“The most elegant and articulate words fail to do justice to Stutzmann’s performance. She is a consummate rock star on the podium.”—ArtsATL
New Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann makes her Athens debut Sunday, March 26, at 3 p.m. at Hodgson Concert Hall. She has programmed a concert titled “Bach & Friends,” with beloved pieces by Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi.
“Bach is the source of all of our music. It is crucial for any orchestra to come back to the source,” Stutzmann says. “The ‘Bach and Friends’ program shows the impact and the connection between Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel — three genius musicians from one time.”
“Bach and Friends” is like a 90-minute Baroque mixtape, with familiar short pieces flowing into each other without an intermission. It is a wide window facing a key period in music history.
1685 was a banner year. Two little boys were born in Germany, about 100 miles apart. One, Bach, is among the world’s most influential composers. The other, Handel, wrote Messiah. Six hundred miles to the south, a third boy, Vivaldi, was learning the violin. Today, they dominate Western music written before the arrival of Mozart.
Each year, around the world, professional and community choirs — as well as many intrepid audience members — gather to sing George Frideric Handel’s massive oratorio written on the life of Christ. On YouTube, a single video of Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons has over 248 million views. And, thanks to NASA’s Voyager mission, two pieces by J.S. Bach are hurtling through interstellar space at over 38,000 miles per hour.
This program includes excerpts from Bach’s cantatas and orchestral works, Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” from the opera Solomon, and a Vivaldi concerto for four violins.
This performance is supported by The Kleiner Foundation, Libby and Van Morris, and the Trashy Book Club of Athens.
About Nathalie Stutzmann
Nathalie Stutzmann is the new Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from the 2022/23 season. She is also the principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2021 and chief conductor of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway since 2018.
Highlights as guest conductor in the next seasons include debut performances with the Munich Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and Helsinki Philharmonic. She will also return to the London Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris.
Having also established a strong reputation as an opera conductor, Stutzmann has led celebrated productions of Wagner’s Tannhäuser in Monte Carlo and Boito’s Mefistofele at the Orange Festival. She began the 22/23 season with a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya Dama in Brussels’ La Monnaie and will make her debut at the Metropolitan Opera this season with two Mozart productions: Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni. She will also reunite with Wagner’s Tannhäuser for a production at the Bayreuth Festival in 2023.
Stutzmann started her studies at a very young age in piano, bassoon, cello and studied conducting with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula. She was mentored by Seiji Ozawa and Sir Simon Rattle, who says, “Nathalie is the real thing. So much love, intensity and sheer technique. We need more conductors like her.”
Also one of today’s most esteemed contraltos, she studied the German repertoire with Hans Hotter, and she has done more than 80 recordings and received the most prestigious awards. Her last album, released in January 2021, Contralto, was awarded Spanish magazine Scherzo’s “Exceptional” seal, Opera Magazine’s Diamant d’Or and radio RTL’s Classique d’Or.
About the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is in its 78th season with Nathalie Stutzmann as only the fifth Music Director in the history of the orchestra, and the only woman to ever hold the position. Maestro Stutzmann will continue the ASO’s mission of bringing new and exciting composers and guest artists to Atlanta.
The ASO is one of the leading orchestras in the United States, performing more than 150 concerts each year from the Delta Classical, Movies in Concert, Family Concert, and Coca-Cola Holiday series, as well as the Atlanta Symphony Hall LIVE concerts and many community and education concerts.
In addition, the ASO performs with the 200+ voice, all-volunteer ASO Chorus, originally founded in 1970 by Robert Shaw, and currently under the direction of Norman Mackenzie. The chorus was featured on nine of the ASO’s Grammy-award winning recordings.
For a complete list of UGA Presents performances, click here.
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