Guest Artists
For 50 years, Young Concert Artists has held international auditions to identify promising young musicians on the brink of careers as international soloists. Audition winners become members of the YCA roster and receive career guidance and management services. Notable YCA alumni include pianist Emmanuel Ax, violinist Pinchas Zukerman, soprano Dawn Upshaw, and many others. In honor of YCA’s 50th anniversary, the LSO has engaged four recent YCA winners to appear as soloists on this season’s concerts.
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| Photo: Andrew Chiciak |
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| Ran Dank, piano
October 1, 2011
Pianist Ran Dank deploys his brilliant technique with astonishing skill, although it is his interpretive powers that captivate audiences and garner critical acclaim. In his native Israel, Mr. Dank has performed with the symphony orchestras of Jerusalem, Rishon Lezion and Raanan and at the Israel Festival. He has been heard at the Chopin Festival in Warsaw, and at Finland’s Mäntta Festival for Virtuoso Pianists. Winner of the Sander Buchman Memorial First Prize in the 2008-2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Dank made his New York debut as recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Foundation Prize. Other awards and accolades include the John Browning Memorial Prize, the Slomovic Orchestra Soloist Prize, the Albany Symphony Prize (GA), the Embassy Series Prize, and the Saint Vincent College Bronder Prize for Piano (PA). Dank received his bachelor’s degree from the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University, where he studied with Emanuel Krasovsky. He has a master’s degree from the Juilliard School where he worked with Emanuel Ax, Joseph Kalichstein, and Robert McDonald. He is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts with Ursula Oppens and Richard Goode at New York’s City University Graduate Center.
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| Photo: Andrew Chiciak |
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| Bella Hristova, violin
December 3, 2011
Violinist Bella Hristova was First Prize Winner in the 2008-2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Other awards and accolades include the Rhoda Walker Teagle Prize, the Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship, the Miriam Brody Aronson Award, the Ruth Laredo Memorial Award, the Candlelight Concert Society Concert Prize, and the Lied Center of Kansas Concert Prize. Festival appearances include The Grand Teton Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Music from Angel Fire, and the Marlboro Music Festival. Born in Pleven, Bulgaria in 1985, Hristova began violin studies at the age of six. At 12, she participated in master classes with Ruggiero Ricci at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Since the age of 13, she has lived in the United States, working with Stephen Shipps. In 2003, Hristova entered The Curtis Institute, where she worked with Ida Kavafian and studied chamber music with Steven Tenenbom. She received her Artist Diploma with Jaime Laredo at Indiana University in 2010. Hristova plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin, once owned by the violinist Louis Krasner.
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| Gleb Ivanov, piano
March 17, 2012
Gleb Ivanov has been captivating audiences since winning First Prize in the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and an award from the Jack Romann Special Artists Fund of YCA. Among Ivanov’s frequent re-engagements are concerts at the Louvre Museum in Paris, Princeton University, The Paramount Theater (VT), the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, “Pianofest” in East Hampton, and Fishers Island Concerts (NY). A protégé of the late Mstislav Rostropovich, Ivanov appeared as soloist under the famous maestro with the Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic. He also performed with the Moscow State Orchestra, in the Great Hall at Moscow Conservatory, at the Kremlin, and at the Pushkin, Glinka, and Scriabin Museums in Moscow. Born in Moscow, Ivanov comes from a family of musicians. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, studying with V.V. Sedova, N.G. Sooslova, and L.N. Naumov. He earned his master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, working with Nina Svetlanova.
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| Photo: Christian Steiner |
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| Narek Hakhnazaryan, cello
June 9, 2012
Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan captured the First Prize and Gold Medal in the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in June 2011. The prize brings with it a cash award of €20,000 and performances with the Mariinsky Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. Hakhnazaryan made his New York debut in 2008 in the Young Concert Artists Series at Carnegie's Zankel Hall. He makes his New York concerto debut on May 9, 2012 in the Young Concert Artists Series at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by Ryan McAdams. Among his many honors, Hakhnazaryan has participated in Ravinia’s Steans Institute for Young Artists and received scholarships from the Rostropovich Russian Performing Arts Fund, which brought him concerts in Russia, Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Great Britain, Greece, Turkey and Canada. Hakhnazaryan was born in 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of musicians. At the age of 12, Mr. Hakhnazaryan began studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov. Working with Lawrence Lesser, he recently earned an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music. Mr. Hakhnazaryan plays a 1698 David Tecchler cello, on loan from Valentine Saarmaa, granddaughter of the renowned luthier Jacques Francais.
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