Marlon Daniel at Prague Spring

One of the brightest new stars of classical music today he will lead the Praga Sinfonietta in a concert of music by Mahler, Brahms and a world premiere work by Hampson Sisler.

He has been described as “…one of the leading conductors in this new age of African American classical musicians”. He is Principal Conductor of the Festival of African and African Music in Saint Louis, MO (FESAAM.ORG) and Music Director of the New York City based chamber orchestra ‘Ensemble du Monde´. In 2007 he worked with Maestro Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic as the winner of the James and Lola Faust Fellowship and in 2008 was the recipient the “Voice of the Artist” Award from the United Nations.

Tickets: 150 – 700 czk

Described as “…a natural and enormous talent.”  by the Chicago Sun Times, conductor Marlon Daniel has performed  in venues that range from the Rudolfinum in Prague to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. He has made débuts with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra (Cantus Firmus), Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic, Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra, Praga Sinfonietta, Filharmonie Hradec Králové and several international music festivals including Fontainebleau, Santander and Les Musicales de Pontivy Festival.  In 2002 he had the honor of conducting a performance at the world premičre inauguration of the new MAYBACH Car sponsored by Daimler Chrysler and Mercedes Benz (DE), in 2004 he was featured at Carnegie Hall in the “Silver Bells” Christmas concert which alongside renowned soprano Deborah Voigt and is 2007, he conducted the world premičre live performance of the “Save the Goldfish” episode of the EMMY winning “Wonder Pets” at New York’s Javits Center. Also in 2007 he was invited to Berlin by Maestro Sir Simon Rattle to Berlin to observe rehearsals of the Berlin Philharmonic and learn from one of the most important conductors and orchestras of our day.

He has received numerous prizes and awards including the 2009 Foncannon Conducting Award, the James and Lola Faust Fellowship, the Hazel Scott Memorial Prize for Outstanding Musical Achievement, a Rose Hanus Fellowship, the M.C. Lawton Civic and Cultural Club Grant for Musical Development, the Mabel Henderson Memorial Grant for Foreign Experience, a Capitol Region Foundation Grant for Arts in Education and an Honorary Key to the City of Chicago for Outstanding Musical Achievement bestowed by the late Mayor Harold Washington. He was most recently a finalist in the National Symphony/Leonard Slakin Conducting Institute search and the recipiant of the 2008 ‘Voice of the Artist´ Award from the United Nations Nation to Nation Networking Organization in recognition of his charitable work through music, bringing awareness to the crisis in Darfur.

A graduate of Manhattan School of Music, he holds both a Masters of Arts and Bachelors of Music degree. He also holds Diplomas from Le Conservatoire Américain (France), Centro de Estudios Musicales Isaac Albéniz (Spain), an Advance Performance Certificate from the American Conservatory of Music Young Artists Program and Post Graduate Diplomas from both the Prague Academy and the Prague Conservatory. 

His musical development has also been shaped by the influence of Dmitri Bashkirov, Jiří Bělohlávek, Gaby Casadesus, Pavlina Dokovska, Vladimir Feltsman, Richard Goode, Sir Simon Rattle, Larry Rachleff, Jerome Rose, Louis Salemno, Mariusz Smolij, Kirk Trevor, František Vajnar and Oxana Yablonskaya. His first teacher was Kathryn Gladden, a former pupil of Moriz Rosenthal (a student of Franz Liszt). Later he studied with Alexander Edelmann (of whom he was the last student), Arkady Aronov, Nicolai Lomov, Miyoko Nakaya Lotto and Salvatore Spina. Conducting studies were made with Harold Farberman, David Gilbert, Tomáš Koutník and Miriam Nemcová.

This past February 2009 Maestro Daniel was appointed Principal Conductor of the International Festival of African and African American Music in Saint Louis Missouri. He is also the Music Director and Conductor of Ensemble du Monde and Manhattan Virtuosi chamber orchestras in New York and a former member of the New York Philharmonic Conductor’s Round Table. Upcoming concerts include performances with the Ensemble Orchestra of Prague, Opera Ebony, Sofia Philharmonic, National Symphony of Ghana and solo appearances in London, Italy, Paris, and New York. His first CD with the Praga Sinfonietta of works of Sisler and Stravinsky will be released in October 2009 and his second CD of Mahler Symphony No. 4 in early 2010.

