Pianist Traveling From London for Symphony

Music Director Martin Majkut

Music Director Martin Majkut says the “color bug” bit all three composers for the Rogue Valley Symphony’s March concert series, which will feature Chopin’s passionate Second Piano Concerto, Debussy’s Impressionistic Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun,” and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, a towering tribute to the human spirit which calls for an eighty-piece orchestra.  The Ashland performance on March 2 is already sold out, but good seats are still available in Medford on March 3 and Grants Pass on March 4.

Pianist Andrew Brownell will travel from London to perform the Chopin concerto.  He is a native of Portland, Oregon.  He did his graduate work at England’s Guildhall School of Music, and he says that winning a major prize at the Leeds Competition has given him “access to the wealth of musical activity” in London.  He and Majkut met when he won first prize at the Hummel Competition in Bratislava in 2005.  In 2002 he won second prize at the J.S. Bach Competition in Leipzig, the only American ever to have placed in this competition.

Pianist Andrew Brownell

Majkut asked him to play Chopin because “This is where Andrew’s sense for subtle, delicate phrasing and his overall finesse can really shine … He is one of those sensitive artists who allow the conductor to participate in the creative shaping of the piece.”  Brownell reveals that Chopin is one of his favorite composers.  “I think what attracts me so much to his music is its melancholy.  And yet, within that melancholy, there’s a huge range of emotion and drama, coupled with moments of utterly sublime beauty.”

Even though Chopin wrote this concerto while he was still in Poland, before he moved to Paris, Majkut thinks the piece “feels” French and will pair beautifully with Debussy’s Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun.” Debussy said the music is about “the successive settings through which move the desires and dreams of the Faun in the heat of the afternoon.”  According to Majkut, the piece “started a musical revolution unlike any other–quiet, unhurried and inward looking … everything freezes in a epicurean stasis … and we want to never leave that moment of perfection again.”

Eighty musicians will be on stage for Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5.  Majkut calls it “a towering masterpiece.”  Prokofiev’s symphony was composed in 1944 while his country, Russia, was ravaged by war.  In this work, Majkut feels that “Prokofiev struck a rare balance of expressing himself with a contemporary language while remaining comprehensible to a casual listener.  …The instrumentation takes cues from Tchaikovsky but the bittersweet mood is unmistakably modern.”

Concerts: Friday, March 2, SOU Music Recital Hall, Ashland, 7:30pm, Cost: $33-$44- SOLD OUT!

Saturday, March 3, Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater, Medford, 7:30pm, Cost: $28-38

Sunday, March 4, Grants Pass High School Performing Arts Center, Grants Pass, 3pm, Cost: $20-34

Rogue Valley Symphony Box Office: (541) 552-6398;  rvsymphony.org

Special Ticket Deals:

All Concerts: Student tickets $5

March 3, Medford: $10 tickets available beginning on Feb. 22 from Craterian Box Office at (541)779-3000

Grants Pass, March 4: $10 tickets available beginning on Feb. 20 from RVS Box Office; Also two $5 tickets available to Oregon Trail Card holders from “SNAP”

*All Deals depending on availability

Andrew Brownell– Biography

Since his 2nd Prize finish at the 2006 Leeds International Piano Competition, Andrew Brownell has played to enthusiastic audiences across North America and Europe, and press regularly remark on his musical integrity, beauty of tone, and scholarly insight.  Musical Opinion wrote recently, “Brownell’s technique is fabulous, as is his innate musicianship, sensitive and powerful”, and the London Times remarked that Brownell “oozed confidence, crispness, and know-how” in concert with the Hallé.

Andrew Brownell won 2nd Prize ex aequo at the 2002 International J. S. Bach Competition in Leipzig, making him the only American pianist to have ever won a prize in the history of the competition.  He also won 1st Prize at the 2005 J.N. Hummel Competition in Bratislava, has since achieved widespread recognition as “one of the foremost Hummel interpreters of our time” (Hudobný Život), and is an honorary member of the Hummel Gesellschaft in Weimar.

Recent engagements have included a debut recital at Wigmore Hall in London, ongoing collaborations with the Hummel Ensemble and the Wihan Quartet, and world premieres of works by Pierre Thilloy, Bryan Kelly, and Ying Wang.  This season, Brownell plays with the Slovak Philharmonic, a debut recital at the Gimhae Festival in South Korea, and other recitals and concerts throughout Europe and North America.

Mr. Brownell’s performances have aired on BBC radio and television, Classic FM (UK), NPR, CBC, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, and RBB KulturRadio.  He has been soloist with orchestras such as the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic, and the Hermitage State Orchestra (Russia); and he has collaborated with such conductors as Sir Mark Elder, Owain Arwel Hughes CBE, André Bernard, and Murray Sidlin.

A native of Portland, Oregon, Andrew Brownell began studying the piano at the age of four.  His teachers have included Nancy Weems and Horacio Gutiérrez at the University of Houston; John Perry at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles); and Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music in London, where he earned a doctorate.  An enthusiastic collaborative artist, Andrew Brownell was a member of a prize-winning trio at the 1996 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition (USA).  Also an accomplished organist, Mr. Brownell was formerly assistant organist at St. James’ Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, and was recently made a fellow of the Royal College of Organists.