Orchestral Showcase!
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May 17, 2025
7:30 pm
Hudson High School
69 Brigham St., Hudson MA 01749
May 18, 2025
3:00 pm
Mill Pond School
4 Olde Hickory Path, Westborough, MA 01581
About the concert
There will be a preconcert talk 45 minutes before the start of the performance
From Wagner’s stirring introduction to one of the monumental tragedies of Italian history to the exquisite tone painting of the French impressionist Debussy’s depiction of the many moods of the sea, this program reminds us why the symphony orchestra remains the most popularly appealing vehicle for the art of Western classical music. Prepare to be enchanted by the orchestra’s immense variety of expression and ability to both move and inspire us. Also featured on the program is the recently rediscovered major cello concerto by 20th century Brazilian composer, Claudio Santoro, that employs the cello to portray the exotic narrative, dance, and lyricism of our South American neighbor. We’re thrilled that the leading young Brazilian cellist Marina Martins, who recently released an award winning recording of the work, will join us as soloist.
Program
Program
Marina Martins
Brazilian cellist Marina Martins is a musician who has been recognized by her “great musicality, with technical demand and expression” (Pieter Wispelwey), and praised for her “unforced, yet compelling stage presence. Marina seems to have this rare combination of an uncommon intelligence and an ability to connect instinctively with the music” (Gaetan Le Divelec, Askonas Holt).
Her recent CD and premiere recording of the Claudio Santoro Cello Concerto with conductor Neil Thomson and Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra has had a positive reception worldwide including enthusiastic reviews from Gramophone UK, The Strad, BBC Music Magazine among others.
Marina began to learn the cello at the age of three. At eight, she won her first competition, and at sixteen, she made her solo debut in Bristol, England. She has won awards in several countries, highlighting the recent ‘Exilarte Preis’ Award received in Austria in 2021, and the Young Soloists Competition followed by the Eleazar de Carvalho Medal, by OSESP – São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra in 2018.
Great musicians tend to be like this: far beyond any accomplished discipline, the fruit of all those years and years of technical development, they maintain a naturality that seems to come from within the music itself. At the same time, they retain something of their own, an original and unmistakable way to go about the music. Marina Martins plays as Marina Martins from the very first to the very last note, whatever repertoire it may be. She combines intensity with discretion; and she seems to do everything over a background of serene joy, in a characteristic way that has by now become associated with herself. At age 20, she is already one of the great Brazilian soloists. One can well imagine the wealth of music still to come, much to our great fortune.
Born in New Zealand in 1999, Marina moved to her parent’s country Brazil at the age of five. Later, her pursuit for musical development led her to live in the United States, England, Germany and Switzerland. She was a student of Pieter Wispelwey at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf for four years. Marina currently lives in Switzerland and is under the guidance of Danjulo Ishizaka at the Musik Akademie Basel.
As an enthusiastic chamber musician, Marina has her own piano trio called 'Trio Basilea' which recently won 1st Prize in the 2023 Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition, and was one of only four groups selected for Trondheim Kammermusikk Festival in Norway. She has had the pleasure of performing with renowned artists in Europe such as Pieter Schoeman - concertmaster of the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Wenzel Fuchs - first Clarinetist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; and Stefan Mendl - pianist of the Viennese Trio, among others.
After her debut as soloist in 2015, Marina has performed with prestigious orchestras and conductors and her concerts have taken her to performances in England, Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, United States, Canada and Brazil.
Marina currently performs on a cello by Giuseppe Guarneri “filius Andreae” ca. 1700 – loaned by a private collector; and on a cello by M. Sturzenhofecker Cully 2009.
