George Li performs this season in Indonesia, China, Germany, the Czech Republic, and in the United States with the Cincinnati Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, and Florida Orchestra. Other recent appearances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, New World Symphony, London Philharmonic, and Philharmonia Orchestra. He has also toured Europe with the Moscow Philharmonic and Mariinsky Orchestra. In recital, he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, the Verbier Festival, and Ravinia Festival. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in September 2017.

Mr. Li is an exclusive Warner Classics recording artist, with his debut recital recorded live from the Mariinsky Theatre. His second recording for the label features solo works by Liszt and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, recorded live with Vasily Petrenko and the London Philharmonic. His third album will feature solo works by Schumann, Ravel, and Stravinsky.

Mr. Li gave his first public performance at Boston’s Steinway Hall at the age of 10, and in 2011 performed for Barack Obama at the White House in an evening honoring Angela Merkel. Among Mr. Li’s many prizes are the silver medal at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Gilmore Young Artist Award, and First Prize at the 2010 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory, continuing to work with Wha Kyung Byun.

The Russian National Orchestra (RNO) was founded in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. The RNO regularly appears in the music capitals of Europe, Asia, and the Americas; is a frequent guest at festivals such as Edinburgh, the BBC Proms, and Festival Napa Valley; and presents the RNO Grand Festival each September to open the Moscow season. The orchestra made its first appearance in the San Francisco Symphony's Great Performers series in 1993.

RNO concerts are often aired on National Public Radio, the European Broadcasting Union, and Russia’s Kultura channel. The orchestra’s discography, launched with a 1991 recording of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, now numbers more than eighty recordings. Notable releases include the complete Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos on Deutsche Grammophon, Tchaikovsky’s six symphonies for Pentatone, and the RNO Shostakovich Project, also on Pentatone. The RNO’s recording of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Jean-Pascal Beintus's Wolf Tracks, conducted by Kent Nagano and narrated by Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton, and Mikhail Gorbachev, received a 2004 Grammy Award, making the RNO the first Russian orchestra to win the recording industry's highest honor. Their recording of Shostakovich Symphony No. 7, conducted by Paavo Järvi, was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2015 as the year's best symphonic album, and was nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award.

The RNO is unique among the principal Russian ensembles as a private institution funded with the support of individuals, corporations, and foundations in Russia and throughout the world.

The Russian National Orchestra thanks the generous patrons and sponsors who helped make the 2019 United States Tour possible, including Peter Paul and Elena Sysovskaya, Ann and Gordon Getty, Barbara Roach, Marianne Wyman, the Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation, the Prince Michael of Kent Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the Friends of the RNO.

(March 2019)

Mikhail Pletnev

Mikhail Pletnev was Gold Medal and First Prize winner of the 1978 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition when he was only twenty-one, a prize that earned him early recognition worldwide. An invitation to perform at the 1988 summit in Washington led to a friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev and the historic opportunity to make music in artistic freedom. 

In 1990 Mr. Pletnev formed the first independent orchestra in Russia's history. Through his reputation and commitment his long-held dream became a reality. Sharing his vision for a new model for the performing arts, many of the country's finest musicians joined him in launching the Russian National Orchestra. Under his leadership, the RNO has taken its place among the world's finest orchestras. Mr. Pletnev continues to serve as the orchestra’s Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. He made his debut under San Francisco Symphony auspices leading the Russian National Orchestra in a 1993 Great Performers Series concert. In 2006, he launched the Mikhail Pletnev Fund for the Support of National Culture, a nonprofit that supports major cultural initiatives, including the RNO's annual Grand Festival, which opens the Moscow cultural season each September.

Mr. Pletnev’s recordings have earned numerous prizes, including a 2005 Grammy Award for his two-piano arrangement of Prokofiev’s Cinderella, with Martha Argerich and himself at the keyboards. He received Grammy nominations for recordings of Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes (2004) and Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev piano concertos with the RNO and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich (2003). His album of Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas (Virgin/EMI) received a 1996 Gramophone Award and his recording of the complete Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos (Deutsche Grammophon) was named “Best of 2007” by the New Yorker.

Mr. Pletnev's compositions include works for orchestra, piano, strings, and voices. His transcriptions for piano of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Sleeping Beauty were selected, along with his performance of Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto and The Seasons, for the 1998 anthology Great Pianists of the 20th Century (Philips Classics).

The son of musician parents, Mr. Pletnev began conducting and learning multiple instruments as a young child and entered the Moscow Conservatory as a teenager. An advisor on Russia’s Cultural Council, he received a Presidential Prize in 2007 and the Platonov Prize in 2014. Pianist, conductor, composer, and cultural leader—all are significant facets of Mikhail Pletnev's life as an artist. Yet he considers himself, simply, a musician.

(March 2019)