Orchestre Métropolitain presents

Han-Na Chang conducts Shostakovich

Being an artist in Stalin’s Russia was a daunting endeavour. The rules changed quickly and the consequences for disobedience ranged from censure to the gulag. Soon after the Man of Steel died, Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 10, with a violent second movement that seems to evoke the fateful figure of Stalin himself. Under the baton of brilliant cellist-turned-conductor Han-Na Chang, the symphony moves from introspection to a joy verging on ecstasy. Opening the concert, the prodigiously talented violinist Benjamin Beilman, returning to the OM after a long absence, gives over all the richness of his sound to Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Han-Na Chang is the Artistic Leader and Chief Conductor of the Trondheim Symfoniorkester in Norway. Elsewhere in the 2019/20 season, Han-Na Chang will guest conduct Orchestre National de Lyon, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Her professional music career started at the age of 11, when she won the Grand Prix First Prize and the Contemporary Music Prize at the Fifth Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris in 1994. Chang went on to perform with all the major orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner Philharmoniker, Philadelphia Orchestra, l’Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago, Boston and San Francisco Symphony orchestras. Her cello recordings have received ECHO Klassik, Caecilia and Cannes Classical awards, as well as a Gramophone Concerto of the Year accolade among others, and remain world- wide bestsellers.

Han-Na Chang was born in South Korea. Her family moved to New York, USA when she was 10 years old and she has lived there since. She counts Mischa Maisky, Mstislav Rostropovich and Giuseppe Sinopoli as the most influential mentors during her formative years. She studied Philosophy at Harvard University.

BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10

For information and tickets: www.placedesarts.com  514-842-2112 or 1-866-842-2112