Spark 9 | Music by Sidney Corbett, Amy Beach, Dvorák | Discussion: "Focus: The long and short of it"

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© Neda Navaee

© Neda Navaee

© Neda Navaee

SPARK: Creative processes in the arts and sciences

18 - 19h  Concert

SooJin Anjou, piano
Shanshan Yao, violin
 

Sidney Corbett (b. 1960)
From the Garden (2023)*  for solo piano       

*Berlin premiere    

Antonín Dvorák
Silent Woods (1883)

Amy Beach
Violin Sonata (1896)                                                         

19.15 - 20h              Discussion “Focus: the long and short of it”
                                     with the musicians, Dr. Michael Sigal 
                                     and Prof. Nikolaus Rajewsky

Pianist SooJin Anjou enjoys an astonishingly varied international career as soloist, chamber musician and partner in diverse interdisciplinary projects. Born in South Korea, she was educated in the United States, Hungary and Germany. She graduated from the Juilliard School as the only person in its history to win both of Juilliard’s undergraduate commencement prizes, for achievement and leadership in music and the liberal arts. While still a student, she was prominently featured in Asahi-TV’s documentary “New York, New Yorkers”, which was televised in many parts of Asia and released on DVD.  

SooJin Anjou is an avid performer of contemporary music, and composers have been entrusting their work to her since she was 15. She has premiered works by, among others, Valentin Silvestrov, Elena Kats-Chernin and David Del Tredici. Her world-premiere recording of the complete piano works of electronic music legend Morton Subotnick was released to great acclaim, eliciting such praise as “magical and beguiling” (Wire Magazine, London).

As soloist, she made her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut at  age 16 with Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto. She is a laureate of the Robert Schumann International Piano Competition (Zwickau, Germany) and the Orléans International Piano Competition (France). Her broad repertoire includes more than 40 concertos, ranging from Bach to Berio, as well as the complete works of Ravel.

 

© Pablo Castagnola

Violinist Shanshan Yao is a member of the Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Rosamunde String Quartet. She was previously a member of the New York Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and has also appeared as a guest musician with the Chicago Symphony and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Since making her concerto debut at age 12 with the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, she has performed as soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (led by music director Manfred Honeck), Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, BanffChamber Orchestra, Asheville Symphony, Hangzhou Philharmonic, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra and Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin.

Shanshan has won top prizes at the Corpus Christi International Competition, Hellam Young Artists Competition and the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia, USA) and her Master’s degree from The Juilliard School in New York. In 2024, she was invited to represent her alma mater as part of “Curtis on Tour” in Europe.

© Nikolaj Lund

„Music is, for me, a central source of spiritual nourishment", Sidney Corbett says in an interview with SWR (Southwest German Radio). Corbett, is an artist who, outside the mainstream "new music" scene, maintains an independent and no less explicitly contemporary position. His work draws on a wide range of musical and extra-musical sources, including literature and the visual arts, and also addresses philosophical and theological issues. Lyrical sensuality and complex rhythmic superimpositions of pulsations are characteristic of his music. He is a seeker, an explorer, for whom music is a form of expression and his way of deciphering the world. Corbett has everremained open-minded and curious: an artist who always questions his aesthetics and their possible trajectories.

A substantial part of his musical output is devoted to music theater. He has written six operas, including "Das Große Heft” ("The Notebook"), after Agosta Kristóf's novel; and most recently, "San Paolo," after an unrealized screenplay by Pier Paolo Pasolini. He is currently at work on a piano concerto for the pianist Severin von Eckardstein and the State Philharmonic in Ludwigshafen.

Born in Chicago in 1960, Sidney Corbett studied music and philosophy at the University of California, San Diego; and at Yale University, where he received his doctorate in 1989. From 1985 to 1988, he studied in Hamburg with György Ligeti. He has been professor of composition at the University of Performing Arts Mannheim since 2006, and was elected to the Academy of the Arts in Berlin in 2022. Corbett’s music is published and distributed worldwide by Edition C.F. Peters. 

© F.I. Zimmermann