Inbal Segev’s 2024-25: NY Poleva premiere; Adamo’s Last Year concerto with Slatkin; U.S. premiere of her own Trio for Cello, Clarinet and Piano in Michigan

(September 2024) — Long known as an established driving force in the creation of new cello repertoire for the 21st century, Inbal Segev begins her 2024–25 season in the company of the American Composers Orchestra in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall for the New York premiere of Ukrainian composer Victoria Vita Poleva’s The Bell (Oct 30), following world and UK premieres of the piece last season in Dallas and London, respectively. She collaborates with conductor Leonard Slatkin for performances with both the Nashville Symphony (Feb 28; March 2) and Las Vegas Philharmonic (March 15) of Mark Adamo’s new cello concerto, titled Last Year; and in May she plays Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the West Michigan Symphony led by Scott Speck (May 9) before giving the U.S. premiere of her own Trio for Cello, Clarinet, and Piano the following night, along with music of Bach, Debussy, and Prokofiev (May 10). In the holiday season, Segev joins Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for its yearly tradition of presenting all six of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos in one program, in both Chicago and New York (Dec 11–17); and gives performances of Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Hartford Symphony led by Music Director Carolyn Kuan (Nov 15–17) and Anna Clyne’s cello concerto DANCE – written for Segev – with the Berkeley Symphony and Music Director Joseph Young (Feb 9). Spring also sees the cellist perform in the “Wonders We Carry Inside” Gala, an evening of music honoring the mystical beauty of Persian culture and the power of women to shape history both past and present. Curated by Iranian American composer Gity Razaz, the evening also features Iranian composer Sahba Aminikia, composer and kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, and musicians of the San Diego Symphony. Segev will perform a piece she herself commissioned from Razaz in 2015: Legend of Sigh (March 20). Segev’s season is rounded out with the world premiere performance of Angélica Negrón’s Ruta Panorámica for cello, bandoneón and electronics with accordionist Kamala Sankaram (Oct 17); performances with her Amerigo Trio partners Karen Dreyfus and Glenn Dicterow in New York and Massachusetts (Oct 20; Jan 5); and two performances of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Florida Orchestra led by Keitaro Harada (Jan 24, 25).

Ukrainian composer Victoria Vita Poleva’s The Bell was co-commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, and American Composers Orchestra. Segev premiered the work last season with the first two ensembles: now she gives the New York premiere in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with the third. Displaced from her country after the Russian invasion, the composer wrote the piece in response, as she explained to The Strad:

“For me, the idea of this music comes from the Latin bellum, which means ‘war.’ A work written during the war and by the war. A bell announcing war, a funeral bell, a victory bell.”

The title also alludes to Segev herself, whose name means “tongue of the bell.”

Mark Adamo’s Last Year was composed in 2021, after that year’s worst hurricane and the severe damage it inflicted on Houston happened to coincide with a close listen to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Adamo responded with a single concerto in four movements, asking himself how the innocence and optimism of Vivaldi’s works might have been changed had he lived through the current climate crisis. Segev gives three performances of the concerto under the baton of six-time Grammy Award winner Leonard Slatkin, celebrating his 80th birthday this season. They perform the work twice with the Nashville Symphony (Feb 28; March 2) before reprising it with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, where Slatkin serves as Artistic Consultant (March 15).

Long celebrated as “a cellist with something to say” (Gramophone), Segev has also been steadily making a name for herself as a composer. Her cello quartet, Behold (2021), was composed for her “20 for 2020” project, which saw her commission 20 new chamber works for a four-volume recording and video series from Avie Records. Subsequent compositions include her Concerto for String Orchestra (2022); the cello octet B Natural(2023); a String Trio (2023); and I’m Nobody! Who are you? (2024) for unaccompanied women’s choir. This season she gives the U.S. premiere of her Trio for Cello, Clarinet, and Piano in Muskegon, Michigan (May 10), after a performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the West Michigan Symphony led by Scott Speck (May 9). This season also sees the premiere of Segev’s Trio for Viola, Clarinet, and Piano by counter)induction at New York’s Tenri Cultural Institute (Oct 20).

