
"How could an orchestra not give its all under a conductor who so visibly loved the music in his care?"
Classical Voice America
"How could an orchestra not give its all under a conductor who so visibly loved the music in his care?"
Classical Voice America
Recent performances have been with the Vienna Radio Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National de Lyon, the BBC Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Montréal Symphony Orchestras.
Born in New York and a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, James Feddeck is a winner of the Solti Conducting Award from the Solti Foundation U.S., the Aspen Conducting Prize and was recognized by his alma mater as the first recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award for professional achievement and contributions to society.
James Feddeck leads Orchestre National de France in Rachmaninov’s Symphony n° 2, recorded live in Paris.
(Video courtesy of ONF and France Musique.)
James Feddeck discusses Dvořák and Smetana in Warsaw video interview. . .
Glasgow and Warsaw performances mark continued major European debuts. . .
The 2018-19 concert season continues with a return to Montréal. . .
James Feddeck returns to Brussels to begin the 2018-19 concert season with Richard Strauss’ Don Juan and Verklärte Nacht of Arnold Schoenberg. . .
Given in recognition to James Feddeck, “for his intellectual and spiritual gifts and through his music generously enriching the lives of those in America and around the world”. . .
In partnership with Deutschlandfunk Kultur, this CD features music of one of Germany's leading Neo-romantic musical figures, Georg Schumann . . .
James Feddeck continues 2019 with concerts in the United States, leading the Oregon Symphony Orchestra on February 23, 24, and 25 in Portland’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
The performances open with John Adams’ Doctor Atomic Symphony (2007), a concert work fashioned using material from the 2005 opera. It offers a musical reading of the events surrounding the first full-scale nuclear bomb test, “Trinity” of the 1940s-era Manhattan Project. Orchestral sonorities describe the innovation and anxiety surrounding the test, as well as depictions of historic characters, for example, the gruffly-barking General Leslie Groves (represented via the trombone) and the solemn trumpet aria—J. Robert Oppenheimer’s soliloquy recitation of John Donne’s Divine Sonnet 14, “Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend…”.
Richard Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration (1888-89), written when the composer was 25 years old, is the main work. It chronicles the reflections of an artist, and his soul’s yearning to life eternal. The listener experiences the recollections of life from dawn until dusk: the innocence of childhood, the struggles and attainment of worldly recognition, and finally, the ultimate transfiguration of the soul.
Also on the program is Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (1900-1901), performed with Marc-André Hamelin. This concerto was an act of self-salvation for the composer, as prior to this, Rachmaninov suffered from debilitating depression upon the poor reception of his First Symphony in 1897. The score is dedicated to his saving physician, Nikolai Vladimirovich Dahl, as a token of personal gratitude. This concerto is one of Rachmaninov’s most-loved and oft-played works, and is the backbone of Rachmaninov’s oeuvres.
For more information, please visit: Oregon Symphony Orchestra.
James Feddeck debuts with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow on December 6 in a program of Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten and Gustav Holst.
Both Barber's Second Essay for Orchestra (1942) and Britten's Violin Concerto (premiered 1940) are wartime works premiered in New York that fall within the shadows of emotional reflection of the Second World War. The second half of the program features Gustav Holst’s The Planets (1914-16).
The following week, he travels to Warsaw where he will lead the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra in a program including works of Smetana and Dvořák on December 14 and 15. These performances are his debut appearances in Warsaw.
For more information, please see: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.
James Feddeck continues the 2018-19 season with returns in Europe to the Residentie Orkest of The Netherlands and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in England. These performances mark his third collaboration with both orchestras.
Feddeck first conducted the Residentie Orkest in 2014 at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and was immediately reinvited for concerts in 2016. This season, he conducts the orchestra in a program of Beethoven and Sibelius for the 30th-season-celebration of the Festival van Zeeuwsch-Vlaanderen on October 13 and at the Zuiderstrandtheater in The Hague on October 14.
Following memorable performances earlier this year and in 2017, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra have invited Feddeck to lead concerts in Poole and at University of Exeter on October 31 and November 1. The program will include emblematic works of Bedřich Smetana, Edvard Grieg, and Carl Nielsen.
James Feddeck returns to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, following his critically-acclaimed 2017 debut, to conduct Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante (together with cellist Truls Mørk) on October 2 and 3, 2018 at the Maison symphonique de Montréal.
The following article was published in anticipation of the two performances.
“I think it’s my job now to open a new world of experience to [people] who maybe don’t know the symphonic repertoire. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of what I see on my path ahead is having the chance to be that force, to engage as many people as possible with music.”
– James Feddeck
James Feddeck returns to conduct the Belgian National Orchestra at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels on September 23, 2018.
