SPCO Liquid Music and Walker Art Center to Present Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja

On Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. in the Walker Art Center galleries in Minneapolis, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music Series and Walker Art Center present Patricia Kopatchinskaja perforMing Luigi Nono's La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura for violin and electronics. Supported by TargetFree Thursday Nights at The Walker Art Center, the event is free and open to all.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, "one of classical music's great risk takers" (Bachtrack), brings the music of 20th century composer, Marxist and staunch anti-fascist Luigi Nono to life in a thoroughly original rendering. The fiery Moldovan violinist performs Nono's La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura, a late work for violin and electronics inspired by an inscription found on a monastery in Toledo, Spain: "Caminante, no hay caminos hay que caminar" ("Wanderer, there is no way, there is only walking"). Known for "alarmingly innovative" (LA Times) musical interpretation that "excites and puzzles" (New York Times), Kopatchinskaja brings contemporary perspective to Nono's mid-century cry for meaningful political change.

Reflecting on the intersection of politics and music in Nono's life, Kopatchinskaja says that "having studied composition in adolescence, Nono became a lawyer, married Arnold Schöenberg's daughter and became one of the central figures of postwar European music, always politically connected to the left. From 1960 on, he experimented with electronic music." La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura was one of his last works, written in 1988-89. He dedicated it to his genius pupil Salvatore Sciarrino.

"Nono said 'the nostalgic, utopian future remoteness' was for him like a friend despairing in a permanent unrest," explains Kopatchinskaja. "If Schumann thought that music starts where words end, Nono's piece starts where music ends, a border which Sciarrino explored further and quite an interesting challenge."

IF YOU GO:

Patricia Kopatchinskaja

Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017

Doors at 7:00pm | Music at 7:30pm

Walker Art Center galleries, 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis, MN 55403

Free event, thanks to support from TargetFree Thursday Nights at the Walker Art Center

Information at liquidmusicseries.org | 651.291.1144

Target Free Thursday: walkerart.org/target-free-thursday-night | 612.375.7600

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music Series, named "Best of Classical" by The New York Times, develops innovative new projects with iconoclastic artists in unique presentation formats. Liquid Music performances invite adventurous audiences to discover the new and the fascinating within the flourishing landscape of contemporary chamber music.

Renowned for its artistic excellence, remarkable versatility of musical styles and adventurous programming, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra is widely regarded as one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. Entering its 59th season in September 2017, the SPCO has recently undergone transformational change with the opening of its new home, the Ordway Concert Hall, the addition of a new generation of players, and significant changes in its artistic vision. The SPCO is primarily an unconducted ensemble that performs a broad range of repertoire from Baroque to new music and works in close collaboration with a diverse series of artistic partners. The virtuoso musicians of the SPCO present more than 130 concerts and educational programs each year, and are regularly heard on public radio programs that reach more than 2 million listeners each week on over 300 stations. Additionally, the SPCO reaches more than 200,000 listeners annually through its free online Listening Library. The SPCO is nationally recognized for its commitment to broad community accessibility, its innovative audience outreach efforts, its pioneering Liquid Music Series and its educational and family programming. The SPCO offers the most affordable tickets of any major orchestra in the United States, with over 50 percent of tickets available for $12 or less, and has expanded accessibility even further by offering free tickets for children and students starting in the 2016.17 season as a part of the New Generation Initiative. For more information, visit thespco.org.

One of the most internationally celebrated art museums and multidisciplinary art centers, the Walker Art Center is known for presenting today's most compelling artists from around the world. In addition to organizing traveling exhibitions and presentations of its world-renowned collections, the Walker presents a broad array of contemporary music, dance, design, theater, and moving image. In 2015, the Walker celebrated the 75th anniversary of its founding as a public art center dedicated to presenting and collecting the art of our time with a series of institutional initiatives, exhibitions, and events that spanned more than a year. Although it was more than 125 years ago when lumber baron Thomas Barlow (T. B.) Walker built a room onto his Minneapolis house, mounted his 20 favorite paintings on the wall, and opened his door to the community, it was in 1940 that the Walker's contemporary-focused mission to be a catalyst for the creative expression of artists and active engagement of audiences was born. Supported by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Walker became a public art center presenting the work of living artists, forming a collection beyond the 19th-century holdings of its founder to the multidisciplinary works of today's artists. Led by Senior Curator Philip Bither since 1997, the Walker's Performing Arts program under his tenure has been defined by its commitment to the increasingly blurred lines between artistic disciplines, including contemporary dance, new music-theatre, performance art, experimental theatre, avant-jazz, contemporary classical music, new global sounds and alternative rock and pop. Visit walkerart.org to learn more.

Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja's versatility shows itself in her diverse repertoire, ranging from baroque and classical often played on gut strings, to new commissions and re-interpretations of modern masterworks. Kopatchinskaja's 2017.18 season commences with the world premiere of her new project Dies Irae at the Lucerne Festival where she will be 'artiste étoile'. Dies Irae is her Second Staged program following the success of Bye Bye Beethoven with Mahler Chamber Orchestra in 2016 and uses the theme from the Latin Requiem Mass as a starting point for her new concept featuring music from Gregorian Chant and Early Baroque to Giacinto Scelsi and Galina Ustwolskaja. The North American premiere will take place at the Ojai Festival in June 2018, where Kopatchinskaja will be Music Director.

The Stravinsky Violin Concerto will be a particular focus in 2017.18, including performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Alain Altinoglu and on tour around Europe, Teodor Currentzis and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and with Gustavo Gimeno and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Patricia also will appear with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and will be part of Southbank Centre's Ligeti weekend. Chamber music is immensely important to Kopatchinskaja and she performs regularly with artists such as Markus Hinterhäuser, Polina Leschenko, Anthony Romaniuk and Jay Campbell. A prolific recording artist, her latest release Death and the Maiden for Alpha was recently recorded with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, with whom she is also an Artistic Partner.