COMPOSER
BIOGRAPHY
Alexey Shor was born in Ukraine in 1970, immigrated to Israel in 1991, and now lives primarily in the USA.
His compositions have been performed at some of the most prestigious concert halls, including Wiener Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Mariinsky Theatre (St. Petersburg), Kremlin Palace (Moscow), The Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Gasteig (Munich), Wigmore Hall (London), Teatro Argentina (Rome) and many others. Concerts with his music have been broadcast on MediciTV, Mezzo and Euronews. Mr Shor’s music has been showcased on Fox Business News and the websites of Bloomberg News, the New Yorker, Yahoo and the Huffington Post. The Overture to his ballet “Crystal Palace” was performed at the 40th Gramophone Classical Music Awards ceremony in London. In 2018 he has been awarded an honorary professorship at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan. In 2022 Mr.Shor has been appointed as Yehudi Menuhin School’s first associate composer.
Mr. Shor’s scores are published by Breitkopf & Hartel, Universal Edition and P.Jurgenson.
CDs with his compositions have been issued by Warner Classics, DECCA, SONY Classics, Naxos, Delos, Berlin Classics and Melodiya.
Mr. Shor is the Composer-In-Residence for the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra.
Many internationally acclaimed artists have performed Mr Shor’s music, including (in alphabetical order) Behzod Abduraimov, Salvatore Accardo, Ray Chen, Steven Isserlis, Evgeny Kissin, Denis Kozukhin, Shlomo Mintz, Mikhail Pletnev, Gil Shaham, Yeol Eum Son, Yekwon Sunwoo, Maxim Vengerov, Nikolaj Znaider and many others.
He also holds a Ph.D. in mathematics.
Violin | Kazakhstan
Aiman Mussakhajayeva - outstanding violinist, People's Artist of the Republic of Kazakhstan," Kazakstannyn Enbek Eri", Rector of the Kazakh National University of Arts, "Artist for Peace", professor, prominent public figure.
She studied at a violin from 6 years at the Republican music school named after K. Bayseitova in Professor N.M. Patrusheva’s class.
She graduated with honors out of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory from the class of Professor Valeriy Klimov.
She is the laureate of the International Competition in Belgrade (Yugoslavia, 1976), N.Paganini International Competition in Genoa (Italy, 1981), Tokyo International Competition (Japan, 1983), Ya.Sibelius International Competition in Helsinki (Finland, 1985), P.Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow (Russia, 1986).
She released two CDs on the famous label “Deutsche Grammophon” one with pianist Pavel Gililov and another one with the orchestra Wiener Symphoniker, conducted by Manuel Hernández Silva with the violin concertos of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev.
Aiman Mussakhajayeva - holds the Honorary title of UNESCO “Artist for Peace” (1998); Academician of the International Academy of Art (1998), Cavalier of “the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic” awarded by the President of Italy, Holder of the Silver Medal Gustav Mahler, the Vatican Award, Santa Cecilia Silver Cup for contribution to the development and strengthening cultural ties between two countries, Cavalier of the Order of “Friendship” (Russia), laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of literature, art, architecture (2000), laureate of independent award of patrons of Kazakhstan “Platinum Tarlan” (2002).
For outstanding achievements in the field of musical art A. Mussakhajayeva was awarded the State Prize of Peace and Progress of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and international Prize “Stars of the Commonwealth”. Member of the Laureates Association of Tchaikovsky International Competition.
In 2002 the name of Aiman Mussakhajayeva was entered in the list of World Honorary IВС “2000 Outstanding Musicians of the 20th century”, and also in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the University of Cambridge “Outstanding musicians of the 20th century” (2002), the International Biographical Centre of Cambridge awarded the honorary title “International Musician of 2003”.
Aiman Mussakhajayeva cooperates with well-known musicians, including Mischa Maisky, Bruno Canino, Victor Tretyakov, Eduard Grach, Paul Gililov, Vladimir Spivakov, Sergei Raldugin, Christian Schulz, Gudni Emilsson etc.
In different years, has performed with leading symphonic orchestras and chamber orchestras of the world - Wiener Symphoniker, Royal Philharmonic orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, the National Symphony Orchestra of Russia, the European Youth Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles under management of Vladimir Fedoseyev, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mikhail Pletnev, Paul Kogan, Vladimir Spivakov, Saulius Sondetskis, Mikhail Yurovsky, Fuat Mansurov and many others.
Aiman Mussakhajayeva performs in the best concert halls of the world: Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory (Moscow), Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Centre, Avery Fisher Hall (New York), Musicverein (Wien) Gaveau, Cortot and Pleyel Concert Halls (Paris), Santa Cecilia (Roma), Queen Elizabeth Hall, Vigmor Hall, Barbican Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Guildhall (London), Konzerthaus (Berlin, Wien).
Concerts are performed by Aiman Mussakhajayeva on the violin by Antonio Stradivari (1732).
Piano | JAPAN ∙ FRANCE
First prize at the National Piano Competition in Japan, launched her international career as the winner of the 2nd Grand Prix in the Long/Thibaud Competition in Paris with 4 special prizes given by A. Rubinstein, Emile Sauer, Prince Rainier Ⅲ of Monaco. Laureat at the 10th Fryderyk Chopin International Competition in Warsaw. She studied with A.Ciccolini (Paris Conservatoire), V. Perlemuter, C. Hansen, L.Kentner, C.Zerah, S.Nagai & T.Matsuura.She has performed throughout the world in 36 countries, at Berlin Philharmony Hall, Gewanthaus concert Hall, Suntory Hall, Teatro Colon, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Salle Pleyel, Salle Gaveau, Wigmore Hall, with outstanding orchestras and conductors such as Skrowacewski, F.Bruggen, Janowsky, Sinaisky, Foster, Sado, Inoué, Gushulbauer, P.I.Calderón etc. Her Duo Concert with M. Argerich has been broadcasted many times in the world. She performed often with M.Argerich, A. Dumay, R.Pasquier, A.Noras, A. Hewitt, with the Quintets as Moragues, Parisii, Via Nova etc. She appears regularly at festivals in Warsaw, La Roque d’Anthéron, Menton, Echternach, Verbier, Nantes, Nice, Lugano, Lisbon, Toledo, New York,Tokyo, Salt Lake City etc. Her discography includes Chopin, Ravel, Dynam-Victor Fumet (world first recording). Also works by Fauré, Franck, Grieg, Lekeu, Pierné, Webern. She was awarded twice Grand Prix d’Or for her recordings of Hikari Ōe. For her services to French music, Ebi was named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 1993 in France, and in 2002 she received Japan’s prestigious ExxonMobile Music Prize.She is often invited to give master classes in many countries as France, Belgium, Germany, England, Italy, Spain, Russia, Finland, many cities in USA, Canada, Argentine, Japan. Jury member at many international major competitions such as Chopin in Warsaw, Long, Haskil, Bachauer, Santander, Montreal, Hamamatsu for which she was the president of jury in 2012 & 2015.
Oboe | Germany
When the subject turns to oboists, his name is now de rigueur: Albrecht Mayer. His playing has both listeners and critics raving, with expressions like “divine spark” or the “miraculous oboe” that the German player has elevated to become an “instrument of seduction”. He studied with Gerhard Scheuer, Georg Meerwein, Maurice Bourgue and Ingo Goritzki and began his professional career in 1990 as principal oboist of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Since 1992 he has occupied the same position with the Berlin Phiharmonic. It’s no wonder that Albrecht Mayer ranks today among the most sought-after oboists and has appeared as a soloist with Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Along with his solo projects, Mayer considers it important to find time for chamber music. He has no dearth of requests and opportunities, and performs regularly with partners such as the pianist Hélène Grimaud, Leif Ove Andsnes and the bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, with whom he recorded a CD of Bach cantatas.
In his search for new repertoire for his instrument, he is constantly fascinated by the idea of lending his voice (that of the oboe) to “foreign” works — pieces written for other instruments or for singers. Having sung as a child for many years in the Bamberg Cathedral Choir, he is especially attracted to the human voice, as the most “natural” of all instruments. He’s already provided convincing proof of that claim in the recording Lieder ohne Worte — Bach transcriptions for oboe and orchestra, in which the Baroque style and bel canto are delightfully combined. The CD immediately entered the German classical charts at number 2. His CD In search of Mozart recorded with Claudio Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra made it to the top of the German classical charts, the recording New Seasons presents music by George Frederic Handel in a stunning new light. In August 2008, the oboist’s album In Venice was released by Decca, featuring Baroque oboe concertos from Venetian composers. Another CD with works by J.S. Bach has been released by Decca in autumn 2009, followed by “Bonjour Paris” in autumn 2010 and his CD “Songs of the Reed” in January 2012, both also released by Decca. His album “Let it snow” with the King’s Singers has been released by Deutsche Grammophon in autumn 2013. His albums “Lost and Found”, “Bach – concertos and transcriptions”, “Vocalise” and “Tesori d’Italia” for Deutsche Grammophon came out in spring/autumn 2015, winter 2016 and autumn 2017. His latest, extremely successful Mozart album was published in 2021.
Albrecht Mayer has been elected “Instrumentalist of the Year“ and was rewarded with an ECHO Klassik Prize by the German Phono-Akademie in 2004, 2008 and 2010; in December 2006 Albrecht Mayer was awarded the E.T.A.-Hoffmann Prize by his German hometown Bamberg. Last year he entered the Gramophone „Hall of Fame“ and received the Kulturpreis Bayern.
Albrecht Mayer plays an oboe and oboe d'amore by Mönnig.
PIANO | ITALY
Alessandro Taverna regularly performs in major international musical institutions, including La Scala Theater in Milan, San Carlo Theater in Naples, La Fenice Theater in Venice, Musikverein in Vienna, Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Gasteig in Munich, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Lincoln Center in New York, Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Metropolitan Theater in Tokyo.
He has worked with worldwide famous conductors, such as Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Fabio Luisi, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniel Harding, Michele Mariotti, Thierry Fischer, Daniele Rustioni, Carlo Boccadoro, Joshua Weilerstein, Pier Carlo Orizio, Sergey Smbatyan, and he has collaborated with prestigious orchestras including the Filarmonica della Scala, the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Bucharest Philharmonic, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, RTE National Symphony of Ireland, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra.
He gained his international recognition in prestigious international piano competitions such as the Piano-e-Competition in the United States, Leeds, London, Hamamatsu, Busoni Prize of Bolzano. In 2012 he received the "President of the Republic Award" from Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, for artistic merits and for his international career.
He graduated at the age of seventeen at the Pollini Conservatory in Padua, studying with Laura Candiago Ferrari at the S. Cecilia Music Foundation in Portogruaro; he continued his education with Franco Scala, Leonid Margarius and Louis Lortie at the Imola International Piano Academy. He also attended the Accademia S. Cecilia in Rome with Sergio Perticaroli, the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover with Arie Vardi and the Lake Como Piano Academy with William Grant Naboré, Fou Ts'ong and Dmitri Bashkirov.
He is often invited as jury member in important international piano competitions and to held masterclasses and seminaries for prestigious institutions (Bowdoin Festival in Brunswick - USA, Music in Pyeongchang Festival in Korea, Cork School of Music in Ireland, etc...). He collaborates with RAI Italian National Radio and Television; he has recorded albums for the Sony, Somm, Musicom, RaiTrade, Tzadik labels.
Alessandro Taverna is Professor of Piano at Imola International Piano Academy, at Padua Conservatory of Music and the International School for Advanced Music Studies in Portogruaro.
Since April 2021 he has been artistic director of the Portogruaro International Music Festival.
Cello | Armenia · UK
Now regarded as one of the finest cellists of the younger generation, Alexander Chaushian has performed extensively throughout the world as a soloist with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Academy of St Martin-in- the-Fields, The London Mozart Players, The Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, The Boston Pops and The Armenian Philharmonic, and has given highly acclaimed performances in such venues as London’s Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall, Sala Verdi Milan, Konzerthaus Vienna, Suntory Hall Japan, the main Carnegie Hall New York, and Symphony Hall Boston.
He performs regularly in festivals throughout the world and is the Artistic Director of the International Pharos Chamber Music Festival in Cyprus and the Yerevan Music Festival in Armenia.
After initial studies in Armenia, Alexander Chaushian studied in the UK at the Menuhin School and the Guildhall School, London. He then pursued advanced studies at the Hochschule Berlin, graduating with distinction in 2005. He is a laureate prize winner of many international competitions including the 12th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the ARD Competition in Germany. As an alumnus of Young Concert Artists, New York, he toured extensively in the USA. Amongst the many distinguished musicians whom he has collaborated with are Yehudi Menuhin, Julia Fischer, Levon Chilingirian, Yuri Bashmet, Diemut Poppen, François-Frédéric Guy, Emmanuel Pahud. His regular chamber music partner is Yevgeny Sudbin.
Alexander’s recordings include several highly acclaimed CDs for the BIS label in which he is partnered by Yevgeny Sudbin, and his recently released concerto CD with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, also on BIS, received rave reviews and was selected ‘Album of the Week’ by the Independent. His many concerts during this season include performances in France, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, China and Japan.
“Alexander Chaushian firmly establishes himself in the echelons of international cellists” — The Strad
Cello | Russia
One of the most powerful and enigmatic cellists, Alexander Knyazev was born in 1961 in Moscow. He started to study cello at the age of six with A.Fedorchenko and graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire in 1986. He was prize-winner of the National Competition (Vilnius), Cassado International Competition (Florence), Chamber Music International Competition in Trapani (Italy, in the ensemble with E. Voskressenskaya), Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow, UNISA International Competition in Pretoria (South Afrika).
He played with such world-famous conductors as E.Svetlanov, Y.Temirkanov, K.Mazur, M.Rostropovich, V.Fedoseev, M.Pletnev, Y.Bashmet, P.Steinberg and others. He performed with orchestras as London Royal Philharmonic and BBC orchestra (London), Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestra, Baltimore Symphony orchestra, Tokyo Symphony (Japan), Wiener Symphoniker,”Orchestral de Paris” and Orchestra National de France, State Academic Symphony orchestra of Russia, ”Moscow Soloists” etc.
His partners are great pianists - E.Kissin, N.Lugansky, B.Berezovsky, E.Leonskaya, D.Matsuev, B.Engerer; violinists - V.Tretyakov, V.Repin, V.Spivakov; violist - Y.Bashmet; organists - G.Guillou, E.Oganessian and others.
Three times, in 1998, 2002 and 2015 he was member of the Jury at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow.
Knyazev performed in such world-famous halls as Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall (London), Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Louver auditorium and Salle Pleyel (Paris), Musikverein and Konzerthaus (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Mozarteum in Salzburg, Rudolfinum (Prague), Auditorium di Milano (Italy), Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels).
Alexander Knyazev is a multi-instrumentalist. As an organist, he goes on tour extensively in Russia and Europe, performing solo programs and works for organ and orchestra. In 2015 he performed for the first time in Moscow as a pianist and now actively continues to play the piano, combining this with playing the organ and cello.
Conductor | Russia
Alexander Sladkovsky is a Russian conductor, the People's Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan, the People's Artist of Russia, who graduated from Moscow and Saint Petersburg conservatories. He is a winner of the III International Prokofiev Competition. In 2001, he conducted in a concert at the Hermitage Theater in honor of the visit of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. He assisted Mariss Jansons and Mstislav Rostropovich and from 2006 to 2010 he was a conductor of the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Yuri Bashmet. Since 2010 Alexander Sladkovsky is an Artistic Director and a Chief Conductor of the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra in the city of Kazan (Tatarstan, Russia), which he transformed into one of the finest orchestras in Russia.
Working with the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra for 11 years, he has significantly enhanced the status of the orchestra in the musical life of the Republic of Tatarstan and the whole country. He expanded the range of its creative capacities, effectively putting into practice the latest formats of professional work at the international level. Concerts featuring TNSO under the direction of Alexander Sladkovsky are very popular in Tatarstan, and every performance is usually sold out. Perm, Omsk, Tyumen, Irkutsk, Saint Petersburg, and Moscow are among those Russian cities, where Sladkovsky and his orchestra are known and appreciated.
In 2014, the TNSO conducted by Alexander Sladkovsky performed at the La Folle Journée festival in Japan. In 2016, for the first time in the orchestra's history, it gave concerts during a European tour in the Brucknerhaus (Linz) and in the Golden Hall of Musikverein (Vienna). In December 2018, the TNSO and Maestro Alexander Sladkovsky made the first tour in China.
The TNSO under the direction of Alexander Sladkovsky is the first Russian regional orchestra recorded by Medici.tv and Mezzo channels. Moreover, one of the concerts at the La Folle Journée festival in 2019 in Nantes was recorded and broadcasted by ARTE channel.
Orchestras under Alexander Sladkovsky took part in various important national and international projects and festivals, such as Musical Olympus, Musical spring, Yuri Temirkanov Arts Square festival, Wild Cherry Forest, All-Russian Irina Bogacheva Young Opera Singers' Competition, Rodion Shchedrin's Self-portrait festival (held in 2002 for the 70th anniversary of the composer), Young Euro Classic festival (Berlin), XII and XIII Easter festivals, Crescendo festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik festival, Kunstfest Weimar, Budapest Spring festival 2006, V Festival of the World's Symphony Orchestras, XI Wörthersee Classics Festival (Klagenfurt, Austria), Hibla Gerzmava Invites…festival, International Festival of Vocal Music Opera Apriori, Russian Day in the World (Victoria Hall, Geneva), International Tchaikovsky Arts Festival in Klin, International Piano Festival La Roque d'Anthéron and La Folle Journée in France.
Alexander Sladkovsky collaborated with internationally renowned artists such as D. Matsuev, Y. Bashmet, M. Pletnev, R. Honeck, K. Penderecki, R. Buchbinder, B. Berezovsky, B. Douglas, Y. Yokoyama, N. Lugansky, A. Toradze, E. Mechetina, K. Bashmet, V. Tretiakov, R. Capuçon, J.-Y. Thibaudet, G. Kremer, V. Repin, V. Gluzman, N. Znaider, F. Dumont, L. Kavakos, J. Rachlin, P. Tsukerman, S. Krylov, A. Baeva, D. Sitkovetsky, D. Geringas, A. Knyazev, M. Brunello, A. Rudin, M. Caballé, I. Bogacheva, O. Borodina, H. Gerzmava, S. Kermes, A. Shagimuratova, A. Garifullina, D. Alieva, Sumi Jo, R. Alagna, P. Domingo, D. Hvorostovsky, I. Abdrazakov, L. Debarg and the others.
In October 2013 Maestro Sladkovsky was invited by Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia to conduct works of Sergei Rachmaninov during the anniversary concerts dedicated to the composer. In the same season, he was re-invited to conduct several concerts with a Tchaikovsky program. Previous collaborations have included the Bolshoi Theatre, State Academic Symphony Orchestra "Evgeny Svetlanov", Russian National Orchestra, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic of Russia, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Niedersächsisches Staatsorchester Hannover, Orchestra of Theatro Municipal De São Paulo, orchestras of the Moscow, Novosibirsk and Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Concerto Budapest Orchestra and Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Russo-German Music Academy Orchestra.
In April 2014, the TNSO under the direction of Alexander Sladkovsky performed at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris at the ceremony, where Denis Matsuev was awarded the title of "Goodwill Ambassador". In the 2014/15 concert season, Alexander Sladkovsky with the TNSO performed at the Bolshoi Theater of Russia during the concert, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Crescendo festival, and in Saint Petersburg within the first orchestra's subscription at the Mariinsky Concert Hall.
Alexander Sladkovsky is the founder and the artistic director of the Rakhlin Seasons, Miras, White Lilac, Kazan Autumn, Concordia, Denis Matsuev Meets Friends, and Creative Discovery festivals. In 2012 Sony Music and RCA Red Seal released a three-CD album entitled "Anthology of music by composers of Tatarstan" and a CD "Enlightenment". In 2016 in cooperation with the Melodiya record label several global musical projects were realized: the recording of three symphonies of G. Mahler (Nos. 1, 5, 9) and also recordings of all symphonies and concertos of D. Shostakovich. In May 2020, the digital release of the "Tchaikovsky-2020" box set took place — a recording of all symphonies and instrumental concerts by P. I. Tchaikovsky on the Sony Classical label.
The Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Sladkovsky is currently the first and only regional orchestra that has been honored to have its own annual subscription in the Moscow State Philharmonic Society.
In June 2015 Maestro Sladkovsky was awarded the medal of the commemorative badge "Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov", and in October 2015, the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Nurgaliyevich Minnikhanov presented him the Duslyk Order ("duslyk" in translation from the Tatar language means "friendship"). In 2016, Alexander Sladkovsky was awarded the prize "Conductor of the Year" by the national newspaper The Musical Review and "Person of the Year in Culture", according to the magazine Delovoi Kvartal and the Kazan-based online newspaper Business Online.
In 2019, Alexander Sladkovsky has been awarded the Sergei Rachmaninov International Award in the nomination "Special Project in the Name of Sergei Rachmaninov" for special attention to his legacy and organizing the Sergei Rachmaninov International Festival "White Lilac" in Kazan. In the autumn of 2019, Alexander Sladkovsky established an annual scholarship at the Moscow Conservatory for students of the Opera and Symphony Conducting Division aimed at supporting and developing the talent of young conductors.
Conductor | UK
Alexander Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in September 2015. The ensemble has since been praised as “an orchestra transformed … hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen) and Alexander’s programming credited for turning the orchestra “almost overnight … into one of the more audacious orchestras in North America.” (Maclean’s Magazine).
Born in London in October 1979, Alexander, the son of celebrated concert pianists, studied cello and conducting in Germany and first gained widespread attention when he was unanimously awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors' Competition, with the press describing him as "the most exciting and gifted young conductor to have taken this highly prestigious award. His conducting technique is immaculate, everything crystal clear and a tool to his inborn musicality”. In August 2017 Alexander concluded his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Nürnberger Symphoniker, a position he held since September 2009. The partnership was hailed by press and audience alike as a golden era for the orchestra, where he transformed the ensemble’s playing, education work and international touring activities. These have included concerts in Italy, Belgium, China and a re-invitation to the Musikverein in Vienna.
In January 2015 he assumed the role of Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he curates an annual series of concerts at Cadogan Hall and tours both nationally and internationally.
Described as “a natural communicator both on and off the podium” (Daily Telegraph) Alexander works regularly with the leading orchestras of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australasia, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bamberg Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Orchestre Metropolitain Montreal. This season Alexander makes his debut with Toronto Symphony and Colorado Symphony and returns to Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Sao Paul Symphony and the Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand symphony orchestras. He also embarks on an extensive tour of Germany and South Africa with the German National Youth Orchestra.
Highlights of the previous season include debuts with the Sydney Symphony, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orquesta Sinfonica de Valencia, and Milwaukee Symphony; alongside returns to Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg and Tasmanian Symphony. Alexander also led National Arts Centre Orchestra on a critically acclaimed tour of Europe with concerts in cities such as London, Paris, Stockholm and Copenhagen.
Alexander’s operatic engagements have included The Merry Widow and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet (Den Kongelige Opera); La Bohème (Opera Lyra/National Arts Centre), Iolanta (Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen), Così fan Tutte (Opéra National de Montpellier), The Marriage of Figaro (Opera North) in 2015 and he led a co-production of Harry Somers’ Louis Riel in 2017 with the NACO and Canadian Opera Company.
Alexander was awarded the ECHO prize in 2016 for his second Deutsche Grammophon recording, “Peter and the Wolf”, and both the ECHO and Deutsche Grunderpreis in his capacity as Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen’s “Zukunftslabor”, a visionary project of grass-roots engagement, which uses music as a source for social cohesion and integration. Through his work as Founder and Artistic Director of the Schumann Camerata and their ground-breaking “440Hz” series in Dusseldorf, and through his leadership roles in Nuremberg, Bremen and Ottawa, inspiring future generations of classical musicians and listeners has always been central to Alexander’s work. He has led the German National Youth Orchestra on several tours of Germany and works with many thousands of young people a year in outreach projects. He regularly gives informed and passionate pre- and post-concert talks on his programmes, as well as numerous interviews and podcasts on the role of classical music in society. He has a wealth of experience conducting and presenting major open-air events - in Nuremberg alone he has, over the course of nine years, hosted more than half a million people at the annual Klassik Open Air concerts - Europe’s largest classical music event. Visit alexandershelley.com for more info.
For the most up-to-date biography, please contact us. This biography should not be edited without permission from Askonas Holt. AUGUST 2019
Conductor | Uzbekistan
Born in 1984 in Tashkent, Alibek Kabdurakhmanov graduated from the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan with a Bachelors in Percussion Instruments in 2006, a Masters in the same field in 2008, and a Masters in Opera and Symphonic Conducting in 2019.
Since 2007 he has been an accompanist of the percussion group of the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, becoming conductor of the orchestra in 2014, and its main conductor in 2018.
As conductor, he has worked with the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, State Academic Symphony Orchestra Almaty, Musical theater orchestra - studio at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan, Ensemble of contemporary music “Omnibus” Orchestra named “Kurmangazy”, and Youth symphony orchestra of Uzbekistan, among others.
He appeared in many festivals including the International Contemporary Music Festival "Turbulence"; 33 International festival "Moscow Autumn" Sessions of the Youth Orchestra of the World (JMWO); International Festival “Musical Summer Evenings”; International Festival "Euro-Orchestra"; International festival “Drums of the World”; International "Easter Festival", and International festival "Ilkhom-XX".
He has won various awards, including Laureate of the Tasanno Prize in the Field of Culture (2005, 2007); Grand Prix at the Shabyt International Competition (2007); Special prize "for best performance with an orchestra" in the International Competition "EMCY Art for Music Prize" (2006); 2nd prize of the International Competition “EMCY Art for Music Prize” (2006).
Conductor | Italy
Born in Verona in 1987, Andrea Battistoni is a rising star conductor with an international reputation as one of the most important of his generation. In 2013 he was appointed First Guest Conductor at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova with a three-year engagement for two operas and two symphonic productions a year. In 2015 he was named Principal Guest Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic, and he became Chief Conductor in October 2016.
He has been causing a sensation in Tokyo with his charisma and sensitive musicality, conducting operas and symphonic repertoire, such as Nabucco (Nikikai) and the Roman Trilogy with Tokyo Phil. His subsequent concert-style Turandot with the Tokyo Phil in May 2015 secured his reputation as a leading light to critics and audiences alike in the music world.
Other noteworthy engagements of his career include: Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Regio di Torino, Teatro Carlo Felice, La Fenice in Venice, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Stockholm Opera House, Arena di Verona, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munchen and world renowned orchestras such as the Tokyo Phil, Filarmonica della Scala, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Israel Phil and many others. His future plans include Deutsche Oper Berlin, Arena di Verona, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munchen, Teatro Regio in Torino, Nederlandse Oper in Amsterdam, Semperoper Dresden, Australia Opera in Sydney as well as the debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and at the Opera de Paris.
Clarinet | Austria
The Austrian clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer has captured audiences and critics alike with the singular beauty of tone that he coaxes from the instrument.
Ottensamer performs as a soloist in the major concert halls around the world, with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Orchestre Metropolitain, the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, the European Union Youth Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Stephane Deneve, Alan Gilbert and Lorenzo Viotti.
His artistic partnerships as a chamber musician include work with Yuja Wang, Leonidas Kavakos, Janine Jansen, Lisa Batiashvili, Nemanja Radulovic, Nicolas Altstädt and Sol Gabetta. In 2005 Ottensamer founded the clarinet trio “The Clarinotts” with his father Ernst and brother Daniel.
He is also artistic director of the 'Bürgenstock Festival' in Switzerland, together with pianist José Gallardo, and the “Artström Festival” in Berlin.
In February 2013 Andreas Ottensamer entered into an exclusive recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, making him the first ever solo clarinettist to sign an exclusive agreement with the Yellow Label. For his second album, “Brahms - The Hungarian Connection”, Ottensamer was awarded the ECHO KLASSIK as 'Instrumentalist of the year 2015'. He went on to record “New Era” on the Decca Classics label, performing repertoire of the Mannheim school with Emmanuel Pahud, Albrecht Mayer and the Kammerakademie Potsdam.
His latest album for Deutsche Grammophon, “Blue Hour”, a collaboration with Yuja Wang, Maris Jansons and the Berliner Philharmoniker performing works by Weber, Brahms and Mendelssohn, won him Instrumentalist of the Year by Opus Klassik.
Highlights of the 2018/19 season included guest solo performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the National Taiwan Symphony, the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival and the Salzburg Festival where he performed the Weber Clarinet Concerto with the Camerata Salzburg and Lorenzo Viotti. In May 2019 he was Artist in Residence at the Schwetzingen Festival. He also performed in the Utzon Recital series at Sydney Opera House and performed with Yuja Wang at the Carnegie Hall, the Gstaad Menhuin Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival.
Highlights of the 2019/2020 season include the Mozart Clarinet Concerto at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, concerts with the Kammerorchester Basel and the Musikkollegium Winterthur. In recital he appears with Yuja Wang at the Barbican in London. He appears at the Musikverein Wien, Konzerthaus Berlin and the Philharmonie Luxembourg. He also appears as a “Menuhin Heritage Artist” at the Gstaad Menhuin Festival.
Andreas Ottensamer was born in 1989 in Vienna. He comes from an Austro-Hungarian family of musicians and was drawn to music early, receiving his first piano lessons when he was four. At the age of ten he began studying cello at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, switching to the clarinet in 2003.
In 2009 he interrupted his Harvard undergraduate studies to become a scholar of the Orchestra Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Since March 2011 Ottensamer has been principal clarinettist with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Cello | ROMANIA
The Gold Medal-winner at the 2015 XV International Tchaikovsky Competition, the phenomenal young cellist Andrei Ioniță was called “one of the most exciting cellists to have emerged for a decade” by the prestigious Times of London. He was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2016-18 and was the Symphoniker Hamburg’s artist-in-residence for the 2019-20 season. A versatile musician focused on giving gripping, deeply felt performances, Andrei has been recognized for his passionate musicianship and technical finesse.
Andrei made his U.S debut in 2017 with recitals in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and gave his New York debut recital in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. Highlights of the previous two seasons have included concertos with the Münchner Philharmoniker (Valeriy Gergiev), Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Kent Nagano), BBC Philharmonic (Omer Meir Wellber and John Storgårds), Danish National Symphony (Christian Kluxen), Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Karl-Heinz Steffens), San Diego Symphony (Case Scaglione), Yomiuri Nippon Symphony (Sylvain Cambreling) and BBC National Orchestra of Wales (Ainars Rubikis); he has given recitals at Konzerthaus Berlin, Elbphilharmonie, Zurich Tonhalle, LAC Lugano, and L’Auditori in Barcelona, as well as at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier and Martha Argerich Festivals. Andrei’s debut album on Orchid Classics combined a Brett Dean world-premiere with Bach and Kodály, prompting Gramophone to declare him “a cellist of superb skill, musical imagination and a commitment to music of our time.”
Before winning the Tchaikovsky Competition, Andrei won First Prize at the Khachaturian International Competition in June 2013; in September 2014, he won Second Prize and the Special Prize for his interpretation of a commissioned composition at the International ARD Music Competition. In 2014, he received Second Prize at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann in Berlin.
Andrei was born in 1994 in Bucharest and began taking piano lessons at the age of five before receiving his first cello lesson three years later. He studied under Ani-Marie Paladi in Bucharest and under Jens Peter Maintz at the Universität der Künste Berlin. A cholarship recipient of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, Andrei performs on a cello made by Giovanni Battista Rogeri from Brescia in 1671, generously on loan from the foundation.
Violin | SWITZERLAND
One of the most successful musicians of his generation, violinist Andrey Baranov enjoys an exclusive career as an outstanding soloist and a sought after ensemble partner, performing on main stages and festivals in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia.
He is the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition of 2012, the Benjamin Britten and Henri Marteau International Violin Competitions, and a prizewinner of more than twenty other international competitions, including Indianapolis, Seoul, Sendai, Liana Issakadze, David Oistrakh, and the Moscow Paganini Competition.
Since making his debut in 2005 at the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Grand Hall under Vasily Petrenko and Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Baranov went on to performing with Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchesra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, MusicAeterna Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic, Royal Phiharmonic London, Camerata Salzburg under the baton of conductors Teodor Currentzis, Vladimir Fedoseev, Michel Tabachnik, Walter Weller, Emmanuel Krivine, Yuri Temirkanov, Kent Nagano, Thomas Sanderling, Michael Sanderling and Alexander Vedernikov, among others.
Andrey is the first violinist and founding member of David Oistrakh String Quartet, an ensemble established in 2012, which rapidly became one of the leading string quartets currently performing. His other chamber music partners include, among others, Martha Argerich, Julian Rachlin, Boris Andrianov, Pierre Amoyal, Eliso Virsaladze, Liana Isakadze, Alexander Buzlov, Daniel Austrich, Andrey Gugnin and Kirill Gerstein.
His album „The Golden Violin“, released on the MUSO Label and featuring romantic violin pieces, has won the prestigious „Diapason d’Or“ award in 2018.
Aged only 23 Andrey was appointed a teaching assistant to Pierre Amoyal at the Conservatoire de Lausanne and has since been in demand as a teacher at many international masterclasses. He has been invited to institutions in Bangkok, Chicago, Riga, Vilnius, Stockholm, Moscow, Manchester and other musical capitals. Since 2020 Mr. Baranov is Professor in “Academia del Ridotto” in Italy and guest Professor of “Piccoli Virtuosi International Music Boarding School” in Switzerland.
Born in St.Petersburg in 1986 into a family of musicians, Andrey began playing the violin at the age of five. He studied at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Saint-Petersburg and Consevatoire de Lausanne. His teachers were Lev Ivaschenko, Vladimir Ovcharek and Pierre Amoyal.
Piano | Russia
Moscow-born concert pianist Andrey Gugnin is rapidly gaining international acclaim as a passionately virtuosic performer, who possesses an “extraordinarily versatile and agile technique, which serves an often inspired musical imagination” (Gramophone). Since winning the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition in 2016, Gugnin has gone from strength to strength in concerts and recordings which exhibit his impassioned interpretations.
In addition to winning in Sydney, Gugnin also received prizes at this illustrious competition for Best Overall Concerto, Best 19th/20th Century Concerto, Best Violin and Piano Sonata, and Best Preliminaries for his first-round recital. His also won the Gold Medal and Audience Award at the XCI International Gina Bachauer Piano Competition in 2014, and second prize at the 2013 Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna.
Increasingly in demand as a concerto soloist, Gugnin has been invited to perform as a guest artist with notable orchestras worldwide, such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia, the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony, and has performed under the distinguished batons of Maestro Valery Gergiev, Jaap Van Zweden, Reinbert de Leeuw, Daniel Raiskin, Stanislav Kochanovsky and Asher Fisch. He has also collaborated in a more chamber context with the Asko Schönberg ensemble, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Jerusalem Camerata and Camerata Salzburg and on several occasions as the duo partner of violinist Tasmin Little.
As a recording artist, Gugnin has published a broad scope of repertoire ranging from solo piano to symphonic works. His recent release of Shostakovich: Sonatas (Hyperion, 2019) was selected by BBC Music Magazine as Recording of the Month, and his release of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes (Piano Classics, 2018) were commended as Editor’s Choice, and distinguished Gugnin as “one to watch” (Gramophone). Other notable recordings include his duo programme with violinist Ioana Cristina Goicea (Atoll Records, 2019), an inspired selection of solo piano suites entitled Pictures (Steinway & Sons, 2016), and a collection of piano duets with Vadim Kholodenko (Delos International, 2010). Andrey has also extensively recorded for TV and radio in Russia, The Netherlands, Croatia, Austria, Australia, Switzerland and the USA.
In addition to these recordings, Gugnin’s Shostakovich Concertos (Delos International, 2007) were selected to feature on the soundtrack of Steven Speilberg’s Oscar®-winning film Bridge of Spies.
Gugnin’s expanding list of performance venues include Vienna’s Musikverein, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Carnegie Hall in New York, Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, Sydney Opera House, the Great Hall of the Moscow State Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Mariinsky Concert Hall, the Louvre in Paris, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space and Asahi Hamarikyu Hall. Gugnin has also participated in a plethora of international festivals, including Verbier, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Mariinsky International Festival, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Ohrid Summer Festival and the Duszniki Chopin International Festival.
In 2020 Gugnin embarks on performing the complete set of Beethoven concertos with the Moscow Philharmonic in a personal subscription series. He will also perform a number of solo recitals at prestigious venues in Russia, participate in a tour with the Jerusalem Camerata Orchestra, and will collaborate with violinist Tasmin Little in a series of concerts in the UK and Russia, presenting an inspiring programme of Brahms, Beethoven and Part. Gugnin took his first lessons with Natalia Smirnova, who laid the foundations for study with Olga Mechetina, Valery Kastelsky, Lev Naumov, Stanislav Ioudenitch, William Naboré and Vera Gornostayeva.
