Scheherazade
Gulbenkian Orchestra / Giancarlo Guerrero
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Date
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Thursday, 20:00
- 19:00 / Cancelled 19:00 / Sold out Friday, 19:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationThis concert will be broadcast live here on 5 May at 19:00.
Pricing
50% – Under 30 years old
15% – Over 65 years old
- Conductor
- Violin
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Gulbenkian Orchestra
In 1962, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation decided to establish a permanent orchestral ensemble. Originally with only twelve musicians (strings and continuo) it was named “Orquestra de Câmara Gulbenkian”. This collective was successively enlarged and today the “Orquestra Gulbenkian” (the name it has adopted since 1971) has a permanent body of sixty instrumentalists, a number that can be expanded depending on the repertoire.
This structure allows the Gulbenkian Orchestra to interpret works from the Baroque and Classical periods, a significant part of 19th century orchestral literature and much of the music of the 20th century, including works belonging to the current repertoire of the traditional symphonic orchestras. In each season, the orchestra performs on a regular series of concerts at the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium in Lisbon, where it has had the opportunity of working together with some of leading names of the world of music (conductors and soloists). It has also performed on numerous locations all over Portugal, in an effort to decentralize music and culture.
The orchestra has been constantly expanding its activities in the international level, performing in Europe, Asia Africa, and the Americas. In the recording field, Orquestra Gulbenkian is associated to labels as Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Teldec, Erato, Adès, Nimbus, Lyrinx, Naïve and Pentatone, among others, and this activity was recognized with several international prizes.
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Giancarlo Guerrero
Conductor
Giancarlo Guerrero is a six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor whose imaginative programming and “curatorial and interpretive creativity” (Chicago Tribune) draw out of his orchestras “exceptionally powerful and enchanting performances” (BBC Music Magazine). His contagious enthusiasm on the podium has led critics to praise his “clear and exacting beat and a gift for shifting between ferocity and tenderness” (San Francisco Chronicle) and his style that is “at once vigorous, passionate, and nuanced” (BachTrack).
2025 marks Guerrero’s first season as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. Guerrero also takes on the role of Music Director of Sarasota Orchestra in the 2025-26 season, becoming the seventh conductor to hold the appointment since the Orchestra’s founding in 1949.
Guerrero transitions this season to the position of Music Director Laureate with the Nashville Symphony after a sixteen-year tenure, during which he championed the works of prominent American composers through commissions, recordings, and world premieres. Under Guerrero’s direction, the Nashville Symphony commissioned and premiered nearly two dozen pieces – including works by Béla Fleck, Ben Folds, Jennifer Higdon, Hannibal Lokumbe, and Terry Riley – and released twenty-one commercial recordings, which have garnered thirteen GRAMMY® nominations and six GRAMMY® Awards across multiple categories. He also guided the creation of the Symphony’s biannual Composer Lab & Workshop alongside Aaron Jay Kernis.
In the 2025-26 season, Guerrero adds to his extensive discography with the Nashville Symphony with the release of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Conquest Requiem and a recording of concertos by Jennifer Higdon, Brad Warnaar, and Chick Corea, out in November and December 2025, respectively on Naxos American Classics. He also conducts the Symphony in three programs and a gala concert featuring Renée Fleming.
Guerrero’s guest appearances this season include engagements with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the symphonies of Eugene and Grand Rapids, with international engagements including the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, and the Romanian National Orchestra in Bucharest, where he conducts a concert performance of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
In recent seasons, Guerrero has been seen with prominent North American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, and those of Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Montréal, Philadelphia, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and Houston. Internationally, he has worked with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie in Saarbrücken, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de São Paulo in Brazil, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, and New Zealand Symphony as well as Sydney Symphony and Queensland Symphony in Australia.
Guerrero also conducts concerts with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic this season, where he recently completed a six-season tenure as Music Director. With that orchestra, Guerrero made several recordings, including the Billboard chart-topping Bomsori: Violin on Stage on Deutsche Grammophon and albums of repertoire by Szymanowski, Brahms, Poulenc and Jongen.
Guerrero previously held posts as the Principal Guest Conductor of both The Cleveland Orchestra, Miami Residency and the Gulbenkian Symphony in Lisbon, Music Director of the Eugene Symphony, and Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.
