BRAD MEHLDAU & IAN BOSTRIDGE

The pianist and composer Brad Mehldau is the focus of the Jazz Artist’s Portrait this year. His ‎inclusion in the Chamber Music season will see him team up with the tenor Ian Bostridge. ‎After seeing each other perform in Germany in 2015, Mehldau and Bostridge met up and ‎professed their mutual admiration. This initial contact led to a relationship where they ‎discussed their common passion: music in its broadest sense, from Bach to jazz. A spark was ‎then ignited that fired the creativity of Mehldau, who composed a number of songs ‎specifically with Bostridge’s voice in mind. As sharing these pieces was such an enjoyable ‎experience, the two musicians decided to turn the works into a series based around texts ‎and themes they both wanted to explore: the sinuous nature of human desire expressed ‎through love and adoration. Drawing on this central theme, Mehldau wrote a series of songs ‎the duo will present in public all over the world during 2019.‎