Violin | italy
Winner of the 2007 George Enescu Competition in Bucharest Anna Tifu is considered one of the leading violinist of her generation. Born in Cagliari, she started to play the violin at the age of six under the guidance of her father and to perform in public at eight years old when she won 1st prize with special honors at the Vittorio Veneto concert series.
At the age of 11 she made her debut as soloist with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and at 12 years old she performed the Bruch Violin Concerto at La Scala in Milan. At 14 she won first prize at the Viotti Valsesia International Competition as well as in Stresa, where she won the Marcello Abbado International Competition in the same year. She received her Music Diploma in Cagliari at the age of 15 with special honors. She studied with Salvatore Accardo at the Academy Walter Stauffer in Cremona and at the Academy Chigiana of Siena where, in 2004, she obtained the Certificate of Honor. She was supported by the Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund and at the age of 17, Anna was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she studied with Aaron Rosand, Shmuel Ashkenzay and Pamela Frank.
Later she was awarded a scholarship from the International Music Academy in Cagliari to study in Paris where she received the Diplome Superieur de Concertiste at the Ecole Normale.
Anna has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras and chamber ensembles, including Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Nazionale della RAI di Torino, Orchestra della Fondazione Arena di Verona, Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Orchestra Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Simòn Bòlivar Orchestra of Venezuela, Stuttgarter Philarmoniker, Dortmunder Philharmoniker, George Enescu Philarmonic Orchestra and Radio Orchestra of Bucharest, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, KZN Philarmonic of Durban, Israel Philharmonic soloists, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica del Qatar.
She has worked with conductors such as Yuri Temirkanov, Gustavo Dudamel, Diego Matheuz, David Afkham, Juraj Valcuha, John Axelrod, Christoph Poppen, Justus Frantz, Cristian Mandeal, Horia Andreescu, Sergiu Commissiona, Lü Jia, Giampaolo Bisanti, Julian Kovatchev, Hubert Soudant, Gèrard Korsten, Gabor Ötvös.
Highlights among her recent and forthcoming engagements include performances at the George Enescu International Festival of Bucharest with Orchestra RAI of Torino and Juraj Valcuha, a tour in Russia as well with Orchestra RAI, concert with Gustavo Dudamel and Simòn Bòlivar Orchestra, Season opening concert in Genova, Teatro Carlo Felice, where she played with the famous violin Guarneri del Gesù “IL CANNONE” of Niccolò Paganini, Season opening concert in Venice, Teatro La Fenice with Diego Matheuz, Season opening concert in Milano, for Società dei Concerti where she is regularly invited, Season opening concert in Verona, for Amici della Musica, performance at the Stradivari Festival in Cremona, where she performed with the Etoile Carla Fracci, concerts in Rome, with Yuri Temirkanov and Orchestra Accademia Santa Cecilia and Season opening concert in Paris, with Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio France, under the baton of Mikko Franck.
Most recently she made her debut for Warner Classics where she recorded with the italian pianist Giuseppe Andaloro.
She has collaborated with musicians such as Maxim Vengerov, Yuri Bashmet, Ezio Bosso, Julien Quentin, Giuseppe Andaloro, Pekka Kuusisto, Mario Brunello, Enrico Dindo, Michael Nyman, Boris Andrianov, the Etoile Carla Fracci, the actor John Malkovich and Andrea Bocelli, who invited Anna as special guest for concerts in Italy, Egypt and United States.
She performed in famous festivals such as Tuscan Sun Festival, Festival de Musique Menton, Ravello Festival, Al Bustan in Beirut and the George Enescu Festival where she is regularly invited, as well at in some of the bestknown institutions and concert halls including la Scala di Milano, Auditorium Parco della Musica di Roma, Sala Verdi di Milano, Great Hall of Saint Petersburg, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall of Moscow, Konzerthaus of Dortmund, Konzerthaus of Berlino, Beethoven-Saal of Stuttgart, Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Rudolphinum Dvorak Hall of Prague, Ateneo and sala Palatului of Bucharest, Madison Square Garden of New York, Staples Center of Los Angeles, Simòn Bòlivar Hall of Caracas.
Anna Tifu has been testimonial for the Italian airline company Alitalia, along with Riccardo Muti, the director Giuseppe Tornatore and the dancer Eleonora Abbagnato.
Anna plays the 1716 Antonio Stradivari “Marèchal Berthier” ex Napoleon on loan from the Associazione Canale of Milan.
Piano | UKRAINE · AUSTRIA
The Ukrainian-Austrian pianist Anna Ulaieva began her musical studies at the age of 5, receiving instrumental lessons on both violin and piano.
After having won a number competition prizes by the age of 11 for highly gifted children on both instruments, Anna chose the piano as her main instrument and started taking piano lessons with Prof. Nina Naiditsch at the "M.V. Lysenko" high school for gifted children in Kiev (Ukraine).
She then continued her piano studies at the "Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music" in Kiev with Yuri Kot and graduated with distinction. As a laureate of the "New Names of Ukraine" programme, her exceptional talent was honoured by a scholarship awarded by the President of Ukraine.
From 2009 she completed her piano studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (Austria) with Prof. Milana Chernyavska and graduated in 2017 with excellent results.
Anna Ulaieva has won prizes at numerous renowned international competitions. Her greatest success to date is the 1st prize at the "Malta International Piano Competition 2018". More than 720 pianists from more than 70 nations competed in the largest competition series in the world to win the largest prize money in competition history (1st prize 100,000€). Another milestone in her remarkable career was to receive a Blüthner Grand Piano as 1st prize after winning the Blüthner Golden Tone Award 2013.
Further competition successes include A. Scriabin Piano Competition Grosseto (2nd prize, 2018), German Piano Open Berlin (1st prize, 2017), Brahms Klavierwettbewerb Detmold (1st prize, 2017), Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial Competition (2nd prize, 2017), Blüthner Golden Tone Award, (1st Prize, 2013), Josef Dichler - Piano Competition (1st Prize 2011), Jeune Talents (1st Prize 2011) as well as Martha Debelli Competition in the categories piano solo and chamber music piano quartet in Graz (1st Prize 2009,2011,2013).
Now she is herself a sought after jury member at numerous international music competitions. Most recently at competitions in Serbia and Ukraine.
Anna Ulaieva made her solo debut in Kiev in 2001 with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine. Since then she has performed solo recitals and chamber and orchestra concerts all over the world and is a frequent guest at various festivals. She regularly performs with renowned orchestras such as the Chamber Orchestra of Bavarian Radio, Kiev Virtuosi Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, and such conductors as Dmitry Jablonski and Christian Jarvi.
Her live CD recording of Tchaikovsky’s Seasons and Prokofiev’s sonatas confirms her artistic and pianistic abilities.
Anna Ulaieva is a lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, where she leads the highly gifted and preparation piano class. She also teaches at master classes in Austria, Portugal and Ukraine.
A special concern of Anna’s is the advancement of highly gifted children and juveniles. In order to address this, she founded the master class "Gifted in Music" Kapfenberg (www.giftedinmusic.at) and acts as its artistic director.
Soprano | Italy
In Europe she is called "the younger sister of Cecilia Bartoli", an outstanding Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano.
Nowadays, Anna performs the leading roles in almost all opera calendar of the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theatre.
When she was a student of the 4th year of the Gnesin School, Anna, after a serious casting, which involved more than 100 sopranos, was invited by the Bolshoi Theatre Directorate, led by artistic director, conductor Alexander Vedernikov, to take part in the production of Verdi's "Falstaff". Despite her young age, she played one of the main roles-the party of Nannette.
Thanks to her extraordinary talent and tremendous energy, Anna was able to win not only the love of the audience, but also the respect of eminent colleagues.
At that time, Anna was the youngest soloist of the Bolshoi Opera Company.
Her highest professionalism allowed Anna to perform simultaneously on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre, performing at once two main parts in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, and participate in one of the most prestigious competitions in the world of young singers "Neue Stimmen", which took place in Germany, where she became the winner.Following this, Anna became a laureate of the "Triumph" award for achievements in the field of arts. Behind the shoulders of this young successful singer are calendar at the most famous concert venues of the World. Salle Pleyel in Paris, Megaron Moussikis in Athens, Musikverein in Vienna, Seoul Arts Center in Seoul, Lincoln Center in New York, National Palace of Culture in Sofia.
Her debut on the stage of the Vienna Opera House as Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale was not only a huge success for the public. Anna was also warmly received by the whimsical Austrian critics who noted her bright talent as an actress and an incredibly beautiful voice.
Anna's acting talent is highly appreciated by Russian critics: she was thrice nominated for the national award "Golden Mask" in the nomination "Best female role in the opera".
Anna is a welcome guest of the most prestigious European music festivals, such as Festival International de Colmar in France and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.Anna Aglatova is a leading soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre, one of the most popular Russian singers in the world.
After her debut on the stage of Theatre Champs Elysees in Paris in Europe they bagan to call her "the younger sister of Cecilia Bartoli", an outstanding Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano.
Nowadays, Anna performs the leading roles in almost all opera calendar of the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theatre.
Conductor | Estonia
Described by the Herald Tribune as “charismatic, brilliant, energetic”, Anu Tali is one of the most captivating and versatile conductors on the international scene today, an artist whose pursuit of fresh and ingenious artistic creativity is acclaimed worldwide by critics and public alike.
Highlights of the 2022/23 season include a new production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Duisburger Philharmoniker, Orchestre National d’île de France and a return to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Former Music Director of the Sarasota Orchestra in Florida, Anu Tali appears regularly with orchestras worldwide including the New Japan and Tokyo Philharmonic orchestras, Orchestre National de France, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In Germany she has worked with the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Ensemble Modern.
In opera, Tali has had major success with the production of Carmen at Magdeburg State Opera and was invited to conduct the Freiburger Barockorchester in a production of Gluck’s Telemaco at the Schwetzingen Festival and Theater Basel. Another notable highlight includes acclaimed semi-staged performances of Goebbels’ Songs of Wars I Have Seen with ensembles including the London Sinfonietta at New York’s Lincoln Center, London’s Southbank Centre and in Saint Paul/Minnesota, Seattle and Barcelona. In 2021, she made history as the first woman to conduct an opera at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, in the Calixto Bieito production of Carmen.
Together with her twin sister Kadri, Anu Tali founded the Nordic Symphony Orchestra in 1997, with the aim of utilising music as a tool to develop cultural contacts between Estonia and Finland, and to unite musicians from around the world. Today the Nordic Symphony Orchestra brings together musicians from the world’s leading orchestras, with members from fifteen countries. In autumn 2007 the orchestra undertook its first European tour to Berlin and Munich.
Her debut recording, Swan Flight, (Finlandia/Warner Classics) earned Tali the 2003 ECHO Klassik ‘Young Artist of the Year’ Award. Other recordings include Action Passion Illusion for Warner Classics, featuring works by Rachmaninov, Sibelius and Erkki-Sven Tüür. And her album of Tüür’s Strata and Noēsis, released on ECM, was also met with significant critical acclaim.
Anu Tali has been the subject of numerous documentaries by international broadcasters such as ARTE, NHK Japan, YLE Finland and Deutsche Welle. She began her musical career as a pianist, graduating from the Tallinn Conservatory before training as conductor at the Estonian Academy of Music with Kuno Areng, Toomas Kapten and Roman Matsow. From 1998 to 2000 she studied at the St Petersburg State Conservatory with Ilya Musin and later with Leonid Kortchmar and Jorma Panula.
Conductor | Russia
Born on January 1, 1947 in the city of Ovruch, Zhytomyr region of Ukraine.
In 1962 he graduated from school there.
In 1966 he graduated from the music college in Kaliningrad.
Graduated from the Saratov State Conservatory in 1974.
In 1986 he returned to Kaliningrad, in 1987 he created and devoted his entire creative life to the Kaliningrad Symphony Orchestra.
The ensemble, whose artistic director and chief conductor is Arkady Feldman, represents the Russian musical art with great success and tours in Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Poland.
Arkady Feldman maintains creative ties with the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, the opera studio of the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky, the Minsk Operetta Theater, the Saratov Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra A. Schnittke, German choral collectives.
As a guest conductor Arkady Feldman worked with many Russian ensembles, orchestras in Lithuania, Poland, USA, Mexico.
Feldman A.A. - Honored Art Worker of Russia, member of the Union of Composers of Russia, laureate of the Kant Prize, the Inspiration Prize for the creation and performance of highly artistic works of literary and poetry, musical, theatrical, visual and decorative and applied arts, the Prize of the Kaliningrad Region “Recognition” for achievements in the field of culture, literature and art, is an honorary citizen of the city of Kaliningrad.
As a composer, the maestro has worked with many Russian theaters and will write music for the performances of the Kaliningrad Drama Theater, where he has held the position of musical director for many years.
For achievements in creative activity and promotion of musical art he was awarded the title "Honored Art Worker of Russia", awarded numerous certificates of honor, as well as the medal of the Federal Republic of Germany "For the development of cultural relations between Russia and Germany" and the gold cross "For Merit" of the Republic of Poland.
Piano | UK
Described as an ‘endlessly fascinating artist’, Ashley Wass’s musical career is one of unusual creativity and variety. Alongside his work as soloist and chamber musician, he is co-founder of Mash Productions, was Artistic Director of the Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival for eleven years, has devoted over 15 years to music education, and is currently the Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School. The diverse list of people and organisations with whom he has collaborated include film festivals, art galleries and animators, children’s television presenters and stars of the stage and screen, illustrators, literary festivals and renowned authors, and mime artists and comedians.
Ashley began playing the piano at the age of five, and studied music at Chetham’s School of Music from age 11. In his teens he studied on a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers included Christopher Elton, Maria Curcio and Hamish Milne. His watershed moment came in 1997 when he won the London International Piano Competition (the only British winner this far), a success that led to a recording contract with Naxos, making him the first solo artist to obtain an exclusive deal with the label. His debut recording was a highly praised CD of César Franck piano music, released in 1999. He was also a prizewinner at the Leeds Piano Competition, and is a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist.
Ashley has performed at many of the world’s finest concert halls, including the Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Vienna Konzerthaus. He has performed regularly as soloist with all of the BBC orchestras, the Philharmonia, Orchestre National de Lille, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, RLPO, and Bournemouth Symphony under the baton of conductors such as Simon Rattle, Osmo Vanska, Donald Runnicles, Ilan Volkov and Vassily
Sinaisky.
He appeared alongside the likes of Sir Thomas Allen, Mstislav Rostropovich and Angela Gheorghiu in a gala concert at Buckingham Palace to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, a performance broadcast live to millions of viewers around the world. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2008 with Vaughan Williams’ Piano Concerto, and returned in following seasons to perform works by Foulds, Stravinsky, Antheil, and McCabe.
Recent highlights have included a debut at the Melbourne Recital Centre, acclaimed performances with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC NOW, and a tour to South America, as well as an extensive solo recital tour with a programme of music inspired by Shakespeare.
Renowned for a broad and eclectic repertoire, Ashley has received great critical acclaim for his recordings of music from a wide range of styles and eras, with glowing reviews of his interpretations of composers such as Liszt, Franck, Beethoven, and Bridge. His survey of Bax’s piano music was nominated for a Gramophone Award and his discography boasts a number of Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’ recordings and BBC Music Magazine ‘Choices’.
Much in demand as a chamber musician, Ashley is a frequent guest of international festivals such as Pharos (Cyprus), Bath, Ako (Japan), Cheltenham, Kuhmo, Mecklenburg, Gstaad, City of London, and Ravinia and Marlboro in the USA, playing solo recitals and chamber works with musicians such as Mitsuko Uchida, Sarah Chang, Steven Isserlis, Emmanuel Pahud, Maxim Rysanov, Richard Goode and members of the Guarneri Quartet and Beaux Arts Trio. He is also a co-founder of Trio Apaches, alongside the violinist Matthew Trusler and the cellist Thomas Carroll. The group has broadcast frequently on BBC Radio 3, including Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the BBC NOW, and is renowned for its imaginative programming and engaging stage presence.
A long-standing collaboration with Matthew Trusler has been particularly rewarding and in 2016 they co-founded Mash Productions, a production company that is focused on realising innovative and ambitious projects. Together they have commissioned over a dozen new works from some of the world’s leading composers, produced a series of musical plays, worked with illustrators and animators to create a number of short films set to music, collaborated with Carl Davis and the Chaplin Foundation on a show about the life and music of Charlie Chaplin, and curated a number of mini-festivals for leading arts organisations around the UK. Their acclaimed series for children - Musical Myths - which combines their own specially written scripts with great pieces of classical music has been toured and performed to thousands of children by orchestras around the UK and Europe, including the Bournemouth Symphony, Opera North, Southbank Sinfonia and the Lahti and Latvian Symphony orchestras.
Ashley Wass was the Artistic Director of the Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival from 2007-2018 and helped develop the festival into one the UK’s leading events of its type, with with sold-out performances of challenging and diverse repertoire, and regular broadcasts on BBC Radio 3.
Music education is a central focus of Ashley’s professional life. He was Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music from 2008-2018, Deputy Head of Keyboard Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music from 2018-2020, and is currently the Director of Music of both the Yehudi Menuhin School in the UK and its sister school in Qingdao.
Piano | Uzbekistan
Behzod Abduraimov’s performances combine an immense depth of musicality with phenomenal technique and breath-taking delicacy. He performs with renowned orchestras worldwide including Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, San Francisco Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Concertgebouworkest, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) with prestigious conductors such as, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Gustavo Dudamel, Semyon Bychkov, Gianandrea Noseda, Juraj Valčuha, Vasily Petrenko and Constantinos Carydis.
2023/24 performances include Chicago Symphony, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Houston Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, Oslo Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra including a tour of Spain and Belgian National Orchestra performing at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Behzod will also appear with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Conductor collaborations include Osmo Vänskä, Juraj Valčuha, Constantinos Carydis, Robin Ticciati, Manfred Honeck, Yoel Levi, Han-Na Chang, Hannu Lintu and Andris Poga.
In recital Behzod has appeared a number of times at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and has recently been presented by Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Toppan Hall, Tokyo, Teatro alla Scala and La Società dei Concerti di Milano. In 2023/24 Behzod will appear twice at Carnegie Hall – returning to the Stern Auditorium for solo recital, followed by a duo recital with Daniel Lozakovich at the Weill Auditorium. The duo will present recitals elsewhere in North America including Bing Hall, Stanford, and the Vancouver Recital series. Behzod will also perform in recital at the Seoul Arts Centre, Shanghai Concert Hall, Amare Hall, Hague and the Tuesday Evening Concert Series, Charlottesville. Regular festival appearances include Aspen, Verbier, Rheingau, La Roque Antheron, Lucerne and Ravello festivals.
Behzod’s second recording for Alpha Classics, featuring works by Ravel, Prokofiev, and Uzbek composer Dilorom Saidaminova, was released on 12 January 2024. The album won the Gramophone Editor’s Choice award and was named one of the Apple Music ‘10 Classical Albums You Must Hear This Month’ of February 2024. 2021 saw the highly successful release of his first recital album for Alpha Classics based on a programme of Miniatures including Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. In 2020 recordings included Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under James Gaffigan, recorded on Rachmaninov’s own piano from Villa Senar for Sony Classical and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 with Concertgebouworkest, for the RCO live label. Both recordings were nominated for the 2020 Opus Klassik awards in multiple categories. A DVD of his BBC Proms debut in 2016 with Münchner Philharmoniker was released in 2018. His 2012 debut CD of Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Prokofiev for Decca won the Choc de Classica and Diapason Découverte, and his first concerto disc for the label featured Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3 and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No.1.
Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1990, Behzod began the piano aged five as a pupil of Tamara Popovich at Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent. In 2009, he won first prize at the London International Piano Competition with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3. He studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University, Missouri, where he is Artist-in-Residence.
“Behzod Abduraimov has the magic touch” — The Times
Clarinet | USA · ARMENIA
Boris Allakhverdyan was appointed Principal Clarinet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2016. He previously served as Principal Clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Associate Principal Clarinet of the Kansas City Symphony. Mr. Allakhverdyan is a founding member of the Prima Trio, the Grand Prize and the Gold Medal winner of the prestigious 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.
The New York Times called his performance "inspired" and "superlative," and the Los Angeles Times praised his "energetic, vibrant solos."
Boris Allakhverdyan has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle, Tucson, Bakersfield and Springfield Symphony Orchestras as well as orchestras in Russia, Armenia and Kazakhstan. He has participated in the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommen Festival in Germany and the Emilia Romagna Music Festival in Italy. Mr. Allakhverdyan is a winner of Rimsky-Korsakov International Woodwind Competition, Rozanov International Clarinet Competition, Hellam Concerto Competition, the Tuesday Musical and the Oberlin Concerto competitions.
Mr. Allakhverdyan serves on the clarinet faculty at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as well as at California State University at Fullerton. He previously taught at Peabody Institute of Music, Pacific Music Festival in Japan and Interlochen Clarinet Institute in Michigan. He has given master classes at most prestigious schools in North and South Americas, Europe and Asia. As a chamber musician, Boris Allakhverdyan has performed throughout the United States and Europe on such series as Chicago Chamber Music Society, La Jolla Athenaeum, Dumbarton Oaks, the Dayton Art Institute, CityMusic Columbus, Da Camera Society, Fontana Chamber Arts and Cleveland Chamber Music Society.
As a Buffet Group Artist and Vandoren Performing Artist, Mr. Allakhverdyan performs exclusively on Buffet Crampon clarinets and Vandoren reeds.
Cello | France · Belgium
Optimism, vitality and joyful exuberance are elements of Camille Thomas’s rich and compelling personality. The young Franco-Belgian cellist, who signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in April 2017, understands art’s power to bring people together, to unite individuals from diverse cultures, countries and backgrounds. Her charismatic artistry is driven by a passion for life and a desire to inspire others to open their hearts to the wonder and emotion of classical music. “I strongly believe that music has the power to enlarge the heart, to make you feel everything with more intensity,” she says. “Music gives hope for the beauty and greatness of the human soul.”
Highlights of the 2022/2023 season are concerts with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Fazil Say Cello Concerto "Never Give Up", Houston Symphony Orchestra, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgium National Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Philharmonic, Hyogo PAC Orchestra. Together with the Metamorphosen Berlin Ensemble, Camille Thomas will be on tour in Europe.
Voice of Hope, her second DG album, was released in June 2020. At its heart is the world premiere recording of Fazil Say’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra ‘Never Give Up’, the composer’s response to terrorist attacks on Paris and Istanbul, written expressly for Thomas, who gave its world premiere performance in Paris in April 2018. It is the first classical album recorded in partnership with UNICEF, reflecting the cellist’s desire to help others through her music.
Camille Thomas was born in 1988 in Paris. She began playing cello at the age of four and made such rapid progress that she was soon taking lessons with Marcel Bardon. She moved to Berlin in 2006 to study with Stephan Forck and Frans Helmerson at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik, and continued her training in the form of postgraduate lessons with Wolfgang-Emanuel Schmidt at the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik in Weimar.
Camille is conquering the world stage at a staggering pace. She has already worked with such conductors as Paavo Järvi, Mikko Franck, Marc Soustrot, Darrell Ang, Kent Nagano, Stéphane Denève and with orchestras such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Academia Santa Cecilia, the Sinfonia Varsovia, Staatsorchester Hamburg in the Elbphilharmonie, the Lucerne Festival Strings in the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, and Brussels Philharmonic.
Camille Thomas plays the famous ‘Feuermann’ Stradivarius 1730 as a loan from the Nippon Music Foundation
Soprano | Italy
Carmen Giannattasio has blazed a trail across stages the world over. Her unique talent has been in demand worldwide since her career was launched by taking First Prize and the Audience Award at Placido Domingo’s Operalia, Paris in 2002. Her lustrous soprano voice and her dramatic ability gained her immediate critical attention and a reputation as a chameleon, able to adapt her tune and skin to the different heroines she embodies.
She has become an acclaimed fixture on the most important stages of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, Berlin State Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Bolshoi.
Carmen Giannattasio’s extensive repertoire includes composers like Monteverdi, Mozart, Gluck, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti,Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Mascagni.
Since being chosen to front important new bel canto recordings by Opera Rara, who champion rarely performed operas of the 19th century, she has distinguished herself in Rossini’s LA DONNA DEL LAGO, Donizetti’s PARISINA and in particular Rossini’s ERMIONE – a performance which has earned her plaudits from leading critics worldwide, with the recording winning the 2011 Gramophone Opera Award. Her recordings with the English label also include Bellini’s IL PIRATA (2010) and Donizetti’s CATERINA CORNARO (2011).
Carmen Giannattasio is an ambassador for the Italian jewelers Bulgari. In February 2017 she received the title of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella della Repubblica Italiana.
Future engagements are TOSCA at Royal Opera House and in Vienna, EVEGNIJ ONEGIN at Teatro Massimo of Palermo, NORMA and LA BOHÈME in Hamburg, TOSCA in Sidney, FALSTAFF at Aix en Provence festival and in Lyon.
Violin | Malta
Carmine Lauri started playing the violin at the age of four and further his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Maurice Hasson.
Lauri has performed extensively worldwide including performances in the presence of various Heads of State. He is the Co-Leader (and leader) of the London Symphony Orchestra for the past 19 years, the Concertmaster of the Oxford Philharmonic and Guest Leader of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also guest lead and guest leads various orchestras including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the London Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras, Manchester Camerata and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under distinguished conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Antonio Pappano, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Riccardo Chailly, Gianandrea Noseda, Yuri Temirkanov, Valery Gergiev and many others.
Carmine regularly leads the LSO in concerts and has lead the orchestra in numerous recordings including also music scores of movies such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Queen, The King’s Speech, The Danish Girl, Suffragette, Shape of Water (just to name a few) and is often the featured violin soloist in many films such as ‘As you like it’ and ‘Joyeux Nöel’.
Carmine Lauri has two solo compact disc recordings to his credit, Bravura (1994) and Violin Extravaganza (2004).
Carmine has performed concertos with many international orchestras including the LSO, LPO, the Czech Philharmonic and Czech State Phil of Brno, the Oxford Philharmonic, the Orquesta Municipal de Caracas, the MPO, The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra (ASSO), the Guanajuato Symphony in Mexico and others. He has also premiered two violin concertos with the LSO. Carmine was made an Associate and Fellow of the Royal Academy (ARAM, FRAM) for his achievements in his career and his talents were acknowledged by his country which bestowed upon him the National Order of Merit – M.O.M. (F’Ġieh ir-Repubblika) and is also recipient of the 2015 Gold medal for the Arts. He is a visiting professor of the Royal Academy of Music and gives masterclasses and coaches young students in orchestral sectional rehearsals and solo performances and repertoire on a regular basis.
In 2015 Carmine performed with and directed the Baltic Neopolis Orchestra as part of their Great Concertmaster series in Poland and give a recital at the Frankfurt Oper as part of the Malta Culture celebrations in Germany. In April 2018 he made his debut as soloist with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra performing Wieniawski’s 1 st Violin Concerto and in July 2018 he performed the Glazunov violin concerto with the Malta Philharmonic in the closing concert of the Victoria Arts Festival. In October 2018 he was the soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra performing Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen in an open air concert in Hanoi, Vietnam and was also the soloist in John Williams’s Schindler’s List in a concert with the LSO, celebrating the life of the composer himself in a special unique performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Other recent solo performances have included the Korngold Violin Concerto with both the Oxford Philharmonic in UK and the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra (ASSO) in Yerevan, Armenia, the Glazunov Violin Concerto with both the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra in Mexico and the Oxford Philharmonic in 2019, conducted by Roberto Beltran Zavala and Sir Antonio Pappano respectively and various solo performances in collaboration with artists that include Victoria Mullova, Simon Trypceski, Nikolai Znaider, Nicola Benedetti, Cedric Tiberghian and the world top gypsy violinist Roby Lakatos.
Carmine plays a violin made by Nicholas Lupot made in ca 1780 and through a long- term partnership with J & A Beare’s of London Carmine performs regularly on a range of Stradivari violins kindly loaned to him for various solo performances, violins that have included the “Kortshak ex-Joachim” 1698, “Piatti 1717”, “Circle”, “Vieuxtemps-Hauser 1710”, “Debrouque 1727” and the “Schneiderhan 1715” Stradivari.
Oboe | France
For the past ten years, Céline Moinet has been one of the most exceptional performing artists on her instrument. The young oboist’s concerts bring both audiences and critics alike to rapturous applause.
Céline Moinet is in demand as a soloist with all the major orchestras in the world. She has played at the Salzburg Easter Festival under Christoph Eschenbach, with the Staatskapelle Dresden, at the Pacific Music Festival under Fabio Luisi and with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Suntory Hall. She also regularly tours solo with the Dresden Kapellsolisten and the Kammerorchester Basel.
Céline Moinet was born in Lille, France in 1984 and completed her studies with highest honours at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique under the tutelage of David Walter and Maurice Bourgue. She continued her artistic training with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the orchestra of the National Theater Mannheim. At just 23 years of age, Céline Moinet won the prestigious position of solo oboist at the Staatskapelle Dresden. Since then, she has performed with conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado and Andris Nelsons. She is also a regular guest of orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Céline Moinet is signed with harmonia mundi as an exclusive artist. Her CDs, with works for solo oboe and chamber music with oboe and harp, have been praised by the critics and have achieved outstanding sales for the French, German and British record industries. As a result, Céline Moinet was invited by renowned TV Network Arte and Rolando Villazón to appear on the show “Stars of Tomorrow”.
Since 2013, Céline Moinet has had a chair at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music and she conducts master courses in France, Germany and Japan.
She plays oboe and cor anglais exclusively from Marigaux, Paris.
Violin | UK
Chloë Hanslip (b. 1987) has already established herself as an artist of distinction on the international stage. Prodigiously talented, she made her BBC Proms debut at fourteen and her US concerto debut at fifteen and has performed at major venues in the UK (Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall), Europe (Vienna Musikverein, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Paris Louvre and Salle Gaveau, St Petersburg Hermitage) as well as Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Arts Space in Tokyo and the Seoul Arts Centre. Her performances have included the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Lahti Symphony, Moscow State Symphony,Norwegian Radio, Real Filharmonia Galicia, Vienna Tonkünstler Orchester, Hamburg Symfoniker, Czech National Symphony, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Helsingborg Symphony, Royal Flemish Philharmonic and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. Further afield her engagements include the Cincinnati Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Malaysia Philharmonic, Adelaide Symphony, Auckland Philharmonina and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. She has collaborated with conductors such as Sir Andrew Davis, Mariss Jansons, Paavo Järvi, Charles Dutoit, Giordano Bellincampi, Jakub Hrusa, Pietari Inkinen, Susanna Mälkki, Gianandrea Noseda, Tadaaki Otaka, Vasily Petrenko, Vassily Sinaisky, Dmitri Slobodeniouk, Alexander Vedernikov, Juraj Valcuha and Xian Zhang.
Chloë has an extensive discography and her latest releases include the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas in three volumes on Rubicon Classics with regular duo partner, Danny Driver: “instantly engaging, thanks to the warmth and clarity of Hanslip’s playing and the obvious rapport between the musicians.” (Strad). Her other recordings include concertos by John Adams with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Slatkin and Bruch Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra on Warner Classics for which she won a Classical BRIT 'Young British Classical Performer' (2003). Recital discs followed on Hyperion (York Bowen, Medtner) and concertos by Vieuxtemps, Schoeck and Glazunov.
Hanslip’s wide-ranging repertoire spans concertos by Britten, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Brahms, Korngold, Shostakovich, Barber, Bernstein, Delius, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Elgar, Tchaikovsky, Walton and Sibelius. With a particular passion for contemporary repertoire, she has championed works by Adams, Glass, Corigliano, Nyman, Huw Watkins, Michael Berkeley, Peter Maxwell Davies and Brett Dean. A committed chamber musician, she is a regular participant at festivals across Europe including Båstad, West Cork, Prussia Cove and Kutna Hora with recital partners including Angela Hewitt, Danny Driver, Igor Tchetuev and Charles Owen. Alongside her performing career, Chloë is a Visiting Professor at The Royal Academy of Music, in London and an Ambassador for the charity Future Talent.
Highlights of the 2021-22 season include concerto performances with the Philhamonia and Hallé Orchestras, the Russian Philharmonic of Novosibirsk and the Baltimore, Singapore and Aalborg Symphony Orchestras. She will be Artist in Residence at the Lammermuir Festival and perform at the Wigmore Hall alongside regular duo partner Danny Driver.
Chloë studied for ten years with the Russian pedagogue Zakhar Bron and has also worked with Christian Tetzlaff, Robert Masters, Ida Haendel, Salvatore Accardo, and Gerhard Schulz. She plays a Nicolo Amati violin kindly loaned to her through the Beare’s International Violin Society by a generous sponsor.
Conductor | Germany
From the outset of his conducting career, the name of Christoph Poppen has been internationally recognised and synonymous for innovative and original programming and commitment across all genres of classical music. A frequent guest conductor, he has worked with orchestras such as Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Wiener Symphoniker, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, New Japan Philharmonic, and also enjoys longstanding artistic relationships with important orchestras such as Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, KBS Symphony Orchestra, to name just a few.
In the 2022/23 season, Christoph Poppen continues his highly successful collaborations with the Kölner Kammerorchester in his role as Principal Conductor and as Principal Guest Conductor of both Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Israel Chamber Orchestra. Other highlights include an engagement with Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música and return visits to Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Münchener Kammerorchester, Athens State Orchestra, and the continuation of his recorded cycle of the complete Mozart Masses with Kölner Kammerorchester for Naxos.
In the field of opera, he very successfully led a production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Aalto Theatre in Essen and performances of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide at Staatsoper Stuttgart. In 2016 he returned to the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa for a production of Don Giovanni. He conducted performances of Les pêcheurs de perles at Oper Frankfurt – which led to an immediate re-invitation for Die Zauberflöte – and created the new production of Sing For Me, Death by composer Claude Vivier with the RuhrTriennale company in Gelsenkirchen. In 2017 he conducted Weber’s Oberon in concert version at Opera Köln.
Over the years, Christoph Poppen has held a number of significant Directorships in Germany. From 1995 to 2006, he was Artistic Director of the Münchener Kammerorchester, establishing the ensemble’s new profile in a short period of time. His distinctive programmes, based on a contrast of classical and contemporary music with many commissioned works, met with huge success. In August 2006, he was appointed Music Director of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, and from 2007 until 2011 he was the Music Director of the newly formed Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern.
Under his artistic leadership the Festival Internacional de Música de Marvão (Portugal) has grown to become a highly successful and award-winning musical happening featuring soloists such as Jörg Widmann, Augustin Hadelich, Javier Perianes and Clara-Jumi Kang. Between 2020 and 2022 he was also Artistic Director of the Classic Revolution Festival in Seoul, South Korea, for which he curated highly inventive programmes and united many of the best international artists from Korea and the West, for performances exclusively at the Lotte Concert Hall.
Christoph Poppen has been Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, and later at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where he was President from 1996 through 2000. From 2001 through to 2005, Christoph Poppen was Artistic Director of the renowned ARD International Music Competition. Since 2003, he has held a post as professor for Violin and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. In 2019, he founded the International Academy for Music, Arts and Science in Marvão/Portugal, and since the 2021/22 academic year, Chair Professor of Violin at the prestigious Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid.
Violin | South Korea · Germany
Violinist Clara-Jumi Kang is an artist of supreme musicality, impeccable refinement and poise as borne out by the many awards and accolades she has received, since she first burst on the scene as winner of the Indianapolis International Violin Competition in 2010, hot on the heels of her successes at the Seoul Violin Competition (2009) and the Sendai Violin Competition (2010). Her cycle of Beethoven Violin Sonatas with pianist Sunwook Kim, released on Accentus last season, has received outstanding reviews and been nominated for an Opus Klassik Award 2022 (Instrumentalist of the Year).
Recent and current highlights include her debut at the BBC Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Ryan Bancroft performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, tours with the Munich Philharmonic and BBC Philharmonic under Myung-whun Chung and Juanjo Mena respectively, and performances with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Deutschekammerphilharmonie Bremen. In 2023 she will also tour Australasia for performances with the Melbourne Symphony, Auckland Philharmonic, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and KBS Symphony Orchestra.
She made her concerto debut in Hamburg at the age of five and has since performed with orchestras including the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, and the Belgian National Orchestra with conductors such as Chung, Xavier-Roth, Petrenko, Paavo Järvi, and Yamada.
Further afield, her performances have taken her to the USA with the Atlanta, New Jersey, Indianapolis and Santa Fe Symphony Orchestras, as well as Asia with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras. She was selected as one of the top 100 'Most promising and influential people of Korea' in 2012 by major Korean newspaper Dong-A Times, and was awarded the Daewon Music Award (2012) for her outstanding international achievements, as well as Kumho Musician of the Year (2015).
