Tchaikovsky Immersion

Saturday, October 19, 2024 | 7:30pm

Sunday, October 20, 2024 | 3:00pm

The Granada Theatre

Concert Duration: Approximately 100 minutes

Learn More About this Program

Attend “Conversations with KUSC” –
Pre-concert chats with on-air personality Jennifer Miller
Oct. 19 – 2:00 – 2:30 pm
Oct. 20 – 6:30 – 7:00 pm

Digital Program: Coming Soon
Program Notes: Coming Soon

“Tchaikovsky poured his soul into his symphonies,” says Music & Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti. “Symphonies that would express his inner anguish and romantic passions as no music had ever dared to.” Join Nir and The Symphony for an immersion into Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony on opening weekend. Nir takes you behind the notes to discover how this symphony came into being, the meaning of the motives, and the mystery woman who made it possible, followed by a performance of the work. (And learn even more at the pre-concert chats!)

Plus, the intoxicating, seductive sound of the classical guitar. Experience the greatest of all guitar concertos, Rodrigo’s haunting Concierto de Aranjuez, with the greatest classical guitarist of our time: Pablo Sáinz-Villegas. Billboard Magazine declares: “It’s safe to call him the global ambassador of Spanish Guitar.”

The Artists

Nir Kabaretti, conductor
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, Guitar

Repertoire

Emma Lou Diemer| Homage to Tchaikovsky
Rodrigo | Concierto de Aranjuez
Tchaikovsky | Symphony No. 4

Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, Guitar

Pablo Sáinz-Villegas has been acclaimed by the international press as the successor of Andrés Segovia, and a worldwide ambassador of Spanish culture. He has been the first solo guitarist to play at Carnegie Hall in New York since Maestro Andrés Segovia did it in 1983, the first guitarist to play with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 2001, and the first guitarist to play with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 1983.

Since his debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, he has performed in more than 40 countries and with orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Spain and in theaters such as the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the National Center for the Arts in Beijing and the Suntory Hall in Tokyo among many others, thus becoming the “global ambassador of the Spanish guitar” (Billboard Magazine).

Plácido Domingo described him as “The master of the Spanish guitar”. They have collaborated on many projects together such as recording the album “Volver” as a duo for SONY, as well as participating in the tribute held in Placido’s honor at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid for more than 85,000 people, and in a concert on a floating stage on the Amazon River televised for millions of viewers around the world. The performance of the song “I sell black eyes” in a duet with Plácido Domingo at the National Stadium in Santiago de Chile for 45,000 spectators singing in unison and accompanied by his guitar is one of the moments he remembers with the most emotion.

Pablo Sáinz Villegas believes in the power of music to inspire all human beings and has enjoyed massive concerts for tens of thousands of people in Chicago’s Grant Park, Lisbon’s Praça do Comércio or the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

The success of his Concierto de Aranjuez by Maestro Joaquín Rodrigo translates into repeated invitations from directors such as Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Alexander Shelley, Richard Egarr, Juanjo Mena, and Alondra de la Parra. The live recording of Pablo with the Radio and Television Orchestra of Spain and the director Carlos Kalmar has more than 16 million views on YouTube and it is considered one of the best live performances ever made.

His commitments for the 2022/2023 season include tours with the Berliner Barock Solisten in Spain, with the mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard in the United States, and with the Madrid Community Orchestra in Switzerland. Likewise, he will perform again with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Melbourne Symphony, and will debut with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Belgian National Orchestra, as well as his participation in the New Year’s Concert with the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Juanjo Mena.

A regular performer in concerts of institutional representation, he has had the privilege of playing on different occasions before members of the Spanish Royal Family, highlighting his concert at the Princess of Asturias Awards in 2021. He has also performed before other heads of state and international leaders such as the Dalai Lama or Sotheby’s auction house for whom he musically presented his collection of Masters of SpanishPainting in their annual auction of 2017.

A tireless promoter of the development of the Spanish classical guitar repertoire, he has made numerous world premieres, among which is the first work written for guitar by the great soundtrack composer and winner of five Oscars, John Williams. Williams also composed a duet for Sainz-Villegas and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, ‘Prayer for Peace’ that was recorded on September 11, 2021. He has also premiered pieces by the composer Tomás

Marco, Jesús Torres, María Dolores Malumbres, David del Puerto, and Sergio Assad among others. In 2023/24 he will premiere the first ‘Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra’ by Mexican composer Arturo Márquez. Pablo Sáinz Villegas is an exclusive SONY Classical artist.

He is an award-winning artist with more than thirty international awards, including the Andrés Segovia, the Francisco Tárrega, and the Christopher Parkening. Likewise, he has been awarded the “Award for Rioja Arts”, “Illustrious Rioja” and the “Critical Eye” Award from Radio Nacional de España, this being the first time that this distinction has been awarded to a guitarist. In 2019 he unanimously received the award for cultural work “Trelles Villademoros” granted by the Body of the Nobility of the Principality of Asturias. In 2022 he was appointed Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of La Rioja.

He is a socially committed artist. In 2006 Pablo Sáinz-Villegas founded the philanthropic project ‘The Legacy of Music Without Borders’ through which he has shared his music with more than 45,000 children and young people around the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he offered live concerts through social networks and his videos had more than 300,000 views. Pablo Sáinz-Villegas is the artistic director of La RiojaFestival, a project conceived and developed by Sáinz-Villegas himself.

Pablo Sáinz Villegas was born in La Rioja (Spain) and since 2001 he lives in New York City. He is currently the artistic director of ‘La Rioja Festival’.

Tchaikovsky Immersion