Joseph Petric reimagining the accordion
The Artist
The London debut of accordionist Joseph Petric – “A performer of miraculous power and understated mastery” (Winnipeg Sun) – was acclaimed by The Independent, while his American debut merited a citation in “Performances of the Year” by the Washington Post’s Joseph D. McLellan. Mr. Petric’s systematic trajectory across the Classical concert hall comprises solo appearances at Seiji Ozawa Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. He is also a forensic advocate for new creation, having commissioned 360 new works for the accordion canon, curatorial initiatives that have been compared to the artistic stewardship of the Kronos Quartet and London Sinfonietta.
Mr. Petric made his concerto debut with the Toronto Symphony under Jukka Pekka Saraste that began his concerto-led career and a performance of three concertos in one evening with the Victoria Symphony. Notable collaborations include his microtonal Deep Listening duo with Pauline Oliveros, Witold Lutoslawski, John Cage, David Tudor, and the Penderecki String Quartet and his stylistic and interpretive diversity on 42 albums and 97 recordings for state radio systems was cited for “stunning, powerhouse performances” (Fanfare).
A committed historian and writer, Mr. Petric's publications (Augemus) have for the first time reconstructed the accordion's ignored historic legacy with the introduction of Giovanni Gagliardi’s forgotten 1911 Paris treatise Le Petit Manual de l’Accordéoniste. He maintains a full concert, research and recording schedule and is professor of graduate performance at the Faculté de Musique, Université de Montréal (Québec).
Mr. Petric lives in Upper Canada, Montréal, and on the Aegean coast.
He plays a bespoke instrument built by Leo Niemi 1996, Sudbury, Ontario, modelled on the 1910 Camerano Modernissima.
NEWS
Feb 28 - World premiere of Abigail Richardson-Schulte's chamber concerto BLOOM for accordion and string orchestra, conductor James Kahane and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra for the Intimate and Immersive HPO series, the Cotton Factory, Hamilton, Ont.
March 15-31 - Publication of Accordion Dialogues and the Poetics of an Interpretive Art by Augemus Press, Essen, Germany.
March 24-25 - Translations of J.S.Bach's Trio Sonatas with violinist Jerzy Kaplanek WLU
April 2-4 - les Anches Lyriques, translations of works by Sumera, MacDonald, Vivier, Saint Saens, with oboist Ari Cohen-Mann
Lutosławski – Dance Preludes (1954)
Joseph Petric gratefully acknowledges the generous support of:
...External Affairs Canada, The Svenska Reikskonzerter and the late Toronto philanthropist Roger Moore.