Yuja Wang / Mahler Chamber Orchestra
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Date
- / Cancelled / Sold out
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Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationPricing
25% – Under 30
10% – Over 65
Cartão Gulbenkian:
50% – Under 30
15% – Over 65
- Piano, Conductor
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Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Since its foundation in 1997, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) has established itself as one of the world's leading chamber orchestras. Working as a "global collective," the MCO is led by its members in collaboration with its Berlin-based management office. The musicians, who come from around 25 different countries, join together to perform numerous projects. The chamber music dialogue and unanimous act of listening shape the Orchestra’s sound; it’s a philosophy inspired by the Orchestra’s founding mentor Claudio Abbado that the MCO calls The Sound of Listening. In the past 2023/2024 season, the MCO performed with conductors Anja Bihlmaier, Maxim Emelyanychev, Sir Simon Rattle, and Tugan Sokhiev and with its Artistic Advisor Daniele Gatti, among others. In the next season, the MCO will join the stage with Antonello Manacorda, Gianandrea Noseda, Elim Chan, Raphaël Pichon, Joanna Mallwitz and the Orchestra's Conductor Laureate Daniel Harding.
The MCO is known for its performances without a conductor, in which a respective soloist leads the ensemble from their instrument. Most recently, the MCO has performed in this play-and-lead format with its Artistic Partners Yuja Wang and Mitsuko Uchida, with whom it tours several times a year. Projects with soloists Augustin Hadelich and Daniel Lozakovich are also planned for the 2024/2025 season.
The Orchestra maintains residencies in Berlin, Salzburg, and Lucerne; from 2026, it will succeed the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival. In 2024, the MCO assumed the role of Artistic Director of Musikwoche Hitzacker, where it presents a diverse repertoire characterised by chamber music every year. In March 2025, pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, a long-time friend and collaborator of the MCO will be the festival’s artist in residence.
The MCO is committed to enriching lives through music and actively creates on-and-off-stage encounters that bring music, learning, and creativity to communities across the globe. Its programme Feel the Music introduces music to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, while the MCO Academy allows orchestra members to share their expertise with the next generation of musicians. Additionally, the MCO’s school concerts invite students on a multicultural journey, fostering introspection and contemplation on the theme of "Belonging."
The MCO's performances are often recorded and aired by major broadcasters and on ARTE; the ensemble's most recent CD with works by Stravinsky and De Falla was released by harmonia mundo in February 2024. Together with its Artistic Partner for Immersive Experiences, Henrik Oppermann/Schallgeber, the MCO has developed a series of XR concert formats. Since July 2024, some of the chamber music pieces produced in XR have been available in the Mahler Chamber Orchestra app for Apple Vision Pro.
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Yuja Wang
Piano / Conductor
Pianist Yuja Wang is celebrated for her charismatic artistry, emotional honesty and captivating stage presence. She has performed with the world’s most venerated conductors, musicians and ensembles, and is renowned not only for her virtuosity, but her spontaneous and lively performances, famously telling the New York Times 'I firmly believe every program should have its own life, and be a representation of how I feel at the moment'.
Her skill and charisma were recently demonstrated in a marathon Rachmaninoff performance at Carnegie Hall alongside conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Philadelphia Orchestra. This historic event celebrating 150 years since the birth of Rachmaninoff, included performances of all four of his concertos plus the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in one afternoon and saw queues around the block for tickets on the day. The 2022/23 season also saw Yuja perform the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No.3 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and further performances of the work throughout North America and Europe across the season.
Yuja was born into a musical family in Beijing. After childhood piano studies in China, she received advanced training in Canada and at the Curtis Institute of Music under Gary Graffman. Her international breakthrough came in 2007, when she replaced Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and has since established her place among the world’s leading artists, with a succession of critically acclaimed performances and recordings. She was named Musical America’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2021 received an Opus Klassik Award for her world-premiere recording of John Adams’ Must the Devil Have all the Good Tunes? with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.
As a chamber musician, Yuja has developed long-lasting partnerships with several leading artists. This season, Yuja embarks on a highly-anticipated international duo recital tour with pianist Víkingur Ólafsson with performances in world-class venues across North America and Europe, which will once again showcase her flair, technical ability and exceptional artistry in a wide-ranging programme.
Igor Stravinsky
Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Alexander Tsfasman
In her first year as Associate Artist of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the intense and virtuoso Chinese pianist Yuja Wang returns to Gulbenkian Music to play and conduct works by Stravinsky, Ravel and Tsfasman. After winning over the critics with her interpretations of Ravel’s music, Wang is once again giving herself over to one of her favourite composers, to whom she lends her enormous charisma. Following on from its success with Mitsuko Uchida in 2023, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra is once again being led by an exceptional pianist.
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