Heartbeat

Kazem Abdullah works internationally and excels at reaching newer and diverse audiences, conducting concerts and operas in a wide variety of styles and formats. 

Abdullah opened this season leading a new production of Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at the Metropolitan Opera, a production the New York Times called “an American classic.” Abdullah continues his  season with debuts with the Naples Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, and North Carolina Symphony and return engagements with the Indianapolis Symphony and the Seattle Opera. 

Abdullah has delivered resonant performances of masterworks new and old, and continues to champion American composers and artists while pursuing innovative, community-based concert design. Committed to expanding the American repertoire, Kazem has led the premieres of several significant American operatic works including Rhiannon Gidden’s Omar, Gregory Spears Castor and Patience, and additional works by John Luther Adams, Caroline Shaw, Anthony Davis, George Lewis, Dai Fujikura, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. 

On the podium, Abdullah is recognized by orchestras and audiences alike for his impressive conducting technique, thoughtful interpretations, innovative concert experiences and engaging presence. Among his recent orchestral credits are the Oregon, Indianapolis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Seattle and Cincinnati symphony orchestras. In addition to his symphony engagements, he recently conducted an opera Gala for the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the American premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s opera Brokeback Mountain, Tosca for Seattle Opera, and Hänsel und Gretel for Cape Town Opera. 

Abdullah currently lives in Nürnberg, Germany, and was the Generalmusikdirektor in Aachen, Germany, from 2012 to 2017. During his tenure in Aachen, in addition to reaching newer and diverse audiences through innovative programming, moving out of the concert hall, and experimenting with juxtapositions of styles in non-traditional concert formats, he also conducted over 25 operas. He collaborated with musicians such as Johannes Moser, Lise de la Salle, Angela Gheorghiu, Augustin Haedelich, and Midori. 

Prior to 2012, Abdullah led the Orquestra de São Paulo on its third United States coast-to-coast tour and the New World Symphony at the Ives In-Context Festival by special invitation from Michael Tilson Thomas. He also conducted the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group. He was also an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, where he assisted and prepared over twenty operas, including Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wozzeck, and Lulu. Abdullah has also guest conducted at companies such as the Atlanta Opera, Portland Opera, Detroit Opera,Opéra national de Lorraine and the Théâtre du Châtelet de Paris. Abdullah made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2009, conducting Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. 

Trained as a clarinetist, Abdullah has performed extensively as an orchestral musician, chamber musician, and soloist. He spent two seasons as a member of the New World Symphony and performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as the chamber ensembles Trio Wanderer and the Auryn Quartet. 

A dedicated educator, Abdullah has worked with student orchestras at the Interlochen Arts Center, the Oklahoma Arts Institute, die Höchschule für Musik Cologne Standort Aachen, the Juilliard School, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Manhattan School of Music Germany, and the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. He was awarded the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award by his alma mater, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where he worked with the students there and spoke at their commencement in 2015. 

Internationally recognized as one of today’s most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors and recital series. His commanding technique, power and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike. 

A frequent touring partner with the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors, the 2024/25 season begins with the Pittsburgh and NDR Hamburg symphonies on tour in Europe followed by China and Japan with the Vienna Philharmonic. With orchestras in the US he returns to Cleveland, New York, Houston, Portland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, Sarasota and Pittsburgh and in Europe to Hamburg, Helsinki, Berlin, Lyon and Vienna. In advance of a spring Carnegie Hall recital his program can be heard in Austin, St. Louis, Stillwater OK, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Washington DC, Amsterdam, Rome, Lisbon and Spain. Two special projects are scheduled in this season – duos with flutist Emmanuel Pahud in Europe in the fall and trios with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Pablo Ferrandez in the US in spring. 

Mr. Bronfman works regularly with an illustrious group of conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Vladimir Jurowski, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jaap Van Zweden, Franz Welser-Möst, and David Zinman. Summer engagements have regularly taken him to the major festivals of Europe and the US. Always keen to explore chamber music repertoire, his partners have included Pinchas Zukerman, Martha Argerich, Magdalena Kožená, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Emmanuel Pahud and many others. In 1991 he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking Mr. Bronfman’s first public performances there since his emigration to Israel at age 15. 

Widely praised for his solo, chamber and orchestral recordings, Mr. Bronfman has been nominated for 6 GRAMMY® Awards, winning in 1997 with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their recording of the three Bartok Piano Concerti. His prolific catalog of recordings includes works for two pianos by Rachmaninoff and Brahms with Emanuel Ax, the complete Prokofiev concerti with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, a Schubert/Mozart disc with the Zukerman Chamber Players and the soundtrack to Disney’s Fantasia 2000. His most recent CD releases are the 2014 GRAMMY® nominated Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2 commissioned for him and performed by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert on the Da Capo label; Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bayerischer Rundfunk; a recital disc, Perspectives, complementing Mr. Bronfman’s designation as a Carnegie Hall ‘Perspectives’ artist for the 2007-08 season; and recordings of all the Beethoven piano concerti as well as the Triple Concerto together with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk, and the Tönhalle Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for the Arte Nova/BMG label.