THE NEW YORK TIMES: “The fine violinist Benjamin Baker brought virtuosity, refinement and youthful exuberance to

a daunting program. For me, the high point came with a magnificent account of Schubert’s Fantasy in C, a late masterpiece that would be played all the time were it not so difficult.”

OBERON’S GROVE:

“Young Concert Artists have again brought us an exciting young musician: Benjamin Baker. His program was well-devised and beautifully played...an exceptional performance.”

NZ HERALD (NEW ZEALAND):

“Baker's Tchaikovsky Concerto was perfectly proportioned and soulful, showcasing the burnished tone of his 1709 Tononi instrument. There was also much to admire in his sonorous Kreisler encore.”

CLASSIC FM REVIEW: “An attractive quality of tone and expression, demonstrating an impressive talent.”

(Debut recording: “The Last Rose of Summer”)

YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC. 250 West 57 Street, Suite 1222 New York, NY 10107

Telephone: (212) 307-6655 Fax: (212) 581-8894 management@yca.org www.yca.org

First Prize, 2016 Young Concert Artists International Auditions

First Prize, 2013 Young Classical Artists Trust • Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert Prize

Peter Jay Sharp Concert Prize • Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize

Embassy Series Prize • Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series Prize

John French Violin Chair of YCA

BENJAMIN BAKER, violinist

Photo: Kaupo Kikkas

______________________________________ NOTE: Please do not delete references to Young Concert Artists.

06/2018

Young Concert Artists, Inc.

1776 Broadway, Suite 1500, New York, NY 10019 telephone: (212) 307-6655 fax: (212) 581-8894 e-mail: yca@yca.org website: www.yca.org

BENJAMIN BAKER, violinist

Benjamin Baker, a New Zealand native, has moved audiences around the world with his musicianship. Concerts for the 2018-19 season include the Tchaikovsky Concerto in a return engagement with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, performances of Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with Sinfonia Cymru in Wales and London Mozart Players, the Prokofiev Concerto No. 2 with the National Children's Orchestra in Manchester, and the Mendelssohn Concerto with South Carolina’s Long Bay Symphony. In past seasons, he has performed concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra, the orchestras of Wimbledon, Salomon and Cheltenham, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese L'Aquila in Italy, the Maui Pops Orchestra, and the Auckland Philharmonia. After winning First Prize and additional performances prizes at the 2016 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Benjamin Baker’s first U.S. tour included recital debuts on the Young Concert Artists Series at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and at New York's Merkin Concert Hall, sponsored by the Peter Jay Sharp Prize. This season’s recitals include appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall and in Galway and Dublin in Ireland with pianist Daniel Lebhardt. Benjamin Baker has given performances at the New York’s Caramoor Center, where he has been engaged to return this season, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, and in recital at the Port Washington Library, Haydn's Ferry Chamber Music Series, Jewish Community Alliance and the Levine School of Music. Engagements abroad include concerts in China, at Germany's Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and on tour in South America. In 2016, Mr. Baker was a Fellow at the Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute. His CD “The Last Rose of Summer” on Champs Hill Records, which includes works by Beethoven, Strauss and Kreisler, was featured on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM, and reached #22 on the charts the first week of release. He won representation with London’s Young Classical Artists Trust in 2013 and First Prize at the Windsor Festival International String Competition. By popular demand, Benjamin Baker has returned to New Zealand to play concerts and appear on radio and TV. This season he will perform as a guest with the New Zealand Piano Trio. For his devotion to charities for children, he is grateful to be an Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Port Nicholson. Currently a resident of London, Mr. Baker studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and with Natasha Boyarsky and Felix Andrievsky at the Royal College of Music, where he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Rose Bowl graduation prize. He plays a Tononi violin (1709) on generous loan, and is recipient of support from the Wallace Foundation and Carne Trust.

Benjamin Baker, violinist

Anthony Tommasini | The New York Times | February 2, 2018

The 8 Best Classical Music Moments of the Week on YouTube

Youthful Exuberance Young Concert Artists, which has fostered the careers of emerging musicians for 57 seasons, had a first on Wednesday: a live stream to its Facebook page of a recital by two YCA winners at Merkin Concert Hall. The fine violinist Benjamin Baker, 28, joined by the gifted pianist Daniel Lebhardt, brought virtuosity, refinement and youthful exuberance to a daunting program that included Britten’s Op. 6 Suite and Elgar’s rhapsodic Sonata in E minor (from 1919), along with an inventive premiere by Tonia Ko for solo violin. For me, the high point came at the start, with their magnificent account of Schubert’s Fantasy in C, a late masterpiece that would be played all the time were it not so difficult. I especially like the touch of sly Hungarian dance they brought to the first statement of the Allegretto’s vigorous main theme. (The players don’t take the stage until almost 14 minutes into the video. Just scan ahead. It’s worth it.) ANTHONY TOMMASINI

YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC. 250 West 57 Street, Suite 1222 New York, NY 10107, www.yca.org

Telephone: (212) 307-6655 Fax: (212) 581-8894 management@yca.org

NEWS from Young Concert Artists, Inc.

NEWS from Young Concert Artists, Inc.

Benjamin Baker, violinist

Oberon's G February 01, 2018

YCA Presents Violinist Benjamin Baker

Above: violinist Benjamin Baker, photographed by Kaupo Kikkas

Wednesday January 31st, 2018 - Young Concert Artists have again brought us an exciting young musician:

Benjamin Baker; the New Zealand-born violinist, won first prize at the 2016 Young Concert

Artists auditions in New York City, and tonight he was presented in his debut recital here at Merkin Hall.

