Inbal Segev Performs Solo Cello Works by 21st Century Women Composers
Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 8pm
Roulette | 509 Atlantic Avenue | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: ($18 Advance; $25 at the door) and more information: www.roulette.org
“Her playing is characterised by a strong and warm tone…delivered with impressive fluency and style.” – The Strad
Inbal Segev: www.inbalsegev.com
Brooklyn, NY – On Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 8pm, cellist Inbal Segev, known for her “glowing, burnished tone,” (The Washington Post) presents a program of music for solo cello by five of today’s prominent women composers—Anna Clyne, Missy Mazzoli, Reena Esmail, Kaija Saariaho, and Gity Razaz—at Roulette (509 Atlantic Avenue). San Francisco Classical Voice described her performance of this program as “dynamic and musically diverse.”
The evening’s focal point, Legend of Sigh (2015) by Gity Razaz, is a multimedia, immersive piece for cello and electronics written for Segev with video and projection design by filmmaker Carmen Kordas. Legend of Sigh explores the themes of birth, transformation, and death through the retelling of an old Azerbaijani folktale about a mysterious being, Sigh, who appears every time someone lets out a heartfelt sigh, unknowingly calling out to him.
Segev will also perform a solo cello arrangement of Anna Clyne’s Rest These Hands (2009), which shares the title with a poem written by Clyne’s mother in the last year of her life; Missy Mazzoli’s A Thousand Tongues (2009), a short but intense response to a text by Stephen Crane; Reena Esmail’s Perhaps (2005), composed in collaboration with video and projection designer, dancer, and filmmaker Heather McCalden; and Kaija Saariaho’s Spins and Spells (1997), of which Saariaho writes, “The title evokes the two gestures which are at the origin of the work: on the one hand the pattern which I call ‘spinning tops’ turning around on the one spot or undergoing changes, and on the other, timeless moments, centered on the sound colour and texture.”
Cellist Inbal Segev’s playing has been described as “first class,” and “richly inspired,” by Gramophone; and with “passionate abandon” by Strings Magazine. Equally committed to new repertoire and masterworks, Segev brings interpretations that are both unreservedly natural and insightful to the vast range of music she performs.
Segev has performed as soloist with top orchestras around the world including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, Bangor Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, San Juan Symphony in Colorado, Arkansas Symphony, Mobile Symphony, California Symphony, Castleton Festival Orchestra with Lorin Maazel, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, Bogotá Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Dortmund Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Polish National Radio Symphony, the Bangkok Symphony, and more. She made debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic, led by Zubin Mehta, at age 17.
In the 2018–2019 season, Segev will perform with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall in NYC, Teatro Mayor in Bogotá (Colombia), the Mondavi Center in Davis (CA), Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Harris Theater in Chicago. She will premiere a new cello concerto by Anna Clyne with several orchestras in the United States and will record the concerto, along with the Elgar concerto, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Marin Alsop.
Segev’s repertoire includes all of the standard concerti and solo works for cello, as well as new pieces and rarely performed gems. Recent concerto premieres include Timo Andres’ Upstate Obscura with Metropolis Ensemble at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (April 2018); Dan Visconti’s Tangle Eye with the California Symphony (May 2017); and new cello concertos by Avner Dorman and Lucas Richman. In February 2018 with the Albany Symphony, Segev was the first cellist to perform Christopher Rouse’s Violoncello Concerto since Yo-Yo Ma premiered it in the 1990s. She has co-curated the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival with Marin Alsop since its inception in 2017.
Inbal Segev is a founding member of the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus. She has collaborated with artists such as Emanuel Ax, Jeremy Denk, Juho Pohjonen, Anthony McGill, Jason Vieaux, Gilbert Kalish, Anne Akiko Meyers, and the Vogler Quartet. Festival appearances include the Banff, Ravinia, Bowdoin, Olympic, Cape & Islands, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra New Music festivals in North America; the Siena, Rolandseck, and Montpellier festivals in Europe; and the Jerusalem Music Center and Upper Galilee festivals in Israel.
Segev’s discography includes works by Grieg, Chopin, and Schumann with pianist Juho Pohjonen (AVIE); Lucas Richman’s Three Pieces for Cello and Orchestra with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Albany); Sonatas by Beethoven and Boccherini (Opus One); Nigun (Vox); and Max Schubel’s Concerto for Cello and Horn (Opus One). With the Amerigo Trio she has recorded serenades by Dohnányi (Navona).
Segev released her recording of the complete Cello Suites of J.S. Bach in fall 2015 on the Vox label, to critical acclaim and a spot on The New York Times Classical Playlist. Audiences have the opportunity to look behind the scenes at the making of Segev’s album through a companion documentary film about her journey through the music of Bach. She has performed Bach’s Cello Suites in venues around the world including Lincoln Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Shanghai Concert Hall, and Henry Crown Hall in the Jerusalem Theatre.
Inbal Segev’s YouTube channel features music videos and her popular masterclass series, Musings with Inbal Segev, which has thousands of subscribers across continents and close to one million views. The masterclass videos cover core cello repertoire, previews of new works, and many aspects of cello technique.
Inbal Segev’s many honors include prizes at the Pablo Casals and the Paulo International Cello Competitions. She began playing the cello in Israel at age five and at 16 was invited by Isaac Stern to come to the U.S. to continue her studies. She earned degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale University. Inbal Segev lives in New York City with her husband and three children. Her cello was made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1673.
For more information, visit www.inbalsegev.com.
About Roulette
Founded in 1978 at the height of the NYC Downtown experimental arts revolution, Roulette Intermedium is now a state-of-the-art performing arts venue, presenter, and producer of new and experimental music, dance, and intermedia. Its mission is to support artists creating new and adventurous art in all disciplines by providing them with a venue and resources to realize their creative visions, and to build an audience interested in the evolution of experimental art. Roulette Intermedium is a not-for-profit performing arts organization. www.roulette.org.
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