Kang has recorded two albums for Decca: Modern Solo, featuring works including Schubert Erlkönig and Ysaÿe Sonatas, and a Brahms/Schumann album with Yeol-Eum Son. A dedicated chamber musician, she is a member of the Spectrum Concerts series at the Berlin Philharmonie and a regular visitor to festivals across Asia and Europe.
Born in Germany to a musical family, Clara-Jumi Kang took up the violin at the age of three and a year later enrolled as the youngest ever student at the Mannheim Musikhochschule. She went on to study with Zakhar Bron at the Lübeck Musikhochschule and at the age of seven was awarded a full scholarship to the Julliard School to study with Dorothy Delay. She took her Bachelor and Masters degrees at the Korean National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim before completing her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen.
Intermusica represents Clara-Jumi Kang worldwide, excluding Spain, South Korea & Japan.
Conductor | THE NETHERLANDS
Conrad van Alphen has gained tremendous popularity with orchestras and audiences alike for his visionary interpretations which he craftly directs in his energetic, efficient, kind and communicative performance style.
Equally at ease with the classical genre as with large symphonic repertoire Conrad van Alphen boasts an impressive array of appearances with orchestras such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Bochumer Symphoniker, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Berliner Symphoniker, Russian National Orchestra, Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Residentie Orchestra The Hague, Bogota Philharmonic, Enescu Philharmonic Bucharest, Budapest Symphony Orchestra Mav, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu and many more.
At the turn of the millennium Conrad founded Sinfonia Rotterdam, of which he remains chief conductor and artistic director. The orchestra presents successful concert series at de Doelen in Rotterdam, Amare in The Hague and at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Under Conrad’s energetic leadership Sinfonia Rotterdam is regularly invited to perform in venues and festivals around Europe and intercontinentally tours to Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Chile, China and Russia.
Soloists of the highest calibre hail Conrad for his masterful concerto accompaniments, to mention only a few: Mikhail Pletnev, Maxim Vengerov, Nikolai Lugansky, Ronald Brautigam, Alexei Volodin, Simone Lamsma, Alena Baeva, Alban Gerhardt and Mischa Maisky.
For four years Conrad van Alphen was chief conductor of the Russian State Safonov Philharmonic Orchestra. As former Artist of the Moscow Philharmonic Society he regularly conducted the major Moscow orchestras in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and the legendary Tchaikovsky Hall.
Conrad van Alphen was born and bred in South Africa. After moving to The Netherlands at the age of 26 he joined the double bass section of the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Beethoven Academie Antwerp, whilst continuing his conducting studies with Eri Klas and Roberto Benzi.
- Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Sinfonia Rotterdam
- Programmer Festival van Zeeuwsch Vlaanderen
“Bright feast for the senses: Montreal music lovers can boast of having witnessed one of the most brilliant feats of their symphony orchestra, which delivered a performance of rare elegance. The charismatic conductor Conrad van Alphen breathed an impressive breath of fresh air into Rachmaninov’s majestic Second Symphony”
Review Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Piano | Cyprus · France
Cyprien Katsaris, the French-Cypriot pianist and composer, was born in Marseilles in 1951. He first began to play the piano in Cameroon where he spent his childhood, at the age of four, with Marie-Gabrielle Louwerse. A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire where he studied piano with Aline van Barentzen, Monique de la Bruchollerie, and chamber music with René Leroy and Jean Hubeau, he won the International Young Interpreters Rostrum-UNESCO (Bratislava 1977), the First Prize in the International Cziffra Competition (Versailles 1974) and he was the only western-European prize-winner at the 1972 Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Competition.
His major international career includes performances with the world’s greatest orchestras: Berlin Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Philharmonia (London), NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Myung Whun Chung, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Simon Rattle, Antal Doráti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Charles Dutoit, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Christoph von Dohnányi and Karl Münchinger, who on the festive occasion of his farewell concert in 1986, with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, personally invited Mr. Katsaris to perform the Haydn D major Concerto. Mr. Katsaris has recorded extensively for Teldec (Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin, Warsaw 1985; Grand Prix du Disque Franz Liszt, Budapest 1984 and 1989; British Music Retailers Association’s Award 1986; Record of the Year 1984, Germany, for the 9th Symphony of Beethoven/Liszt), Sony Classical, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, BMG/RCA, Decca, Pavane, and now on his own label, PIANO 21. In addition to the standard repertory, such as the complete Concertos by Mozart, recorded live and performed in Salzburg and Vienna with Yoon K. Lee and the Salzburger Kammerphilharmonie, he has revived long lost works such as the Liszt/Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in the Hungarian style which he has recorded with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1992, the Japanese NHK TV produced with Cyprien Katsaris a thirteen-program series on Frédéric Chopin which included masterclasses and his own performance. On 17 October 1999, the New York concertgoers offered Mr. Katsaris a standing ovation in Carnegie Hall for his recital dedicated to Frédéric Chopin, performed on the day of his 150th death Anniversary.
On 27 January 2006, the day of the 250th Anniversary of Mozart’s birth, he was the soloist at the inaugural concert of the Mozart Orchestra Mannheim founded and conducted by Thomas Fey. In March 2006 Cyprien Katsaris was the first pianist ever to give masterclasses in Franz Liszt’s house in Weimar since Liszt, who taught there for the very last time in 1886, the year of his death. In August 2008, he was invited to give two concerts on the occasion of the Beijing Olympic Games at the National Center for the Performing Arts. In addition to the world premier of a concerto for ten pianos and orchestra – China Jubilee – by the composer Cui Shiguang, he improvised on an ancient Greek melody, and on, inter alia, Chinese melodies, in tribute to the universality of the Olympic Games. On 10 July 2014 Cyprien Katsaris performed in the first concert at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
He has been a member of the jury of the following International Competitions: Chopin (Warsaw 1990), Liszt (Utrecht 1996), Vendôme Prize (Paris 2000), Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud – Ville de Paris (2001), Beethoven (Bonn 2005), Giorgos Thymis (Thessaloniki 2011) and Scriabin (Moscow 2012). In addition he was appointed Artistic Director of the Echternach International Festival (Luxembourg) from 1977 to 2007. Cyprien Katsaris is “Artist of UNESCO for Peace” (1997), “Commandeur de l’Ordre de Mérite du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg” (2009) and “Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters” (France 2000). He also received the “Médaille Vermeil de la Ville de Paris” (2001) and the “Nemitsas Prize” (Cyprus, 2011). He is a member of ADAP, the Association of Artists for Peace, and Honorary President of “Lisztomanias International”. In May 2023 the pianist Cyprien Katsaris was awarded the Franz Liszt Honorary Prize 2023 by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar and the Neue Liszt Stiftung. Throughout his life, the pianist has contributed greatly and in a special way to a profiled new view of the piano works of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) in all their fullness. Early on, the pianist and composer included the hitherto largely unnoticed large area of Liszt's transcriptions in his concert programmes.
Violin | Japan
Both as the soloist of international orchestras and as a sought-after chamber musician, Daishin Kashimoto is a regular guest of major concert halls around the globe. The tremendous wealth of experience gained in over 15 years as first concert master of the Berliner Philharmoniker benefits him in his equally adept role as a soloist, where he plays a wide repertoire ranging from classical to new music. Last season, Daishin Kashimoto performed Bruch's Violin Concerto with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabio Luisi, and appeared with the City of Birmingham Orchestra as well as the NDR Radio Philharmonic. In the summer of 2022, his tour of Japan with the Gürzenich Orchestra under the baton of François-Xavier Roth took him to renowned Japanese concert halls, including Suntory Hall in Tokyo. A highlight of this season is the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's new violin concerto Prayer with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Philharmonie Berlin in March 2023, followed by the Swiss premiere at the KKL Luzern with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra in June. An Asian tour with the City of Birmingham Orchestra is scheduled for the end of the season.
Daishin Kashimoto has appeared with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, the Bavarian, Hessian, and West German Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Yehudi Menuhin, Paavo Järvi, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniel Harding, and Philippe Jordan. He can also be heard as a soloist in concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Past engagements include Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante at the Grafenegg Festival and Lucerne Festival, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, and Tchaikovsky's Sérénade Mélancolique and Valse Scherzo at Berlin's Waldbühne under direction of Andris Nelsons. As a chamber musician Daishin Kashimoto has appeared alongside Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Leif Ove Andsnes, Alessio Bax, Emmanuel Pahud, Itamar Golan, Tabea Zimmermann, Yefim Bronfman, Claudio Bohórquez and Konstantin Lifschitz, among others. With Konstantin Lifschitz, he also recorded a highly acclaimed CD of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas in 2014. His other recordings include a CD of Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Myung Whun Chung for Sony Music.
His parents introduced him to various instruments early on, with the three-year-old opting for the violin and receiving his first lessons in Tokyo. After moving to the United States, Daishin Kashimoto was accepted, at the tender age of seven, as the youngest student to ever attend Julliard School's pre-college program; at age eleven, he transferred to the Lübeck University of Music under Zakhar Bron, before becoming a student of Rainer Kussmaul at the Freiburg University of Music from 1999 to 2004. He also had great success in major competitions as a teenager, taking first prize at the Menuhin Junior International Competition in 1993, the Cologne Violin Competition in 1994, and in 1996 at the Vienna Fritz Kreisler and the Long-Thibaud Competitions. Daishin Kashimoto has been the artistic director of the Le Pont Music Festival in Ako and Himeji (Japan) since 2007. He plays on a del Gesu 1744 "de Beriot" kindly loaned by Crystco, Inc. and its chairman Mr. Hikaru Shimura.
Violin | Sweden
Violinist Daniel Lozakovich’s majestic music-making has left critics and audiences spellbound. “Perfect mastery. An exceptional talent,” observed *Le Figaro* after a performance at the Verbier Festival, while the *Boston Globe* praised the “poise, tonal purity, and technique to spare” during his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons at the Tanglewood Festival in July 2017.
Daniel was born in Stockholm in 2001 and began playing the violin when he was almost seven. He made his solo debut two years later with the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and Vladimir Spivakov in Moscow.
At the age of 15, Lozakovich signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and in 2018 released his debut album of Bach’s two violin concertos in collaboration with the Kammerorchester des Symphonieorchesters des Bayerischen Rundfunks, along with the solo *Partita No. 2*. The album reached number 1 in the all-music category of the French Amazon charts and topped the classical album charts in Germany.
“None but the Lonely Heart,” Lozakovich’s second album, was released in 2019. Dedicated to Tchaikovsky, it includes the Violin Concerto, recorded live with the National Philharmonic of Russia and Vladimir Spivakov. *Grammophone* magazine named this recording as the “Top choice” spanning 70 years of the best recordings of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.
Lozakovich’s third album, released in 2020, focuses on the Beethoven Violin Concerto, recorded live with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Valery Gergiev. The project was released both as an audio album and e-video during the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, a project significant to Lozakovich, who considers the concerto one of the greatest ever written.
On *Spirits*, his latest 4th Deutsche Grammophon recording, Lozakovich celebrates some of his forebears in the hope of passing on their style and repertoire to younger generations. Partnered by pianist Stanislav Soloviev, Lozakovich performs favorite encores by Elgar, Debussy, Falla, Gluck, Brahms, and Kreisler.
Lozakovich studied at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe with Professor Josef Rissin from 2012 and graduated with a Master’s degree in 2021.
He plays the “ex-Sancy” 1713 Stradivari, generously loaned by LVMH / Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Violin | Ireland
The violinist Daniel Hope has toured the world as a virtuoso soloist for 30 years and is celebrated for his musical versatility as well as his dedication to humanitarian causes. Winner of the 2015 European Cultural Prize for Music, whose previous recipients include Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniel Hope appears as soloist with the world’s major orchestras and conductors, also directing many ensembles from the violin. Since the start of the 2016/17 season Hope is Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra – and from the 2018/19 Season also Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco.
In 2019 he became Artistic Director of the Frauenkirche Cathedral in Dresden, and from 2020 he will assume the role of President of the Beethovenhaus Bonn, an honorary position following in the footsteps of Kurt Masur and Joseph Joachim.
Daniel Hope was raised in London at Highgate School and the Royal Academy of Music, studying the violin with Zakhar Bron, Itzhak Rashkovsky and Felix Andrievsky. The youngest ever member of the Beaux Arts Trio with whom he performed over 400 times during its final six seasons, today Daniel Hope appears at all the world’s greatest halls and festivals: from Carnegie Hall to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, from Salzburg to Schleswig-Holstein and from Aspen to the BBC Proms and Tanglewood. He has worked with conductors including Kurt Masur, Valery Gergiev and Christian Thielemann, and with the world’s greatest symphony orchestras including Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Paris, London, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Devoted to contemporary music, Hope has commissioned over thirty works, enjoying close contact with composers such as Alfred Schnittke, Toru Takemitsu, Harrison Birtwistle, Sofia Gubaidulina, György Kurtág, Peter Maxwell-Davies and Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Daniel Hope is one of the world’s most prolific classical recording artists, with over 25 albums to his name. His recordings have won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, the Diapason d’Or of the Year, the Edison Classical Award, the Prix Caecilia, the ECHO-Klassik Award and numerous Grammy nominations. His album of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Octet with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe was named one of the best of the year by the New York Times. His recording of Alban Berg’s Concerto was voted Grammophone Magazine’s “top choice of all available recordings”. His recording of Max Richter's Vivaldi Recomposed, which reached No. 1 in over 22 countries is, with 250,000 copies sold, one of the most successful classical recordings of recent times. Hope has been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2007.
In 2017 the documentary film “Daniel Hope – The Sound of Life” was screened in European cinemas as well as in Movie Theatres in Australia and North America.
Daniel Hope has penned four bestselling books published in Germany by the Rowohlt publishing company. He contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal and has written scripts for collaborative performances with the actors Klaus Maria Brandauer and Mia Farrow. In Germany he presents a weekly radio show for the WDR3 Channel and curates, since the 2016/17 season his own salon “Hope@9pm”, a music and talk event with guests from culture and politics at the Konzerthaus Berlin.
Daniel Hope plays the 1742 “ex-Lipínski” Guarneri del Gesù, placed generously at his disposal by an anonymous family from Germany.
He holds both Irish and German citizenship and resides with his family in Berlin. January 2020
Conductor | THE NETHERLANDS
“Daniel Raiskin is clearly a musician of sensibility, well versed in his craft; a further example perhaps of one last great gift of the old Soviet Union, the rigour and distinction of its conducting schools” (by David Gutman, Gramophone)
A son of a prominent musicologist, Daniel Raiskin grew up in St. Petersburg. He attended the celebrated conservatory in his native city and continued his studies in Amsterdam and Freiburg. First focusing on viola, he was inspired to take up the baton by an encounter with the distinguished teacher Lev Savich. In addition, he also took classes with Maestri such as Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, Milan Horvat, Woldemar Nelson und Jorma Panula. Raiskin, who cultivates a broad repertoire, often looks beyond the mainstream in his strikingly conceived programs.
From the 2020/2021 season Daniel Raiskin is the Chief Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava. In addition, he is Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra since August 2018 and Principal Guest Conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra from season 2017/18.
The 2021/22 season includes guest conducting appearances with Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow and Orquesta Clássica Santa Cecilia Madrid.
With the Winnipeg Symphony in May 2022 he will undertake a European tour with appearances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, De Doelen in Rotterdam and Tivoli in Utrecht among others. Raiskin served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife 2017-18, Chief Conductor of both, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie in Koblenz (2005-2016) and of the Artur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra in Lódz (2008-2015). His regular guest appearances include the Athens State, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Iceland Symphony, Japan Century Symphony, Malmö Symfoni Orkester, Mariinsky Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Osaka Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, San Antonio Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Symphony, Stavanger Symphony, Swedish Chamber and the Tonkünstler orchestras.
His appearances in opera productions include Carmen, Shostakovich’s The Nose and Mozart’s Don Giovanni among others.
Daniel Raiskin is also relentlessly committed to sharing his knowledge and passion with young musicians around the world. He devotes his time regularly to working with youth orchestras in a.o. Canada, Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Russia and South Africa. Among the major soloists with whom he has appeared are Emanuel Ax, Renée Fleming, Nelson Freire, Martin Fröst, Alban Gerhardt, Vadim Gluzman, Natalia Gutman, Kari Kriikku, Simone Lamsma, Lang Lang, Francois Leleux, Jan Lisiecki, Alexei Lubimov, Tatjana Masurenko, Albrecht Mayer, Daniel Müller-Schott, Olli Mustonen, Steven Osborne, Julian Rachlin, Benjamin Schmid, Julian Steckel, Anna Vinnitskaya and Alexei Volodin. Recent recordings include Mahler Symphony No. 3 and Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 with the label AVI, both to great critical acclaim. His recording with cello concertos by Korngold, Bloch and Goldschmidt with Julian Steckel and the label AVI received an Echo Klassik Award in 2012. Other recent recording projects include a Louis Glass Symphony cycles and a concerto cycle with the entire concertos and rhapsodies by Aram Khachaturian, both with the label CPO, Lutoslawski’s vocal-instrumental works with the label Dux and a recording of Alexander Tansman’s Isaie le Prophète and Psaumes with the label World Premiere Recordings.
Soprano | USA · Australia
Danielle de Niese has been hailed as “opera’s coolest soprano” by New York Times Magazine and “not just a superb performer, but a phenomenal one” by Opera News. A multi-faceted artist, de Niese has gained wide recognition for her superb stagecraft, assured singing and her ability to communicate on every level. She regularly appears on the world’s most prestigious opera and concert stages and is a prolific recording artist, TV personality and philanthropist.
In the 2019/20 season de Niese makes a highly anticipated debut at Teatro alla Scala as Cleopatra in Robert Carsen’s new production of Giulio Cesare, one of her signature roles. She also returns home to Los Angeles, where she made her operatic debut at the age of 15 to sing the title role in the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s highly anticipated new opera Eurydice as well as making a hugely exciting role debut as Blanche in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Dialogues des Carmélites at Glyndebourne.
In the previous season she returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago, to sing Musetta La bohème in Richard Jones’ acclaimed production, a role for which she garnered huge acclaim at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She also starred as Norina in Laurent Pelly’s production of Don Pasquale at La Monnaie and made her role debut as Cendrillon at Glyndebourne in a new production by Fiona Shaw. De Niese also made a hugely successful west end debut in as Aldonza and Dulcinea Man of La Mancha alongside Kelsey Grammer at the London Coliseum. On the recital platform she appeared at the Cheltenham Festival in their 75th anniversary season.
Recent highlights include a sensational debut as Hanna Glawari with Opera Australia in a new production of Merry Widow, first presented in Melbourne and reopening in Sydney with a gala performance on New Year’s Eve; a return to Royal Opera House where she sang her first Musetta to huge public and critical acclaim; Norina Don Pasquale at Wiener Staatsoper; the hugely successful Wonderful Town with Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, which was subsequently released on CD and for which she was nominated for the Opus Klassik Female Artist of the Year. Other concert appearances include successful solo tours in the Middle East and in Asia; an opera gala with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra; headlining the BBC Biggest Weekend at Scone Palace in Perth; and a chamber music evening curated by De Niese, part of the reopening of the Queen Elisabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre where together with her guests Menahem Pressler, Sir James Galway, Mark Simpson and the Navarra String Quartet she performed music by Roussel, Schubert and Chausson.
Further successes include a double header for the BBC Proms, singing at the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall opposite Jonas Kaufmann, broadcast worldwide, and at Proms in the Park in Hyde Park as well as appearances at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago and gala concerts with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and in St Petersburg at ‘Classics at the Palace Square’. Audiences in the UK have heard her in recital with Julius Drake at the Barbican, the Snape Proms and at the Birmingham Conservatoire as part of the Celebrity Recital Series. Her operatic engagements included the world premiere of Jimmy López’s Bel Canto at Lyric Opera of Chicago conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, her role debut as Donna Elvira Don Giovanni with Semperoper Dresden, Norina Don Pasquale in her company debut with Wiener Staatsoper, Adina L’elisir d'amore at the Opera national du Rhin, Rodelinda and Poppea Agrippina at Theater an der Wien and the new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia as Rosina at the Glyndebourne Festival and BBC Proms. Further operatic appearances include Concepción L’heure espagnole and L’Enfant L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Norina Don Pasquale, Adina L’Elisir d’amore at Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, Ariel The Enchanted Island, and Despina Così fan tutte , all at the Metropolitan Opera New York; the title role L'incoronazione di Poppea at Teatro Real Madrid; Partenope and Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro at San Francisco Opera; the title role of Semele at Theâtre des Champs-Elysees; the title role of La Calisto at Bayerische Staatsoper; and Poppea Agrippina at Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona.
Born in Australia to parents of Sri Lankan and Dutch heritage, de Niese, became at the age of eighteen, the youngest ever singer to enter the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. One year later she made her Metropolitan Opera debut under James Levine, as Barbarina in Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed new production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. On the strength of her performance, de Niese went on to make major debuts at the Opéra National de Paris, Saito Kinen Festival and Netherlands Opera. In 2005 de Niese made her Glyndebourne Festival debut as Cleopatra in Sir David McVicar’s production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare and was catapulted to international fame. She has since reprised the role in the 2009 Glyndebourne revival, and in 2013 at the Metropolitan Opera, always to critical praise.
A prolific recording artist, her debut recording for Decca, Handel Arias, was awarded the prestigious Orphée d'Or from and the much-coveted ECHO Klassik award, as well as earning her a Classical Brit Award nomination for Female Artist of the Year. The Mozart Album, Diva, and Beauty of the Baroque followed.
A TV and media personality, De Niese won her first Emmy at the age of 16, when hosting a weekly arts showcase for teenagers at a Los Angeles local television. Her many TV appearances received widespread attention whilst her BBC documentaries such as Diva Diaries, The Birth of an Opera and the most recent and highly praised Unsung Heroines attest her extraordinary passion for the artform she represents and tireless commitment to bringing new audiences to it.
Offstage, de Niese is an advocate for children’s rights and a passionate philanthropist and has been named by Marie Claire magazine on its influential list of “Women on Top”. She is an Ambassador for HRH The Prince of Wales’ Foundation for Children and the Arts, a patron of Future Talent, which assists young musicians and singers with financial support and guidance and is an Artist Member of the Mannes Board of Governors. For the past year, de Niese has also been serving as an official Ambassador Voice for the International Rescue Committee.
Viola | USA
Recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award, First Prize Winner of the Walter E. Naumburg Viola Competition and the Avery Fisher Career Grant, David Aaron Carpenter is widely considered one of the most talented and charismatic musicians of his generation.
David is a former Rolex “Protégé” for which he was mentored by Pinchas Zukerman. David made his solo debut at the Kennedy Center after winning the Presidential Scholar Award and the first-ever Gold Medal Award at the National Foundation For Advancement In The Arts. Since then he has performed with leading musicians and orchestras around the world, from the Philadelphia Orchestra to the Philharmonia, the Dresden Staatskapelle to the Lucerne Symphony.
As a chamber musician, David has collaborated with such renowned artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Sarah Chang, Leonidas Kavakos, Gidon Kremer, Alan Gilbert, Julian Rachlin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Jan Vogler, and Yuja Wang. He is a regular guest artist at the Verbier Music Festival, and was proud to be an integral part of their 20th anniversary season. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Salomé Chamber Orchestra, which he co-founded with his brother Sean and sister Lauren.
David received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Relations from Princeton University in 2008. David was featured in The New Yorker article “Musical Gold” by Rebecca Mead in July, 2014, on the cover of The Strad magazine in August 2013, and a few months earlier was the subject of a three-page article in The New York Times. Along with the Salomé Chamber Orchestra, David released his Warner Classics recording featuring Vivaldi, Piazzolla and Shor's Twelve Seasons. His newest release on Warner Classics features the Bartok, Walton, Shor and Dvorak Concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestros Vladimir Jurowski, David Parry, and Kazushi Ono.
David plays on a viola made by Michele Deconet, Venice (1766).
Piano | Belgium
A pianist of exceptional technique, emotional depth, and sophistication, Denis Kozhukhin has gained significant recognition through his powerful performances, establishing himself as one of the most accomplished musicians of his generation.
Highlights of the last two seasons include performances with the San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Frankfurt’s hr-Sinfonieorchester, BBC Symphony, Orchestre National de Belgique, Danish National Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and WDR Sinfonieorchester. He has worked with conductors such as Rafael Payare, Alain Altintoglu, Cristian Macelaru, Hannu Lintu, Dalia Stasevska, and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, among others.
Kozhukhin’s 2023/24 season includes returns to the Oslo Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Washington’s National Symphony, and Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona, alongside debuts with the Dallas Symphony, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, and Melbourne Symphony. Denis will also perform recitals and chamber music at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Elbphilharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Zurich’s Tonhalle. Since winning the Queen Elizabeth Competition in 2010, Denis has performed with the London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and Staatskapelle Berlin. A sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, Kozhukhin regularly appears at prominent music festivals including Verbier, Gstaad, Grafenegg, Dresden, Intonations Festival, Tsinandali, Klavier Ruhr, Lanaudiere, and Jerusalem Music Festivals, as well as the BBC Proms.
As a Pentatone recording artist, his discography spans works by Haydn, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Ravel, and Gershwin.
A graduate of the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid under the guidance of Dmitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Kozhukhin further honed his skills at the Piano Academy at Lake Como, where he received advice from notable pianists such as Fou Ts'ong, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Peter Frankl, Boris Berman, Charles Rosen, Andreas Staier, and Kirill Gerstein in Stuttgart.
Russia | Piano
Since his triumph in the 1998 at the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition, Denis Matsuev has become a virtuoso in the grandest of Russian pianistic tradition and has quickly established himself as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation.
Mr. Matsuev performs with the world's best known orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapella Dresden, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony, “Philharmonia” Orchestra of London, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Vienna Symphony, Israel Philharmonic and Rotterdam Philharmonic, Oslo Symphony, National Orchestra of Belgium, Swiss Romande orchestra, Lucerne Symphony orchestra, Verbier and Budapest Festival Orchestras, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, NHK Symphony, as well as the European Chamber Orchestra. He is continually re-engaged with the legendary Russian orchestras such as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Orchestra and the Russian National Orchestra.
Denis gives recitals in the USA in Boston, Washington and New York in Carnegie Hall (Keyboard Virtuosos series), in London in Royal Festival Hall (International Piano series), Madrid in Auditorio Nacional de Musica, Amsterdam in Concertgebouw (Master Pianists series) and Moscow (the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory).
Denis Matsuev regularly appears with the most distinguished conductors on a stage today, including Valery Gergiev, Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Ricardo Chailly, Christian Thielemann, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Paavo Jarvi, Antonio Pappano, Charles Dutoit, Alain Gilbert, Leonard Slatkin, Myung-Whun Chung, Semyon Bychkov, Iván Fischer, Adam Fisher, Gianandrea Noseda, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Manfred Honeck, James Conlon, Vladimir Spivakov, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yury Bashmet, Alexander Sladkovsky, Kristian Jarvi and others.
Mr. Matsuev is a frequent guest of world famous music festivals such as Verbier Festival and Lucerne Music Festival in Switzerland, BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival in Great Britain, Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in Germany, Les Chorégies d’Orange and Festival de la Rogue d’Anthéron in France, Ravinia and the Hollywood Bowl in the U.S., Chopin Festival in Poland, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Mito Festival in Italy, Montreux Festival in Switzerland, Enescu Festival in Romania, Baltic Sea Festival in Sweden and Stars of the White Nights Festival in Russia.
For 11 consecutive years Denis Matsuev has his original series at The Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory “Denis Matsuev invites…”. Many famous orchestras, prominent conductors, outstanding soloists have taken part in it.
In 2010, in Avery Fisher Hall, the New York Philharmonic gave the orchestra’s 15,000th concert – a number unmatched by any other orchestra. Denis Matsuev was a leading soloist in this unprecedented milestone concert, which was conducted by Maestro Valery Gergiev, and was praised highly by music critics.
For many years Denis Matsuev has led numerous musical festivals and educational projects which have added to his role as a prominent public figure. Since 2004 he has organized “Stars on Baikal” in Irkutsk, Siberia (in 2009 he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Irkutsk), and since 2005 he has been the artistic director of the music festival “Crescendo” (a series of events held in international cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Tel Aviv, Kaliningrad, Paris and New York). In 2010 he became the artistic director of Annecy Music Festival in Annecy, France, with the goal to bring together Russian and French music cultures. In 2012 Denis Matsuev became the artistic director of I International “Astana Piano Passion” Festival and Competition as well as the artistic director of International Festival and Competition “Sberbank DEBUT” in Kiev in 2013. In 2016 Denis Matsuev as the artistic director of the Competition and chairman of the Organizing Committee started a new competition for young pianists in Moscow - Grand Piano Competition. Additionally, Mr. Matsuev is the president of the charitable Russian foundation “New Names” that discovers and supports talented children and helps to develop music education in regions of his native Russia. More than 10000 children received monetary grants and/or opportunity to perform at the professional stage.
In 2007, RCA Red Seal released “Unknown Rachmaninoff” featuring Mr. Matsuev. The recording has received strong positive reviews praising his execution and creativity. His Carnegie Hall recital in November 2007 was recorded and released in 2009 as an album entitled “Denis Matsuev – Concert at Carnegie Hall.” The New York Times praised this performance writing “…his poetic instincts held fast in tender moments, with trills as thrillingly precise as one might ever hope to hear.”
Mariinsky Label releases include Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3, Shostakovich Concertos No. 1, No. 2 and Schedrin’s Fifth with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra in the famed Mariinsky Concert Hall. Among many awards granted is the Five Star rating of BBC Music Magazine. Norman Lebrecht wrote: “Neither is a virtuoso vehicle and, the composer apart, there is no pianist who has stamped these works decisively as his or her own. Denis Matsuev, a Siberian who made his name in Rachmaninoff is perhaps the first to come close”.
In April 2013 Denis Matsuev presented the record (RCA Red Seal) with S. Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rhapsody in Blue by G. Gershwin, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic under the baton of its music director Alan Gilbert.
In September 2013 the label LSO Live released a new disc with Denis Matsuev and LSO under baton of Valery Gergiev performing Symphonia Concertante by K. Szymanowski.
Gramophone has chosen Denis Matsuev’s recording of Tchaikovsky Concerti Nos. 1 & 2 as their recording of the month in April 2014.
“Matsuev’s Tchaikovsky No 1 is thrilling, the work’s drama excitingly to the fore – a new ‘personal benchmark’, says Jeremy Nicholas. That’s for you to decide, of course, but do hear it.” Gramophone (UK)
In 2018 Mariinsky Label released a disc with the record of two legendary piano concertos – Piano concerto #2 by S. Prokofiev and Piano concerto #2 by S. Rachmaninoff, performed by Denis Matsuev and Mariinsky Theatre orchestra under baton of Valery Gergiev.
In 2019 Mariinsky Label presents the recording of S. V. Rachmaninoff’s Piano concerto №4 with Denis Matsuev, Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev. And consequently the box of records with all Rachmaninoff’s concertos will be released.
For many years Denis Matsuev has collaborated with the Sergei Rachmaninov Foundation, established by Alexander Rachmaninov, the grandson of the composer. Mr. Matsuev was chosen by the Foundation to perform and record Rachmaninov’s unknown pieces on the composer's own piano at the Rachmaninov house “Villa Senar” in Lucerne. Later, he became the artistic director of the Foundation.
In 2021 Denis Matsuev becomes the artistic director of renewed Rachmaninoff Competition in Moscow with three nominations: pianist, composer and conductor.
Denis Matsuev is a laureate of prestigious “Shostakovich’s Prize” in Music as well as the State Prize of Russian Federation in Literature and Arts. He also is a “People’s Artist of Russia.” Denis Matsuev was named Honorary Professor of the Moscow State University. He is a member of The Presidential Council for Culture and Arts, Honored Artist of Russia and was the head of The Public Council under The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
In February 2014 Denis Matsuev was awarded the honour of performing at the official Closing Ceremony of the XXII Winter Olympic games in Sochi and at the same year UNESCO designated Denis Matsuev as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
In 2016 Denis Matsuev was announced as 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia ambassador.
Denis Matsuev was awarded with State Order of Honour.
And in 2017 he received Government of Russia Prize in the sphere of Culture for his International Music Festival in Irkutsk “Stars on the Baikal”.
As the Ambassador of FIFA World Cup Russia Denis organized the unique concert with participation of Valery Gergiev, Anna Netrebko, Placido Domingo and other stars of classical music at the Red Square in Moscow on 13th of June 2018.
In 2019 Denis Matsuev was awarded with Lev Nikolaev gold medal for his significant contribution to education and popularization of science and culture.
Denis Matsuev was the Chairman of the jury for XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition in the piano category.
This season sees Mr. Matsuev performs with the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra and Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Yuri Temirkanov, with New-York Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Mariinsky orchestras under baton of Maestro Gergiev, Chicago Symphony orchestra with Leonard Sladkin, Israel Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, Staatskapella Dresden and Christian Thielemann, Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras under baton of Mariss Jansons, London Symphony orchestra under baton of Gianandrea Noseda, La Scala Orchestra and Lucerne Festival Orchestra with Riccardo Chailly, Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Kent Nagano, the Orchestra of the Teatro di San Carlo with Neeme Jarvi.
He performs recitals at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Maison symphonique de Montréal, Koerner Hall in Toronto, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, G. Verdi Conservatory in Turin, Tonhalle in Zurich, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Gasteig in Munich, Accademia Filarmonica Romana in Rome, Conservatorio di Musica "Giuseppe Verdi" in Milan and Flagey in Brussels.
Denis Matsuev participates in international music festivals such as Ravinia festival, Verbier Festival, Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Easter Festival, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d'Anthéron Festival, Stresa Festival and Bucharest Music festival.
Conductor | USA/Spain
Grammy nominated conductor, cellist and conductor Dmitry Yablonksy was born in Moscow into a musical family. He began playing the cello when he was 5 years old and was accepted to the Central Music School for gifted children. At the age of 9 he gave his orchestral debut playing Haydn’s cello concerto. Since then, his career had taken him to the most important stages in the world, such as the Carnegie Hall, La Scala, Moscow Great Hall, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Taiwan National Hall, Theatre Champs Elysees, Tokyo Opera City Hall among others. He has collaborated with many world renown artists as Monserrat Caballe, Roberto Alagna, Olga Borodina and many more. Dmitry started to conduct at age 26 and has conducted more then 50 orchestras all over the world including The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he made 4 cd’s.Dmitry Yablonsky has studied cello with Isaak Buravsky, Lorne Monroe, David Soyer, Aldo Parisot and Zara Nelsova. He also took master classes with Mstislav Rostropovich, Janos Starker, Andre Navarra, Maurice Gendron, , Misha Schneider among others. His conducting teachers have been Otto Werner Muller, Yuri Simonov and Gennady Rozhdestvensky. He has participated in many festivals all over the world including Marlboro Festival. He has recorded more then 90 CD’s as cellist and conductor to great critical acclaim. He is an Artistic Director of Gabala Music Festival, Puigcerda Music Festival and Wandering Music Stars Festival. Dmitry Yablonsky is Music Director of Kiev Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra. Since fall 2016, he is teaching cello and chamber music at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University and has been recently named Head of International Relations of the same University.Dmitry plays two cellos: a Joseph Filius Andrea Guarneri and a Matteo Goffriller.
Cello | France
Born in 1994, Edgar Moreau is a Prizewinner at the 2009 Rostropovich competition, 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition and winner of the 2014 Young Concert Artist Award. He took up his studies with Philippe Muller at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and continued at the Kronberg Academy under the guidance of Frans Helmerson. At the age of 11, he made his debut with the Teatro Regio Orchestra in Torino, playing Dvorak’s cello concerto.
Edgar regularly performs in the most prestigious halls, including New York Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Los Angeles Hollywood Ball, Paris Philharmonie and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Tokyo Suntory Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Geneva Victoria Hall, Barcelona Palau de la Musica Catalana, Scala de Milano, La Fenice Venezia, Wigmore Hall. He is frequently invited in numerous festivals, such as Verbier, Salzburg, Gstaad, Montreux, Hamburg, Edinburgh, Saint-Denis, Menton, Colmar, Lugano, Hamburg Martha Argerich Festival...
He collaborates with internationally acclaimed conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Francois-Xavier Roth, Myung-Whun Chung, Tugan Sokhiev, Marin Alsop, Manfred Honeck, Lahav Shani, Elim Chan, Mikko Franck, Jakub Hrusa, Michael Schonwandt, Alain Altinoglu, Pablo-Heras Casado, Susanna Mälkki, Joseph Swensen, Vasily Petrenko, Jukka- Pekka Saraste, Aziz Shokhakimov, Lionel Bringuier, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Nathalie Stutzmann...
Edgar performs with world-renowned orchestras, such as London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symhpony, Montreal Symphony, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Roma Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Munich Philharmonic, Hamburg Symphony, Luzern Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Brussels Philharmonic, Antwerpen Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic, Simon Bolivar Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, KBS Symphony.
