Louis Langrée leads CCM Philharmonia in Valentine's Day weekend concert

The French conductor Louis Langrée has been Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 2013. He recently toured with them to both Asia and Europe, with appearances including the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, BBC Proms (London) and La Seine Musicale (Paris). He is also Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in New York, a position that he has held since 2002. At the festival in 2018 he led their celebration of the Bernstein Centenary, including a staged performance of Bernstein's Mass.

Recent and future conducting projects include Langrée's debuts with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the Prague Spring Festival, Orchestre National de France and the Konzerthaus Berlin Orchestra. Return engagements include the Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and the Philadelphia, Toronto Symphony and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras. He will also return to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Wiener Staatsoper and Opéra Comique in Paris. Langrée has conducted several world premieres including works by Daníel Bjarnason, Magnus Lindberg and Caroline Shaw. During the 2018-19 season, he conducted the first performance of Ode by Jonathan Bailey Holland, composer-in-residence with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Langrée has conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker and London Philharmonic Orchestras. He has worked with many other orchestras around the world including the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Budapest Festival, Sao Paulo and NHK Symphony Orchestras; Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Freiburger Barockorchester and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Festival appearances have included Wiener Festwochen, Salzburg Mozartwoche and Whitsun and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He has also conducted at La Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra-Bastille, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dresden Staatsoper and the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. 

He has held positions as Music Director of the Orchestre de Picardie (1993-98) and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège (2001-06) and was Chief Conductor of the Camerata Salzburg (2011-16). Louis was also Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon (1998-2000) and Glyndebourne Touring Opera (1998-2003). Louis’ recordings with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra feature Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait (narrated by Dr. Maya Angelou) and world premieres by Sebastian Currier, Thierry Escaich, David Lang, Nico Muhly and Zhou Tian (which was nominated for a Grammy Award). His recordings have received several awards from Gramophone and Midem Classical. He is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

Hailed as “absolutely dazzling…in a word, flawless” (New York Concert Review) during her recent Carnegie Hall debut, Grammy nominated Canadian-American pianist Kara Huber has made numerous solo appearances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Piano Virtuoso Series at the Canadian Opera Company and the Rising Stars Piano Series in Southampton, New York. Recent seasons featured her Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Series at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Yamaha Canada Young Artist Series. Often included as a recitalist for her inventive and creative programming that all audiences enjoy, Huber has performed across North America, Europe and Australia. She was featured with the York Symphony Orchestra under Denis Mastromonaco and Michael Roháč as well as conducted and performed with the Canadian Chamber Orchestra in Toronto.

Huber has received numerous prizes and awards for her performances, including the Audience Favorite Award in the Cincinnati World Piano Competition, Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, The Stetcher and Horowitz Foundation’s New York Piano Competition, Piano Arts Solo and Concerto Competition, National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, Oberlin International Piano Competition, Missouri Western Young Artist Piano Competition and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Huber has attended summer festivals such as Tanglewood, Music Academy of the West, Pianofest in the Hamptons, Eastern Music Festival, Mannes International Keyboard Institute and Festival and Indiana University Piano Academy.

Huber has worked under the baton of Charles Dutoit and Gerard Schwarz. She has performed in master classes for internationally renowned artists such as Richard Goode, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Peter Serkin, Frederic Chiu, Valentina Lisitsa, Ian Hobson, Steven Mayer, Jeffery Swann, Robert McDonald, Jerome Rose and Graham Johnson. Past teachers have included Michael Coonrod, Frank Weinstock, Yoshi Nagai, Paul Schenly and Jerome Lowenthal.

Quickly gaining an international reputation for her extraordinary prowess and flair for contemporary music, Huber recorded with the ARC Ensemble for Chandos Records, which was nominated for a 2017 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble, and performed in the 21C Music Festival in Toronto, Ottawa New Music Creators and CCM’s Modern Music Ensemble. She works closely with living composers and has collaborated with Percussion Group Cincinnati. In addition, Huber is a teacher, collaborative and chamber pianist and accompanies vocalists, instrumentalists, and ballet classes. She has studied conducting with Mark Gibson and Annunziata Tomaro.

Huber began private lessons at the age of five and at 16 was admitted to the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan where she made her orchestral debut with the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra. Huber has received degrees at CCM and recently completed an Artist Diploma at The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music with John Perry and Leon Fleisher. She is currently a doctoral candidate at CCM under the tutelage of Awadagin Pratt.