The English Concert Mixes Familiar with Unexpected
Johnson County Community College |
Andrew Manze, modern superstar of the baroque violin, and his 20-member classical period-instrument ensemble, The English Concert, will perform a program at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center, Johnson County Community College. Just in time for Mozart’s 250th birthday in 2006, the concert will be the third violin concerto, Adagio for violin, and Symphony No. 40, and CPE Bach Symphony No. 3. Artist Insights by Paul Laird, musicologist at the University of Kansas, begin at 7 p.m.
The orchestra has been among the world’s finest chamber orchestras for more than 30 years. The English Concert plays with an exceptional combination of sheer enjoyment in music-making and technical brilliance in concert stages and more than 100 recordings. The orchestra members have been worldwide ambassadors for the British performing arts.
In 2003, violinist Manze, formerly second-in-command for the Academy of Ancient Music, succeeded Trevor Pinnock as only the second artistic director in the orchestra’s history. His unique energy and sense of humor forged an exciting partnership with the orchestra. Manze makes his third appearance at the Carlsen Center with this performance.
Audiences throughout the world have responded enthusiastically to Manze whose distinctive mixture of informality with serious music aims to breathe new life into well-known masterpieces and little-known repertoire.
The English Concert promotes its own concert series in London and has appeared in successive years at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. Nationally there is a concert series at St George, Bristol, and regular invitations to UK festivals, and internationally, there is a great demand for tours.
A series of new recordings with Harmonia Mundi USA has enhanced the orchestra’s international appeal. The all-Mozart CD, Night Music, was followed, in 2004, by the release of the first recording of Vivaldi’s seven concertos for the Holy Roman Emperor. More recently, releases have included the eagerly awaited recording of Biber’s Missa Christi resurgentis and Mozart violin concerti, K216, 218 and 219, were released in 2006.
Manze’s appointment as artistic director has brought innovation and new opportunities to The English Concert. He brings a rare flamboyance to the violin repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries and is a performer with a highly developed spirit of adventure.
Manze studied classics at Cambridge University and music at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Royal Academy in The Hague. He combines his role as artistic director of The English Concert with appearances as violin soloist or conductor with some of the world’s leading orchestras.
In addition, Manze is a writer, teacher and broadcaster. Since September 2003 he has been one of three presenters for Radio 3’s twice-weekly Early Music Show. Manze is a regular guest at international master classes, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, visiting professor at the Royal College of Music and regular contributor to the music press. In these many roles he has quickly earned a remarkable reputation for virtuosity as a violinist, for innovative musical thinking and, above all, for a rare gift of communicating his enthusiasms to audiences all over the world.
Tickets for the English Concert are $40 and $30, available by calling the Carlsen Center box office, 913-469-4445, or online at www.jccc.edu/CarlsenCenter
