with José Dias (piano)

Thursday, 30 May 2013
Odeion
19:30

Born in Bogotá, (Colombia) in May 1995, Santiago started playing cello at age four under the supervision of his mother.  He had formal studies for the next eight years with Polish cellist, Maestro Henryk Zarzycki, in Bogotá, Colombia. Santiago is already known around the world for his extraordinary musicality and virtuoso playing.

Making his debut as a concerto soloist playing Vivaldi with the Bogota Philharmonic at the age of six, he has performed with major orchestras many times since, including Haydn’s great D major Cello Concerto at the age of nine, Dvorak’s Cello Concerto age twelve and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto at age fourteen, making him probably one of the youngest cellists in the world to perform this large scale work.

In 2009 and 2012 he was one of the Young Talents at the III and VI Cartagena International Music Festival.   He was accepted to compete in the V Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition in Mexico (eleven years), VII Adam International Music - Cello Competition (NZ) (thriteen years) and the 2010 Beijing International Music - Cello Competition (fifteen years), in which he was joint top prize winner. In December 2011 (sixteen years), he won first prize in the Gisborne International Music Competition 2011 (NZ), First Prize at the National Concerto Competition (Christchurch, NZ) and in March 2012 Second Prize in the Johansen International String Competition for Young String Players (Washington, D.C.).

He has played as soloist with the Bogotá Philharmonic, Medellín Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and the HangZhou Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing (China) to name but a few.

In May 2012 he premièred the Gulda Cello Concerto with the Auckland Chamber Orchestra in Auckland, New Zealand. In October of 2012, he makes his debut in Australia as soloist with the Victoria Orchestra in Melbourne, performing the Elgar Cello Concerto. 

Santiago is currently studying at the University of Waikato under James Tennant, in a special new ‘Soloist Stream’ designed to cater for exceptional talent and his studies are sponsored by the Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship. 

He has played for a number of world-famous musicians including among others Yo-Yo Ma, Andres Diaz, Gary Hoffman, Philipe Müller, Pieter Wispelwey, Aldo Parisot, Alban Gerhardt, Li Wei Qin, Franz Helmerson, Alisa Weilerstein, Uzi Wiesel and Wolfgang Schmidt.

He has been invited to participate at the VI Cartagena International Music Festival 2012, where he was playing a recital with the renowned pianist Gloria Lin and share the stage with Alisa Weilerstein, Christopher Costanza and Jesus Castro - Balbi, among others. Santiago finished recording his first CD with solo cello works by Kodaly, Ginastera, Ligeti and Cassadó. 

José Dias, born in Fafe (Portugal), took private piano lessons whereafter he studied at the Academia de Musica Ventim Moreira de Sá in Guimarães.  In South Africa he studied at the University of Stellenbosch where he obtained a BMusHons degree (cum laude) specialising in piano.  From 2005 he furthered his studies under well known pianist and pedagogue, Konstantin Scherbakov, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zürich (Switzerland), where he obtained his concert diploma with distinction.  In 2007 José  took up a position as Vocal Coach, Accompanist and Repetiteur at Cape Town Opera and moved to South Africa on a permanent basis.  He has recently ended his full-time commitment at CTO and embarked on a freelancing career as pianist.

In 2011 Jose enrolled for a PhD in solo performance at the University of Cape Town under the supervision of Profs Francois du Toit and Hendrik Hofmeyr and was shortly thereafter declared winner of the coveted Olive Lieberz-Theron Prize for outstanding pianism at the SA College of Music.

Besides his regular appearances in solo recitals and his ever growing demand as accompanist and chamber musician, José Dias has also regularly performed under the batons of Corvin Matei, Xandi van Dyk, Erns Conradie, Young Kyu Song, Christopher Dowdeswell and David Tidboald. He is also a regular participant in Masterclasses, having worked with pianists such as Barbara Doria, Ella Fourie, Joseph Stanford, Anton Nel, Vladimir Viardo and Alexei Lubimov.

Programme:

Tchaikovsky – Pezzo Capriccioso
Beethoven – Sonata in A major, Op. 69 
Cassadó – Dance of the Green Devil
Debussy – Sonata for cello and piano
Ginastera – Sonata for cello and piano, Op. 49

Admission:

R130 (adults), R90 (pensioners), R50 (students and learners), R50 (group booking of 10+)
Tickets available at Computicket.

Enquiries:       

Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504)