evening. São Paulo. listening and viewing experience. The Gershwin Piano Quartet was founded by

3 repertoire

George Gershwin • An American in Paris (arr. Stefan Wirth / Marlis Walter) Video (1898-1937) • Rhapsody in Blue (arr. André Desponds) Video • Fantasy on Porgy and Bess (arr. Benjamin Engeli / Stefan Wirth) • I Got Rhythm (arr. André Desponds) Video • Summertime (arr. Nik Bärtsch) • A Foggy Day (arr. Stefan Wirth) • The Man I Love (arr. Gershwin Piano Quartet) Audio recording • Oh Lady Be Good (arr. Gershwin Piano Quartet)

Richard Wagner • Ride of the Valkyries (arr. Benjamin Engeli) (1813-1883)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Nutcracker-Suite (arr. Gershwin Piano Quartet) (1840-1893)

Sergej Rachmaninov • Vocalise & Tarantella (arr. Benjamin Engeli) Video (1873-1943)

Paul Dukas • The Sorcerer‘s Apprentice (arr. Stefan Wirth) (1873-1943)

Maurice Ravel • La Valse (arr. Stefan Wirth) (1875-1937)

Igor Stravinsky • Petrushka-Suite (arr. Gershwin Piano Quartet) Audio recording (1882-1971) • Les Noces

Sergej Prokofiev • Three Pieces from „Lieutenant Kijé“ (arr. Mischa Cheung) Video (1891-1953)

4 repertoire

Cole Porter • Night´n´Day (arr. Gershwin Piano Quartet) Audio recording (1891-1964)

Leonard Bernstein • Songs and Dances from West Side Story Video (1918-1990) (arr. Gershwin Piano Quartet)

Antonio Carlos Jobim • Corcovado (arr. Gershwin Piano Quartet) (1927-1994)

George Antheil • Ballet Mécanique (1900-1959)

Michael Jackson • Bad (arr. Benjamin Engeli) (1958-2009)

Martin Wettstein • Stuxnet - The Worm (2011) (*1970)

Stefan Wirth • Tango-Fugue on a Theme by Astor Piazzolla Video (*1975)

Trailer and clips: Solo works www.youtube.com/gershwinpianoquartet In addition to the works performed as a quartet, every single pianist often also introduces himself with a solo work. The multifaceted selection ranges from Alexander Skrjabin’s Nocturne for the left hand to the „Danzas Argentinas“ by the Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera and the „Virtuoso Etudes on Gershwin’s Song Melodies“ by Earl Wild. It also includes improvisations on familiar standards such as „Oh, Lady be Good“ or „Autumn Leaves“.

5 4 pianists

Mischa Cheung comes from a musical Swiss-Chinese family and currently lives in Zurich. He studied with Prof. Konstantin Scherbakov at the Zurich University of the Arts and has taken up a busy career bringing him to many concert stages and festivals throughout the world. He has appeared at prestigious halls such as the Tonhalle Zürich, Philharmonie de Paris, Barbican Center London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Vienna, Philharmonie Köln, National Concert Hall Taipeh or the National Center for the Performing Arts Beijing. Besides being a member of the Gershwin Piano Quartet, Mischa Cheung plays solo and chamber music recitals and regularly performs at the Game Concerts directed by the Merregnon Studios. At this concert series, he is a popular soloist and has toured Japan with the London Symphony Orchestra as well as appearing with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. Recently he was responsible for the Live-Soundtrack of a dance production commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art New York and directed by reknowned choreographer Alexandra Bachzetsis. He was the pianist of the ECHO-award winning ensemble Spark from 2011 until 2015 and took part in extensive concert tours and numerous radio, tv and cd productions including recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Berlin Classics. Mischa Cheung teaches piano and improvisation at the Zurich University of the Arts and has also been appointed assistant to the masterclass of Prof. Konstantin Scherbakov.

