Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies, pianos Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies, pianos

PIANO DUO:
2003 was the year when Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa played together for the first time. After their resounding success at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz (Austria), both musicians decided to continue performing as a piano duo. Since then, they have played at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York and at the Festival lnternational de Musique de Colmar (France); the 2004/2005 season led them to give recitals at the Festwochen in Gmunden, the Festival Ars Electronica in Linz, the Ruhr Piano Festival and in the US.
 
MAKI NAMEKAWA:
Maki Namekawa studied piano at Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo with professors Mikio Ikezawa and Henriette Puig-Roget from Conservatoire de Paris. In 1994 she won the Leonid Kreutzer Prize, awarded yearly by the Japanese Kreutzer Society. In 1995 she continued her studies with Werner Genuit and Kaya Han at Karlsruhe School of Music, where she completed her diploma as a soloist with special distinction. She then went on to perfect her artistry in Classical-Romantic repertoire with Edith Picht-Axenfeld, and in contemporary music with György Kurtág, with Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Cologne Musikhochschule), Prof. Stefan Litwin (Saarbrücken Conservatory) and Florent Boffard.
 
In the meantime, Maki Namekawa embarked on an impressive international solo career, performing with renowned ensembles such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Munich and Dresden Philharmonic Orchestras, Munich and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras, the Linz Bruckner and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. She made recordings for WDR Cologne, BR Munich, SR Saarbrücken, HR Frankfurt and for the SWR in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, for AVRO Klassiek (Hilversum), Swiss Radio and for Radio France.
 
Although Maki Namekawa feels just as much at home in Classical-Romantic repertoire as in new music, her pronounced goal is to make works by contemporary composers better known to a wider audience and to integrate recent compositions into the “normal” musical panorama. She makes regular appearances on the international music scene, as for instanceat the Ruhr Piano Festival, at the WDR Cologne Radio Festival “Pianorama”, at Musik Biennale Berlin, at the Eclat Festival in Stuttgart, at Rheingau Music Festival, at Klangspuren (Schwaz, Austria) and at the Ars Electronica in Linz. Namekawa has often collaborated in concert performances and recording projects organized by the ZKM Center for Arts and Media in Karls-ruhe. Furthermore, she has made guest appearances at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, for example.
 
Since 2005, Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies have been performing together as a piano duo in Europe and the US, for example at Other Minds Festival of New Music in San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre and yearly at the Ruhr Piano Festival. The audience in the Essen Philharmonie was thrilled with their première performance in July 2008 of Philip Glass’s “Four Movements for two pianos”, commissioned by the Ruhr Piano Festival on the occasion of its 20th anniversary. In April 2009 the duo performed Brahms and Bernstein at the Benaroya Hall in Seattle, then, in May at the “Musik im Riesen” festival held at Swarovski Crystal Worlds in Wattens (Tyrol), the Austrian première of Philip Glass’s “Four Movements” and in July 2009 at Lincoln Center Festival New York the same work’s US première. Last engagements in 2012 include performances at the Ruhr Piano Festival and the Salzkammergut Festwochen in Gmunden (A). In October 2012 the duo performed “Stoker” by Philip Glass at the New Yorker Morgan Library, it was the world premiere of the work. In June 2013 the duo played the world premiere of Philip Glass’ „Two Movements for four pianos“ with Katia und Marielle Labèque in Düsseldorf.
 
In the last years Maki Namekawa played Alfred Schnittke’s Piano Concerto with the Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as Elliott Carter’s “Dialogues for Piano and Orchestra” and Alan Hovhaness’s “Lousadzak for Piano and String Orchestra” with the Basel Sinfonietta. With a series of renowned European ensembles she has also given successful performances of such seldom heard works as Stravinsky’s “Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments”, Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto, Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto op.42 and John Cage’s “Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra”.
 
In 2009, Maki Namekawa performed Alan Hovhaness’s “Lousadzak for Piano and String Orchestra” in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. Since then she appeared with Linz Festival Sinfonietta conducted by Howard Griffiths and played the piano concert of György Ligeti with the Munich Chamber Orchestra etc. In 2012 she performed Arvo Pärts “Lamentate” at Carnegie Hall New York and Igor Strawinsky’s concert for piano and wind instruments with the Bamberger Symphoniker. In February 2013 she was invited to the International Arts Festival in Perth: Under the participation of Philip Glass she played some of his solo etudes, partially as world premiere.
 
In 2014 she will play Glass’ piano etudes in Island, Sweden and the USA. Furthermore she will be guest in the Cadogan Hall in London with Pärt’s „Lamentate“. CD/DVD releases (both with Dennis Russell Davies, piano): „images 4 music” (Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase” and Philip Glass’ “Les Enfants Terrible”, “Visuals” by Martin Wattenberg, Lotte Schreiber and Norbert Pfaffenbichler) and Mozart’s „Zauberflöte“ and Beethoven’s “Fidelio” arranged for piano four hands by Alexander Zemlinsky. 2009 the CD, American Piano Music” was released with works of Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Philip Glass. 2010 followed a CD with Haydn’s “Jahreszeiten” and “Schöpfung”, also in a four-hand piano arrangement by Zemlinsky.
 
DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES:
Born in Toledo/OH, Russell Davies studied piano and conducting at Juilliard School in New York. In his multiple activities as an opera and orchestra conductor, as a pianist and as chamber musician, he is well-known for his vast repertoire extending from the Baroque to the newest, most recent works; for his well-thought-out programs offering stimulating, eclectic combinations; and for his close collaborations with composers such as Luciano Berio, William Bolcom, John Cage, Manfred Trojahn, Philip Glass, Philippe Manoury, Aaron Copland, Hans Werner Henze and Michael Nyman.
 
After his first posts in the US as chief conductor for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (1972 – 80) and for the American Composers’ Orchestra in New York (1977 – 2002), Davies moved to Europe in 1980, where he first held the post of Generalmusikdirektor at the Opera of Stuttgart (1980 – 1987), and then at the Beethovenhalle Orchestra, the International Beethoven Festival and the Opera of Bonn (1987 – 1995). From 1997 to 2002 he was Chief Conductor of Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1997 he was appointed by the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Currently, he is Chief Conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz and Opera Director in that same Austrian town (since 2002).
 
Davies has made appearances in the US as Guest Conductor with the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestra, with the Chicago, San Francisco and Boston Symphonies, and with the New York Philharmonic. In Europe, he has guested with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Academia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala in Milan, the Munich and Berlin Philharmonics and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
 
Following his Bayreuth debut (1978-80), Davies has conducted operas at the Salzburg Festival, at Lincoln Center, at Houston Grand Opera, in Hamburg and Munich-with stage directors such as Harry Kupfer, Götz Friedrich, Achim Freyer, Peter Zadek, Robert Altman, Juri Ljubimov, Daniela Kurz, Robert Wilson and Ken Russell. Davies currently concentrates his activities as opera conductor at the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Opéra National de Paris.

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