Pavel Kogan - Music Director/Conductor

Pavel Kogan, son of outstanding Soviet artists Leonid Kogan and Elisaveta Ghilels, began his musical studies at the Central Music School and continued at the Moscow Conservatory. His violin studies were under the guidance of the great pedagogue Juri Yankelevic and he studied conducting in the class of Leo Ginzburg and Ilya Musin. In 1970 at the age of eighteen Pavel Kogan won First Prize and the Gold Medal at the Sibelius International Violin Competition in Helsinki, Finland. Tours followed throughout the USSR, Europe, Japan, and the United States in recital and as soloist with leading orchestras.
Pavel Kogan made his conducting debut with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. Considered one of the top conductors of the Soviet Union, he conducts regularly the major orchestras in the USSR and appears frequently conducting the leading orchestra of Europe and the United States. A frequent guest of festivals such as Prague Spring, Helsinki, Dubrovnik, Flanders, and Leningrad White Nights, Pavel Kogan was invited by the legendary Evgenii Mravinsky to conduct the Leninguard Philharmonic on a triumphant tour of Spain in 1985.
From 1988 to 1990 Pavel Kogan was Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra. As a permanent conductor of the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, he opened the 1988/1989 season with a new production of La Traviata.
In May 1989 Pavel Kogan was named Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra. His first concert in Moscow as Chief Conductor with this orchestra was recorded live for RCA/Melodiya. Extensive tours in addition to numerous other recordings are planned for the next seasons.

MAMORU TAKAHARA : NEW YORK SYMPHONIC ENSEMBLE

Mamoru Takahara is in his thirteenth season as music director and conductor of the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Mr.Takahara began his musical career as a trumpeter, winning first place in the Youth Competition of Western Japan at age fifteen. He graduated from the Kunitachi Music College in Tokyo. In 1972 Mr.Takahara came to the United States at the invitation of Leonard Bernstein to study at the New York Philharmonic. He has also studied with Otmar Suitner in Salzburg, Australia.

Mr.Takahara made his American debut conducting the Philharmonic Virtuosi of New York in 1976 and was guest conductor of that orchestra until 1979. In July 1991, Mr.Takahara completed a three-week Japanese concert tour, which was the New York Symphonic Ensemble’s fifth concert tour of Japan. During the 1988 tour, Mr.Takahara had an unprecedented performance at the ancient Toshodaiji Temple in Nara, commemorating the 1,300th anniversary of the birth of Ganjin, the Buddhist sage.

In addition to his appearances with the New York Symphonic Ensemble, Mr.Takahara frequently returns to Japan to conduct such Japanese orchestra as the Tokyo Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic, and the Nagoya Philharmonic orchestra. Recently, he has also been appointed to be a Music Director of Himeji city of Hyogo prefecture. Mr.Takahara records with Warner-Pioneer, Kitty, Toshiba-EMI and Technics

The New York Symphonic Ensemble’s concert at Thailand Cultural Centre on November 7, 1991