"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
He is hailed as a “gifted conductor who’s clearly going places” (Chicago Tribune), and is Principal Conductor of Orchestra i Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, Italy. Alongside his orchestral and operatic engagements in Milan, Feddeck’s return visits include Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National de Lille and to the Residentie Orkest. Recent engagements include the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Japan.
Born in New York, James Feddeck has appeared extensively in North America, including with The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Seattle Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Oregon Symphony. He has also conducted many of Europe’s leading orchestras such as the Orchestre national de France, Vienna Radio Symphony, Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Weimar, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Barcelona Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Hallé; and has enjoyed successful visits to Australasia with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia.
In particular, he has been well-regarded for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner with a number of acclaimed performances of the composer’s symphonies: No. 8 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the fifth on tour with the Orchestre National de Belgique and Bruckner Symphony No. 6 and No. 9 with the RTÉ Dublin National Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, respectively.
James Feddeck has performed with many of the world’s leading soloists, including Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Rudolf Buchbinder, Gautier Capuçon, Ellinor D’Melon, James Ehnes, Martin Frost, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Gary Hoffmann, Steven Isserlis, Vadym Kholodenko, Yo-Yo Ma, Truls Mørk, Midori, Daniel Müller-Schott, Javier Perianes, Fazıl Say, and Arabella Steinbacher. His recorded discography includes the works of Georg Schumann with Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (2017), and the music of Terry Riley and Dane Rudhyar with The Cleveland Orchestra and Calder Quartet (2022).
Feddeck studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, was Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra. He is a winner of the Solti Conducting Award, and of the Aspen Conducting Prize.
James Feddeck performs the Brahms Double Concerto with Julia Pushker (violin), Gary Hoffman (cello) and Belgian National Orchestra live in Brussels.
(Video courtesy of Belgian National Orchestra and Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.)
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 and Orchestra i Pomeriggi Musicali perform Beethoven’s Symphony n° 9 recorded live in Milan.
(Video courtesy of i Pomeriggi Musicali/RAI)
James Feddeck returns to Japan for a program honoring Maestro Kazuyoshi Akiyama. . .
Acclaim for Maestro Feddeck’s performances of Massenet’s cherished composition. . .
James Feddeck, ‘06 shares insights with Oberlin students. . .
Feddeck / Orchestre National de Lille / Brahms at prominent music festival. . .
Belgian National Orchestra and Feddeck at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. . .
“I miei Pomeriggi nel Foyer”: Feddeck discusses his tenure as chief conductor of Milan’s orchestra. . .
James Feddeck joins Fred Plotkin for IDAGIO's "Fred Plotkin on Fridays". . .
James Feddeck discusses his debut with the Enescu Philharmonic in Bucharest. . .
Maestro Feddeck leads performances of Nino Rota’s opera in Pavia, Como, Cremona, and Bergamo. . .
Tabatha McFadyen interviews James Feddeck ahead of his return to Auckland, New Zealand. . .
It was during the pandemic that James Feddeck felt his calling more than he ever had before. . .
Erich Burnett: April 5, 2022
View original article.
It was during the pandemic—when artists everywhere had everything to express and nobody to express it to—that James Feddeck felt his calling more than he ever had before.
For the previous seven years, the two-degree graduate of Oberlin Conservatory had been making his living as a guest conductor for orchestras all over the world—sometimes even swooping in just in time to cover for a sick music director.
And he was doing quite well at it: Those one-offs just about always led to accolades, and eventually to return engagements.
That appeared to be the case one day in the summer of 2020, when Feddeck took a call from an orchestra in Milan where he had guest-conducted several times before. But with orchestras everywhere shut down in that moment—and for who knew how much longer—he wondered what they could possibly want.
“We would like you to be our principal conductor,” he remembers hearing.
I think you’ve got the wrong person, came Feddeck's reply.
Turns out they had the right person. Now nearly two years into his role at the helm of Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, and despite an ocean parked between his U.S. residence and his workplace, Feddeck and his ensemble have made music together at a time when few other orchestras could, in a nation that had been crippled by the virus. He continued to fly regularly—usually on empty planes, the flight attendants his only companions—to ensure that the 2020-21 season could take place.
And it did take place, without a single concert missed. Just Feddeck and his musicians in an empty hall, joined by a virtual audience far larger than any the orchestra previously could have imagined. And all of it—at Feddeck’s insistence—was offered free of charge.
“I said to myself This is what it’s all about now,” he recalls. “This is the time when we need people who are really committed to this.
“We did not stop. And it was a weird feeling, because I would finish these concerts with the orchestra, and the concert hall would be empty, the streets of Milan—one of the biggest cities in the world—would be empty. Everything would be closed. But I felt so connected despite all of that.
“It seemed like we had everybody. We had all of our people and more. And this is what it’s all about. This is the time when our values come into focus. The pandemic time and the time since has really motivated me, and it’s made me even more certain about the future of classical music.”