Born in Nicaragua, Guerrero immigrated during his childhood to Costa Rica, where he joined the local youth symphony. He studied percussion and conducting at Baylor University in Texas and earned his master’s degree in conducting at Northwestern. Given his beginnings in civic youth orchestras, Guerrero is particularly engaged with conducting training orchestras and has worked with the Curtis School of Music, Colburn School in Los Angeles, The Juilliard School, National Youth Orchestra (NYO2) and Yale Philharmonia, as well as with the Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando program, which provides an intensive music education to promising young students from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
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Bomsori Kim
Violin
In February 2021, Bomsori signed in Berlin the exclusive contract with the Deutsche Grammophon label.
Highlights of the 2022/23 season include appearances with the New York Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden, a tour with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Lahav Shani, concerts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Ryan Bancroft, debuts with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and the Gulbenkian Orchestra. Bomsori will return to the Danish National Symphony with Fabio Luisi and to the San Francisco Symphony with a recital. She will perform in Germany with the Basel Chamber Orchestra in Stuttgart and Freiburg, with the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra in Munich and with the Recital in Baden-Baden.
In the 2021/22 season, Bomsori performed Bruch's Concerto No.1 at the "Concerts in the Parks" in New York and at Bravo! Vail Festival with the New York Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden. Other highlights were debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Alain Altinoglu), the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Fabio Luisi), the Tonkünstler Orchestra (Fabio Luisi), the NDR Radio Philharmonic (Manze) and the Singapore Symphony (Graf). Bomsori was the Focus Artist of the Rheingau Musik Festival 2021 and in the same year began a 5-year residency at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival as Menuhin's Heritage Artist.
Bomsori has had the privilege of performing under the direction of multiple conductors, including Fabio Luisi, Jaap van Zweden, Marin Alsop, Vasily Petrenko, Pablo Heras-Casado, Hannu Lintu, Sakari Oramo, John Storgårds, Andrey Boreyko, Giancarlo Guerrero with numerous leading orchestras, such as New York Philhramonic, Danish National Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Basel Chamber Orchestra amongst others.
Bomsori has appeared at numerous venues worldwide, such as Musikverein Golden Hall in Vienna, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, the Herkulessaal and the Prinzregententheater in Munich, Berlin Philharmonic, Rudolfinum and Smetana Hall in Prague, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York.
In addition to winning the 62nd ARD International Music Competition, Bomsori is a prize winner of the Tchaikovsky International Competition, Queen Elisabeth Competition, International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover, Montreal International Musical Competition, Sendai International Music Competition and the 15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. Bomsori received the 2018 Young Artist Award from the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Korean Music Association’s 2019 Young Artist Award. In 2020, she was presented with the 4th G.rium Artists Award by the Foundation Academia Platonica.
In June 2021 Bomsori released her first Deutsche Grammophon solo Album, Violin on Stage, with NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic and Giancarlo Guerrero. The duo album with pianist Rafał Blechacz, featuring works by Fauré, Debussy, Szymanowski and Chopin, was released in February 2019 by Deutsche Grammophon. The album won the Fryderyk Music Award for “Best Polish Album Abroad” for their DG recording of French and Polish repertoire.
Born in South Korea, Bomsori received a Bachelor degree at Seoul National University, where she studied with Young Uck Kim. She also earned her Master of Music Degree and Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School where she studied with Sylvia Rosenberg and Ronald Copes. She performs on the Guarnerius del Gesù violin “ex-Moller,” Cremona, 1725, on extended loan through the generous efforts of The Samsung Foundation of Culture of Korea and The Stradivari Society of Chicago, Illinois.
Johannes Brahms
Violin Concerto in D major, op. 77
— Intermission 20 min —
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Scheherazade, op. 35
After signing an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2021, the prodigious South Korean violinist Bomsori Kim immediately started recording his first CD with the German label. Violin on Stage, an album confirming Kim’s meteoric rise to the most demanding world stages, was directed by maestro Giancarlo Guerrero, a partnership repeated here for his debut at Gulbenkian Música. The choice of music is Brahms’s masterpiece composed with Joseph Joachim in mind, one of the most extraordinary violinists of the 19th century.
Sponsor Gulbenkian Music
Sponsor Gulbenkian Orchestra
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