Andrew Litton, piano
Ilze Klava, viola
Arkady Fomin, violin
Peter Steffens, cello
Maestro Andrew Litton, Music Director
of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the
Bergen Philarmonic in Norway, brings to
University of Texas at Dallas his principal
violist from Norway, Latvian musician Ilze
Klava, and from the Dallas Symphony, violinist
Arkady Fomin and cellist Peter Steffens.
The program features a kaleidoscope of music
by Darius Milhaud, Edvard Grieg, Georges
Enesco, works by Latvian composers Jazep
Vitol and Jazep Medinsh, and passionate
G
Minor Piano Quartet by Johannes Brahms.
Come and listen to Maestro Andrew Litton
and his musicians Making Music with the
Boss.
Underwritten by the Dallas/Riga Sister
City Committee. www.dallasriga.org
In his eleventh season as Music Director
of the Dallas Symphony, New York-born Andrew
Litton, has raised the orchestra’s
international profile, led the orchestra
on three major European tours, and produced
over 25 recordings. In 2003, Litton became
the first American Principal Conductor of
Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
That same year he began his tenure as Artistic
Director of the Minnesota Orchestra’s
Sommerfest and continues as Conductor
Laureate of Britain’s Bournemouth
Symphony, which he headed from 1988 to 1994.
Litton has appeared as guest conductor with
more than 110 of the world's top orchestras
and opera companies, including those of
New York, Moscow, Tokyo, Israel, France,
all the major orchestras of Britain, and
the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Welsh
National Opera, English National Opera,
and the opera houses of Dallas, St. Louis,
and Los Angeles. Litton’s more than
60 recordings include a Grammy winning Walton's
Belshazzar's Feast with Bryn Terfel
and the Bournemouth Symphony, and a live
performance recording of Sweeney Todd
with the New York Philharmonic (Grammy nomination),
a Decca Walton Centennial boxed set, and
the complete Tchaikovsky Symphonies with
the Bournemouth Symphony, the complete Rachmaninoff
Symphonies with the Royal Philharmonic a
Dallas Mahler cycle and many Gershwin recordings,
both as conductor and pianist.
Ilze Klava is currently
the solo principal violist of the Bergen
Philharmonic Orchestra. A position which
she has held from 1996.
Born in Riga , Latvia in 1969, Ms. Klava
graduated from Latvian Music Academy with
the highest honors in 1996. From 1990 –
1993 Ilze was principal violist of the prestigious
Schlesvig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany
where she has performed under some of the
worlds leading conductors. She has won numerous
prizes including 2 first place awards in
Latvia Young Soloists competition and second
place in International soloist competition
in Kishinev, Moldova. As a Chamber musician,
Ms. Klava is the violist of the RIX Piano
Quartet which has toured and recorded extensively.
She is also a member of the Contemporary
Music Ensemble BIT20 where she has toured
and recorded on the international level.
Ms. Klava is currently on the faculty of
the Grieg Academy of Music/ University of
Bergen.
Arkady Fomin, violinist,
was born in Riga, Latvia, where he received
his musical training at the Latvian State
Conservatory with legendary pedagogue, Voldemar
Sturestep. As a chamber musician and soloist,
Mr. Fomin has collaborated in performances
with Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel
Borok, Schlomo Mintz, Atar Arad, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg,
and the late Stephen DeGroot, among others.
His active concert schedule has taken him
to Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Czechoslovakia,
Great Britain, Austria, Japan, and throughout
the United States including the critically
acclaimed performance with the CLAVIER TRIO
in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in
New York. In addition to his duties as a
violinist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra,
Mr. Fomin is founder and Artistic Director
of the New Conservatory of Dallas, Artistic
Director of the Conservatory Music in the
Mountains in Durango, Colorado, and Director
of the Music Academy at Schloss Ort in Gmunden,
Austria. In 2002, Mr. Fomin began his affiliation
as Artist in Residency at Colorado State
University. His association with University
of Texas at Dallas has been long and distinguished.
In 1980, he was honored as recipient of
the Cowlishaw Artist-in-Residence Award
at the University of Texas at Dallas for
artistic achievement and contributions to
the City of Dallas. Presently, Mr. Fomin
is a member of the faculty and Artist in
Residency at UTD.
Peter Steffens, cellist,
a member of the Dallas Symphony since 1995,
is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin/Madison.
He soloed in high school with the Madison
and Milwaukee Symphonies, and has had master
classes with Zara Nelsova, Ronald Leonard,
David Finckel, Laurence Lesser, Raya Garbousova,
Lazlo Varga, and summer study with Gabor
Rejto. From 1988-90 he was the principal
cellist of the New World Symphony in Miami
where he performed chamber music with top
artists including pianist Jeffrey Kahane,
conductor Leon Kirchner, former Chicago
Symphony Concertmaster Reuben Gonzalez and
San Francisco Symphony conductor Michael
Tilson Thomas. From 1990-95 he was the principal
cellist and soloist with the Charleston
SC Symphony Orchestra. At the College of
Charleston he was an adjunct faculty member
and cellist of the Quartet in Residence,
and played 20th century chamber music for
the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. He has performed
extensively at the Garth Newel Chamber Music
Festival, held during summers in the Allegheny
mountains of Virginia.
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