Overture May/June 2022 | Page 15

PROGRAM NOTES

AWADAGIN PRATT RETURNS

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Christian Reif
Music Director of the Lakes Area Music Festival of Minnesota , German conductor Christian Reif has quickly established a name for himself as a fast-rising talent .
Reif ’ s 2021 – 22 engagements include appearances with the Hallé Orchestra ; Munich Radio Orchestra ; Norrlands Opera Orchestra ; Odense Symphony ; and the San Francisco , Baltimore , Cincinnati , New World , and Kansas City symphony orchestras . He leads a Juilliard Opera production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at Juilliard ’ s Peter Jay Sharp Theater in his New York City opera debut .
Reif is the former Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra , as well as the former Conducting Fellow with the New World Symphony and at the Tanglewood Music Center . He studied with Alan Gilbert at The Juilliard School and Dennis Russell Davies at the Mozarteum Salzburg . He is winner of the 2015 German Operetta Prize , awarded by the German Music Council , and two Kulturförderpreise awards given to promising artists of the region who promote cultural advancement in their communities .
Awadagin Pratt
Among his generation of concert artists , pianist
Awadagin Pratt is acclaimed for his musical insight and intensely involving performances in recital and with symphony orchestras .
Pratt studied at the Peabody Institute where he became the first student in the school ’ s history to receive diplomas in three performance areas — piano , violin , and conducting .
In 1992 , Pratt won the Naumburg International Piano Competition and two years later was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant . Since then , he has played numerous recitals throughout the U . S . including performances at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center . His many orchestral performances include appearances with the New York Philharmonic and the Atlanta , Baltimore , St . Louis , and Detroit symphonies . His most recent conducting activities include the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh and the Greensboro Opera .
Pratt is currently a Professor of Piano at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati , as well as the Artistic Director of the Art of the Piano Festival .
Inspired by T . S . Eliot ' s Four Quartets and through the Art of the Piano Foundation , Pratt has commissioned seven composers — Jessie Montgomery , Alvin Singleton , Judd Greenstein , Tyshawn Sorey , Jonathan Bailey Holland , Paola Prestini , and Peteris Vasks — to compose works for piano and string orchestra or piano , string orchestra , and a Roomful of Teeth . All seven works will be recorded in summer 2022 .
Christian Reif
Awadagin Pratt
Experience the Performance Again A livestream of this program is available for a limited time . A BSO Sessions Episode , featuring an interview with Christian Reif , will be released on June 22 .
Simon Pauly
Rob Davidson
FROM THE PODIUM
by Christian Reif
I grew up ballroom dancing — the waltz and everything — and I still love it ! It ’ s beautiful getting to know a partner this way ; sometimes you lead , sometimes you give way to the other person ’ s initiative , and there ’ s always a kind of gentle pressure and connectedness you maintain .
I hadn ’ t really thought about this before , but maybe dance is a great analogy for getting to know an orchestra . Because so much of dance is about trust , and it ’ s the same when making music . You have to be present and completely in the moment to be able to listen to each other and be flexible . That ’ s why I am so excited to be making live music again . Hearing each other breathe — feeling and seeing each other move … we are connected .
The waltz runs through all of Strauss ’ Rosenkavalier , and it has been one of my favorite operas for a long time . I ’ m so excited to get to perform this suite with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra . There ’ s a certain Bavarian / Austrian type of humor , fluidity , and eroticism to that piece , and these characteristics correlate well with the other opera excerpt by Henze , a dance showing the frenzy and excitement of the worshippers of Dionysus — the god of pleasure and intoxication .
Coordinated movements are an inspiration for Jessie Montgomery ’ s piece , too , which is based on a quote by T . S . Eliot centering the dance at the heart of everything . And as for Mozart : in most of his symphonies he writes stylized dances . In the case of the 39 th symphony , the third movement is a Minuet , and its trio is based on an Austrian folk dance , the Ländler .
For me , it really is about making music in the moment and there is no prepared choreography . But it will be wonderful to have a chance to dance with this great orchestra , and I ’ m so looking forward to it !
MAY-JUN 2022 / OVERTURE 13