PROGRAMME Opus Orchestras presents: Born in the USA

Welcome from the Music Director Kia Ora Welcome to this Opus Orchestra concert. It’s been a long wait – but well worth it. It is a pleasure for me to be back with our gifted and dedicated musicians – who feel like old friends.

It is also a privilege to be working with the outstanding cellist, Lev Sivkov. We perform the Barber Cello Concerto with him – before he goes on to perform the same concerto with Orchestra Wellington and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. This is a spectacularly beautiful work – and it set us off on the idea of a programme based on a “Made in America” theme. The other piece with American associations here is the first of Chris Adams’ Postcards from Eden entitled ‘Los Angeles International Airport’ (a bit of the USA that New Zealanders know all too well). Chris’s rather melancholy take on “The Star Spangled Banner” may resonate with those of us who have stood in the immigration line at LAX, but it seems particularly apt as we awake each morning to the President’s latest tweets.

Enjoy the concert.

Peter Walls ONZM Music Director Lev Sivkov - Soloist Lev Sivkov was born into a musical family in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia, in 1990. He began to play the cello at the age of five.

He moved to Basel, Switzerland, in 2006 to study with Ivan Monighetti, and completed his Bachelor studies with Conradin Brotbeck in Stuttgart.

He has participated in masterclasses with Janos Starker at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, Wolfgang Schmidt at the Kronberg Music Festival, Germany, Ferenc Rados at the Prussia Cove Music Seminars, England, and Jean-Guihen Queyras in Freiburg, Germany.

In June 2016 he was appointed Principal Cellist of the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen, Denmark. In July 2017 he won his current position as Principal Cellist of Opernhaus Zurich, Switzerland. He is also increasingly active on the international stage as a recitalist and concerto soloist.

Lev is a laureate of numerous competitions, most notably the prestigious Naumburg Competition in New York, USA, which he won in 2015. He made his New York debut in the Weill Music Room, Carnegie Hall, in November 2016 and performed there again in April 2019. In October 2018, parallel with his fulltime position in Zürich, he participated in the Isang Yun Competition in Tongyeong, Korea, winning 3rd prize and the Unesco Creative City of Music Special Prize, awarded by the audience.

In July and August 2019, Lev will tour extensively as soloist and chamber musician in New Zealand.

Lev plays a cello by Vincenzo Postiglione, Naples, 1893.