Being particularly passionate about chamber music, he collaborates with artists such as Martha Argerich, Yo-Yo Ma, Renaud Capuçon, Khatia Buniatishvili, Daniil Trifonov, Nicholas Angelich, Andras Schiff, Emmanuel Pahud, Sergey Babayan, Lisa Batiashvili, Julian Rachlin, Alexey Volodin, Bertrand Chamayou and David Kadouch among others, as well as his sister Raphaëlle and brothers David and Jérémie.
An Erato exclusive artist, Edgar released his debut album “Play” in 2014, with pianist Pierre-Yves Hodique, “Giovincello”,with Il Pomo d'Oro and Riccardo Minasi (ECHO Classic Award, 2016), Debussy's sonatas and trios, a duo album with David Kadouch, Gulda and Offenbach concertos with Les Forces Majeures and Raphaël Merlin, a family album featuring works of Korngold and Dvorak (A Family Affair, Erato), Transmission, an album celebrating Jewish heritage and musical tradition through works by Bruch, Bloch, Korngold and Ravel.
Latest release : Dutilleux and Weinberg cello concertos, with Andris Poga and WDR Köln Sinfonie (Warner Classics, September 2023).
Edgar was awarded two Victoires de la Musique Classique ("French Grammy") in 2013 and 2015. He was named ECHO Rising Star in 2017. Edgar is a laureate of the Fondation Banque Populaire, Young Soloist Award from French Public Radio Stations 2013, Safran Corporate Foundation and is Adami Révélation Classique 2012.
Edgar Moreau plays on a David Tecchler cello from 1711. His bow was made by Dominique Peccate.
From September 2023, Edgar has been appointed Cello Professor at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur.
Conductor | Norway
Newly announced as Chief Conductor of the Noord Nederlands Orkest (starting from 2022/23 season) and Artistic and General Director of Bergen National Opera since 2021, Eivind Gullberg Jensen is equally comfortable on the concert platform as the opera house stage.
An experienced conductor with an extensive repertoire range, he is recognised for his knowledgeable and insightful interpretations. Following a majority vote by the orchestra musicians, his new role in The Netherlands runs for an initial period of three years.
During the 2021/22 season, Jensen debuts in North America with Orchestre symphonique de Québec and Utah Symphony Orchestra, and in Europe with Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife and Wermland Operas Orkest. He returns to Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, Kristiansand Symfoniorkester, Filharmonia Poznańska, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, and twice visits Noord Nederlands Orkest, including a performance at the historic Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
2020/21 season highlights include the French premiere of Waiting, a dramatised concert based on Peer Gynt by Calixto Bieito and Karl Ove Knausgård, with soprano Mari Eriksmoen in Strasbourg’s Opera National du Rhin, and debut with Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jensen has previously conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, Hamburger Symphoniker and WDR Sinfonieorchester in Germany, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vancouver, North Carolina and Oregon symphony orchestras in North America, and further in Europe the Royal Stockholm and Netherlands Radio philharmonic orchestras, Orchestre de Paris and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.
Over recent seasons he has worked with internationally renowned soloists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Truls Mørk, Alice Sara Ott, Javier Perianes, Hélène Grimaud, Gautier Capuçon, Sol Gabetta, Alban Gerhardt, Hilary Hahn, Gabriela Montero, Emmanuel Pahud, Yefim Bronfman, Alexander Toradze, Vadim Repin, Viktoria Mullova, Renaud Capuçon, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Mari Eriksmoen, Charlotte Hellekant, Albert Dohmen or Guy Braunstein.
Previous opera highlights include, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence with the new Simon McBurney production of The Rake’s Progress, the Wiener Staatsoper with Tosca and Rusalka, Opéra de Lille with Die Zauberflote and Der fliegende Holländer, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma with Rusalka, English National Opera with Janáček’s Jenůfa, a double-bill of Il tabarro and Djamileh (directed by David Pountney and Christopher Alden) in Lyon, Il corsaro and Rusalka for Opernhaus Zürich, Fidelio with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Bayerische Staatsoper and as part of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, as well as Rusalka, Eugene Onegin and La bohème (in Stefan Herheim’s production) at Den Norske Opera.
Eivind Gullberg Jensen studied conducting in Stockholm with Jorma Panula, and in Vienna with Leopold Hager. Previously, he studied violin and musical theory in Trondheim, Norway.
Violin | South Korea · US
Praised as “a sensitive and absorbing interpreter” (Musical America), Korean-American violinist Elly Suh stands out as a performer whose musical charm, interpretative originality, and unique creative vision breathe fresh life to concert stages around the world.
Suh is celebrated as one of the leading Paganini interpreters of her generation, and is currently undertaking a major recording project of Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin. Reflecting her modern creative spirit and innovative approach to music, the Paganini Vault project is a narrative audio-visual album – serving as just one example of Suh’s subtle but compelling expansion of the traditional boundaries and expectations of classical music, as we move further into the 21st century.
Alongside her charming interpretations of the major works of the violin literature, Elly Suh is recognised as a major exponent of contemporary works for violin – in particular those by Mario Davidovsky, Ned Rorem, and Jörg Widmann. Herself a talented composer and musical arranger, Suh brings individuality and a unique creative voice to all her performances – often through newly composed cadenzas, improvisations, or orchestral arrangements of both known and unknown works. Her self-composed cadenza for Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.4 in the semi-finals of the Queen Elisabeth Competition for Violin, Belgium (2019) – which incorporated the Belgian National Anthem – was received with enormous popularity and wide critical acclaim, appearing on several major televised news channels.
Suh has been a regular on the competition circuit since 2012, when she took Second Prize at the Naumburg International Violin Competition, New York. Since then, she has gone on to take either the Grand Prix, Top Prizes, or Special Prizes at more than ten international competitions, including the Moscow International David Oistrakh Violin Competition, Russia (2013), Premio Paganini International Violin Competition, Italy (2015), Michael Hill International Violin Competition, New Zealand (2015), Leipzig International Bach Competition, Germany (2018), and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, USA (2018), amongst others.
Whilst studying in New York, Suh worked regularly as Guest Concertmaster with the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra. Now an international soloist, recent and forthcoming engagements include the Korean Chamber Orchestra, L’Orchestra della Fondazione Teatro Carlo Felice, Leipzig Pauliner Barockensemble, New York Classical Players, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, and the Lviv Virtuosos Chamber Orchestra. In concert, she has appeared on such stages as BOZAR Brussels, Carnegie Hall, and the Lincoln Center, and performed at the Salzburger Festspiele – the world’s premier classical music festival.
Born in Seoul in 1989, Suh first began violin lessons at the age of five. Instantly recognized as possessing a fiercely prodigious talent, she went on to enter The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division in New York at just 10-years-old. Under the tutelage of eminent professors including Robert Mann, Joel Smirnoff, and Sally Thomas, she went on to obtain both her Bachelor’s Degree and her Masters of Music at The Juilliard School, before embarking on post-graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music. Following this, Suh moved to Europe to undertake post-graduate studies at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg under the guidance of the celebrated violinist Pierre Amoyal.
Elly Suh lives in London, and plays on a Guarneri del Gesù violin on generous loan from an anonymous patron, through the kind assistance of Florian Leonhard Fine Violins.
Piano | Italy
Enrico Pace was born in Rimini, Italy. He studied piano with Franco Scala at the Rossini Conservatory, Pesaro, where he graduated in Conducting and Composition too, and later at the Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola, with Lazar Berman and Boris Petrushansky.
Jacques De Tiège was a valued mentor.
Winning the Utrecht International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in 1989 marked the beginning of his international career.
Since then Enrico Pace has toured extensively, performing in cities such as Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Milan (Sala Verdi and Teatro alla Scala), Rome, Berlin, London (Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre),Paris, Madrid, Munich, Salzburg, Prague, Korea, Japan and various cities in US and South America.
Enrico Pace greatly enjoys chamber music and has played with violinists Liza Ferschtman, Akiko Suwanai, Kristóf Barati, Mihaela Martin, Ragnhild Hemsing and A. Conunova; cellists Frans Helmerson, István Várdai, Alexander Chaushian, Sung-Won Yang, Daniel Müller-Schott, Julian Steckel and clarinetist Sharon Kam. He participates regularly in chamber music festivals and has visited Delft, Moritzburg, Risør, Kuhmo, Stresa, Verbier, Lucerne, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein among others. Enrico Pace enjoys a long term partnership with violinist Leonidas Kavakos: with him he recorded the complete Beethoven Sonatas for piano and violin. With violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann he recorded the complete Sonatas for violin and piano by J.S. Bach for Sony Classical. In 2011 the label Piano Classics released his solo recording of Franz Liszt’s Annéees de pèlerinage “Suisse” and “Italie”. With cellist Sun-Won Yang he has recorded works by Schumann, Brahms, Chopin and Liszt. Recently their complete Beethoven Cello and piano music has been released by Decca. He’s teaching regularly at the Imola and Pinerolo Music Academies.
Clarinet | Italy
Fabrizio Meloni, since 1984, is the first solo clarinet chair of the Orchestra and the Philharmonic of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. He has finished his clarinet studies at Milan's Conservatorio "G. Verdi"with summa cum laude and the special mention for his artistic achievement.
Winner dozens of national and international prizes (ARD Munchen-1987- Prague – 1987-, among all), he has been partner of soloists of international reputation: Bruno Canino, Alexander Lonquich, Michele Campanella, Heinrich Schiff, Friederich Gulda, Nazzareno Carusi, Editha Gruberova, the Hagen Quartet, Myung-Whun Chung, Philip Moll and the Fine Arts Quartet. He has toured the United States and Israel with the "Quintetto a Fiati Italiano", performing works specially dedicated to this ensemble by Luciano Berio (with whom he has collaborated along the years 1989-1994) and Salvatore Sciarrino. With Nuovo Quintetto Italiano he has already toured South America and Far East, receiving enthousiastic consents of public and critic. The same success he has had in various series of concerts in Japan with Phillip Moll and I Solisti della Scala (Tokyo and Osaka), performing a program of Italian Opera's collections recorded in the CD "I Fiati all'Opera"(DAD Records).
With the ensemble I Solisti della Scala Trio he has performed all over the world. The Washington Post has written about their recital in Washington, DC: "An evening of breathtaking artistry". In 2007 he has toured Italy, Germany, the United States, Australia and Japan playing duo with the pianist Nazzareno Carusi, celebrating the anniversaries of Johannes Brahms and Domenico Scarlatti. After their performance for the Hamburg's Brahms-Gesellschaft, Cord Garben (the artistic producer of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's Deutsche Grammophone recordings) has written: "The listening to their recital has been an unforgettable adventure".
He has realised various recordings: the Sinfonia Concertante and the Concert K 622 for clarinet and orchestra with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala conducted by Riccardo Muti; Pulcherrima Ignota with the Bairav Ensemble: tribute to the tzigane music in the world; Duo Obliquo with Carl Boccadoro; the Quintetti for clarinet and strings by Mozart and Brahms; the Histoire du Soldat by Stavinskij in the double version for trio and settimino with Domenico Nordio, Giorgia Tomassi and I Solisti della Scala; the Quatuor pour la fin des temps by Messiaen with the Trio Johannes. For the most prestigious Italian musical magazine, AMADEUS, he has published the Concertos for clarinetto and orchestra by Rossini, Donizetti and Mercadante with the Accademia Filarmonica of Verona; and the two Sonatas op. 120 for piano and clarinet by Brahms with Nazzareno Carusi: this recording has been defined "skillful"by the same review. In 2009 will be released several recordings: the DVD "Duets"(Warner), the Francaix/Nielsen/Copland's Clarinet Concertos (Amadeus), and "Ol ari Nyiro Diary" (by Fabrizio Meloni & Roberto Prosseda, from novels by Kuki Gallman).
He has given masterclass for the Paris Conservatory of Music, the Advanced Conservatory of Italian Switzerland in Lugano, the Tokyo University, the New York Manhattan School, the Chicago NorthEastern Illinois University, the Academy Ca' Zenobio in Treviso, Milano Music Master and for the summer courses of Monterubbiano (AP). He also teaches for the Teatro alla Scala's Academy, the Conservatorio di Modena (Italy), the Conservatorio Vecchi A.Tonelli (Modena, Italy), Peri ( Reggio Emilia, Italy), the Conservatorio di Udine (Italy) and the Conservatorio de Musica in Zaragoza (Spain). He is author of the book "The Clarinet", published by Zecchini Editore, and prefaced by Riccardo Muti.
Soprano | Egypt
Egyptian soprano Fatma Said is one of the most exciting young artists of her generation. Hailed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “a discovery”, Fatma has not only distinguished herself in opera houses and on concert stages, but also in a humanitarian capacity, regularly representing her home country as an ambassador for culture and education.
In 2016, Fatma made her sensational role debut at Teatro alla Scala as Pamina in Peter Stein’s critically acclaimed new production of Die Zauberflöte, conducted by Adam Fischer. The production, in which Fatma was described as “luminous”, “warm and mature” and full of “incredible depth”, was broadcast by ARTE and has since been released on DVD.
Fatma will begin her exciting 2021-22 season with a gala concert in Istanbul with Rolando Villazón, followed by recitals at the Schubertiade, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, deSingel Antwerp and DeutschlandFunk Cologne. Fatma will also appear in concert with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Le Concert Spirituel, DSO Berlin and Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo. Fatma ends her busy season with a debut at the Opéra de Rouen as Pamina and Zerlina Don Giovanni at the Verbier Festival.
Fatma has established a reputation as an extraordinarily gifted musician and was previously a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. In 2019, Fatma became an exclusive Warner recording artist. The 2019/20 season saw performances of Mahler 4 with Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Fauré Requiem with Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and performances as Pamina in China with the Teatro alla Scala. Highlights of Fatma’s 2020/21 season included concert appearances with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and the Orchestre national de France, a gala concert for Rolex with Sonya Yoncheva at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, and recitals at Wigmore Hall, Leeds Lieder and the Victoria de los Ángeles Festival Barcelona. Fatma was recently named BBC Music Magazine’s Newcomer of the Year, in addition to winning the Vocal Award for her critically acclaimed debut album with Warner Classics, El Nour.
Previous highlights include Mozart Requiem at the BBC Proms under Nathalie Stutzmann, Die Schöpfung and a recording of Mahler 8 with Adam Fischer at Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Strauss lieder with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, plus Suor Angelica with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Omer Meir Wellber. Fatma has also given recitals in Perth, Dresden, Bonn and Mallorca, concerts in Lucerne, Vienna and Salzburg with Rolando Villazón, and gala concerts at The United Nations in Geneva and in Muscat with Juan Diego Flórez. Fatma also appeared as L’Amour in the new John Fulljame/Hofesh Schechter Orphée et Eurydice at Teatro alla Scala, in addition to making her debut at the Salzburg MozartWoche in a production of Mozart’s T.H.A.M.O.S by La Fura del Baus.
Fatma is an alumna of the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler and the prestigious Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where she was the first Egyptian to ever have debuted at the house. Fatma represented Egypt twice at the United Nations to highlight children’s right to education and dignity through music and was part of the 2018 “Silk Road Concert” at the Temple of Luxor. In 2016, Fatma Said received an honorary award from Egypt's National Council for Women and was singled out for one of Egypt’s highest accolades during the first National Youth Convention: she became the first opera singer ever to be awarded the state’s Creativity Award for her outstanding artistic achievement on an international level.
Piano | Turkey
With his extraordinary pianistic talents, Fazıl Say has been touching audiences and critics alike for more than twenty-five years, in a way, that has become rare in the increasingly materialistic and elaborately organised classical music world. Concerts with this artist are something different. They are more direct, more open, more exciting; in short, they go straight to the heart.
Since the beginning of his career he has played with all of the renowned American and European orchestras and numerous leading conductors, building up a multifaceted repertoire ranging from Bach, through the Viennese Classics (Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven) and the Romantics, right up to contemporary music, including his own piano compositions.
Guest appearances have taken Fazıl Say to countless countries on all five continents; the French newspaper “Le Figaro” called him ‘a genius’. He also performs chamber music regularly: since many years he has been part of a fantastic duo with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Other notable collaborators include Maxim Vengerov, the Minetti Quartet, Nicolas Altstaedt and Marianne Crebassa.
As a composer, Say has been commissioned to write music for, among others, the Salzburger Festspiele, the WDR and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Konzerthaus Wien, the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Louis Vuitton Foundation, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the BBC. His oeuvre includes four symphonies, two oratorios, various solo concertos and numerous works for piano and chamber music.
Highlights of the 2020-21 season include concerts with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Thomas Hengelbrock in Munich and Baden-Baden, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under Paavo Järvi in Zurich and Hamburg, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Iván Fischer, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Classic Open Air on the Gendarmenmarkt with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and Christoph Eschenbach.
In recitals Fazıl Say can be heard in Japan and European cities such as Milan, Paris, Budapest, Moscow and Munich; in the first half of the season he dedicates his programmes mainly to Beethoven’s sonatas, in 2021 he takes Bach's Goldberg Variations and Schubert's C minor Sonata D 958 with him on tour.
Fazıl Say also regularly performs his own works in concert, including his piano concerto "Silk Road" with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra and the Irish Chamber Orchestra; "The Moving Mansion" with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Würth Philharmoniker and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta; his song cycle "İlk Şarkılar" with mezzo-soprano Serenad Bağcan in Hamburg, Zurich and İstanbul, and his İstanbul Symphony with the Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin.
Fazıl Say has produced an extensive discography of over 40 CDs. His recordings for Teldec Classics, naïve and Warner have received numerous awards, including four ECHO KLASSIK and a Gramophone Classical Music Award. Since 2016 Fazıl Say has been an exclusive artist with Warner Classics, where his last recording of all Beethoven’s piano sonatas was released in January 2020.
Conductor | Italy
Graduated from The Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatoire in two disciplines: cello (Professor M. Tchaikovskaya’s class) and opera and symphony conducting (Professor V. Sinaissky’s class). He continued his postgraduate studies in string ensemble (Professor A. Shilov’s class). Most outstanding professors of the Moscow Conservatory like T. Gaidamovich, A. Bonduryansky, R. Davidyan, K.Khachaturyan were among his teachers.
Mr Korobov started his career as a conductor in the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia. For three seasons he was Principal Conductor in two major opera theatres of Moscow - the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre and the Kolobov New Opera Theatre where he directed Norma, The Tsar’s Bride and others.
Since September 2004 Mr. Korobov has devoted himself solely to the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich- Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre. He has been working as music director and conductor of the performances: Aida (G. Verdi); Werther (J. Massenet); War and Peace (S. Prokofiev); Hamlet (Prince of Denmark) (Russian) Comedy (V. Kobekin); Eugene Onegin (P. Tchaikovsky); Cinderella (S. Prokofiev); L'Italiana in Algeri (G. Rossini); The Stone Flower (S. Prokofiev); Cafe Socrate (D. Milhaud, E. Satie); May Night (N. Rimsky-Korsakov); Petite Mort/Sechs Tanze (to the music by W.A. Mozart); Manon (J. Massenet); Naples (music by E. Helsted and H. S. Paulli, Niels W. Gade, H.C. Lumbye); The Little Mermaid (L. Auerbach), La forza del destino (G. Verdi); Tatiana (L. Auerbach); La Traviata (G. Verdi), Medea (L. Cherubini). He has collaborated with such renowned choreographers as John Neumeier in The Seagull, Little Mermaid and Tatiana, Oleg Vinogradov in Cinderella and Yuri Grigorovich in The Stone Flower. Mr. Korobov conducts thirty operas in Moscow theatres on a regular basis, including five operas by Rimsky-Korsakov, The Queen of Spades, Madama Butterfly etc.
He often tours both as conductor and cellist. He has worked with symphony orchestras in Russia, Germany, Finland, Italy, the Philippines etc.
He is a Principal Guest Conductor at the Saint-Petersburg Camerata orchestra of the State Hermitage Museum headed by S.Sondeckis. Besides, he is Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Chamber orchestra at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory.
Since October 2017 Mr. Korobov has started the cooperation with Teatro alla Scala ("Onegin" 2017, "Manon" 2018, "The Sleeping Beauty" 2019, "Balanchine / Kylián / Béjart" 2019, "Onegin" 2019) .
Piano | France
Frank Braley was born in 1968, and began his piano studies at the age of four. Six years later he gave his first concert with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, Salle Pleyel. In 1986 he decided to devote himself entirely to music and abandoned his studies in science. He entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and was awarded unanimously first prizes for piano and chamber music three years later. In 1991, at the age of 22, he took part in an international competition for the first time: the Queen Elizabeth Competition of Belgium where he won the First Grand Prize. Public and press unanimously recognise him as a pianist with exceptional musical and poetic qualities.
Since then, Frank Braley has been regularly invited to Japan, Canada, the United States, and all over Europe, to play with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre de la Suisse-Romande, Orchestra della Swizzera Italiana, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Montpellier and Toulouse Orchestras, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Liège Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Den Haag Orchestra, Göteborg Symphony, Copenhagen Royal Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, BBC Wales Orchestra, the Royal Scottish Orchestra, the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester, the Boston Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Jean-Claude Casadesus, Stéphane Deneve, Charles Dutoit, Hans Graf, Gunther Herbig, Christopher Hogwood, Eliahu Inbal, Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Antonio Pappano, Michel Plasson, Yutaka Sado, Michael Schonwandt, Walter Weller…
Frank Braley toured all over the world: in China with the Orchestre National de France under Charles Dutoit, Japan and China with the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse under Michel Plasson, with the Orchestre Français des Jeunes under Emmanuel Krivine in France and Italy, and again Italy with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. He gave recitals with violinist Renaud Capuçon (Amsterdam, Athens, Birmingham, Firenze, Ferrara, New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna).
Frank also takes part in special projects, such as Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas Cycles (La Roque d’Anthéron, Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes, Grenoble, Rome, Tokyo and Brazil).
He played in recital in Paris, Londres, Amsterdam, Bruxelles, Hanovre, Ferrare, in duo with Renaud Capuçon in Amsterdam, Athens, Birmingham, Brussels, Rome, Florence, Trieste, New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna… His chamber music partners are Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Maria Joao Pires, Augustin Dumay, Paul Meyer, Gérard Caussé, Eric Le Sage, Emmanuel Pahud, Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet…
For Harmonia Mundi he has recorded Schubert’s Sonata in A Major D. 959 and Klavierstücke D. 946 (for which he received the Diapason d’Or and has been compared to Claudio Arrau, Alfred Brendel, Radu Lupu, Andras Schiff…), Richard Strauss’ works for solo piano, Beethoven’s Sonatas Clair de lune op.27 n°2, Appassionata op. 57 and op. 110, Gershwin’s complete piano music. For BMG : Poulenc’s Double Concerto with Eric Le Sage (Diapason d’Or). For Naïve DVD Liszt- Debussy-Gershwin (Choc – Monde de la Musique). For Warner/Erato, he has recorded Ravel’s Chamber music with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Saint Saens’ Carnaval des Animaux and Schubert’s Trout, Schubert’s Trios with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Hungarian Dances with Nicholas Angelich.
After a Schubert/Debussy/Britten/Carter release, Frank Braley Frank and Gautier Capuçon recorded Beethoven's complete Sonatas for Cello and Piano. (Erato, 2016). Latest release: Beethoven's 'Ghost' and 'Archduke' piano trios with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon. (Erato, Febuary 2020)
Frank Braley teaches at the Paris Conservatory and is the Music Director of the Belgium Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie.
Piano | UK
Freddy Kempf is one of today’s most successful pianists performing to sell-out audiences all over the world. Exceptionally gifted with an unusually broad repertoire, Freddy has built a unique reputation as an explosive and physical performer who is not afraid to take risks as well as a serious, sensitive and profoundly musical artist.
Freddy has collaborated with conductors such as Järvi, Dutoit, Sawallisch, Sanderling, Chailly, Ashkenazy, Petrenko, Oramo, Davis, Belohlavek, Temirkanov, Altinoglu, and Dausgaard, and has worked with some of the world’s most prestigious musical institutions including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonia, City of Birmingham Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, La Scala Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, NHK Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, the Tonhalle Orchester and the Dresden Philharmonic.
Most recent career highlights include Freddy’s debut at the BBC Proms, an extensive Asian tour including the Seoul Arts Centre and PyeongChang Chamber Music Festival in South Korea; the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore; and concerto appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic. A favourite touring artist, Freddy’s recent tours include a play/conducting tour across New Zealand with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and an extensive twelve-date tour with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra across the UK for which he received critical acclaim: Kempf is a pianist in a million… the incredible definition of Rachmaninov's inner filigree which emerges all the clearer for a refusal to use the sustaining pedal to blur the sound… his colossal but perfect weight simply stuns. (The Arts Desk)
The 19/20 season begins with a return to Japan where Freddy gives major recitals in Kanagawa, Tokyo and Osaka, and plays Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2 with Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra. Later in the season, Freddy joins the Armenian National Philharmonic performing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F and tours the UK with Siberian Symphony Orchestra performing Rachmaninov Piano Concerto Nos 2 &3. A committed recitalist, Freddy has appeared in many of the world’s most important concert halls including the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, the Berlin Konzerthaus, Milan’s Sala Verdi, the Concertgebouw, London’s Cadogan and Barbican, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, the Sydney Opera House and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. This season’s recital highlights include appearances at the Birmingham International Piano Series, Moscow’s House of Music, and the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory.
A prolific recording artist, Freddy records exclusively for BIS Records. His latest Prokofiev CD, featuring a selection of Prokofiev Sonatas, was released earlier in October 2019. Previously his Tchaikovsky recital CD released in Autumn 2015 was received to great acclaim. In 2013, Freddy released a Schumann recital disc which was warmly received by the critics and, in 2010, his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton was nominated for the prestigious Gramophone Concerto Award, with the associated magazine describing the collaborative duo as “a masterful Prokofievian pair”. This highly successful collaboration was followed by a recording of Gershwin’s works for piano and orchestra, released in 2012 and described in the press as “beautiful, stylish, light, and elegant… magnificent”. Meanwhile, Freddy’s solo recital disc of Rachmaninov, Bach/Busoni, Ravel and Stravinsky, released in 2011, was praised by BBC Music Magazine for its wonderful delicate playing and fine sense of style.
Born in London in 1977, Freddy made his concerto debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 8 and further came to national prominence in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. In 1998, his award of third, rather than first, prize in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow provoked protests from the audience and an outcry in the Russian press, which proclaimed him “the hero of the competition”.
Violin | Japan
Born in Tokyo, Fumiaki Miura starts his musical education with Tsugio Tokunaga at his hometown Conservatory before moving to Vienna to carry on his studies with Pavel Vernikov and Julian Rachlin. Since aged 16, Fumiaki is mentored and guided by Pinchas Zukerman. In 2009 he was awarded First Prize at the prestigious Joseph Joachim Hannover International Violin Competition, being the youngest winner ever.
His 23/24 season is highlighted by solo performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, ADDA Sinfónica de Alicante, Orchestra del Teatro Goldoni di Livorno, and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Turkey. In addition, he will continue his chamber music activity with his partner pianist Itamar Golan in Italy, as well as with Varvara and Jonathan Roozeman, making his debut at the Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical in Madrid.
Miura has performed with orchestras including Los Angeles Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Wiener Kammerorchester, Prague Philharmonia, Mariinsky Theater, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, NAC Orchestra Ottawa, Orchestre de Chambre Lausanne, Warsaw Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokio Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Japan Philarmonic, Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse, BBC Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Düsseldorf Symphoniker, hr-Sinfonieorchester or Hong Kong Sinfonietta, among others. Fumiaki Miura plays under the baton of conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Gustavo Dudamel, Pinchas Zukerman, Krzysztof Penderecki, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Kazushi Ono, Hannu Lintu, Jakub Hrůša, Vasily Petrenko, Josep Pons, Patrick Hahn, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Stéphane Denève, Kristjan Järvi, Tatsuya Shimono, Terry Fisher, and Rafael Payaré.
Regular invitations to international music festivals include the Miyazaki International Music, Ravinia Festival, Julian Rachlin and Friends, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Musique de Menton, Gyeonggi Chamber Music Festivalnd Menuhin Festival Gstaad. Fumiaki has also performed at the Auditorium du Louvre and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Auditorio in Madrid, Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Elbephiharmonie in Hamburg and at the Wigmore Hall in London.
Miura has collaborated with artists like Yuri Bashmet, Itamar Golan, Sunwook Kim, Mischa Maisky, Maria João Pires, Lawrence Power, Julian Rachlin, Torleif Thedéen, Nobuyuki Tsujii, Jonathan Roozeman, Varvara or Pinchas Zukerman.
Since 2018 he has been artistic director of Suntory Hall ARK Classics and has just completed the 2023 edition together with artists such as Nobuyuki Tsujii, Jonathan Roozeman, Young Soung and Sergei Nakariakov. In the summer of 2023, Fumiaki toured Japan - as soloist and conductor - with ARK Sinfoniettta, an orchestra formed especially for ARK Classics with eminent young artists. Months earlier, he performed Mozart's Symphonie Concertante with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Pinchas Zukerman at the baton.
In 2022 Fumiaki was also elected "Forbes 30 under 30 Asia" after being elected "Forbes 30 under 30 Japan" in 2019. In 2024, to celebrate his 15th anniversary after his debut, Fumiaki will perform complete cycles of Beethoven Violin Sonatas with Japanese pianist Kazune Shimizu at Suntory Hall.
His discography includes Prokofiev violin sonatas with the pianist Itamar Golan for Sony Japan, as well as Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky violin concertos with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Hannu Lintu released by Avex-Classics label.
Miura performs on the Guarneri del Gesu 1732 violin “Kaston” kindly loaned by Crystco Inc. and its CEO, Mr. Hikaru Shimura.
Cello | Canada · USA · France
Gary Hoffman is one of the outstanding cellists of our time, combining instrumental mastery, great beauty of sound, and a poetic sensibility in his distinctive and memorable performances. Mr. Hoffman gained international renown upon his victory as the first North American to win the Rostropovich International Competition in Paris in 1986.
A frequent soloist with the world's most noted orchestras, he has appeared with the Chicago, London, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, Baltimore and National symphony orchestras as well as the English, Moscow and Los Angeles chamber orchestras, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Netherlands and Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra for the Blossom Festival and Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others. Mr. Hoffman collaborates regularly with such celebrated conductors as André Prévin, Charles Dutoit, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zuckerman, Andrew Davis, Herbert Blomstedt, Kent Nagano, Jésus Lopez-Cobos and James Levine…
Gary Hoffman performs on major recital and chamber music series throughout the world, as well as in such prestigious festivals as Ravinia, Marlboro, Aspen, Bath, Evian, Helsinki, Verbier, Mostly Mozart, Schleswig- Holstein, Stresa... He is a frequent guest of string quartets including Emerson, Tokyo, Borromeo, Brentano, and Ysaye.
Mr. Hoffman is an regular guest of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.
Gary Hoffman premiered many concertos (Laurent Petitgirard, Joel Hoffman, Renaud Gagneux, Gil Shohat, Graciane Finzi, Dominique Lemaître, French Premiere of Elliott Carter Cello Concerto… )
Sharing his time and engagements mainly between Europe and America, he also regularly travels for concerts in Asia. He is the guest of main halls such as the Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Kennedy Center, and numerous festivals: Ravinia, La Jolla, Schleswig Holstein, Verbier, Festival International de Colmar, Evian, Prades Festival, Honk Kong International Chamber Music Festival, Vancouver, Storioni, … etc. Gary Hoffman plays and gives master classes at the Ravinia Festival, Bloomington, Kobé, Manchester Cello Festival, Salzburger Mozarteum, Festival de Prades , Santa Fe… he is a close part of the Kronberg Academy family for years, intimately involved in the Academy Masters, the festivals, and the master class weeks.
Born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1956, Gary Hoffman devotes time to teaching, as well, having been the youngest faculty appointee in the history of the Indiana University School of Music, where he remained for eight years. Mr. Hoffman regularly holds master classes world-wide. He studied the cello with Janos Starker.
In September 2011 he has been appointed as Professor at the Musical Chapel in Brussels, opening the cello class.
Residing in Paris, he is an active recording artist with the BMG (RCA), Sony, EMI and Le Chant du Monde and La Dolce Volta labels.
His Brahms Sonatas’ recording with Claire Désert – will be published in the autumn 2017 onto label La Dolce Volta. He participated to Dvorak recoding with the Jerusalem Quartet (Harmonia Mundi)- they are touring together in the main European cities.
Elgar cello concerto and Shelomo (Bloch) recorded with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège conducted by Christian Arming is released in October 2018 onto La Dolce Volta. Gary Hoffman performs on a 1662 Nicolo Amati, the "ex- Leonard Rose"
Cello | France
Gautier Capuçon is a true 21st century ambassador for the cello. Performing internationally with many of the world’s foremost conductors and instrumentalists, he is also deeply committed to education and support for young musicians from every background. In summer 2020 Capuçon brought music directly into the lives of families across the length and breadth of France during his musical odyssey ‘Un été en France’. The fifth edition of the project, featuring young musicians and dancers, takes place in July 2024. In January 2022 Gautier Capuçon launched Fondation Gautier Capuçon to support young and talented musicians at the beginning of their career. Capucon is also a passionate ambassador for the Orchestre à l'École Association which brings classical music to more than 42,000 school children across France.
A multiple award winner, Capucon is acclaimed for his expressive musicianship, exuberant virtuosity, and for the deep sonority of his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello “L’Ambassadeur”. He performs with world leading orchestras each season, working with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrès Orozco-Estrada, Pablo Heras-Casado, Paavo Jarvi, Klaus Mäkelä, Andris Nelsons, and Christian Thielemann. Collaborations with contemporary composers include Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Guillaume Connesson, Bryce Dessner, Richard Dubugnon, Henry Dutilleux, Danny Elfman, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm and Jörg Widmann.
Highlights of the 2023/24 season include return visits as soloist with Los Angeles Philharmonic/Young, Münchner Philharmoniker/Mehta, Orchestre Nationale de France/Macelaru and Wiener Philharmoniker/Nelsons. He is soloist on tour through Europe with Wiener Symphoniker/Popelka; and he is Artist in Residence with Dresden Philharmonic and with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. In October 2023 he re-joins long time musical partners Lisa Batiashvili and Jean-Yves Thibaudet to make a piano trio tour crossing the USA – from Walt Disney Hall, Los Angeles to Carnegie Hall, New York. 2023/24 also sees a European tour with pianist Daniil Trifonov including concerts in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Dresden and Vienna.
Other regular chamber music partners include Frank Braley, Jérôme Ducros, Nikolai Lugansky, Gabriela Montero, as well as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Andreas Ottensamer, Yuja Wang, the Labèque sisters and the Ébène, Hagen and Modigliani quartets. Capuçon regularly plays at festivals worldwide including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Grafenegg and Verbier. The 2022/23 season saw the debut tour of Capucon’s cello ensemble created with his former students - Capucelli – performing in prestigious venues across Europe including Paris, Vienna and Geneva.
Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon has won multiple awards and holds an extensive discography featuring major concerto and chamber music literature. His album Destination Paris, released in November 2023, celebrates French music from classical repertoire to film scores. 2020’s Warner Classics album Emotions features music from composers such as Debussy, Schubert and Elgar and has achieved gold status in France. Further albums exploring short, popular pieces from a range of different genres - including Sensations (released in Autumn 2022) – have generated tens of millions of streams. Highlights of his back catalogue include the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley; an album of Schumann works recorded live with Martha Argerich, Renaud Capuçon and Chamber Orchestra of Europe/ Bernard Haitink; Chopin and Franck sonatas with Yuja Wang; and a solo album featuring Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly to mark his 40th birthday.
Capuçon has also been featured on DVD in live performances with Wiener Philharmoniker/Andris Nelsons (Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto No.1) Berliner Philharmoniker/Gustavo Dudamel (Haydn’s Cello Concerto No.1) and with Lisa Batiashvili, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello).
Born in Chambéry, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. Now a household name in his native France, Capucon appears on screen and online in shows such as Prodiges, Now Hear This, Symphony Pour La Vie, and The Artist Academy, and is a guest presenter on Radio Classique in the show Les Carnets de Gautier Capuçon.
Conductor | Hungary
In the 2019/20 season Gergely Madaras begins his tenure as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. As well as curating several series in Liège and at the Bozar in Brussels, his inaugural season includes three CD recordings, a continued collaboration with Mezzo HD as well as a tour to the Bucharest Enescu Festival. Gergely also continues as Chief Conductor of the Savaria Symphony Orchestra in his native Hungary, a post he occupies since 2014. He was previously music Director of the Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne from 2013-2019.
