Orchestre Métropolitain presents

Fiery Flight

After his successful debut with the OM, Austrian Christoph Koncz is back to conduct Stravinsky’s The Firebird. The orchestra will carry this fiery energy into a brilliant performance of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Each stand comes alive with treats for the eyes and ears!

Unearth, Release is dedicated to an instrument that’s rarely at centre stage: the viola. Québécoise Marina Thibeault brings the piece to life with all its colours and nuance.

Artists
Orchestre Métropolitain

Christoph Koncz, conductor

The young Austrian conductor Christoph Koncz has already established himself as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation, performing worldwide with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

During the upcoming season, Christoph Koncz will appear for the first time with the Wiener Symphoniker, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Utah Symphony Orchestra and return to the London Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal. He will also lead performance series of Don Giovanni at the National Theatre Prague and The Magic Flute at the Landestheater Linz and at Opera North Leeds as well as a new production of La Traviata at the Opéra national du Rhin Strasbourg. He will conduct the première of Christopher Wheeldon’s narrative ballet The Winter’s Tale with music by Joby Talbot at the Wiener Staatsoper.

In September 2023 Christoph Koncz started his tenure as Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse. Currently in his sixth season as Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, he has also been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the renowned French period instrument ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre and has enjoyed a close partnership with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. His conducting debut at the 2013 Salzburg Mozartwoche was followed by concerts at such prestigious venues as the Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg and Munich Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, KKL Lucerne and Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as at the Salzburg Festival.

Born 1987 in Konstanz into an Austrian-Hungarian family of musicians, Christoph Koncz received his first violin lessons at the age of four. Only two years later he entered the Vienna University of Music, where he also enrolled in the conducting class of Mark Stringer in 2005. Master classes with Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding and David Zinman further enriched his musical education. At the age of just nine, he received worldwide acclaim for starring as child prodigy Kaspar Weiss in the Canadian feature film The Red Violin, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Marina Thibeault, viola

Renowned for her “rich and deep sound as well as her virtuosity and exceptional enthusiasm” (The Strad), violist Marina Thibeault invests the musical scene with an ever renewed fervor as a chamber musician, concert artist and soloist. Convinced that one must “undergo everything, experience everything, face all obstacles, all contradictions” (Pierre Perrault), she sails through the sometimes tumultuous waves of a carefully curated repertoire, approaching old and new works with the same commitment. Through her practice, she constantly questions the traditional place of the performer in order to embody a poetic approach as well as a quest to surpass herself physically and spiritually.

Named Revelation of the Year 2016-2017 by Radio-Canada, Marina has since been invited to perform as a soloist internationally with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Northern Czech Republic, the Orchestra of Mariánské Lázně, the Chamber Orchestra of Santiago, as well as in recital in Verbier. In Canada, audiences have heard her with the Metropolitan Orchestra, La Sinfonia Toronto, and the Agora Symphony Orchestra, among others. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with members of the Guarneri Quartet and the Cleveland Quartet, as well as with Charles Richard-Hamelin, Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Johannes Moser. Her interest in new music has led her to work with composers John Corigliano, Joan Tower and Krzysztof Penderecki.

Highly awarded with scholarships and honors, Marina is a graduate of McGill University and the Curtis Institute of Music. Since 2019, she has had the privilege of teaching at the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor where she helps to awaken and affirm the sometimes unexpected artistic vocations of her students.

Program
Igor STRAVINSKY, The Firebird (1919 suite)
Julia ADOLPHE, Unearth, Release, Viola Concerto
Béla BARTÓK, Concerto for Orchestra

Maison symphonique
Sunday, February 9, 2025 at 3:00pm

To purchase your tickets, visit: www.placedesarts.com