For immediate release:
February 22, 2023
Contact: Julie Goetz, Director of Communications
(412) 905-9058
jgoetz@pittsburghsymphony.org
PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ANNOUNCES SPRING CONCERT CALENDAR CHANGES
PITTSBURGH— The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra today announced changes to its spring concert calendar, affecting three concerts.
BNY Mellon Grand Classics: In Words and Music – Honeck Conducts Mozart’s Requiem
American tenor Ben Bliss will replace Timothy Fallon, who has withdrawn, for the March 17-19, 2023 weekend concerts of BNY Mellon Grand Classics “In Words and Music – Honeck Conducts Mozart’s Requiem.” The program remains the same. Ben Bliss is a 2016 recipient of the Martin E. Segal award at Lincoln Center, awarded by the Metropolitan Opera. He was also the recipient of the Mozart and Plácido Domingo awards at the 2015 Francisco Viñas International Competition in Barcelona, receiving 2nd place overall, first prize in the 2014 Gerda Lissner and Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation competitions, as well as a Sara Tucker and Sullivan Foundation grant. Mr. Bliss is also the 2013 Operalia Don Plácido Domingo Sr. Zarsuela prizewinner.
BNY MGC14: In Words and Music – Honeck Conductors Mozart’s Requiem
Heinz Hall
March 17, 18 and 19, 2023
Manfred Honeck, conductor
Jeanine De Bique, soprano (debut)
Catriona Morison, mezzo-soprano (debut)
Ben Bliss, tenor (debut)
Tareq Nazmi, bass (debut)
F. Murray Abraham, speaker
JAMES MACMILLAN: her tears fell with the dews at even (world premiere and commission)
SCHUBERT: “Unfinished” Symphony
MOZART: Requiem – Mozart’s Death in Words and Music
This is also a Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra recording weekend.
BNY Mellon Grand Classics: Beethoven & Shostakovich
Conductor Karina Canellakis has withdrawn from the April 16-18, 2023, engagement for the BNY Mellon Grand Classics ”Beethoven & Shostakovich” concerts due to the joyful news of her pregnancy, which will make it not possible for her travel to Pittsburgh. She will be replaced by conductor Jader Bignamini, who will make his Pittsburgh Symphony debut.
Jader Bignamini is Music Director of the Detroit Symphony, leading his second full season in 2022-2023. This season he makes debuts with Opera de Paris conducting La Forza del Destino and with Deutsche Opera Berlin conducting Simon Boccanegra, and with the Pittsburgh and Toronto Symphonies.
Highlights of the 2021-22 season included his debut with Canadian Opera Company conducting Gianni Schicchi and Rigoletto with Oper Frankurt, as well as concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival, Houston and New Jersey Symphonies, Residentie Orkest The Hague, and Bern Symphony Orchestra.
In Summer 2021, Bignamini led triumphant performances of Turandot at the Arena di Verona with Anna Netrebko and Yusiv Eyvazov, as well as a staged production of Rossini’s Stabat Mater at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Other recent highlights include debuts with the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera and Dutch National Opera conducting Madama Butterfly, Luisa Miller and La Forza del Destino at Oper Frankfurt, Cavalleria rusticana at Michigan Opera Theatre, La bohème at Santa Fe Opera, and La Traviata in Tokyo directed by Sofia Coppola. On the concert stage, he has lead the Dallas and Milwaukee Symphonies, Minnesota Orchestra, Slovenian and Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestras, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, and Mannheim National Theater Orchestra.
Bignamini has conducted Manon Lescaut at the Bolshoi, La Traviata at Bayerische Staatsoper, Eugene Onegin at Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Turandot at the Teatro Filarmonica, Il Trovatore at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera, the opening concert of the Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna conducting Carmina Burana; La Bohème at the Municipal de São Paulo and La Fenice; L'Elisir d'Amore in Ancona; Tosca at the Comunale di Bologna; La Forza del Destino at the Verdi Festival in Parma; La Bohème, Cavalleria Rusticana, and L'Amor Brujo at Teatro Filarmonico di Verona; Aida at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera; Madama Butterfly at La Fenice; engagements with Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, and the MITO Festival conducting Berlioz’ Messe Solennelle. He made his concert debut at La Scala in 2015.
Bignamini began his conducting career as Assistant and then Resident Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica la Verdi, having been appointed by Riccardo Chailly in 2010. He was born in Crema and studied at the Piacenza Music Conservatory.
BNY Mellon Grand Classics 16: Beethoven & Shostakovich
Heinz Hall
April 16 & 18, 2023
Jader Bignamini, conductor (debut)
Kirill Gerstein, piano
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10
Learning and Community Engagement:
The “Courage to Stand” schooltime and evening community concerts scheduled on March 1, 2023, will regrettably not take place on that date, but will be performed on the 2023-2024 season, on a date to be announced later.
With gratitude:
BNY Mellon Grand Classics concerts are made possible by title sponsorship support from BNY Mellon. The 2023-2024 season marks BNY Mellon’s 23rd consecutive year as title sponsor of the series.
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