Complete Chamber works of Gy��rgy Kurt��g with Cimbalom

(BOSTON - MARCH 2010)  The Ludovico Ensemble, an Ensemble-in-Residence at The Boston Conservatory, presents a concert of the "Complete Chamber works of Gy��rgy Kurt��g with Cimbalom" featuring Nicholas Tolle playing cimbalom. Performance takes place Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at The Boston Conservatory's Seully Hall (8 The Fenway, Boston). General admission tickets are $12 and $7 for seniors. Admission is free for all students with ID. Tickets can be purchased at www.bostonconservatory.edu/tickets or by calling (617) 912-9222.

The concert program includes:

Memory of a Winter Evening (op. 8) four fragments for soprano, violin and cimbalom
Aliana de la Guardia (soprano) and Gabriela Diaz (violin)

Tri Pezzi/Tre Alrti Pezzi (op. 38) clarinet and cimbalom
Rane Moore (clarinet)

Scenes from a Novel (op. 19) for soprano, violin, double-bass and cimbalom
Aliana de la Guardia (soprano), Gabriela Diaz (violin), and Akiko Kikuchi (bass)

J��t��kok(selections) for solo cimbalom

Seven Songs (op. 22) for soprano and cimbalom
Aliana de la Guardia (soprano)

Eight Duos (op. 4) for violin and cimbalom
Gabriela Diaz (violin)

GY��RGY KURT��G made enormous contributions to the repertoire for cimbalom. His output for the instrument is more substantial than any other composer of his generation, and this concert offers a rare chance to hear all of his pieces for cimbalom and small ensemble, and a rare opportunity to hear the cimbalom in any context.

 

Described by the New York Times as "virtuosic" and by the Albany Times-Union as "amazingly skilled," percussionist/cimbalomist NICHOLAS TOLLE  recently performed the solo cimbalom part in Pierre Boulez' Repons in Lucerne, Switzerland with the composer conducting. His performance of Steven Mackey's Five Animated Shorts for solo cimbalom and ensemble with Collage New Music was praised by the Boston Globe and the Boston Musical Intelligencer. He began playing cimbalom in 2007 after being inspired to learn the instrument by the music of Gy��rgy Kurt��g.  As a percussionist, he has performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Nederlands Radio Kamer Philharmonie, the Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Lyric Opera, and Cantata Singers; and attended the Tanglewood Music Center, the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop, the Aspen Music Festival, and has been a guest teacher at the Hochschule fur Musik in Detmold, Germany and the Arnhem (NL) Conservatorium. Tolle is the founder and director of the Ludovico Ensemble, a founding member of Ensemble XII and a core-member of the Callithumpian Consort. Studies at the Boston, Amsterdam, and New England Conservatories.

The cimbalom was invented in Budapest in 1874. While it is primarily associated with Gypsy music, a number of Western composers have written for it, including Stravinsky, Bartok, Boulez, Maxwell Davies, Birtwistle, Eotvos, Kurt��g and others.