www.aisaijiri.com

AISA IJIRI

After her acclaimed debut at the Tokyo Opera City in 2010 to the Carnegie Hall, New York in 2017, Aisa Ijiri has established herself as one of the award-winning pianists of her generation, and has been described as a special talent whose European sophistication, fierce passion and poetic sentiment create an artistic atmosphere (The Record Geijutsu, Tokyo).

Born in Japan, Aisa made her European debut at the age of 15 as a concerto soloist with the Capella Cracovienses Symphony Orchestra at the Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw and as a recitalist at the Konserthuset, Stockholm. Since then her performances have taken her to the U.S.A, the U.K, Korea, China and throughout Europe.

Aisa has given regular piano solo, chamber music recitals and concerto performances at many prestigious venues and international festivals including Kioi Hall (Tokyo), Izumi Hall (Osaka), Cadogan Hall, St.John’s Smith Square, St.George’s Bristol, Fairfield Halls, St.Martin-in-the-Fields, LSO St.Lukes, Wimbledon International Music Festival ’15, Three Choirs Festival ’14, Lichfield Festival ’13 and the Bank of Shiga Celebrity Recitals. Her concerts have been broadcast on BBC Television 1, BBC Radio 3, Radio Television of Serbia, Radio Beograd and CNN TV.

Aisa has released her debut CD ‘Pilgrimage’, piano works by Schumann & Liszt (2011) and ‘Ailes d’amour’, piano works by Prokofiev (2016) on N.A.T Records, Tokyo. Her live recording of the piano works ‘Sakura’ (2014) and ‘Preludes’ (2015) written by Llywelyn ap Myrddin was released on WW Records, London. In 2016, Aisa was also added to the ‘SPIRIO’, a new high resolution player piano system as an official Spirio Recording Artist by Steinway&Sons. In March 2017, Aisa made a sensational debut at the Carnegie Hall in New York.

She is an official Steinway Artist, and the Artistic Director of the Tokyo International Piano Association.

PIANO CONCERTO (SCHUMANN IN A MINOR)

The Piano concerto in A minor, Op 54 (completed in the year 1845) is the only piano concerto written by Romantic composer Robert Schumann. The work premiered in Leipzig on 1 January 1846 with Clara Schumann playing the solo part.  Ferdinant Hiller, the work’s dedicatee, conducted.

In 1841, Schumann wrote a fantasy for piano and orchestra, his Phantasie.  His pianist wife Clara urged him to expand this piece into a full piano concerto.   In 1845 he added the intermezzo and finale to complete the work.

The work may have been used as a model by Edvard Grieg in composing his own Piano Concerto, also in A minor.  Grieg’s concerto, like Schumann’s, employs a single powerful orchestral chord at its introduction before the piano’s entrance with a similar descending flourish.  Sergei Rachmaninoff in turn used Grieg’s concerto as a model for his first Piano concerto.

www.panayiotisgogos.com

PANAYIOTIS GOGOS

Panayiotis Gogos, a Bluthner artist, born in Greece, began his piano studies at the age of six at the Philharmonic Music Society. In 1998, he received the soloist diploma ‘’cum laude’’ and the diploma for the art of counterpoint. For three years, he worked in Athens with the great pianist and professor of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Valery Sagaidatschny, and attracted attention in 2001, when he won first prize at the national piano competition X.O.N. in Athens. In 2001, he continued his piano and chamber music studies at the Conservatory of Toulouse under Prof. Thérèse Dussaut with a scholarship of the prestigious “A. ONASSIS” Institute and graduated in 2004 with the  “Prix de Perfectionnement” and the “Prix de Musique de Chambre”.The Greek Academy of Art & Literature in Athens awards Panayiotis the title of “Outstanding Young Soloist” in 2005. A close collaboration connects him to the renowned pianist and pedagogue Monique Deschaussées in Paris. From 2006 until 2009, he was accepted in the famous Artists residence “Cité Internationale des Arts” in Paris, which he was chosen to represent in 2007 and 2008 as soloist at the “Fête de la Musique” in Paris. He has been nominated “Ambassador of the Music of Chopin” from the Polish Ministry of Culture in 2010 and participated in the official celebration of “200th Anniversary of Chopin” in Paris and Athens. In 2009 Panayiotis Gogos gave his debut recital at the Konzerthaus Vienna and in December 2013 made his first appearance in Musikverein Vienna. Extensive concert tours brought him in Switzerland (Bern), Germany (Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden), France (Paris, Toulouse), England (London), Austria (Wien), Russia (Moscow) and all the major cities of  Greece.

