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"Today's Borodin Quartet has lost nothing of its old authority...Everything had a deep and understated gravity, as though they were exploring the most private corners of the human soul"

-Financial Times

(January 2010)

The Borodin Quartet commands a special position of respect in the chamber music world. In existence for more than 60 years, it has preserved a unique performance tradition, focusing on the masterpieces at the very heart of the quartet repertoire. Its interpretations are celebrated for their intensity and focus, a style in which individualism dedicates itself to the collaborative spirit of chamber music and total service of the composer's wishes.

The Borodin Quartet's particular affinity with Russian repertoire was stimulated by a close relationship with Shostakovich, who personally supervised its study of each of his quartets. Widely regarded as definitive interpretations, the Quartet's cycles of the complete Shostakovich quartets have been performed all over the world, including Vienna, Zurich, Frankfurt, Madrid, Lisbon, Seville, London, Paris and New York. In recent seasons the ensemble has performed a broad repertoire, including works by Beethoven, Schubert, Prokofiev, Borodin and Tchaikovsky, while continuing to be welcomed and acclaimed at major venues throughout the world.

The Borodin Quartet was formed in 1945 by four students from the Moscow Conservatory. Ten years later, it changed its name from the Moscow Philharmonic Quartet to the Borodin Quartet. The current formation is Andrei Abramenkov, Ruben Aharonian, Igor Naidin and Vladimir Balshin: Andrei Abramenkov became a member in 1974; Ruben Aharonian and Igor Naidin joined in 1996; Vladimir Balshin joined the Quartet in August 2007. Valentin Berlinsky, one of the long lasting members, retired from the Quartet in the summer of 2007. He passed away on Monday 15 December 2008.

In addition to performing quartets, the members of the Borodin Quartet regularly join forces with other distinguished musicians to further explore the chamber music repertoire. Their partners have included Dmitri Shostakovich, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Bashmet, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Natalia Gutman, Elisso Virsaladze and Christoph Eschenbach. The Quartet also regularly give masterclasses.

For its 60th Anniversary Season, the Borodin Quartet performed cycles of the complete Beethoven quartets at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Vienna Musikverein. Gala concerts honouring the Quartet's contribution to musical history were performed in Moscow (January 2005) and at London's Wigmore Hall and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris (May 2005). The ensemble also gave recitals in Madrid, Rotterdam, Brussels, Geneva, Munich, Lisbon, Barcelona, Athens, Cologne, Istanbul, Zurich, Berlin, Moscow, New York and London, playing the music of Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Shostakovich – and of course Borodin.

The CD label Chandos recorded and released the complete Beethoven quartets as part of the 60th anniversary celebration. The Quartet's first release on the Onyx label, featuring Borodin, Schubert, Webern and Rachmaninov, was nominated for a Grammy in the 2005 Best Chamber Performance category. The Borodin Quartet has produced a rich heritage of recordings over several decades, for labels including EMI, Virgin Classics, RCA and Teldec. Among its Teldec recordings, those of Tchaikovsky's quartets and Souvenir de Florence, Schubert's String Quintet, Haydn's Seven Last Words and a disc of Russian Miniatures all received acclaim. The Tchaikovsky disc was honoured with a Gramophone Award in 1994.

BEETHOVEN Quartet Op. 59 No. 2

SHOSTAKOVICH Quartet No. 7

SHOSTAKOVICH Quartet No. 8

the Borodin Quartet website

“One of a half-dozen pianists worth dropping everything to hear” ( Daily Telegraph ), Louis Lortie is celebrated for his polished technique and deep musicality. Lortie's recording of the Etudes was cited by BBC Music Magazine as one of “50 Recordings by Superlative Pianists,” and f ollowing his performance of them in Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Financial Times wrote: “Better Chopin playing than this is not to be heard, not anywhere.”

Mr. Lortie has performed the complete works of Ravel in London and Montréal for the BBC and CBC. Also celebrated for his interpretation of works by Beethoven, Mr. Lortie has performed the complete Beethoven sonatas in London's Wigmore Hall, Toronto's Ford Center, Berlin Philharmonie, and the Sala Grande del Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. In Berlin, Die Welt called his performances “possibly the most beautiful Beethoven since the times of Wilhelm Kempff.”

