Jonathan Swensen, Cello & Adam Golka, Piano

7:30 PM Friday Februay 12, 2027

Jonathan Swensen:

Rising star of the cello Jonathan Swensen is the recipient of the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was recently awarded joint First Prize at the 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition.  Previously he has been featured as both Musical America’s ‘New Artist of the Month’ and ‘One to Watch’ in Gramophone Magazine.  Jonathan first fell in love with the cello upon hearing the Elgar Concerto at the age of six, and ultimately made his concerto debut performing that very piece with Portugal’s Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música.

The release of Jonathan’s debut recording ‘Fantasia’, on Champs Hill Records, an album of works for solo cello, including Bent Sørensen’s ‘Farewell Fantasia’, composed for and dedicated to Jonathan and which he premiered in 2021. The album received rave reviews on its release, including from Gramophone, BBC Music, The Strad and Musical America which printed “Swensen proves to be not just a bold programmer, but a mature artist with a bold rounded sound and the emotional chops to back it up.”

Solo appearances with orchestras have included the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra under Douglas Boyd, the New England Conservatory Philharmonia and Hugh Wolff, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, the NFM Leopoldinum in a play-direct program, Mobile Symphony, and the Greenville Symphony.  During the 2024-25 season Jonathan will make his debut with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, returns to the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra

He has made critically acclaimed recital debuts at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater and New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, with additional performances in Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Casals Festival, and the Krannert Center.   In addition to his many solo appearances, Jonathan is a frequent performer of chamber music in the U.S. and Europe, appearing at the Tivoli Festival, Copenhagen Summer Festival, Chamberfest Cleveland, Krzyżowa-Music, Vancouver Recital Society, San Francisco Performances, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, and Newport Classical.

In 2024, Jonathan joined the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center where he performs  at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, and on tour throughout the United States.  He captured First Prizes at the 2019 Windsor International String Competition, 2018 Khachaturian International Cello Competition, and the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions.  A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Jonathan continued his studies with Torleif Thedéen at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory, where he received his Artist Diploma in May 2023. Jonathan is an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium working with Gary Hoffman.

Adam Golka:

Polish-American pianist Adam Golka (born 1987) first performed all of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas when he was 18 years-old, and in 2020-2021 Adam Golka performed the complete cycle of Beethoven's 32 Sonatas at the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park (Florida) and at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (NYC), in socially-distanced and live-stream formats. Adam's performances of each Sonata were complemented by 32 short films he created, known as 32@32 (available on YouTube), documenting his preparation for climbing the Everest of piano literature and featuring an amalgam of distinguished guests, from an astrophysicist to Alfred Brendel.

Adam Golka's principal teachers have been José Feghali, with whom he studied at Texas Christian University, and Leon Fleisher, at the Peabody Conservatory. Since finishing his formal studies, Adam has continued to develop his artistry through mentorship from Alfred Brendel, Richard Goode, Murray Perahia, Mitsuko Uchida, Evelyne Crochet, Ferenc Rados, Rita Wagner, and Sir András Schiff, who invited Adam to give recitals at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Tonhalle Zürich, for the "Sir András Schiff Selects" concert series. Adam has also given solo recitals in Tokyo's Musashino Hall, Osaka's Nakanoshima Hall, Amsterdam's Kleine Zaal in Het Concertgebouw, Paris' Jardin du Luxembourg, Berlin's Piano Salon Christophori, and New York's Alice Tully Hall (presented by the Musicians Emergency Fund), as well as countless other venues around the US and Europe.

As a concerto soloist, he has appeared with the BBC Scottish Symphony, NACO (Ottawa), Warsaw Philharmonic, NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia, as well as over fifty orchestras in the US, including such well known ensembles as the San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, New Jersey, and San Diego symphonies. Adam has enjoyed collaborations with conductors such as Joseph Swensen, Donald Runnicles, Pinchas Zukerman, Mark Wigglesworth, JoAnn Falletta, and often with his brother, conductor Tomasz Golka. Adam gave his Carnegie Stern Auditorium début in 2010 with the New York Youth Symphony.

Chamber music is an integral part of Adam Golka's life, and he has performed repeatedly at the Krzyżowa-Music "Music for Europe" Chamber Music Festival, which has included tour performances at the Penderecki European Music Center in Lusławice (Poland) Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Beethoven Bonn festivals (Germany), as well as Konzerthaus Berlin. He also performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Caramoor chamber music festivals in the US. Adam collaborates regularly with the Manhattan Chamber Players and in recital with baritone John Moore, cellist Jonathan Swensen and violinist Itamar Zorman, with whom he is scheduled for a third recital at the The Wigmore Hall in London 2026.

Adam's professional life began when he was awarded the first prize and audience prize at the 2nd China Shanghai International Piano Competition. In 2008, Adam won the Gilmore Young Artist Award and in 2009, he won the Max I. Allen Fellowship as part of the American Pianists Awards. Adam has recorded works by Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms for London-based First Hand Records, and in 2025 he will release two new albums for First Hand Records: Brahms' early piano works plus a world premiere recording of a piano work by Brahms biographer Jan Swafford, and also an album named "Chopin Sans Chopin," a personally curated selection of works inspired by Frédéric Chopin, including a world premiere of an 1894 Mazurka by Natalia Janotha.

As a pedagogue, Adam acted as Artist-in-Residence for six school years at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has premiered works by Michelle Barzel Ross, Richard Danielpour, Michael Brown, and Jarosław Gołębiowski, and most recently Adam also performed and recorded the world premiere of the Piano Quintet by Andrea Casarrubios. Adam currently serves as Artist-Teacher at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA, and is also an Artistic Advisor to the Krzyżowa-Music "Music for Europe" Chamber Music Festival. 

When Adam is not making music, he loves to read classic literature, visit art museums, swim, and he is passionate about somatic learning and movement awareness, especially the Feldenkrais Method.

Program: TBA