Mr. Baker's program was well-devised and beautifully played, including an exceptional performance of

Benjamin Britten's Suite, Opus 6, and the premiere of a new work by Young Concert Artists composer

Tonia Ko.

Opening the evening was Franz Schubert's demanding Fantasia in C major, D. 934. The great attraction of

this music lies in its opening paragraph, with the spinning of a sustained violin note over the gently turbulent

piano just a few moments into the piece. This note seems to come from heaven, and Mr. Baker gave it a

heavenly luminosity. The aching beauty of the ensuing theme tears at the heart.

The Fantasia then moves on to some very decorative fast passagework, with later returns to a more spiritual

feeling offering strong contrasts. This evening, the piano seemed just a bit too prominent, and the more

animated sections of the music seemed just a shade too fast. But that's just a personal reaction, for both

gentlemen played with great commitment and style.

Benjamin Britten's Suite, Op. 6 (1935) was splendidly played. The opening March is rather spare, with rising

figurations and a sense of agitation; the music seems wry and dry. Mr. Baker takes up a high, ironic tune

(continued)

over some jaunty piano bits. In the Molto perpetuo that follows, the violinist trills and plucks in music that's

super-fast, with an edge. Things pulse along, with a terrific trill from the pianist.

Mr. Lebhardt's at his most dreamy for the start of the Lullabye; the violin joins on a rising phrase, and

sounds wistful in some lovely upper-range playing. Things become very introspective with the piano setting

the mood and the violin ascending for an ethereal end. A lilting sense of irony fills the almost drunk-

sounding, slow Waltz. Mr. Baker displayed his mastery in a series of gossamer, pianissimo trills; the music

grows quite eerie.

Following the interval, Ms. Ko introduced her new piece,

entitled Moves and Remains. The work's title derives from a line in

Virginia Wolff's 1921 short story, 'Monday or Tuesday'" "White and

distant, absorbed in itself, endlessly the sky covers and uncovers,

moves and remains." Ms. Ko's music is as evocative as the words

that inspired it.

Played with true dedication by Mr. Baker, Moves and Remains is

quite angular with some strumming which activates and dissipates,

buzzy trills, jagged pianissimo arpeggios, and soft, elongated notes

that hang on the air. After swiping his bow over the strings, Mr.

Baker takes up a high, fractured melody with more gentle trills. The

music alternately accelerates and sustains, like layers of summer clouds drifting overhead at variable

speeds.

For the evening's concluding work, Edward Elgar's Sonata for violin

and piano, Op. 82 (1919), Mr. Lebhardt (above) and Mr. Baker were

very much simpatico. The sonata, composed during a particularly

fertile period of the composer's career, is in the Romantic style - which

both players found most congenial - and was inspired by the natural

beauty of the Sussex countryside where Elgar and his wife had settled

in 1918.

The sonata's opening Allegro has a passionate start, the music

emerging melodious and lovely. The violin and piano writing mesh

ideally in expressions of poignant romance. A sense of yearning

reaches soulful depths before a rather sudden finish. A descending

phrase and a sense of hesitancy mark the start of the Andante; the

poetic atmosphere is sustained by ardent playing. A magical fade-away from the Steinway leaves us in

momentary suspension before the music resumes. After a lively initial flow, the concluding Allegro non

troppo meanders a bit. Mr. Lebhardt did some marvelous playing here as a feeling of grand romance builds.

In a ravishing encore, Mr. Baker dedicated Elgar's Salut d'Amour to Young Concert Artists' founder and

director, Susan Wadsworth.

~ Oberon

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YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC. 250 West 57 Street, Suite 1222 New York, NY 10107, www.yca.org

Telephone: (212) 307-6655 Fax: (212) 581-8894 management@yca.org

BENJAMIN BAKER, violin

REPERTOIRE WITH ORCHESTRA

BACH Violin Concerto in A minor

Violin Concerto in E major

Double violin Concerto in D minor

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto in D major

Triple Concerto in C major

Romance No. 1 in G major Romance No. 2 in F major

BRAHMS Violin Concerto in D major

BRITTEN Violin Concerto

BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1 in G major

Double Concerto for Violin and Viola in E minor

CHAUSSON Poeme Op. 25

DVORAK Violin Concerto in A minor

GLAZUNOV Violin Concerto in A minor

KABALEVSKY Violin Concerto in C major

MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E minor

Violin Concerto in D minor

MOZART Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 217

Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218

Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219

Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, K. 364

Adagio in E major, K. 261

PAGANINI Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major

‘La Campanella’ from Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor

PART Fratres

PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor

SAINT-SAËNS Havanaise Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

SCHUMANN Fantasie, op. 131

SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor

SIBELIUS Violin Concerto in D minor

TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto in D

Valse-Scherzo

Waltz Sentimentale, Op. 51

VAUGHN WILLIAMS Violin Concerto in D minor “Concerto Accademico”

The Lark Ascending

VIEUXTEMPS Violin Concerto No. 2

Violin Concerto No. 5

VIVALDI Concerto for Four Violins in B minor

‘The Four Seasons’, op.8

Concerto in B-flat Major ‘La Tempesta di Mare’

WIENIAWSKI Violin Concerto No. 2

Fantasie Brilliante on themes from Gounod’s ‘Faust’