He opened the Bonn Beethoven Festival in 2003 playing Beethoven's Fourth Concerto with Kurt Masur conducting, and since then has established a particularly fruitful partnership with Mr. Masur. They performed together with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the LPO at Royal Festival Hall and in Paris and Vienna's Musikverein with the Orchestre National de France. Future plans include concerts together with the Chicago Symphony, the Dresden Staatskappelle and the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome.

In 2008, Mr. Lortie concluded his multi-year project with the Montreal Symphony to play and conduct all 27 Mozart Piano Concertos. Last season he performed a multi-concert Wagner/Liszt project at London's Wigmore Hall, which he also performed it in Berlin, Milan, the Weimar Festival, Bordeaux and Warsaw.

Notable concerts last season included the Saint Louis Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra in Cleveland and on tour, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, a European tour with the BBC Wales, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Dresden Festival, the NACO, and many important recitals including the complete Chopin Etudes at the Kennedy Center, in Weimar, London, Milan, and for the Cliburn Foundation. Future concerts include the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the RAI Torino, the Dresden Staatskappelle, the Santa Cecilia in Rome, and recitals at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam's Concergebouw, UC Berkeley, Duke University, Toronto, the Gilmore Festival and Atlanta's Spivey Hall.

Louis Lortie has performed under the baton of conductors Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Sanderling, Neeme Jarvi, Sir Andrew Davis, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Mark Elder and Osmo Vanska among others. He has also been involved in many chamber music projects, with musicians such as Frank Peter Zimmermann, Leonidas Kavakos, Renaud and Gautier Capucon, Jan Vogler, Augustin Dumay, the Takacs Quartet, and Gidon Kremer. His regular piano-duo partner is fellow Canadian Helene Mercier, with whom he has made successful recordings on the Chandos label.

Mr. Lortie has made over 30 recordings on the Chandos label, ranging from Mozart to Stravinsky. His recording of Beethoven's Eroica Variations won the Edison Award, and his disc of Schumann's Bunte Blatter and other works by Schumann and Brahms was named one of the best CDs of the year by BBC Music Magazine . He has recorded Ravel's complete works for piano and has almost completed the 32 Beethoven sonatas. His most recent CD release is the final recording in his three-CD series of Liszt's complete works for piano and orchestra with the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague. It was immediately named “Editor's Choice” by Gramophone Magazine.

Born in Montréal, Louis Lortie in 1984 won First Prize in the Busoni Competition and was a prize-winner at the Leeds Competition. In 1992 he was named Officer of the Order of Canada, and received both the Order of Quebec and an honorary doctorate from Laval University. As his schedule permits, he teaches at Italy's renowned piano institute at Imola. Mr. Lortie has lived in Berlin since 1997 and also has a home in Canada.

CHOPIN The Complete Etudes for Piano

Louis Lortie's website

Jaime Laredo

Leon Fleisher

JAIME LAREDO

Approaching his 50 th year before audiences across the globe, violinist Jaime Laredo has excelled in the multiple roles of soloist, conductor, recitalist and chamber musician. He made his orchestral debut at the age of 11 with the San Francisco Symphony, and at the age of 17 won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition, launching his rise to international prominence. His education and development were greatly influenced by private coaching with eminent masters Josef Gingold, Pablo Casals, Ivan Galamian and George Szell.

The 2009-10 season features several conducting engagements, including multiple appearances with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, where he has served as Artistic Advisor, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, where he is Music Director, and through his leadership of the New York String Orchestra at New York's Carnegie Hall. Mr. Laredo continues an ambitious project to premiere and record double concerti across the U.S with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson. Among this season's highlights will be Richard Danielpour's A Child's Reliquary for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, which they will perform and recordunder the baton of Sarah Hicks. As a chamber musician, he will appear in multiple concerts as Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Series at New York's 92 nd Street Y, and as the new co-Artistic Director of Cincinnati's Linton Chamber Music Series. With The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, he continues premiere performances of Ellen Zwilich's Septet for Piano and Strings with the Miami String Quartet, brings an all-Schubert program to The Kennedy Center, and tours the world to such places as England, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Korea.

Laredo has recorded close to 100 discs. He has received the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize; has won a Grammy Award for a disc of Brahms Piano Quartets which he performed with Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern and Yo-Yo Ma; and has earned seven Grammy nominations. Laredo also holds a prestigious chair position at the Indiana University School of Music.

