No. 2074 Subscription (Program A)

Internationally renowned conductor Tugan Sokhiev, one of the last students of legendary teacher Ilya Musin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, divides his time between the symphonic and operatic repertoire. He was newly appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande beginning with this season.
A former Music Director of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, he enjoys close and privileged relationships with orchestras such as the Wiener, Berliner and Münchner Philharmoniker orchestras, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Outside Europe, he is invited to conduct the finest U.S. orchestras including the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Passionate about his work with singers, he was Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow from 2014 to 2022. Recently, he conducted a new production of Iolanta at the Wiener Staatsoper and gave tours with the Wiener Philharmoniker (Asia), the Münchner Philharmoniker (Asia and Europe) and the Staatskapelle Dresden (Europe), conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker’s celebrated Sommernachtskonzert in the Schönbrunn Palace.
Highlights of the last season include his collaborations with the Wiener Philharmoniker for their gala concert celebrating Johann Strauss II’s 200th birthday, with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Osterfestspiele Salzburg, his Cleveland Orchestra debut, and his conducting of a new production of Tannhäuser at the Opernhaus Zürich.
He made his NHK Symphony Orchestra debut in 2008 conducting Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. Since his first appearance at their subscription concerts in 2013, he has spent several weeks almost every year with the orchestra. This time, he programed orchestral works by Beethoven and Russian composers, coupling them with Prokofiev’s and Rachmaninov’s concertos to collaborate with soloists Mayuko Kamio and Alexandre Kantorow, both the International Tchaikovsky Competition winners.

[Kumiko Nishi]

Japanese violinist Mayuko Kamio, the gold medalist of the 2007 International Tchaikovsky Competition, is widely praised for her luxurious silken tone, long expressive phrasing and virtuoso techniques.
She made her concerto debut in Tokyo at age 10 under the baton of Charles Dutoit, in a concert broadcast on NHK television. She has since appeared with the world’s eminent ensembles and musicians, including the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich with Mstislav Rostropovich, Israel Philharmonic and Münchner Philharmoniker both under Zubin Mehta, and the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer.
She was trained by Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki at the Aspen Music Festival and in the pre-college division of The Juilliard School, before studying with Koichiro Harada at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. She then worked with Zakhar Bron at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich.
She has collaborated with the NHK Symphony Orchestra regularly for many years. As for Prokofiev, she performed his Violin Concerto No. 2 with the orchestra under Tugan Sokhiev in 2008 and under Vladimir Ashkenazy in 2011. This time, she will play the composer’s concerto No. 1 rejoining the orchestra led by Sokhiev.
She plays on the 1731 “Rubinoff” made by Antonio Stradivari, kindly offered by the Munetsugu Collection in Tokyo.

[Kumiko Nishi]