Carlo Ponti gives back to music education

Don’t miss the opening performance of dazzling piano artistry streamed from the stage of the Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz and featuring the Judges Award Winners of the Orange County Music & Dance School’s Rising Stars Piano Competition.

Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz (TRK), the innovative performance space at Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles, proudly presents the Los Angeles Virtuosi Orchestra’s virtual season debut performance on Saturday, October 3, 2020 at 8:00pm.

Join the event early for a “Rendezvous with Maestro Ponti” immediately preceding the performance at 8:00pm to learn more about the performance’s musical works and about Los Angeles Virtuosi Orchestra’s mission to support music education in Los Angeles.

Reflecting its mission to serve as a catalyst in reaffirming, advocating and supporting music education in schools and in the community, the Los Angeles Virtuosi Orchestra will allocate all net profit from this virtual concert towards the advancement and support of music education programs in educational institutions, including the Lycée Français de Los Angeles.

With a reduced-size orchestra due to Covid-19 restrictions, the 45-minute concert will be streamed from the stage of the Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz.

A link with a password to the virtual performance will be distributed to ticket buyers via email prior to the performance.

Directly preceding the concert, ticket buyers will also have exclusive access to a “Rendezvous with Maestro Ponti” moderated by Pierre Leloup, Artistic Director of Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz.

Ticket buyers may email their questions to the Maestro by emailing trk@lyceela.org by Wednesday, September 23rd 2020.

Tiered access to the concert provides patrons with different benefits, and all net proceeds of the performance are allocated to the Los Angeles Virtuosi Orchestra’s music education programs:

$25 Standard Access


$50 Silver Access – acknowledged as Silver Donor in Credit Reel


$75 Gold Access – acknowledged as Gold Donor in Credit Reel


$100 Platinum Access – acknowledged as Platinum Donor in Credit Reel

Access to the concert is available online here.

Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz wishes to acknowledge the support of the Italian Cultural Institute Los Angeles, the José Iturbi Foundation, KCRW, TV5 Monde, and Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles.

PROGRAM

F. Liszt – Concert Paraphrase on Rigoletto after Verdi, S.434:

W.A. Mozart – Piano Concerto no.12 in A Major, K.414; first movement

Ian Park, piano soloist; Judges Award Winner, Junior Division, OCM&D 2019 Rising Stars Piano Competition.

L. van Beethoven – Piano Concerto no.2 in B-flat Major, op.19

Jeong-hyun Lim, piano soloist; Judges Award Winner, Senior Division, OCM&D 2019 Rising Stars Piano Competition.

MAESTRO CARLO PONTI

Maestro Carlo Ponti is known for taking audiences of all ages on musical journeys of unique interpretive depth.

He has worked at the Conductor’s Institute in Connecticut under Harold Farberman, with Andrey Boreyko, Mehli Mehta and Zubin Mehta in Los Angeles, and furthered his musical studies in Austria at the Vienna Music Academy under Leopold Hager and Erwin Acel.

Maestro Ponti was awarded Italy’s Premio Galileo award in 2006 for exceptional musical achievement. In the United States, he was the recipient of the 2008 Artistic Achievement Award from the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition and the 2009 Spirit of Hope Award from the Childhelp Foundation for his contributions to the development and advancement of young musical talent through music education. In 2011 he was co-recipient of the Lupa di Roma prize in Rome, and received the Premio Civitas 2014 award in Naples, Italy.

Ponti was associate conductor of the Russian National Orchestra from 2000 to 2018, served as music director and principal conductor of the San Bernardino Symphony from 2001 to 2013, and in 2013 founded the Los Angeles Virtuosi Orchestra – an ensemble emphasizing music’s educational value of which he is the Music and Artistic Director, and currently performing its fourth concert season (2018-2019) in Los Angeles, California.

He has also appeared with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Valencia, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Coro e Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo, Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Orquesta Filarmonica de Malaga, Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra, Orchestra della Repubblica di San Marino, Orchestra della Magna Grecia, Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Samara Philharmonic Orchestra, Chorus and Orchestra of the State Opera of Georgia, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Budapest Strings, Budapest Concert Orchestra, Alba Regia Symphony Orchestra, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Napa Valley Symphony, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Festival Orchestra NAPA, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, American Youth Symphony, Cape Town Youth Philharmonic, Taurida Symphony Orchestra, Pro Arte Orchestra and the UCLA Philharmonia.

International festival engagements include Festival d’Echternach, Festival Vancouver, Taichung Music Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Bratislava Spring Music Festival, St. Petersburg Palaces Music Festival, Hungary’s Royal Days Festival, Festival Internacional de Musica de Villena, Malaga’s Julio Musical, Festival Napa Valley, Tuscan Sun Festival, and the Köln Musik Triennale.

Celebrated as “a brilliant debut” (Audio and Record), Ponti’s recording with the Russian National Orchestra of Mussorgsky’sPictures at an Exhibitionon Pentatone Classics quickly garnered critical acclaim. A second album with the RNO featuring Rimsky- Korsakov’s Scheherazade was hailed as “superb” (All Music) and “a work in which every little instrumental timbre has a meaning all its own” (Audio Video Club of Atlanta).

Ponti’s work has been profiled on ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS, Spectrum News, Fox News, Leonard Lopate, Dennis Miller, Symphony Magazine, Classical KUSC and the Associated Press. His performances have also been featured on Classical KUSC, American Public Media’s Performance Today and America’s Music Festival radio programs.

THÉÂTRE RAYMOND KABBAZ

Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz (TRK) is a non-profit institution dedicated to the promotion of art and culture in the West Los Angeles area. This 220-seat theater welcomes multidisciplinary and multicultural shows.

TRK’s mission is to be an open window on French and international cultures and to inspire and sustain a lifelong appreciation for the arts.

“The goal of our programming is to produce a range of live performances with an eclectic array of creative artists from around the world,”says Pierre Leloup, Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz Director, “Our events bring diverse cultural traditions from across the globe to our stage, enriching the lives of our students and attendees from the greater Los Angeles area.”

My previously published interview with Carlo Ponti can be read here.