Nürnberger Symphoniker & Daniel Boico
Biographie Nürnberger Symphoniker & Daniel Boico
Daniel Boico
Described by critics as "Dynamic, vigorous, exciting and imaginative - an undisputed star who combines magnetic charisma with a skilled technique" Daniel Boico is the Artistic Director and CEO of the Free State Symphony Orchestra in Bloemfontein, South Africa, as well as the Associate Conductor of the KwaZulu-Natal and Mzansi Philharmonics. Boico's innate musical sensitivity paired with a keen ear and deep musicianship have produced exciting performances with orchestras in the U.S., Europe, Central and South America, Africa and Asia. As Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Boico lead all of the Philharmonic’s popular Young People’s Concerts, among other concerts, covering 30 weeks in each season, including all tours. His debut with the New York Philharmonic shared the podium with Riccardo Muti, and was followed by his subscription debut replacing Kurt Masur on short notice in what the New York Times called "a smoldering performance" of Sofia Gubaidulina's Two Paths: A dedication to Mary and Martha for two violas and orchestra.
Former Music Director and Chief Conductor of the MÁV Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Boico also served as Cover Conductor on Chicago Symphony's Asia tour to Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Seoul. Boico was editor, producer and conductor in a recording project of composer Karen LeFrak's orchestral and chamber music, recorded at the old Melodiya recording studio in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with the Saint Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra. Earlier in his career, Boico was Music Director of the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, Illinois, and the Skokie Concert Choir, as well as staff conductor at the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra and assistant conductor to Cliff Colnot with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Boico was also Visiting Professor and Director of Orchestras at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, and has served as cover conductor for the Milwaukee Symphony. Boico was an Apprentice Conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he worked closely with, and was assistant to then Music Director Daniel Barenboim as well as guest conductors Pierre Boulez and Zubin Mehta.
Daniel Boico also has extensive experience in music administration, planning and programming, having worked as Manager of Artistic Administration of the New York Philharmonic, as executive assistant to Daniel Barenboim at the Chicago Symphony and Chicago Symphony Presents, as well as for the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
Born in Israel to musician parents and raised in both Paris and the United States (Boico’s father, Fima Boico, was Principal Second Violins in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, concertmaster of Orchestre de Paris and is the second violinist of the Fine Arts Quartet) Boico was initially trained as a singer before joining the class of legendary Russian conducting professor Ilya Musin at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Russia.
Since 1995, Boico has performed in world renown halls such as the Philharmonie in Berlin, Avery Fisher Hall in New York, Chicago's Symphony Center, War Memorial Opera House of San Francisco, Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Meistersinger Halle in Nurnberg, Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace Auditorium, Mexico City's Bellas Artes Palace and Nezahualcoyotl hall, the Tchaikovsky Concert Halls in Moscow, and the National Concert Hall of Taiwan, with such orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Nürnberger Symphoniker, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Moscow Philharmonic, National Orchestras of Taiwan, Mexico and Costa Rica, Taiwan Philharmonic, Columbus Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the KZN, Johannesburg and Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestras.
Daniel Boico was a finalist and prizewinner at the Prokofiev, Pedrotti, and Cadaques International Conducting Competitions and has collaborated with such fine soloists as Daniel Barenboim, Nikolai Lugansky, Yuliana Avdeeva, Hrachya Avanesyan, Shai Wosner, Aviram Reichert, Daniel Ciobanu, Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Shlomo Mintz, James Ehnes, Pablo Sainz-Villegas, Maximilian Hornung, Leonard Elschenbroich, Andreas Ottensamer, Alissa Margulis, Alexander Buzlov, and Lukáš Vondráček.
As a passionate educator of young musicians, Boico was a guest professor of voice performance and director of orchestras at Grand Valley State University, where he successfully produced concerts which involved all departments within the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. Boico has worked with high school All-State ensembles in New York and California and works regularly with the Depaul University and Indiana University (Bloomington) Symphony Orchestras. Boico gives masterclasses and teaches young conductors privately.
