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