Lake Forest Symphony is pleased to announce that our fourth Guest Conductor of our new, dynamic 2013-14 season is Stilian Kirov.
Maestro Kirov will be conducting our award-winning symphony on
Saturday, April 12, at 8:00 pm and on Sunday, April 13, at 2:00 pm at the James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts, at the College of Lake County, 19351 West Washington Street, Grayslake, IL.
Pre-concert lectures are offered at 7:00 pm on Saturday and at 1:00 pm on Sunday. We cordially invite you to attend either concert and to share this exciting news with your members. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Lake Forest Symphony office at 847-295-2135. We are happy to offer a 20% discount for groups of 10 or more.
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Program:
Mendelssohn – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto, Op. 64 in E minor featuring Masha Lakisova, Violin
Liadov – The Enchanted Lake Op. 62 (1822)
Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)
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About Stilian Kirov:
Stilian Kirov is the Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony and has also served as Associate Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. He has conducted orchestras around the world, including the Orchestre Colonne (France), Zagreb Philharmonic (Croatia), Lansing Symphony, Orchestra of Colours (Greece), State Hermitage Orchestra (Russia), New World Symphony, Thüringen Philharmonic Orchestra (Germany), National Repertory Orchestra, Sofia Festival Orchestra, Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra “Leopolis” (Ukraine), Amarillo Symphony and the Juilliard Orchestra, among others.
The wide range of Seattle Symphony concerts that Mr. Kirov conducts in 2013/2014 season will include concerts from the Mostly Mozart series, Beyond the Score® series, Discover Music series, Community Concerts and more. Mr. Kirov has been invited to be a 2013 Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 he was a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, and in 2010 was awarded the David Effron Conducting Fellowship at the Chautauqua Music Festival, where he has also returned in 2012 as a guest conductor. In 2011, Mr. Kirov made his debut at the Musical Olympus International Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. The members of the Festival’s honorary committee included some of the world’s most distinguished artists such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Placido Domingo, Montserrat Caballe, Zubin Mehta, Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons and Yo-Yo Ma.
Mr. Kirov is a graduate in orchestral conducting of The Juilliard School, where he was a student of James DePreist. He also holds a master’s degree from the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, where he studied with Dominique Rouits. He has worked with distinguished conductors such as Kurt Masur, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gianluigi Gelmetti, George Manahan and Asher Fisch, among others.
This April, Maestro Kirov will lead the Lake Forest Symphony in Marice Ravel’s orchestral arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Anatoly Liadov’s The Enchanted Lake, and Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well as Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64 featuring Soloist Masha Lakisova.
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About Masha Lakisova:
Masha Lakisova, age 12, began her musical journey with piano at age four, followed by violin about a year later. Today, she is home-schooled and a student of internationally renown violin teachers, Drew Lecher and Desiree Ruhstrat.
Masha is a regular guest of many prestigious concert series and took the highest awards in the Illinois Music Association Competition, the National Walgreens Competition, the National Discover Chamber Music Competition, the National Granquist Geneva Days Music Competition, the DePaul Open Division Concerto Festival, the American Protégé Piano and Strings Solo and Concerto Competitions, and the 28th Annual Music Festival in Honor of Confucius. In November 2013 Masha became the youngest finalist of 7th International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists and was praised by Stradivari Magazine, which stated: “American Masha Lakisova, in Mendelssohn concerto, stood out for her sensitive musicianship and communication with the pianist…”
She has had the honor of performing in musical venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Cultural Center, Bennett-Gordon Hall at Ravinia, and Pick Staiger Hall at Northwestern University. In December 2012 and July 2013, she was also featured live on WFMT’s Introductions with David Polk.
Masha was also a part of Lake Forest Symphony’s 25 Under 25 series in May of 2013 playing Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen Op. 20 as well as performing the third and fourth movements of Claude Debussy’s Piano Trio in G minor as a part of the Prometheus Piano Trio.
Our 2013-14 season features five stellar guest conductors who have been chosen from a pool of over 150 as candidates for the position of Music Director and Conductor of the Lake Forest Symphony, beginning with the 2014-15 season. We are honored to be able to bring such outstanding talent to our community this year and hope that you will join us in showing these candidates the high level of interest we share in the performing arts in the greater Chicago area, especially in the Northern Suburbs.
We look forward to welcoming a large turnout from the Bulgarian community for this concert as well as the last remaining concert!
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George Speros, Board Member
Susan Lape, Executive Director