Benjamin Engeli is one of the most versatile Swiss musicians of his generation. His career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher has taken him to most European countries as well as to Australia, India, North and South America. As a member of the Tecchler Trio, he was the 1st Prize winner at the International ARD Music Competition in Munich in 2007, and has since then performed in venues such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wigmore Hall London, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow, Oriental Arts Center Shanghai, Konzerthaus Vienna or Tonhalle Zurich. Benjamin comes from a family of musicians and started his musical education on various instruments at an early age. Only when he was fifteen did he decide to take his first regular piano lessons, studying with Adrian Oetiker with whom he to work for 7 years. He later also studied with Homero Francesch, Lazar Berman, Andrzej Jasinski, Maurizio Pollini and András Schiff. Since many years he is also teaching up-and-coming musicians and holds teaching positions at Musikhochschule Basel (Switzerland) and at Landeskonservatorium Feldkirch (Austria).

6 4 pianists

André Desponds is one of the few pianists who feel equally at home in a Bach fugue, a Chopin Ballade and Gershwin’s „I Got Rhythm“. At the early age of 16 he was admitted to the class of Sava Savoff at the Musikhochschule Zürich and has since been awarded numerous prizes in national and international competitions. André Desponds has performed in many international venues, including the Gasteig, Munich, the St. Petersburg Philharmony and the UN Headquarters in New York. He has made recordings for Swiss television and radio as well as a number of CD- productions and collaborates regularly with many noted artists, such as Noëmi Nadelmann, Thomas Dobler, Simon Estes, Andreas Vollenweider and Bettina Boller. In addition, André Desponds has developed a wide spectrum of musical activities as a jazz improviser, silent film accompanist and as a composer for theatre and film. Some of his projects have included the founding of the Gershwin Piano Quartet (1996), the theatrical project „L’homme orchestre“ with the Clown Dimitri at the Lucerne Festival as well as numerous educational orchestra presentations. In 2006, together with the dancer Andrea Herdeg, he created „Zal“, a play based on the life and music of Frédéric Chopin that combines elements of music, dance and theatre. Desponds is a professor for improvisation and chamber music at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Stefan Wirth is one of the most versatile Swiss musicians of his generation. As a soloist he has performed with the Czech Chamber Orchestra, the Bernese Chamber Orchestra and the Malaysian National Philharmonic Orchestra amongst others. He is especially dedicated to contemporary music, both as a composer and as a performer with the Collegium Novum, Zurich and the Ensemble Contrechamps, Geneva. Finally, he has also worked in theatre with directors such as Christoph Marthaler and Frank Castorf as composer, arranger and performer. Stefan Wirth received his training as a pianist at the Konservatorium Zurich with Hadassa Schwimmer and Irwin Gage. He pursued his studies in the USA at the New England Conservatory, Boston and at Indiana University Bloomington, where he studied with Leonard Hokanson and received his Master’s Degree in 2001. He has won numerous prizes: at the Swiss National Youth Competition, from the American Society of Arts and Letters, or, together with the violinist Jakub Dzialak at the International Chamber Music Competition Thessaloniki. Additionally, he has participated in masterclasses with Homero Francesch and Bruno Leonardo Gelber.

7 concerts

Performances of the Gershwin Piano Quartet to Date (Selection) National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, China Concert series „Mozarteum Brasileiro“, Sala São Paulo, Brazil Oriental Art Center Shanghai, China Teatro Municipal Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Concert Hall Shenzhen, China Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands Opera House Guangzhou, China National Palace of Culture, Sofia, Bulgaria Culture Centre Suzhou, China Festival International de Musique, Menton, France Baalbek International Festival, Lebanon Swiss Chamber Circle, KKL Luzern, Switzerland Schwetzinger SWR Jubiläums-Festspiele 2012, Germany Tonhalle Zürich, Switzerland Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Germany Festival „Live at Sunset“, Zürich, Switzerland Rheingau Music Festival, Wiesbaden, Germany „Das Zelt“, Switzerland Ruhr Piano Festival, Germany Menuhin Festival, Gstaad, Switzerland Musikfest Stuttgart, Germany Festival da Jazz, St. Moritz, Switzerland Festival „Winterzauber“, Bad Kissingen, Germany Teatro Sannazaro, Napoli, Italy Festival „JazzClassics Pianissimo“, Schloss Elmau, Germany Swiss Days Dubai, UAE Athens International Festival, Athen, Greece Philharmonie St. Petersburg, Russia

As well as numerous concerts for occasions such as anniversaries and commemorations, openings, and business events. For example, on behalf of Credit Suisse, UBS, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Allreal AG, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Verband der Chemischen Industrie (Germany), The Dolder Grand Zurich, IFP World Congress of Psychotherapy etc.

