The 2012 MBTS Summer Mentoring School
Steven Dann (Toronto) performed at MBTS last year and it was our hope that he would be favourable to being a part of the inaugural season of our summer mentorship school. He has agreed and his celebrated international string trio, Zebra Trio, [himself as violist, Ernst Kovacic, violin ((Vienna), Anssi Karttunen, cello (Finland)] will come to Bamfield in 2012. Marc Ryser, piano (Boston) will be joining them as faculty. It will be a small group of students and faculty and an intensely focused session — an amazing opportunity for the students that are selected (selections are by invitation). It will be a ten-day session that will begin a week prior to the festival and allow for the faculty and students to be a part of the opening weekend of the Festival. The students will present a concert with the Faculty on the Thursday July 5th before Opening Day on Saturday July 7th, and will then have the opportunity to hear their mentors perform as part of the Festival Company of Artists.
Here is some background on the faculty:
MBTS 2012 Zebra Trio and Marc Ryser
Zebra Trio
Steven Dann - viola
Steven Dann's career has covered a wealth of violistic possibilities. As principal viola of some of the world's leading orchestras, as a veteran of the string quartet and chamber music world, as soloist and recitalist and as a dedicated teacher, Mr. Dann has left all the doors open.
Mr. Dann was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1953. His foremost teacher and mentor was the late Lorand Fenyves. Other influences include William Primrose, Robert Pikler and Bruno Giuranna and five summers spent studying the string quartet repertoire with Zoltan Szekely and members of the Hungarian String Quartet.
Upon graduation from university he was named Principal Viola of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, a position he has subsequently held with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Vancouver Symphony and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has also been a guest principal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle and, in both performance and recordings, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paavo Berglund and Pierre Boulez.
Steven Dann has collaborated as a soloist with such Maestri as Sir Andrew Davis, Rudolph Barshai, Jiri Belohlavek, Sir John Elliott Gardiner, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Since 1990 Mr. Dann has been a member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players in Washington D.C. and was a founding member of the Axelrod String Quartet.
Mr. Dann has recorded for Sony, Naxos, CBC Records, Marquis Classics, Centrediscs, RCA Red Seal and ATMA Classique. The Stereo Record Review described his 2006 recording of the viola works of Brahms (ATMA CLASSIQUE) as "without doubt, one of the most beautiful viola recordings I have ever heard". Upcoming recording projects include a disc of French viola repertoire and one of contemporary viola works for ATMA Classique, and the continuation of a project with his trio, the Esterhazy Machine, which, in the next three years will result in a complete set of the baryton trios of Haydn on original instruments for the NAXOS label. Twenty-one CDs in all.
Recent performances include concerti by Peter Lieberson, Giya Kancheli, W. A. Mozart, Alexina Louie, Christos Hatzis (a world premiere) Mark-Anthony Turnage, Jonathan Harvey and Peter Oesterle (a world premiere). He has also formed a trio with Austrian violinist Ernst Kovacic and Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen dedicated to both performing the established masterpieces of that repertoire and to commissioning works from composers of today.
Mr. Dann has himself commissioned and premiered many new works from such composers as Alexina Louie, Peter Lieberson, R. Murray Shafer, Frederick Schipitsky, Walter Buczyinski, Christos Hatzis and Michael Oesterle.
As both a performer and teacher, Mr. Dann is a regular guest at many international festivals and arts schools. He teaches viola and chamber music at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music and is the Coordinator of the chamber music programs at the Domaine Forget in Quebec and the National Arts Centre's Summer Music Institute in Ottawa. Mr. Dann plays a viola of Joseph Gagliano, circa1780.
Ernst Kovacic - violin
Vienna, with its fruitful tension between tradition and innovation, informs the musical language of the Austrian violinist Ernst Kovacic. A leading performer throughout Europe and the USA, Ernst was Artistic Director of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra from 1996 to 1998. His recent guest engagements include appearances with the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Prague Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Budapest Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Tivoli Symphony and the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Sudwestfunk, Hessischer Rundfunk and Norddeutscher Rundfunk and many others.
Anssi Karttunen - cello
The Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen leads a busy career as a soloist and chamber-music player, performing extensively all over the world. He performs on modern cello, classical and baroque cellos and on violoncello piccolo.
He is a passionate advocate of contemporary music and his collaboration with composers has led him to give over 90 world premieres of works by composers such as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi and Tan Dun.
Karttunen has had a number of Concertos written for him, 18 in all: Magnus Lindberg's Cello Concerto in 1999, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Concerto "Mania" in 2000. Martin Matalon's Cello Concerto 2001 and in 2004 Luca Francesconi's Cello Concerto "Rest". Kaija Saariaho's Concerto "Notes on Light" was a Boston Symphony Orchestra commission for Anssi Karttunen and Los Angeles Philharmonic has commissioned a Concerto from Oliver Knussen.
