Strauss Soiree + Firebird (Presented by Texas Music Festival)

Combining fierce pianism, an unrivalled breadth of repertoire, and a level of interpretative refinement that transcends to the
realms of poetry, Vadym Kholodenko rises as an artist the likes of which the world has rarely seen since the great pianists of the
Golden Age.

Gold Medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Kholodenko’s distinguished pianism and profound artistic gifts have led to invitations from many of the world’s finest orchestras and concert halls.

Highlights include concerto performances with leading orchestras of North America (Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony,
Indianapolis Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra); Europe (Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Danish National Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano G. Verdi, and the Orquesta Nacional de España); and Asia & the
Far East (National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony
Orchestra). He has held the position of Artist-in-Residence with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (Texas, USA) and the SWR
Sinfonieorchester (Stuttgart, Germany).

Kholodenko has forged strong musical partnerships with many of the world’s leading conductors, and has had the pleasure of
collaborating with such conductors as Karina Canellakis, Myung-Whun Chung, Cristian Măcelaru, Gemma New, Sir Antonio
Pappano, Dima Slobodeniouk, Thomas Søndergård, Krzyzstof Urbański, and Kazuki Yamada, amongst others.

In recital, Kholodenko appears on the world’s leading stages – from London, Paris, and Vienna, to Boston, Chicago, and New York
– where he is praised for his “iron-clad technique, capable of moments of crystalline delicacy” (The Guardian). He is also a
thoughtful and committed chamber musician, enjoying rewarding collaborations with an array of such artists as Clara Jumi-Kang,
Anastasia Kobekina, Vadim Repin, and the Belcea and Jerusalem string quartets. He has made numerous recordings with violinist
Alena Baeva, with whom recent and forthcoming appearances include concerts in the cultural capitals of Florence, London, and
Paris.

Possessing an extraordinary facility for the assimilation of music, the sheer scale of of Kholodenko’s knowledge and command of
the piano literature is unrivalled, and he holds a vast array of active repertoire. His discography to date encompasses solo piano
works by a diverse list of composers (J.S. Bach, Balakirev, Beethoven, Chaplygin, Kurbatov, Liszt, Medtner, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov,
Rzewski, Schubert, Scriabin, Siloti, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, amongst others). Recordings for the Harmonia Mundi record label
include the Grieg Piano Concerto, Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No.2, and the complete cycle of Prokofiev’s piano concertos.

Kholodenko’s recordings have been described as “truly outstanding” (Gramophone Magazine), and received such accolades as
Editor’s Choice Award (BBC Music Magazine), and the much-coveted Diapason d’Or de l’année. His latest release – a pairing of
Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated! for the Quartz Music label (2022) – met
with tremendous critical acclaim, described as “carefully contoured and impactful” (BBC Music Magazine), and “playing that pulls
no punches: Kholodenko is in the elite of classical pianists” (Norman Lebrecht, for The Critic).

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Vadym Kholodenko took his first piano lessons at the age of six, and began touring internationally at thirteen
years old. He was educated at the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, under the
renowned pedagogues Natalia Gridneva, Borys Fedorov, and Vera Gornostaeva. He won First Prize at the Sendai International Piano Competition (2010) and Schubert International Piano Competition (2011), before taking the Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition (2013).

He is now resident in Luxembourg

Since making his prize-winning European conducting debut in Copenhagen’s Tivoli Koncertsalen in 1978, Franz Anton Krager has led orchestras in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Moscow’s State Kremlin Palace, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, Birmingham England’s Adrian Boult Hall, Guangzhou China’s Xinghai Music Center, the Sydney Opera House, The Hague’s Congresgebouw, Kazan’s State Philharmonic Hall in Russia, Guadalajara’s Degollado Theater, and Sarasota’s Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. His affiliations with leading music festivals include the Lancaster International Concert Series and Lichfield and Aberystwyth International Arts Festivals in the U.K., the Festival Internacional de Santa Lucía in Mexico, and the Texas Music Festival and Interlochen National Music Camp in the U.S. Maestro Krager has led the Houston, Russian State, Traverse City Michigan and Florida West Coast symphonies, Romanian and Kazan State philharmonics, and orchestras in Berlin, London, Chicago, Paris, Singapore, Leipzig, Bratislava, Monterrey, Pordenone, Ingolstadt, Neuss, and Honolulu. In 2015, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the North Shore Chamber Arts Ensemble in Chicago.

Krager is the Hourani Endowed Professor of Music, Director of Orchestras, and Chair of the Conducting Department at the University of Houston Moores School of Music, where he has brought the orchestra and orchestral conducting program into international prominence. The Moores School Orchestra is heard frequently on National Public Radio and has commercially recorded the music of Thomas Fortmann, Percy Grainger, Michael Horvit, Peter Lieuwen, Robert Nelson, and Stephen Shewan on the Divine Art (Métier), Albany, MSR Classics, Newport, and “Surround-Sound Blu-Ray Audio” HDTT record labels.