SPARK 13


18-19h                               CONCERT

                                           SooJin Anjou, piano

                                        Noah Bendix-Balgley, violin

Viola Yip (*1987)            New work* (2026) for piano and electronics

F. Schubert                    Sonata for Violin and Piano in g minor, D. 408

M. Ravel                        Sonata for Violin and Piano

                                     *World premiere; commissioned by SPARK

19.15 - 20.15h                  DISCUSSION        

"Biases and First Impressions: The Hidden Lens in Art and Science”

Panel TBA

Hosted by SooJin Anjou and 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.

Noah Bendix-Balgleyis First Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and tours both as a soloist and chamber musician. His clear and heartfelt personal sound has moved listeners around the world.

Recent highlights include his debut at Carnegie Hall as featured soloist on the Berlin Philharmonic’s US tour, a tour of Japan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and concerto appearances with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Dresden, Buffalo, Auckland, and Nagoya. He has also performed with the Shanghai, Guangzhou, Utah, Lyon, and Royal Danish Orchestras. Noah’s album Mozart/Sinigaglia with Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic was released in June 2024 to critical acclaim.

A renowned performer of klezmer music, Noah composed and premiered his own klezmer violin concerto, Fidl-Fantazye, in 2016 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He has sinnce performed the work more than a dozen times around the world, including with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, and Orchestre National de Lyon. 

A passionate chamber musician, Noah is a founding member of the Rosamunde String Quartet and the multi-genre ensemble Philharmonix. Recent festival appearances include the Seattle Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. 

Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Noah graduated from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Munich Hochschule. Now a gifted educator himself, Noah teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia, USA) and the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Viola Yip is a composer-performer, sound artist, and instrument builder based in Berlin. In her practice, she develops unorthodox, self-built instruments, compositions, and performances that explore the complex and dynamic relationships among materiality, media, space, the human body, and the machine body through sound.

Her instruments and performances have been presented and supported by institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of California (Berkeley), Oxford University, Pinakothek der Moderne München, Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Maerzmusik Festival, Hochschule Luzern, Gare du Nord, KTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden, Elektronmusikstudion EMS Stockholm, NOTAM Oslo, the University of Huddersfield, the Sonority Festival at Queen’s University Belfast, NEXT Festival Bratislava, Arter Museum Istanbul, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art Porto, Cycling ‘74 Expo, and the Hong Kong Arts Centre.