Ode to Joy:

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

Classical series

Friday 14. November, at 19:30

Fartein Valen, Stavanger konserthus

Program

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Contributors

Andris Poga, conductor
Marita Sølberg, soprano
Kristina Hammarstrøm, mezzo-soprano
Bror Magnus Tødenes, tenor
Timo Riihonen, baritone

The concert is performed without an intermission.

Venue

Fartein Valen, Stavanger konserthus

Conductor

Andris Poga

Andris Poga is the Chief Conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. He was the Music Director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2013 till 2021 and continues to collaborate with the LNSO as its Artistic Advisor.

Highlights of recent years have included concerts with the leading orchestras of Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Scandinavia. After the first successful collaborations he has become a regular guest at the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester Hamburg, WDR Sinfonieorchester Cologne, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and many others. He has also conducted the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Gewandhausorchester, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Dallas Symphony.

The season of 2024/25 includes the subscription concert series with both the SSO and LNSO, returns to the Orchestre National de France, WDR Sinfonieorchester, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Hamburg Symphoniker among others. Andris will make his debuts with the Iceland Symphony, Turku Philharmonic, Düsseldorf Symphony and other orchestras in Europe and Japan. The notable soloists will include instrumentalists Frank Peter Zimmermann, David Fray, Jan Lisiecki, Jean-Guihen Queyras and singers Julia Bullock, Miina-Liisa Värelä, Alfred Walker.

In 2010, Andris Poga was the First Prize winner of the Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition, which thrust him into the international scene. He became an assistant to Paavo Järvi at the Orchestre de Paris and he also served as the assistant conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Andris has graduated the conducting department of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. He studied philosophy at the University of Latvia and conducting at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts.