On March 12, the Flint Symphony Orchestra will continue the 2021-2022 season’s Classical Concert Series, “RENEWAL The Timeless Healing Power of Music Inspired by Nature.” The FSO and Maestro Enrique Diemecke will be joined by multi-award-winning violinist Andrés Cárdenes. In 1980, Cardenas won the William C. Byrd Young Artist Competition, an international music competition sponsored by the St. Cecilia Society of Flint in collaboration with the Flint Institute of Music and the FSO.
Recognized worldwide as a musical phenomenon, Grammy-nominated Andrés Cárdenes has parlayed his myriad talents into one of classical music’s most versatile careers. A ferocious, passionate and personally charismatic artist, Cuban-born Cárdenes has garnered international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for his compelling solo violin and viola performances, as well as his conducting and recorded performances.
Cárdenes played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the kind of mastery, virtuosity and musical persuasion that should be placed in the company of the great violinists of the 20th century.”
El Diario de Santiago, Chile
Since capturing the Second Prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, Cárdenes has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras on five continents, including those of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Moscow, Bavarian Radio, Dallas, Helsinki, OFUNAM, Shanghai, Caracas and Barcelona. He has collaborated with many of the world’s greatest conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir André Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Jaap van Zweden, Sir Neville Marriner, David Zinman and Manfred Honeck.
Also in great demand as a conductor, Cárdenes has appeared to rave reviews with the Bavarian Radio, Detroit Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Sinfónica Nacíonal de Bogota, San Diego Symphony, Sinfónica de Caracas, Orquesta Fundacíon Beethoven (Santiago, Chile), and the OFUNAM
Orchestra of Mexico City. He is currently Music Director of Orchestral Studies, Distinguished Professor of Violin Studies, and the Dorothy Richard Starling/Alexander Speyer Jr. Endowed Chair at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music. In addition, he gives master classes regularly at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the Manhattan School, Cleveland Institute, The Curtis Institute and at virtually every major university and conservatory in the United States.
A prolific recording artist, Cárdenes has interpreted concerti by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Barber, Balada, Gutíerrez and David Stock. He has recorded the complete works for violin by Leonardo Balada, and the complete violin and piano sonatas by Hindemith and Schubert. His discography includes over three dozen recordings of concerti, sonatas, short works, orchestral and chamber music on a dozen labels.
Cárdenes is co-founder and artistic and music director of the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival of Miami, a program geared toward educating young musicians in chamber music and solo repertoire inspired by the legendary violinist’s teachings, legacy, humanity and ideology. He has been the violinist of the world-renowned Díaz Trio since 1995 and the Carnegie Mellon Trio since 1989.
Among his many humanitarian awards are the Kollell Foundation Jewish Learning Award, the Kindness Award from Chabad, Mexican Red Cross and the UNICEF Cultural Ambassadorship.
Cárdenes is the father of two teenagers: Isabel, an accomplished young harpist studying at the Manhattan School of Music, and Tino, a math whiz and talented classical/jazz pianist.
VIVALDI Le Quattro Stagioni
(The Four Seasons)
SMETANA Vltava (The Moldau)
GINASTERA Estancia: Three Dances
Enrique Diemecke, Music Director & Conductor
7:30PM | The Whiting
For tickets, call 810.237.7333.
tickets.thewhiting.com/902
