Jonathan Swensen

Saturday, April 9, 2022 – 8:00pm

Sleepy Hollow High School, Sleepy Hollow, NY

Jonathan Swensen first fell in love with the cello upon hearing the Elgar Concerto at the age of six, and ultimately made his concerto debut at the age of twenty performing that very piece with Portugal’s Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música conducted by his father, Joseph Swensen. Since then, he has appeared with the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Venice State Symphony Orchestra, Denmark’s Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, and Poland’s NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra.

Mr. Swensen has captured First Prizes at the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, 2018 Khachaturian International Cello Competition, and 2019 Windsor International String Competition. In his native Denmark, he was recipient of the Jacob Gades Scholarship in 2019, the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize in 2017, and First Prize at the 2016 Danish String Competition.

Mr. Swensen has made debuts with the Copenhagen Philharmonic, Phiharmonia Orchestra at Windsor Castle and Sun Symphony Orchestra in Vietnam, and he recently performed a reengagement with Denmark’s Aarhus Symphony Orchestra.

In the United States this past season, the Young Concert Artists Series presented Mr. Swensen’s recital debuts in New York on the Michaels Award Concert at Merkin Concert Hall, and in Washington, DC on the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. This season, he gives recitals at the Friends of Music Concerts Series, the Jewish Community Alliance in Jacksonville, FL, and on the YCA “Encores” Series at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

Adam Golka, piano

Polish-American pianist Adam Golka celebrated the 250th Beethoven Anniversary in 2020 by performing and recording live performances of Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas at the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, Archway Gallery in Houston, and Church of Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue in New York City. He also created a series of 32 short films called “32@32” (available on YouTube) about his process preparing for performances of the Beethoven cycle at age 32.

Adam was selected by Sir András Schiff to perform recitals at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Germany, Tonhalle Zürich, as well as in Berlin and New York. Adam has been regularly on the concert stage since the age of sixteen, when he won first prize at the 2nd China Shanghai International Piano Competition. He has also received the Gilmore Young Artist Award and the Max I. Allen Classical Fellowship Award from the American Pianists Association.

Adam Golka has appeared as a soloist with dozens of orchestras, including the San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, San Diego, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and New Jersey Symphonies. As a recitalist, he has performed at excellent venues such as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York, Concertgebouw’s Kleine Zaal, and Musashino Civic Cultural Hall in Tokyo, and at festivals such as Mostly Mozart, the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the Newport Music Festival and the Duszniki Chopin festival. Adam studied with the late Brazilian pianist José Feghali as well as with Leon Fleisher, and has been mentored by Alfred Brendel, András Schiff, Murray Perahia, Richard Goode, and Ferenc Rados.


Updated Program here

Cello Sonata No. 1 in F Major, Op. 5, No. 1

  Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

  1. Adagio sostenuto
  2. Allegro
  3. Allegro vivace

Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1

  Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)

  1. Largo
  2. Presto
  3. Largo

Intermission

Elegy for Cello and Piano, Op. 96
Burlesque for Cello and Piano, Op. 97

  Nikolai Kapustin (1937-2020) 

Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38

  Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

  1. Allegro non troppo
  2. Allegretto quasi Menuetto
  3. Allegro
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