Anssi Karttunen performs all the standard cello works, but has also discovered many forgotten masterpieces and transcribed numerous pieces for cello and chamber ensembles. His transcriptions include Brahms's Piano Quintet in version for String Quintet and Variations op. 24 for String Trio, Schumann's Cello Concerto for Cello and String Quartet etc..
Karttunen plays with many of the best orchestras of the world. He also performs in recitals and chamber music at major festivals in Europe: Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Spoleto, Berlin, Venice, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Helsinki etc..
The CD´s of Anssi Karttunen range from the complete Beethoven works for cello and fortepiano (on period instruments) and 20th-Century works for solo cello to concertos with London Sinfonietta and Los Angeles Philharmonic with Esa-Pekka Salonen. Sony Classical issued the Concertos of Lindberg, Saariaho and Salonen on CD. Deutsche Grammophon issued a DVD of Tan Dun's The Map for cello, video and Orchestra. He appears on the first ever contemporary music CD-ROM: Prisma, on music of Kaija Saariaho.
He is a founding member of www.petals.org, a non-profit organisation for the production and sale of CDs and scores on the Internet.
Karttunen plays in a String Trio with the Austrian violinist Ernst Kovacic and Canadian viola player Steven Dann.
Anssi Karttunen has also appeared as conductor, he conducted Lindberg's Kraft with the Flanders Philharmonic on a very short notice. He also conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic cello ensemble, the Gaida Ensemble in Vilnius, NJO String Orchestra etc. Between 1994 and 1998 Mr Karttunen was the artistic director of the Avanti!-Chamber Orchestra. He was the artistic director of the 1995 and 1997 Helsinki Biennale and the Suvisoitto-festival in Porvoo, Finland from 1994 to 1997. From 1999 to 2005 Anssi Karttunen was the principal cellist of the London Sinfonietta.
His teachers included Erkki Rautio, William Pleeth, Jacqueline du Pré and Tibor de Machula. Karttunen plays on a cello made by Francesco Ruggieri in Cremona circa 1670.
Some of the orchestras Karttunen performs with :
Philadelphia Orchestra
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Boston Symphony Orchestra
St. Louis Symphony
New World Symphony
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Philharmonia Orchestra
Royal Opera House orchestra
BBC Symphony
BBC Philharmonic
BBC Scottish
London Sinfonietta
Orchestre de Paris
Orchestre National de France
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Ensemble Orchestral de Paris
L'Itineraire
DSO Berlin
Berliner Symphoniker
NDR Orchestra
Hamburg Philharmonic
Hessischer Rundfunk Orchestra
SWR Orchestra
Munich Philharmonic
Munich Chamber Orchestra
Ensemble Modern
Royal Goncertgebouw Orchestra
Rotterdam Philharmonic
Residentie Orchestra
Dutch Radio Symphony
Dutch Radio Philharmonic
Dutch Radio Chamber orchestra
NJO Symphony Orchestra
RAI Torino
Filarmonica della Scala
Orchestra della Toscana
Luxembourg Philharmonic
Flanders Philharmonic
Belgian Radio Orchestra
NHK Orchestra
Tokyo Philharmonic
Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra
Hong Kong Sinfonietta
Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra
Shanghai Symphony
Beijing Symphony
Taipei Chinese Orchestra
Singapore Symphony Orhestra
Barcelona Opera Orchestra
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra
Navarra Symphony Orchestra
Bilbao Symphony Orchestra
Barcelona 216 Ensemble
Filarmónica de Buenos Aires
Orquesta Municipal de Caracas
Sinfonica Simon Bolivar de Caracas
Swedish Radio Orchestra
Danish Radio Orchestra
Oslo Philharmonic
Finnish Radio Orchestra
Helsinki Philharmonic
Avanti!-Chamber Orchestra
Marc Ryser - piano
Pianist Marc Ryser performs in North America and Europe. Among the highlights of his solo career are the first performance in Bulgaria of Bela Bartók's 3rd Piano Concerto (with the Vratsa Philharmonic) and concert tours in Switzerland which have included recitals and concerto performances with the Sinfonietta de Lausanne.
Active as a chamber musician, he has performed with distinguished artists, including the cellists Paul Katz and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, violist Marcus Thompson, violinists Ann Elliott-Goldschmid and Peter Salaff, pianist Judith Gordon, and the Lydian, New Zealand, and Borealis String Quartets. He has appeared as a guest artist at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and with the Walden, MIT and Holy Cross Chamber Players. He is also well known at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, where he was senior artist and resident collaborative pianist from 2003-2005.
He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University, where he studied with the eminent pianist, Gilbert Kalish. His other mentors in piano include György Sebők, Leonard Shure, A. Ramón Rivera, and Boris Berman.
He is currently a member of the piano faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, the Walnut Hill School, and the Rivers School Conservatory, and has taught at Smith College, Pomona College, Drake University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
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