TV- und Radioproductions Rádio TV Cultura Brazil Tele Ticino Schweizer Fernsehen SRF 1 TV5 Monde Schweizer Radio SRF 2 Mezzo.TV TV Moskau SWR Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Deutschlandfunk

8 suggested program I „transatlantiques“

Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky Nutcracker-Suite (1840-1893) - Ouverture (arr. Stefan Wirth) - In the Pine Forest; Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (arr. Benjamin Engeli) - Danse of the Mirilitons (arr. Benjamin Engeli) - Waltz of the Flowers (arr. André Desponds) - March (arr. Mischa Cheung) - Trepak (arr. Mischa Cheung)

Alexander Scriabin Prélude in C-sharp minor, Op. 9 No. 1 for the left hand (1872-1915) (Solo Benjamin Engeli)

Sergej Prokofiev Three Pieces from „Lieutenant Kijé“ (arr. Mischa Cheung) (1891-1953) - Birth of Kijé - Romance - Trojka

Sergej Rachmaninov Italian Polka (arr. V. Gryaznov) (1873-1943)

George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue (1898-1937) (arr. André Desponds)

------Intermission------

George Gershwin Fantasy on Porgy and Bess (arr. Benjamin Engeli, Stefan Wirth) (1898-1937) - Introduction - It Ain‘t Necessarily So - Rumble - My Man‘s Gone Now - Interlude - I Can‘t Sit Down - I Loves You Porgy - Oh, The Train Is At The Station

George Gershwin By Strauss (1898-1937) (Solo Stefan Wirth)

Cole Porter Night´n´Day (1891-1964) (arr. Gershwin Piano Quartet)

George Gershwin Oh, Lady Be Good (1898-1937) (Solo André Desponds)

Leonard Bernstein Songs and Dances from "West Side Story" (1918-1990) - Prologue / Scherzo (arr. Mischa Cheung) - A Boy Like That / I Have Love (arr. Benjamin Engeli) - Cha-Cha / Maria (arr. Benjamin Engeli) - Tonight (arr. Gershwin Piano Quartet) - Mambo (arr. Mischa Cheung)

9 suggested program II „an american in paris“

Igor Stravinsky Petrushka-Suite (1882-1971) - The Shrovetide Fair (arr. Benjamin Engeli) - Petrushka‘s Cell (arr. Mischa Cheung) - Russian Dance (arr. André Desponds) - Dance of the Wet Nurses - Dance of the Coachmen and Grooms - The Masqueraders (arr. Stefan Wirth)

Alexander Scriabin Etude F-sharp Major, Op. 42 No. 4 (1872-1915) (Solo Stefan Wirth)

Stefan Wirth Tango-Fuge on a Theme by Astor Piazzolla (*1975)

Maurice Ravel Pavane for a Dead Princess (1873-1937) (Solo Benjamin Engeli)

Maurice Ravel La Valse (1873-1937) (arr. Stefan Wirth)

------Intermission------

George Gershwin An American in Paris (1898-1937) (arr. Marlis Walter, Stefan Wirth, André Desponds)

Earl Wild Etude Nr. 6 on Gershwin’s "I Got Rhythm" (1915-2010) (Solo Mischa Cheung)

Antonio Carlos Jobim Corcovado (1927-1994) (arr. Gershwin Piano Quartet)

Frédéric Chopin Improvisation on Waltz in C-sharp minor Op. 64 No. 2 (1810-1849) (Solo André Desponds)

10 press reviews

„This was a sensational concert-hall discovery! (…) Each of the „The performance turned out to be an explosively exuberant pianists has an impressive solo-career and, notwithstanding the display of pyrotechnics: four brilliant pianists, four excellent individual profile of each artist, as a quartet they form an instruments and an overwhelming wealth of ideas how to adapt orchestral unity of immense precision, homogenity and the great classics of music history for this unique ensemble." imaginative phrasing.“ (Wiesbadener Kurier) (Vorarlberg Online) „Even though each performer in the quartet has his own „Sheer listening pleasure, with such a wealth of sonic delicacy, characteristics, one should praise the ensemble work that goes rhythmic precision and joyfully exuberant musicianship!" beyond any individual taste and sounds like a true community of souls.“ (DRS 2 Kulturtipp) (Jornal do Tarde, São Paulo)

