Program Notes - Igudesman & Joo: BIG Nightmare Music

2015/16 Season Colorado Symphony Pops Series presented by Arrow Electronics

POPS • 2015-2016 IGUDESMAN & JOO: BIG NIGHTMARE MUSIC COLORADO SYMPHONY ANDREW LITTON, conductor ALEKSEY IGUDESMAN, violin HYUNG-KI JOO, piano Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 7:30 pm Boettcher Concert Hall

IGUDESMAN & JOO: BIG Nightmare Music Written & Conceived by Aleksey Igudesman & Hyung-ki Joo

MOZART/MONTY NORMAN arr. Igudesman

From Mozart With Love

MOZART arr. Igudesman & Joo

Alla Molto Turca

RACHMANINOV/ERIC CARMEN arr. Joo

Rachmaninov By Himself

JOSEPH FRIZELL KERR

New Work

ALEKSEY IGUDESMAN

Funk the String

STRAUSS, J. JR. arr. Schulz-Evler & Igudesman

A Very Blue Danube

ALEKSEY IGUDESMAN

Uruguay — INTERMISISON —

BILL CONTI/ALEKSEY IGUDESMAN

Gonna Fly Now

HYUNG-KI JOO

Chandeliers

ENNIO MORRICONE arr. Igudesman & Joo

Fistful Of Dollars

TRADITIONAL Arr. Igudesman & Joo

Practice Time

KREISLER arr. Igudesman

Tambourin Chinois

RACHMANINOV

Prelude in C-sharp minor

FERREN/GAYNOR/PEKARIS IGUDESMAN/JOO

I Will Survive and maybe more…

SOUNDINGS 2015-2016 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 1

POPS BIOGRAPHIES

JEFF WHEELER

ANDREW LITTON, conductor Colorado Symphony Music Director Andrew Litton is the newly appointed Music Director of the New York City Ballet. Mr. Litton also serves as Bergen Philharmonic Music Director Laureate, Artistic Director of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Sommerfest, and Conductor Laureate of Britain’s Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He guest conducts the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies, and has a discography of over 120 recordings with awards including America’s Grammy, France’s Diapason d’Or, and many other honors. Besides his Grammy®-winning Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with Bryn Terfel and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, he also recorded the complete symphonies by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, a Mahler cycle with the Dallas Symphony, and many Gershwin recordings as both conductor and pianist. Mr. Litton is a graduate of the Fieldston School, New York, and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School in piano and conducting. The youngest-ever winner of the BBC International Conductors Competition, he served as Assistant Conductor at Teatro alla Scala and Exxon/Arts Endowment Assistant Conductor for the National Symphony under Rostropovich. His many honors in addition to Norway’s Order of Merit include an honorary Doctorate from the University of Bournemouth, Yale University’s Sanford Medal, and the Elgar Society Medal. An accomplished pianist, Litton often conducts from the keyboard and enjoys performing chamber music with his orchestra colleagues. For further information, visit www.andrewlitton.com.

Carnival of the Animals and the Story of Babar MAR 13 T SUN 1:00

Andres Lopera, conductor SAINT-SAËNS Carnival of the Animals POULENC The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant

coloradosymphony.org T 303.623.7876 BOX OFFICE MON-FRI 10 AM - 6 PM T SAT 12 PM - 6 PM

POPS BIOGRAPHIES ALEKSEY IGUDESMAN, violin Best known as a violinist and composer, Aleksey Igudesman has also established himself as an actor, comedian and filmmaker. His music has earned admiration for capturing the essence of diverse musical languages in a uniquely clever and joyful way. Igudesman attended the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, England.

