Schumann and Chopin celebrated at the Manoel

The Malta Philhamonic Orchestra, directed by Jean Marc Barfin, will perform Chopin’s Piano concerto N.2 in F minor, Op. 21 with soloist Charlene Farrugia and Schumann’s Symphony N. 4 in D minor, Op. 120. The concert opens with the overture to Oberon by Carl Maria von Weber. French conductor Jean Marc Barfin began his music studies in Lyon and in Metz studying piano, orchestra analysis, harmony, counterpoint and chamber music working mainly with Fernand Quattrocchi at the Conservatory of Metz where he won the gold medal for conducting. Later he moved to the National Superior Conservatory of Music of Paris where in 1987 a unanimous jury awarded him the gold medal for conducting. He was admitted to more advanced courses and studied with Franco Ferrara, Vitalij Katayev and Charles Brick. He concurrently studied analysis with Claude Ballif, orchestration with Serge Nigg and harmony with Michael Levinas. Later he studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum with Milan Horvat, Leopold Hager, David Epstein and Ferdinand Leitner. Also at the Mozarteum, in 1984 he was invited to conduct the Boston MIT Orchestra alongside Lorin Maazel. In 1987 following an international summer seminar at Fontainebleau he impressed Leonard Bernstein so much that the latter chose him to conduct the Orchestre de Paris at Salle Pleyel in Paris. Barfin perfected his knowledge of the Russian repertoire with Alexander Dmitriyev at St Petersburg’s Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. In 1991 he was finalist at the Besançon International Competition for young conductors and in that same year was unanimously proclaimed winner of the Moscow Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra Prize. Among orchestras he has conducted are the Orchestre de Paris at concerts in both of the Calonne and Lamoureux series, the Orchestre Nouvelle de St Etienne, the Philharmonic of Brandenburg, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Oviedo and the Orchestra da camera di Mantova. From 1988 to 1990 he was assistant director of the St. Etienne Opera and the Opéra-Comique de Paris. He has conducted world premieres in France and abroad of works by contemporary composers. He was artistic director of the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra and dedicates part of his career to teaching. He is currently artistic and music director of the Lisbon Academy Metropolitan Orchestra and lectures at the National Superior Orchestra Academy of Lisbon. Pianist Charlene Farrugia is still in her very early twenties but needs no introduction with local music-lovers. She studied in Malta with Dolores Amodio-Chircop and Michael Laus then proceeded to London’s Royal Academy of Music graduating MA in piano performance from the class of Diane Ketler. She also obtained her LRAM and is currently studying with Boris Petrushansky at the famed Imola School in Italy. Winner of several prizes in local and foreign competitions, Charlene Farrugia has won acclaim from Gary Graffman, celebrated pianist and teacher at the Curtis Institute who counts Lang Lang among his former pupils. Graffman called her “a pianist of exceptional talent.” She has played at several venues in Malta and abroad including Italy, the UK, USA, France, Portugal, Croatia, Hungary, Monaco, Holland, Belgium, Portugal and Ireland. She has Played the Grieg Concerto with the Blackheath Halls Orchestra in London and stunned local audiences when at thirteen she was the youngest soloist ever to perform at the Manoel with the then Malta National Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto N.1, receiving a standing ovation in the process. She has often premiered solo and chamber works, among them being Karl Fiorini’s Trois pièces pour piano et orchestre with the Rotterdam Ensemble in Rotterdam and the UK premiere of Austrian composer Johannes Maria Staud’s Für Balint Andras Varga. Last year she was one of the soloists at the Mediterranean Conference Centre with the MPO in Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos, performing also the Grieg Concerto with the same orchestra. She is supported by the Malta Arts Fund, MGSS, Janatha Stubbs Foundation, Ian Tomlin, Malta Piano Trust, Christopher Elton and the Friends of the RAM. Pianist Voya Toncic says that “…her startling octaves, majestic chords, extraordinary double thirds and delightful staccato have velocity, precision and gloss which could be compared with those of the greatest pianists of our time.” Tickets: [email protected] tel. 2124 6389 fax: 2124 7451. Visit also: www.teatrumanoel.com.mt.