Autumn Classics in Anchorage: Subscription Concert 2 - Beethoven & Tchaikovsky

Join Grammy-winning Artistic Director Zuill Bailey, along with violinist Kurt Nikkanen and pianist Maria Asteriadou, for an evening of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

Program:

Violin Sonata No. 9, Op. 47 “Kreutzer” – Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

Kurt Nikkanen, violin | Maria Asteriadou, piano 

Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50 - Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)

Kurt Nikkanen, violin | Zuill Bailey, cello | Maria Asteriadou, piano   

Zuill Bailey, widely considered one of the premiere cellists in the world, is a Grammy Award winning, internationally renowned soloist, recitalist, Artistic Director and teacher.  His rare combination of celebrated artistry, technical wizardry and engaging personality has made him one of the most sought after and active cellists today.Mr. Bailey has been featured with symphony orchestras and music festivals worldwide.  He won the Best Solo Performance Grammy Award in 2017, for his recording of  Michael Daugherty’s “Tales of Hemingway,” with the Nashville Symphony led by Giancarlo Guerrero.  His extensive discography includes his newest release – the world premier recording of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Cello Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony. In 2021 he released his second recording of the Bach Cello Suites for PS Audio’s Octave Records label, recorded and mixed in stereo and multichannel sound.He appeared in a recurring role on the HBO series “Oz,” and has been heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” “Tiny Desk Concert,” “Performance Today,” “Saint Paul Sunday,” BBC’s  “In Tune,” XM Radio’s “Live from Studio II,” Sirius Satellite Radio’s “Virtuoso Voices,” and his latest disc of Bach Suites was the disc of the week on Sirius’ Symphony Hall.Mr. Bailey received his Bachelor’s Degree from the Peabody Conservatory where he was named the 2014 Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni, and received a Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School.  He performs on the “rosette” 1693 Matteo Gofriller Cello formerly owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest String Quartet.He is the Artistic Director of El Paso Pro-Musica (Texas), the Sitka Summer Music Festival/Series and Cello Seminar, (Alaska), Juneau Jazz and Classics, (Alaska), the Northwest Bach Festival (Washington),  Classical Inside Out Series- Mesa Arts Center (Arizona) and is Director of the Center for Arts Entrepreneurship and Professor of Cello at the University of Texas at El Paso.

American violinist Kurt Nikkanen is an international soloist of the highest order. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, he began his violin studies at the age of three, later studying with Roman Totenberg and Jens Ellerman. At twelve he gave his Carnegie Hall debut, performing with the New York Symphony; two years later he was invited by Zubin Mehta to perform the Paganini Concerto No.1 with the New York Philharmonic for a Young People’s Concert. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay.

Mr. Nikkanen regularly receives invitations from the leading orchestras and presenters in the USA and Europe, and has toured Japan and the Far East. In North America he has appeared with the Dallas Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Cleveland Orchestra, and in Europe with the BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Dresden Staatskapelle. He has worked with many leading conductors.An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music, Kurt Nikkanen has given numerous performances of the John Adams Violin Concerto, with orchestras such as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Oregon Symphony, Hallé Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony (all under the composer’s direction).

Highlights of recent seasons have included a UK tour with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, performances with the Gothenburg Symphony and Neeme Jarvi at the BBC Proms, and concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Prague Symphony and RTE Orchestra in Dublin; also with the Bayerischer Rundfunk and Suddeutscher Rundfunk orchestras, both with the late Yakov Kreizberg, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with Junichi Hirokami. He has also appeared with the Belgian National Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony and the orchestra of RAI Turin, the Detroit Symphony and Orchestra of Galicia, the Bilbao Symphony, the Malaysian Philharmonic and performances of the Dvorak concerto with the Czech Philharmonic and Vladimir Ashkenazy, both in Prague and on tour in the USA, with concerts in New York and Chicago. In 2011, he was featured as soloist in a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto and Ravel Tzigane with the Turku Philharmonic in a live webcast that was streamed worldwide.

