Under the Tiffany glass dome of Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist Katinka Kleijn and pianist Sebastian Huydts present a live performance of works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Manuel de Falla for this Dame Myra Hess Memorial concert.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra member Katinka Kleijn performs across the fields of classical, experimental, contemporary, and improvisatory styles, as well as in solo, chamber and orchestral performance. In frequent demand as soloist, she appeared in the World Premiere of Dai Fujikura’s cello concerto at Lincoln Center with ICE, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Penderecki’s Triple Cello Concerto, with The Hague Philharmonic, Chicago Sinfonietta, and Illinois Philharmonic. Kleijn has presented multi- media solo shows at the Library of Congress, Washington DC, Carolina Performing Arts, North Carolina, and the Chicago Humanities Festival. A collaboration with the performance art duo Industry of the Ordinary resulted in the work Intelligence in the Human-Machine by Daniel Dehaan, which Time Magazine called “a balancing act for Kleijn’s whole body,” and where Kleijn performs a duet with her own brainwaves.
In Kleijn’s work as a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), she gave numerous premieres, including the US premiere of Zona by Magnus Lindberg at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and Eternal Escape by Dai Fujikura. She premiered shadows of listening by Marcos Balter on the MusicNow Series, and en suite by Balter at Chicago Bachweek. Kleijn collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Jeremy Denk, Du Yun, and performed at the Marlboro Music Festival. Recordings include David Baker’s Cello Concerto, with the progrock band District 97, the duo Relax Your Ears, and David Sylvian. She has a working improvised duo with guitarist Bill MacKay, and performs on the Chicago free jazz scene.
Sebastian Huydts studied piano in Amsterdam with Edith Lateiner Grosz at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He took postgraduate classes with Rian de Waal and participated in piano master classes with György Sebök, Stephen Bishop, and Earl Wild. Mr. Huydts has performed solo, with orchestra and in chamber music throughout Northern Europe, Spain and the Midwest and has appeared frequently on Dutch, Spanish and Chicagoland radio. He regularly performs with Access Contemporary Music. In addition, he studied composition with John Eaton, Shulamit Ran, Andrew Imbrie, Marta Ptaszynska, Howard Sandroff and orchestration with Cliff Colnot at the University of Chicago. His works are published by Jeanné of Minnesota. At present, Sebastian Huydts is Acting Chair of the Music Department of Columbia College Chicago.