How did Beethoven gain his rank among the most popular classical composers? Where does the international success come from - why isn't he just popular in Germany and Austria?
For the composer’s 250th anniversary, few of the live concerts which had been planned to take place in 2020 actually happened. 1014 was able to celebrate the composer with the socially distanced concert series “Beethoven for One” in November 2020 and offers this digital discussion with three Beethoven-enthusiasts for anybody who wants to get a deeper insight into the meaning of the work and the life of the internationally acclaimed musical genius from Bonn, Germany.
1014 invited cellist and Beethoven-expert Jia Kim, composer and conductor Carl Christian Bettendorf, and composer and choreographer Miro Magloire to discuss how, and why, his music was a revolution during his lifetime and whether it remains relevant today.
Biographies
Jia Kim
Korean-American cellist Jia Kim, recipient of the prestigious 2017 career award from the Leonore Annenberg Foundation for Performing and Visual Arts, leads a dynamic musical life as a performer, educator, and a passionate advocate for the Arts. She has appeared on stages across the United States, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East with performances broadcasted on WQXR, PBS, KMZT Classical, and acclaimed by the New York Times. As an alum of the Perlman Music Program, she joined Itzhak Perlman on a tour across Toronto, Mexico City, Virginia Beach, Miami and New York City.
Ms. Kim has been invited as Visiting Artist at the University of Hawaii, American Academy of Jordan, College of William and Mary, Grand Valley State University, and served as a Tone Judge for the Violin Society of America's 2016 International Competition.
Currently she is on Faculty at The Juilliard School Precollege Division and New York Youth Symphony’s Chamber Music Program. As Artistic Director of Central Chamber Series in NYC and Spruce Peak Chamber Music Society in Stowe, VT, she is committed to connecting with a wider audience through the powerful language of Chamber Music, both through education and performance.
Ms.Kim is evermore grateful to her mentors and teachers Ronald Leonard, Itzhak&Toby Perlman, and to Joel Krosnick, with whom she studied at the Juilliard School for a Bachelor and Master Degree in Music. Ms.Kim performs on a Testore cello made in 1748.
Carl Christian Bettendorf
Carl Christian Bettendorf is a New York-based composer/conductor. Born in Hamburg, Germany, he studied composition with Hans-Jürgen von Bose and Wolfgang Rihm in MunichandKarlsruhebeforemovingtoNewYork,wherehereceivedhisdoctoratefrom Columbia University under T ristan Murail.
Bettendorf’s compositions have been played at many prestigious venues and festivals in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. In July 1997, his first opera Escorial after Michel de Ghelderode was premiered at the Prinzregententheater in Munich. He has received numerous awards, among them a fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center (Nebraska), the MacDowell Colony (N.H.), and the V irginia Center for the Creative Arts; and commissions from the Fromm Foundation and the Ralph Kaminsky Fund.
Asaconductor, Mr. Bettendorf has worked closely with ensembles in New York (Wet Ink, counter) induction; Ghost and Talea ensembles) and abroad (piano possibile in Munich, Ostravská banda in the Czech Republic), and was director of the Manhattanville College Community Orchestra (Purchase, NY) as well as visiting director of the Bates College Orchestra (Lewiston, ME). He recently conducted opera productions at Bard College and at the Opéra national de Montpellier (France) and has served as assistant conductor for the Columbia University and American Composers orchestras, Miller Theatre, and the Munich Biennale. Mr. Bettendorf has recorded for the Albany , ArtV oice, Carrier, Cybele, Hat Hut, Indexical, New Focus, and Tzadik labels.
https://soundcloud.com/ccbettendorf
Miro Magloire
Lauded as "refreshingly original" by Alastair Macaulay of The New York Times, Miro Magloire is the founder and artistic director of New Chamber Ballet, for which he has created over 90 ballets in his signature, sculpturesque style. "It's heartening to see work so focused on the meeting of dance and music,” Macaulay wrote in his Times review, “always you're aware of an intelligence at work that resists romantic cliché."
Magloire's choreography is strongly influenced by his initial training as a composer. At age 17 he won the “Forum Junger Komponisten” award in Nordrhein-Westfalen in his native Germany and went on to study composition at the Musikhochschule Köln with Mauricio Kagel, before moving to New York City and turning to dance. Magloire’s passion for, and deep understanding of cutting-edge contemporary music has led him to engage in groundbreaking collaborations with musicians, redefining how dancers and musicians can interact on and off the stage, and introducing the dance world to many of today’s leading composers. The subject of a full-page profile in the Sunday NY Times in 2008, Magloire has been commissioned by Joyce SoHo, Roulette, the Moving Sounds and Sonic Music Festival in New York City, the Sarasota Opera, Grace Farms Connecticut, and the American Academy in Rome, Italy, and has collaborated with music groups including the Momenta String Quartet, Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Ensemble Moto Perpetuo, Ensemble Sospeso and the Stamford Symphony.