Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

“With prodigious technique and rhapsodic flair, Mr. Abduraimov dispatched the work’s challenges, including burst upon burst of arm-blurring octaves, with eerie command.” (The New York Times)

Behzod Abduraimov performs with renowned orchestras worldwide including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and Concertgebouworkest and with prestigious conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Lorenzo Viotti, James Gaffigan, Jakub Hrůša, Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Gustavo Dudamel.

In recital Behzod has appeared a number of times at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and has recently been presented by Chicago Symphony, Kölner Philharmonie and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Festival appearances include Aspen, Verbier, Rheingau, La Roque Antheron and Lucerne Festivals.

Forthcoming engagements include Chicago Symphony under Lahav Shani, returns to the Concertgebouworkest, St Petersburgh Philharmonic, Seattle and Dallas Symphonies as well as Oslo and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras. Behzod will be returning to the Barbican Hall, 92nd Street Y, Spivey Hall, Vancouver Recital Series as well as The Conrad Center, La Jolla.

2020 saw the release of two recordings: Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under James Gaffigan, recorded on Rachmaninov’s own piano from Villa Senar for Sony Classical and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 with Concertgebouworkest under Valery Gergiev, for the RCO live label. Both recordings were nominated for the 2020 Opus Klassik awards in multiple categories. A film of his BBC Proms debut in 2016, with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Valery Gergiev, was released as a DVD in 2018.His 2012 debut CD of Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Prokofiev for Decca won the Choc de Classica and Diapason Découverte and his first concerto disc for the label featured Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3 and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No.1. 

Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1990, Behzod began the piano aged five as a pupil of Tamara Popovich at Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent. In 2009, he won First Prize at the London International Piano Competition with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3. He studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University, Missouri, where he is Artist-in-Residence.

Markus Stenz, Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Conductor-in-Residence of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, is known for performances of great expressive scope, from Rameau to Berio, probing interpretations of German repertoire, and an audacious command of contemporary music.  His previous appointments have included General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister, Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, Music Director of the Montepulciano Festival, Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta—one of the most renowned ensembles of contemporary music—and Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

During the 2018-2019 season, Stenz leads the much-anticipated world premiere of Fin de Partie by György Kurtág at La Scala in November, broadcast live on RAI-Radio 3.  The one-act opera, with a libretto based on the Samuel Beckett play, End Game, represents the 92-year-old Hungarian composer’s first opera.  Staged by Pierre Audi, the co-production with the Netherlands Opera receives its Dutch premiere in March 2019, which Maestro Stenz also leads.  At Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Tivoli-Vredenburg concert hall in Utrecht, he conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in concerts that range from Debussy’s La Mer, to Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, and Walton’s First Symphony, alongside works by Elgar and Julian Anderson.  Other notable programs contrast Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony with Schoenberg’s Erwartung with soprano Asmik Grigorian; Kurtág’s Petite musique solennelle, En homage à Pierre Boulez 90, Bartók’s Viola Concerto with soloist Tabea Zimmermann; and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.  A highlight of Stenz’s spring season is a concert performance with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Schreker’s alluring, large-scale opera Die Gezeichneten (The Branded) at the Concertgebouw.

At the Seoul Philharmonic, where Maestro Stenz is conductor-in-residence, he is joined by the virtuoso Andreas Ottensamer, [principal clarinetist of the Berlin Philharmonic] for Lutosławski’s Dance Preludes and Stamitz’s Clarinet Concerto No. 7 in E-flat major, in a program that includes Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel and Ravel’s Boléro.  He concludes the season in Korea with performances of two of the early twentieth century’s most evocative tone poems, Rachmaninoff’s The Isle of the Dead and Scriabin’s Le Poème de l’extase. As principal guest conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Stenz welcomes Latvian violinist Baiba Skride, for performances of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, and works by Haydn and Wagner.  Virtuoso Paul Huang joins Stenz and the Baltimore Symphony for the rarely played Violin Concerto by Khachaturian.  Also this season, Maestro Stenz returns to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to lead the Australian premiere of Chinese composer Qigang Chen’s Violin Concerto, performed by Maxim Vengerov, alongside Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. He debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony in a program of Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Busoni, and Scriabin, illustrating four pianist-composer perspectives.

Markus Stenz’s international guest engagements in 2018-2019 include the Orchestra della Toscana, Stavanger Symfoniorkester in Norway, Dortmund Philharmonic, and China National Center for the Performing Arts.  He also leads the Antwerp Symphony in performances of Ives’s The Unanswered Question and Mahler’s Symphony No. 10 at the new Queen Elisabeth Hall in Belgium.  In North America, he is guest conductor with the Oregon Symphony and Nashville Symphony.

Highlights of Maestro Stenz’s previous season demonstrate his vital range of programming in performances around the world.  He conducted the German premiere of Detlev’s Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch with the Symphoniker Hamburg during the inaugural season at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.  He led the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in performances of Strauss’s Elektra, Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, and contemporary works by Dutch composers Mayke Nas, Joey Roukens, and Rob Zuidam.  Stenz also conducted performances in the major concert halls of Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, and Korea.  He appeared as guest conductor throughout the United States, leading the symphony orchestras of St. Louis, Colorado, Utah, and San Diego, and the Minnesota Orchestra.  As principal guest conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, he led concerts ranging from Beethoven and Mahler to Liszt and Wagner. Festival engagements included the Grand Teton Music Festival with violinist Leila Josefowicz, and the Grant Park Music Festival with violinist Paul Huang.

Since his debut as an opera conductor at La Fenice in Venice, Markus Stenz has led many world premieres, including three operas by Hans Werner Henze:  Das Verratene Meer at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Venus und Adonis at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and L’Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe at the 2003 Salzburg Festival.  Stenz has appeared at many of the world’s major opera houses and international festivals, Teatro alla Scala, La Monnaie, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Edinburgh International Festival, the Bregenz Festival, where he conducted the world premiere of Solaris by Detlev Glanert in July 2012, and the Salzburg Festival.  As former General Music Director of the City of Cologne, he led performances of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersigner von Nürnberg, and Parsifal, as well as Janačék’s Jenufa and Kát’a Kabanová.

He has conducted orchestras around the world including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Berlin Phiharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of the Bayerische Rundfunk, Hessischer Rundfunk, WDR, and NDR.  In the United States, Stenz has led the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Houston, Seattle, and St. Louis, Boston, Dallas, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Stenz’s extensive discography includes many award-winning recordings, among them the complete symphonies of Mahler with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne on the Oehms Classics label; the CD of the Fifth Symphony was selected for the Quarterly Critics’ Choice by the German Record Critics’ Award Association.  Recent notable recordings include Glanert’s Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch, with the Royal Concergebouw Orchestra, an album of Henze orchestral works, James MacMillan’s St. Luke Passion, and K.A. Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.  Stenz has made more than 60 recordings with the Gürzenich Orchestra, with repertoire that includes Haydn, Chausson, Thomas Adès, and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder (recipient of the 2016 Gramophone Classical Music Award for best choral album) among many others.  He has also recorded with the world’s major 20th-century and contemporary chamber orchestras, including the Ensemble Modern and London Sinfonietta, which he led as artistic director. 

Markus Stenz has been accorded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Northern College of Music and the Silberne Stimmgabel (“Silver Tuning Fork”) by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.  He resides in Cologne, Germany with his wife and two children.