Epstein, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky
Sunday, November 3, 2019 2:00pm
NEC’s Jordan Hall
Marti Epstein: Celestial Navigation
Johannes Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto no. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23
About the Artists
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Jonathan Bass Piano
Pianist Jonathan Bass appears frequently throughout the United States as soloist and chamber musician. He has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall on four occasions, and the North Carolina Symphony at the Appalachian Summer Music Festival. He has been featured on many radio programs throughout the country, including National Public Radio’s ‘Performance Today’, and his solo and chamber music recordings have received high acclaim from Gramophone Magazine. A Steinway Artist, Bass gave his New York debut at Weill Recital Hall as the First Prize winner in the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition (1993). He performs frequently at Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston, and at Tanglewood. Internationally, he has performed in China, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, and Russia.
Collaborative highlights include guest appearances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and recitals with violinist Joseph Silverstein. As the pianist and a founding member of the Walden Chamber Players (1997), he has performed on a variety of chamber music series and residencies across the United States and Canada and recorded three CDs. He has also given numerous performances with many present and past members of the Boston Symphony, including his wife, violinist Tatiana Dimitriades, who partners with him in the Boston Duo. As orchestral keyboardist, he has performed with the BSO on two European Festival Tours under conductors Seiji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink.
Among the awards he has received are First Prize in the American Pianists Association Beethoven Fellowship Competition (1989), First Prize in the American National Chopin Competition (1984), First Prize in the National Arts Club Competition (1983), Second Prize in the Washington International Competition (1993), Second Prize in the Young Keyboard Artists Competition (1983), and the Bronze Medal and Mozart Prize at the Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition (1987).
Bass studied at the Juilliard School Pre-College with Richard Fabre, and later received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Juilliard as a student of Adele Marcus and Sascha Gorodnitzki. Summer studies include Interlochen with Nelita True and Aspen Music Festival with John Perry. He also studied in Russia at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and at Oberlin College and Conservatory. He has a Doctor of Music degree from the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied with, and was teaching assistant to, Menahem Pressler.
Jonathan Bass is a Professor of Piano at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where he has been on the faculty since 1993. He was Chair of the Piano Department from 2008 to 2015 and Chair of the Piano Department at Boston University from 2006 to 2008. He has been on the piano faculty of the Preparatory School of New England Conservatory since 1994, and he also serves on the faculty of the Walnut Hill School. His students have won many competition prizes, and he has given numerous master classes throughout the country.
For further biographical and performance information, visit http://www.jonathanbass.net.
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Francisco Noya Conductor
Francisco Noya is a prominent figure in the Boston and New England music scene, where he has earned a reputation as a versatile interpreter of symphonic and operatic literature. He served as music director of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston and Symphony by the Sea in Manchester. Mr. Noya currently serves as resident conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, where he represents the Philharmonic artistically and educationally throughout the Rhode Island community. He is also the music director of the New Philharmonia Orchestra in Newton, MA.Noya is also a respected member of the conducting faculty of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In the fall of 2008, he began his tenure as music director of the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, where he is actively engaged in the exploration of cutting-edge orchestral repertoire.
Noya began his professional career in his native Venezuela, as conductor of the Youth Orchestra of Valencia, one of the original ensembles of “El Sistema.” After earning advanced degrees in composition and conducting from Boston University, Noya was appointed to serve as assistant conductor of the Caracas Philharmonic and assistant to the music director of the Teatro Teresa Carreño, one of the most prestigious theaters in Latin America. Noya continued his conducting career in the United States by serving as music director of the Empire State Youth Orchestra in Albany, New York for ten seasons. During his tenure, he led the group on two European tours as well as in concerts at both Carnegie Hall in New York City and in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood.
In the U.S., Noya has appeared as guest conductor of the Boston Pops, Baltimore, Nashville, San Antonio, and Omaha Symphony Orchestras, and the Cape Cod Symphony, among others. In addition, he has performed internationally with orchestras in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy and Russia. In Venezuela, Noya has collaborated with “El Sistema,” teaching Master Classes and conducting orchestral performances throughout the country. For the past three seasons, Noya has been a guest conductor with the Orquesta Académica of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