About Inbal Segev

Inbal Segev is “a cellist with something to say” (Gramophone). Combining rich tone and technical mastery with rare dedication and intelligence, she has appeared with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, St. Louis Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony, collaborating with such prominent conductors as Marin Alsop, Stéphane Denève, Lorin Maazel, Cristian Măcelaru and Zubin Mehta. Committed to reinvigorating the cello repertoire, she has commissioned new works from Timo Andres, Avner Dorman, Gity Razaz, Dan Visconti and Anna Clyne. Recorded with Alsop and the London Philharmonic for Avie Records, Segev’s 2020 premiere recording of Clyne’s cello concerto, DANCE, was an instant success, topping the Amazon Classical Concertos chart; its opening movement was chosen as one of NPR Music’s “Favorite Songs of 2020,” receiving more than eight million listens on Spotify, and Segev has continued to tour extensively with the piece. At the start of the pandemic, Segev launched “20 for 2020,” a commissioning, recording and video project featuring 20 cutting-edge composers, including Vijay Iyer, Molly Joyce, Viet Cuong and John Luther Adams. Her previous discography includes acclaimed recordings of the Elgar Cello Concerto, Romantic cello works and Bach’s Cello Suites, while her popular YouTube masterclass series, Musings with Inbal Segev, has thousands of international subscribers and over two million views to date.

A native of Israel, at 16 Segev was invited by Isaac Stern to continue her cello studies in the U.S., where she earned degrees from Yale University and the Juilliard School, before co-founding the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus. Segev’s cello was made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1673.

Inbal Segev: 2024-25 season engagements

Oct 17
New York, NY
CENTRO (Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College)
Kamala Sankaram, accordion
Angélica NEGRÓN: Ruta Panorámica for cello, bandoneón and electronics (world premiere)

Oct 20
Rye, NY
Westchester Chamber Music Society
Amerigo Trio (Glenn Dicterow, violin; Karen Dreyfus, viola; Inbal Segev, cello)
BACH: Goldberg Variations (selections; transc. for string trio by Dmitry Sitkovetsky)
KLEIN: String Trio
BEETHOVEN: String Trio, Op. 9, No. 3 in C minor

Oct 20
New York, NY
Tenri Cultural Institute
counter)induction
Inbal SEGEV: Trio for Viola, Clarinet, and Piano (world premiere)

Oct 30
New York, NY
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall
American Composers Orchestra
Mei-Ann Chen, conductor
Victoria Vita POLEVA: The Bell (NY premiere)

Nov 15–17
Hartford, CT
Belding Theater at the Bushnell
Hartford Symphony
Carolyn Kuan, conductor
ELGAR: Concerto for Cello in E minor

Dec 11
Chicago, IL
Harris Theater
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
BACH: Brandenburg Concertos

Dec 13, 15, 17
New York, NY
Alice Tully Hall
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
BACH: Brandenburg Concertos

Jan 5
Concord, MA
Amerigo Trio (Glenn Dicterow, violin; Karen Dreyfus, viola; Inbal Segev, cello)
Wendy Putnam, violin
Steven Ansell, viola
BEETHOVEN: String Trio in C minor, Op. 9, No. 3
BRAHMS: String Quintet No. 2 in G, Op. 111

Jan 24, 25
The Florida Orchestra
Keitaro Harada, conductor
TCHAIKOVSKY: Variations on a Rococo Theme
Jan 24: Tampa, FL (Straz Center)
Jan 25: St. Petersburg, FL (Mahaffey Theater)

Feb 9
Berkeley, CA
Berkeley Symphony
Joseph Young, conductor
Anna CLYNE: DANCE

Feb 28; March 2
Nashville, TN
Nashville Symphony
Leonard Slatkin, conductor
Mark ADAMO: Last Year

March 15
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas Philharmonic
Leonard Slatkin, Conductor
Mark ADAMO: Last Year

March 20
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
“The Wonders We Carry Inside”
Gity RAZAZ: Legend of Sigh

May 9
Muskegon, MI
Frauenthal Theater
West Michigan Symphony
Scott Speck, conductor
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto

May 10
Muskegon, MI
The Block
BACH: Cello suite No. 1 in G
DEBUSSY: Sonata for Cello and Piano
Inbal SEGEV: Trio for piano, clarinet and cello in three movements (world premiere)
PROKOFIEV: Sonata for Cello and Piano