On Friday, May 21 and Saturday, May 22, 2021 at 8PM at the Toledo Museum of Art’s Peristyle Theater, Toledo Symphony (TSO) Music Director Alain Trudel makes his first appearance back in Toledo since March of 2020. The TSO is excited to welcome Maestro Trudel back to the podium to conduct a program featuring the return Van Cliburn Gold-Medalist Jon Nakamatsu. In-person and streaming tickets are available to the general public by calling the TAPA Box Office at 419.246.8000 or visiting toledosymphony.com.
“I can’t even express in words the excitement I feel to finally join my wonderful colleagues as we perform together on stage again for our audiences,” says Alain Trudel, TSO Music Director. “This is such an emotional moment for me as well as our entire organization and we feel blessed to be able to share it with our community. I am so thankful to all of our supporters for trusting in our abilities to provide memorable musical experiences in creative ways this past year. It reassures our commitment to serving our region and beyond. I look forward to the future we will build together.”
Alain Trudel has served as the Toledo Symphony’s ninth Music Director since the fall of 2018. This is his third season with the orchestra, and the organization’s 77th season overall.
“It’s been since March 2020 that we’ve seen Alain Trudel on the orchestra’s podium,” says Zak Vassar, TAPA President & CEO. “In his remarkable tenure, Alain has become such a part of our musical fabric. It took a pandemic to keep us apart. I cannot wait to see him, for our musicians to work with him again, and for our audiences to welcome him to the stage once more.”
“I’ve known Jon Nakamatsu for twenty years. He’s one of my favorite pianists and a close friend,” continues Vassar. “Like many classical artists, COVID has interrupted his bright and international career. Jon’s performances of Chopin’s First Concerto will be his first public appearances in over a year. How fitting that these performances will reunite our community with Jon and Alain – both happy and harmonious homecomings.”
American pianist Jon Nakamatsu continues to draw unanimous praise as a true virtuoso of the keyboard, whose playing combines elegance, clarity, and electrifying power. A native of California, Nakamatsu came to international attention in 1997 when he was named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the only American to have achieved this distinction since 1981. Nakamatsu has performed widely in North and South America, Europe, and the Far East, collaborating with such conductors as James Conlon, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Osmo Vänskä, and Hans Vonk. He also performed at a White House concert hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton. This is Mr. Nakamatsu’s seventh performance with the Toledo Symphony.
HOW TO ATTEND:
What: Nakamatsu Plays Chopin
When: Friday, May 21 & Saturday, May 22, 2021, 8PM
Where: Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle Theater
Cost: In-person tickets start at $25. Streaming tickets are $19.99.
More info: Visit toledosymphony.com, stop by the TAPA Box Office located at 1838 Parkwood Avenue, or call 419.246.8000, Monday-Friday, 9-5PM.
The program includes a TSO premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 featuring TSO Principal Flute Joel Tse and concludes with Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 performed by Jon Nakamatsu.
This performance is also available on TAPA Streaming. Patrons can stream the performance live at 8PM ET on Saturday, May 22 from the comfort of their homes and watch on their computers, phones, tablets, as well as TAPA Streaming apps on Apple TV and Roku. To purchase streaming tickets, visit stream.artstoledo.com.
This performance is generously made possible by Bob and Sue Savage.
Nakamatsu Plays Chopin will take place on Friday, May 21 and Saturday, May 22, 2021 at 8PM at the Toledo Museum of Art’s Peristyle Theater. For questions or more information, please contact Vanessa Gardner, Director of Marketing & Communications for the Toledo Symphony at vgardner@artstoledo.com.
ABOUT JON NAKAMATSU
American pianist Jon Nakamatsu continues to draw unanimous praise as a true aristocrat of the keyboard, whose playing combines elegance, clarity, and electrifying power. A native of California, Mr. Nakamatsu came to international attention in 1997 when he was named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the only American to have achieved this distinction since 1981. Mr. Nakamatsu has performed widely in North and South America, Europe, and the Far East, collaborating with such conductors as James Conlon, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Osmo Vänskä and Hans Vonk. He also performed at a White House concert hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton.
Mr. Nakamatsu's extensive recital tours throughout the U.S. and Europe have featured appearances in New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, and in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Paris, London and Milan. He has worked with various chamber ensembles - among them the Brentano, Tokyo, Kuss, Jupiter, Cypress, Prazak and Ying String Quartets - and has toured repeatedly with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. Together with clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu tours continually as a member of the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. The Duo also serves as Artistic Directors of the esteemed Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival in Massachusetts.
Mr. Nakamatsu records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa, which has released thirteen CDs to date. His all-Gershwin recording with Jeff Tyzik and the Rochester Philharmonic featuring Rhapsody in Blue and the Concerto in F rose to number three on Billboard's classical music charts, earning extraordinary critical praise. Other acclaimed releases include an all-Liszt disc featuring the "Dante Sonata"; a recording of Brahms' Piano Sonata in F minor; and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Mr. Nakamatsu's 2008 recording of Brahms' Clarinet Sonatas with Jon Manasse was chosen by the New York Times as one of its top releases for the year; his latest disc with Mr. Manasse, released in August 2012, includes both the Brahms Clarinet Quintet and the Piano Quintet with the Tokyo String Quartet. Of his most recent release on the label, a 2014 solo disc of the piano works of Robert Schumann, BBC Music Magazine states that "Nakamatsu clarifies Schumann's mid-range saturated textures to a remarkable degree, reveling in its fantastic imaginings with rapier-like precision and effortless command."
Since 1997, Mr. Nakamatsu has served on multiple international piano competition juries and has also been invited as a guest speaker at numerous institutions including the Van Cliburn Foundation, Stanford University and the Juilliard School.
Mr. Nakamatsu studied privately with Marina Derryberry and has worked with Karl Ulrich Schnabel, son of the great pianist Artur Schnabel. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in German Studies and a master's degree in Education.
ABOUT THE TOLEDO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Toledo Symphony Orchestra is a community-supported organization of professional musicians and teachers who deliver quality performance and music education for all.
Formed in 1943 as The Friends of Music and incorporated in 1951 as the Toledo Orchestra Association, Inc., the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has grown from a core group of twenty-two part-time musicians to a regional orchestra that employs sixty-nine professional musicians who consider the Toledo Symphony their primary employer, as well as numerous extra players annually as repertoire demands.
On January 1, 2019, the Toledo Symphony and Toledo Ballet officially merged to form the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), a new non-profit organization dedicated to providing exceptional live music and dance performances and education for the region. This partnership promises to create new and invigorating programs, provide cost and revenue synergies in operations, and integrate the arts through shared educational missions.
The Toledo Symphony reaches more than 260,000 individuals annually through performances and education programs. The series concerts (Masterworks, Pops, Chamber, and Family Series) are the critical underpinning of the orchestra’s artistic mission and regularly draw people from 135 postal zip codes. Education programs, student performances, and community concerts are held in schools, neighborhood churches, performing arts centers, and community facilities throughout the region; many are offered at no charge or provided at a reduced fee to help expand participation.
