Face the music with the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra
The soloists selected for this season represent some of the most exciting vibrant talent of the new generation of global music makers.
THE KZN Philharmonic Orchestra is half-way through its six-concert Summer Symphony Season which is currently taking place every Thursday in the Playhouse Opera. The orchestra moves back to the Playhouse for this season – performing in the magnificent Opera House.
The soloists selected for this season represent some of the most exciting vibrant talent of the new generation of global music makers – marrying rock-star appeal and accessibility with heavy weight music credentials, applauded virtuosity. All have recently won major international music competitions.
The KZN Philharmonic’s associate guest conductor Daniel Boico joins the orchestra for the following two concerts. On Thursday, 23 February he conducts multi award-winning young pianist Daniel Ciobanu from Rumania.
The all-Russian programme features at its centrepiece Prokofiev’s viscerally exciting Piano Concerto No.3. Either side of it are Borodin’s Overture to Prince Igor and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony Pathetique: No. 6 in B minor – the composer’s final completed magnum opus.
Daniel Ciobanu is the winner of the 2015 UNISA international piano competition and the 2014 Scottish international piano competition in Glasgow. Ciobanu has been described as “impetuous” – with a love of the classical repertoire.
The concert on Thursday, 2 March features Mariam Batsashvili on piano as the soloist performing Franz Liszt’s virtuosic Piano Concerto No. At only 23 years old, Batsashvili from Tbilisi, Georgia already ranks among the most promising young pianists of her generation. She won the 10th international Franz Liszt competition, and was nominated by the European Concert Hall organisation as the Rising Star for the 2016 / 17 season.
