Swiss Cellist THOMAS DEMENGA Performs Rare US Concert as Part Of Naumburg Looks Back

The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation presents Swiss Cellist THOMAS DEMENGA, a 1977 Naumburg prize winner, in a rare U.S. concert appearing on Naumburg's distinguished artist series, Naumburg Looks Back. The concert takes place on Monday, April 23, 2018 at 7:30pm in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.

The program, featuring all solo cello works, opens with Elliott Carter's Figment for Solo Cello, written for Demenga in 1994. Demenga played the world premiere on August 8, 1995 in Carnegie Hall. Elliott Carter said about the work, "the idea of composing a solo cello piece had been in the back of my mind for many years, especially since many cellists had been urging me to do so. When Thomas Demenga asked me for this at my 85th birthday concert in Basel in 1994 for a concert he was giving sponsored by the Naumburg Foundation in New York, I soon set to work. Thomas Demenga had already impressed me greatly when he played some of my chamber works at my 80th birthday concert in Badenweiler, Germany, and especially by his wonderful recording of these works for ECM, New Series."

The concert also includes two Bach Cello Suites -- No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007, and No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009. Last season Demenga played the six Bach solo Cello Suites combined with modern solo works in three successful concerts in London's Wigmore Hall. Demenga says about playing the Bach Cello Suites, "To me, Bach is the greatest musical genius who has ever lived. His music is pure, and sublime. It possesses something divine." Another program highlight will be the German composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970) Sonata for Solo Cello composed in five movements from 1960.

Naumburg Looks Back, a series presented under the auspices of the Walter Naumburg Foundation presents past winners of the Naumburg Award in performances.

Tickets: $20, $10 for student and seniors, on sale at the Carnegie Hall Box Office or by calling CenterCharge at 212 247 7800.

As an internationally renowned soloist, composer and teacher, Thomas Demenga counts among the most outstanding cellists and musicians of our time. Born in Berne Switzerland, he studied with Walter Grimmer, Antonio Janigro, Leonard Rose and Mstislav Rostropovich, as well as chamber music with Claus Adam, Felix Galimir and Robert Mann. He has performed at important festivals and musical centers worldwide and shared the stage with fellow musicians such as Heinz Holliger, Gidon Kremer, and Paul Meyer, as well as performed with conductors including Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Dennis Russell Davies and Wolfgang Sawallisch.

Thomas Demenga's artistic work is determined by intensive confron-tation with different historical eras and styles of interpretation and composition. He dedicates himself with particular intensity to New Music and is also active as an improviser. Thus his individual voice as a composer and interpreter of 20th and 21st century works gives a new and complementary dimension to both the historical performance practice of baroque music and his virtuoso interpretations of the classical and romantic repertoire. In 1991 he was the first Swiss composer to be awarded first prize for his composition solo per due by the Congress of the Tribune Internationale des Compositeurs. Demenga records for the ECM New Series Label. His latest CD, Chongur with Thomas Larher and accordionist Teodoro Anzellotti has been awarded the "Deutsche Schaliplattenpreis," Fono Forum: Star of the Months, Grammaphone: Editor's Choice, and Le monde de la musique: le choc du mois (ECM 1914).

The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation presents

THOMAS DEMENGA, 1977 Naumburg Prize Winner in

Naumburg Looks Back

Monday, April 23, 2018, at 7:30pm in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall

Solo Cello Program:

Elliott Carter: Figment for solo cello (1994)

J.S. Bach: Suite No. 1 in G Major

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Sonata for Solo Cello (1960)

J.S. Bach: Suite No. 3 in C Major

?Photo by Ismael Lorenzo?

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