M E D I A  AD V I S O R Y

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 with guest pianist Stanislav Khristenko and guest conductor Tito Muñoz

February 24, 2015 – Richmond, Virginia The Richmond Symphony invites you to experience Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 on Saturday, March 7 at 8:00 p.m. at the Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage. The Altria Masterworks concert showcases the talents of guest pianist, Stanislav Khristenko and will be led by guest conductor, Tito Muñoz. The program features Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont, Mozart’s Concerto No. 20 in D Minor and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 in D Minor.

Stanislav Khristenko’s performances have captivated audiences on four continents. He has won top prizes at some of the most prestigious international piano competitions and has been praised by media around the globe. The Washington Post wrote “it was clear that Khristenko knows how to spin a story; his pacing was mature and unhurried, the dynamic range wide, and his fingers exhibited power and sensitivity.” The New York Concert Review wrote “[he] has the poise and intellect of a seasoned performer.”

Recently appointed Music Director of The Phoenix Symphony, Tito Muñoz is recognized as one of the most gifted and versatile conductors of his generation. He previously served as Music Director of the Opéra National de Lorraine and the Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy in France, in addition to Assistant Conductor positions with The Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Muñoz has appeared with the orchestras of Alabama, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Columbus, Eugene, Hartford, Houston, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and San Antonio, among others.

Altria Masterworks are free for children 18 and under with a paid adult (tickets required).

College student single tickets are just $7. Soundwave college student subscriptions are $25.

The Masterworks Series is sponsored by Altria.

Tickets start at only $10 online at richmondsymphony.com or 1.800.514 ETIX.

Program
Tito Muñoz, conductor
Stanislav Khristenko, piano

BEETHOVEN
Overture to Egmont

MOZART
Concerto No. 20 in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra
Stanislav Khristenko, piano

SCHUMANN
Symphony No. 4 in D Minor

About Stanislav Khristenko

Stanislav Khristenko’s performances have captivated audiences on four continents since his first solo recital at the age of eleven. A ‘poet’, ‘an architect of great forms’ (LeSoir), Mr. Khristenko has been praised in the media around the globe. The Washington Post wrote “it was clear that Khristenko knows how to spin a story; his pacing was mature and unhurried, the dynamic range wide, and his fingers exhibited power and sensitivity.” Of his Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall solo recital The New York Concert Review wrote “[he] has the poise and intellect of a seasoned performer.”

Mr. Khristenko has appeared as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Belgium, the Cleveland Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra, Berliner Musikfreunde Orchestra, Takamatsu Symphony Orchestra, Arkansas Symphony, Northwest Florida Symphony and Moscow Conservatory Orchestra, among others. His performance highlights include solo recitals in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Schubertsaal in Vienna, Phillips Collection in Washington; and performances with orchestra in Grosser Hall of Berlin Philharmonie, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Moscow Conservatory Great Hall and Hong Kong City Hall.

Mr. Khristenko has won top prizes at some of the most prestigious international piano competitions.  In 2013 alone he won First Prize at the 2013 Cleveland International Piano Competition, First Prize at the 2013 Maria Canals International Music Competition, and was named Fourth Laureate at the 2013 Queen Elisabeth Competition.  Mr. Khristenko also was a recipient of the Emil Gilels Award of the Mstislav Rostropovich Foundation and a Russian Performance Art Foundation Award.

Following Mr. Khristenko’s performance of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with The Cleveland Orchestra in the final round of the Cleveland Competition, the Plain Dealer’s Zachary Lewis praised his performance for its “shimmering filigree and phrases of exquisite tenderness, in which every note mattered.”

Born in Ukraine, Mr. Khristenko is a graduate of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He received an Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2010 where he studied as a full scholarship student with Sergei Babayan.

About Tito Muñoz

Recently appointed Music Director of The Phoenix Symphony, Tito Muñoz is increasingly recognized as one of the most gifted and versatile conductors of his generation. He previously served as Music Director of the Opéra National de Lorraine and the Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy in France. Prior appointments include Assistant Conductor positions with The Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival.

Highly in demand as a guest conductor, Mr. Muñoz has appeared with the orchestras of Alabama, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Columbus, Eugene, Hartford, Houston, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and San Antonio, among others. Recent and future engagements include return performances with The Florida Orchestra and the Detroit, Kitchener-Waterloo, Pasadena, Phoenix and Toledo symphony orchestras, as well as debuts with the Dallas Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Portland (ME) Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Sarasota Orchestra and the Westchester Philharmonic. Summer festival engagements have included the Chautauqua Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra and the Chicago Philharmonic at the Ravinia Festival. Following debuts in Europe with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and the Opéra de Rennes, Mr. Muñoz has performances with the Danish Radio Sinfonietta, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, Luxembourg Philharmonic, and the Orchestre National de Lorraine. Other engagements abroad include debuts with the Auckland Philharmonia, Sydney Symphony and the Sao Paolo State Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Muñoz continues to maintain a close relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra, where he has returned to conduct annually, including a critically acclaimed subscription week as a last-minute replacement for Pierre Boulez. Mr. Muñoz conducted his first joint performances with The Joffrey Ballet and The Cleveland Orchestra in the summer of 2009. This successful collaboration led to further performances in the summer of 2010 as well as an invitation to tour with The Joffrey Ballet in the 2010/11 season. In the 2012/13 season, he conducted The Cleveland Orchestra’s first complete Nutcracker performances, and, in summer 2013, he led the orchestra’s first staged Rite of Spring, both with the Joffrey Ballet.

Committed to working with young artists, Mr. Muñoz has conducted performances at the Aspen Music Festival, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Cleveland Institute of Music, Indiana University, Kent/Blossom Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, New England Conservatory, New World Symphony, Oberlin Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, as well as a nine-city tour with the St. Olaf College Orchestra. Additionally, he has had ongoing relationships with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and the Portland (OR) Youth Philharmonic, leading rehearsals and masterclasses. He has also led conducting classes at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, Cleveland Institute of Music and Indiana University.

During the summers of 2004 through 2006, Mr. Muñoz attended the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen where he studied with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin and participated in masterclasses with Asher Fisch, Leon Fleisher, George Manahan, David Robertson, and Leonard Slatkin. He is the winner of the Aspen Music Festival’s 2005 Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize and the 2006 Aspen Conducting Prize, returning to Aspen as the festival’s Assistant Conductor in the summer of 2007, and later as a guest conductor. He made his professional conducting debut in 2006 with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, invited by Leonard Slatkin as a participant of the National Conducting Institute. That same year, at the invitation of David Zinman, he made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at the Blossom Music Festival.

An accomplished violinist, Mr. Muñoz began his musical training in the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, continuing studies in violin and composition at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division. He attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and participated in the InterSchool Orchestras of New York and New York Youth Symphony. He furthered his training at Queens College (CUNY) as a violin student of Daniel Phillips.

For more information about Mr. Muñoz, please visit http://www.titomunoz.com

About the Richmond Symphony

Founded in 1957, the Richmond Symphony is the largest performing arts organization in Central Virginia. The organization includes an orchestra of more than 70 professional musicians, the 150-voice Richmond Symphony Chorus and more than 260 students in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra programs. Each season, more than 200,000 members of the community enjoy concerts, radio broadcasts, and educational outreach programs. The Richmond Symphony is partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.