For 2018 Panayiotis will perform in Bucharest, Athens, Moscow, London and will make his debut in New York.

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 (SAINT-SAËNS)

The Piano Concerto No 2 in G Minor, Op. 22 by Camille Saint-Saëns, was composed in 1868 and is probably Saint-Saëns’ most popular piano concerto.  It was dedicated to Madame A. de Villers née de Haber.  At the premiére, the composer was the soloist and Anton Rubinstein conducted the orchestra.  Saint-Saëns wrote the concerto in three weeks and had very little time to prepare for the premiére; consequently, the piece was not initially successful.  The capricious changes in style provoked Zygmunt Stojowski to quip that it “begins with Bach and ends with Offenbach”.

The piece follows the traditional form of three movements but allows for more freedom in tempo markings.  Normally, the first movement is fast paced, while the second is slower, but the first movement here is slow and the second movement has a scherzo-like quality, resulting in a form resembling a typical symphony but lacking the first movement (a form also represented by Beethoven’s fourteenth piano sonata).  The concerto is scored for solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, crash cymbals and strings.

www.tobypurser.co.uk

TOBY PURSER – CONDUCTOR

Toby Purser is presently ENO Mackerras Conducting Fellow, Artistic Director of the Orion Orchestra, and Artistic Director of the Peace and Prosperity Trust.

In 2005 Toby Purser founded the Orion Orchestra, and has developed it into a leading organisation for young musicians. Other orchestras he has conducted include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Concert Orchestra, L’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Kotorart Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, the Orpheus Sinfonia, Sinfonia Viva, Kammerphilharmonie Graz, and the St Petersburg Camerata.

In November 2014, he made his company debut at ENO conducting two performances of The Marriage of Figaro, and most recently worked as assistant conductor to Mark Wigglesworth on their new production of Alban Berg’s Lulu, and on the world premiere of The Winter’s Tale last January. Next season he will be conducting performances of La Traviata and The Turn of the Screw. 

 He has been a regular guest conductor at Grange Park Opera where he conducted Madama Butterfly, Eugene Onegin, Rigoletto and Fortunio, which was also performed at the Buxton Festival. Recent engagements include working as Assistant Conductor at the Paris Opera Bastille on Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, and at Longborough on Wagner Tristan und Isolde. He conducted Rossini’s Le Comte Ory for Chelsea Opera, Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underword, and Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment for Opera Della Luna at Iford Arts, and Haydn’s La Canterina and Lo Speziale for Bampton Classical Opera. Working for Pimlico Opera each winter since 2008, he has conducted productions in various prisons, with a cast of inmates performing alongside professionals in repertoire including Sister Act, Les Misérables, Sugar, Sweeney Todd and West Side Story. A CD a Bel Canto arias recorded with Mexican tenor Jesús León and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic was recently released.

ORION ORCHESTRA

With Orion’s players selected from the most talented music college students and recent graduates, we give young players experiences working at London’s leading concert venues, giving them the chance to work under the highest professional standards.

Our concert programme aims to cover a broad and diverse repertoire, encompassing all of the skills necessary in a career: from symphonic and operatic, to contemporary and cross-over.

With valuable mentorship from leading international musicians and Orion alumni, we aim to give our players a holistic training in what it takes to start their professional careers.

As orchestra in residence at the Aberystwyth International MusicFest, the orchestra provides unique experience to student conductors and composers. It awards annually both a Conductors Prize and a Young Conductors Bursary, supported by the Richard Carne Trust.