This performance marks a continued artistic partnership with the BNO since his Brussels debut in December 2016 (Bruckner Symphony No. 5), and having led the orchestra on two recently acclaimed concert tours of Germany in December 2016 and July 2017.
The concert, part of the orchestra's season titled, "Garden of Earthly Delights," features orchestral masterpieces written by composers when they were all of youthful age (23, 24, and 25 years-old, respectively), yet of mature artistic vision.
The concert begins with Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, written when he was 25-years-old. The work's limitless soaring lyricism blends into haunting chromaticism as Schoenberg musically depicts Richard Dehmel's poem.
In the second half is the tone poem of Richard Strauss, Don Juan, written in 1888 (Strauss was 24 years-old). Its immediate success and technical virtuosity has made Don Juan one of the most often-played works in the orchestral repertoire.
Also on the program is the Sinfonia Concertante for viola and violin of Mozart, composed in 1779, when Mozart was 23-years-old. Violinist Esther Yoo, and violist Rosalind Ventris join the orchestra as soloists.
For more information, please visit: Belgian National Orchestra.
James Feddeck returns to the Copenhagen Philharmonic on August 5, 2018 for a program called “Hungarian Tones” at Tivoli Concert Hall.
The concert opens with Tzigane, Maurice Ravel’s evocative gypsy rhapsody and Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen (“Gypsy Airs”), in collaboration with violinist Arabella Steinbacher, followed by a suite of Johannes Brahms’ colorful Hungarian Dances.
In the second half, Feddeck leads the orchestra in the five-movement Concerto for Orchestra, first penned by the celebrated Hungarian composer, Béla Bartók 75-years ago (August 1943). It was premiered the following year in the United States by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and has since remained a well-loved and popular work in the core orchestral repertoire.
For more information about the Copenhagen Philharmonic and this performance at the Tivoli Festival please visit: Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra.
On June 15, 2018, James Feddeck received the Sapere Aude Award from Thornton-Donovan School in recognition "for his intellectual and spiritual gifts and through his music generously enriching the lives of those in America and around the world."
Now in its 118th year, Thornton-Donovan is one of New York's premier independent academies with an interdisciplinary and international educational focus devoted to cross-cultural learning, community responsibility, and global citizenship.
The phrase, Sapere Aude, (Latin for "dare to be wise"), originates from the Epistularum liber primus of Horace and was a motto later embraced by the philosopher, Immanuel Kant to express the ideals of Enlightenment.
This award is given biennially for exemplary achievement and commitment to education and culture.
James Feddeck returns to the U.K. and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in a program of works by Britten, Dvorak, and Richard Strauss.
The concert is available for on-demand listening via BBC Radio 3 (click to listen).
(available until May 25, 2018)
PROGRAM
Benjamin Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Antonín Dvorák: Concerto for Violoncello in B minor, Op. 104
Daniel Müller-Schott, cello
Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24
James Feddeck leads the Orchestre National de Belgique in Germany for concerts at Frankfurt's Alte Oper on March 24 and the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden on March 27.
These performances continue his ongoing relationship with the Belgian National Orchestra following performances of Bruckner's Fifth Symphony in Brussels and Germany last season.
The March 2018 performances feature Dvorak's Symphony No. 7, the Oberon Overture of Weber and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Ray Chen as soloist.
About the Belgian National Orchestra.
James Feddeck’s Paris debut with the Orchestre National de France is available to watch on-line via ARTE TV.
This performance was recorded live at the Maison de la Radio in Paris on January 25, 2018 and features works of J.S. Bach/Webern and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Click here to watch.
PROGRAM AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING:
Johann Sebastian Bach/Anton Webern: Ricercare (No. 2 from Musical Offering)
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27
James Feddeck continues the 2017-18 concert season with debuts in Paris, London, and Barcelona.
On January 25, he leads the Orchestre National de France at the Maison de la Radio in Paris for a concert that features Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony, Anton Webern's orchestration of J.S. Bach's Ricercare from The Musical Offering and Hindemith's Violin Concerto (1939) with Arabella Steinbacher as soloist.
This concert will be video simulcast live via ARTE TV and radio broadcast through France Musique.
The following week, February 2, 3, and 4, he conducts Elgar's treasured First Symphony and partners again with clarinettist Martin Fröst (Anders Hillborg's "Peacock tales") at Barcelona's L'Auditori with the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona. The February 4 performance will be broadcast live via Catalunya Música/Radio Clàssica.
And on February 9, he joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra at London's Barbican Centre for a program which includes Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Samuel Barber's masterful First Symphony (1936). After recording with the BBC Symphony concert works of William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) in November 2014, Mr. Feddeck now makes his official Barbican debut with this performance.