One of the leading orchestras in the Czech Republic, the Praga Sinfonietta was founded in 1990 by its Music Director Miriam Němcová. Its members include many of the leading musicians from the Czech Republic´s foremost symphonic orchestras, including the Czech Philharmonic, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, and National Theater and F.O.K. orchestras. The most traveled orchestras in Prague, the ensemble has had great success performing abroad in countries that have most recently included Italy, Germany and Austria. It has also had great success in recording film and other commercial music. Its repertoire not only encompasses works written by Czech composers, of which they are specialist, but also works of the standard repertoire from the baroque period to contemporary composers of 21st Century.

Hampson Albert Sisler was born in New York in 1932. His exceptional musical talent was evident when at age five he was already attempting to compose and could play piano and reed organ by ear without any training. His mother, an amateur musician, gave him his first music lessons. She taught him basic piano and local teachers started him on a more advanced piano and organ education. By age eleven he had chosen the organ as his main instrument and was playing professionally in churches.

His prodigious performances soon drew the attention of many well-known musicians, including David McK. Williams, organist and choir master of New York´s famed St. Bartholomew´s Church. Williams became his first major mentor, followed, notably by Norman Coke-Jephcott of New York´s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where he gave his first public organ recital after becoming the youngest ever fellow of the American Guild of Organists at age 17. Sisler also achieved the Trinity College of London´s Licentiate Teacher of Organ and Related Subjects Diploma with honors.

Currently he has a dual career as organist and composer with over one hundred published works to his credit. He has held many prestigious positions in churches throughout the greater New York area and is currently Music Director of the Central Presbyterian Church in New York City – a post formerly held by American composer Charles Ives. His compositions have been performed in Europe, Russia, Hawaii, and both North and South America.

MSR Classics music label has now released two commercially available CD’s of the composer´s works performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine entitled “The Cosmic Divide” and “Songs Of the Sages”. This upcoming fall the label will release a third CD with the Praga Sinfonietta, which will include tonight´s world premiere work, “Phoenix Forever”, and “Music in the Soul”, a Czech inspired work based on the poetry of Jaroslav Vrchlický.

Commissioned by the Enochian Foundation in 2009 for Maestro Marlon Daniel and the Praga Sinfonietta, “Phoenix Forever” is based on the mythical Egyptian bird, a symbol of fire and divinity. It is said there existed only one that lived for a great many years and at the end of its life it builds a nest that then ignites in flames. Both nest and bird burn fiercely and from the ashes, a new phoenix is reborn to live again.

Sisler’s music, inspired by this myth, is programmatic and depicts the phoenix in the varying stages of its life cycle. Each of the first three movements contains its own thematic material and compositional development. The fourth and final movement begins in the same tonality as the third movement and incorporates all the themes from the prior movements. It ends with a decisive “cadence of confidence” depicting the imagery of the fiery bird that never fails to be resurrected, flying off into a new life.

Lyric coloratura soprano Melissa Citnron has performed throughout the U. S. gaining praise for her vocal virtuosity, musical sensitivity and engaging stage presence.  Since making her Lincoln Center debut in 2006 at Avery Fisher Hall, she has been in high demand as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra and opera singer.

Her extensive solo repertoire includes the major works of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn and her opera roles include Strauss´ Ariadne auf Naxos (Naiade); Mozart´s Cosi Fan Tutte (Despina); Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Blonde); Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna); Die Zauberflöte (Pamina); La Clemenza di Ttio (Servilla); Bellini´s La Sonnambula (Amina); Puccini‘s La Bohčme (Musetta); Gianni Schicchi (Lauretta); Suor Angelica (Suor Genovieffa) and Verdi´s Falstaff (Nannetta) and Rigoletto (Gilda).

