Artist Biographies

Roderick Cox

guest conductor

These performances mark Mr. Cox’s first appearance with the Charlotte Symphony.

Winner of the 2018 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award by the U.S Solti Foundation, Berlin-based American conductor, Roderick Cox, has been praised as a conductor who is “paving the way” (NBC News) and recognised as a “trailblazer…a conductor who will be amongst the vanguard” (Minnesota StarTribune).

Highlights this season include debuts with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Seattle and New World Symphonies, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, MalmÖ, Kristiansand, and Lahti Symphony Orchestras, as well as returns to Washington National Symphony Orchestra.

Recent highlights include his debuts with the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Dresdner Philharmonie, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Cleveland Orchestra (Blossom Music Festival), Dallas Symphony Orchestra; as well as returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and Aspen Music Festival Chamber Orchestra.

In the theatre, Roderick has recently made important debuts at the Houston Grand Opera (Pêcheurs de Perles) and San Francisco Opera (Il barbiere di Siviglia), as well as recording Jeanine Tesori’s Blue with the Washington National Opera. This season, he returns to the Opéra National de Montpellier for Rigoletto, having made an impressive debut there with a symphonic concert last season.

With a passion for education and diversity and inclusion in the arts, Roderick started the Roderick Cox Music Initiative (RCMI) in 2018 — a project that provides scholarships for young musicians of color from underrepresented communities, allowing them to pay for instruments, music lessons, and summer camps. Roderick and his new initiative will be featured in an upcoming documentary called Conducting Life.

Born in Macon, Georgia, Roderick attended the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, and then later attended Northwestern University graduating with a master’s degree in 2011. He was awarded the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize from the Aspen Music Festival in 2013 and has held fellowships with the Chicago Sinfonietta as part of their Project Inclusion program and at the Chautauqua Music Festival, where he was a David Effron Conducting Fellow. In 2016, Roderick was appointed as Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, under Osmo Vänskä, for three seasons, having previously served as assistant conductor for a year.

Benjamin Beilman

violin

Mr. Beilman most recently appeared with the Charlotte Symphony in November 2017, performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D.

Benjamin Beilman has won praise both for his passionate performances and deep rich tone which the Washington Post called “mightily impressive,” and The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence.”

In 2018-19 Beilman appeared with Symphony Orchestras in Oregon, Cincinnati, North Carolina and Indianapolis, and Orchestra St. Luke’s. He also play-directs both the Vancouver Symphony and the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Abroad, Mr. Beilman performs with the Cologne Philharmonie, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Bruckner Orchestra Linz, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Iceland Symphony and Nagoya Philharmonic in Japan.

“Demons,” a new work written for Beilman and pianist Orion Weiss by Frederic Rzewski and commissioned by Music Accord, was premiered in 2018 at Baltimore’s Shriver Hall Concert Series, the Boston Celebrity Series and later presented in recital with the Gilmore Festival and Grand Teton Festival. Beilman and Weiss continued to perform the work in recital during the 2018-19 season at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and Spivey Hall. Other upcoming recital appearances include Wigmore Hall, Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Perelman Theater, and Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Beilman garnered worldwide attention following his First Prize wins in both the 2010 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 2010 Montréal International Musical Competition. He went on to receive a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a London Music Masters Award and an exclusive recording contract with Warner Classics. In 2016 he released his first disc for the label, titled Spectrum, featuring works by Stravinsky, Janáček and Schubert.

Beilman studied with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago, Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music, and Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy. He plays the “Engleman” Stradivarius from 1709 generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.