Augustin Hadelich will make his San Francisco recital debut on March 22 at the Marines’ Memorial Theater as part of the Chamber Music San Francisco series. Together with pianist Joyce Yang, Hadelich will perform a diverse program of works by Janáček, Previn, Schumann, Stravinsky and Ysaÿe.

An enthusiastic recitalist and chamber musician, Augustin has won widespread acclaim for his solo performances, collaborative prowess, and inventive programming. On the occasion of his debut at New York City’s Frick Collection in December 2009, The New Yorker’s Alex Ross called it a “riveting recital,” continuing, “The crucial thing was the command of color: luminous sweetness in Beethoven and Prokofiev, a wide, ruddy tone in Sarasate’s “Carmen Fantasy,” and savage sounds for Schnittke, including something like electric-guitar fuzz … Here is a young artist with no evident limitations.” He has performed recitals in venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, the Louvre in Paris, the Wigmore Hall in London, and on chamber music series in Detroit, Philadelphia, Seattle and Vancouver. When he appeared in recital at the Kennedy Center in December 2011, The Washington Post enthused, “the essence of Hadelich’s playing is beauty: reveling in the myriad ways of making a phrase come alive on the violin, delivering the musical message with no technical impediments whatsoever, and thereby revealing something from a plane beyond ours.”

Augustin is recognized for his creative programming and the juxtaposition of works that illuminate different qualities in each other. His San Francisco recital opens with Stravinsky’s humorous and light-hearted Suite Italienne, followed by Schumann’s passionate and dark first sonata. To close the first half, Augustin will perform Eugene Ysaÿe's virtuosic third sonata, which was dedicated to the Romanian violin virtuoso and composer George Enescu. The program reaches a boiling point with Janáček's short, intense, and heart-wrenching sonata. Previn's three-movement Tango Song and Dance is a release, a dance-infused and fun showpiece that brings the program full circle.

Augustin collaborates regularly with pianist Joyce Yang. Further joint performances this season will take place in Charlottesville (VA), Detroit, Rockville (MD), and Dallas. In April 2014, Augustin and Joyce were joined by guitarist Pablo Villegas at the Kennedy Center for the premiere of an originally conceived multimedia presentation titled Tango Song and Dance, after the Previn work, which they reprised at last summer’s Aspen Music Festival.

Augustin’s recordings mirror his programmatic flair. His debut for AVIE Records, Flying Solo, juxtaposes virtuoso solo works by Bartók, Paganini, Ysaÿe and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Echoes of Paris, which received an Editor’s Choice from Gramophone magazine, features French and Russian repertoire influenced by Parisian culture in the early 20th century. Histoire du Tango, with Pablo Villegas, explores Argentina’s national dance and other Hispanic-influenced dance and musical forms. Augustin’s first major concerto recording, which was nominated for a Gramophone Award, combined Thomas Adès’ Concentric Paths and Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, of which BBC Radio 3’s CD Review found “the emotional intensity and rhythmic complexity of the deep dark soundscapes common to both works mean that each work somehow illuminates different aspects of the other ... and it all makes perfect sense.” Augustin’s next release, due from AVIE in 2015, features another thought-provoking pairing, the Mendelssohn with Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto.

Concerto repertoire occupies a prominent place in Augustin’s itinerary, alongside his recital and chamber music performances. This season he performs concertos by Adès, Barber, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Dvořák, Haydn, Lalo, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky, with orchestras around the world, including the Baltimore, BBC, Dallas, Houston, NHK and Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras, London and New York Philharmonics, Minnesota Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum, and Seattle and Toronto Symphonies.

Among Hadelich’s numerous awards are the Gold Medal at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (2006), an Avery Fisher Career Grant (2009), a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship (2010), and, in 2012, the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, for which he was nominated by the New York Philharmonic and Music Director Alan Gilbert.

Born in Italy to German parents, Augustin Hadelich holds an artist diploma from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Joel Smirnoff. He plays on the 1723 “Ex-Kiesewetter” Stradivari violin, on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society.

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For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International, +1 917 907 2785 or +44 (0) 20 8698 6933, melanne@musiccointernational.com

For further information about Augustin Hadelich, please visit www.augustin-hadelich.com

CONCERT INFORMATION
Augustin Hadelich violin
Joyce Yang piano
Stravinsky Suite Italienne
Schumann Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105
Ysaÿe Sonata No. 3 in D minor, “Ballade”
Janáček Violin Sonata
Previn Tango Song and Dance

Sunday, March 22, 2015 – 3:00 pm
Chamber Music San Francisco
Marines’ Memorial Theater
609 Sutter Street (at Mason)
San Francisco, CA 94102
http://www.chambermusicsf.org
http://www.marinesmemorialtheatre.com