A graduate of The Manhattan School of Music, Ms. Cintron has worked with Maestro Steven Crawford (Metropolitan Opera), Charles Riecker (Metropolitan Opera), Maestro Willie Anthony Waters (Connecticut Opera), Maestro David Gilbert (Greenwich Symphony) Joan Caplan, Fedora Barbieri, Betty Allen, Osceola Davis and Virginia Grasso.

Ms. Cintron has performed with The Bronx Opera Company, One World Symphony, Opera Noire of New York and at prestigious venues that have included Alice Tully Hall, The Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts, the Great Hall of the Library of Congress and the United States Capitol Rotunda for the 2007 Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony held in honor of the historic Tuskegee Airmen, a performance that was televised on CNN and C-SPAN.

The subject of one-hour film documentary by Bulgarian National Television, cellist Kalin Ivanov is a prominent soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist. Praised as  “one of the most celebrated cellists of his generation” (Musical Opinion, UK), he has been compared by the press to Rostropovich, Yo-Yo Ma, Piatigorsky and Jacqueline du Pré.

A native of Bulgaria he began studying cello at age of six. His teachers have included Marion Feldman, David Soyer, Nathaniel Rosen, Steven Doane, Laurence Lesser, Anatoly Krastev and others.

Quickly gaining recognition as an artist whose “dramatic urgency and expressive tone” (The STRAD), he has performed in the major performing centers of Bulgaria, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, France, England, Russia, the United States and also appears regularly on radio and television. His solo performances include appearances with the top Bulgarian orchestras including: Sofia Philharmonic, Sinfonietta-Sofia, Plovdiv Philharmonic, Varna Philharmonic, as well as Moscow Chamber Orchestra “Cantus Firmus”, Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble du Monde and Manhattan Virtuosi, chamber orchestras, to name a few.

In the spring of 2003 he, along with Natalia Gutman, Alexander Kniazev, Boris Pergamenstikov, Peter Bruns, Tomas Stral, and recent winners of the Tchaikovsky competition, was selected to perform in the International Music Festival in commemoration of Daniel Shafran, sponsored by the Russian State Institute of Arts and Moscow State Philharmonic.

Mr. Ivanov is on the faculty at Brooklyn College (CUNY), Adelphi University, and Long Island Conservatory (SUNY). He also leads cello and chamber music master classes in the US and abroad and is a judge of several international competitions in the US and Europe. Most recently, he has recorded several solo CDs, the latest released on MSR Classics and Gega labels and has recorded music for the new motion picture film “LUST, CAUTION” by Oscar-winning Director Ang Lee.

Hailed as a “Virtuoso-violinist extraordinaire” by Musical Horizons, Bulgaria, Hristo Popov has performed as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States, England, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico and his native Bulgaria, on both television and radio. After winning top prizes at the Kozian International Violin Competition in the Czech Republic, Kultur am Ort (Germany) described him as “a true virtuoso…[who] fascinated the audience with his warm Bohemian magically sweet tone and unsurpassed brilliance!” He is also Silver Medalist at the California Young Artist Competition, Grand Prize Winner of the International Institute of Music (Germany, USA) and a First Place Winner of the American String Teachers’ Association Chamber Music Competition.

His talent was recognized at an early age and by age five was admitted the School for Gifted Children “Dobrin Petkov” in Plovdiv (Bulgaria) and by age nine he had already made his orchestral debut. Later he completed his studies in the United States. He is a graduate of Idyllwild Arts Academy, Oberlin College, Kent State University and University of Kentucky. Notable mentors include Taras Gabora, Daniel Mason, Wolfgang Marschner, Todor Pelev, Michael Tseitlin, and Oleh Krysa. He has participated in master classes of Cho-Liang Lin, Ifrah Nieman, and Tokyo String Quartet and also has appeared as guest artist in numerous festivals such as Park City International Music Festival, Plovdiv International Chamber Music Festival, the Sofia Musical Weeks Music Festival, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Severance Hall in Cleveland, John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C, and Casa Verdi in Milan, Italy. 

Mr. Popov is currently on the faculty at Kent State University and Western Reserve Academy in Ohio, and is a founding member of Trio Casalmaggiore. He is also a recording artist for both TC Recordings and Bravante Records.