
Schumann 4
October 19, 2021 at 7:30 pm
Moody Performance Hall
2520 Flora Street, Dallas, Texas 75201 (map it)
Main Event at 7:30 PM
The DCS opens its season with Robert Schumann’s joyful Symphony No. 4 in D Minor. Concertmaster Kazuhiro Takagi and cellist Jesús Castro-Balbi join forces to perform Johannes Brahms’ beautiful Double Concerto in A Minor. The program opens with Felix Mendelssohn’s colorful and rousing Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Richard McKay, conductor
Kazuhiro Takagi, violin
Jesús Castro-Balbi, cello
Program
Mendelssohn: Overture, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Brahms: Double Concerto for Violin and Cello
Allegro
Andante
Vivace non troppo
INTERMISSION
R. Schumann: Symphony No. 4
Andante con moto – Allegro di molto
Romanza: Andante
Scherzo: Presto
Largo – Finale: Allegro vivace
Tickets By Phone
214.449.1294
9:00am – 5:00pm, Monday – Friday
Voicemails also accepted.
Online
Pricing
Reserved Seating: $24-54
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At the Door
Tickets may be purchased at the box office in the lobby, which opens 90 minutes before the event start time. Cash and major credit cards are accepted. Save time by ordering in advance, online or by phone.
What People Are Saying
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Concertmaster Kazuhiro Takagi enjoys an international career and reputation as an experienced violin soloist, recording artist, and leader of orchestras. He has served tenures as concertmaster of the Tokyo Symphony, Chicago Civic Orchestra (under Daniel Barenboim), and solo concertmaster of the Yamagata Symphony and Wuerttembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen in Germany. He has also held positions with the Osaka Philharmonic, Osaka Symphony, Japan Century Symphony, Vietnam National Symphony and the Kansai Philharmonic.
Mr. Takagi has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Europe and Japan. He is a prizewinner of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition and the 54th Geneva International Music Competition. As first violinist of the Eusia String Quartet, he received first prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in Indiana. For his performances, he has also received the coveted Aoyama Music Award of Kyoto Baroque Saal.
Born in Osaka, Japan, and currently a resident of Tokyo, Mr. Takagi returns to Dallas frequently, as he established deep roots in the North Texas community while studying violin with Eduard Schmieder at Southern Methodist University. Extensively trained on his instrument, he is a graduate of the prestigious Deuxieme Academie de Musique Francaise de Kyoto where he was a pupil of Pierre Dukan, and the Conservatoire National Superieur in Lyon, France, where he was mentored by Yuko Mori and Eduard Wulfson.
In addition to his duties as concertmaster of the Dallas Chamber Symphony, Mr. Takagi holds positions with the Nagaokakyo Chamber Ensmeble in Kyoto, Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka, Lilis Chamber Orchestra, and the alternative music group A Hundred Birds.
Mr. Takagi’s solo recordings with the Osaka Philharmonic are widely distributed on the Naxos label. His most recent album features the twentieth-century works of composer Hiroshi Ohguri.
Jesús Castro-Balbi is a concert cellist, pedagogue and higher education leader of international reputation with a passion for building communities through music and education. He has partnered with, among other fine conductors, Giancarlo Andretta, Linus Lerner, Carlos Miguel Prieto and Arild Remmereit, and performed as a soloist with the Aarhus, Dallas, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras; the China, Louisiana and Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestras; the Leipzig Radio Orchestra; and the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru. He has been featured at New York’s Alice Tully Hall, over a dozen times at Carnegie Hall, at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.
Jesús Castro-Balbi has long been a strong proponent of music of our time. His repertoire stretches from Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul and Arlington Jones’ Soul Unity Suite to Lutoslawski’s Cello Concerto. To date, he has presented 53 premiere performances, the world premiere recording of 19 works, and is the dedicatee of 19 compositions. He gave the New York premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Cello Concerto Kai; the first recording of the complete music for cello and piano by Robert Rodriguez. He also commissioned and premiered, with Germán Gutiérrez and the TCU Symphony Orchestra, Edgar Valcárcel’s Concerto Indio and Jimmy López’ cello concerto, Lord of the Air; and recorded the latter for Harmonia Mundi with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra led by Miguel Harth-Bedoya.
A renowned educator, he has guest taught at Beijing’s Central Conservatory, Paris Conservatoire, Leipzig and Stuttgart Hochschule, for the Japan Cello Society, at The Juilliard School, and at the Yale School of Music. Additionally, he has adjudicated at the Lynn Harrell Competition (Dallas), the Sphinx Competition (Michigan), and at the Aiqin Bei (China), Lutoslawski (Poland) and Carlos Prieto (Mexico) international cello competitions.
In 2021, he assumed the directorship of the Dr. Bobbie Bailey School of Music (BSOM) at Kennesaw State University. With over 300 music majors across six degree programs, outstanding faculty, significant scholarship resources, and a world-class presenting season, BSOM delivers an excellent and affordable, student-centered, research-driven and altogether transformative education in music within an extraordinary arts community at a thriving, large public university in metro Atlanta. Prior to joining Kennesaw State University, Dr. Castro-Balbi served as a professor at Texas Christian University for 18 years, where he built an internationally sought-after cello program, founded the TCU Cellofest and the Faculty & Friends Chamber Music Series, and was an effective university citizen.
Of Peruvian heritage and raised in France, Dr. Castro-Balbi graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur at Lyon, Indiana University Bloomington, and the Yale School of Music, and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School.
As an American Council on Education Fellow, he developed higher education leadership capacity with the University of Miami senior
executives, Drs. Julio Frenk, Jeff Duerk and Jackie Travisano, and at campuses across the nation.