Equally at home with contemporary music, world premieres have included works by Nino Rota, Steven Gerber, David Winkler, Airat Ichmouratov, Karen LeFrak, Warren Bessey, Hilda Paredes, Carlos Escalante, and Eddie Mora.
Boico has recorded a premiere recording of Nino Rota's two cello concerti with cellist Dimitry Yablonsky and I Virtuosi Italiani for the Chandos label, Der Mondbach II by Andres Alcalde for cello and double string quartet with cellist Pablo Mahave-Veglia for the Eroica Classical Recordings label, as well as Statue Dance from Pavlovsk, a ballet in 3 tableaux by Karen LeFrak for the American Ballet Theatre's ABT II Company. Boico has also recorded Kalinnikov's Symphony No. 1 with the Nürnberger Symphoniker for Bayerische Rundfunk. A recording of Steven Gerber's Music in Dark Times is scheduled for December 2024 with the Nürnberger Symphoniker for the Naxos Group.
Recent engagements include Nürnberger Symphoniker, and masterclasses at the University of Pretoria. Upcoming engagements include return engagements with the KZN and Johannesburg Philharmonics, Free State Symphony Orchestra, and De Paul University.
Steven R. Gerber
was born in 1948 in Washington, D.C. and now lives in New York City. He received degrees from Haverford College and from Princeton University, where he received a four-year fellowship. His composition teachers included Robert Parris, J. K. Randall, Earl Kim, and Milton Babbitt.
Two recordings of Gerber’s orchestral works were released on major labels in 2000. Chandos issued his Symphony No. 1, Dirge and Awakening, Viola Concerto, and Triple Overture, played by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Sanderling, with Lars Anders Tomter, viola, and the Bekova Sisters Trio. Koch International Classics, under a grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, released his Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, and Serenade for String Orchestra, played by the National Chamber Orchestra under Piotr Gajewski, with soloists Kurt Nikkanen and Carter Brey. After the American première of his Violin Concerto at the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1995 by Nikkanen and the National Chamber Orchestra under Gajewski, the Washington Post described it as major addition to the contemporary violin repertoire, and when Carter Brey gave the première of his Cello Concerto with the same orchestra and conductor in 1996, the same paper gave it the highest praise.
Other works of Gerber’s include a Viola Concerto written for Yuri Bashmet and given its première by Bashmet at his summer festival in Tours, France, String Quartets Nos. 4 and 5, written respectively for the Fine Arts and Amernet String Quartets, Spirituals for clarinet and string quartet, commissioned by Concertante Chamber Players for performances in 2000 at the Library of Congress (Washington, DC), New York City, and Harrisburg, a Clarinet Concerto for Jon Manasse, first performed by him with the National Philharmonic Orchestra under Piotr Gajewski, and Fanfare for the Voice of A-M-E-R-I-C-A, commissioned to celebrate VOA’s 60th anniversary, and given its première at the VOA auditorium in a 9/11 memorial concert in 2003. The Fanfare has since then been performed by the Wheeling Symphony, the Omaha Symphony, the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) Orchestra, and by the National Philharmonic Orchestra at the new Music Center at Strathmore as part of the 2005 ASOL convention.
Gerber’s music is well-known also in Russia and Ukraine, where he has had numerous tours with literally dozens of performances of his orchestral works as well as many concerts of his solo and chamber works. Several of his major works were given their world premières there, including Dirge and Awakening by the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Violin Concerto by the Novosibirsk Philharmonic under Arnold Katz, with soloist Kurt Nikkanen, and Serenade Concertante by the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin under Misha Rachlevsky at the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Gerber has written several works for famed Russian violinist Tatyana Grindenko. In 2007 Arabesque released an album of three of Gerber’s orchestral works, Spirituals for string orchestra, Clarinet Concerto, and Serenade Concertante, featuring the St Petersburg State Academic Symphony, conducted by Vladimir Lande, and clarinetist Jon Manasse. Gerber’s recent work, Music in Dark Times for orchestra, commissioned by Vladimir Ashkenazy, received its world première performance in March 2009, with Ashkenazy conducting the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