„The four pianists did full justice to the American wanderer „Gershwin appears in new, colourful and, at times, magical between classical and popular music. They were bursting with guises.“ innovative ideas and esprit.“ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) (Lübecker Nachrichten) „Virtuosity, dynamics, poetry, movement, but also musical „In the ever-young pieces of George Gershwin, the art of intimacy - such qualities were to be experienced and enjoyed by improvisation was apparent in all its ramifications as well as in the audience.“ the sensitive musical communication through eye-contact.“ (Nice Matin) (Oberösterreichische Nachrichten) „André Desponds, Mischa Cheung, Benjamin Engeli and Stefan „What the Gershwin Piano Quartet presented to us was unique Wirth, all soloists and multiple prize-winners, manage to bridge (…) It set new standards, not only optically, but the the gap between classical music and jazz with creativity and charm performance of these 4 exceptionally talented pianists was (…) The different personalities, which could not have been better entirely convincing in its blend of extreme precision and casted as a "Boygroup", engage in a playful tossing of notes and boundless musical zest." phrases from one to another and deliver an impressive "quadrophonic" interpretation." (Liechtensteiner Vaterland) (Der Landbote)

11 requirements

Any concert organizer wishing to book the Gershwin Piano Quartet must be able to provide four concert grand pianos of equal quality. Here are some of the most commonly asked questions regarding this matter:

How do I get 4 concert grand pianos? In the 15 years of the Gershwin Piano Quartet’s existence this has never presented an unsurmountable problem, not even in countries such as Lebanon and China. Usually an organizer is able to provide one or two instruments. The remaining instruments can be rented at local piano dealers. For concerts in Switzerland and the adjacent countries the Gershwin Piano Quartet often collaborates with the piano firm Bachmann in Wetzikon/Zurich. For further information please see www.ursbachmann-pianos.ch. The piano firm will usually cover transportation, installation and removal, as well as the professional tuning and intonation of the instruments. It is especially important to provide four easily adjustable piano benches for the pianists.

How much does it cost to rent the instruments? In Switzerland, expenses usually lie between 3000.- and 6000.- Swiss Francs. This includes transportation, installation and removal as well as tuning and intonation. The costs vary depending on number and size oft the pianos rented. In large halls from 700 seats upward the Gershwin Piano Quartet plays on Steinway D pianos (2.74 m = 8 ft 12 in) or on instruments of equal quality of other brands such as Fazioli, Yamaha, Kawai or Bösendorfer. In smaller halls Steinway B (2.11 m = 6 ft 11 in) or even A models (1.88 m = 6 ft 2 in) may be used, somtimes also mixing different types (for instance, 2 Steinway D and two B models). It is advantageous for the hall to have an entrance at ground level but not absolutely necessary. The rental cost can often be reduced through sponsoring contracts with local piano firms.

How much space is needed on the podium? With four Steinway D pianos the stage must be at least 6.00 m x 4.50 m (19 ft 8 in x 14 ft 9 in), with the smallest models the minimal space requirements are 4.20 m x 3.50 ( 13 ft 9 in x 11 ft 6 in). In rare cases the Gershwin Piano Quartet also performs in a star–shaped set-up. If the auditorium does not have ascending seat rows the stage should be higher than the audience, if possible.

If you happen to have any more specific questions or problems concerning the logistics of the four pianos, the Gershwin Piano Quartet will be happy to provide you with further advice and assistance.

Courtyard of the Two Temples, Dracula Club St. Moritz: Festival da Jazz The Dolder Grand Zürich Baalbek International Festival, Libanon 12 contact & booking

Booking More information and videos: Müller & Pavlik artistic management GmbH www.gershwinpianoquartet.com Byfangweg 22 www.youtube.com/gershwinpianoquartet CH-4051 Basel www.facebook.com/gershwinpianoquartet Switzerland P: +41 61 273 70 10 High-Resolution Photos (300dpi) F: +41 61 273 70 20 Dropbox-Link [email protected] www.artisticmanagement.eu 13