Having forged strong professional relationships throughout Europe, Gergely regularly appears as a guest conductor with orchestras including the BBC Symphony, Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Filarmonica della Scala, Maggio Muiscale Fiorentino, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Hungarian National Philharmonic and Hungarian Radio orchestras, the Copenhagen, Oslo, Bergen, Luxembourg and Warsaw National philharmonic orchestras as well as with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Münchener Kammerorchester and Academy of Ancient Music. Further afield, he has appeared with the Melbourne, Queensland and Houston Symphony orchestras.
Highlights of the 2019/20 season include Gergely’s debut with Netherlands Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw, where he will also make a second appearance for his Netherlands Radio Philharmonic debut in August 2020. Gergely has further debuts with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the chamber orchestras of Lausanne and Geneva. Gergely returns once more to the Hallé for several UK appearances throughout the season. Other re-invitations include Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre National de Montpellier, BBC Scottish Symphony and the BBC Singers.
The previous season saw Gergely opening the 2018 Milano Musica Festival at La Scala, his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, his debuts at the Barbican and Royal Festival Hall in London as well as Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
While Gergely is grounded in the core classical and romantic repertoire, he maintains a close relationship with new music. He has collaborated closely with composers Geroge Benjamin, Péter Eötvös, György Kurtág, Tristan Murail, Luca Francesconi and Pierre Boulez, for whom he served as assistant conductor at the Lucerne Festival Academy between 2011- 2013. He conducted over 100 works written after 1970, including many world premieres.
Gergely has also established a fine reputation as an opera conductor. In 2012 he was the inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Fellow at the English National Opera. The fellowship culminated in his debut with the company, where he conducted Simon McBurney’s new production of Magic Flute at the London Coliseum. Since then he has conducted highly praised productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Otello, La traviata, La Bohème and Lucia di Lammermoor at such houses as the Dutch National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève (with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande) and Hungarian State Opera, among others. Prompted by a keen interest in re-discovering rarely performed works, Gergely has also conducted productions of Goldmark’s Ein Wintermärchen, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Barber’s Vanessa, Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma and Offenbach’s Fantasio.
Born in Budapest in 1984, Gergely first began studying folk music with the last generation of authentic Hungarian Gipsy and peasant musicians at the age of five. He then went on to study classical flute, violin and composition, graduating from the flute faculty of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, as well as the conducting faculty of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Besides his varied musical activities, Gergely retains a deep passion for Magyar music, and is an ambitious advocate of Bartók, Kodály and Dohnányi, both at home and abroad, having conducted nearly the complete orchestral repertoire of these composers.
Conductor | Italy
Praised by the Sunday Times "for his unfailingly theatrical and idiomatic conducting", conductor Gianluca Marcianò made his debut in 2006 at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.
Originally from Lerici, in the province of La Spezia, he founded the Suoni dal Golfo Festival in his hometown overlooking the Gulf of Poets, renamed Lerici Music Festival in 2020, of which he is artistic director. Marcianò has very strong ties with the Opera Houses of
Oviedo, Minsk, Ljubjana, as well as in the UK (English National Opera, Grange Park Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North and Longborough Opera Festival). At Grange Park Opera, since 2010, he conducted La Traviata, Tosca, Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, The
Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan Tutte, Alzira, Nabucco, Don Carlo, Evgenij Onegin, Samson et Dalila and Madama Butterfly. He is Artistic Director of the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut and Principal Guest Conductor of Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. From 2011 to 2014 he was Music Director of the Tbilisi State Opera, conducting La Forza del Destino, Cavalleria Rusticana, Nabucco, Attila, Il Trovatore, Mithridates, King of Pontus and Aida.
From 2017 to 2019 Gianluca Marcianò has been Principal Conductor of the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad. Marcianò has worked with many great singers and instrumentalists, such as: Elina Garanča, Sumi Jo, Joseph Calleja, Simon Keenlyside, Sondra Radvanovsky, Olga Peretyatko, Danielle De Niese, Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Arabella Steinbacher, Anna Tifu, Francesca Dego, Vanessa Benelli Mosell, Steven Isserlis, Boris Andrianov, Maria João Pires, Gloria Campaner, David Geringas, Khatia Buniatshvili, Sergei Krylov, Nina Kotova, Giovanni Sollima, Sergei Nakariakov, Denis Kozhukin and Alexander Buzlov. He conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, Polish Baltic
Philharmonic, Wroclaw Philharmonic, Georgian Philharmonic, Tokyo New City Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Oviedo Filarmonia, Moscow City Russian Philharmonic, Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Classica de Madeira, State Youth Orchestra of Armenia, BBC Concert Orchestra, World Orchestra, Voivodina Symphony Orchestra, Macau Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and others. He recently recorded the album "Momento Immobile" for Rubicon Classics, with soprano Venera Gimadieva and Hallé Orchestra.
His 2021/22 engagements include Falstaff with Bryn Terfel at Grange Park Opera, Nabucco at Opera de Oviedo, a concert with Joseph Calleja at the Ljubljana Winter Festival, a concert with Carmen Giannattasio at the Inclassica Festival in Malta conducting the
Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, two new productions of Tosca and I Capuleti e I Montecchi at the Slovenian National Theatre of Ljubljana, concerts with Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica della Città Metropolitana di Bari, Tokyo 21c Philharmonic.
In 2017 Marcianò receive the Honorary Citizenship of the City of Lerici for his achievements and in 2018 has been awarded of the Pavlova Award.
He is Principal Conductor designated of Orchestra della Magna Grecia in Taranto and Matera.
Violin | Latvia
Driven by his strikingly uncompromising artistic philosophy, Gidon Kremer has established a worldwide reputation as one of his generation’s most original and compelling artists.
His repertoire encompasses standard classical scores and music by leading twentieth and twenty-first century composers. He has championed the works of Russian and Eastern European composers and performed many important new compositions, several of which have been dedicated to him. His name is closely associated with such composers as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Edison Denisov, Aribert Reimann, Pēteris Vasks, John Adams, Victor Kissine, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, Leonid Desyatnikov and Astor Piazzolla, whose works he performs in ways that respect tradition while being fully alive to their freshness and originality. It is fair to say that no other soloist of comparable international stature has done more to promote the cause of contemporary composers and new music for violin.
Gidon Kremer has recorded over 120 albums, many of which have received prestigious international awards in recognition of their exceptional interpretative insights. His long list of honours and awards include the Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis, the Bundesverdienstkreuz, Moscow’s Triumph Prize, the Unesco Prize and the Una Vita Nella Musica – Artur Rubinstein Prize. In 2016 Gidon Kremer has received a Praemium Imperiale prize that is widely considered to be the Nobel Prize of music.
In 1997 Gidon Kremer founded the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica to foster outstanding young musicians from the Baltic States. The ensemble tours extensively and has recorded almost 30 albums for the Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, ECM labels. In 2016/17 Kremerata Baltica was on landmark tours through Middle East, North America, Europe, and Asia to celebrate the orchestra’s 20th anniversary.
In the current season, Gidon Kremer will be honoured at the Konzerthaus Berlin with a major "Homage to Gidon Kremer" with over 15 events. He himself pays tribute to the revered composer Weinberg on his 100th anniversary with concerts in Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Linz, Warsaw, Seattle and San Francisco. Deutsche Grammophon is releasing two albums with orchestral and chamber music works by Weinberg, recorded by and with Gidon Kremer.
Cello | Lithuania
Giedre Dirvanauskaite comes from a family of musicians in Kaunas, Lithuania. She studied at the renowned Lithuania Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius and gained important musical impulses through master classes with Mstislav Rostropovich, David Geringas, Hatto Beyerle and the violinist Tatjana Grindenko and the Hagen Quartet.
Since 1997 she has been one of the founding members of the Kremerata Baltica Orchestra, which was founded by Gidon Kremer in the same year. She has been its principal cellist since 2008.
In addition to her activity with Kremerata Baltica, she is a regular guest at various festivals as a chamber musician and has thus played with many world-class artists like Martha Argerich, Michel Portal, Sa Chen, Valery Affanassiev, Oleg Maisenberg, Mate Bekovac, Yuri Bashmet.
As soloist she played under the direction of Saulius Sondeckis, Roman Kofman, Gintaras Rinkevicius, Andres Mustonen, Mario Brunello, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Andrei Boreyko.
With Khatia Buniatishvili and Gidon Kremer, Giedre Dirvanauskaite was awarded the 'Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik' for recording the piano trios by Tchaikovsky and Victor Kissine by ECM.
In 2017 a recording of both Rachmaninov piano trios with Gidon Kremer and Daniil Trifonov was released by the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft and was very successful, followed in 2019 by an album with chamber music by Mieczysław Weinberg.
Giedre Dirvanauskaite performs in a piano trio formation in addition to her regular worldwide tours with the Kremerata Baltica with Gidon Kremer and Yulianna Avdeeva or Georgs Osokins.
She plays an instrument by Matteo Goffriller.
Violin | USA
Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time; his flawless technique combined with his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit has solidified his renown as an American master. The Grammy Award-winner, also named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year,” is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.
Highlights of recent years include the acclaimed recording and performances of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin. In the coming seasons in addition to championing these solo works he will join his long time duo partner pianist, Akira Eguchi in recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
Appearances with orchestra regularly include the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and San Francisco Symphony as well as multi-year residencies with the Orchestras of Montreal, Stuttgart and Singapore. With orchestra, Mr. Shaham continues his exploration of “Violin Concertos of the 1930s,” including the works of Barber, Bartok, Berg, Korngold, Prokofiev, among many others.
Mr. Shaham has more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, earning multiple Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His CDs include 1930s Violin Concertos, Virtuoso Violin Works, Elgar’s Violin Concerto, Hebrew Melodies, The Butterfly Lovers and many more. His most recent recording in the series 1930s Violin Concertos Vol. 2, including Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto and Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 2, was nominated for a Grammy Award. He will release a new recording of Beethoven and Brahms Concertos with The Knights in 2020.
Mr. Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel, where he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music at the age of 7, receiving annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic, and the following year, took the first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition. He then became a scholarship student at Juilliard, and also studied at Columbia University.
Gil Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990, and in 2008 he received the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. In 2012, he was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius and performs on an Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona c1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children.
Violin | Italy
Giovanni Andrea Zanon is an Italian violinist who has performed widely across the globe in prestigious venues including: Carnegie Hall, New York; Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Musikverein, Graz; Smetana Hall, Prague; Bayerisches Staatsoper, Munich; Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden, Royal Opera House, Muscat; Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona; Teatro La Fenice, Venice; Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome and Arena di Verona.
As a soloist, Zanon has worked with esteemed conductors including Fabio Luisi, Pinchas Zukerman, Theodor Guschlbauer, Andrea Battistoni, Donato Renzetti, Omer Meir Wellber and Jader Bignamini. A keen chamber musician, he has also collaborated with artists such as Anna Netrebko, Pinchas Zukerman, Mario Brunello and Pablo Ferrández. In February 2022, he represented Italy in the Closing Ceremony of the 2022 Olympics Games in Beijing. The event was broadcast worldwide and reached more than a billion viewers.
Zanon has received various awards and recognition from Italian institutions including the “Leone d’oro” award from the Veneto Regional Government, Certificate of Honor “Alfiere della Repubblica” for outstanding achievements in music from the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella and at aged six from the former President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
Having first picked up the violin at age two, Zanon became the youngest violinist in Italian history at the age of four to attend one of the country’s state conservatories. He graduated from Venice’s Benedetto Marcello Conservatory with top marks and an honorable mention, the first time this has happened in more than forty years. Upon the advice of Zubin Mehta, he moved to New York to study at the Manhattan School of Music where he graduated age 18 with a master’s degree from the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program, after having studied with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec. Furthermore, Zanon went on to study at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Antje Weithaas and at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Sonig Tchakerian. He is currently studying composition at the A. Steffani Music Conservatory in Castelfranco Veneto.
In October 2021, Giovanni Andrea Zanon became the Artistic Director of the Teatro Petrarca (Arezzo, Tuscany) and the Fondazione Guido d’Arezzo.
Giovanni plays a violin made by Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, Cremona, 1739.
Piano | Italy
Born in Chieti, he studied under the guidance of Lucia Passaglia at the Conservatory “L. Cherubini” in Florence graduating with highest honours. He participated as a student performer on a three-year piano perfection course at the “Accademia Musicale Umbra” where he achieved a “Diploma of Excellence”. Later, he participated in the “International Master Classes” in Klaipeda (Lithuania), held by Lazar Berman. With him, his concert repertoire deepened and improved with particular attention to the music of F. Liszt, at the European Academy of Music, Erba (CO). He perfected Chamber Music at the International School of Chamber Music in Duino under the guidance of “Trio of Trieste” achieving a “Diploma with Merit”. He has won national and international competitions, including “M. Clementi” in Florence, “Agorà 80″ in Rome, “F. Liszt” in Lucca, and “Città di Stresa”. In 1997 he won second prize at the ‘T. I. M. ” – International Music Tournament; in 1998, he was awarded the prestigious “Prix Venice”; in 1999 he won second prize at the international competition “Ecomusic” of Monopoli (BA); in 2002 was the winner of the 40th International Piano Competition “Arcangelo Speranza” in Taranto. In October 2009 he was awarded in the “4th International Tbilisi Piano Competition” in Georgia (WFIMC). Considerable concert activity has seen him engaged both as a soloist and as a chamber musician at major Italian venues and overseas such as, Milan (Teatro Dal Verme, Casa Verdi), Rome (Palazzo Venezia, Instituto Cervantes), L’Aquila (Teatro Comunale), Trieste (Teatro Verdi, Museo Revoltella), Bologna (Sala Mozart della Filarmonica, Sala Bossi del Conservatorio), Perugia (Sala dei Notari), Venice (Palazzo Albrizzi), Chiavari (Teatro Cantero), Alessandria (Teatro Parvum), Salerno (Sala Napolitano), Rovigno (Croatia), Szombathely (Hungary), Klaipeda, Palanka (Lithuania), Schloss Elmau, Weimar “Liszt House”, Munich “Prinzregenten” Theatre”, Cologne “Hochshule” (Germany), Brno “Sale Bretislava Bakaly” (Czech Republic), Istanbul (Turkey), Utrecht “Concert Hall” (Netherlands), Oxford “Holywell Music Room” (England), Schaffusen (Switzerland), Shanghai (China), La Valletta “Emmanuel Theatre” (Malta). He is regularly invited to hold concerts and master classes at international festivals such as “ClaviCologne Festival” in Germany, the “Malta International Music Festival” and the “International Piano Festival & Competition” in Italy. He has been a regular guest of the “International Sommer-Akademie Schloss Pommersfelden” (Germany) where he has performed as a soloist and in chamber music performances and and where he teaches chamber music from 2010. He has appeared as a soloist with different such Camerata Baltica, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonica Abruzzese, Sinfonica di Lecce, Sinfonica di Bari, Solisti Aquilani. He is often invited to be part of the jury in national and international piano competitions, he is the founder and Artistic Director of the national piano competition ” Citta di San Giovanni Teatino” and in 2007 he founded and is Artistic Director of the Scuola Civica Musicale. He plays with musicians of calibre like Karl Leister (historical 1st clarinettist of the Berlin Philharmonic), Pavel Berman, the famous Dora Schwarzberg, Francesco Manara and Franco De Angelis (first violinists of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan), Romain Garioud, Grazia Raimondi, Antonio Tinelli, Rita D’Arcangelo, Gaetano Di Bacco and Liliana Bernardi. His conspicuous record productions range from solo repertoires, chamber music and to a soloist with an orchestra, including recordings for Wide Classique, DAD Records, Camerata Tokyo, Radio Vatican, Radio Bavaria etc. The monographic CD dedicated to J. Brahms, containing the sonates for clarinet and piano op. 120 No. 1 and no. 2 and the Trio op. 114, Published by Phoenix Classics and distributed by Ducale Music, became a finalist at the IMAIE awards 2009 and was reviewed with acclaim by specialised Italian and overseas magazines (Musica, Suonare News, Giornale della Musica, Fanfare and The Clarinet). From 2012 he has been an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Subiaco (Rome) and in 2014 he was awarded from the Rotary Club of Pescara West with the “Paul Harris Fellow” for commitment in spreading music and its culture. In 2013 he was named Artistic Director of the “Cenacolo della Musica – International School” which aims at promoting artists and the development of the arts.
| Italy
Giuseppe Bruno Graduated With Honors In Piano, Composition And Conducting With Professors Specchi, Zangelmi And Taverna. He Also Studied Piano With Paolo Bordoni, Conducting With Leopold Hager And Attended A Seminar In Composition At The IRCAM In Paris. Performing For Several Years As A Pianist In Many Different Chamber Ensembles And As A Brilliant Soloist, Bruno Has Played With Many Important Orchestras Throughout The World And Conducted Prestigious Ensembles Such As Archi Della Scala, Orchestra Della Toscana, Ukraine National Orchestra, Sarajevo Philharmonic. He Has Collaborated With Great Conductors, Singers, Instrumentalists, And Participated In The “Festival Of Two Worlds” In Spoleto, Italy, And Charleston, South Carolina. Maestro Bruno Was A Prize Winner At The International Piano Contest In Rome In 1991 And Also In 1992 At The “Viotti” Competition In Vercelli, Italy, In A Duo With Violinist Alberto Bologni. He Has Recorded For Nuova Fonit Cetra, Diapason, SAM, Bongiovanni, Ars Publica, Sheva, Ars Musici, OnClassical, Da Vinci, As Well As For RAI, Swiss Radio, Vatican Radio And For WDR. In 2018 He Has Conducted The Italian Première Of Liszt’s Forgotten Opera “Sardanapalo” At The Lerici Music Festival. His Compositions Were Performed In Italy, China, USA, France, Germany And Recorded By Violinist Alberto Bologni And Saxophonist Valentina Renesto, His Transcription Of Mahler's “Purgatorio” (From The Symphony N.10) Was Published By Universal Edition Wien. Maestro Bruno Is Currently Director Of The “Giacomo Puccini” Conservatoire In La Spezia.
Violin | Italy
An extraordinary talent, Gibboni manages to astonish with each of his performances. Solid technique, impeccable intonation even on an instrument as unfamiliar to him as the Cannone, which he took up for the first time in these days, the young artist does not 'only' have the qualities of a great virtuoso: he also has a first-rate interpretative intelligence, a full cantabile and is capable of multiple dynamic nuances. La Repubblica, Roberto Iovino
With flawless technique and compelling expressiveness, Giuseppe Gibboni won over the jury and audience of the Paganini Violin Competition in Genoa in October 2021. The violinist, born in 2001, was the first Italian in 24 years to win the overall prize, as well as the audience choice prize and special prize for the best interpretations of Niccolò Paganini's Capriccios and Violin Concerto. Subsequently, the now 22-year-old musician has begun an extensive concert career. He made his debut with Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the direction of Lorenzo Viotti. Shortly thereafter, he played with guitarist Carlotta Dalia at the invitation of Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace in Rome; the concert was broadcast live on Italian radio.
The highlights of the season 2022/23 include his US debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Jader Bignamini as well as concerts with the Orchestra della Toscana under Diego Ceretta and the Orchestra Teatro San Carlo in Naples under Dan Ettinger. Giuseppe Gibboni performed the Violin Concerto by Wynton Marsalis together with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI under John Axelrod and Vivaldi’s *Four Seasons* with the Sinfonietta Riga in Latvia. He regularly plays recitals all over Italy, for example at Amici della Musica in Florence, Serate Musicali in Milan, Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, as well as the Stresa Festival, among others.
In autumn 2023, Giuseppe Gibboni gave his debut with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, as well as with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano under Joel Sandelson, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. During the current season, following a tour throughout Brazil and among numerous engagements in Italy, he can also be heard as part of the series “Debüt im Nikolaisaal” in Potsdam as well as at Heidelberger Frühling.
The son of a family of musicians, Giuseppe Gibboni was first taught by his father Daniele Gibboni before attending the Salerno Conservatory “Martucci.” At the age of 14, he was admitted to the Stauffer Academy in Cremona, where he received lessons from Salvatore Accardo. He also successfully graduated with a Diploma of Honor from the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. After a five-year advanced course at the Accademia Perosi in Biella with Pavel Berman, he now studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg as a student of Pierre Amoyal.
Giuseppe Gibboni had already attracted attention with a series of competition successes. He became known to a large television audience in 2016 through his success in the *Prodigi – La musica è vita* competition broadcast by RAI 1 in collaboration with UNICEF. In the same year, he won the first prize and a special prize at the Andrea Postacchini Violin Competition, followed by successes at the Leonid Kogan International Competition in Brussels (2017), the George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest (2018), and the Valsesia Musica Competition (2020).
Giuseppe Gibboni recorded his debut CD at the age of 15 for the Warner Classics label. Since 2017, he has been sponsored by Classically Connected, Inc. (formerly the Si-Yo foundation), who provided his ‘F. Tourte bow 1800 Ca.’ He plays the violin ‘Auer, Benvenuti’ by Antonio Stradivari, Cremona 1699, kindly lent to him by a German Foundation. As the winner of the Paganini Competition, he also had the opportunity to perform the "Cannone," Niccolò Paganini's favorite instrument built by Guarneri del Gesù in 1743
Piano | Russia
The unique, unrepeatable nature of music made in the present moment is central to understanding the expressive beauty and compelling honesty of Grigory Sokolov’s art. The Russian pianist’s poetic interpretations, which come to life with mystical intensity in performance, arise from profound knowledge of the works in his vast repertoire. His recital programmes span everything from transcriptions of medieval sacred polyphony and keyboard works by Byrd, Couperin, Rameau, Froberger to the music of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms and landmark twentieth-century compositions by Prokofiev, Ravel, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. He is widely recognized among pianophiles as one of today’s greatest pianists, an artist universally admired for his visionary insight, spellbinding spontaneity and uncompromising devotion to music.
Grigory Sokolov was born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) on 18 April 1950. He started to play piano at the age of five and, two years later, began studies with Liya Zelikhman at the Central Special School of the Leningrad Conservatory. He went on to receive lessons from Moisey Khalfin at the Leningrad Conservatory, and gave his debut recital in Leningrad in 1962. Sokolov’s prodigious talent was recognized in 1966 when at 16, he became the youngest musician ever to receive the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. Emil Gilels, chairman of the Tchaikovsky Competition jury, subsequently championed Sokolov’s work. While Grigory Sokolov undertook major concert tours to the United States and Japan in the 1970s, his artistry evolved and matured away from the international spotlight. His live recordings from Soviet times acquired near-mythical status in the West, evidence of an artist at once entirely individual, like no other, yet nourished by the rich soil of the Russian tradition of piano playing. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sokolov began to appear at Europe’s leading concert halls and festivals. He performed extensively as concerto soloist with orchestras of the highest calibre, working with among others the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Philharmonia London, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Munich Philharmonic, before deciding to focus exclusively on giving solo recitals. Sokolov performs around 70 concerts each season, immersing himself fully in a single programme and touring extensively throughout Europe.
Unlike many pianists, Sokolov takes the closest interest in the mechanism and set-up of the instruments he plays. He spends hours exploring their physical characteristics, consulting and collaborating with piano technicians to achieve his ideal requirements. “You need hours to understand the piano, because each one has its own personality and we play together,” he explains. The partnership between artist and instrument is critically important to the flow of Sokolov’s musical ideas. Sparing in his use of the sustaining pedal, he conjures everything from the subtlest tonal and textural gradations to the boldest contrasts of sound through the sheer brilliance of his finger-work. Critics regularly draw attention to his uncanny ability to articulate individual voices within a complex polyphonic texture and project seamless melodic lines.
Grigory Sokolov’s charismatic artistry holds the power to cultivate the concentration necessary for audiences to contemplate even the most familiar compositions from fresh perspectives. In recital he draws listeners into a close relationship with the music, transcending matters of surface display and showmanship to reveal deeper spiritual meaning. Sokolov’s art rests on the rock-solid foundations of his unique personality and individual vision. In 2014 Sokolov signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and a first album was released in January 2015, a sensational recital recorded live at the 2008 Salzburg Festival. The double-disc set’s contents reflect the breadth and depth of his repertoire, comprising two sonatas by Mozart, Chopin’s 24 Préludes Op.28 and encore pieces by J.S. Bach, Chopin, Rameau and Scriabin. Sokolov’s Salzburg Recital album was followed in January 2016 by the release of a second two-disc set, Sokolov Schubert/ Beethoven. The latter includes Schubert’s Four Impromptus D 899 and Three Piano Pieces D 946, recorded live at the Warsaw Philharmonie in 2013, and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29 “Hammerklavier”, recorded in performance at the 2013 Salzburg Festival. Sokolov’s third DG album, released in March 2017, presents his personal choice of two live concerto performances: Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major K488 and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, the former recorded at the Salzburg Mozart Week in 2005, the latter at the BBC Proms in 1995. These historic archive recordings will be issued together with the DVD of Nadia Zhdanova’s documentary film A Conversation That Never Was, a revealing portrait of Sokolov based on interviews with the pianist’s friends and colleagues and illustrated with previously unseen footage from private archives.
Conductor | Germany
Born in Munich, Germany, in 1948, Hansjörg Schellenberger began studying the oboe from an early age with the solo oboist of the Regensburg City Theater, going on to win the Jugend musiziert German national competition a mere four years later in 1965. After studying the oboe under Manfred Clement, and conducting under Jan Koetsier, Schellenberger became an oboist in the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra on 1 September 1971, and subsequently advanced to the post of its solo oboist in 1975. He concurrently pursued further studies under Helmut Winschermann (oboe) and Martin Stefani (conducting) at the Detmold College of Music. In September 1977 Schellenberger regularly began assisting in the series of the Berlin Philharmonic, which made him its solo oboist three years later.
During these early years Schellenberger had already distinguished himself with numerous awards and activities, including First Prize at the German Music College Competition in 1971, and Second Prize at the ARD Competition in Munich in 1972, among many others.
Schellenberger has performed as a chamber musician and a soloist with many outstanding colleagues, including Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, and Claudio Abbado. In his role as a conductor, he has appeared with a variety of esteemed ensembles, including the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Valencia, and many other top-quality orchestras. In 2013, Schellenberger was appointed chief conductor of the Okayama Philharmonic Orchestra.
Schellenberger began teaching at the Berlin College of the Arts in 1981, going on to co-found the Ensemble Wien-Berlin in 1983, and found the Berlin Haydn Ensemble in 1991. Since 2000 he has had a small and very select oboe class at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid, where he also teaches chamber music classes for the wind players of the school’s International Institute for Chamber Music.
The artist has featured in more than 50 CDs with all the major recording firms, and has gone on to found his own label, Campanella Musica, in 1997.
Conductor | UK
Howard Wong began vocal studies under Benjamin Luxon CBE whilst studying for his Bachelor and Master degrees at university. A scholarship then enabled him to pursue further studies at London Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he graduated with Distinction. Since then, opera, oratorio and recital appearances have taken him to The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, The Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Snape Maltings and other major venues throughout the UK, Europe and beyond.
Away from singing, Howard Wong has conducted a number of choirs and orchestras, including a spell at City of Canterbury Sinfonia and as Chorusmaster and Assistant Conductor for the prestigious Chelsea Opera Group, where his predecessors included conducting giants such as Sir Colin Davies, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Richard Hickox.
Since settling in Dubai, he has led local choirs and orchestras made up entirely of UAE residents. He has also occasionally crossed over to less traditional genres of music, serving as Chorus Director for Andrea Bocelli concerts and other projects ranging from the film music to Arabic popular music.
Howard has adjudicated international competitions for organisations such as The Association of English Singers & Speakers and given numerous masterclasses for institutions such as Cambridge University. Howard is deeply committed to music education and seeks to offer younger listeners the opportunities to explore music whenever possible.
Piano | Turkey
Turkish pianist and composer Hüseyin Sermet's thirty-five-year career reflects his wide-range musical interests and intensely personal vision encompassing a large eclectic repertoire and pianistic versatility.
Sermet has performed around the world with important orchestras including London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Bamberger Symphoniker, and NHK, Shanghai, Tokyo and Detroit symphony orchestras; with renowed conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Semyon Bychkov, David Robertson, Lawrence Foster, Pablo Heras-Casado, Jonathan Nott, James Gaffigan and Hans Graf, and instrumentalists Maria João Pires, Gautier and Renaud Capuçon.
Sermet has given solo recitals at major series and venues worldwide, including London’s International Piano Series, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Paris' Cité de la Musique, Munich’s Cuvilliés-Theater, Lisbon's Dias da Musica, Copenhagen's Tivoli and the Oxford and Lille Piano festivals. Last season he made his recital debut at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
Equally active as a composer, Sermet's first major composition Réminiscènce 1 was premiered at the Empéri Festival in 1997 and broadcast live by France Musique. A commission from Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Dream and Nightmare, was premiered in 2004, and in 2006 there followed Sculptures 1, commissioned by İş Bank. Following these succeseses, Réminiscènces II received its premiere in Istanbul in May 2012.
A devoted mentor of young talent and highly regarded for his many appearances in Japan, Sermet was filmed by NHK TV for a series of 15 televised masterclasses with young pianists broadcast throughout Japan.
Many of Hüseyin Sermet's numerous recordings for Naïve, harmonia mundi and Erato have won major international prizes, including his disc of Ravel's solo piano works, three discs devoted to Alkan (all winning a Diapason d’Or de l'Année), a selection of Schubert’s works for four hands with Maria João Pires and a recording of Liszt's Piano Sonata and late works.
Hüseyin Sermet was born in Istanbul in 1955 and began his education at the Ankara State Conservatoire. He continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire and later at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot with Thierry de Brunhoff, Nadia Boulanger and Maria Curcio. He also studied composition with Olivier Messiaen and received the Lili Boulanger Award for his early string quartet.
Violin | Israel
Itamar Zorman is distinguished by his emotionally gripping performances and unique gift for musical storytelling. A recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust award, as well as a laureate of the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Itamar Zorman’s career encompasses four continents; he has given recitals in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Louvre Recital Series in Paris, and has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the American Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Het Gelders Orkest, Israel Philharmonic, and the KBS Symphony Seoul. A committed chamber player, he has play-directed Camerata Nordica on several occasions and is a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project and the Lysander Piano Trio.
Itamar Zorman’s diverse repertoire is reflected in his discography; June 2022 saw the release of his third CD ‘Violin Odyssey’ on the First Hand Records label, featuring works by composers such as Schulhoff, Bacewicz, Revueltas and Pejacevic, while his previous CD, ‘Evocation’ (BIS Records, 2019) featured the violin works of Paul Ben-Haim.
Born in Tel-Aviv, Zorman is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and Kronberg Academy. He is a recipient of scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and currently plays on a Guarneri Del Jesu from 1734, from the collection of Yehuda Zisapel.
Violin | Canada
James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favourite guest at the world’s most celebrated concert halls.
Recent orchestral highlights include the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony, NHK Symphony and Munich Philharmonic. Throughout the 22/23 season, Ehnes continues as Artist in Residence with the National Arts Centre of Canada. Alongside his concerto work, Ehnes maintains a busy recital schedule. He performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall (including the complete cycle of Beethoven Sonatas in 2019/20, and the complete violin/viola works of Brahms and Schumann in 2021/22), Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Ravinia, Montreux, Verbier Festival, Dresden Music Festival and Festival de Pâques in Aix. A devoted chamber musician, he is the leader of the Ehnes Quartet and the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.
Ehnes has an extensive discography and has won many awards for his recordings, including two Grammy’s, three Gramophone Awards and eleven Juno Awards. In 2021, Ehnes was announced as the recipient of the coveted Artist of the Year title in the 2021 Gramophone Awards which celebrated his recent contributions to the recording industry, including the launch of a new online recital series entitled ‘Recitals from Home’ which was released in June 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of concert halls. Ehnes recorded the six Bach Sonatas and Partitas and six Sonatas of Ysaÿe from his home with state-of-the-art recording equipment and released six episodes over the period of two months. These recordings have been met with great critical acclaim by audiences worldwide and Ehnes was described by Le Devoir as being "at the absolute forefront of the streaming evolution". Ehnes began violin studies at the age of five, became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin aged nine, and made his orchestra debut with L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal aged 13. He continued his studies with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music and The Juilliard School, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music upon his graduation in 1997. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a Visiting Professor.
Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.
Flute | South Korea\Austria
Flutist Jasmine Choi is one of the most celebrated flutists of our time, known for her virtuosity and refined musicianship, as well as her adventurous projects. She has performed across the globe in a variety of genres from classical solo, chamber, and orchestral to experimental, jazz, and pop.
A former principal flute of the Vienna Symphony under Fabio Luisi and associate principal of the Cincinnati Symphony under Paavo Jarvi, Ms. Choi has performed as a soloist with the Vienna Symphony, Salzburg Mozarteum, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, St.Petersburg Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Salzburg Mozart Players, Berlin Symphony, New York Classical Players, Seoul Philharmonic, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, as well as at recitals in Paris, Vienna, London, Munich, Geneve, New York, Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong.
She has recorded several solo CDs under the Sony Classical label, including Mozart Flute Concertos, Fantasy (Virtuoso Flute Works), Claude Bolling Jazz Suite, Mozart Flute Quartets, Works of Brahms, Schumann, Reinecke. Other recordings include Telemann Fantasies, Love in Paris (from a live recital), Trio Joy (free improvisation), and three single albums including her arrangement of Paganini's Caprice No.24, Clarke's Great Train Race and Reichert's Encore Solo.
Ms. Choi speaks English, German and Korean, and resides in Austria between concert tours. She has a strong presence on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, and enjoys communicating regularly with her fans.
Violin | South Korea
When Ji Young Lim became the first Korean winner at her age of 20 in the violin category of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2015, she showed various musical strengths including amazing concentration, bold and stable performance, as well as well-trained techniques, so she made her name known to the world by winning a unanimous agreement of the jury among the prominent candidates from various countries. Her orchestral highlights include Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, etc.. She also performed with musicians including Andras Schiff, Gidon Kremer, Steven Isserlis, Alexander Shelley, David Zinman, Tugan Sokhiev, and Christoph Eschenbach, and in 2017, her first album, which recorded Mozart’s violin sonatas and Beethoven’s violin sonatas with pianist Dong hyek Lim was released worldwide by Warner Classics.
She studied at Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts and received the bachelor’s degree at the Korea National University of Art. After receiving the Master’s degree at the Kronberg Academy in Germany under Mihaela Martin, she continued her doctoral studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Germany. She put her name down as the only classical musician selected by Forbes, “Asian Leaders Under 30”, and during Covid-19 pandemic, she challenged performing Eugene Ysaye and J.S. Bach’s all violin sonatas to expand her musical world. Ji Young Lim performs on Sasserno Stradivarius made in 1717.
Conductor | UK
Highlights of 2024/25 include John's debuts with the Athens State Orchestra and Franz Schubert Filharmonia, a return to the Berliner Symphoniker at the Philharmonie in Berlin, a new production of Puccini's Tosca with Oxford Opera and concerts with his own Orchestra for the Earth. The past season saw debuts with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Slovak State Philharmonic, Berliner Symphonieker and Armenian Symphony Orchestra, and in previous seasons he has also conducted orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic and worked with soloists such as Thomas Hampson, James Ehnes, Wu Wei and Camille Thomas.
2024/25 will be his fourth season as Music Director of Oxford Opera, with whom he has conducted several productions including most recently La Traviata and Die Zauberflöte. He has also conducted at Glyndebourne, Palau de les Arts Valencia and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in repertoire ranging from Janáček to Puccini to Mozart. As a frequent guest conductor with Spectra Ensemble he has put a special emphasis on underperformed operas by women composers, leading critically acclaimed productions of works by Ethel Smyth and Amy Beach.
His pioneering work with Orchestra for the Earth, which he founded in 2017, takes him around Europe with a wide variety of concerts that bring together music and nature, collaborating with leading artists, scientists and charities to raise awareness about the climate and environmental crises.
A committed advocate of contemporary music, John has been invited to commission and conduct world premieres at the Philharmonie Luxembourg, Het Concertgebouw and, most recently, a week-long residency at the Beijing Music Festival which included four world premieres and five Chinese premieres of contemporary classics by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Huang Ruo, Sir George Benjamin and Messiaen.
John honed his craft as assistant to many of the world’s leading conductors, such as Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Karina Canellakis, Robin Ticciati and Edward Gardner, working with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Dresden Staatskapelle, Wiener Symphoniker, Les Siècles and others.
He studied music at the University of Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours in 2016 and an MSt with Distinction in 2017. He also writes on music, with frequent publications in the Wagner Journal and an upcoming book published by Routledge. He is a regular guest lecturer at the Curtis Institute and Johns Hopkins University in the US.
Tenor | Malta
“Only one lyric tenor on the scene today has the honeyed tone and ingratiating style to make comparisons to Pavarotti and Gigli seem serious, and it is Calleja, the man from Malta, who … is now maturing into an artist of the first rank.”
