World-renowned duo Christian Lindberg and Roland Pöntinen to perform at NIU, Jan. 16

For more than 40 years the world renowned duo of trombonist Christian Lindberg and pianist Roland Pöntinen have performed around the world and recorded more than 20 albums together. On Tuesday, January 16 they will perform in concert at Boutell Memorial Concert Hall in NIU’s Music Building.

This will not be Lindberg’s first visit to NIU. The native of Sweden, who was voted in 2015 as the greatest brass performer in history, played at the university in 1992. Thirty years later he is back with Pöntinen, who also hails from Sweden, as part of a world tour where they are featuring the best of their repertoire.

The world tour began in 2022 with dates in Scandinavia and Europe, continued last year through Japan and other parts of Asia and is now on its leg through the United States. They chose Northern Illinois University for their only performance in the state.

Tickets can be purchased online, and are $15 for the general public, $10 for seniors, staff and non-NIU students, NIU students are free of charge with an advanced reserved ticket.

The duo will also present masterclasses on that day for NIU School of Music Students. Lindberg’s masterclass on trombone will be held in the Concert Hall and Pöntinen’s on piano will be held in the Recital Hall. Both begin at 11 a.m. and run until 1 p.m.

Christian Lindberg and Roland Pöntinen 40th Anniversary Recital

Christian Lindberg’s achievements on the trombone can only be compared with those of Paganini for the violin or Liszt for the piano. September 2015 Christian Lindberg was voted “The Greatest Brass Player in History” by the world’s biggest classical radio station CLASSIC-FM, and in 2016 he received “International Classical Music Artist of the Year” previously given to Esa-Pekka Salonen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Charles Dutoit.

Having premièred over 300 works for the trombone (over 125 major concertos) recorded over 150 solo albums, had an international solo competition created in his name, been voted brass player of the 20th century side by side with Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong, Christian Lindberg is nothing less than a living legend.

On top of his unrivaled career as a trombonist, Lindberg has now also embarked on a highly successful conducting career, and his career includes major conducting engagements in Musikverein, Suntory Hall, at Beethovenfest, in Salzburg Festspielhaus, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Meistersingerhalle, Nürnberg and National Centre for the Performing Arts (The Giant Egg) in Beijing with orchestras such as Nippon Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Irish National Philharmonic and Ulster Orchestra to name a few.

Since 2004 Lindberg has been music director for four different orchestras: Nordic Chamber Orchestra 2004-2011 and Swedish Wind Ensemble 2005-2012, Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic 2009-2019 and Israel NK Orchestra 2016-2021. Activities with these orchestras has included major recording projects on BIS (Tchaikovsky Symphonies no 4-6 among other things), major tours throughout Japan and performances at Beethovenfest, Musikverein and Salzburg Festspielhaus. Alongside his activities as principal conductor Lindberg has major conducting collaborations with Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (performing and recording all the symphonies by Allan Pettersson), Royal Flemish Philharmonic (a major project performing and recording music by Stenhammar), The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (a second major conducting residency in 2016), Nürnberger Symphoniker (various projects including music by Lindberg himself, Allan Pettersson, Grieg, Högberg, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven), The Swedish Chamber Orchestra (music by Lindberg, Schubert, Ginastera, Bizet and Andrea Tarrodi), Ulster Orchestra (music by Lindberg, Dvorak, Nielsen, Grieg and Sibelius), RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (music by Tchaikovsky, Lindberg, Sibelius, and Sandström) and Taipei Symphony Orchestra (Bernstein, Lindberg, Tchaikovsky and Pettersson).

In 2019, Lindberg founded his own recording company European Gramophone, and has so far released more than 150 albums signing orchestras such as Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, ADDA Simfonica, Oviedo Filarmonia, Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra, Wermland Opera Orchestra Liceo Opera Orchestra, Barcelona, Taipei Symphony Orchestra and Nürndberger Symphoniker.

