Alexandra Dariescu will be our soloist on Saturday 29 June 2024
performing the Florence Price Piano Concerto in One Movement
Alexandra Dariescu, the creator of "The Nutcracker and I," is a trailblazing pianist who demonstrates fearless curiosity and groundbreaking innovation. Continuing her exceptional journey, Dariescu achieves gender equality in her concerto programming for the third consecutive season, championing inclusion and diversity. In demand as a soloist worldwide, she has performed with eminent orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Oslo Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, whilst the conductors she has worked with includes Adam Fischer, Cristian Măcelaru, Alain Altinoglu, Fabien Gabel, Jun Märkl, Vasily Petrenko, Ryan Bancroft, James Gaffigan and JoAnn Falletta.
In 2023/24 Dariescu opens the BBC Symphony Orchestra season with Sakari Oramo at the Barbican Centre, giving the UK premiere of Dora Pejačević’s Phantasie concertante, followed by an all Mozart programme at the Royal Albert Hall with Academy of St Martin in the Fields in a live screening of the film Amadeus. In North America, Dariescu debuts with the Indianapolis Symphony (Nadia Boulanger) and Vancouver Symphony orchestras (Ravel G major), followed by her return to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of James Lee III’s new piano concerto ‘Shades of Unbroken Dreams’, in honour of the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a Dream” speech. The concerto, written for Dariescu, is a co-commission alongside the BBC Philharmonic and Orlando Philharmonic orchestras, with the UK premiere under the baton of John Storgårds. Further highlights include Dariescu’s return to Houston Symphony with Fabien Gabel (Grieg) and debuts with the Copenhagen Philharmonic (Tchaikovsky 1), Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz (Grieg), Trondheim Symphony (Clara Wieck Schumann) and Wuppertal Symphony orchestras (Florence Price). A regular guest of the George Enescu International Festival, she returns alongside pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Manchester Camerata for Mozart’s double concerto. This season marks the 7th running year of her highly successful piano recital production “The Nutcracker and I”, touring in cities across the UK, Germany, Belgium and China.
In 2022, Dariescu made the world premiere recording of a newly discovered piano concerto by Leokadiya Kashperova (1900) with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for BBC Radio 3’s acclaimed programme ‘Composer of the Week’. Further discoveries and important premieres of unjustly neglected pieces Dariescu has given include Nadia Boulanger’s Fantaisie Variée, the recently unearthed piano concerto by George Enescu, Concierto argentino by Alberto Ginastera and Dora Pejačević’s Phantasie concertante.
In 2017, Dariescu took the world by storm with her successful piano recital production “The Nutcracker and I”, an original groundbreaking multimedia performance for piano solo with live dance and digital animation, which has since enjoyed international acclaim and has drawn thousands of young audiences into concert halls across Europe, Australia, China, the Emirates and the US, realising Dariescu’s vision of building bridges and making classical music more accessible to the wider public.
Dariescu has released eight albums to critical acclaim, the latest disc being her Decca recording with Angela Gheorghiu. The discography includes a Trilogy of Complete Preludes series on Champs Hill Records, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Darrell Ang (Signum Records), in addition to “The Nutcracker and I” audio book.
Mentored by Sir András Schiff and Dame Imogen Cooper, Dariescu studied with Nelson Goerner, Alexander Melnikov, Dina Parakhina, Mark Ray, Mihaela Constantin and Cornelia Apostol and was a Laureate of the Verbier Festival Academy, receiving the UK’s Women of the Future Award in the Arts and Culture category. Dariescu holds many special accolades including Cultural Ambassador of Romania, Officer of the Romanian Crown from the Royal Family and Young European Leader by Friends of Europe. In 2020, Dariescu received the Order 'Cultural Merit' in the rank of Knight from the Romanian President and became an Associated Member of the Royal Northern College of Music, where she also holds the distinguished position of Professor of Piano.
Alexandra Dariescu