To be fair, envisioning a bright future in music was never an issue for Feddeck. A prodigious pianist, organist, oboist, and conductor raised in an unmusical but tirelessly supportive New York family, he took part in youth piano competitions, organized wind quintets, led a youth orchestra, played the organ at his church by age 8, and served as its choirmaster by 11.
“It was just so incredible, and I loved it all,” he says. “I didn’t know what I was going to do professionally. I knew music, but there was a lot of pressure from different places as to where to study.”
Ultimately, he said yes to Oberlin because Oberlin said yes to everything he dreamed of doing, whereas other music schools prodded him to choose between his passions before enrolling.
In 2005, Feddeck completed a bachelor’s degree in organ and oboe performance, and he had also played piano and frequently organized ad hoc orchestras and other ensembles. The following year, he completed a master of music in conducting.
“I felt so fortunate to come to Oberlin,” he says. “As time has passed since I left in 2006, I realize just how much Oberlin made me everything that I am. The place and the people. I had wonderful teachers and mentors of all kinds, and great friendships.
“There are not many places as rich and microcosmic as Oberlin. I got to do a lot, and I got to conduct a lot, probably because all of my friends in the con all had the time to do it. We all lived here in this wonderful, beautiful place. I would be rehearsing orchestras that I put together at 10 o’clock at night in Warner Concert Hall. We would rehearse until they kicked us out. I can’t think of many other environments where that could happen—where it would be allowed to happen. But here, people wanted it to happen.
“I loved orchestral repertoire and loved the mystery and the psychology of how a great orchestra works,” he says. “How a great relationship between the best orchestras and conductors happens. How can I understand that, and how can I study that? Oberlin just gave me the keys and said run with it. That’s why I say Oberlin—totally, the people and the place—made me what I am today.”
Feddeck spent the next four summers as a fellow and assistant conductor under David Zinman ’58 at the Aspen Music Festival, earning its coveted conducting prize in the process. By 2009 he was assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. In 2013 he won a prestigious Solti Conducting Award. That same year, he broke away from the orchestra to pursue other horizons.
“I wanted to learn as much as I could,” he recalls. “I felt the way to do that would be to experience as many different ways of doing things as possible. I wanted to conduct in Vienna. I wanted to understand how a Viennese orchestra thinks. I wanted to do Beethoven in Germany—which is not to say they have a better understanding, but it’s a different understanding than what I have been trained in here in the United States. It’s a different set of ideas to consider. I really wanted the opportunity to develop my own inner voice by putting myself in as many different and contrasting situations as possible.”
Feddeck certainly accomplished that, logging debuts with the major orchestras of Vienna, Berlin, Barcelona, Stockholm, Helsinki, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, and Toronto, among many others. “Very rarely in that seven years did I repeat any piece of repertoire, and that was on purpose. I need to do as much as possible, and I need to push myself to take advantage of that.”
But the lifestyle he chose also came with its share of uneasy moments. “You’re waiting by the telephone a lot. It’s not 9 to 5 work. In that way, I can relate to what students are going through today. A lot of what being a professional means is that kind of way of life.”
Happily, Feddeck relishes opportunities to share his experience with students of today. For two weeks in March, he prepared the Oberlin Orchestra for a performance of Barber’s Piano Concerto and John Adams’ Doctor Atomic Symphony on his onetime home stage of Finney Chapel.
He urged them to seize the moment, and the moments that will make up the rest of their undergraduate experience. To be prepared for whatever might come next. He found them receptive at every turn, and he marvels at their resilience after two years of uncertainty.
“This is what we are about,” Feddeck says. “That’s what the pandemic has taught me. It’s really shaken and arisen the values that we have always believed and the values that Oberlin has always embodied for me. If we’re not going to be fully committed to art and music and positive human expression, and bringing people together however we can, live or over the internet—if we’re not going to do that now, then it’s all talk.”
James Feddeck returns to the Belgian National Orchestra on Monday, March 14, 2022 for a special 80th anniversary concert in honor of the Queen Music Elisabeth Chapel in Brussels.
The Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel provides an outstanding focus to pursue the sharing of musical ideas and mentoring opportunities of emerging musical talents from around the world.
This gala concert, attended by HM Queen Paola, Honorary Chair of the Music Chapel and HM King Albert II, will be video live streamed and is available for viewing (8pm Brussels / 3pm New York):
James Feddeck's performance with Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI is available for viewing via RAI Play.
Recorded live on November 11, 2021 from Turin, Italy, the program includes Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, Symphony No. 3 ("Scottish"), and the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 with Alexander Melnikov as soloist.
Maestro Feddeck returns to Paris to lead the Orchestre National de France in a performance of Berlioz, Bizet, and Schumann on Thursday, 17 June at 8 pm at L’Auditorium de Radio France.