Mr. Nikkanen has had many works written for him, including Steven R. Gerber’s violin concerto, which he has recorded for Koch International. In 2009, Mr. Nikkanen performed the world premiere of Mikko Heinio’s concerto Alla Madre, subsequently recording it for Sony Classical with the Turku Philharmonic under Petri Sakari and released in 2010. His recording of William Walton’s Violin Concerto with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra was released on the Nimbus Alliance label in 2010 and was chosen as “Critics Choice for 2010” in Gramophone Magazine.Mr. Nikkanen gave the New York premiere of the Violin Concerto by Thomas Adès in May 2010 and has since performed it in Australia with the Perth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel.In addition to his orchestral appearances, Kurt Nikkanen performs regularly as a recitalist both in the US and abroad with his wife, pianist Maria Asteriadou, presenting repertoire ranging from the complete Beethoven sonatas to Piazzolla tangos.He is the Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet Orchestra and maintains a private teaching studio in New York, where he resides with his family.

A native of Greece, Maria Asteriadou is an acclaimed soloist and chamber musician highly praised as an artist with intense personality, virtuosic flair and beautiful tone.

Maria Asteriadou has performed in major halls throughout the United States and Canada as well as Austria, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and Germany. Her orchestra engagements include appearances with the Moscow Radio Symphony, Academy of St. Martin of the Fields, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Kamerata, Luxembourg Philharmonia, Bucharest Chamber Orchestra, Virtuosi Moldavi Romania, Iasi Philharmonic Romania, Manhattan School Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Chamber Academy, Athens State Orchestra, Kamerata (Athens Chamber Orchestra) as well as the Thessaloniki State and City Orchestras.

Her love for her native Greece and her enthusiasm for new music has resulted in prestigious premiere performances of works by many of Greece’s most important composers such as Manos Hadzidakis, Perikles Koukos, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Emilios Riadis, Christos Samaras, Yiorgos Sicilianos, Nikos Skalkottas, as well as American born Greek composer George Tsontakis.

As an active chamber musician, Maria Asteriadou has collaborated with members of the New York Philharmonic and performs regularly in festivals and summer music institutes. Together with violinist Kurt Nikkanen founded the Elektra Chamber Players, an ensemble comprised of performers from the great orchestras and conservatories of New York City.

The recipient of numerous awards and prizes, Maria Asteriadou won first prize in performance from the State Conservatory in Greece as well as top prize in the Maria Callas International Piano Competition. Maria Asteriadou enjoys the distinction of being the only pianist selected from the Musik Hochschule in Freiburg to perform in honor of the composer-conductor Pierre Boulez in Baden Baden, Germany. Both her Geneva debut recital, as well as her debut at Weill Hall in New York’s Carnegie Hall, for which she won the sponsoring competitions, were greeted with rave reviews. In 1992 she won the Dora Zaslovsky piano competition at Manhattan School of Music in New York and consequently was selected to collaborate with the renowned conductor, Christopher Keene, in a critically acclaimed performance of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto.

Maria Asteriadou has recorded the complete piano and string chamber works by Nikos Skalkottas and the complete violin and piano works by Carl Nielsen for BIS (recording label). She has also recorded works by Greek composers Yiorgos Sicilianos and Emilios Riadis. A CD with solo and chamber music works by Dimitri Mitropoulos, will be released in 2006. Maria Asteriadou has been heard frequently in live performances on radio and television in Europe and in the United States, including the WQXR-FM with Robert Sherman.

Maria Asteriadou holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Constance Keene. She received her Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, as a scholarship student of Jacob Lateiner. Following her undergraduate studies at the State Conservatory of Music in Thessaloniki, Greece, Maria Asteriadou was accepted at the Musik Hochschule in Freiburg, Germany as a student of Tibor Hazay and received her Graduate Soloist Diploma with high honors. She has also worked with Gyorgy Sebok, Richard Goode, Domna Evnouchidou and Vitalji Margulis.

An energetic and passionate teacher, Maria Asteriadou has been faculty at the Algonquin International Music Institute in Canada and the Summer Arts Institute in University of Michigan. From 1992 to 2002, she was the Artistic and Chamber Music Director of the Silver Bay Summer Music Festival in New York. In the summer of 2002 and 2004 she served as a chamber music coach at the New York Piano Competition. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Children’s Foundation.