Cellist Inbal Sege Opens First Night of Roulette's String Theory Festival, March 29

By: Mar. 07, 2017
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

Israeli-American cellist Inbal Segev, known for her "warm, pure and beautiful tone" (Strings Magazine), will open The Music of Anna Clyne, a concert marking the first night of Roulette's (509 Atlantic Ave) third annual String Theory Festival. Segev will perform Grammy-nominated composer Anna Clyne's Rest These Hands for solo cello. The concert also includes performances of Clyne's music by The String Orchestra of Brooklyn and Mivos Quartet.

Anna Clyne's Rest These Hands is a movement from The Violin, a suite of seven pieces for multi-tracked violins, that has been arranged for solo cello. Clyne wrote it around the anniversary of her mother's death, composing one piece an evening and finishing on the day of the anniversary. The piece is inspired by the Presto from Bach's Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, which Clyne describes as one of her favorite works. She writes in her note for The Violin, "The Bach is quoted in Rest These Hands and Tea Leaves and these same two movements, along with The Violin, take their titles from three poems my mother wrote in the last year of her life."

Of her relationship with Clyne, Segev says, "When I first heard Anna's music performed by the Baltimore symphony, it sounded very organic to me, gentle and warm yet with a purpose and inner strength. I later met Anna and she was very much like her music. Rest these hands has these same qualities too and I find it is a wonderful piece for the cello."

London-born Anna Clyne is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. Described as a "composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods" by The New York Times and as "dazzlingly inventive" by Time Out New York, Clyne is currently serving as the Music Alive Composer-in-Residence with the Berkeley Symphony through the 2018-2019 season. She was recently nominated for the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her double violin concerto, Prince of Clouds.

Cellist Inbal Segev's playing has been described as "characterized by a strong and warm tone . . . delivered with impressive fluency and style," by The Strad and "first class," "richly inspired," and "very moving indeed," by Gramophone. Equally committed to new repertoire and masterworks, Segev brings interpretations that are both unreservedly natural and insightful to the vast range of music she performs.

In May 2017, Inbal Segev will perform the world premiere of Dan Visconti's new cello concerto, Tangle Eye, with the California Symphony. She recently gave the world premiere of Gity Razaz's Legend of Sigh for cello and electronics, which she commissioned, at National Sawdust in Brooklyn; in May, she will give the West Coast premiere at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. Commissioning new repertoire for the cello is a priority for Segev; current projects include new works by Timo Andres and Fernando Otero. Segev has also premiered cello concertos by Avner Dorman and Lucas Richman, performed jazz composer David Baker's cello concerto in New York, the U.S. premiere of English composer Sir Arthur Sullivan's Cello Concerto in D Major, and was the first cellist to perform Henri Dutilleux's challenging Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher for solo cello at Carnegie Hall.

Inbal Segev released her recording of the complete Cello Suites of J.S. Bach in fall 2015 on the Vox label, to critical acclaim and a spot on The New York Times Classical Playlist. Audiences have the opportunity to look behind the scenes at the making of Segev's album through a companion documentary film about her journey through the music of Bach. She has performed Bach's Cello Suites in venues around the world including Lincoln Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Shanghai Concert Hall, and Henry Crown Hall in the Jerusalem Theatre.

Inbal Segev has performed as soloist with top orchestras around the world including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, Bangor Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Boulder Chamber Orchestra, San Juan Symphony in Colorado, Arkansas Symphony, Castleton Festival Orchestra with Lorin Maazel, Bogotá Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Dortmund Philharmonic, the Haifa and Be'er Sheva Symphonies in Israel, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Polish National Radio Symphony, the Bangkok Symphony, and more. She made debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic, led by Zubin Mehta, at age 17.

Inbal Segev is a founding member of the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus. She recently performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has collaborated with artists such as Emanuel Ax, Pamela Frank, Jeremy Denk, Anthony McGill, Jason Vieaux, Gilbert Kalish, Michael Tree, Anne Akiko Meyers, the American Chamber Players, and the Vogler Quartet. Festival appearances include the Banff, Ravinia, Bowdoin, Olympic, and Cape & Islands festivals in North America; the Siena, Rolandseck, and Montpellier festivals in Europe; and the Jerusalem Music Center and Upper Galilee festivals in Israel.

In addition to her new Bach album, Segev's discography includes Lucas Richman's Three Pieces for Cello and Orchestra with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Albany), Sonatas by Beethoven and Boccherini (Opus One), Nigun (Vox), and Max Schubel's Concerto for Cello and Horn (Opus One). With the Amerigo Trio she has recorded serenades by Dohnányi (Navona).

Inbal Segev's many honors include the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship and top prizes at the Pablo Casals, Paulo, and Washington International Competitions. She began playing the cello in Israel at age five and at 16 was invited by Isaac Stern to come to the U.S. to continue her studies. She earned degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale University. Inbal Segev lives in New York City with her husband and three children. Her cello was made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1673.



Videos