– New Yorker
Blessed with a golden-age voice that routinely inspires comparisons to “legendary singers from earlier eras: Jussi Björling, Beniamino Gigli, even Enrico Caruso” (Associated Press), Maltese-born Joseph Calleja has quickly become one of the most acclaimed and sought-after tenors today. His expansive discography and frequent appearances on the world’s leading opera and concert stages prompted NPR to hail him as “arguably today’s finest lyric tenor,” and led to his being voted Gramophone magazine’s 2012 Artist of the Year. A Grammy-nominated recording artist for Decca Classics, he has released five solo albums for the label.
Calleja was only 19 when he made his operatic debut as Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth at the Astra Theatre in Malta, shortly before winning an award in the Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition that launched his international career. He went on to win the 1998 Caruso Competition in Milan and was a prize winner in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia in 1999, the year of his U.S. debut at the Spoleto Festival. Since then Calleja has gone on to appear with the world’s great opera companies.
Starting the 20-21 season Joseph Calleja returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Enzo Grimaldo in performances of La Gioconda. He stars in the Metropolitan Opera’s new series of Met Stars Live in Concert together with Diana Damrau, performing at the at the Royal Palace of Caserta, Italy. The program features popular arias and duets by Verdi, Bizet, Rossini. Joseph Calleja ends the season at the Teatro Real Madrid with his signature role of Mario Cavaradossi in performances of Tosca.
A sought-after concert soloist, Joseph Calleja can be heard on the best stages worldwide with his very broad repertoire. Opera Naples’ Festival under the Stars takes the tenor to Florida before he presents his well-loved Lanza programme with the WDR Radio Orchestra at the Konzerthaus Dortmund. Further, he stars in the renowned Open-Air Gala in from of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Joseph Calleja will end the season with a concert dedicated to Piazzolla and Caruso at the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca, Italy.
Highlights of the 19-20 season include a return to the Chicago Lyric Opera as Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller and to the Vienna State Opera for performances of Tosca with Bryn Terfel and Evgenia Muraveva. Calleja gave his house debut at the Semperoper Dresden in performances of La bohème before singing Tosca at the Munich State Opera.
On the concert stage, Joseph Calleja had solo concerts at the renowned festival in Peralada, Spain, followed opera galas in Puerto Rico and at the Baden-Baden festival hall. He gave his debut in Moscow’s new Zaryadye Concert Hall and sang in Prague’s Smetana Hall. In Dublin, he joined the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Claudia Boyle for a gala concert, and in
Valencia with the Orquésta de Valencia. He gave gala performances in Singapore, as well as at the London Palladium.
Joseph Calleja's 2018-19 season was highlighted by his role debut as Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller at the Hamburg State Opera. He sang one of his signature roles, Mario Caravadossi (Tosca), at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the renowned Festival in Aix-en-Provence. Further, he starred as Pollione (Norma) and Don José (Carmen) at the Bavarian State Opera, as Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) and Don José at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as Duca (Rigoletto) at the Vienna State Opera. Likewise, at the Vienna State Opera, Calleja had his recital debut on the grand stage, followed by his recital debut at the Naples Opera in Florida.
Highlights from recent operatic seasons include the title characters in new productions of Faust and Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Metropolitan Opera; Alfredo in La traviata opposite Renée Fleming, Adorno in Simone Boccanegra alongside Plácido Domingo, and another turn in the title role of Faust at Covent Garden; new productions of La bohème, opposite Anna Netrebko, and La traviata at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Maria Stuarda alongside Joyce DiDonato in concerts with the Deutsche Oper Berlin; and a new staging of Rigoletto at the Bavarian State Opera. He made his role debut as Riccardo in a new treatment of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, as Don José in Carmen at Oper Frankfurt in a staging of Barrie Kosky, as Cavaradossi in Tosca at Grange Park Opera and portrayed Ruggero in Rolando Villazón’s staging of Puccini’s La rondine at Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Calleja appears extensively in concert throughout the world, singing with leading orchestras at summer festivals, including Salzburg, and in outdoor concerts in front of tens of thousands of people in Malta, Paris, and Munich. He was the featured soloist at the 2011 Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm, was selected by the Maltese president to perform a private concert for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, and toured Germany with soprano Anna Netrebko. After co-headlining 2012’s Last Night of the BBC Proms, Calleja returned to the London festival in 2013 for a gala performance at the Royal Albert Hall and an open-air concert marking the Last Night of the Proms in Hyde Park. As a recitalist, he has performed in Japan and throughout Europe.
As an exclusive Decca Classics recording artist since 2003, the tenor boasts an extensive discography that includes complete operas and concert repertoire, as well as five solo albums: The Golden Voice, Tenor Arias, The Maltese Tenor, Be My Love: A Tribute to Mario Lanza, and Amore. His videography enjoys similar success, and it was his portrayal of Alfredo in the Royal Opera House’s DVD/Blu-ray release of La traviata, in which he co-stars with Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson, that earned Calleja his first Grammy nomination. His rendition of the Verdi aria “La donna è mobile” is featured on the soundtrack of No Reservations, a 2007 motion picture starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart. He made his Hollywood debut in 2014’s The Immigrant, in which he portrays the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso in a cast with Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jeremy Renner.
Calleja’s VERDI album was released by Decca Classics in February 2018 and features a lovely selection of dramatic tenor repertoire by Verdi, including arias from Aida, Don Carlo, La forza del destino and Otello, to name but a few. It was highly acclaimed by the press:
“Joseph Calleja with his ‘Verdi’ album is in outstanding form aptly displaying his progress as one of the finest tenors on the stage today.” (musicweb-international)
“Any doubts about the most winning lyric “Italian” tenor since Pavarotti tackling this heavy Verdi repertoire are largely dispelled by the vitality of his sunny sound and the clarity of his diction.” (The Sunday Times)
“Stylistically and temperamentally, he seems completely at home in this repertoire, never afraid to add faintly old-school expressive effects, though nothing ever seems contrived or histrionic.” (PRESTO Classical)
Calleja has been profiled in New York’s Wall Street Journal and London’s Times, among other newspapers, and has graced covers of magazines such as Opera News. An increasingly frequent face on television, he has appeared on such programs as CNN’s Business Traveller, BBC Breakfast, and the Andrew Marr Show, and been featured in numerous internationally televised concerts. In 2013, he made his U.S. network television debut performing in a Kennedy Center Honors tribute to preeminent American soprano Martina Arroyo on CBS.
Born in Malta in 1978, Joseph Calleja began singing at the age of 16, first in his church choir and then in formal training with Maltese tenor Paul Asciak. One of his native land’s biggest celebrities, Calleja was selected to serve as Malta’s first cultural ambassador in 2012, and he was named a brand ambassador for Air Malta. Calleja recently teamed up with Malta’s Bank of Valletta to form the BOV Joseph Calleja Foundation, which will serve to help children and families in need. Calleja is the recipient of the 2014 International Opera Awards’ Readers’ Award.
Piano | USA
Russian-born American pianist Julia Zilberquit has earned critical acclaim as a recitalist, chamber musician and recording artist. She was praised by The New York Times as 'an outstanding soloist' after her Carnegie Hall performance of Cesar Franck's symphonic poem Les Djinns for piano and orchestra with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra. In 2014, Warner Classics released her CD Bach: Complete Solo Keyboard Concertos. This recording features the premiere of two Bach-Vivaldi Concerti Grossi arranged by Ms. Zilberquit for piano and orchestra. The recording was hailed as a “gorgeous rendition” by the prestigious Gramophone Magazine. Her arrangement of the Shostakovich Concertino for 2 Pianos, Op. 94 for piano and orchestra was premiered it at Carnegie Hall. She performed it worldwide to critical acclaim and recorded it with Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi. Other recordings include a solo recording, The Mystery of Bagatelles, released by Naxos. The CD was praised as a “superb performance” by The Washington Post, and described as an “adventurous program, sparkling with unusual clarity and pointillistic luminescence” in London’s Piano Magazine. Ms. Zilberquit has also recorded 'Jewish music from Russia', featuring works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Sergei Slonimsky on the Harmonia Mundi label. She premiered the Slonimsky Jewish Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, which she commissioned. Slonimsky dedicated the piece to her and she performed it with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel. Julia Zilberquit has performed under the baton of Sir Yehudi Menuhin at the Beethoven Festival in Vienna. Ms. Zilberquit discovered a virtually unknown early piano concerto by Beethoven and performed it in Moscow with Yuri Bashmet and the “Young Russia” orchestra. She has been a guest soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Russian State Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Symphony, Moscow Soloists, Cairo Symphony, Moscow Virtuosi, Bolshoi Orchestra, Musica Viva, “I Musici de Montr al”, The Russian Philharmonia, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta Cracovia, and Sinfonia Varsovia. Her recitals at major concert halls including New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Engagements at major international music festivals include appearances in Seattle, Colmar (France), Klangbogen (Vienna), Valery Gergiev's “White Nights” (St. Petersburg), Richter's “December Nights” (Moscow), “The Palaces of St. Petersburg,” the Bard Music Festival in New York, and the Penderecki Festival (Poland). Highlights of last season included a performance of Beethoven Concerto no. 0 at the 21st Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw under the baton of Mikhail Jurowski and an appearance with the Russian State Orchestra and Marius Stravinsky in Moscow. Julia was guest artist at the last two Malta International Music Festivals. A native of Moscow, Julia Zilberquit was born into a family of musicians. She graduated from Moscow Gnessin School of Music and The Juilliard School (class of Bella Davidovich). She lives in New York City with her husband, son, and daughter.
Cello | Germany
Written music is potential energy that a performer must unleash. Audiences can tell if a musician really feels that energy, or if their expression is second-hand. When Julian plays, he is sharing something fragile and alive.
“As an interpreter, I’ve started trusting my inner life more and letting the audience in,” he says. “It’s a kind of vulnerability that makes you stronger.” His first child was born at the end of 2018. Since then, his conviction has grown, his sense for metaphor expanded.
He knows that making music for an audience occasionally involves tipping the scales too far one way or another. But he is aware of his responsibility toward what is often called the “intentions of the composer.” He dives deep into scores, investigating the organic connections that give a work its unity. “If you know one room in an apartment, but not that the apartment has seven other rooms, you won’t even understand the room you’re in,” he says. When Julian plays, the music is in safe hands. You listen for his discoveries; what the music, through him, is trying to tell you.
Every life is a series of experiences, encounters, memories, places. Sometimes it’s possible to understand the contours of a musician’s ability through a list of these moments. Julian’s solo career was launched after he won the prestigious ARD Musikwettbewerb in 2010. Since then, he has soloed with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. He’s worked with the conductors Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Roger Norrington, Valery Gergiev, Jakub Hrůša, Mario Venzago, Fabien Gabel, John Storgårds, Lahav Shani, Antony Hermus, Christian Zacharias and Michael Sanderling. His chamber music partners include Janine Jansen, Christian Tetzlaff, Karen Gomyo, Antje Weithaas, Renaud Capuçon, Veronika Eberle, Vilde Frang, Antoine Tamestit, Lars Vogt, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Paul Rivinius, Denis Kozhukhin, the Modigliani, Armida and Ébène quartets.
For Julian, these experiences and encounters are the result of organic growth, not external pressure. It’s a development that tends to happen when a musician of his ability goes through life with an open mind.
His playing is effortless, unhindered by technical boundaries. He derives energy from appearing not to try. It’s a quality that many look for and few find. He sees his talent and his musical upbringing as a gift. His mentors are responsible for the rest.
“My very first teacher considered lightness and simplicity to be at the core of cello playing,” Julian says. “Listen to yourself, plan what you’re doing, get it right the first time. I owe everything to these insights.” He studied with Ulrich Voss, Gustav Rivinius, Boris Pergamenschikow, Heinrich Schiff and Antje Weithaas. Now he is a teacher too, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. In the last season Julian appered amongst others with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Dortmund Philharmonics, Saarländisches Staatsorchester led by Sébastien Rouland, as well as the Residentie Orkest under the baton of Nicholas Collon and the Orchestra della Toscana in Florence. Furthermore, he played the world premiere of Karola Obermüller's cello concerto in with the Philharmonic Orchestra Heidelberg under Elias Grandy.
Along with this, chamber music remains for him a source of inspiration and a hotbed for communication: next to a concert with Josef Špaček at Rudolfinum Prague, engagements with long time partners as Antje Weithaas, Tobias Feldmann, Lise Berthaud und William Youn, and Kiveli Dörken are planned, amongst other venues at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Schauspielhaus Bochum, in Vevey and Schwetzingen. In addition, trio concerts with Sharon Kam and Enrico Pace, as well as concerts with Quatuor Modigliani at Philharmonie Köln and in Fürth are on his agenda.
Piano | USA
Few musicians epitomize the term of the ‘exceptional artist’ better than Kit Armstrong. Born in 1992 in Los Angeles, he is described as “the amazement-causing artist who can only be described as a musical phenomenon” by German magazine Süddeutsche Zeitung. With 27 years he not only demonstrates extraordinary aptitude at the piano but also at the organ, at the conductor’s desk as well as being a composer in great demand. Since earliest youth Armstrong fascinates the audience in major international venues such as Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, NHK Hall Tokyo, and Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels.
Armstrong collaborates with many of the world’s most sought-after conductors including Christian Thielemann, Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly, Kent Nagano, Manfred Honeck, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mario Venzago, and Thomas Dausgaard. He has been a guest at some of the world’s finest orchestras, among them the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. In Summer 2018 Kit Armstrong was artist-in-residence at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and has been appointed as “Artist-in-Resonance” by the Musikkollegium Winterthur. In the same year he received the Beethoven-Ring by the German society “Bürger für Beethoven” following the footsteps of Igor Levit, Gustavo Dudamel, and Lisa Batiashvili.
Highlights of season 2019/20 include concerts with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. He will tour with the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra in Europe. Piano recitals will bring him to the Vienna Concert Hall, Lincoln Centre in New York, Rheingau Music Festival, Munich Prinzregententheater, Piano Festival Ruhr, and Schubertiade Hohenems among others. Engagements as organist include concerts at the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Konzerthaus, and at the Bruckner Festival Linz. He gave his acclaimed debut as conductor at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in 2018 with an outstanding rendition of Händel’s oratorio Theodora. In 2020 he will be a guest conductor with the Bochumer Symphoniker.
Being a passionate chamber musician Kit Armstrong works regularly with other leading instrumentalists and singers such as Renaud Capuҫon, Daniel Müller-Schott, Quatuor Ebène, Armida Quartett, Christiane Karg, and Julian Prégardien. As an organist he appeared in recitals at the Berlin Philharmonie, Mosel Musikfestival, and the Cologne Philharmonie. The versatile artist established a great reputation with his compositions which are published by Edition Peters. Commissioners include the Gewandhaus Leipzig, Schubertiade Hohenems, BASF Ludwigshafen, Dortmund Concert Hall and the Musikkollegium Winterthur. His debut recording with works by Bach, Ligeti and Armstrong was released in September 2013 by Sony Classical as “one of the very few CDs that the world was waiting for” (Kulturradio RBB). His second album Symphonic Scenes was released 2015 by Sony Classical and received enthusiastic reviews for his interpretation of an exceptional program of piano works primarily composed for orchestra by Liszt.
Kit Armstrong studied music at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and continued and finished his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At age of seven, he started studying composition at Chapman University and physics at California State University, later also chemistry and mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania and mathematics at the Imperial College London. He earned a master’s degree in pure mathematics at the University of Paris VI. At the age of thirteen, Armstrong met Alfred Brendel who has guided him as a teacher and mentor ever since. Their unique relationship was captured in the film Set the Piano Stool on Fire by Mark Kidel. Today Armstrong resides in Vienna nearby Salzburg as well as in the former church Sainte-Thérèse-de- l’Enfant-Jésus in the French city of Hirson, organizing concerts on a regular basis.
Cello | Latvia
Latvian cellist Kristina Blaumane is invited to perform as a soloist with orchestras, recitalist and chamber musician around the world.
She has performed concertos with London Philharmonic Orchestra (under Vladimir Jurowski, Osmo Vänskä, Thierry Fischer, Michal Dworzynski), Amsterdam Sinfonietta (Lev Markiz, Peter Oundjian), Chicago Civic Orchestra (Andris Nelsons), MDR Symphony Orchestra (Kristjan Järvi), Kremerata Baltica, Britten Sinfonia, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Latvian National Opera Orchestra, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonietta Riga, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Sofia Soloists, Plovdiv Opera Orchestra, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Ensemble Ubertini, Dalarna Sinfonietta and others.
Kristina is a keen chamber musician and has worked in partnership with such renowned artists as Isaac Stern, Gidon Kremer, Yo Yo Ma, Yuri Bashmet, Leiv Ove Andsnes, Maxim Rysanov, Boris Brovtsyn, Roman Mints, Janine Jansen, Michael Collins, Isabelle van Keulen, Julian Rachlin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Bruno Giuranna, Misha Maisky, Nikolaj Znaider, Tatyana Grindenko, Alina Ibragimova, Katya Apekisheva, Jacob Katsnelson, Oleg Maisenberg among others, and has performed at the festivals such as Lockenhaus, Gstaad, Salzburg, Verbier, Basel, Jerusalem, Amsterdam Cello Biënnale, Utrecht, Spitalfields, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Homecoming.
Kristina is also a member of Trio Palladio. Their recent release of piano trios by Peteris Vasks on Ondine label received a great critical acclaim and was Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice.
Kristina has been an avid promoter of new music. She made a number of world premieres, among them cello concertos by Dobrinka Tabakova, Kristaps Pētersons, Pēteris Plakidis and Artem Vassiliev. Her recording of cello concerto by Dobrinka Tabakova which was released on ECM label reached number 2 in the UK classical charts and did receive a GRAMMY nomination. Besides this CD Kristina has recorded for Bis, ONYX, Harmonia Mundi, Quartz and BMG labels.
Born in Riga in the family of musicians, Kristina graduated from Latvian Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She is a winner of many awards including Latvian Philharmonic Young Musician of the Year, Latvian Television competition “Alternativa”, Carmel International Competition, Musicians Benevolent Fund and Lord Mayor’s Prize. Kristina is a two time laureate of Grand Music Award (Lielā Mūzikas Balva), the highest prize given by the Latvian State in the field of music (2005; 2007).
Since 2007 Kristina combines her busy career with a principal cello position in London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Violin | Hungary
Kristóf Baráti is recognised increasingly across the globe as a musician of extraordinary quality with a vast expressive range and impeccable technique. Applauded repeatedly for the poetry and eloquence that he brings to his playing, he has been described as “a true tonal aesthete of the highest order”. In recent seasons, Baráti has performed at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at London’s Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and he was the featured soloist in the opening concert of the 2019 Verbier Festival. Baráti has played with orchestras such as Zurich Tonhalle, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC Philharmonic and Hague Philharmonic orchestras. He performs regularly with Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra both in Russia and on tour around the world including in the US and China. Highlights of his 2020/21 season included performances with the Budapest Festival and Bern Symphony orchestras, and his debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and in 21/22 he looks forward to his debut with the Indianapolis Orchestra. A regular recital and chamber music player, Baráti has performed with partners such as Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet, Enrico Pace, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Zoltán Kocsis and Kim Kashkashian amongst others. He performs every year at the White Nights Festival and in 2019 made his debut at the Seattle Chamber Music and Aspen Festivals. In 2016 he made a sensational debut at the Verbier Festival when he performed the complete solo Sonatas and Partitas of Bach. Baráti has an extensive discography which includes the five Mozart concerti, the complete Beethoven and Brahms sonatas with Klára Würtz, and Ysaÿe solo sonatas for Brilliant Classics, and Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo violin on the Berlin Classics label. Of his disc of encores “The Soul of Lady Harmsworth” recorded in 2016, Gramophone magazine said “for those who like to hear the violin played at its sweet and acrobatic best, then Baráti is out of the top drawer.” Having spent much of his childhood in Venezuela, where he played as soloist with many of the country’s leading orchestras, Baráti returned to Budapest to study at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and was later mentored by Eduard Wulfson, himself a student of Milstein and Menuhin. Still resident in Budapest, Barati performs regularly across Hungary and together with István Vardái, is Artistic Director of the Kaposvár International Chamber Music Festival.
Baráti plays the 1703 "Lady Harmsworth" Stradivarius, by kind arrangement with the Stradivarius Society of Chicago.
Viola | UK
Lawrence Power is one of today’s foremost violists, in demand worldwide as a recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber music partner. His artistry and penetrating musicianship gains him constant plaudits around the world, reflected in turn in eloquent reviews: ‘no musician today better equipped to play than the minstrel-like Power’ (Financial Times), ‘Power is something more: a profound musical personality, his every phrase new and noteworthy’ (Sunday Times).
Over the past decade, he has become a regular guest performer with orchestras of the highest calibre, from the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Stockholm, Bergen and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras to the Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras. In addition, as a guest soloist with the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony orchestras, he has established a strong presence in Australia where he returns regularly to ‘play direct’ at the Australian National Academy of Music. Recent highlights include his debut with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Staatsoper Kassel, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Daniel Hope at the Zurich Chamber Orchestra Season opening concert, his Salzburg Festival debut with Vilde Frang, as well as recitals in Dresden Music Festival, USA Savannah Festival and a concert series at London’s Kings Place. 2018- 19 has seen a residency with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and another one with Turner Sims Southampton where he will act as a curator as well as a performer.
As a fervent champion of contemporary music, Lawrence has developed a large repertoire of new works. He gave the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s Viola Concerto, UK premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s concerto Remnants of Song at the 2012 BBC Proms, and the world premieres of scores written for him, including Salonen’s Pentatonic Étude, Turnage’s Power Play, Anderson’s Prayer, Goehr’s Hymn to Night, MacMillan’s Viola Concerto and Watkins’s Fantasy. He has recently started the Viola Commissioning Circle, a scheme created to help commission new music from today’s leading composers. This has already led to new works by Thomas Ades and Gerald Barry, with many others in the coming seasons.
His recital credits include performances at Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke’s, Lincoln Centre NY. He has developed an acclaimed partnership with pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips, collaborates with musicians such as violinist Maxim Vengerov or Joshua Bell. A former Artist in Residence with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, he has also forged a close relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Power’s Award-nominated Hyperion recordings include Bartók, Rósza, Walton and Rubbra’s viola concertos, Shostakovich and Brahms’ viola sonatas, and York Bowen's complete works for viola and piano (with Crawford-Phillips). His three-disc Hindemith survey stands as a benchmark recording of the composer’s complete works for solo viola. His release, Fin de Siècle includes world premiere recordings of works by Büsser, Hüe and Honnoré, together with compositions by Chausson, Debussy, Enescu and Ravel. Power also features on Ian Bostridge and Sir Antonio Pappano’s Shakespeare Songs, joint winner of the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. His most recent releases were Berlioz’s Harold in Italy with the Bergen Philharmonic for Hyperion and Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Illumination with the Tapiola Sinfonietta for Ondine.
Violin | Belgium
Leonard Schreiber was born in Belgium, and starts the violin at the age of five. At six he gives his first concerto appearance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders. At fourteen he moved to London to the specialised 'Purcell School of Music' and at sixteen entered the Royal College of Music with Prof. Felix Andrievsky followed by Prof. Levon Chilingirian where he won all the prestigious awards the college had to offer.
Leonard is known as a versatile and passionate musician. Besides his active solo career, he also became a member of the piano trio 'Trio Chausson' from 2015 to 2018. He also played concerts around the world with wonderful musicians such as Boris Andrianov, Nicholas Angelich, Yuri Bashmet, Boris Berezovsky, the 'Borodin Quartet', Juozas Domarkas, Itamar Golan, Michael Guttman, Dimitri Illarionov, Dmitri Jurowski, Andrei Korobeinikov, Gavriel Lipkind, Valentina Lisitsa, Sir Roger Norrington, Jean-Bernard Pommier, David Reiland, Vadim Repin, Melvyn Tan, Neil Thomson, Maxim Vengerov, Vladimir Verbitsky, Kazuki Yamada…
He played at the 'Oriental Arts Centre' in Shanghaï during the World Exhibition. This concert was recorded on the label EMI. His CD with the London Symphony Orchestra 'Violin Heritage' with works of Franck, Vieuxtemps, Ysaÿe and a piece composed in Memory of the Holocaust by Dirk Brossé conducted by the composer himself, won several awards. (CD of the year 'Monde de la Musique') He regularly tours in South America, in Russia and in all the European Cities, in the most prestigious concert halls. Besides the usual concerts, Leonard had the honour to play several times for HRH Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and for many other Royalties and Heads of States around the world.
Leonard plays on a Alessandro Mezzadri violin of 1710, on loan by Georg von Opel.
'Leonard Schreiber, as soloist, was at one with the conductor’s approach... The cadenza in the Khachaturian Concerto,was given with wry sardonic humour that brought David Oistrakh, the work’s dedicatee, to mind.' Musicweb-international
'Truly innovative and original recording performed with great sensitivity and flair' Quote by Maxim Vengerov on Leonard's recording with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Conductor | France
Lionel Bringuier has already travelled extensively across the globe at the invitation of symphonies, chamber orchestras and opera houses, and in the 2023/24 season he continues the position of Artiste Associé in his hometown with Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. This unique appointment gives him the opportunity to curate a series of special programmes which he will also conduct, and to invite several of his closest musical partners, which in this season include Khatia Buniatishvili, Philippe Bianconi, Daniel Müller-Schott, Renaud Capuçon and Alexandre Tharaud.
Very well-known across Europe and most recently having served as Music Director of Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich (2014–18), Bringuier has held previous posts at Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in Valladolid, Orchestre de Bretagne and Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Bringuier’s relationship with Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2007-2013 started with position of a first assistant conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen at the age of 21, and developed into a role of associate conductor and later resident conductor – as the first person to hold this title in the orchestra's history. The 2023/24 season will feature concerts with Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Dresden Philharmonie, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National de Metz. Other highlights of this season include USA engagements with San Diego Symphony Orchestra and Colburn School Orchestra, as well as BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Paris Conservatoire Orchestra.
Over the past decade, Bringuier’s work across North America has developed a strong relationship with many orchestras, including Houston Symphony and at the Aspen Music Festival in the 2021/22 season. He has also worked extensively in Asia, conducting Tokyo Symphony Orchestra regularly and working with Seoul and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestras. In 2019, he returned to Australia with a programme of Russian music with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and conducted a French programme with West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth.
Bringuier regularly collaborates with Yuja Wang, with whom he has recorded the Ravel Piano Concerto for Deutsche Grammophon as part of a complete cycle of the composer’s works. Other recordings include Chopin with Nelson Freire (DG) and Saint-Saëns with Renaud Capuçon and Gautier Capuçon (Erato) who are also regular partners. He works closely with some of the finest instrumentalists in the world, including Lisa Batiashvili, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel Ax, Leif Ove Andsnes and Janine Jansen.
Bringuier comes from a family of musicians and studied cello and conducting at the Conservatoire de Paris, winning the prestigious International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors only a year after graduating. He cares passionately about education, outreach, and developing the careers of emerging conductors and soloists. In September 2020 he served on the jury of La Maestra, the first international conducting competition for women, and continues to work with local schools in his hometown of Nice to introduce children to classical music and orchestral experiences.
Conductor | Spain
Lucas Macías is the new artistic director of the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, and at the same time Chief Conductor of the Oviedo Filarmonía since 2018.
The season will begin with a Beethoven program with the Orques
ta Ciudad de Granada. He will then conduct the production of Simon Boccanegra by Giuseppe Verdi at the Teatro Cervantes in Malaga together with Carlos Álvarez and the Filármonica de Málaga. Later we will see him together with the Sinfónica de Tenerife, and then in Oviedo, where together with the Oviedo Filarmonía, during the months of November and December, they will pay tribute to the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, with his ninth symphony, the complete work by Egmont and finally, the opera Fidelio.
Among his upcoming debuts are the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, the National Youth Orchestra of Spain, the Youth Orchestra of the Canary Islands, etc.
Lucas Macías made his conducting debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 2014 following an exceptional career as one of the world’s leading oboists –a former principal of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra as well as founding member of Claudio Abbado’s Orchestra Mozart under whose mentorship he gleaned a deep knowledge and understanding of both chamber and symphonic repertoire.
Previous season’s highlights include concerts with Swedish Radio Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre de Paris – where he worked closely with Daniel Harding for two years as Assistant Conductor, – Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, Orchestre de Cannes, Het Gelders Orkest, Castilla León Symphony Orchestra (OSCyL), Real Filharmonía de Galicia among others.
Lucas Macías Navarro began his musical studies at the age of 9 and was later accepted in Heinz Holliger's oboe class at Freiburg University. He continued his studies at the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, and in Geneva with Maurice Bourgue. He has won several competitions, including the 2006 International Oboe Competition of Japan. He has made many recordings with Claudio Abbado on Deutsche Grammophon, Claves Music and Euroarts.
He studied conducting at the Music University in Vienna with Mark Stringer and he is Professor at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg.
Violin | Belgium
Belgian violinist of Russian heritage, Mr. Bouchkov is a sophisticated musician of impeccable aplomb and has carved an international career performing with leading orchestras and conductors across Europe. He is one of the most multifaceted and unique artists of the new generation. His orchestral appearances include performances with the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, the HR-Sinfonieorchester and Christoph Eschenbach, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Philippe Jordan. He has also appeared with the NDR-Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Hessische Rundfunk Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI in Turin, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra among others, collaborating with conductors such as Stanislav Kochanovsky, Michael Sanderling, Andrey Boreyko, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Dmitry Liss, Christian Arming, Lionel Bringuier, Maxim Vengerov, James Judd, to name but a few.
As an active recitalist, Mr. Bouchkov has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls such as Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Dresden Frauenkirche, Concert Hall of St. Petersburg, Tonhalle Zürich, Munich’s Prinzregententheater, Paris’ Theatre de la Ville, Maison de Radio France, and the Konzerthaus in Berlin among several other venues. A fine chamber musician, he is a regular guest of the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
Highlights of Mr. Bouchkov’s 2020/2021 season included appearances with Valery Gergiev and the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater, Philippe Jordan and the Munich Philharmonic, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider and the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Stanislav Kochanovsky and the Hessische Rundfunk Orchestra, Gábor Takács-Nagy and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, as well as recitals and concerts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Konzerthaus in Berlin, and the Schubertiade in Hohenems. After a bunch of very successful concerts at the Verbier Festival 2021 in Switzerland, and in Montenegro and Greece, Mr. Bouchkov performed with pianist Mao Fujita in Latvia, at the Riga Jurmala Music Festival, and in Georgia at the Tsinandali Festival, where he played five different programs including performances with the pianist and conductor Lahav Shani and with cellist Mischa Maisky. In Autumn 2021 he was invited to perform at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Ludovic Morlot, followed immediately after by an invitation to be ‘artist in residence’ of the orchestra in 2022/2023. During the season 2021/2022 he will appear again with the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev at the Philharmonie de Paris, and with the Orchestra National de Lille, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Lorraine, among others.
Marc Bouchkov’s first recording by Harmonia Mundi is of special significance since it includes two world première pieces by Eugéne Ysaÿe, and two works composed by himself. The album was awarded a Diapason d’Or and a Diapason Découverte as well as nominated for the ICMA 2018 and received tremendous acclaim on Gramophone reviews. The English magazine featured him as “One to Watch “.
Marc Bouchkov’s artistic development has been marked by a string of international awards. He won the first prize at the Montreal International Violin Competition and he is a silver medallist of the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition. He received the London Music Masters Award, and recently, he has been honored with the music prize of the Kulturstiftung Dortmund.
Marc Bouchkov was born into a family of violinists. He received his first lessons at the age of five from his grandfather. Studies with Claire Bernard and Boris Garlitsky followed. With Mihaela Martin, Marc developed as a Young Soloist in a postgraduate course at the Kronberg Academy. Since October 2018 he is under the musical tutorship of Eduard Wulfson.
Mr. Bouchkov currently serves as professor on the faculty of the Conservatoire Royale de Liège (BE) and the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein. From 2017 to 2019 he taught at the Kronberg Academy (DE) as Artistic Assistant.
Marc Bouchkov plays a Carlo and Michelangelo Bergonzi violin from 1742-44 as a private loan on behalf of Edwulstrad RMIC Ltd.
Piano | Canada
“A performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” (The New York Times), pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known worldwide for his unrivaled blend of consummate musicianship and brilliant technique in the great works of the established repertoire, as well as for his intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries – in concert and on disc – earning his place as a true icon of the piano.
During the 2020/21 season, Mr. Hamelin appeared with the Detroit and Montreal Symphony orchestras and the Cleveland Orchestra in their digital concert performances, performed in a live recital at the Festival International de Launadiere as well as online recitals for Western University of Canada, Candlelight Concert Society, and People's Symphony Concerts.
Mr. Hamelin's abbreviated 19/20 season included the Brahms Piano concerti with the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Le Festival de Lanaudière, and the world premiere of Ryan Wigglesworth’s piano concerto at the BBC Proms, led by the composer. Recital appearances included a return to Carnegie Hall for the Great Artists Series; Wigmore Hall; the George Enescu Festival; the Moscow State Philharmonic; at the Elbphilharmonie for the Husum Rarities of Piano Music Festival; the Heidelberg Festival; and in Ascona (Switzerland), Prague, Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Monte Carlo, and others. Mr. Hamelin was the inaugural guest curator for Portland Piano International, where he opened that season with two solo recitals.
An exclusive recording artist for Hyperion Records, his discography includes more than 60 albums, with notable recordings of a broad range of repertoire. In 2020, Hyperion released two acclaimed albums by Mr. Hamelin – one a solo disc of Liszt and Thalberg opera transcriptions, and the other piano sonatas of composer/pianist Samuil Feinberg.
Mr. Hamelin has composed music throughout his career, with nearly 30 compositions to his name. The majority of those works – including the Études and Toccata on L’Homme armé, commissioned by the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition – are published by Edition Peters. His most recent work, Suite à l’ancienne (Suite in the old style), was premiered in February 2021 by pianist Rachel Naomi Kudo with funding from her Gilmore Young Artist Award.
Mr. Hamelin makes his home in the Boston area with his wife, Cathy Fuller, a producer and host at Classical WCRB. Born in Montreal, he is the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the German Record Critics’ Association and has received seven Juno Awards and eleven GRAMMY nominations, the 2018 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance awarded by Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and in December 2020 was awarded the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Keyboard Artistry from the Ontario Arts Foundation. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada.
Violin | SWITZERLAND
«… A wonderful talent with a lively temperament, virtuosic brilliance and a very high professional level …»
Yehudi Menuhin
Maria Solozobova is one of the most renowned violinists of her generation. Her dazzling career has already taken her to the world’s finest concert halls including the Tonhalle Zurich, the Stadtcasino Basel, Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Koelner Philharmonie, the Great Hall at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and Ljubljana’s Philharmonic Hall. Solozobova has played under many famous conductors such as Vladimir Spivakov, David Zinman, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Vladimir Jurowski, Daniel Raiskin, Muhai Tang, Peter Csaba, Howard Griffiths and Michael Hofstetter. She is a frequent guest, both as a soloist and a chamber musician, at the most prestigious festivals in the world. Solozobova’s performances today include appearances with leading orchestras and musicians worldwide including as Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet, Maria Joao Pires, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sol Gabetta and Mikhail Pletnev.
Maria Solozobova’s numerous concert tours have taken her to Taiwan, Japan, South Africa, Argentina, the USA, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Turkey, Slovenia, Romania and Russia. She has performed with many leading orchestras including the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, Wuerttembergische Philharmonie, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Strings, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Zurich, Zurich Symphony Orchestra, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ljubljana Philharmonic Orchestra, Romanian Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow philharmonic orchestra, Moscow chamber orchestra, and the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow.
Maria Solozobova was born in Moscow and now lives in Switzerland. Her exceptional musical talent was evident even as a child and at the age of ten she won first prize in Russia’s most prestigious national music competition. After attending Moscow’s Gnessin School of Music for gifted children, she continued her studies at the famous Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow (concert diploma degree with honours) and with Professor Zakhar Bron at Zurich University of Music and Drama. She completed her studies with Professor Raphael Oleg at the Basel Music Academy (soloist diploma degree with honours).
Solozobova was appointed leader of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande even before completing her studies. She has won several prestigious international music competitions, for instance the Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria (first prize and special audience price 2000), the W. A. Mozart Competition in Zurich (first prize 2005), the Tibor Varga Competition (2009) and the Rodolfo Lipizer Prize.
In 2007 her debut CD, on the Antes label (Bella Musica Edition) with works by Peter Tchaikovsky and Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, was enthusiastically received by the international press. This was followed in 2011 by a recording of selected works by Joseph Haydn, Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi. „Her modern style will certainly appeal to future generations too,“ observed the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 2013 sees the release of „Paganini“, Solozobova’s new Bella Musica CD, on which she plays Niccolò Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and the „Nel cor piu non mi sento“ variations for solo violin with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2016 Maria Solozobova discovered the Romantic violin concertos of Paul Juon and Hans Huber, performing them for the first time with the Collegium Musicum Basel under the direction of Kevin Griffiths and recorded them on CD for Sony Classical (2017)
In 2009 Maria Solozobova founded as artistic director the «Classical Highlights» Zurich, an annual international series of four concerts in distinguished concert halls in Switzerland. As part of a broader program encompassing artists and writers, this offers a dynamic meeting point for outstanding orchestras and the most distinguished young soloists and conductors from Russia, Germany and Switzerland.
