Avishai Cohen, bassist, singer, composer, and jazz icon, blends the traditions of Hebrew and Ladino folk songs, jazz standards, and contemporary jazz music with western classical music in a unique performance with the Brno Philharmonic and conductor Alexander Hanson. Following a successful project which combined the Avishai Cohen Trio, bass, drums, and piano, with string quartet. Avishai Cohen offers a new project which combines the Trio, with a symphonic orchestral dimension. His composition includes settings of Cohen’s own contemporary jazz and world music compositions, orchestrated traditional Hebrew and Ladino songs, and selected classical works, while the arrangements span set-ups for solo, trio and full orchestra. This evening the Trio will feature drummer Noam David, and pianist Omri Mor.
Born in Södertälje, Sweden, Alexander Hanson initially launched his musical career as a trumpet player and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. He then attended and graduated with honours from the acclaimed Sibelius Academy of Conducting in Helsinki. While at the Academy, Hanson studied conducting with professors Leif Segerstam, Atso Almila, and Jorma Panula. He is recognized for his diverse conducting experience and musical craftsmanship. Hanson also manages his own freelance conducting business with great success.
The roots of the Brno Philharmonic go back to the 1870s, when the young Leoš Janáček endeavored to establish a Czech symphony orchestra in Brno. The works of the famous twentieth-century composer constitute the core of the orchestra’s repertory, and to this day the Brno Philharmonic continues to be considered the authentic performer of his oeuvre. The present orchestra was created in 1956 by merging the Brnobased Radio and Regional orchestras, and since then has been among the leading Czech orchestras in terms of both size and importance. Today Brno Philharmonic is not only a strong player in the field of symphonic music at home and abroad, but also the primary organiser of the musical season in the second largest Czech city, an active instigator of festivals and a creative leader in orchestral programming. Its home is the beautiful building of Besední dům, the Brno counterpart to Vienna’s Musikverein, built in 1873 according to a design by Theophil Hansen, though the orchestra is now looking forward to its new modern concert hall.
Alixandra Porembski, English Language Annotator