LEON FLEISHER

In 2010-2011, pianist Leon Fleisher reaffirms his place as one of today's preeminent concert artists with performances in major music centers around the world. Fleisher will be heard in recital, and with orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin and Phillipe Jordan, the Dusseldorfer Symphoniker under Andrey Boreyko, and as conductor/soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Sony Masterworks signed Fleisher to a new recording deal, starting with the March 31, 2009 release of his first two-hand piano concerto recording in over 40 years, a trio of Mozart concertos recorded with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. Leon Fleisher is currently working on a book for Doubleday with acclaimed writer and music critic Anne Midgette, planned for release in 2010.

Debuting with the New York Philharmonic in 1944, Fleisher quickly established himself as one of the world's premier classical pianists, concertizing with every major orchestra and making numerous touchstone recordings. At the height of his career, he was suddenly struck silent at age 37 with a neurological affliction known as focal dystonia, rendering two fingers on his right hand immobile.

In the nearly 40 years since Leon Fleisher's keyboard career was so suddenly curtailed, he has followed two parallel careers – as conductor and teacher – while learning the extraordinary but limited repertoire for piano left-hand. Experimental treatments using a regimen of rolfing and 'botulinum toxin' (botox) injections finally restored the mobility in Fleisher's hand, and for several years he has played with both hands.

Fleisher received the 2007 Kennedy Center Honours at the 30th annual Celebration of the Arts and in 2005, Fleisher was honoured by the French government and was named Commander in the French Order of Arts and Letters, the highest rank of its kind. The first American to win the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competition (1952), Fleisher now holds numerous honours including the Johns Hopkins University President's Medal and honourary doctorates from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Amherst College, Boston Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Juilliard School of Music and Peabody Institute.

SCHUBERT and BRAHMS

Jorja Fleezanis

Michael Grebanier

Garrick Ohlsson

JORJA FLEEZANIS

Violinist Jorja Fleezanis is Professor of Music and holds the Henry A. Upper Chair in Orchestral Studies at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University. She was concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1989 to 2009—the longest-tenured concertmaster in the orchestra's history and only the second woman in the U.S. to hold the title of concertmaster in a major orchestra when appointed. Prior to Minnesota, she was associate concertmaster with the San Francisco Symphony for eight years.

A devoted teacher, Fleezanis became an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota's School of Music in 1990. She has also enjoyed teaching roles with other organizations: as teacher and artist at the Round Top International Festival Institute in Texas (1990-2007); artist-in-residence at the University of California, Davis; guest artist and teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory, where she served on the faculty from 1981 to 1989; artist and mentor at the Music@Menlo Festival (2003-2008); teacher and coach at the New World Symphony (1988-2008), and a visiting teacher to the Boston Conservatory, The Juilliard School, and Interlochen Academy and Summer Camp.

Fleezanis has had a number of works commissioned for her, including by the Minnesota Orchestra with the John Adams Violin Concerto and Ikon of Eros by John Tavener, the latter recorded on Reference Records. Her recording of the complete Violin Sonatas of Beethoven with the French fortepianist Cyril Huvé was released in 2003 on the Cyprés label. Other recordings include Aaron Jay Kernis' Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky on CRI, commissioned for Fleezanis by the Schubert Club, and, with Garrick Ohlsson, Stefan Wolpe's Violin Sonata for Koch International.

Fleezanis studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

MICHAEL GREBANIER

Michael Grebanier joined the San Francisco Symphony as Philip S. Boone Principal Cellist in 1977. Prior to that, he was principal cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony for fourteen years (the youngest musician to hold that post in the ensemble's history) and a member of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Mr. Grebanier has been a soloist with the SFS in the major works for cello and orchestra; most recently, in December 2005, he was soloist with Alexander Barantschik in the Brahms Double Concerto, with Michael Tilson Thomas leading the Orchestra. Mr. Grebanier has played the complete cycle of Beethoven cello and piano sonatas with Malcolm Frager and has been affiliated with the Marlboro Festival in Vermont and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

Michael Grebanier began his musical studies in his native New York City and later attended the Curtis Institute of Music. His teachers included Carl Ziegler of the NBC Symphony, Orlando Cole of the Curtis String Quartet, and Leonard Rose. While at Curtis, he won the Walter Naumburg Award and made his recital debut in New York City at nineteen. He has recorded the Prokofiev cello sonatas with pianist Janet Guggenheim for Naxos, and he is featured in the first recording of the complete music for cello and piano by Rachmaninoff, also on Naxos.

