I Musici de Montreal, Yuli Turovsky, Conductor

Overview

Under the dynamic and visionary direction of founder Maestro Yuli Turovsky, I Musici de Montreal has performed in some of the world's greatest halls, including Lincoln Center.  Critical acclaim and a public's enthusiasm underlines the importance of the orchestra on the world's musical stage.  The orchestra performs with precision, cohesion, and a distinctive sound.

Calgary-born pianist Katherine Chi has performed memorably throughout Europe and North America and was the first Canadian to win the Honens International Piano Competition in Canada.

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Program

PROGRAM

Shostakovich     Prelude and Scherzo, Op. 11

Barber     Adagio

Chopin     Variations in B-Flat Major on a theme of "La ci darem la mano" from Mozart's Don Giovanni

Tchaikovsky     Souvenir de Florence

About the Artists

Founded by cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky, I Musici de Montréal is a chamber orchestra of 15 musicians that performs a vast repertoire extending from the Baroque to the Contemporary in concert and on CD. The orchestra presents a busy schedule of over 100 concerts per season throughout the world, including three series in Montreal. This extraordinary level of activity confirms I Musici de Montréal among the most important touring orchestras in Canada.

Under the dynamic and visionary direction of Maestro Yuli Turovsky who also performs frequently as cello soloist with the orchestra, I Musici de Montréal has performed in some of the greatest halls in the world: New York's Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, the Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, the Tonhalle in Zürich, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Kioi Hall in Tokyo and Philharmonie in Luxemburg, among others. Public enthusiasm and critical acclaim underlining the precision, cohesion and virtuosity of their performance as well as the brilliant and distinctive sound of the orchestra confirm I Musici de Montréal's importance on the world's musical stage.

Active in the recording studio since its beginnings, I Musici de Montréal has released more than 40 CDs for the Chandos and Analekta Record labels that are distributed in more than 50 countries. The recordings have won the orchestra and Maestro Turovsky many awards, including a Diapason d'Or for their 1988 recording of Shostakovich's 14th Symphony and a 1992 Penguin Guide Rosette for their Concerti grossi, opus 6 by Handel, which has since become the standard-bearer for this repertoire. In December of 1998, the Conseil québecois de la musique gave two Opus Awards to the orchestra for Recording Event of the Year and Best Recording - contemporary music for a CD grouping works by Gorecki, Pärt and Schnittke. In August 2001, BBC Music Magazine named "Pick of the month" I Musici de Montréal's 40th CD, a recording of Miaskovsky, Schnittke and Denisov. In 2007, the orchestra won the Opus Award for their latest record Shostakovich's Circle and was nominated for a Juno Award.

In 1999, I Musici de Montréal was awarded the Grand Prix by the Montreal Urban Community for their exceptional contribution to music presentation in and around Montreal. In 2004, the Orchestra and Maestro Turovsky received a uniquely special award for International performances presented by the Conseil québécois de la musique. This award saluted the 20th anniversary of the orchestra and the body of work from which it created its high reputation throughout the years.

Pianist Katherine Chi has performed throughout Europe and North America to great acclaim, including her 2003 New York recital debut, about which The New York Times wrote, "Ms Chi displayed a keen musical intelligence and a powerful arsenal of technique." She has established herself as one of Canada's fastest rising stars of classical music. "...the most sensational but, better, the most unfailingly cogent and compelling Prokofiev's Third I have heard in years," said The Globe and Mail.

Ms. Chi's upcoming performances in 2008/9 include her recital debut at Lincoln Centre. She will appear with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony Orchestra, and National Arts Center Orchestra, where she will also be in residence. Other concerts include stops in Beijing, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston, Dresden, Leipzig, Montreal, and Ottawa. In addition, Ms. Chi is the artistic director and pianist in a series of concerts featuring Stockhausen's Mantra, and she will tour the Western US and Canada with the Debussy Quartet.

Ms. Chi has also given memorable recitals in Hamburg, Hanover, Milan, Rome and Salzburg. She has appeared with the CBC Radio Orchestra in Vancouver, Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Toronto Sinfonia, and the Alabama, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Philadelphia, Quebec, Thunder Bay, Victoria Symphony Orchestras and at festivals including Aldeburgh, Banff, Canada's Festival of the Sound, Launadière, Domaine Forget, Marlboro, Osnabrück Kammermusik, Germany's Ruhr, Santander Summer Music, and Festival Vancouver.

Ms. Chi gave her debut recital at the age of nine. A year later she was accepted to The Curtis Institute of Music. She continued studies with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she received her Master's degree and Graduate and Artist Diplomas. She later studied for two years at the International Piano Foundation in Como, Italy, and at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. Other teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Galina Eguirazarova, and Wassily Lobanov. Ms. Chi was a prizewinner at the 1998 Busoni International Piano Competition and was the first Canadian and first woman to win Canada's Honens International Piano Competition. Her debut recording, of works by Beethoven and Rachmaninov, was released in 2003 on Canada's Arktos label. At the present time she is a resident in Boston where she teaches and pursues her Doctorate at the New England Conservatory of Music.