Cellist Lev Sivkov to Give New York Debut at Carnegie Hall as Winner of the 2015 Naumburg Cello Competition 11/10

The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation presents Cellist LEV SIVKOV, a native of Russia (Siberia) and currently principal cellist of the Royal Danish Opera Orchestra, in his New York recital debut as the winner of the 2015 Naumburg Cello Competition. The concert takes place on Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 7:30pm in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Sivkov will be collaborating with the Hungarian Pianist János Palojtay.

Lev's program includes:

Debussy Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915)

George Crumb Sonata for Solo Cello (1955)

Shostakovich Sonata in D minor for Violoncello and Piano, Op. 40 (1934)

Richard Strauss Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 6 (1883)

Alberto Ginastera Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, Op. 49 (1979)

Lev Sivkov was named the winner of the 2015 Naumburg Cello Competition on October 18, 2015 from an international pool of 54 cellists who competed in the competition. Jay Campbell (recipient of a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant) and Brannon Cho (a student at the Biennen School of Music, Northwestern University) were both awarded second prize, with honorable mention given to Jee Hay Bae (from Korea) and Jonathan Roozeman (from Finland).

Tickets: $20; $10 for students and seniors are on sale at the Carnegie Hall Box Office or by calling

CenterCharge at 212 247 7800.

About the Artists

Lev Sivkov, winner of the 2015 Naumburg Cello Competition was born in 1990 in Novosibirsk, Russia (Siberia) where he started studying the cello at age five. In 2016 he was appointed principal cellist of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, Denmark. Joshua Kosman writing for the San Francisco Gate (January 2016) called Lev on the occasion of his U.S. debut, "the robust young Russian cellist who made an impressive debut." He said about Lev's playing of Khachaturian's Sonata-Fantasy in C, "This 15-minute showpiece amounts to a freewheeling catalog of everything a successful cellist needs to be able to do - from rapid-fire passagework to broad, soulful oratory - and Sivkov dug into the music like a dog attacking a T-bone." In 2016 he was appointed principal cellist of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, Denmark.

From 2005-2009 he was a student at the Music-Academy in Basle, Switzerland where he studied with I. Monighetti. He later studied at the Music-Academy in Stuttgart, Germany with C. Brotbek and in Freiburg with Jean-Guihen Queyras. In addition, he has participated in master classes with Janos Starker at Indiana University, W.E. Schmidt at the Kronberg Music Festival in Germany, and with Ferenc Rados in the Prussia Cove Music Seminars in England. Among other first prize awards are the Julio Cardona String Performers International Competition (Covilha, Portugal); the Dominick Cello Prize at the International Competition (Stuttgart, Germany), and the Gavrilin International Music Competition (Vologda, Germany). In addition, he was awarded the Prize of the Jury at the International Lutoslawski Cello Competition (Warsaw, Poland). Lev plays a cello made by the French master Mieremont (1880) and is on loan to him by the Landessammlung für Streichinstrumente Baden Württemberg in Freiburg, Germany.

János Palojtay, a native of Budapest, Hungary was born in 1987 and began studying the piano at age five. At thirteen he was admitted to the Special Class for Exceptional Young Talents at the Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, where he studied with András Kemenes and Péter Nagy, graduating in 2011. Additionally he studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria in the class of Imre Rohmann and at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart studying with Kirill Gerstein. He has been a prizewinner in numerous national and international competitions, and as a result has performed solo recitals in Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain and the United States.

In his native country, János Palojtay is a regular guest performing in the most important venues and with the country's most prominent orchestras. He has worked with such conductors as Christopher Hogwood, Gregory Vajda and Gergely Madaras. He is also an active chamber musician playing at numerous international festivals with fellow musicians such as IMS Prussia Cove, Encuentro de Musica Santander, and Collegium Musicum in Pommerfelden.

The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation was founded in 1926 by Walter W. Naumburg and continues today in the pursuit of ideals set out by Mr. Naumburg to assist gifted young musicians in America. The Naumburg Foundation has made possible a long-standing program of competitions and awards in solo and chamber music performance. It was Mr. Naumburg's belief that such competitions were not only to benefit new stars, but would also be for those talented young musicians who would become prime movers in the development of the highest standards of musical excellence throughout the U.S.

The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation presents

Lev Sivkov, 2015 Naumburg Cello Award

János Palojtay, Pianist

Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 7:30pm; Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall

Program:

Debussy Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915)

George Crumb Sonata for Solo Cello (1955)

Shostakovich Sonata in D minor for Violoncello and Piano, Op. 40 (1934)

Richard Strauss Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 6 (1883)

Alberto Ginastera Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, Op. 49 (1979)