Bramwell Tovey, conductor

Grammy and Juno award-winning conductor and composer Bramwell Tovey is the newly appointed Music Director Designate of the Sarasota Orchestra.

He will continue in his roles as Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, Artistic Advisor to the Rhode Island Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec.

Following an exceptional 18 year tenure as Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony, which concluded in summer 2018, he now returns as the orchestra’s Music Director Emeritus. Under his leadership the VSO toured China, Korea, across Canada and the United States. His VSO innovations included the establishment of the VSO School of Music, the VSO’s annual festival of contemporary music and the VSO Orchestral Institute at Whistler, a comprehensive summer orchestral training program for young musicians held in the scenic mountain resort of Whistler in British Columbia.

With the resumption of concerts in summer 2021 Mr. Tovey has conducted the New York Philharmonic at Bravo Vail, Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and will lead the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Proms before embarking on a full schedule including a special concert in Sarasota to mark the beginning of his tenure followed by guest appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Helsingborg Symphony, Sweden.

In 2003 Bramwell Tovey won the Juno Award for Best Classical Composition for his choral and brass work Requiem for a Charred Skull. His song cycle, Ancestral Voices, which addresses the issue of Reconciliation, was written for acclaimed Kwagiulth mezzo-soprano Marion Newman and premiered in June 2017. His trumpet concerto, Songs of the Paradise Saloon, was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony for principal trumpet, Andrew McCandless and performed in 2014 by Alison Balsom with the LA Philharmonic, the Philadelphia and the London Philharmonic Orchestras. A recording of his opera, The Inventor, commissioned by Calgary Opera, features the original cast, members of UBC Opera and the VSO.

Mr. Tovey was the recipient of the Oskar Morawetz 2015 Prize for Excellence in Music Performance. He was previously Music Director of Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg where he led the world premiere of Penderecki’s Eighth Symphony on the opening of the principality’s new concert hall, the Philharmonie. He won the Prix d’or of the Academie Lyrique Française for his recording of Jean Cras’ 1922 opera Polyphème with OPL and toured with the orchestra to China, Korea, the United States and throughout Europe.

In 2013 he was appointed an honorary Officer of the Order of Canada for services to music.

Beatrice Rana, piano

Beatrice Rana has shaken the international classical music world already and aroused admiration and interest from concert presenters, conductors, critics and audiences in many countries.

Beatrice performs at the world’s most esteemed concert halls and festivals including Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, New York’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, Zurich’s Tonhalle, London’s Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall, Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Munich’s Philharmonie, Prinzregententheater and Herkulessaal, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Los Angeles Disney Concert Hall and Hollywood Bowl, and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center.

She collaborates with conductors of the highest level such as Riccardo Chailly, Antonio Pappano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Fabio Luisi, Yuri Temirkanov, Gianandrea Noseda, and Zubin Mehta. Orchestral appearances include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Filarmonica della Scala, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

During the upcoming season, Beatrice Rana will debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Bayerische Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, New York Philharmonic, Deutsches Sinfonie Orchester, Hessischer Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, Orquesta Nacional de España, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon. She will also tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, the Wiener Symphoniker and Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and the Philharmonia Zurich and Fabio Luisi with whom she is in residency for a complete Beethoven concerto cycle.

Beatrice will play recitals at the Berlin Philharmonie as part of the Berliner Philharmoniker recital series, Barcelona’s Palau de la Musica, Lugano’s LAC, Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Madrid’s Scherzo Great Performers series, Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Tokyo’s Kioi Hall, Wigmore Hall as part of a residency as well as many other venues and festivals. She will also continue her collaboration with the Dortmund Konzerthaus as a « Junge Wilde » until 2022.

An exclusive Warner Classics recording artist, Ms. Rana released her first album in 2015, featuring Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Antonio Pappano and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. The disc received unanimous international acclaim including Gramophone’s “Editor’s Choice” and BBC Magazine’s 2017 “Newcomer of the Year” Award. The year 2017 will remain as a milestone in Beatrice’s career with the release of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on Warner Classics and a 30-city tour of the work. Debuting at No. 1 on the U.K.Classical Charts, the recording was praised by reviewers worldwide and crowned by two major awards: Gramophone’s “Young Artist of the Year” and Edison Klassiek’s “Discovery of the Year” Award. In 2018, she was nominated as 2018 Female Artist of the Year at the Classic BRIT Awards, where she performed for a nationally televised audience at Royal Albert Hall.

Her next solo album will be released in October 2019 and will feature works by Stravinsky and Ravel.
Beatrice Rana came to public attention in 2011 after winning the Montreal International Competition and two years later the Silver Medal and the Audience Award at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In 2015, she was named a BBC New Generation Artist, and in 2016 she was awarded a fellowship from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.

Born to a family of musicians in 1993, Beatrice began her piano studies at the age of four and made her orchestral debut at the age of nine, performing Bach Concerto in F Minor. She obtained her Piano Degree under the guidance of Benedetto Lupo, her lifetime mentor, at the Nino Rota Conservatory in Monopoli, where she also studied composition with Marco della Sciucca. She later studied with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule fur Musik in Hannover. She is based in Rome.



Photo credit: Warner Classics