Sunday, 3:00pm
Aleksey Semenenko, violin
Tickets $35
Beethoven-Leonore Overture No. 3
Mendelssohn-Symphony No. 5, “Reformation”
Tchaikovsky-Violin Concerto
Cornelia Laemmli Orth is in her twelfth season as music director of Symphony of the Mountains. In addition to Masterworks Series, she has developed new series of Summer Outdoor, Family, Young People, Pops, Patriotic and Cross-Over concerts. World renowned soloists are regular guests with Symphony of the Mountains. As an advocate for Contemporary Music, Cornelia brings a variety of new music to the region.
Her concert lectures, involvement with area schools, colleges and universities, speeches for civic organizations, regular TV and radio appearances and collaborations with regional art organizations have made her a vital part of the community.
In October 2017 she will appear as guest conductor with the Brevard Philharmonic in Brevard, NC.
After a guest conducting as a finalist with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra in Ithaca, NY in March 2016 she was offered the Music Director position, which she assumed in July 2016.
From 2010-2012, she held the position of interim music director for the Appalachian Philharmonic and the Appalachian State University Opera Program in Boone, NC. She resumed these responsibilities for the 2015-2016 season.
During the 2014-2015 Season, Cornelia had her debut as guest conductor with the Asheville Lyric Opera in Asheville, NC.
Prior to her engagement with Symphony of the Mountains, Cornelia held the position of music director and conductor of the Oak Ridge Symphony and Choir.
She served as Associate Conductor and later Principal Guest Conductor of the Knoxville Symphony from 2002-2008 and since then has had several appearances with this orchestra.
In Europe, she was music director of the Operetta Theatre in Moeriken, Switzerland, guest assistant conductor under Philippe Jordan at La Scala in Milano, Italy, worked with the Bohuslav Orchestra in the Czech Republic, and conducted many concerts with choirs and ad hoc orchestras with musicians from the Zurich Opera House and the Tonhalle Orchestra.
Cornelia received her Lehrdiplom in piano from the Conservatory at Winterhur and graduated from the Conservatory and University in Zurich with her Masters in Music Education and Choral Conducting. She obtained her Masters in Orchestra Conducting from Northwestern University, where she studied under Victor Yampolsky. In a variety of workshop settings, she studied under Larry Rachleff, Marin Alsop, Joann Falletta, Robert Spano, Kirk Trevor, Tsung Yeh, Milen Nachev and Johannes Schlaefli.
Cornelia convincingly combines the classical-romantic tradition of her old world origins with the unique American flavor that her international background and extensive working experience in her adopted country has provided her and is a sought-after guest conductor in the USA and in Europe.
Ukrainian violinist Aleksey Semenenko is praised for passionate performances replete with “stunning technique and intonation, verve, wit, delicatesse, and beautiful phrasing” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), as well as consistently demonstrating “an unparalleled level of refined musicianship and stage presence” (The Strad). This was evidenced in his triumph at the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, where he captured Second Prize and went on to perform Laureate concerts throughout Belgium with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and the Brussels Philharmonic. In 2016-2017, he performs recitals in the U.S. at the Morgan Library and Museum, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, and the Jewish Community Alliance in Florida, as well as concertos with the Long Bay Symphony and the Seattle Symphony. In Europe, he appears in Finland at the Korsholm Music Festival, in Croatia at the Dubrovnik Festival, in Luxembourg, where he performs chamber music with cellist Gary Hoffman and pianist Sabine Weyer, in France at Artepiano and MUSICAcité Festival, in Germany at Schloss Elmau, and as soloist with the National Orchestra of Ukraine, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, and the Pleven Philharmonic.
Mr. Semenenko has appeared in recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris and as soloist with orchestras abroad including the Moscow Virtuosi, the Kiev National Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Manfred Honeck, and the National Orchestra of Brussels under Hans Graff, as well as with U.S. orchestras including the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, the DuPage Symphony, the Meridian Symphony, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall, among others. Of his performance with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The New York Times wrote: “Aleksey Semenenko opened the concert with an elegant account of Mozart’s Concerto No. 5 and was also notable for a lively stage presence. He played with unfailing purity of tone, but also with wonderful spontaneity and humor.”
He appeared at the Interlaken Classics Festival in Switzerland as soloist with the Zakhar Bron Chamber Orchestra and toured Germany, performing recitals in
the Best of NRW Series. At the 2011 Musik:Landschaft Westfalen Festival, he performed Paganini’s Concerto No. 2 with the National Philharmonic of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov, and was subsequently invited by the Spivakov Foundation to perform at the Kremlin in Moscow and at the Moscow International Performing Arts Center. Mr. Semenenko performed the violin solo from John William’s “Schindler’s List” with the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra in Hamburg. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Semenenko was a member of the Stolyarsky Quartet, which has given concerts in Russia, the Ukraine, France, Malta, and Switzerland.
Semenenko’s other honors include First Prize in the 2015 Boris Goldstein International Violin Competition, Musical America’s New Artist of the Month (March 2015), the Audience Prize at the 2015 Musical Olympus International Festival in St. Petersburg, the Alois Kottmann Award at the 2010 International Day of Music Festival in Hofheim, Germany, and the Grand Prix of the 2006 National Violin Competition in Lviv, Ukraine.
Winner of the 2012 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, he was presented in debut recitals at Merkin Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center. At the Auditions, he was also awarded special prizes resulting in performances at the Paramount Theatre, the Usedomer Musikfestival, and the Friends of Music Concerts. He has also appeared in recital at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Port Washington Library, Rockefeller University, the Vero Beach Museum of Art, the First Presbyterian Church of Myrtle Beach, La Grua Center for the Arts, the Embassy Series, University of Florida Performing Arts, and Tannery Pond Concerts.
Born in Odessa, Mr. Semenenko began his violin studies at the age of six with Zoya Mertsalova at the Stolyarsky School, and only a year later performed Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in A Minor with the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra. He currently studies with Zakhar Bron at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. Mr. Semenenko plays a Stradivarius violin made in 1699, loaned to him by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben fund of Hamburg, Germany.
