Principal Underwriter: Silvercrest Asset Management Group

Childen’s Concert Principal Underwriter: The Anne Stevens & Cameron Waterman III Fund in the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation

Program

Villa-Lobos	Bacchiana Brasileira No. 9
Mozart	Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra in E-flat Major, KV 364
Piazzolla	5 Tangos

“The SALZBURG CHAMBER SOLOISTS performed like one massively poised, technically astonishing and stylish featured guest…this is freedom harnessed to an impassioned common purpose. Each phrase had its own emotional register, plucked from the orchestra’s seemingly limitless range.” The News Tribune, Tacoma

Artist Biographies

In 1991 the violinist Lavard Skou-Larsen and a handful of colleagues decided to form an unusual ensemble. The aim of this ensemble was to perform orchestral chamber music with the freedom of soloists. Skou-Larsen combed Europe and the rest of the world until he had a group of first class musicians. Their inspiration was the unforgetable Sandor Végh, whose charisma had influenced many members of the group considerably. In only its first year of existence, the orchestra toured the United States and Canada.

Thanks to the success of the tour, invitations followed to numerous concerts with such celebrities as Boris Belkin, Mischa Maisky, Michel Dalberto, Rodolfo Bonucci, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Giora Feidman and Alexander Lonquich. From 1992 to 1995, Boris Belkin was Artistic Director of the ensemble. During his tenure, the orchestra released two CDs of Mozart’s work. In 1993 the first big tour of South America took place. Another success was the orchestra’s participation in La Folle Journée Mozart in Nantes, France in February 1995. In the same year the orchestra completed its second tour of South America, returning with the critics’ prize for the best foreign orchestra to have performed at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires that season. Since then, the orchestra has performed in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; the Philharmonie, Berlin; the Théatre des Champs-Elysées, Paris; the Tonhalle, Zurich; the Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro; and other important concert halls. The Salzburg Chamber Soloists are regular guests at various festivals, including Academia Chigiana, Siena; the Turku Musikfestival, Finland; the Mozart Festival, Würzburg; Schubertiade, Roskilde; MIDEM in Cannes; and the Salzburger Kulturtage. In 2001 the orchestra was invited to Lebanon to perform the final concert of the Baalbeck Festival. In January 2002 the ensemble toured Germany together with the actress Senta Berger, performing the 8 Seasons with music by Antonio Vivaldi and Astor Piazzolla. A special event in 2003 was a German tour with Giora Feidman, celebrating Jewish klezmer and Argentinian tango. Back to North America in 2004, Salzburg Chamber Soloists played in San Francisco, Tacoma, Orange County (Los Angeles), Chicago, Calgary and other towns with imense success.

With works from Mozart, Mendessohn, Bruckner, Elgar and Bartók, the third South America tour was realized in October 2005, with performances in São Paulo, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Chile, among other places.

In 2006, the 250 years celebration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birth, the orchestra held 17 concerts in Salzburg at the prestigious Grosser Saal des Mozarteums, and over 100 concerts worldwide at prestigious festivals and concert halls in Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey and Italy.

In spring and fall ’06 the ensemble returned twice to the USA and Mexico performing 29 concerts at important concert series coast to coast like the Krannert Center, Newman Center (Denver), Jorgensen Center, Sunset Cultural Center (Carmel), Stanford University, Lied Center (University of Kansas), Worcester, Palm Beach, Kennedy Center (Washington), Tuesday Evening Concert Series (Charlottesville), and opening the Festival del Centro Historico in Mexico City. Together with solists Andreas Klein at the piano and cellist Katharina Gross they received highest accolades from press, presenters and audience alike.

The Salzburg Chamber Soloists has recorded for DENON and Coviello Classics.

Lavard Skou–Larsen

Lavard Skou-Larsen was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil. At age four he received his first violin lessons from his father Gunnar and additional tutoring by Professor Ernst Moravec in Vienna. At fourteen, he was accepted to study with Prof. Dr. Helmut Zehetmair at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he was awarded the performance diploma with distinction and later completed the postgraduate diploma under Sandor Végh. Today he is full professor of violin at the institution. A top prize winner both as soloist and chamber musician, including the “Concertino Prague” and the “Sergio Lorenzi” in Triest, Italy, Lavard Skou-Larsen was chosen as member of the Camerata Academica under Sandor Végh. Lavard Skou-Larsen has been invited to perform with leading symphony and chamber orchestras in Europe and South America as leader, concertmaster and conductor, including the European Union Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, and Orchestra Sinfonica de Porto Alegre, to name a few. In 1991 he founded the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, an ensemble who performs orchestral chamber music with the freedom of soloists. Under his leadership it took only a few years to rise to one of the top chamber ensembles of its kind. They have toured extensively in Europe, South America and most recently in the US appearing in the most prestigious concert halls receiving highest critical acclaim. Starting with the 2005-06 season, Lavard Skou-Larsen became the chief conductor and artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerakademie in Neuss on the Rhein. Lavard Skou-Larsen and pianist Alexander Muellenbach recorded the complete violin sonatas of Brazilian composer Camargo M. Guarnieri, a virgin release by the Marco Polo Label.

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