"Christoph Koncz will perform as principal violinist of the Vienna Philharmonic in the highly anticipated New Year’s Day concert at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. Just days later, Koncz will perform with the Winston-Salem Symphony, Robert Moody Music Director, for Classics Series concerts entitled “A Night in Vienna” featuring Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.
Under the baton of Maestro Moody, the concerts will take place on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Jan. 11 at 3 p.m.; and Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Stevens Center of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. In addition, the Symphony will perform Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 69 (“Laudon”) and Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier Suite.
Maestro Moody contacted Koncz after seeing a video of one of his performances with the Vienna Philharmonic. Moody soon discovered that Koncz was the child musician who, at age nine, had received worldwide acclaim for starring as child prodigy Kaspar Weiss in the Canadian feature film The Red Violin, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
“I sent Christoph a Facebook message to introduce myself and expressed an interest in meeting him sometime,” Moody said. “Fortunately, Christoph had scheduled a trip to New York soon afterwards that coincided with a visit I had scheduled to New York. We met in New York and immediately developed a friendship.”
Maestro Moody has conducted Koncz in Arizona in 2013 and visited him in Vienna during the Symphony-arranged summer trip for patrons to Vienna led by Moody and Dr. David Levy of Wake Forest University. The January concerts in Winston-Salem will be the second time the two have worked together.
Tickets for “A Night in Vienna” range from $20 – $67 and are available in advance by calling the Symphony Box Office at 336-464-0145 or online at WSSymphony.org. A “Music Lovers’ Luncheon,” a fun and informative pre-concert lunch with Maestro Moody and additional guests will take place Friday, Jan. 9, at noon at The Piedmont Club at 200 West Second Street in downtown Winston-Salem. The luncheon is a great opportunity to learn more about the concert in a relaxed atmosphere. Reservations are requested for the Music Lovers’ Luncheon and can be made by calling 336-724-7077. Club membership is not required.
The Saturday, Jan. 10 performance is part of the Kicked-Back Classics Series. Kicked-Back Classics concerts are full-length but are presented in a more informal atmosphere and include educational insights from the conductor. After each Kicked-Back concert, concert-goers can join the Maestro, guest artists, and members of the orchestra for Brews with Bob at Graze across Cherry Street in the Marriott.
“A Night in Vienna” will open with Haydn’s Symphony No. 9 (“Laudon”) a festive and lively piece composed in the mid-1770s and named for an Austrian military hero, General Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, who lived from 1717 to 1790. Full of energy and bravado, this piece is a dynamic way to kick off to the concert.
Koncz will join the Symphony on stage to perform Beethoven’s beloved Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major, op. 61. Composed in 1806, it is Beethoven’s only complete Concerto for violin and stands as one of the great musical master works. The piece was not well-received at its debut, but has since become renowned for its sensitivity and serenity. Difficult and dramatic, it was written for Franz Clement, a Viennese violin prodigy who had worked with Beethoven on other projects. Large in scope and scale, the piece stands as a testament to Beethoven’s creative genius.
The concert will close with Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier Suite, op. 59. The opera from which the Suite is extracted is set in Vienna during the reign of Maria Theresa and is a tale of love and passion. The Suite features highlights from the three act opera presenting sensuous, exciting and poignant moments from the Opera.
This concert and the Winston-Salem Symphony are sponsored by Season Presenting Sponsor Wells Fargo; Classics Series Presenting Sponsor Bell, Davis & Pitt, P.A; Kicked-Back Classics Underwriters Chris and Mike Morykwas; Concert Sponsor Novant Health; as well as the Arts Council of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County and the North Carolina Arts Council.
About Christoph Koncz
Austrian-Hungarian violinist Christoph Koncz enjoys a wide-ranging international career as a soloist, conductor and chamber musician. Born in 1987 in Konstanz into an Austrian-Hungarian family of musicians, Koncz received his first violin lesson at the age of four and entered the Vienna University of Music only two years later, studying with Eugenia Polatschek. He went on to study violin with Josef Hell, Igor Ozim, and Boris Kuschnir at the Music Universities of Vienna, Salzburg, and Graz as well as conducting with Mark Stringer in Vienna. Master classes with Pavel Vernikov, Erich Höbarth, Hiro Kurosaki (violin), Ferenc Rados, Daniel Barenboim (chamber music), and Daniel Harding (conducting) further enriched his musical education.
Koncz made his North American debut as a soloist at age 12 with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit, leading to collaborations with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and Marc Minkowski and ensembles such as the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, and the renowned Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Further engagements have taken Koncz to numerous countries across Europe and to the Middle East, Asia, and Australia, as well as North and South America.
Koncz plays a 1762 Giuseppe Gagliano violin courtesy of the Vienna Philharmonic.
For a full artist’s bio please visit WSsymphony.org.
About the Winston-Salem Symphony
The Winston-Salem Symphony, now performing its 68th season, is one of the Southeast’s most highly regarded regional orchestras. This season also marks Maestro Robert Moody’s 10th Anniversary with the Symphony. Under the baton of Music Director Moody, its performance season includes a classics series, a pops series, concerts for kids, annual performances of Handel’s Messiah, a concert featuring Winston-Salem Symphony and Youth Symphony musicians, holiday concerts, three youth orchestra ensembles, and a multitude of educational and community engagement programs. For more information visit WSsymphony.org"
- A Press Release
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