James Feddeck’s debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has been featured on BBC Radio 3 and is available for on-demand Internet streaming:
Click here to listen.
(available until November 21, 2017)
This broadcast, recorded live on Thursday, 19 October, 2017 at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall, features Gustav Holst’s The Planets with Leonard Bernstein’s suite of music composed for the 1954 Academy Award-winning film, On the Waterfront.
Specially featured on the program is Aaron Jay Kernis’ Legacy (concerto for solo horn, strings, harp and percussion) performed by Timothy Jackson (horn principal, RLPO). James Feddeck leads this European premiere, co-commissioned between the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Grant Park Music Festival.
PROGRAM
Leonard Bernstein: On the Waterfront
Aaron Jay Kernis: Legacy
Timothy Jackson, French Horn
Gustav Holst: The Planets
James Feddeck leads the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on September 28, 30, and October 1, 2017 in a program which features Beethoven's Eroica Symphony and Emperor Concerto with pianist, Rudolf Buchbinder.
This concert is available for listening via the Dallas Symphony Orchestra website on-demand: click here and select "DSO Broadcast #2".
The Symphony Op. 42 and Overtures of Georg Schumann were released in August 2017: a collaboration between James Feddeck and the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in partnership with Deutschlandfunk Kultur, the CPO record label, and the Georg Schumann Gesellschaft. It was recorded in the historic Haus des Rundfunks at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.
Georg Schumann (1866-1952) was an influential figure in European musical life through his work as a conductor in Danzig and Bremen, and further in his capacity as director of the renowned Sing-Akademie of Berlin. He is often considered today for his choral compositions, but his position as director at this critical cultural intersection for European musical life offered a unique vantage point to encounter the leading active musical figures: Liszt, Rubinstein, Brahms, Arthur Nikisch, Mahler, Felix Weingartner, Joseph Joachim, and Max Bruch, which influenced his work as a performer and composer.
This recording marks the first-ever to be made of the Opus 42 F minor symphony (1905). This symphony enjoyed significant endorsements from leading conductors of its day, from the premiere in Berlin with conductor Felix Weingartner, touring performances in Europe, and to prominent attention in the United States including Boston and New York.
It is the intention of this recording to offer a renewed visibility to this symphony and its composer.
The album is completed with two of Georg Schumann's charming character overtures, the Overture to a Drama, Opus 45 and the "Lebensfreude" Overture, Opus 54.
For more information: Georg Schumann Gesellschaft, Berlin.
Ordering information.
James Feddeck will conduct a benefit concert on Friday, 8 September, the aim of which is to raise funds for the American Red Cross' work in support of those affected by the devastating hurricanes this month. Musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra will be joined by students from Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Credo Music. All musicians involved are donating their time.
Further information.
In June 2017, James Feddeck begins a five-city concert tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in a Brahms/Barber program which also features the Schumann Cello Concerto played by Daniel Müller-Schott. The tour which spans two weeks includes five cities: Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington, Blenheim, and Christchurch.
Following the Christchurch performance, he travels to Hobart, Tasmania for the world premiere of Maria Grenfell's Spirals with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. This new work for solo clarinet, bassoon and orchestra (performed by Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra principal players, Andrew Seymour and Tahnee van Herk), was conceived as a companion piece to Richard Strauss' Duett-Concertino, also performed on this program. These clarinet-bassoon centerpieces are framed by Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite.
In July, he tours with the Belgian National Orchestra in Wiesbaden, Germany to perform Bruckner's Symphony No. 5 (this follows their acclaimed Brussels performance in December 2016) and in March 2018, their performances continue in the German cities of Mannheim, Regensburg, Essen, and Frankfurt.
John Adams: Doctor Atomic Symphony
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24
John Adams: Doctor Atomic Symphony
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24
John Adams: Doctor Atomic Symphony
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24
Carl Maria von Weber: Overture to Der Freischütz
Samuel Barber: Violin Concerto, Op. 14
Stefan Jackiw, violin
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Carl Maria von Weber: Overture to Der Freischütz
Samuel Barber: Violin Concerto, Op. 14
Stefan Jackiw, violin
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C Major ("The Great")
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Stewart Goodyear, piano
Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25 ("Classical")
Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33
Daniel Müller-Schott, cello
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10
Maurice Ravel: La valse
Béla Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 in E Major
Vadym Kholodenko, piano
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ("From the New World")
Maurice Ravel: La valse
Béla Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 in E Major
Vadym Kholodenko, piano
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ("From the New World")
Ludwig van Beethoven: Overture to Coriolan, Op. 62
Robert Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor,. Op. 129
Isang Enders, cello
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
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