There he met Hyung-ki Joo, his comedy partner-to-be, bonding over a mutual passion for dead composers and deadpan humor. He later studied under Boris Kuschnir at the Vienna Conservatoire. The violinist has enjoyed a successful career playing, composing, and arranging for his string trio Triology, recording several CDs for BMG, teaching master classes, and performing with Bobby McFerrin, Julian Rachlin, Janine Jansen, Joshua Bell, Gidon Kremer, Sir Roger Moore and John Malkovich, among others. Igudesman also directed, produced and starred in the feature-length mockumentary “Noseland,” an award winner at the Doc Miami International Film Festival. As a composer, Igudesman has written pieces performed by ensembles and orchestras worldwide—including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. He has frequently collaborated with Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer on movies, including “Sherlock Holmes,” nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score, and “Jealous of the Birds,” which won Best Original Score at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. He is one half of the deliciously daft Igudesman & Joo, whose inspired silliness can start with Rachmaninov or Liszt and find its way through martial arts, movie classics, rock, hip hop, folk, heavy metal, disco and step dancing. Sketches from their concert shows shredding the classical canon have gone viral on YouTube, with some 40 million views.

HYUNG-KI JOO, piano Pianist and composer Hyung-ki Joo has appeared as a soloist and in chamber ensembles worldwide, with works performed by such renowned orchestras as the New York Philharmonic and London Philharmonic. Enrolled at age 10 at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, England, Joo studied composition with Simon Parkin and Malcolm Singer. It was while attending the music academy that he and eventual comic partner violinist Aleksey Igudesman discovered a shared passion for Mahler and Monty Python, interests that helped inspire the tandems’ work in concert comedy. Joo made his musical debut at Barbican Hall, with the Warsaw Sinfonia conducted by Sir Yehudi Menuhin. The Grand Prize winner of the Stravinsky International Piano Competition, Joo has worked with Academy® Award winning composer Vangelis. Rock legend Billy Joel chose him to arrange and record “Fantasies and Delusions,” a classical album of Joel solo piano pieces that was No. 1 on the Billboard charts. He has performed at the White House and co-founded a piano trio with violinist Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne and cellist Thomas Carroll.

He is one-half of the wickedly inventive Igudesman & Joo, who use pop culture, comedy, and slapstick to transform concert stages into musical funhouses. The pair’s uproarious sketches have attracted a wide YouTube following, with some 40 million views. Joo has appeared in several films including, “Pianomania,” “Noseland,” and “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Classical Music” and performed with such classical heavyweights as Joshua Bell, Gidon Kremer and Emanuel Ax and actors Roger Moore and John Malkovich.

SOUNDINGS 2015-2016 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 3

POPS PROGRAM NOTES IGUDESMAN & JOO: “BIG NIGHTMARE MUSIC” Igudesman & Joo’s musical madness on a symphonic scale When Igudesman & Joo perform with a symphony orchestra, the musical nightmares take on epic proportions! Fans of “A Little Nightmare Music” will be falling all over themselves to experience their favorites Mozart Bond, Alla Molto Turca and Practice Time amped up for a fullblown orchestra. But on top of a few priceless adaptations of pieces from their duo-show, “BIG Nightmare Music” boasts uproarious sketches tailor-made for a symphony orchestra, drawing everyone into their act, from the first violinist to the last percussionist. “BIG Nightmare Music” is the kind of show where musicians on stage have at least as much fun as the audience.

Igudesman & Joo have mastered the art of mashing up classical music masterpieces and famous folk and pop songs. In “BIG Nightmare Music” they can make use of a whole orchestra to live out their creativity. Igudesman acts as Latin-American charmer while the orchestra effortlessly changes from ballads to groovy salsa rhythms, providing the base for a virtuous improvised violin solo. Joo teaches the audience and his fellow musicians on stage how to play Johann Strauss’ Blue Danube if you want to be successful in classical music. What’s more, you will have the added opportunity of hearing Igudesman and Joo perform as soloists, both in wellknown concertos and in their own orchestral works. IIgudesman & Joo are always too BIG for any stage but now picture the duo in Wonderland after eating that cake which makes you grow… A scary thought? There you have it: “BIG Nightmare Music”!

The show includes music by Mozart, Rachmaninov, Bach, Vivaldi, Strauss, Beethoven, Igudesman, Joo.

A Symphonic Tribute to Mel Brooks APR 9 T SAT 7:30

Andres Lopera, conductor Devin DeSantis, vocalist Colorado Symphony Chorus, Mary Louise Burke, associate director

coloradosymphony.org T 303.623.7876 BOX OFFICE MON-FRI 10 AM - 6 PM T SAT 12 PM - 6 PM PROGRAM 4 SOUNDINGS 2015-2016 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG