Homage
Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, February 5, 2023 at 2:30 pm
Hemmens Cultural Center, Elgin
These works hit differently when one knows the tribute they give to people, places and events.
Concert Program
Kyle Ritenauer, conductor
Albert Cano Smit, piano
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
Schumann: Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish”
Join us for a Pre-Concert Chat 1-hour before the performance. (6:30 pm Saturday/1:30 pm Sunday)
Ticket Information
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Prices: Gold $65 / Red $40 / Green $20
Students & Youth tickets $10
Special Offers
Youth ages 17 and under are free with an adult or guardian. (Offer not available online)
Groups of 10 or more save!
Contact the Box Office to make discount purchases.
CLICK HERE to view the Hemmens Seat Map
Kyle Ritenauer
Acclaimed New York-based conductor Kyle Ritenauer is establishing himself as one of classical and contemporary music’s singular artistic leaders. As founder and artistic director of the Uptown Philharmonic, Ritenauer has earned renown for his detailed and imaginative musicality, and has found further success leading ensembles across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Ritenauer’s 2021 schedule includes regular engagements as guest conductor at the Manhattan School of Music. This summer, he will attend the Aspen Music Festival and School’s Conducting Academy as a Fellow.
An accomplished orchestral percussionist, Ritenauer brings patience and precision to the podium—wisdom gained, perhaps, through meditative contemplation while counting dozens of rests. Appearances as guest conductor include Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, the Norwalk Symphony, Symphony New Hampshire, and the Juilliard Orchestra. Formerly an apprentice for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Ritenauer has also served the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra as cover conductor.
Ritenauer has led orchestras in myriad genres, including a collaborations with Broadway superstars Kelli O’Hara and Matthew Morrison, and giants of contemporary music such as Claire Chase and Richard Danielpour. He was particularly honored to conduct a Juilliard School workshop of American Symphony by Jon Batiste, bandleader of the Late Show. Through the Bridge Arts Ensemble which he founded in 2015, Ritenauer curated interactive, grade-specific concerts and workshops for 50,000 students across the Adirondack region of New York state.
As founder and artistic director of the Uptown Philharmonic, Ritenauer captures performances of new and undiscovered works in high quality video, ensuring online visibility beyond their premieres. In one of its more visible collaborations, the ensemble gave the world premiere of Richard Danielpour’s new ballet, Cassandra’s Curse. The work’s performance premiere came in a four-show run at NYC’s Joyce Theater in collaboration with RIOULT Dance NY, while its studio recording was developed with Grammy®-winning sound engineer John Kilgore.
Ritenauer holds a deep fondness for contemporary music, reflected by a performance résumé that includes over 75 world premieres. In 2013, Ritenauer collaborated with the Manhattan School of Music to create a new master’s degree in Contemporary Conducting. Working with the MSM composition department, he led an unprecedented number of premiere performances in collaboration with its students.
A student of Maestro David Robertson, Ritenauer is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School’s Bruno Walter Conducting Program, where he received the Charles Schiff Conducting Prize. He owes much of his development as a musician to the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors, where he studied for nine summers with Michael Jinbo. Other cherished pedagogues include Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, and Tito Muñoz.
Albert Cano Smit
Praised as “a moving young poet” and “a great romantic” (by Christophe Huss – Le Devoir), pianist Albert Cano Smit is already becoming an audience favorite for his performances as soloist with orchestra and in recital. He recently performed the Brahms Concerto No. 2 with the Las Vegas Philharmonic conducted by Donato Cabrera, and he has also appeared with the San Diego Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Nottingham Youth Orchestra, and American Youth Symphony.
Albert won First Prize at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He also won First Prize at the 2017 Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition, which presented him in recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Most recently, Albert was awarded the 2020 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Prize from The Juilliard School.
This past season, Albert made his New York debut at Merkin Concert Hall, presented by Young Concert Artists. This season, he will perform recitals at the Kravis Center, Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, University of Florida Performing Arts, Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, Bach Festival Montréal, and will also appear with the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City.
He has also performed at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, and for the Steinway Society The Bay Area in San Jose, New York’s Salon de Virtuosi, and Bravo! Vail, and has been in residency at the Tippet Rise Art Center. He has given recitals abroad in Xiamen, China, in France at the Wissembourg Festival and Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, at Germany’s Rheingau Music Festival, and throughout Spain. Albert is also a sought-after collaborative pianist, and has toured with violinist William Hagen in venues throughout the U.S. and in Germany, and with flutist Anthony Trionfo he has performed across the United States.
Albert is currently pursuing his Artist Diploma with Robert McDonald at The Juilliard School. Previous teachers include YCA alumnus Ory Shihor, Graham Caskie and Marta Karbownicka. He has benefited from extensive artistic advice by YCA alumni Richard Goode and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, the latter with whom he gave four-hand performances at Zipper Hall in Los Angeles and Wallis Annenberg Center Hall in Beverly Hills. Albert is an alumnus of both the Colburn School and the Verbier Festival Academy.
