For today’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Broadcast, we are joined by cellist Riana Anthony and pianist Jonathan Fournel. Their program includes works by Beethoven and Franck performed under the striking Tiffany glass dome of the Chicago Cultural Center. Visit the WFMT Facebook page to see a live video broadcast of the performance.
Riana Anthony began playing the cello at the age of nine in Japan under the direction of Kurata Sumiko. She made her Honolulu Symphony debut at age 12, performing the Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1, then the Dvorak Cello Concerto three years later. A graduate of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings and Northwestern University, Riana was under the tutelage of Hans Jorgen Jensen and Julie Albers. Since September 2017, Riana is an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, studying under Gary Hoffman and Jeroen Reuling.
The Shanghai City Symphony Orchestra featured Riana as a soloist in their “The City, The Romanticism” performance of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, followed by a recital tour in China. In 2016, Riana made her Kennedy Center debut and performed recitals in the United States, China, and Denmark, closing the year with a performance of Kabalevsky’s Cello Concerto No. 2 under the baton of Maestro Victor Yampolsky. Riana was featured in the Future Master Concert Series at the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai for two seasons, and has made recent appearances in cities of Beijing, Dalian, Chicago, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, amongst others.
As a fellowship recipient, Riana participated in the Aspen Music Festival for several seasons and has engaged in festivals and masterclasses including the Seiji Ozawa International Academy, Liechtenstein Internationale Musikakademie, Rome Chamber Music Festival, Cello Akademie Rutesheim, Pyeongchang Music Festival, and Gstaad String Academy, and has received direction under renowned musicians such as Jens Peter Maintz, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Frans Helmerson, Sadao Harada, Nobuko Imai, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
She plays a fine 18th century cello by William Forster.
Born in 1993, Jonathan Fournel began playing the piano at 7. In 2006, he entered the Musikhochschule of Saarbrüken (Germany) in the studio of Robert Leonardy and Jean Micault, while taking private lessons with Gisèle Magnan. In 2009, he continued his studies with Bruno Rigutto, Brigitte Engerer, Claire Désert and Michel Dalberto at the Paris Conservatory, where he also majored in collaborative piano in the studio of Jean-Frédérique Neuburger. In 2016, Jonathan was accepted a place at the Queen Elisabeth Chapel in Belgium, where he receives coaching from Louis Lortie and Avo Kouyoumdjian.
Jonathan has been awarded prizes and laureate honors in competitions including the Ettore Pozzoli International Piano Competition (2nd Prize), Thomas Kuti Competition (2nd Prize), Gian Battista Viotti International Piano Competition (1st Prize), and Scottish International Piano Competition (1st Prize).
Jonathan performs regularly in festivals such as Les Concerts de Poche, Lille Piano Festival, Les Folles Journées de Nantes, La Roque d’Anthéron, Festival International de Colmar, in major halls such as Salle Gaveau and Salle Cortot (Paris), Auditorum Stefan Zweig (Nantes), Gustav Mahler Auditorium (Milan), L’Arsenal (Metz), Carlo Felice Theater (Genova), Royal Glasgow Concert Hall, Usher Hall (Edinburgh), and Caird Hall (Dundee).
Often invited as a soloist, Jonathan has performed with Orchestra National de Lorraine, Wallonie Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Jiansu Symphony Orchestra, Zagreb Radio-Television Orchestra, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra with conductors including Gergely Madaras, Jacques Mercier, Fan Tao, Nicola Guliani, Mladen Tarbuk, Lio Kuokman, Franck Braley Jean-François Verdier and Peter Oundjian.