The crucially acclaimed Millennium Chamber Players present for the first time ever, the wild and stirring Eight Songs for a Mad King by Peter Maxwell Davies & the deeply romantic, silvery, visceral Pierrot Lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg.
36 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Contemporary, CLASSICAL: New Music Ensemble
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Clowns and Kings - Abyss of the Mind Songs
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About the Millennium Chamber Players
Chicago's newest critically-acclaimed chamber ensemble specializing in new music and unconventional programming, the Millennium Chamber players have recieved stellar reviews for their interpretation of challenging and rarely heard works. Past seasons have included fully staged productions of Puccini's La Boheme, Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Britten's Rape of Lucretia, and the US premiere of Cimarosa's L'infedelta fedele. This season the ensemble, directed by conductor Robert Katkov-Trevino, has programmed virtuoso works by Gyorgy Ligeti, Shulamit Ran, Anton Webern and Peter Maxwell Davies as well experimental improvisatory pieces by avant garde composers such as Amnon Wolman.
Mission Statement
Millennium Chamber Players will offer high-quality performances of new and rare chamber works alongside standard repertoire in a progressive and interesting concert format.
Artistic Vision
Art must speak to the mind, body, and spirit. We strive to be true in our execution of the works of great masters, master composers known and unknown.
We are a new generation of music.
Reviews
"...the talented young conductor kept the ensemble firmly in check from the sensitively shaped overture to the rousing finale"
Wilma Salisbury, Cleveland Plain Dealer
"...Katkov-Trevino brought out the tricky Orientalist harmonies and lines with great idiomatic understanding..."
Andrew Patner, critic-at large for WFMT.
"strong and affecting...youthful impudence makes a night at this opera fun"
Marc Geelhoed, music critic in TimeOut Chicago
"...sensitive and vivid and fragile all at once. A whole universe is emerging in life- powerful music and performances!"
Augusta Read Thomas, composer
"Conductor Robert Katkov-Trevino made a strong impression in his Ohio Light Opera debut, keeping his forces well under control."
Charles H Parsons, American Record Guide
"...the rich, symphonic sounds emanating from the Ohio Light Opera pit under Katkov-Trevino's baton started with an illuminating reading of the overture, and continued to lift the production to the final chorus."
Thomas Harper, critic in the Alliance Review
"I was absolutely impressed by every aspect of the production. Katkov-Trevino's conducting was phenomonal. He had essentially memorized the score, and his presentation was clear to everyone, and poetically very satisfying."
George Flynn, composer
"MCP delivered with great focus, fluidity, and power. Passages of haunting poignancy, seductive beauty, and forceful assaults were all played with equal conviction, leaving me deeply affected and fulfilled, both as composer and listener."
April Mok, composer
"Creative and fresh is not enough... Millennium Chamber Players has the artistic talent, and the vision through its conductor Robert Katkov-Trevino, to be one of the best new music ensembles in Chicago."
Mary Stolper, recording soloist for Cedille Records
"Conductor Robert Katkov-Trevino and the Millennium Chamber Players have set the bar very high in terms of innovative programming and performing standards. This is "serious" music-making!"
Cliff Colnot, conductor
About the Conductor & Artistic Director Robert Katkov-Trevino
At 23 years of age, Robert Katkov-Trevino is a rising star on the national conducting scene, active as Artistic Director of the Millennium Chamber Players, Assistant Conductor of the Ohio Light Opera, guest conductor of the Chicago College of Performing Art's (CCPA) Chamber Music and New Music ensembles, and as guest conductor for the Chicago College of Performing Arts Opera Program.
Katkov-Trevino made his European debut at the age of 21, conducting the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra. Under his baton, the performance of Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade received television, newspaper, and public attention, where he was hailed as "incredibly talented, clear, precise, powerful, structured, and commanding." More recently, Katkov-Trevino traveled to Suwon, South Korea, where he was a finalist in the Suwon International Conducting Competition, conducting the Suwon Philharmonic, one of South Korea's finest orchestras. In 2005, Mr. Katkov-Trevino was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Ohio Light Opera Festival, the youngest conductor ever to hold this position since the company's inception, where his duties include supervising national auditions, conducting, and musical direction of two full opera productions. In 2006, Katkov-Trevino was appointed Artistic Director of the Millennium Chamber Players, where he has conducted productions of Britten's Rape of Lucretia, Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Walton's The Bear, Puccini's La Boheme, and the American premiere of L'Infedelta Fedele by Domenico Cimarosa, where he fully restored the work, created a new performance edition of the unpublished 200 year-old opera, and gave its most complete performance since the composer's lifetime. Recently, Katkov-Trevino recorded the monumental Pierrot Lunaire of Arnold Schoenberg paired with Peter Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for a Mad King on the OKT label.
Katkov-Trevino is a vigorous promoter of the works of living composers, both emerging and established. Since his appointment with the Millennium Chamber Players, he has commissioned and premiered nine new works by composers, including Carmel Raz, Luca Belcastro, April Mok, Sarah Ritch, and Stas Omelchenko. This season, the Millennium Chamber Players will embark on an ambitious program which will pair the works of American composers such as Augusta Read Thomas, Amnon Wolman, Aaron Jay Kernis, and George Flynn with the music of their European counterparts including Pierre Boulez, Bert Van Herck, Peter Maxwell Davies, and Thomas Ades.
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