Maria Solozobova’s playing is an enthralling combination of virtuosic power, creative spontaneity, beautiful tonal warmth, elegance and musical insight. Her repertoire covers the whole spectrum from baroque works through classical and romantic music to contemporary compositions. Next season she will be performing in several European countries and South Africa. Maria Solozobova plays an Italian violin by Nicolo Gagliano (1728). Solozobova has taught at the University of Music Lausanne since 2015.
Violin | Spain
Spanish violinist María Dueñas beguiles audiences with the breathtaking array of colours she draws from her instrument. Her technical prowess, artistic maturity and bold
interpretations have inspired rave reviews, captivated competition juries, and secured invitations to appear with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.
Born in Granada in 2002, María Dueñas fell in love with classical music via the recordings her parents played constantly at home and the concerts she attended in her native city. She started playing the violin at six and enrolled at her hometown's conservatory of music a year later. In 2014 she won a scholarship abroad sponsored by Juventudes Musicales de Madrid as well as the Humboldt Foundation's Wardwell Stipend and at first moved to Dresden to study at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music. There she was soon discovered by conductor Marek Janowski, at whose invitation she later made her debut with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Since 2016 she has been studying with the renowned violin pedagogue Boris Kuschnir at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has hailed the “freedom and joyous individuality” of her playing, while The Strad described her rising-star status as “seemingly unstoppable”, after
she won a whole series of international violin competitions. Not least among these was her livestreamed run to victory at the 2021 Menuhin Violin Competition, at which she won not only the first prize and audience prize, but also a global online following. Her competition victories began with the 2017 Zhuhai International Mozart Competition and 2018 Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition. In addition to her success at the Menuhin Competition, 2021 saw her win first prize at the Getting to Carnegie Competition, the Grand Prize at the Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition, and the career advancement prize at the Rheingau Music Festival. She was also named as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist 2021-23. In April 2023, she was awarded the prestigious Premio Princesa de Girona de las Artes y las Letras in her native Spain.
In 2022, María Dueñas signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Her spectacular debut album, entitled Beethoven and Beyond, recorded live at the Vienna Musikverein with the Wiener Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck, was released in May 2023. It features Beethoven's violin concerto, for which she has composed her own cadenzas. It also includes five showpieces for violin and orchestra by Kreisler, Saint-Saëns, Spohr, Wieniawski and Ysaÿe and the cadenzas written by the same composers for the first movement of the Beethoven concerto.
The multi-faceted artist became fond of composing after she started writing cadenzas for Mozart ́s violin concertos. A solo piano piece, Farewell, was awarded a prize in the 2016 “Von fremden Ländern und Menschen” Competition for Young Composers. Recorded by Evgeny Sinaiski, it was also transformed into a music video. Her most recent composition, Homage 1770 for solo violin, was released this summer by Deutsche Grammophon.
A dedicated chamber musician, María Dueñas has performed with baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Itamar Golan, among other artists. She has also premiered several works written for and dedicated to her by the late Catalan composer Jordi Cervelló, including the Milstein Caprice.
She has meanwhile performed with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and BBC Symphony Orchestra under conductors such as Manfred Honeck, Herbert Blomstedt, Marek Janowski, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gustavo Gimeno, Michael Sanderling, Alain Altinoglu and Alan Gilbert. At the Évian Festival 2023, she played together with Renaud Capuçon. María Dueñas maintains a close relationship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel. After her 2021 debut at the Hollywood Bowl, they joined forces again the following year for the world premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s violin concerto Altar de cuerda, of which she is the dedicatee, causing an international sensation and followed by sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall, in Boston and at the Cervantino Festival in Mexico. In 2024, further concerts will follow in Los Angeles and on tour in Barcelona, Paris and London.
Highlights of the 2023/2024 season also include a tour with the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Paavo Järvi, concerts with the Dresden Philharmonic under Kent Nagano, and her debuts with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding, the Munich Philharmonic (again with Manfred Honeck), the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France under Mikko Franck, and the Bamberg Symphony under Christoph Eschenbach.
María Dueñas plays a Nicolò Gagliano violin of 17?4, on loan from the German Musical Instrument Fund administered by Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, and the Stradivari Camposelice of 1710, on generous loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
Bandoneon | Italy
Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi was born in Atessa on December 26th 1980. He began studying the accordion at the age of nine before switching to the bandoneon later. From 1993 to 2001, he studied at the F. Fenaroli Civic Music school in Lanciano with M° C. Calista and with M° C. Chiacchiaretta. In 2007, he graduated with honours from Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music in Rome.
In 2006, he resided at the Montreal Jazz Festival “I colori del mare” with Gabriele Mirabassi and Pietro Tonolo a project of the EGEA record company.
On 25th May 2009, he played at the Colosseo (Rome) with M° Andrea Bocelli, Angela Gheorghiu, Andrea Griminelli and the Abruzzo Symphony Orchestra. The event “L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra” was in aid of the earthquake victims of Abruzzo. It was exclusively broadcast worldwide on RAI 1 and RAI SAT.
On December 25th 2010, he performed with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Concerto per la Vita e per la Pace (Concert for Life and Peace), worldwide broadcast by RAI in Bethlehem.
On June 1st 2011, he performed at the Arena of Verona together with Erwin Schrott during the festivities for the 150th anniversary of the Italian unification. The show was broadcast live by Rai 1.
Together with Erwin Schrott and Anna Netrebeko, he performed in the most important cities in Germany, England and Denmark in 2012. In the same year, he recorded the DVD "Live in Portofino" on a guest appearance with Andrea Bocelli.
In 2013, he performed on a guest appearance with Andrea Bocelli, Riccardo Cocciante, Pino Daniele and Simona Molinari at the event "Teatro del Silenzio". On February 22 2014, he performed at the Ulker Sports Arena in Istanbul together with Andrea Bocelli.
In 2018 recorded “Tango Seasons” for Sony Records, alongside Andrés Gabetta leading the fantastic baroque ensemble Cappella Gabetta.
Apart from frequently performing in Italy, he has been giving concerts in England, France, Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, Serbia, Germany, the U.S.A., Poland, Portugal, Finland, Switzerland, Hungary, Canada, Armenia, Russia, Israel, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Turkia, Libano, Belarus and China.
Conductor | UK
Described by The London Times at his 1975 piano recital debut as having ‘all the attributes of one of the world’s greatest players’, Papadopoulos has gone on to enjoy an international career both as pianist and conductor.
He has appeared as soloist with and conducted many of the world’s greatest orchestras and worked with a host of eminent musicians including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Janine Jansen, Evgeny Kissin, Maxim Vengerov, Martha Argerich and Lang Lang. His recordings of the Beethoven sonatas have been set on a level with Schnabel, Brendel, Barenboim and Wilhelm Kempff.
A prolific recording artist, Papadopoulos’s catalogue includes his critically acclaimed Beethoven sonatas, performances of Stravinsky’s Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich. He conducts the Oxford Philharmonic in recordings of the Brahms and Sibelius violin concertos with Maxim Vengerov as soloist. As a pianist, he and Vengerov have recorded the complete Brahms violin sonata.
In the summer of 2021, Papadopoulos published his first book – a memoir titled Beyond Dreams and Aspirations: My Journey to Oxford which charts his early career, the creation of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, and his thoughts on musical interpretation.
Papadopoulos is dedicated to nurturing young talent and imparts knowledge to young artists through his vast experience, particularly during the annual Oxford Piano Festival which he founded in 1999. He served on the jury of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2015, as well as that of the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in 2016.
Marios Papadopoulos holds a doctorate in music and is a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. In 2010 and was awarded Oxford City’s Certificate of Honour and in 2014 he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for services to music in Oxford.
Conductor | UK
Stravinsky looks to be a major talent. (Music OMH) Stravinsky’s approach lent the music special change. (BachTrack) Born in Kazakhstan to a musical family Marius Stavinsky began playing the violin when he was four-years old. Educated at the Moscow Central Music School and the Yehudi Menuhin school, he went on to become the first former Soviet student to secure a scholarship to Eton College. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 2002. Stavinsky’s passion for conducting began aged 13 after playing the Brunch Violin Concerto for Mariss Jamsons - now one of his regular conducting mentors.
In 1998 he spent a summer assisting Claudio Abbado in Peter Brook’s production of Don Giovanni at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and his studies at the Royal Academy were led by Igor Golovchin and Thomas Sanderling, with masterclasses from Kenneth Kiesler and Eri Klas.
From 2002-2005, Stravinsky returned to Moscow to study conducting with Vladimir Ponkin, working as his Assistant Conductor in both the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the Helikon Opera. Whilst resident at Helikon Opera, his performances included fully staged productions of Berg (Lulu), Bizet (Carmen), Giorgdano (Siberia), Poulenc (Les Dialogue des Carmelites), Prokofiev (The Story of a Real Man), Rimsky-Korsakov (Kaschei the Immortal), Shostakovich (Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District), and works by his forebear Igor Stravinsky (such as Mavra).
In 2007, Stravinsky was awarded the position of Chief Conductor & Artistic Director of the Karelia Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming the youngest conductor in Russia to hold such a post. Following his five-year tenure in this role, he then – at the personal invitation of Vladimir Jurowski – took up the position of Assistant Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2013/2014 season. Since then he has gone on to work with top orchestras around the world, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Berlin Staatskapelle, Queensland Symphony, and Tokyo Opera Philharmonic.
Stravinsky enjoys a particularly strong profile in Russia, working with top orchestras and institutions including the Russian National Orchestra, Russian Philharmonic, and the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. He regularly conducts at the Mariinsky Theatre (both in symphonic concerts and operatic performances), and enjoys a close collaboration with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’ (GASO).
Stravinsky boasts a diverse repertoire, and a discography that includes world premiere recordings of Ignaz Brüll’s Violin Concerto and Symphony in E minor, Salomon Jadassohn’s Symphony No.1, and Pavel Pabst’s Piano Concerto, on the Cameo Classics Label. During his tenure as Chief Conductor & Artistic Director, Stravinsky also released recordings of major works by Thomas Blower, Dororthy Howell, Joseph Holbrooke and Sergey Zhukov with the Karelia Philharmonic Orchestra.
Resident in Berlin, Stravinsky also spends time in St. Petersburg, where during the 2016/2017 season he became Founder & Music Director of the St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra – launched with a performance of Oedipus Rex at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in February 2017. Highlights of Stravinsky’s 2017/2018 season include productions at the Berlin Staatsballett with the orchestras of the Berlin Staatskapelle and Deutsche Oper, and debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Royal Festival Hall, London), and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
Piano | Argentina · Switzerland
Martha Argerich was born in Buenos Aires (Argentina). She began her first piano lessons at the age of five with Vincenzo SCARAMUZZA. Considered a child prodigy, she soon performs in public. In 1955, she moved to Europe and continued her studies in London, Vienna and in Switzerland with SEIDLHOFER, GULDA, MAGALOFF, Mrs LIPATTI et Stefan ASKENASE.In 1957, she won the Bolzano and Geneva Piano Competitions, and in 1965 the Warsaw International Chopin Competition. Since then, she has been one of the most prominent pianists in the world both in popularity and ability.
Martha Argerich has been rated highly for her performance of the virtuoso piano literature of the XIX and XX centuries. Her large repertoire includes Bach and Bartok, Beethoven and Messiaen, as well as Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Franck, Prokofiev, Stravinski, Shostakovitch, Tchaikovski. Though she is permanently invited by the most prestigious orchestras, conductors and music festivals in Europe, Japan, America and Israel (with Zubin Mehta and Lahav Shani), chamber music takes a significant part of her musical life. She regularly plays and records with Nelson FREIRE, Alexandre RABINOVITCH, Mischa MAISKY, Gidon KREMER, Daniel BARENBOIM: « This harmony within a group of people gives me a strong and peaceful feeling ».
Martha Argerich has recorded for EMI, Sony, Philips, Teldec, DGG and many of her performances were broadcasted on television worldwide. She has received many awards : “Grammy Award” for Bartok and Prokofiev Concertos, “Gramophon – Artist of the Year”, “Best Piano Concerto Recording of the Year” for Chopin concertos, “Choc” of the Monde de la Musique for her Amsterdam’s recital, “Künstler des Jahres Deutscher Schallplatten Kritik”, “Grammy Award” for Prokofiev’s Cinderella with Mikhael Pletnev and lately a “Grammy Award” for Beethoven Concertos 2 & 3 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Claudio Abbado (DGG / Best Instrumental Soloist Performance), “Sunday Times – Record of the Year” and “BBC Music Magazine Award” for her Shostakovitch recording (EMI – 2007). Last recordings: Mozart concertos K466 and K503 with Orchestra Mozart et Claudio Abbado, duo recital with Daniel Barenboim (Deutsche Grammophon.)
Since 1998 she is the Artistic Director of the Beppu Festival in Japan; in 1999 she creates the International Piano Competition and Festival Martha Argerich in Buenos Aires, and in June 2002 the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano.
Martha Argerich has received numerous distinctions: – “Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres” in 1996 and “Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres ” in 2004 by the French Government – “Accademica di Santa Cecilia” in Rome in 1997 – “Musician of the Year” by Musical America 2001 – « The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette » by the Japanese Emperor and the prestigious « Praemium Imperiale » by the Japan Art Association in 2005. – Kennedy Center Honnors by Barack Obama on december 2016 – Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by Sergio Mattarella in October 2018
Conductor | Italy
Massimiliano Caldi (Milano 1967), graduated in piano, composition and orchestra conducting has a big international experience in the felds of symphonic music, opera, operetta and ballet as well as an attention on contemporary music and on the revival of the 19th century opera. he stands out for his high professional preparation and for his bright and linear directorial style.
Among the last commitments of the 2020/2021 season, the debut of Il Don Bucefalo at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, the recorded concert at the Teatro alla Scala with I Virtuosi del Teatro alla Scala, the Polish premiere of the cello concert of Castelnuovo-Tedesco with Silvia Chiesa and the inauguration of the 60th Łańcut International Festival. Moreover, during the summer 2021, in Italy he conducted the Roma 3 Orchestra in a tour and he also performed at the closing evening of the frst edition of the International Festival Accordi Musicali. In Poland, he performed at the Mozart Festival and at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw for the Polish Music Competition.
Winner of the frst prize at “G.Fitelberg” International Competition (1999), Caldi i s the Principal Conductor of the "A. Malawski" Precarpathian Philharmonic of Rzeszów. He had been President of the Jury of the International Piano Competition Massarosa - IX and X edition (2018 and 2019), teacher of the Florence Conducting Masterclass (2015-2017), Principal Conductor and Artistic Consultant of "St. Moniuszko" Koszalin Philharmonic(2014-2017), Artistic Director of Silesian Chamber Orchestra (Katowice, 2006-2010) and Principal Conductor of "Milano Classica" Chamber Orchestra (1998-2009).
In the last ten years he took tournées in Israel, Oman, U.S.A. , Chile, Brasil, Germany, Austria, Russia and Turkey.
During the 2018 year, in opera feld, he conducted the prologue from Mefstofele by Boito (Gdansk, June 2018) Cavalleria Rusticanaby Mascagni (Rzeszow June 2018) and Bastiano e Bastiana by Mozart (Oliwa August 2018).
In the recent past, he conducted Gluck's "Orphee et Euridice" and Puccini's "La Bohème" at Bologna Opera House (Italy), Verdi's "Nabucco" and Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" at Poznań Opera House (Poland) and he took part at three editions of "Festival della Valle d'Itria" of Martina Franca (Italy) with rediscovered italian masterpieces of the XIX century like Cagnoni's "Don Bucefalo" and "King Lear" and an unusual French version (1907) of R. Srauss' "Salome".
He took part in the past at "Festival Terre Verdiane" in Busseto (Italy) with "Rigoletto" and "La Traviata" and he conducted Verdi's "Il Trovatore" at Szeged Opera House, (Hungary) at the end of the Nineties.
He conducted Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" at Cicuito Lirico Lombardo (Italy) at Pavia, Cremona, Brescia and Como Opera Houses.
For the same cycle, he conducted Nino Rota's "I due timidi" and "La Notte di un nevrastenico" at Vittorio Veneto and Como Opera Houses (Italy). In Poland, at Cracow Polish Music Festival in 2011 he conducted Poniatowski's "Pierre De Medicis", a XIX century "grand opera", in the frst world performance, after rediscovering.
In symphonic feld he went back to St. Petersburg with the Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2020 and on the podium of Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali in July 2019. He conducted among the others Berliner Konzerthaus Kammerorchester, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orchestra Sinfonica "Giuseppe Verdi", Orchestra dell'Arena di Verona, Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino, Orchestra del Teatro Massimo di Palermo.
In Poland he had been invited by International Festivals and he appears regularly on the podium of the most important Philharmonic and symphonic orchestras like, for example, Sinfonia Varsovia, Warsaw Polish Radio Symphonic Orchestra and the "Sinfonia Iuventus" Orchestra at the hall of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw and at Studio Lutoslawski S-1, the Szymanowski Philharmonic Orchestra of Krakow, the Beethoven Academy Orchestra of Krakow and the Philharmonics of Lodz, Bydgoszcz, Torun, Olsztyn... and many others.
Caldi has recorded for Acte Préalable, the CD Raul Koczalski - Piano concertos (January 2018) and for Sony Classical, the CD Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Riccardo Malipiero Cello concertos (April 2018). Massimiliano Caldi is the only Italian who won the Gazzetta Italia Prize - 2018 edition for having distinguished in the promotion of Italian music in Poland and the Polish one in Italy.
In 2020, Maestro Caldi discussed his PhD thesis entitled "Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni: fdelity to the text or performance tradition?" At the Musical University "F. Chopin" in Warsaw, on which he has worked in the last 3 years, consulting among other things some manuscripts at the "S. Cecilia" Conservatory in Rome and at the Stanford University Music Library in California.
Violin | Monaco
Universally hailed as one of the world’s finest musicians, and often referred to as the greatest living string player in the world today, Grammy award winner Maxim Vengerov also enjoys international acclaim as a conductor and is one of the most in-demand soloists.
Born in 1974, he began his career as a solo violinist at the age of five, won the Wieniawski and Carl Flesch international competitions at ages 10 and 15 respectively, studied with Galina Tourchaninova and Zakhar Bron, made his first recording at the age of 10, and went on to record extensively for high-profile labels including Melodia, Teldec and EMI, earning among others, Grammy and Gramophone artist of the year awards.
In 2007 he followed in the footsteps of his mentor, the late Mstislav Rostropovich, and turned his attention to conducting and in 2010 was appointed the first chief conductor of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra. June 2014 saw Mr Vengerov graduate with a Diploma of Excellence from the Moscow Institute of Ippolitov-Ivanov with professor Yuri Simonov and he has since finished a further 2-year program of opera conducting.
Highlights of recent seasons saw Mr Vengerov opening the season of the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala with Maestro Chailly, a Residence with Monte Carlo Philharmonic and the Philharmonie in Paris as well as a world wide recital tours. Highlights of the 22/23 season saw him in an extensive US and Canadian recital tour including Berkeley, Kansas City, New York and Toronto, and an 11 concerts tour in the UK. Other orchestral performances as a soloist include Montreal, Vienna, London, Paris and Taiwan and chamber music concerts with Evgeny Kissin and Stephen Isserliss at Carngie Hall, and in Switzerland with Simon Trpcesky and Stephen Isserliss. He also joined Aspen and Bravo Vale Festival in the States this summer in Recital, Masterclasses and Concerto performance with Fabio Luisi and the Dallas SO and celebrated 40 years on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in a big gala concert in April 2023. In 2023/24 he will open the Shanghai International Festival with Christoph Eschenbach, will embarque on another world wine Recital tour including America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia and will perform orchestra concerts in amongst others in Vienna, Paris and Milan.
In 2020 Maxim Vengerov became Classic FM’s first solo Artist in Residence and released a new recording of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with conductor Myung-Whun Chung and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, coupled with works by Saint-Säens and Ravel as well as a live recital from Carnegie Hall.
As one of Mr Vengerov’s greatest passions is the teaching and encouraging of young talent, he has held various teaching positions around the world. He currently holds the Stephan and Viktoria Schmidheiny Stiftungsprofessor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and since September 2016 he is also the Polonsky Visiting Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2018 Maxim Vengerov became the Goodwill Ambassador of the Musica Mundi School - a unique institution, which supports young talents. With the vision of democratising the access of music learning, he launched his own online platform in January 2021:www.maximvengerov.com and created an impact across 170 countries and over 190 million reach. His first year programs include partnerships with musical institutions from around the world, the Lottery Ticket program, guest artist series inaugurated with Brett Yang from TwoSet Violin, as well as his new global community group who’s initiatives include the world leading Mentoring program, rural musical communities initiative and the Musical Pen Pals program for children.
Mr Vengerov has been profiled in a series of documentaries, including Playing by Heart, which was recorded by Channel Four Television and screened at the Cannes Television Festival in 1999, and Living the Dream, which was released worldwide and received the Gramophone Award for Best Documentary in 2008.
Mr Vengerov has received prestigious fellowships and honours from a number of institutions. In 2012 he was awarded an Honorary Visiting Fellowship at Trinity College Oxford and in 2019 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Music London and in 2019 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Music London and the Order of Cultural Merit from the Palace Monte Carlo.
Mr Vengerov has also received numerous awards including Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) (2003), two Gramophone awards (1994, 1995), a Classical Brit Award (2004), five Edison Classical Music Awards (1995, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2004), two ECHO awards (1997, 2003) and a World Economic Forum Crystal award (2007) - honouring artists who have used their art to improve the state of the world.
He plays the ex-Kreutzer Stradivari (1727).
Conductor | UK · USA
Michael Francis has quickly established himself as one of the leading international conductors of today. With the start of the 2019-20 season, Francis begins his tenure as Chief Conductor of Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz. Appointed Music Director of the Florida Orchestra in the fall of 2014, he is now entering his fifth season with a contract extension through the 2023-24 season. His role in building a wide variety of transformative community engagement initiatives has significantly grown the organization. Since 2014 as Music Director of the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, California with a contract renewal through the summer of 2023, he continues his ambitious multi-year exploration of Mozart’s life. He was Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra from 2012-16.
For the 2019-20 season, upcoming engagements include a debut with the Detroit Symphony for their season opening, as well as return performances with the Indianapolis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic, Philharmonia, MDR Leipzig, RSB Berlin and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken.
Previous and upcoming highlights include North American performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras of Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Diego, Houston, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Pacific, Montreal, Toronto and National Arts Centre (Ottawa). In Europe, he has conducted the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE Madrid, the Mariinsky Orchestra, the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Scottish Symphony. In Asia, Maestro Francis has worked with the NHK Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan as well as the philharmonic orchestras of Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Seoul.
Michael Francis has collaborated with notable soloists such as Lang Lang, Arcadi Volodos, Itzhak Perlman, Christian Tetzlaff, Vadim Gluzman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Nicola Benedetti, Javier Perianes, Jamie Barton, Truls Mørk, Håkan Hardenberger, Maximilian Hornung, Miloš, Benjamin Grosvenor, Emanuel Ax, Ian Bostridge, James Ehnes, Sting, Rufus Wainwright and many others.
Educational outreach with young musicians is of utmost priority for Maestro Francis. He returns to the National Youth Orchestra of Canada during the summer of 2020, having conducted their Spanish tour in 2019. He has also frequently conducted Miami’s New World Symphony and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. Francis works on a regular basis with young musicians in Florida as part of the orchestra's community engagement initiative.
Francis’ discography includes the Rachmaninov piano concertos with Valentina Lisitsa and the London Symphony Orchestra, Wolfgang Rihm’s Lichtes Spiel with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the New York Philharmonic, and the Ravel & Gershwin piano concertos with Ian Parker.
A former double-bass player in the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), Michael Francis came to prominence as a conductor in January of 2007 stepping in for Valery Gergiev and John Adams with the LSO.
Francis makes his home in Tampa, FL with his wife Cindy and four-year-old daughter Annabella.
Piano | Switzerland
Pianist, conductor, and composer, Mikhail Pletnev is one of the most respected and influential artists of the era. His prodigious talent as a pianist has earned widespread acclaim ever since the 1978 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, where he won First Prize at the age of 21. An invitation to perform at a 1988 diplomatic summit in Washington led to Pletnev’s friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev and a lifelong commitment to dismantling barriers through the universal language of music.
In 1990, Pletnev formed the Russian National Orchestra – the first independent orchestra in Russia’s history. Under his leadership, the RNO achieved recognition as one of the world’s great orchestras.
Over thirty years later, Pletnev has renewed his commitment to artistic freedom with his founding of the Rachmaninoff International Orchestra, named after the celebrated pianist, conductor, and composer whose own career inspired audiences from all corners of the globe.
Pletnev’s performances and recordings have shown him to be an outstanding interpreter of an extensive repertoire, both as a pianist and conductor. His recordings have earned numerous prizes, including a 2005 Grammy Award for his own arrangement of Prokofiev’s Cinderella. He received Grammy nominations for Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes (2004) and the Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev Piano Concertos No. 3 (2003). His critically acclaimed album of Scarlatti’s 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 NewYorker.
Pianist, conductor, composer, and cultural leader – all are significant facets of Mikhail Pletnev’s remarkable life. Yet with his characteristic humility, he insists that he is, simply, a musician.
Conductor | Russia
Mikhail Kirchhoff is the principal conductor of Moscow Youth Symphony Orchestra, the principal conductor of the Kaliningrad Music Theatre, the Artistic director and the principal conductor of the festival “Eurasian stars”, the principal conductor of the festival “Ak Ertis”.
Teacher at the State Musical Pedagogical Institute named M.M. Ippolitova-Ivanov (Moscow).
Mikhail Kirchhoff was born in 1982 in Moscow. He began his education in the Victor Popov Academy of Choral Art. In 2009 he graduated with honors from the Moscow State P.İ. Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
2010-2012 worked in Istanbul State Opera.
2012-2017 worked in Samsun State Opera.
2018-2020 is the main guest conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra “Academy of soloists” (Kazakhstan).
Performed with various orchestras in Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Latvia, Malta, Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan and many others.
Conductor | Switzerland
Pianist, conductor, and composer, Mikhail Pletnev is one of the most respected and influential artists of the era. His prodigious talent as a pianist has earned widespread acclaim ever since the 1978 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, where he won First Prize at the age of 21. An invitation to perform at a 1988 diplomatic summit in Washington led to Pletnev’s friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev and a lifelong commitment to dismantling barriers through the universal language of music.
In 1990, Pletnev formed the Russian National Orchestra – the first independent orchestra in Russia’s history. Under his leadership, the RNO achieved recognition as one of the world’s great orchestras.
Over thirty years later, Pletnev has renewed his commitment to artistic freedom with his founding of the Rachmaninoff International Orchestra, named after the celebrated pianist, conductor, and composer whose own career inspired audiences from all corners of the globe.
Pletnev’s performances and recordings have shown him to be an outstanding interpreter of an extensive repertoire, both as a pianist and conductor. His recordings have earned numerous prizes, including a 2005 Grammy Award for his own arrangement of Prokofiev’s Cinderella. He received Grammy nominations for Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes (2004) and the Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev Piano Concertos No. 3 (2003). His critically acclaimed album of Scarlatti’s 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 NewYorker.
Pianist, conductor, composer, and cultural leader – all are significant facets of Mikhail Pletnev’s remarkable life. Yet with his characteristic humility, he insists that he is, simply, a musician.
Conductor | CROATIA
Acclaimed as “dynamic and knowledgeable” by the Buenos Aires Herald, Croatian conductor Miran Vaupotić has worked with eminent orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Argentina and others, performing in major halls around the globe, such as Carnegie Hall, Wiener Musikverein, Berliner Philharmonie, Rudolfinum, Smetana Hall, Victoria Hall, Forbidden City Concert Hall, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Tchaikovsky Hall, International House of Music, CBC Glenn Gould Studio etc.
A strong advocate for new music, Vaupotić has premiered many pieces including Carlos Franzetti’s Clarinet Concerto, Roberto Di Marino’s Guitar Concerto, Primous Fountain’s Symphony No. 2 commissioned by 28-time Grammy Award-winning American producer Quincy Jones, and most recently The Wild Symphony composed by #1 New York Times bestselling author Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code).
He also premiered several operas including Waundell Saavedra’s Sweet Dreams, John Rose’s Rumpelstiltskin directed by Tyler Bunch (The Muppets) at The National Opera America Center in New York City, and Jelka by the late Croatian composer Blagoje Bersa, bringing the piece to life a century after the influential composer’s passing.
As a recording artist Vaupotić released albums with Naxos, Classic Concert Records and Navona Records. In 2015 he was honored with the Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards in California (USA).
Miran Vaupotić won First Prize and special award at the 12th International Aram Khachaturian Conducting Competition in Yerevan, Armenia. Today, he is the Chief Conductor of the Croatian Chamber Orchestra (since 2016), Artistic Director of the Piazzolla Music Competition, Project Director at PARMA Recordings and Chief Conductor of the South Czech Philharmonic (since 2021).
Cello | Belgium
Mischa Maisky has the distinction of being the only cellist in the world to have studied with both Mstislav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky.
Rostropovich lauded Maisky as "... one of the most outstanding talents of the younger generation of cellists. His playing combines poetry and exquisite delicacy with great temperament and brilliant technique."
Born in Latvia, educated in Russia and later repatriated to Israel; Maisky has been enthusiastically received in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, New York, Tokyo and many other major music centres.
He considers himself a citizen of the world: “I’m playing an Italian cello, with French and German bows and Austrian and German strings, my 6 children were born in 4 different countries, my wife is half Sri Lankan-half Italian, I’m driving a Japanese and an American electric car, I wear an Indian necklace and a Swiss watch, and I feel at home everywhere where people appreciate and enjoy classical music.”
Truly a world-class musician and a regular guest at most major International Festivals, he has collaborated with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Carlo Maria Giulini, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Charles Dutoit, Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Kirill Petrenko, Paavo Järvi and Gustavo Dudamel.
His musician partnerships have included artists such as Martha Argerich, Radu Lupu, Nelson Freire, Evgeny Kissin, Itzhak Perlman, Lang Lang, Peter Serkin, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Vadim Repin, Maxim Vengerov, Joshua Bell, Julian Rachlin and Janine Jansen to name just a few.
One of the highlights of his career was the year 2000. It was mainly devoted to a world-wide Bach tour of over 100 concerts! An expression of his deep admiration for this great composer is that Maisky has recorded Bach's Solo Suites three times, with his Cello Suite No. 1 being viewed more than 45 million times on YouTube.
As an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist for more than 30 years he made over 35 recordings with such orchestras as the Vienna, Berlin and Israel Philharmonics, the London Symphony, L‘Orchestre de Paris, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and others.
In 2018, the very personal album ‘Adagietto’ was released with his pianist daughter Lily, and featuring bonus live recordings with Martha Argerich, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin and his violinist son Sascha. Included is a multi-track arrangement of Mahler’s Adagietto from his 5th Symphony with Maisky playing all parts (except the harp), a project the cellist had dreamed of for many years.
His latest recording is entitled ‘20th Century Classics’ and includes a Bonus CD of the world premiere of Benjamin Yusupov’s cello concerto (dedicated to Maisky) as well as a multi-track recording of ‘Bachianas Brasileiras’ by Heitor Villa Lobos.
In June 2021 there will be a set of complete recordings on DG with over 40 CDs released.
Maisky’s recordings have enjoyed world-wide critical acclaim and have been awarded the prestigious Record Academy Prize in Tokyo five times and the Echo Deutscher Schallplattenpreis three times, as well as the Grand Prix du Disque in Paris and the Diapason d’Or of the Year, as well as receiving several coveted Grammy nominations.
His long and illustrious career has brought Maisky many honors and awards, just some of which include:
In 2018, as Maisky was awarded the 46th Istanbul Music Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, he was lauded as ‘one of the greatest living cellists of our time’ for his ‘profound artistry and devotion to music’.
In 2019, he was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music. This honor is limited to 300 living persons at a time, recognising Maisky alongside such greats as Mendelssohn, Liszt, Stravinsky and Casals.
In 2021, Maisky was appointed Honorary Academician of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia; founded in 1585, one of the oldest and most prestigious musical institutions in the world. The title of ‘Accademico Onorario’ is awarded to “the most outstanding foreign musicians and musicologists” and Maisky is only the second cellist ever to receive it.
In June 2021, Maisky will receive the Honorary Fellow Award of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
Conductor | Germany
“Giving space to music” runs like a thread through Nabil Shehata's life, both literally and figuratively. As a nine-year-old, the double bass opens the door to, in his words, “the most beautiful repertoire there is” – namely that of classical music. As a young person, he feels the growing desire to be involved in this music as a conductor. Shehata follows this impulse, gives up his position as principal bass player of the Berliner Philharmoniker, and has since successfully embarked on a career as a conductor. A critic recently wrote that he conducts with “authority full of ease” an observation that corresponds precisely with what Shehata is aiming for. “It is about resonating with each other. This is what creates music. This is what I want to achieve with orchestras”. Shehata has developed a conducting style that is closely related to chamber music making, because he is convinced that “this is how music is created that can achieve what audiences, orchestras, and conductors alike desire: unforgettable concert experiences!”.
Nabil Shehata's career began as principal bass player with the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic. As a conductor, he has been mentored and taught by Christian Thielemann, Rolf Reuter, and Lawrence Forster, among others. Since 2019, he has been chief conductor of the Philharmonie Südwestfalen and has recently conducted as a guest, among other ensembles, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Robert Schumann Philharmonic, and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Not long ago, he made his conducting debut with great success at the sold-out Elbphilharmonie. Prior to his current position, he was the chief conductor at the Munich Chamber Opera, and broadened his experience at the Berlin State Opera as an assistant to Daniel Barenboim. As a professor of double bass in Munich and Berlin as well as a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, he has passed on his experience to younger musicians for many years. In his hometown of Verden, Shehata founded the “Maiklänge” chamber music festival, which is a heartfelt project for him to organize high-quality concerts where he grew up.
Violin | China
Lauded as one of today's probing musical voices, Nancy Zhou harbors a robust presence thatseeks to invigorate appreciation for the art and science of the violin. Her thoughtful musicianship resonates with a global audience in such a way that brings her on stage with leading orchestras around the world.
The violinist has collaborated with the Royal Stockholm, Hong Kong Philharmonics; Shanghai, Kansas City and San Diego Symphonies, among others. Alongside projects as a soloist, Nancy harbors interest in chamber music and music education. She has visited the Tanglewood, Verbier, Ravinia Festivals. The violinist devotes time to a private online studio as well, teaching students across the globe and presenting masterclasses on fundamental training andcultivating mindful awareness critical to performance.
This season, the violinist explores works outside the traditional oeuvre. Chinese composer Zhao Jiping’s first concerto was performed with the New Jersey Symphony at the Lincoln Center. She will also appear with the Würzburg Philharmonic in Germany and return to Italy for recitals.
American-born, Nancy commenced violin studies with her father, later studying with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory while simultaneously pursuing her interest in literature at Harvard University. She is additionally an Associated Artist at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.
Cello | Armenia
Since winning the Cello First Prize and Gold Medal at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 at the age of 22, Narek Hakhnazaryan has performed with most major orchestras and in recital and chamber music across the globe at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals. Hakhnazaryan is a compelling artist, a true virtuoso with an innate musicality and an exceptional talent for connecting with his audience. He has been described as “dazzlingly brilliant” (The Strad) and “nothing short of magnificent" (San Francisco Chronicle) and of his LAPO debut, the LA Times said “His command of the instrument is extraordinary”.
Highlights of Hakhnazaryan’s 21/22 season include performances in Madrid with the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia and Pappano, at the Dvorak Prague festival with Netopil, Pisa festival, with the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Residentie Orchestra with Collon in both The Hague and at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He will also tour Australia and New Zealand. In 20/21 he made his debut with the Vienna Radio Orchestra and Alsop in the opening concert of their season at the Musikverein, with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra receiving an immediate re-invitation and was invited for a residency with Finnish Radio Symphony and Lintu, performing two televised concerti and a solo recital. He performed a piano quartet programme with Lugansky, Boriso-Glebsky and Rysanov in Madrid, Vienna and Moscow (other major venues were cancelled) and he was due to perform in recital with Trifonov across the US including at Carnegie Hall.
