Guest soloist Maxim Lando brings his energy and exuberance to Rachmaninov's notoriously vigorous and exciting Piano Concerto No. 3 at our fifth Concerts on the Square of the season. Composed “for elephants”, Rachmaninov’s concerto takes energy, stamina, and masterful playing to capture the triumphant spirit of the work.
This evening’s repertoire will also include "Hope in the Night", a movement from composer William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony, a piece written by Dawson in 1934 and first performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, and revisited and infused with more West African rhythms after a trip by Dawson in 1952. Our orchestra will follow Dawson’s work with Gaelic, the first symphony composed and published by an American woman, composer Amy Beach. The 1896 symphony was inspired by the music of Scottish and Irish folk tunes and was so successfully received that Beach was welcomed into the celebrated group of composers called The Boston Six.
Guest soloist: Maxim Lando
Maxim Lando, piano, photographed by Matt Dine
Praised for both his “infectious exuberance” and “impressive delicacy” (The New York Times), Maxim Lando was recently awarded the 2021/22 Vendome Grand Prize and the prestigious 2020 Gilmore Young Artist Award. He was also named Musical America’s “New Artist of the Month”. Maxim first received international attention in 2017, appearing on the piano bench alongside Lang Lang to perform the parts intended for Mr. Lang’s injured left hand at Carnegie Hall’s Gala Opening Night; they were also joined by Chick Corea for an unprecedented three-pianist version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Maxim has performed with renowned orchestras around the world, including the symphonies of Pittsburgh, Toronto, Vancouver and Hawaii, and St. Petersburg, as well as Russia’s Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, Bolshoi Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Kazakh State Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, and China’s NCPA Orchestra. This season, he will debut with solo concerts at Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Essen Philharmonic in Germany, perform a series of chamber music concerts at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, and appear with the Neubrandenburger Philharmonie, Memphis Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony, and Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra. He will also appear with the Jupiter Chamber Players and perform in recitals at Arizona Friends of Chamber Music and the Lied Center of Kansas.
Maxim won First Prize at the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He opened the 2019-20 Young Concert Artists Series with recital debuts in Washington, DC, at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, and in New York in the Peter Marino Concert at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, which made The New York Times's "10 Months of Classical Concerts You Won't Want to Miss!".
Mr. Lando was also invited to play at the grand opening of Steinway and Sons in Beijing, and has performed at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing, Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, Samos Young Artist Festival in Greece, Rising Stars Munich, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York City, Ravinia and Aspen and Music Festivals, and Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Chicago’s Millennium Park.
Dedicated to making classical music accessible to his own generation, Maxim has been featured on CNN’s Best of Quest, NPR’s “From The Top,” BBC Radio 4 and WQXR. A proponent of Sing For Hope’s mission, he served as a last-minute replacement for Lea Salonga at its 2017 Gala.
Winner of the Gold Medal at the 2017 Berlin International Music Competition, Maxim has participated in the Artemisia Akademie at Yale University, is an alumnus of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, and is a student of Hung-Kuan Chen (YCA Alumnus) and Tema Blackstone at The Juilliard School.
William Dawson | II. Hope in the Night from Negro Folk Symphony
Amy Beach | II. Alla Sicilian-allegro vivace-andante from Symphony in E minor, Op. 32, "Gaelic" (1896)
SERGEI RACHMANINOV | Piano Concerto No. 3
MAXIM LANDO | Piano
*Program subject to change