He first conducted the Orchestre National de France in January 2018, and his return visit for April 2020 was postponed due to the global pandemic crisis. In March 2020 he also appeared in Paris with the Orchestre National d’Ile de France.
The program will be available for listening via France Musique. Click here to access the France Musique listening page.
In light of governmental regulations closing theaters and concert halls to public audiences due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Orchestra i Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano and Chief Conductor, James Feddeck, will be presenting the originally programmed concerts via Internet live streaming.
The concerts will be free of charge, available to all during the scheduled performance times as live, simulcast transmissions from the concert hall, Teatro dal Verme in Milan.
James Feddeck returns to the National Orchestra of Belgium for concerts on Sunday, October 25, 2020 at Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. These concerts are open for a reduced public, and are among the very first the orchestra presents while able to remain open due to COVID-19 pandemic regulations.
The concert will be played twice, so as to accommodate as much audience as possible, at 2 pm and 4:15 pm.
5 October 2020: Milan, Italy
The appointment of James Feddeck as Principal Conductor of Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano was announced at a press conference today in Milan’s Teatro dal Verme, with immediate effect, and for an initial 3-year term.
This position is the culmination of regular appearances with the orchestra, and was announced ahead of the season-opening week led by Feddeck of an all-Beethoven program featuring his Seventh Symphony and the “Emperor” Concerto with Bertrand Chamayou.
Speaking of the title, Maestro Feddeck said: “I am delighted to accept this appointment as Principal Conductor of the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano. For 76 years, this orchestra has shared the world’s finest musicians, composers, and conductors with Milan audiences. I’m honored to join this important musical tradition and look forward to our deepening relationship.”
Giovanni Battista Benvenuto, President of the Orchestra, said: “The appointment of Feddeck fits perfectly into the tradition of Pomeriggi Musicali, investing in a talent that still has a lot to express and at the same time goes beyond national and European borders, looking at the American school.
In recent years, Feddeck has worked a lot with our orchestra, always achieving excellent results. The orchestra has always been enthusiastic about the work done together, which the Board of Directors has also recognized by focusing on him for the next three years."
For more information: Orchestra I Pomeriggi di Milano, James Feddeck, Principal Conductor.
Click here to listen.
With acclaimed performances across America and Europe, James Feddeck concludes his 2018-19 concert season in Asia where he debuts with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan’s historic Zhongshan Hall.
On June 15, 2019, he presents a concert of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, paired with Beethoven’s Overture to Coriolan and in collaboration with cellist Isang Enders for the Cello Concerto of Robert Schumann.
For more information, please visit: Taipei Symphony Orchestra.
James Feddeck returns to Germany and conducts the Staatskapelle Weimar in a program of Ravel, Bartók, and Dvořák on May 12 and 13.
The Staatskapelle Weimar is one of the historic musical institutions of Germany, whose prestigious lineage of musical leadership include Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss.
Ravel’s La Valse (1919-20) takes homage to the waltz of Nineteenth-century Vienna and is regarded as a metaphorical representation of Europe in the aftermath of World War I. Ravel begins with murmurs that mature into a sophisticated waltz. The dancing moves faster and faster, and ultimately it chaotically spins out-of-control to complete breakdown.
Bela Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto (1945) was written as a gift for the composer’s wife. The charming character of this concerto contains Bartók’s characteristic rhythms as well as a quotation from the third movement of Beethoven’s fifteenth string quartet, “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit” (“Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity”). This musical reference lends a particularly personal insight from the composer.
Feddeck concludes the program with Dvořák’s New World Symphony (1893), written while Dvořák was director of the National Conservatory of Music of the United States. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premiered at Carnegie Hall, this symphony centers upon Dvořák's experience while away from his native homeland, and his fascination with American music: its folk melodies and spirituals.
For more information about these performances and the Staatskapelle Weimar, please visit: Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar.
James Feddeck returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on 7, 9, and 10 March at Symphony Center's Orchestra Hall in downtown Chicago and on 8 March at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.
These March 2019 concerts are Feddeck's fourth appearances with the Chicago Symphony. Since his debut on the orchestra’s MusicNOW contemporary music series in September 2014, he has been reinvited to the orchestra to lead performances in June 2015 and October 2015.
Feddeck conducts the CSO in a majestic program including Dvorak’s dynamic Seventh Symphony, together with Beethoven’s Overture to Coriolan: music which portrays the aggression and hubris of the Roman leader, Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Feddeck again collaborates with renowned pianist Nicholas Angelich, and presents Beethoven’s beloved Fifth Piano Concerto, “Emperor”.
Colored by turbulence, these pieces seem to be artistic resonances with the world today, where music offers a primary source of comfort and illuminative perspectives of understanding. These musical works contrast power and tenderness, strength and peace—qualities echoed in every ounce of our mutual human experiences.
For more information, please visit: Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
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.