Hakhnazaryan has enjoyed a truly global career since his rise to fame in 2011 and has played with orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio, Berlin Konzerthaus, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, NHK Symphony orchestras, and with conductors such as Gergiev, Koopman, Sokhiev, Robertson, Honeck, Noseda and Netopil. He has toured Spain with the WDR Symphony/Saraste, the US with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Neemi Järvi and Japan with the Czech Philharmonic/Bělohlávek. A former BBC New Generation Artist, he has performed with all the BBC orchestras and made a sensational debut at the BBC Proms. In 2017 the Vienna Konzerthaus invited Hakhnazaryan to be a “Great Talent” and during the two seasons that followed he performed there regularly in recital, chamber music and with orchestra, most notably with the Vienna Symphony and Hrůša.
In Summer 2019 he performed in recital at the Verbier and Rheingau Festivals with Daniil Trifonov, and in the 18/19 season was enjoyed a 4-concert residency at London’s Wigmore Hall. In North America he performs regularly in recital, most recently in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto and in past seasons has performed at Carnegie Hall and Jordan Hall (Boston). In 2017 he toured SE Asia, performing the complete Bach cello solo suites in Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo and Kyoto. An eager chamber musician, Hakhnazaryan has performed at most major festivals worldwide and in major halls across Europe with various chamber partners. With the ZEN Trio, he has toured the US and China, has released a recording on Deutsche Grammophon and upcoming plans include concerts in London and Barcelona.
Mentored by the late Rostropovich, Hakhnazaryan received an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music in 2011 where he studied with Lawrence Lesser.
Prior to this he studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov and at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan. Hakhnazaryan has received scholarships from the Rostropovich Foundation and the New Names Foundation, and his prizes include First Prize in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in Armenia and First Place in the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players. As First Prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Hakhnazaryan made his debut in Washington, DC and at Carnegie Hall.
Narek Hakhnazaryan was born in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of musicians: his father is a violinist, his mother a pianist, and he performs regularly with his brother, the conductor Tigran Akhnazarian. In September 2017 he was awarded the title of “Honored Artist of Armenia” by the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan. Hakhnazaryan plays the 1707 Joseph Guarneri cello and F.X. Tourte and Benoit Rolland bows.
Piano | France
Winner of the prestigious Cleveland International Piano Competition 2016, pianist Nikita Mndoyants was able to convince with his elegance, his technical prowess and the transparency of his playing. In 2007, the young Nikita also won First Prize at the Paderewsky International Piano Competition Poland. Nikita Mndoyants, trained at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, has performed under the direction of renowned conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Vassily Sinaisky or Mario Venzago. He has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the “Evgeny Svetlanov” State Academic Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra de Mulhouse, the Philharmonie de Strasbourg and many more. . In recital, he has traveled to the greatest stages in the world and was applauded in particular at Carnegie Hall in New York, at the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, at the Salle Cortot and at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, at the Opéra de Strasbourg , at the Philharmonie du Luxembourg and at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Nikita Mndoyants is also a regular guest at the Ruhr Piano Festival (Germany), the Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdroj (Poland), the Freiburg International Piano Series (Switzerland) and since 2012, the International Music Festival of Wissembourg (France). After performing with the illustrious Borodin Quartet in 2004, he continued to cultivate his passion for chamber music alongside fabulous ensembles such as the Brentano, Ebène and Zemlinsky Quartets. Recognized composer and orchestrator, Nikita Mndoyants likes to share his own compositions with the public of his recitals. Nikita Mndoyants is well known on the airwaves of France-Musique as well as Polish Radio; he has resided in France since 2018.
Conductor | Italy
Born in Rostov-on-Don. In 2000 he graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, and in 2002 he completed postgraduate studies there. Since 2009 — Associate professor of MGK. Since 2001 — conductor of the Bolshoi Theater.
Under his leadership, the Bolshoi Theater premiered seventeen ballet performances, among the recent ones – "Sacred Spring" by I. Stravinsky (2013), "Variations on the theme of Frank Bridge" to the music of B. Britten, "Very briefly together" to the music of M. Richter and L. van Beethoven, "Symphony of Psalms" to the music of I. Stravinsky, "Undine" by H. V. Henze and "The Golden Age" by D. Shostakovich (all – 2016), "Romeo and Juliet" by S. Prokofiev (2017), "Petrushka" by I. Stravinsky (2018), "Giselle" by A. Adan (2019).
Maestro Klinichev appeared with the Bolshoi Opera, Ballet and Orchestra at the most famed venues, including the Teatro alla Scala, The Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Opera Garnier, Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo), The National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing) and many others.
In 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2019 he received awards in Russian National Theater Award "Golden Mask" ("The best work of a conductor").
In 2021 he received the title of Honored Artist of Russia.
Piano | Poland/Portugal
Piotr Anderszewski is regarded as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation and appears regularly in all of the world's major concert halls.
His collaborations with orchestra have included appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, the London and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which he also conducted from the piano.
2022/23, Piotr Anderszewski will perform solo recitals in Paris, Vienna, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Seoul, Madrid, Rome and Baltimore, among others. He is also looking forward to concerts with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, among others.
His numerous recordings have won many awards. The latest, his interpretation of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2 was awarded the Gramophone Classical Music Award.
Recognised for the intensity and originality of his interpretations, Piotr Anderszewski has been a recipient of several high-profile awards over the course of his career, including the prestigious Gilmore Award, which is presented every four years to a pianist of exceptional talent.
The director Bruno Monsaingeon shot two award-winning documentaries about him for ARTE. The first sheds light on Anderszewski's special relationship to the Diabelli Variations, while the second, “Piotr Anderszewski, Traveler Without Rest” (2008) is an artist portrait and reflects Anderszewski's thoughts on music, concert activities and his Polish-Hungarian roots. A third documentary by Monsaingeon, “Anderszewski plays Schumann” was shot for Polish television in 2010.
Piano | France
Laureate of numerous international competitions, notably the second prize-winner at the 2013 Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition at the age of twenty and the youngest prize-winner of the Bonn International Beethoven Competition, Rémi Geniet is fast establishing himself as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation. In 2015 he became a prize-winner of the Young Concert Artists in New York and in 2020 was awarded a career grant by the prestigious New York Salon de Virtuosi.
Rémi Geniet performs internationally with orchestras including the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, State Symphony Orchestra Novaya Rossiya, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Barcelona Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Belgium National Orchestra, Orchestre national de Lille, Orchestre d’Auvergne and Orchestre National d'Île-de-France, Kitchener Waterloo Symphony and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under conductors such as Marin Alsop, Emmanuel Krivine, Edo de Waart, Thomas Sanderling, Alan Buribayev, Enrique Mazolla, Ernest Martinez-Izquierdo, Jérémie Rhorer, Robert Trevino, David Niemann, Roberto Forés Veses, Okko Kamu, Eduard Topchjan, Adrian Leaper and Pavel Gerstein.
Invited to the most important French series and festivals, Rémi Geniet appears regularly at the Auditorium du Louvre, Piano aux Jacobins, Piano à Lyon, La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, Festival Radio France Montpellier, La Folle Journée, la Grange de Meslay, Lille Piano(s) Festival and opened both the “L’âme du Piano” series at the historical Salle Gaveau and the “New Generation” series in the inaugural season of the Fondation Louis Vuitton to enormous critical acclaim.
Outside France he performs at Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall), the Morgan Library, Munich Gasteig, NDR Hanover, Konzerthaus Berlin, Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory as well as in Vienna, Geneva, Ghent, Brussels, Germany and Poland. Amongst the many prestigious international festivals that invite him are Verbier, Colmar, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Duszniki Chopin Piano Festival, Chopin Festival Marienbad, St Petersburg Arts Square International Winter Festival, Euriade Festival in the Netherlands, Casals Festival Puerto Rico, Montreal Bach Festival and Interlaken Classics Festival in Switzerland. In early 2016 he was invited to participate at Les Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad at the invitation of Renaud Capuçon, winning the “Prix André Hoffmann”.
Violin | Hungary/ Belgium
Roby Lakatos is not only a virtuoso on the violin, but also an extremely versatile musician who is equally adept to performing classical music, jazz and the folk idiom of his home country of Hungary. He is hard to define: most often, he is described as a Gypsy violinist, a devil’s fiddler, classical master, jazz improviser, composer and arranger – and his unique artistic personality is all that. He is a universal musician combining brilliant technique that makes him one of the best violinists in the world with creativity in improvisation and composing power.
Roby Lakatos was born in 1965 to a legendary family of Romani musicians as a member of the seventh generation of direct descendants to János Bihari - the famous “King of Gipsy Violinists”, who was admired by Ludwig van Beethoven, introduced Johannes Brahms to the themes for his Hungarian Dances and of whom Franz Liszt said: “The sweet tones drawn from his magic violin fell like drops of nectar on our enchanted ears.” From early childhood, Roby Lakatos lived with the musical tradition of his family – he played in his uncle Sándor and father Antal’s band and appeared as the first violinist of a Gipsy orchestra at the age of nine. Thus, he learned the tradition of violin technique and ornamentation at an early age, but also gained formal education at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest.
After winning the first prize for violin at the age of 19, he left for Belgium and first played in Liège, and then in the newly opened club Les Ateliers de la Grande Ile in Brussels, which quickly became a hotspot thanks to him and his ensemble. In the ten years of performing in the club, the ensemble attracted numerous fans: the shows were regularly visited by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, for example, and Roby made connections and collaborated with a number of musicians, including violinist Vadim Repin and his role model for violin jazz music performances Stéphane Grappelli.
His concert career developed gradually, and now Roby Lakatos spends most of his time performing in various stages around the world. His ensemble has appeared, among other places, at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, in Académies Musicales de Saintes, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Ludwigsburg Schloßfestspiele and the Helsinki Festival, as well as in prestigious concert halls (Santa Cecilia in Rome, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Zankel Hall – Carnegie Hall in New York). His versatility has given him and his ensemble the opportunity to collaborate with major orchestras–The London Symphony Orchestra, French National Radio Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, to name a few – as well as with numerous exceptional artists, including Giora Feidman, Herbie Hancock, Joshua Bell, Maksim Vengerov, Nigel Kennedy and Randy Brecker. In Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan he first performed in 1999, and has since been regularly playing in Asia. He records for Hungarian and Belgian television networks and has also appeared on German television and German national radio stations, as well as on BBC in London.
Roby plays a violin made by Fabien Gram.
Seven years after the release of their 1991 album Gypsy Style for MW Records, The Roby Lakatos Ensemble recorded their first CD for Deutsche Grammophon, titled Lakatos. With a presentation of a unique style, which is a fusion of typical Gipsy music elements and jazz with improvisation as an important feature and specific technical effects, some of which he created himself (such as the fascinating left-hand pizzicato), Roby Lakatos and his ensemble also reflected a universal approach to the musical material by including on their CD the works by composers ranging from Zoltán Kodály and Johannes Brahms to John Williams’s music for Schindler's List and Charles Aznavour’s chanson La Bohème. This album, which received the prestigious German Echo Klassik award, was followed by four more releases for Deutsche Grammophon: Lakatos Gold and Post Phrasing (1998/1999), Live From Budapest (1999), and As Time Goes By (2002) offering an equally exciting combination of jazz and Gipsy music idioms with contemporary and classical elements. Apart from recording for other labels – With Musical Friends (Universal, 2001), Kinoshita Meets Lakatos (Prime Direction, Inc., 2002), Prokofiev... (Avanticlassic, 2005), Fire Dance (Avantijazz, 2005) and Klezmer Karma (Avanticlassic, 2006) – Roby Lakatos also started his own label Lakatos Recording Company to present somewhat different music, i.e. experimental works such as the project named The Legend of the Toad (2004), which is a sort of musical story told through his performances and the performances of his ensemble whose member, pianist Kálmán Cséki, also arranged the music.
Except for his long-time associate, violinist Lászlo Bóni, Roby Lakatos’s ensemble today is composed of young virtuoso musicians with classical musical education who are also well versed in the folklore tradition of Hungarian Gypsies.
From 2020, Roby Lakatos is Artist Ambassador of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.
Violin | Germany
Roman Kim is internationally acknowledged as one of the most innovative violinists of our time. He has been constantly contributing to the evolution of violin playing technique, expanding the boundaries of what – some years ago – had been considered impossible by even the best violinists in the world.
When, in 2010, he published a video on YouTube, performing his transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach's Air from the Orchestral Suite No. 3, the then 19-year-old caused a sensation. The fact that he was playing all four parts of the score on a single violin amazed experts and famous violinists. Ever since, his fresh and unconventional approach to classical music has been applauded by audiences all over the world.
After winning the International Violin Competition "Valsesia Musica" (2012), Kim played concerts in Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Russia, USA, China, South Korea, Romania, Switzerland and Taiwan. Among others, he appeared in auditoriums such as the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Cologne Philharmonic, the Romanian Athenaeum, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Herkulessaal, the Beijing Concert Hall, the Bari Teatro Petruzzelli, the Seoul Arts Centre, the Franz List Music Academy Budapest and the Taipei National Concert Hall. He performed with orchestras like the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Aachen Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra del Teatro Petruzzelli, the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, under the baton of distinguished conductors such as Aziz Shokhakimov, Dirk Kaftan, Josep Caballé Domenech, Daejin Kim, Alexandre Bloch and Alpesh Chauhan.
Composing soloist inspired by the past
As a soloist, Roman Kim is especially devoted to the works of Niccolò Paganini, fighting against the prejudice of Paganini's compositions being merely superficial virtuoso show pieces. Resuming the great and old tradition of composing soloists, Roman Kim is also a performer of his own compositions. In 2015, he started a close collaboration with the renowned German music publisher "Bärenreiter". The first edition of Kim's arrangement of Bach's Air was sold out within a few months. Roman Kim's music is romantic, tonal and melodic. While it reminds of the the great composers of the 19th century, his music is also highly original, due to his technical innovations that allow him to create absolutely astonishing sounds. Roman Kim's paraphrases "I Brindisi" on themes by Italian opera composer Verdi strengthened his reputation as a modern Paganini. Inspired by Arcangelo Corelli's “La Folia”, Kim proposed his own approach to the famous musical theme that inspired so many composers of the past.
Combining musical brilliance and spiritual depth
In April 2017, Roman Kim's "Three Romances" for violin and piano were published by "Bärenreiter". The same year, his debut album “Kimpossible” was released by Sony Classical and
received with enthusiasm by critiques around the globe. One of Kim's latest works is an arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Piano Concerto in d-Minor. It does not only translate Bach's orchestral music to the solo violin, but also disposes of a cadenza that Kim composed for this version. In 2019, Roman Kim published his arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”. During the last two years, Roman Kim worked on his “Requiem”. The expressive large scale composition for solo violin was inspired by Gregorian chants and the Roman Catholic Mass for the dead. The movements follow the traditional liturgical form, combining musical brilliance and spiritual depth. The “Requiem” should have been inaugurated in Hiroshima, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city. However, the event had to be postponed due to the 2020 pandemic.
Pupil of Galina Turchaninova
Born in Kazakhstan into a family of Korean-Tatar-Belarussian descent, Kim started to play the violin at the age of five. Only three years later, he went to Moscow to attend the class of Galina Turchaninova who, as a professor at the Moscow Central Music School, taught many famous violinist like Maxim Vengerov. In 2008, Roman Kim was accepted, aged 16, at the
Musikhochschule Cologne, where he studied with Prof. Viktor Tretyakov. Roman Kim currently lives in Cologne and studies composition at the local conservatory. He plays a violin he designed himself. The instrument was created in 2015 at the workshop of master violin maker Alexander Hazin (Cologne) and named „Superior".
Violin | UK
The new cd release for the LSO live label with the Paganini 24 caprices recording describe Simovic's playing as:
'For a recording that is as musically involving as it is technically dazzling, he has few rivals' The Strad
‘This is what it sounds like when a player moves beyond the technical demands of a work and becomes a vehicle for the essence of the music.’ Strings Magazine
‘[Simovic] shows the astonishing variety of these works... breathtakingly worthwhile.’ The Guardian
'The whole superb rendition can be listened to for pure pleasure.' The Times
Roman Simovic's brilliant virtuosity and seemingly-inborn musicality, fueled by a limitless imagination, has taken him throughout all continents performing on many of world's leading stages including the Bolshoi Hall of the Tchaikovsky conservatory, Mariinsky hall in St. Petersburg, Grand Opera House in Tel-Aviv, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Rudolfinum Hall in Prague, Barbican Hall in London, Art Centre in Seoul, Grieg Hall in Bergen, Rachmaninov Hall in Moscow...
Roman Simovic has been awarded prizes at numerous international competitions among which are: 'Premio Rodolfo Lipizer' (Italy), Sion-Valais (Switzerland), Yampolsky Violin Competition (Russia) and the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition (Poland), placing him among the foremost violinists of his generation.
As soloist, Simovic has appeared with the world leading orchestras: London Symphony orchestra, Mariinsky theatre symphony orchestra, Teatro Regio Torino, Symphony Nova Scotia (Canada), Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (Hungary), Camerata Bern (Switzerland), Camerata Salzburg (Austria), CRR Chamber Orchestra (Turkey), Poznan Philharmonia, Prague Philharmonia, North Brabant (Holland), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Schottish Orchestra, Orchestra Reggio della Toscana... And with such a conductors like: Valery Gergiev, Antonio Pappano, Daniel Harding, Gianandrea Noseda, Kristian Jarvi, Jiri Belohlavek, Pablo Heras Casado, Nikolai Znaider, Mark Elder, John Wilson...
A sought-after artist, Roman Simovic has been invited and continues to perform at various distinguished festivals such as the “Verbier Festival”, 'White Nights' Festival St. Petersburg, Easter Festival Valery Gergiev Moscow, Dubrovnik Summer Festival in Croatia, 'KotorArt' Montenegro, the BEMUS and NOMUS Festivals in Serbia, 'Sion Valais' Switzerland, Norway's Bergen Festival, 'Moscow Winter' Festival in Russia, Portogruaro Festival in Italy, 'Granada music festival' in Spain, collaborating with such renowned artists as Leonidas Kavakos, Evgeny Kissin,Yuja Wang, Gautie Capuson, Antoine Tamestit, Misha Maisky, Schlomo Mintz, Francois Leleux, Itamar Golan, Simon Trpceski, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin...
As an educator, he has presented master-classes in the US, UK, South Korea, Serbia, Montenegro, Israel, Italy. Roman Simovic plays a 1709 Antonio Stradivari violin which was generously given to him on loan from Jonathan Moulds, Bank of America's president. In the 2018 season Roman Simovis released Paganini 24 Caprices for the LSO live label and is planning to release a CD with Tchaikovsky and Glazunov concertos with Gergiev and Mariinsky orchestra for the Mariinsky label.
Mr Simovic is serving as a leader of the great London Symphony Orchestra.
Piano | Russia/France
Roustem Saitkoulov was born in Kazan (Russia). He started playing the piano at the age of four and entered the Kazan Conservatory junior classes when he was six years old. He went on to study with Elisso Virsaladze at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he received a Diploma in Solo Piano Performance, and furthered his studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Munich, where he received his Masters degree.
He is the prizewinner at numerous international competitions:
Grand Prix of the Montecarlo World Piano-Masters, presented to him by the late Prince Rainier III of Monaco; F. Busoni Competition, Bolzano, Italy; UNISA (University of South Africa) Competition, Pretoria; Concours Géza Andà, Zurich, Switzerland; Marguerite Long Competition, Paris; First Prize in the Rome Piano Competition.
Roustem Saitkoulov performs frequently with world’s renown orchestras, such as Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, RAI Symphony Orchestra Torino, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, St-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo New City Orchestra and Beijing Symphony Orchestra.
His recitals take him all over the world: to Russia, China, Japan, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, the United States, Canada, South Africa, and through Europe.
He has taken part in many music festivals throughout Europe including Montreux Festival, International Festival of Piano in La Roque d’Anthéron (France), Bologna Festival, Festival Brescia-Bergamo, Merano Festival, Piano aux Jacobins (Toulouse, France), Festival de Radio France-Montpellier, Printemps des Arts de Montecarlo and Menton Festival.
He has given many concerts for subsequent radio broadcasts: France Musique, Radio Classique, DRS 2 (Switzerland), NDR Kultur (Germany). He frequently appears on television programs devoted to classical music: France 2, France 5 and Mezzo in France, and the international European channel 3SAT.
He does many CD recordings, which include albums released by EMI Classics and Dinemec Classics. More recently Master Chord Records has released his recording of the two Piano Concertos of Chopin with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and IndéSENS label has issued his recording of the Piano Concerto n° 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich.
Roustem Saitkoulov has an important activity in chamber music. He is a regular partner of the violinist Maxim Vengerov and performs with such artists as Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Pierre Amoyal, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Olivier Charlier, Xavier Phillips, Laurent Korcia, Svetlin Roussev, François Salque, Mayuko Kamio and Sayaka Shoji.
Piano | Austria
Rudolf Buchbinder is one of the legendary artists of our time. His piano playing is an unparalleled fusion of the authority of a career spanning more than 60 years with spirit and spontaneity. His renditions are celebrated worldwide for their intellectual depth and musical freedom.
Particularly his renditions of Ludwig van Beethoven's works are considered to be exemplary. He has performed the 32 piano sonatas 60 times in cycles all over the world and developed the story of their interpretation over decades. He was the first pianist to play all Beethoven sonatas at the Salzburg Festival during a summer festival. A live recording is available on DVD.
On the occasion of Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday in the 2019/20 concert season, for the first time in its 150-year history, the Vienna Musikverein gave a single pianist, Rudolf Buchbinder, the honor of performing all five piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven in a specially edited cycle. Buchbinder's partners in this unprecedented constellation were the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Music Director Andris Nelsons, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under their chief conductors Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev and Christian Thielemann.
Together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, Rudolf Buchbinder also returned to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Philharmonie Luxembourg and the Carnegie Hall New York as part of a tour.
A première is the focus of the Beethoven Year 2020. Based on Beethoven's Diabelli Variations Op. 120, Rudolf Buchbinder initiated a new cycle of variations on the same waltz by Anton Diabelli, which also forms the basis of Beethoven's epochal masterpiece. With Lera Auerbach, Brett Dean, Toshio Hosokawa, Christian Jost, Brad Lubman, Philippe Manoury, Max Richter, Rodion Shchedrin, Johannes Maria Staud, Tan Dun and Jörg Widmann, it was possible to win eleven leading contemporary composers of different generations and backgrounds. The New Diabelli Variations were commissioned by a variety of concert promoters worldwide and with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
In March 2020, Deutsche Grammophon released 'The Diabelli Project' presenting the world première recording of the New Diabelli Variations alongside a new recording of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, which Buchbinder last recorded in 1976. The CD marks the beginning of Rudolf Buchbinder's exclusive partnership with Deutsche Grammophone.
Rudolf Buchbinder is an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He is the first soloist to be awarded the Golden Badge of Honor by the Staatskapelle Dresden.
Buchbinder attaches great importance to source research. His private music collection comprises 39 complete editions of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas as well as an extensive archive of first prints, original editions and copies of the piano scores of both piano concertos by Johannes Brahms.
He has been the artistic director of the Grafenegg Festival since its foundation in 2007. Today, Grafenegg is one of the most influential orchestral festivals in Europe.
Two books by Rudolf Buchbinder have been published so far, his autobiography 'Da Capo' and 'Mein Beethoven - Leben mit dem Meister'. Numerous award-winning recordings on CD and DVD document his career.
For concert dates and further information please visit the homepage www.buchbinder.net
Piano | Germany/Israel
Saleem Ashkar made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 22 and has since gone on to establish an exciting international career. Recent and future concerto highlights include the Brussels Philharmonic, Paris Mozart Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Orchestre National de Lyon, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In autumn 2021, he toured Germany with the Kammerakademie Potsdam performing Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 and the world premiere of David Coleman‘s Piano Concerto.
Previous seasons have seen him perform with the Wiener Philharmoniker, London Symphony, Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Royal Concertgebouw, the Detroit, St Louis, Vancouver and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras and on a three-week tour to Australia. Saleem has a close relationship with many leading conductors including David Afkham, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Jakub Hrůša, Pietari Inkinen, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kazushi Ono and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider.
A dedicated recitalist and chamber musician, Saleem has a particularly strong reputation as a Beethoven specialist and has performed a complete Sonata cycle in Prague, Duisburg and at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Recent and future highlights include recitals at Oslo Opera House, Wigmore Hall in London, Queen’s Hall in Copenhagen, Milan Verdi Conservatory Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Boulezsaal Berlin and Musikverein Vienna.
Saleem is Artistic Director of the Galilee Chamber Orchestra, formed of young and professional musicians to encourage collaboration between the Arab and Jewish communities in Israel. Saleem works with the orchestra both as conductor and soloist. In March 2022, they made their debut at Carnegie Hall in a programme with Joshua Bell as soloist and at Koerner Hall, Toronto. Recent engagements included a highly acclaimed European tour, which included performances at Konzerthaus Berlin and Rheingau Festival.
Saleem’s most recent recordings have been for Decca Records. They have released the Mendelssohn Piano Concertos with the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Chailly and two Beethoven Concertos with the NDR Elbphilharmonie and Ivor Bolton. Saleem is also recording the complete Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle for Decca, the first five volumes of which are already released. The sixth and final volume will be released this season.
Violin | Russia
After bright successes at the most precious violin competitions Sergei Dogadin acquired international fame as one of the best violinist of his generation.
In 2019 Sergei was awarded First Prize and Golden Medal at the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Among his other significant victories such major contents as IX Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover and Singapore International Violin Competition.
Sergei is the grant-holder of the Russian Ministry of Culture, Prize-winner of the Mozart Society in Dortmund (Germany), winner of the award established by Maestro Yuri Temirkanov and winner of the Prize of the President of Russia.
Since making his major debut in 2002 at the Grand Hall of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonie under the button of Vasily Petrenko and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic orchestra, Dogadin has performed on world’s most renowned venues such as Golden Hall of the "Musikverein" in Vienna, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Cologne Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, "Herkules-saal" and "Gasteig" in Munich, "Liederhalle" in Stuttgart, "Concertgebouw" and "Muziekgebouw" in Amsterdam, "Suntory Hall" in Tokyo, Symphony Hall in Osaka, Concert Hall "Kitara" in Sapporo, "Esplanade" Concert Hall in Singapore, "Festspielhaus" in Baden-Baden, Grand Theatre and Symphony Hall in Shanghai, "Auditorio Nacional" and "Palacio de Congresos" in Madrid, "Alte Oper" in Frankfurt, "Tonhalle" in Zurich and Dusseldorf, "Tivoli concert hall" in Copenhagen, Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, "Berwaldhallen" in Stockholm, collaborated together with London Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Frankfurter Museum Orchestra, Nordic Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, "Kremerata Baltica" Chamber Orchestra, Munich Kammerorchester, Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, "Bruno Walter" Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Polish Chamber Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestras of Estonia and Latvia, State Symphony Orchestra of Russia as well as other foreign and Russian orchestras.
Many of Dogadin’s performances have been broadcasted worldwide - on Mezzo classic (France), «Medici.tv», European Broadcasting Union (EBU), BR Klassic, WDR and NDR Kultur (Germany), YLE Radio (Finland), NHK (Japan), BBC (UK), Australian Radio, Polish Radio, Estonian and Latvian Radio.
Sergei has taken part in festivals «Stars of the White Nights», «Musical collection», «Musical Olympus», «Arts Square», «Crescendo», Trans-Siberian Art Festival, Mstislav Rostropovich festival, George Enescu festival, Tivoli festival, Herbstfestspiele Baden- Baden, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, «Festival International de Colmar», Oleg Kagan Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, «Vladimir Spivakov Invites», «Chopin and his Europe», Baltic Sea Festival, «Vivarte», Singapore Violin Festival etc.
He has collaborated with such prominent conductors as Yury Temirkanov, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazi, Vassily Sinaisky, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Bashmet, Yuri Simonov, Manfred Honeck, Andrew Manze, Shlomo Mintz, Aldo Ceccato, Thomas Sanderling, Vasily Petrenko, Anu Tali, Muhai Tang, Ken Takaseki, Dmitry Liss, Alexander Sladkovsky, Alexander Dmitriev, Nikolay Alekseev, Saulus Sondeckis, Michail Tatarnikov, Alexander Rudin, Nicholas Carter, Ken-David Mazur, Kevin Griffiths, Fabio Mastrangelo, Michał Nesterowicz, Jack Martin Haendler and many others.
Sharing the stage with an outstanding musicians is an important part of Sergei's concert life. Among his partners: Elisabeth Leonskaja, Viktor Tretiakov, David Geringas, Boris Kuschnir, Denis Matsuev, Daniil Trifonov, Pierre Amoyal, Alexander Kniazev, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Maxim Rysanov, Plamena Mangova, Nikolai Tokarev, Tatiana Vasileva, Dimitri Illarionov, Vadim Holodenko, Julian Milkis, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Boris Andrianov, Lars Anders Tomter, Gil Shohat, Anna Vinnitskaya and others.
Dogadin had studied in the most famous and significant musical institutions: at the St.Petersburg Conservatory (with Prof. Vladimir Ovcharek), at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad (with Prof. Maxim Vengerov), at the High School of Music in Cologne (with Prof. Mihaela Martin) and at the University of Music in Graz (with Prof. Boris Kuschnir).
Currently, Sergei improves his skills with Prof. Boris Kuschnir at the Music and Arts University in Vienna.
In 2008 he has released his first CD album on the «Solo Musica» label (Munich, Germany), including the compositions by Peter Tchaikovsky, Sergey Rachmaninov, Sergey Prokofiev and Alexander Rosenblatt.
The 2017/2018 season brought the release of two CD albums:
- Shostakovich - Violin concerto № 1 with the State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan under the direction of Maestro A. Sladkovsky, («Melody» label); - Shostakovich - Sonata for violin and piano and his 24 preludes (arrangement for violin and piano by D.Tsyganov/L.Auerbach), («Naxos» label).
Since 2017 Sergei Dogadin is a guest professor at the Liangzhu International Arts Academy (China) and the Gracias Music Academy at the School of Mahanaim (USA). At the same time he constantly gives masterclasses in South Korea, Singapore, Latvia and Azerbaijan.
Sergei was invited as a jury member at the 4th Yankelevitch International Violin Competition and Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition.
Sergei Dogadin had enjoyed the honor of performing during several festivals on Niccolo Paganini’s and Johann Strauss’s violins.
At the moment he plays the Domenico Montagnana violin (Venice, 1721) provided by "The Rin Collection" (Singapore).
Violin | Italy
Effervescent musicianship, intense lyricism and beguiling tonal beauty belong to the qualities that have secured Sergej Krylov’s place among today’s most renowned performers.
A regular guest with several major institutions and world’s leading orchestras, Sergej Krylov has appeared with Russian National Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, DSO Berlin and Budapest Festival Orchestra.
He has collaborated with many leading conductors as Mikhail Pletnëv, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Vasily Petrenko, Andrey Boreyko, Vladimir Jurowski, Valery Gergiev, Andris Poga, Marin Alsop, Fabio Luisi, Roberto Abbado, Yuri Temirkanov, Dmitry Liss, Yuri Bashmet and Michał Nesterowicz.
As Music Director of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra since 2008, Sergej Krylov loves assuming the dual role of soloist and conductor in a wide repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music.
Among the major engagements of the current season, there are concerts with Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Russian National Orchestra and Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali with Mischa Maisky, next to solo recitals and chamber music events in major concert halls of Europe.
Highlights of the previous seasons include performances with London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, Berner Symphonie Orchester, Dresdner Philharmonie, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Slovenska Filharmonija, Moscow and St Petersburg Philharmonics, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
Born into a family of musicians in Moscow in 1970, Sergej Krylov began studying the violin at the age of five and completed his training at the Moscow Central School of Music. Krylov’s discography includes recordings for EMI and Melodiya, two releases on Deutsche Grammophon, Ezio Bosso’s Violin Concerto released by SONY Classical and Krzysztof Penderecki’s Violin Concerto Metamorphosen.
Conductor | Armenia
Sergey Smbatyan is the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and the Principal Conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. An avid popularizer of classical music, the conductor has an extensive international engagement, and is committed to rejuvenating the classical music audiences and the promotion of contemporary classical music globally.
Born into a family of musicians, Sergey Smbatyan took his first steps in the world of classical music under the guidance of her grandmother Tatyana Hayrapetyan, a distinguished violin teacher, followed by his education at Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan and Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
Subsequently, in 2012, he furthered his academic journey at the Royal Academy of Music, studying under Sir Colin Davis. His studies under the guidance of Riccardo Muti and Valery Gergiev significantly influenced and enhanced his proficiency in conducting.
Sergey Smbatyan's conducting career was highlighted by his debut performance with the London Symphony Orchestra at Windsor Castle, under the auspices of Prince Charles, now HRH Charles III. The impressive success of this concert led to a subsequent invitation, where he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra at Buckingham Palace.
Sergey Smbatyan's extensive international involvement as a conductor and his distinctive appreciation for contemporary classical music has led to a wide array of collaborations with globally acclaimed composers, such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Tigran Mansuryan, Arvo Pärt, Gia Kancheli, and many others. Among such notable endeavors were the large-scale projects conducted with John Malkovich in several countries of Latin America and Asia. Led by Sergey Smbatyan and accompanied by the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, the iconic Hollywood artist delivered a unique musical performance in Yerevan, presenting a reading of excerpts from “The Book of Lamentations” by the medieval Armenian poet Grigor Narekatsi.
The conductor serves as the artistic director of a number of annual music festivals, as well as the Khachaturian International Competition, to which the category of conducting was introduced through Sergey Smbatyan's initiative. Among the festivals founded by Sergey Smbatyan are the Khachaturian International Festival, which aims to uphold the legacy of Aram Khachaturian and other famous Armenian composers, the "Armenia" International Music Festival, which hosts world-renowned virtuoso musicians to perform in Armenia, the Penderecki Contemporary Music Festival, which showcases the works of contemporary legendary composers, and others.
Sergey Smbatyan is the founder of the "Music for Future Foundation (M4FF)”, which is committed to discovering young talented musicians and fostering their career advancement.
He strives to champion innovative approaches in the classical music industry, consistently seeking creative ideas and solutions in implementing various projects. During the opening ceremony of "WCIT 2019," the largest IT Congress for innovators and entrepreneurs, hosted in Armenia, an international orchestra performed an AI real-time-composed musical piece under the direction of Sergey Smbatyan.
Sergey Smbatyan releases recordings with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra on their own "ArmSymphony Records" label and is actively involved in recording contemporary classical music with the London Symphony Orchestra and other orchestras. His recent engagements include the album of spiritual music "Ave Maria" recorded with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and the world-renowned tenor Joseph Calleja, released under the "DECCA Records" label, the album “Aznavouriana” by Deutsche Grammophon with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and cellist Camille Thomas in commemoration of French-Armenian singer and composer Charles Aznavour’s 100th anniversary.
In recent concert seasons, Sergey Smbatyan has served as a guest conductor with leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others.
As the conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Sergey Smbatyan embarked on numerous concert tours and performed at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the Munich’s Gasteig , Vienna’s Musikverein, the Berliner Philharmonie, and other renowned concert halls.
In 2023, he led the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra on a grand UK tour, dedicated to Aram Khachaturian’s 120th anniversary and in 2024 on the orchestra’s debut tour in the United States with the performances at Boston’s Symphony Hall, New York City’s Carnegie Hall, and Los Angeles Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Highlights of 2024/25 season include concerts with the Madrid Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra, the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra as well as performances at Salle Gaveau and the Cité de la Musique of the Paris Philharmonie with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra featuring French and Armenian composers.
Up until the 2024/25 season, Sergey Smbatyan will be Principal Guest Conductor of Berlin Symphony.
Sergey Smbatyan holds the title of Honoured Artist of the Republic of Armenia and the title of “Chevalier of Arts and Letters” of France.
Sergey Smbatyan was appointed as a UNICEF National Ambassador in 2023.
Violin | Germany · Armenia
Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Sergey Khachatryan won First Prize at the VIII International Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki in 2000, becoming the youngest ever winner in the history of the competition. In 2005 he claimed First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.
In recent seasons, Sergey has performed with the Südwestrundfunk Symphonieorchester (Christoph Eschenbach), Bamberger Symphoniker (Herbert Blomstedt and Jonathan Nott), Münchner Philharmoniker (James Gaffigan), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Juraj Valčuha), Mariinsky Orchestra (Valery Gergiev) and Orchestre de Paris (Andris Nelsons and Gianandrea Noseda). He has also collaborated with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, NHK Symphony and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras.
Sergey’s recent appearances in the US include with the Seattle Symphony (Ludovic Morlot), Cleveland Orchestra (Jakub Hrůša) and National Symphony Orchestra Washington (Vasily Petrenko). He has also visited the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony as well as the Ravinia, Aspen, Blossom and Mostly Mozart Festivals.
This season Sergey’s international presence is sustained by performances with Dresdner Philharmonie (Cristian Măcelaru), