Tafelmusik launches 14/15 season with HANDEL FIREWORKS at Koerner Hall Rodolfo Richter, Violinist and Guest Director

“I have rarely heard Vivaldi played with such hair-raising fizz and frenzy … Rodolfo Richter worked miracles of dexterity.” - Times

Toronto, August 27, 2014 … Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra launches the 14/15 season with a festive bang! Violinist and Guest Director Rodolfo Richter leads the orchestra in concerts at Koerner Hall from September 18 to 21. The programme includes Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, along with works by Vivaldi, Telemann, Corelli and Heinichen. Richter will be the featured soloist in Vivaldi’s concerto Il grosso mogul. Audience Talkbacks with musicians will take place after each concert.

British/Brazilian violinist Rodolfo Richter is concertmaster of the and B’Rock, professor of baroque violin at the in London, and director of the Early Music Course and Festival at the Oficina de Música de Curitiba in Brazil. He appears as soloist and director with, among others, Academia Montis Regalis (Italy), Bach Collegium San Diego (US), Barokkanerne (Norway), B’Rock (Belgium), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Concert, and Academy of Ancient Music (UK). He is also very active as a chamber musician, and is a member of the acclaimed Palladian Ensemble.

Richter was trained as a modern violinist with Moysés de Castro, Klaus Wusthoff, and Pinchas Zuckermann, and has studied composition with Hans Joachim Koellreutter and Pierre Boulez. He later specialized in the baroque violin with Monica Huggett at the . He was a prizewinner at the prestigious International Early Music Competition for Ensembles in Bruges (2000), and won first prize at the Antonio Vivaldi International Violin Competition (2001).

In programming these Tafelmusik concerts, Richter selected festive music that would utilize the full complement of brass players required for Handel’s Fireworks — for example, Heinichen’s Serenata di Moritzburg, which comprises movements that are like horn concertos. The inclusion of a Corelli concerto grosso was a natural choice — “again a kind of festive music,” says Richter, who maintains that the addition of winds in certain movements imparts a joyful richness to the musical texture. Richter has also programmed the Telemann concerto for trumpet and violin — a personal favourite — and Vivaldi’s Il Grosso Mogul concerto for these inaugural concerts of the 14/15 season.

Dates + Times: Koerner Hall, Thu Sep 18, Fri Sep 19, Sat Sep 20 at 8pm Sun Sep 21 at 3:30pm

Ticket Prices: Regular: $47-$107 65+: $35-$89 35 & Under: $25-$89

Venue: Koerner Hall, The Royal Conservatory, 273 Bloor St West, Toronto ON

Box Office: Weston Family Box Office: 416.408.0208

Website/Social Media: www.tafelmusik.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/tafelmusik.org Twitter: @tafelmusik Youtube: Tafelmusik1979 Instagram: @tafelmusikbocc

Full programme: Arcangelo Corelli Concerto grosso in D Major, op. 6, no. 4 Johann David Heinichen Serenata di Moritzburg, S. 204 in F Major Georg Philipp Telemann Concerto for trumpet & violin in D Major, TWV 53:D5 John Thiessen, trumpet Rodolfo Richter, violin Antonio Vivaldi Concerto for violin in D Major, RV 208 "Il grosso Mogul" Rodolfo Richter, violin George Frideric Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks

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Media contact: Luisa Trisi, Big Picture Communications, 427 Bloor Street West 416 481‐1161 | 416 456-0499 | [email protected]

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Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, founded in 1979 and led by Jeanne Lamon since 1981, is one of the world’s leading period performance ensembles. The Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, under the direction of Ivars Taurins, was formed in 1981 to complement the Orchestra. The orchestra performs more than 50 concerts each year at home in Toronto, and travels extensively around the world. The choir and

orchestra’s multi-platform recording label Tafelmusik Media was launched in January 2012, along with the Watch and Listen site, Tafelmusik‘s digital concert hall. Tafelmusik’s rich discography of more than 80 CDs have been recorded on the Sony Classical, CBC Records, Analekta and Tafelmusik Media labels. Since 1991, Tafelmusik has received ten JUNO Awards and a Grammy Award nomination. Tafelmusik is the Baroque Orchestra-in-Residence at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and operates its annual artist training programmes, Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute and Tafelmusik Winter Institute.

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Tafelmusik’s Season Radio Sponsor is The New CLASSICAL 96.3 FM.

Tafelmusik is a proud member of the Bloor Street Culture Corridor