Musika-Musica 2018, Bilbao
28 Février - 5 Mars 2018

On 3rd and 4th March, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and conductor and composer Matthias Pintscher will perform three concerts at Bilbao’s Musika-Musica Festival, whose theme this year is European music between 1914 and 1945.

Although the COE has performed many times in Bilbao at the Sociedad Filarmonica, this is the first time that the Orchestra is taking part in Musika-Musica at the Palacio Euskalduna. On 3 March the programme includes Martinu’s La Revue de Cuisine – a one-act jazz ballet in ten movements – and Ravel’s Mother Goose – another ballet in 11 movements inspired by fairy tales. On 4 March, the COE’s matinee concert at 11am features the COE’s principal flute Clara Andrada de la Calle as soloist in Nielsen’s Flute Concerto. Matthias Pintscher will also conduct Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite which the COE recorded in 2008 with Alexander Janiczek for Linn Records. On 4 March at 8pm the Orchestra and Matthias Pintscher will reconvene for a performance of Poulenc’s Sinfonietta and Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 2, which the COE recorded with Heinz Holliger in 1994.

Clara Andrada de la Calle has been performing with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since 2005 and has been invited to become the COE’s Principal Flute in 2011.

Particularly enthusiastic about performing as a soloist with the COE, she said:

“For me, it is a huge honour to play with the COE as a soloist. The COE is one of the few orchestras in the world where, at the end of the rehearsal process, one can reach a state of “feeling the same at exactly the same moment”, which makes COE performances so unique! Every soloist needs a great orchestra with a great attitude to be able to perform at their best. With the COE, that is guaranteed! I am also looking forward to sharing the stage with Matthias Pintscher with whom I have played several times and whom I consider a phenomenal composer and musician.

The Nielsen Flute Concerto has been with me during my whole career. I performed it for my final exam in Spain, at the audition to enter the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève with Emmanuel Pahud, for the entrance exam of the Royal College of Music with Jaime Martin, for youth orchestras’ auditions… In fact, I have just performed and recorded it with my dear teacher (and former principal flute of the COE) Jaime Martin and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the past, I have also performed it with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and M. Nesterowich and with the orchestra of the region where I come from in Spain, Symphony Orchestra of Castilla y Leon, and A. Gourlay.”

Clara is one of the leading Flute players of her generation currently also holding a Solo Flute position in the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Salamanca in 1982, she commenced her musical studies with Pablo Sagredo and Magdalena Martínez at the Syrinx School of Music.
Scholarships from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the London Wall Trust Foundation enabled her to continue her studies at Geneva’s Haute Ecole de Musique under Prof. Emmanuel Pahud and Prof. J.D Castellon as well as the London Royal College of Music under the guidance of Jaime Martín.

As a Principal Flute player she has worked with many leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Asian Philharmonic, Bamberger Symphoniker under esteemed conductors including N. Harnoncourt, V. Gergiev, C. Davis, B. Haitink, V. Ashkenazy,  M.W Chung, L. Maazel etc.

She is an active Chamber musician, performing regularly as a member of the „Hindemith Wind Quintet“ as well as various other ensembles including the „Auryn Quartet“, „Miró Wind Quintet“, „Plural Ensemble“, „Trio Arbós“ and the „Duo Neopercussión“.

She has appeared as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra , Orquesta Filarmónica Ciudad de México and with the Symphony Orchestra of Castilla & León with whom she recorded her first CD of Flute concertos by Spanish and South American composers.

Clara Andrada de la Calle has given masterclasses at the Royal College of Music (London), the Buchmann Mehta School of Music (Tel Aviv), at the Conservatoires in Valencia, Badajoz and Salamanca, worked as a coach for the National Youth Orchestra of Barcelona (JONC) and the National Spanish Youth Orchestra (JONDE) and held the position of Flute Professor at the “Centro Superior de Musica” at the Musikene in Basque Country.

www.clara-andrada.com

Matthias Pintscher is Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra. He is currently in his seventh year as Artist in Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony and was the inaugural Artist in Residence and featured artist at the new Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg.

Matthias began his musical training in conducting with Hungarian Composer and Conductor Peter Eötvös during his early twenties, during which time composing took a more prominent role in his life. Soon after, he divided his time equally between conducting and composing studying with teacher and mentor Pierre Boulez, soon rising to critical acclaim and more recently is conducting as a major role.

During the 17/18 season, Matthias will return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras, as well as projects with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra de la Suisse Romande as well as debuts with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Matthias is a prolific composer whose works are performed by leading orchestras and artists worldwide. The debut of his Cello Concerto Un Despertar was premiered last season by Alisa Weilerstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and in April 2017 the World Premiere of Shirim for Baritone and Orchestra with Danish singer Bo Skovhus and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Hamburg. Matthias is also professor at The Julliard School since 2014 and is published by Bärenreiter-Verlag.