Lindberg also conducts orchestras such as the Nippon Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Verdi Orchestra Milano, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie, Extremadura Orchestra, Umeå Symphony Orchestra, Tiroler Symphonieorchester, Het Noord Nederland Orkest, Het Gelders Orkest, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Poznan Symphony Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jenaer Philharmonie, Jyväskyllä Symphony Orchestra, Oulu Symphony Orchestra, Euscadi Orchestra, Maggio Fiorentino, Haydn Orchestra Bolzano, Northern Sinfonia, Helsinki Philharmonics, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Cape Philharmonic, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Opera Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of Brazil, Württembergische Philharmonie, and Tenerife Symphony Orchestra.

As a composer Lindberg has been constantly busy with commissions since he wrote his first composition Arabenne for Trombone and Strings in 1997-98 as a pure experiment. Orchestras around the world have been queuing up, and he has composed over 50 works on commission from, among others, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Hessische Rundfunk, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Verdi Orchestra Milano, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Trondheim Soloists, Sion Musik Festival, Nordland Musikfestuke, Vertavo Quartet, Vib’bone Duo, Sergio Carolino and the Wild Gang, Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Bones Apart, Anders Wall Foundation, Hardanger International Music Festival and Share Music Sweden. Future commissions include a trombone concerto for the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, a 30 minute long orchestral piece commissioned by Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, a trumpet concerto commissioned by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Västerås Sinfonietta and a concerto for Evelyn Glennie, Christian Lindberg and orchestra commissioned by the Cheltenham Festival.

Christian Lindberg’s own philosophy regarding his work as a composer is simple: “I do not write in any style whatsoever! I just listen to what my brain and my soul tell me, and what I hear I simply put down on paper. To say anything more about my work would be pretentious nonsense.”

 

Roland Pöntinen

Since his debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in 1981, Roland Pöntinen has performed with major orchestras throughout the world. He has been invited to many prestigious festivals including Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier and Mostly Mozart Festival, N.Y. and worked with conductors like Esa-Pekka Salonen, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Evgeny Svetlanov and Leif Segerstam to name a few. Highlights include performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra in Paris and London, Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Hollywood Bowl, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Glasgow and Edinburgh as well as appearances at the London Proms where he has played both the Grieg piano concerto and the Ligeti piano concerto.

Thanks to an insatiable musical appetite and stupendous technique he has acquired a vast repertoire ranging from Bach to Ligeti. The emphasis is on the ”golden era” in piano literature from the 19th century – through the first half of the 20th century with composers such as Debussy, Busoni, Szymanowski and Rachmaninov. Often immersed in large scale projects Pöntinen has recently performed the complete cycles of Beethoven Sonatas and Années de pèlerinage by Liszt.

Many composers, among them Sven-Erik Bäck, Veli-Matti Puumala, Anders Eliasson and Anders Hillborg, have dedicated works to him and in 2007 he gave the world premiere of Shchedrin’s Romantic Duets together with the composer at the Verbier Festival. Always in great demand as a chamber player Pöntinen has worked with artists of distinction like Barbara Hendricks, Janine Jansen, Nobuko Imai, Peter Mattei, Martin Fröst, Zvi Zeitlin, Ulf Wallin, Torleif Thedéen, Håkan Hardenberger, Arve Tellefsen, Christian Lindberg and Nicolai Gedda.

Pöntinen has given recitals in New York (The Frick Collection), London (Wigmore Hall), Bogotá, Istanbul, Stockholm and, most recently, at the Verbier Festival last summer. Recent appearances with orchestras include Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody with Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Shostakovich’s First Concerto with Orchestre de La Suisse Romande, the Schumann Concerto with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and in January 2017 Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphony with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.

During the last two seasons he has toured Japan, Taiwan, England, Scandinavia and Holland. In June 2017 Pöntinen recorded Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety with the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Christian Lindberg, adding to an extensive discography of nearly 100 recordings for a.o. BIS, c p o, Arte Nova, EMI, Philips and his own label Haddock.

Roland Pöntinen is also active as a composer and his Blue Winter was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch at Carnegie Hall in 1998. His latest work, L’éléphant rose for trumpet and piano, written for Håkan Hardenberger, was premiered at Wigmore Hall in 2016. He has also arranged music by Legrand, Joni Mitchell and Weill for Hardenberger and Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Pöntinen is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and in 2002 he received the Litteris et Artibus – a royal medal for recognition of eminent skills in the artistic field.