GARRICK OHLSSON

Since winning the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although known as one of the world's leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Mr. Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire which ranges over the entire piano literature. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Mr. Ohlsson has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. His concerto repertoire alone is unusually wide and eclectic, and to date he has at his command some 80 concertos.

In 2010, in recognition of Chopin's 200th birthday Mr. Ohlsson presented a series of all-Chopin recital programs in Seattle, Berkeley and La Jolla culminating at Lincoln Center. In conjunction with that project a film based on Chopin's life and his music, co-produced by Polish, French, British and Chinese television stations, is planned for simultaneous release. Other highlights during the 2009-2010 season included appearances with the New York Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, Vancouver, Indianapolis, San Diego, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Baltimore. He was heard in solo recital in Chicago, Fort Worth, and Philadelphia and in a special gala concert presented in Chopin's birth house in Warsaw. Mr. Ohlsson's debut in Russia took place during St. Petersburg's winter festival in December, when he appeared both in recital and with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.


HAYDN Piano Trio TBA
BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 70 No. 2
DVORAK Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65

Corey Cerovsek has performed to constant acclaim with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas, Neeme Järvi, Andrew Litton, Yoel Levi, and Jesús Lopez-Cobos.  His North American performances have included those with the orchestras of Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Atlanta, Baltimore, Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto, among many others; and internationally with such groups as the Israel Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony, Prague Symphony, National Symphony (Ireland), Hong Kong Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest of the Hague, Berlin Symphony, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide Symphonies (Australia), Bournemouth Symphony, Sjaellands Symfoniorkester (Denmark), Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Poitou-Charentes and Montpellier Festival Orchestra (France). He has toured in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Japan, China, Austria, the Netherlands, Brazil and Spain. 

In recital, Mr. Cerovsek has performed throughout the world, including the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston), the Kennedy Center (Washington), Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theatre and the Frick Collection (New York), the Place des Arts (Montréal), Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco), Wigmore Hall (London), Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall (Istanbul), the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), and l'Espace Gianadda (Martigny). He is also an avid chamber musician, regularly appearing at the festivals of Verbier (Switzerland), Kuhmo (Finland) and Tanglewood (USA).  

In 2008, Claves released his recording of the Wienawski 2nd Violin Concerto the Vieuxtemp 5th Concerto with Lausanne Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu to great acclaim.  This recording followed the 2006 release on this label of his recording of the Sonatas for Violin and Piano of Beethoven with pianist Paavali Jumppanen. This recording received numerous awards, including Gramophone Recommends, 5 Diapasons, 4 stars from Le Monde de la Musique, Supersonic Pizzicato, and Fono Forum Stern des Monats and the Miderm Award for best chamber music recording for 2008. His Corigliano Violin Sonata, with Andrew Russo on the Black Box label, was nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award. Corey Cerovsek Plays Wieniawski , made with pianist Katja Cerovsek for the Delos label, also received much critical acclaim. Other recordings have been released on the Delos, Black Box, Aguavá New Music Studio, and Cala Records labels.

In the summer of 2009, Mr. Cerovsek returned to the Festival International de Lanaudiere performing the Korngold Concerto with the Montreal Symphony under the direction of Julian Kuerti.  In North American in 9/10 he returns to the Indianapolis Symphony to perform the Stravinsky Concerto with Hannu Lintu conducting.

He has been featured twice on NBC's Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, on the David Frost Show in England, on the PBS special Musical Encounters and on CBS's Sunday Morning.

Born in 1972 in Vancouver, Canada, and now residing in Paris, Cerovsek began playing the violin at the age of five. After early studies with Charmian Gadd and Richard Goldner he graduated at age 12 from the University of Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music with a gold medal for the highest marks in strings. That same year, he was accepted by Josef Gingold as a student and enrolled at Indiana University, where he received bachelor's degrees in mathematics and music at age 15, masters in both at 16, and completed his doctoral course work in mathematics and music at age 18. Concurrently he studied piano with Enrica Cavallo, until 1997 frequently appearing in concert performing on both instruments.

Corey Cerovsek performs on the “Milanollo” Stradivarius of 1728, an instrument played, among others, by Christian Ferras, Giovanni Battista Viotti, and Nicolò Paganini.

PROGRAM TBA