John Novacek, piano
Program
Alfred Schnittke
Suite in the Old Style
Sergei Prokofiev
Sonata for Violin and Piano in D Major, Opus 94a
Bela Bartók
Rhapsody No. 1
Astor Piazzolla
Le Grand Tango
Charlie Chaplin, arr. Leon Gurvitch
"The Kid" Fantasy
Biography
Multi Grammy Award nominee violinist Philippe Quint is internationally recognized for his unique and insightful approach to standard repertoire, championing and rediscovering neglected repertoire and embarking on imaginative, exciting journeys of explorations and collaborations with artists of different genres. “Truly phenomenal” is how BBC Music Magazine recently described him also adding that “Quint’s tonal opulence, generously inflected with subtle portamentos, sound like a throwback to the glory days of Fritz Kreisler.”
American violinist of Russian heritage, Philippe Quint is constantly in demand and regularly appears with major orchestras and conductors worldwide at venues ranging from the Gewandhaus in Leipzig to Carnegie Hall in New York, while also making frequent guest appearances at the most prestigious festivals including Verbier, Aspen, Colmar, Hollywood Bowl and Dresden Festspiele.
Quint’s award-winning discography of 17 commercial releases includes his recent debut on the Warner Classics label, a CD titled “Chaplin’s Smile”. Featuring 13 original arrangements of music by Charlie Chaplin, it has received worldwide acclaim and multiple Editor’s Choice recognitions from radio stations and magazines alike. The album also inspired Quint to produce Charlie Chaplin’s Smile, a multi-media show that will have debuts worldwide throughout the 2019-2020 season, including the opening of the 5thInternational Tchaikovsky Festival in Klin, Russia, Ravinia Festival, Baltimore Symphony, Philharmonic Society of Orange County as well as orchestral premieres of the show in Germany, Poland and Bulgaria.
Highlights of Quint’s 2019-2020 season include performances with the Baltimore Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, Bochumer Symphoniker, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony and Thailand Symphony under the batons of Andrew Litton, Steven Sloane, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Rune Bergmann, Jorge Mester and Carolyn Kuan.
Making his home in New York since 1991, Philippe Quint was born in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now St. Petersburg, Russia), and studied at the Moscow's Special Music School for the Gifted with the famed Russian violinist Andrei Korsakov, making his orchestral debut at the age of nine. After moving to the United States, he earned both Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Juilliard School. His distinguished pedagogues and mentors included Dorothy Delay, Cho-Liang Lin, Masao Kawasaki, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Arnold Steinhardt and Felix Galimir.
Philippe Quint plays the magnificent 1708 “Ruby” Antonio Stradivari violin on loan to him through the generous efforts of The Stradivari Societyâ.
For more information, visit: www.philippequint.com, https://www.facebook.com/philippequint, https://twitter.com/PhilippeQuint
Pianist John Novacek regularly tours the Americas, Europe and Asia as solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist; in the latter capacity he has presented over thirty concerti with dozens of orchestras.
Following a summer filled with re-engagements at major festivals throughout the United states and Canada, John Novacek’s current season is highlighted by his debut with Peter Bay and the Austin Symphony Orchestra and returns to Massachusetts’ Springfield Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Kevin Rhodes, and Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México, conducted by Scott Yoo. He also continues his collaborative work with violinist Leila Josefowicz, performing at Amherst College, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York City’s Park Avenue Armory and Washington, DC’s Library of Congress and The Phillips Collection.
John Novacek’s major American performances have been heard in New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, 92nd Street Y, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, Merkin Concert Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Symphony Space, Washington’s The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center and Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Hollywood Bowl and Royce Hall, while international venues include Paris’ Theatre des Champs-Elysées, Salle Gaveau and Musée du Louvre, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre, as well as most of the major concert halls of Japan. He is also a frequent guest artist at festivals, here and abroad, including New York City’s Mostly Mozart Festival, California’s Festival Mozaic and those of Aspen, Cape Cod, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Colorado College, Great Lakes, Mendocino, Mimir, Ravinia, Seattle, SummerFest La Jolla, Wolf Trap, BBC Proms (England), Braunschweig (Germany), Lucerne, Menuhin and Verbier (Switzerland), Majorca (Spain), Sorrento (Italy), Stavanger (Norway), Toulouse (France) and Sapporo (Japan). He has also made his debut with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México.
Often heard on radio broadcasts worldwide, John Novacek has appeared on NPR’s Performance Today, St. Paul Sunday and, as both featured guest composer/performer, on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. He was also seen and heard on television, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Entertainment Tonight and CNN International.
John Novacek is a much sought-after collaborative artist and has performed with Joshua Bell, Matt Haimovitz, Leila Josefowicz, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Truls Mork, Elmar Oliveira and Emmanuel Pahud, and, as well as the Colorado, Harrington, Jupiter, New Hollywood, St. Lawrence, SuperNova and Ying string quartets. He also tours widely as a member of Intersection, a piano trio that includes violinist Kaura Frautschi and cellist Kristina Reiko Coooper. Mr. Novacek has also given numerous world premieres and worked closely with composers John Adams, John Harbison, Jennifer Higdon, George Rochberg, John Williams and John Zorn.
John Novacek took top prizes at both the Leschetizky and Joanna Hodges international piano competitions, among many others. He studied piano with Polish virtuoso Jakob Gimpel at California State University, Northridge, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude. Subsequently, he earned a Master of Music degree from New York City’s Mannes College of Music, where his instructors were Peter Serkin in piano and Felix Galimir in chamber music. Mr. Novacek’s coaches in composition included Frederick Werle, Aurelio de la Vega and Daniel Kessner.
John Novacek’s own compositions and arrangements have been performed by the Pacific Symphony, The 5 Browns, Concertante, Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo, Harrington String Quartet, Ying Quartet, Millennium, Quattro Mani and The Three Tenors. He has recorded over 30 CDs, encompassing solo and chamber music by most major composers from Bach to Bartók, as well as many contemporary and original scores. Mr. Novacek records for Philips, Nonesuch, Arabesque, Warner Classics, Sony/BMG, Koch International, Universal Classics, Ambassador, Pony Canyon, Four Winds, Arkay, Virtuoso and EMI Classics. CD titles include Road Movies (2004 GRAMMY nomination as “Best Chamber Music Performance”), Great Mozart Piano Works, Spanish Rhapsody, Novarags (original ragtime compositions), Classic Romance, Hungarian Sketches, Intersection, Romances et Meditations and, with Leila Josefowicz, Americana (GRAMOPHONE: “Editor’s Choice”), For the End of Time, Shostakovich and Recital (BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE: 5 stars/June 2005's chamber choice).
John Novacek is a Steinway Artist.