TOM BROSSEAU
Performing Tuesday, February 6th at Largo.
ALBUM of the WEEK “This LA folkie originally hails from Grand Forks, N.D., where in 1997 the Red River flooded and destroyed much of the town. In traditional folk style, this record tells the story of that harrowing experience from the eyes of someone who experienced it.” Paul Saitowitz, The Press-Enterprise
Tom Brosseau, a North Dakota native, sings songs of lost love and poetic observation that shimmer like aural tintypes. His songwriting comes from such diverse influences as Nick Drake, Cole Porter, and Woody Guthrie.
With his high, limber and sometimes vibrato-colored voice, he seems to float between masculine and feminine vocal qualities. Brosseau’s playing elicits a hushed reverence from admiring listeners blessed with the intimacy and emotional immediacy of his live performances.
HILARY HAHN
Performing live at Disney Hall, January 21st.
At the age of 26, Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn is one of the most compelling artists on the international concert circuit. Renowned for her intellectual and emotional maturity, she was named "America's Best" young classical musician by Time Magazine in 2001, and appears regularly with the world's great orchestras in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Highlights of Ms. Hahn's 2005-2006 season include recital tours in the United States, Europe, and Asia, which bring her to cities including New York (Carnegie Hall), Salt Lake City, Boulder, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Warsaw, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Seoul, and Tokyo. She will appear with such orchestras as the Los Angeles and Luxembourg Philharmonics; the National Arts Centre Orchestra; the New York String Seminar; the Colorado, Barcelona, BBC, WDR, and Montreal Symphony Orchestras; the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia; and the radio orchestras of Frankfurt and Sweden. Ms. Hahn's 2004-2005 season was equally diverse, taking her to Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Russia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, England, Ireland, and 15 states within the USA.
Hilary Hahn records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. Her most recent album, released in October 2005, features four Mozart sonatas played with her longtime recital partner Natalie Zhu. In 2004, Deutsche Grammophon released Ms. Hahn's of the Elgar Violin Concerto and Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis, which won the "Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik"; and in 2003, her recording of the four violin concertos by Bach: the solo concertos in A minor and E major, the Concerto for Two Violins in D minor (with Margaret Batjer, second violin), and the Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor (with Allan Vogel, oboe) with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Jeffrey Kahane.
Prior to signing with Deutsche Grammophon, Ms. Hahn made five recordings for Sony Classical. Her first album, featuring Solo Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach, won Diapason's 1997 "d'Or of the Year" and spent weeks as a bestseller on the Billboard classical charts. Her next recording, concertos by Beethoven and Bernstein, brought her first Grammy nomination, as well as a second Diapason "d'Or," the Echo Klassik award for 1999, and Gramophone Magazine's "CD of the Month"; and her third release - American concertos by Samuel Barber and Edgar Meyer - won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis and the Cannes Classical Award. Her 2001 recording of the concertos of Brahms and Stravinsky won her a Grammy Award in addition to Gramophone "Editor's Choice and Monde de la Musique's "Choc". It also became Ms. Hahn's fourth consecutive classical bestseller. In the autumn of 2002, Sony released her fifth album: concertos of Felix Mendelssohn and Dmitri Shostakovich.
In other recent projects, Ms. Hahn can be heard as featured soloist on the soundtrack to M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, The Village, and as a guest artist on the newest album by Austin alt-rockers ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead.
Admitted to Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music in 1990 at the age of ten, Hilary Hahn made her major orchestra debut a year and a half later with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Her 1993 Philadelphia Orchestra debut was followed by engagements with the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In March 1995, at age 15, Ms. Hahn made her German debut playing the Beethoven concerto with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, in a concert broadcast on radio and television throughout Europe. Two months later s