Feb 2: Award-winning German violinist Arabella Steinbacher performs in Montreal

GERMAN VIOLINIST ARABELLA STEINBACHER

With pianist Robert Kulek

Recital at Place des Arts - Thˆ©ˆ¢tre Maisonneuve

Presented by The Pro Musica Society

Monday, February 2, 2009 at 7:30pm

Place des Arts - Thˆ©ˆ¢tre Maisonneuve

(260, blvd. de Maisonneuve West, Montrˆ©al)

Program

Schnitkke: Violin Sonata No. 1

Beethoven: Sonata No. 8 in G major

Bach: Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor
Ravel: Violin Sonata

Tickets: $40 | $35 | $20 students

Available at the Place des Arts Box Office: 514.842.2112

or visit www.promusica.qc.ca/emerald.html

Photo by Robert Vano. Available in high-resolution from Christina Jensen PR.

Praise for Arabella Steinbacher:

"If this stunning recital is anything to go by, Arabella Steinbacher has a remarkable future ahead of her." ’Äì The Strad

"Doubtless a single violin performance recently has been as moving and exceptional as the concert debut of the Munich violinist Arabella Steinbacher. Of her essence: natural and with placid contemplation, distinguished and musically aesthetic, both elegant and rich in tone, while intelligently interpreted." ’Äì Stuttgarter Zeitung

Montreal, Canada’ÄîMunich-based, twenty-six-year-old violinist Arabella Steinbacher ’Äì "The Frˆ§ulein Wunder" (Regensburger Zeitung) ’Äì will perform a recital with pianist Robert Kulek as part of the Pro Musica Society's Emerald Series. The performance will take place in Salle Maisonneuve at Place des Arts (260 blvd. de Maisonneuve West, Montrˆ©al) on February 2, 2009 at 7:30 pm. Ms. Steinbacher's program will include Schnitkke's Violin Sonata No. 1, Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 8 in G major, Bach's Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor, and Ravel's Violin Sonata. The performance follows the recent North American release of Ms. Steinbacher's newest album, "Sonatas by Faurˆ©, Poulenc and Ravel" with Robert Kulek, on ORFEO International. (Review copies of the disc are now available from Christina Jensen PR.)

Since her extraordinary and unexpected debut in Paris in March 2004, when she stepped in on short notice for an ailing colleague and performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Sir Neville Marriner, German violinist Arabella Steinbacher has become a fast-rising star on the international concert scene. Ms. Steinbacher's New York recital debut in June 2006 was called "a particular highlight of the month" by The Strad magazine. The New York Times wrote, "Balanced lyricism and fire ’Ķ.among her assets are a finely polished technique and a beautifully varied palette of timbres."

In November 2007, Ms. Steinbacher made her debut as soloist with a major American orchestra, performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnˆ°nyi. The Chicago Tribune reported, "From her magical entry over hushed orchestral strings to the biting swagger she brought to the dancing finale, it was evident that her feeling for this music runs as deep as her technical command. The central Adagio came off especially beautifully, Steinbacher conveying its brooding melancholy with a rich vibrato, impeccable intonation and a remarkable breadth of phrasing. The sound she drew from her 1716 "Booth" Stradivari stood out from the orchestra: limitless tonal depth swaddled in velvet. Let's have her back, and soon."

In 2007, Ms. Steinbacher received an ECHO-Klassik Award (considered to be the German equivalent of the Grammy Awards) for Young Artist of the Year for her album, Violino Latino, a collection of a Spanish and South-American works performed with pianist Peter von Wienhardt on ORFEO. In addition, her recording of Shostakovich's Violin Concertos No. 1 and No. 2, also on ORFEO, was named among the October 2007 "Les Chocs du Mois" in Le Monde de la Musique. She received the German Record Critics Award in 2005 for her ORFEO recording of Milhaud's rarely-heard Violin Concertos No. 1 and No. 2, and Concertino de Printemps; and again in 2006 for her Shostakovich disc. Ms. Steinbacher recently signed an exclusive recording contract with PentaTone Classics, and will release her first disc with that label in spring 2009.

More about Arabella Steinbacher: Highlights of Ms. Steinbacher's 2007-2008 season included debuts with the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner (broadcast live on national television and radio), the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi, the Orchestre National de Belgique under Walter Weller, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Marek Janowski, and the Orchestra Nacionales de Espana under Mark Albrecht. She also toured with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the European Youth Orchestra, performing in cities including Bucharest, Vienna, Liverpool and Bratislava. On July 12, 2008, Ms. Steinbacher opened the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany, performing with the NDR-Sinfonieorchester led by Christoph von Dohnˆ°nyi. The concert was broadcast live on national television and radio.

Highlights of Ms. Steinbacher's 2008-2009 season, include her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, a debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, her official subscription series debut with the NDR-Sinfonieorchester under Christoph von Dohnˆ°nyi, and her debut with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner. In addition, she will perform at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, and in December 2008 will make her recital debut at the Theatre de Champs Elysee. Ms. Steinbacher will also appear with the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony, Prague Symphony Orchestra, and the National Orchestra of Belgium. She will perform during the Beethoven Easter Festival in Prague, and tour with Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In May 2009, she will perform four concerts with the Netherlands Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and then tour Spain with that orchestra. In June, she will perform Sofia Gubaidulina's Offertorium with the Orchestre de l'Opˆ©ra de Paris at Salle Pleyel in Paris under Christoph von Dohnˆ°nyi; also in June she will make her debut at the BBC Proms performing with the Bamberg Symphony under Jonathan Nott; in October, she will perform at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly, following a tour of Asia. Future highlights include an appearance with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchester with Sir Colin Davis and a tour of Germany with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Lorin Maazel during the 2009-2010 season.

Arabella Steinbacher's diverse repertoire includes more than twenty concertos for violin. In addition to all of the major concertos of the Classical and Romantic period, she also performs those of Barber, Berg, Glazunov, Khatchaturian, Milhaud, Prokofiev, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Szymanowski, and Hartmann.

Born in Munich in 1981 to a German father and a Japanese mother, Arabella Steinbacher began studying the violin at the age of three. Her mother is a professionally trained singer who came to Germany from Japan to study music, and her father was the first Solorepetitor in the Bayerische Staatsoper, from 1960 to 1972. At nine, she became the youngest violin student of Ana Chumachenko at the Munich Academy of Music. She received further musical inspiration and guidance from Ivry Gitlis, whom she still meets regularly in Paris. In 2001, she won the sponsorship prize of the Free State of Bavaria and in the same year she was awarded a scholarship by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. From Anne-Sophie Mutter, who personally supports her, Ms. Steinbacher received a bow from the master luthier Benoit Rolland. Ms. Steinbacher currently plays the Guarneri Del Gesu known as the 'Jarnovich'(c. 1741) which is on extended loan from Jonathan P Moulds. She is managed by Tanja Dorn at IMG Artists. For more information, please visit www.arabella-steinbacher.com or www.imgartists.com.