The WildKats have been especially busy this January with a number of exciting events to both organise and attend, accompanied by numerous previews, reviews and interviews from national newspapers to specialist classical music press. Let’s have a look at some of the stand-out events…
On 10th January, violinist Daniel Hope performed alongside composer and pianist, Ludovico Einaudi, in Stockholm’s first ever Yellow Lounge. Established in Berlin seven years ago, the Yellow Lounge promotes ‘classical clubbing’, where international classical musicians perform with top DJs in unexpected spaces. The event was streamed live on the Deutsche Grammophon website. More and more events are being streamed live online, making concerts and recitals accessible both physically and economically, and reaching out to new audiences. Cellist Guy Johnston performed Walton’s Cello Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic on 14th, which was streamed live on BBC Radio 3.
Several of our clients had opening nights in January, including Silent Opera’s L’Orfeo. The first performance received huge amounts of press and publicity, specifically a BBC News report answering ‘What is Silent Opera?’. Silent Opera is still ongoing and tickets can still be purchased here – don’t miss out! The Silent Opera team appeared on Channel 4′s Sunday Brunch this weekend, watch it online here. Meanwhile in Milan, Daniel Harding had his opening night for La Scala’s Falstaff: a fantastic production of Verdi’s famous opera, staged in the same opera house it received its first ever performance. The esteemed conductor also performed with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra in Munich, Baritone Christian Gerhaher, receiving a great review from Süddeutsche Zeitung. Andrew Staples also performed in Munich with Daniel, receiving outstanding reviews for his performance. Another highlight of January for WildKat was the premiere of Raymond Yiu’s The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured at the Barbican, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Raymond also wrote a guest blog for Gramophone last month, discussing challenging perceptions of British classical music.
January was a highly successful time for AyseDeniz Gokcin who was applauded worldwide for her Lisztified EP. The young Turkish pianist was featured in an article by Prog Rock Magazine Online, which was shared hundreds of times through Facebook and Twitter. The article has continued to spread, through major music websites and social media in Hungary, Spain, Finland, Brazil, Greece, the Netherlands, Turkey and many more. Classic FM then published a news story on her success, bringing the article back around in a full circle. Another triumph we celebrated was another award for production company Accentus Music, who have been awarded a second International Classical Music award for John Cage – Journeys in Sound.
In anticipation of his upcoming CD release of Franck & Strauss Violin Sonatas, Augustin Dumay was featured in BBC Music Magazine discussing the recording of the album. Another event for the violinist was the Gala Concert at The Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where Augustin mentors the young string players. Young musicians of the Music Chapel performed works by Bloch, Liszt and Schubert, alongside the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Octopus Symphonic Choir and British conductor Christopher Warren-Green.
The WildKats had a number of great recitals to attend in January; such as Kimiko Ishizaka’s flawless performance of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, an intimate performance of works by Tom Smail at Susanne Kapoor’s home, along with a unique event from Samson Marzbani where he performed improvised piano pieces, before the audience received a preview premiere of his new work: Un Jour Infini.
Finally, the busiest of all has been our Founder and Managing Director, Kat Alder, who has been travelling across the world visiting our international clients performing all over the world; from Berlin to Austria, Munich to New York, and a few visits back to London.
Although January was so busy, February has a lot of exciting projects in store. Keep up to date with WildKat news through our Facebook, Twitter and daily posts from our blog.
(Written on February 4, 2013 )
