Nicholas Canellakis and Michael Brown play "with their antennae tuned to each other.” (Washington Post)
The adventurous Canellakis Brown Duo performs Chopin and More, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Alberta Bair Theater in Billings as the first installment in this year’s Orser Outstanding Performances Series. The program features the only two works Frédéric Chopin wrote for cello and piano: Introduction and Polonaise Brilliante, a lively virtuosic Polish dance, and Sonata, one of his final and most forward-looking works.
Cellist Nicholas Canellakis and pianist-composer Michael Brown play with their antennae tuned to each other,” writes the Washington Post.
The duo recently toured the United States with a program of all American composers, culminating in a New York City recital presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Their debut duo album, Out of Darkness, featuring works by Barber, Shostakovich, Brown and Canellakis, was released on CAG Records in 2016.
Canellakis and Brown are both artists with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, having been winners of the society’s CMS Two international auditions. Both artists maintain active solo careers, performing concertos throughout the U.S. each season.
Canellakis, hailed as a “superb young soloist” by The New Yorker recently made his Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium debut as soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra. Brown, described as a “young piano visionary” by The New York Times, is a 2018 Emerging Artist of Lincoln Center and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient. Brown performed at Tippet Rise near Fishtail in September 2017.
Brown is also a critically acclaimed composer who has written four works for Canellakis. As Composer-in-Residence with the New Haven Symphony for the 2017-19 seasons, Brown has been commissioned to write a new symphonic work with Canellakis as soloist.
Canellakis is also a filmmaker and actor, and he and Brown produce and star in a comedy web series called Conversations with Nick Canellakis, in which they conduct satirical interviews with stars of the classical music world. All of their videos can be found on their websites, nicholascanellakis.com and michaelbrownmusic.com.
Tickets, $38 and $22 for students with valid I.D., are available at the Alberta Bair Theater Box Office on the corner of 3rd Ave N and N Broadway, by phone at 406-256-6052 and/or online at www.albertabairtheater.org.