Stella Grigorian - Tour de Tango
The Georgian mezzo-soprano Stella Grigorian, with Armenian roots, presents her impressive program "Tour de Tango" together with pianist Gustavo Beytelmann. This evening is dedicated to the works of Astor Piazzolla and Gustavo Beytelmann. As a versatile artist, who began her career at the Vienna State Opera, Grigorian brings her multilingual background and musical diversity to this concert project. Her passion for different musical styles and her extraordinary vocal range make "Tour de Tango" a special musical experience. This journey through the world of tango began with worldwide performances by Stella Grigorian, the magnificent mezzo-soprano, and her congenial partner, the Argentine Gustavo Beytelmann (co-founder of Tango Nuevo with Astor Piazzolla). Stella Grigorian continues this tour with young musicians: Oscar Bohórquez, violin, and on piano Guillaume Durand Piketty, using arrangements by Gustavo Beytelmann.
Stella Grigorian - Vocals
Oscar Bohórquez - Violin
Guillaume Durand-Piketty - Piano
Stella Grigorian was born as an Armenian in Tbilisi, Georgia. During her studies of French and Spanish, she simultaneously studied piano and opera singing at the music academy. She continued her vocal studies in Vienna at the conservatory. This was followed by a Karajan scholarship, and her first engagement brought her directly as a soloist to the Vienna State Opera, where she was a member of the ensemble for ten years. She sang leading roles such as Rosina in "The Barber of Seville," Zerlina in "Don Giovanni," and many Mozart and Rossini roles alongside Gruberova, Leo Nucci, Domingo, Baltsa, Netrebko, Garancha. She then made her debut at the Frankfurt Opera as Nerone in Handel's "Agrippina" and remained closely associated with the opera house as a soloist. She has performed on many significant opera stages worldwide, at the Salzburg Festival, Bregenz Festival under the direction of Zubin Mehta, Marc Minkowski, Riccardo Muti, Kirill Petrenko, Seiji Ozawa, etc. She has performed with Natalie Dessay in Paris, at the Verbier Festival, and in South America. Some CD productions have emerged from her song repertoire, among others with the notable song accompanist Helmut Deutsch. In recent years, she has devoted herself to tango alongside Gustavo Beytelmann, composer and pianist, an Argentine companion of Astor Piazzolla, with numerous performances. Chanson, especially French chanson, has grown dear to her heart. As often as possible, she tries to create chanson evenings between her classical repertoire. Numerous performances with the program "La Boheme," with Bela Koreny on piano, Johannes Strasser on double bass, Herwig Gradischnig on saxophone, Aaron Wonesch on accordion, and Karl Markovics, among others, at the Theater Akzent, Porgy and Bess, Theater im Park, Landestheater Linz, in Reichenau, and in the Vienna Concert Hall.
Guillaume Durand Piketty was born in 1995 into a family of musicians and began playing piano at the age of five. After lessons with Sergei Milstein, he studied with Denis Pascal at the CNSMD, conservatory in Paris. In 2017, he studied with Pascal Devoyon and Rikako Murata at the University of the Arts in Berlin, where he also studied chamber music with the Artemis Quartet. Masterclasses with Gottlieb Wallisch, Menahem Pressler, Avedis Koyumdjian, and Hortense Cartier-Bresson. Guillaume Durand Piketty is a prizewinner of several international piano competitions. Since 2016, he has been invited every year to perform a recital or a chamber music program at the Chateau Saint Jaques d’Albas. Guillaume Durand Piketty regularly performs with major musicians such as Jean-Guihen Queyras, Ophélie Gaillard, David Gaillard, and Xavier Philipps in Europe (Paris, Lyon, Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Prague, Bratislava).
Oscar Bohórquez was born in 1979. He initially completed his violin studies with Aaron Rosand at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and later perfected his skills with Günter Pichler, the first violinist of the Alban Berg Quartet, at the University of Music in Vienna. In Germany, Oscar Bohórquez has performed in venues such as the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, in Stuttgart, at the Gewandhaus Leipzig, and at the Berliner Philharmonie. Oscar Bohórquez has played worldwide in Europe, Latin America, the USA, China, and Japan. He has recorded albums featuring the violin sonatas of J.S. Bach and the 24 Caprices by Paganini. A duo album with the sought-after pianist Frank Braley and a solo album with Spanish-South American works, including Bohórquez's own solo sonata, were produced, as well as an album featuring works by Astor Piazzolla for his 100th birthday with the Patagonia Express. In 2020, SWR produced a music podcast about his musical career. Recordings of him have been broadcast on WDR, Deutschland Funk Kultur, RBB, and Radio Stephansdom. In 2023, an interview appeared in the Berliner Morgenpost about Oscar Bohórquez’s collaboration with actor Ulrich Tukur, as well as a television appearance on RBB. "The sound of his Guarneri del Gesù violin penetrates even in pianissimo to the last corner of the chamber music hall. He masters delicate things like decimal sounds in harmonics superbly, and he brings the insane runs and pizzicatos in the solo caprices masterfully to sound," wrote Mario-Felix Vogt in the Berliner Morgenpost about Oscar Bohórquez's performance in 2023 at the Berliner Philharmonie. Oscar Bohórquez performs on a rare world-class violin by Guarneri del Gesù from the year 1729.
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
