May, 2012
Sergio Tiempo is the guest soloist at the opening concert of the Competition
May 15, 2012 Competition, hide
The Venezuelan soloist Sergio Tiempo, who studied under Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire, is one of the greatest performers in contemporary piano today. He has already played with the Chicago, Houston, Montreal, and Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestras and the Los Angeles, Tokyo, Rotterdam and Radio France Philharmonics, building a distinguished career on the international scenario, under the baton of prestigious conductors, such as Abbado, Dudamel, Dutoit and Slatkin. Tiempo’s recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and EMI Classics have been highly acclaimed by critics, and he has been requested to play major festivals such as Salzburg.
Tiempo is the guest pianist for BNDES International Piano Competition of Rio de Janeiro to perform the opening concert of the 2012 edition as soloist with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. Under the baton of Roberto Tibiriçá, the presentation scheduled for November 25th at the Municipal Theater will bring the audience works by Ravel, Tchaikovsky and Almeida Prado, the latter being the honored composer of this year’s Competition.
Get to know Sergio Tiempo and Roberto Tibiricá biographies.
SERGIO TIEMPO
Described by Gramophone magazine as “a colourist in love with the infinite variety a piano can produce”, Sergio Tiempo has developed a reputation as one of the most individual and thought-provoking pianists of his generation. Tiempo established his international credentials at an early age, making his professional debut at the age of fourteen at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. A tour of the USA and a string of engagements across Europe quickly followed. Since then he has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors and is a frequent guest at major festivals worldwide.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Tiempo began his piano studies with his mother, Lyl Tiempo, at the age of two and made his concert debut when he had just turned three. Whilst at the Fondazione per il Pianoforte in Como, Italy, he worked with Dimitri Bashkirov, Fou Tsong, Murray Perahia and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. He has received frequent musical guidance and advice from Martha Argerich, Nelson Freire and Nikita Magaloff and performs regularly with fellow-countryman and friend Gustavo Dudamel including concerts with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra.
Sergio Tiempo has made a number of highly distinctive and acclaimed recordings. On EMI Classics’ ‘Martha Argerich Presents’ label, he recorded Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit and three Chopin Nocturnes, and for Deutsche Gramophon he has recorded several discs with Mischa Maisky, including a disc of Rachmaninov which was awarded five stars by Classic FM and the BBC Music Magazine, which also named it their benchmark recording. In June 2010, Tiempo gave the world premiere of a new work for two pianos and orchestra Tango Rhapsody by Argentinean composer Federico Jusid with Karin Lechner and the RSI Lugano under Jacek Kaspszyk at the Martha Argerich Festival in Lugano, where he is a visitor each year. Most recently, Sergio Tiempo released a disc of French music for two pianos with Karin Lechner for Avanti Classic entitled La Belle Epoque.
Recent concerto highlights for Tiempo have included return visits to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris and on tour to his native South America, the Singapore Symphony and the Music Days in Lisbon Festival, as well as debuts with the BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Northern Sinfonia, Queensland Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia. Recent recital engagements have included a sell-out recital debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in the International Piano Series, debuts at the Vienna Konzerthaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie and Edinburgh International Festival as well as return visits to the Oslo Chamber Music Festival and the Warsaw Chopin Festival.
Highlights of the 2011/12 season and beyond include two return engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic with both Gustavo Dudamel and Nicholas McGegan and return engagements with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, a European tour with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra and debuts with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra and Orquestra Nacional do Porto as well as recital tours of Seoul, Italy and South America.
ROBERTO TIBIRIÇÁ
Roberto Tibiriçá was a student under Guiomar Novaes, Magda Tagliaferro, Dinorah de Carvalho, Nelson Freire, Gilberto Tinetti and Peter Feuchwanger. While studying under conductor Eleazar de Carvalho, he twice won the Young Conductors’ Competition organized by the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), becoming its Guest Conductor for almost 18 years until being invited, in 1994, to the position of Assistant Music Director of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra – OSB. For his work with the OSB, Tibiriçá received the “Estácio de Sá” award by the State of Rio de Janeiro.
Tibiriçá has given special attention to works by Brazilian composers, and such attention was intensified after he became Music Director of the Petrobras Pro Musica Orchestra (OPPM).
Tibiriçá has participated in several editions of the Aquarius Project, an initiative by Globo TV. In 1997, Pope John Paul II visited Brazil and celebrated an open-air mass at the Flamengo Park, in Rio, which featured the orchestra conducted by Tibiriçá, with an attendance of around 2 million people.
In November 2001, Tibiriçá was invited by Martha Argerich to conduct the opening concert for the Martha Argerich Festival, making his debut at the Teatro Colón, in Buenos Aires. Along his career, Tibiriçá has had the opportunity to work with many international artists such as Arnaldo Cohen, Barry Douglas, Lylia Zilberstein, Joshua Bell, Shlomo Mintz, Erik Schumann, Gautier Capuçon, Gabriela Montero, Antonio Meneses, Mikhail Rudy, Jean Louis Steuerman, Boris Belkin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky Geza Hosszu-Legocky, Pavel Sporcl, Eugene Fodor, Wolfgang Meyer, Romain Guyot, Cristina Ortiz, Bernard Greenhouse, Pascal Roge, Nelson Goerner, Jean-Philippe Collard, Yevgeny Sudbin, Frank Braley and Bella Davidovitch. He also worked with several renowned artists of the MPB (Popular Brazilian Music) among which Wagner Tiso, Rita Lee, Gilberto Gil, Simone, Daniela Mercury, Zizi Possi, Frejat, Francis Hime, Sivuca and Ivan Lins.
