THE ROMANTIC CELLO

Rescheduled from an earlier date
June 27, 2020
at 7:30 p.m.

All tickets for the March 21, 2020 concert will be honored.

Ilya Finkelshteyn, principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will perform Dvorak’s lush Concerto for Cello on June 27th with Maestro Keitaro Harada on the podium. Also, to stir your soul on the Romantic Cello program, is Brahms’ much loved Symphony No. 2. Love is definitely in the air!

Conductor Keitaro Harada

Conductor Keitaro Harada continues to be recognized at the highest levels for his artistic abilities and passion for musical excellence. As a three-time recipient of The Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award (2014, 2015, 2016), Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview (2013), the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood Music Festival, a student of Lorin Maazel at Castleton Festival and Fabio Luisi at Pacific Music Festival, Harada’s credentials are exemplary.

In his third season as Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops, Harada regularly assists Music Director Louis Langrée and conducts the CSO, POPS, and World Piano Competition, and assists James Conlon and Juanjo Mena for the May Festival. Keitaro also holds the position of Associate Conductor of the Arizona Opera.

With a growing schedule as an international guest conductor, Harada’s recent and coming seasons mark several high-profile engagements including the Pacific Music Festival by invitation of Valery Gergiev, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan and with Boise Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, South Bend Symphony Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony and Music in the Mountains Festival in the USA. Most recently, he conducted Song from the Uproar for Cincinnati Opera, debuted with Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted a run of Bizet’s Carmen for Sofia National Opera in Bulgaria that will reprise with a Japan tour of the same production later in 2018.

Past seasons held an invitation to the prestigious Mahler Competition in Germany and his conducting debut in Japan with the New Japan Philharmonic in a sold out performance as well as his debut with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He led performances of Carmen for Arizona Opera and conducted concerts with Tucson Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Sierra Vista Symphony, and Orquesta Filarmónica de Sonora. He held the position of Associate Conductor for Richmond Symphony from autumn of 2014 to spring of 2016.

In 2013, Harada was selected by the League of American Orchestras as one of only six conductors for the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, a prominent showcase that occurs biennially in an effort to promote gifted, emerging conductors to orchestra industry leaders. In 2012, Harada was a semi-finalist at the 9th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Poland. In 2011, Harada was one of ten semi-finalists invited by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony to participate in the First Chicago Symphony Orchestra Solti International Conducting Competition and he made his professional opera conducting debut with North Carolina Opera.

Early in his career, Harada served as Music Director of the Phoenix Youth Symphony. During his tenure, he elevated the organization’s profile, expanded their season; added challenging repertoire, and took the symphony on a European tour that culminated with a master class on the main stage of the Berlin Philharmonic.

A native of Tokyo, Japan, Harada is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Mercer University. He completed his formal conducting training at University of Arizona with Thomas Cockrell and Charles Bontrager. He has also studied under Christoph von Dohnányi, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, Oliver Knussen, Herbert Blomstedt, Vladimir Ponkin, Adrian Gnam and Stefan Asbury. Harada champions creative programming, development of the orchestra as a part of a community’s cultural fabric, advancement of each musician he encounters, and responsibility as an artistic and civic leader.

Very early in his career, he was selected as a guest artist for National Public Radio’s From the Top and is featured as a favorite guest alumnus on their PBS television documentary. Arizona Public Broadcasting produced a documentary on the bright career of Keitaro titled: “Music…Language Without Words” for the television series AZ Illustrated in 2013. Harada’s general manager is JEJ Artists. Engagements in Asia are managed by Japan Arts. http://kharada.com

Ilya Finkelshteyn, cello

Principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Ilya Finkelshteyn was praised by the Washington Post as a “complete master of his instrument,” and has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. In 2002 he became Principal Cello of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Yuri Temirkanov. Prior to that, Mr. Finkelshteyn was a member of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for five seasons under the late Hans Vonk.

Prize-winner of such competitions as the Concertino Praga, Russian Cello Competition, the WAMSO International Competition, the Aspen Concerto Competition and the Chautauqua Concerto Competition, Ilya Finkelshteyn has appeared as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and many other world-class orchestras including the National Repertory Orchestra. As a winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition, Mr. Finkelshteyn was a soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra on its tours to France and Bermuda. He has collaborated with András Schiff, Kirill Girstein, Hilary Hahn, David Soyer, Richard Goode, Joseph Silverstein, Jules Esken, Steven Ansell, Harold Robinson and Vadim Repin. Mr. Finkelshteyn has been heard on Wisconsin Public Radio, Maine Public Radio, KFUOFM in St. Louis, and WYPR in Baltimore. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Cello at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Ilya Finkelshteyn started his education at the Special Music School at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under the tutelage of Sergei Chernyadiev. After immigrating to the United States, he studied one year at the University of Minnesota School of Music with Tanya Remenikova and six years at the Juilliard School with Harvey Shapiro, where he was coached by Felix Galimir, Samuel Sanders, and members of the Juilliard String Quartet. Mr. Finkelshteyn plays a cello by Domenico Montagnana circa 1730 courtesy of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

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