Autumn Symphony Season
Conductor:  Martin Panteleev
Soloist:      Heleen du Plessis (cello)

RIMSKY KORSAKOV   Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34
SCHUMANN   Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129
MUSSORGSKY   “Pictures at an Exhibition”

Bulgarian violinist, conductor and composer MARTIN PANTELEEV has scooped several prizes including the 1995 Second prize for Composition and the Special prize for his performance of a work by Schubert at the International competition Earth and People in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1999 he became Associate Conductor at the Philharmonia of the Nations founded by Leonard Bernstein and Justus Frantz. With this orchestra he gave many concerts in United States of America, China, Russia and Germany. The same year Justus Frantz conducted the world première of Mr Panteleev´s Symphony No.1. The symphony was performed in Berlin, Frankfurt and at the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival and Panteleev was awarded the Davidoff Prix for this work.

Well-known as soloist, chamber musician and teacher HELEEN DU PLESSIS furthered her studies in Performing Arts at the highly prestigious Conservatory of Music: The Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she studied with renowned Israeli cellist, Professor Amit Peled and obtained the Graduate Performance Degree in May 2007 with a full scholarship. Previous qualifications include the post-graduate Performer’s Diploma under Daniel Grosgurin at the Conservatoire de Genève in Switzerland.She has been appointed Executant lecturer of cello at the University of Otago in New Zealand from January 2010.