He is the Music Director of the Minas Gerais Symphony Orchestra.
Ensemble São Paulo will play with the candidates of the BNDES International Piano Competition in the chamber music round
Formed by musicians who won winners of the APCA and Carlos Gomes Awards, Ensemble São Paulo faces a busy schedule of presentations both in Brazil and abroad, with a repertoire ranging from pre-classical to contemporary composers. The trio participates as guest musicians of the 2012 edition of BNDES International Piano Competition of Rio de Janeiro, and will be on stage with the candidates at the BNDES’ Auditorium for the semifinal rounds , on December 3rd and 4th, in order to present quartets by Mozart, Schumann and Brahms.
See below the Ensemble São Paulo members biographies.
BETINA STEGMANN – violin
Buenos Aires-born Betina Stegmann started her violin studies in São Paulo with Lola Benda and then Erich Lehninger. She graduated from the Cologne College of Music in Germany, where she studied violin with Igor Ozim and chamber music with the Amadeus Quartet. Soon afterwards she moved to Tel Aviv, Israel, where she pursued further studies with Chaim Taub, later taking courses with Pinchas Zukerman and Max Rostal. She has performed concertos and recitals in several cities of Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, the USA and Belgium. She has recorded for WDR radio (Germany) and RAI – Trieste (Italy), premiering new music by contemporary composers. Ms. Stegmann has taken part in several festivals in Brazil and abroad and is a member of the D’Elas Quintet, which won the Carlos Gomes Prize for chamber music in 1998. She is the leader of the Villa-Lobos Chamber Orchestra and teaches the violin at Cantareira University. She is also a member of the São Paulo City String Quartet.
MARCELO JAFFÉ – viola
Marcelo Jaffé started playing the violin at the age of six under the guidance of his father, Alberto Jaffé. In 1977, aged 14, he switched to the viola and in this same year he won 1st Prize at the National Competition of the University of Brasilia. After furthering his studies at the University of Illinois and Tanglewood Music Center, both in the USA, he went on to perform in several countries as a member of leading chamber ensembles and orchestras. He has conducted Kamerata Philarmonia and was Artistic Director of the São Paulo State Jazz Symphony Orchestra. He currently lives in São Paulo, where he teaches the viola at the São Paulo University School of Communication and Arts. He is a presenter for Radio Cultura and a member of the São Paulo City String Quartet.
ROBERT SUETHOLZ – cello
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, Roberto Suetholz studied under George Sopkin, founding member of the Fine Arts Quartet, Wolfgang Laufer, currently the cellist with the same quartet, and Uzi Wiesel, cellist with the Tel Aviv String Quartet, Israel. He took master classes with Janos Starker, Isaac Stern and Chaim Taub. In 1997 he gained his Masters in cello under the supervision of Hans Jørgen Jensen, at Northwestern University, Chicago (USA). He has worked with several international orchestras, including the Israel Sinfonietta (three years as lead cellist) and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (USA). He has lived in Brazil since 1985, leading the cello sections of the University of São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia Cultura, the orchestra of Rádio Cultura and TV Cultura. He is professor of cello at the University of São Paulo and a member of the São Paulo City String Quartet.
Guiomar Novaes of Brazil
One of the most outstanding names in Brazilian music of all times, pianist Guiomar Novaes had her artistic career reviewed in Guiomar Novaes of Brazil, a book by journalists Luciana Medeiros and João Luiz Sampaio. The book, released by BNDES International Piano Competition of Rio de Janeiro in 2011, retrieves important aspects of the history of the soloist, particularly the rise of her career in the U.S. In addition to disclosing unpublished information about this period of Novaes’ music and life, the project includes the release of two CDs with rare recordings of the pianist as soloist of the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, George Szell and André Cluytens.
The book Guiomar Novaes of Brazil can be found at the Cultura, Travessa and Leonardo da Vinci bookstores. It is also available at the webstore Classicos.
Competition pays homage to Almeida Prado
Brazil lost an extraordinary artist in 2010: with an output over of 300 compositions, José Antônio de Almeida Prado left an indelible mark on the Brazilian symphonic production with his multifaceted style, a blend of traditional Brazilian music with atonal post-serialist and post-modernist elements. Almeida Prado, a former student of Olivier Messiaen and Nadia Boulanger, will be honored in the 2012 edition of BNDES International Piano Competition of Rio de Janeiro, being his piece Cartas Celestes (Celestial Maps) part of the repertoire of the semifinal rounds. The series of pieces stems from the composer’s doctoral thesis, and is regarded as one of the most outstanding pieces for piano from the last century.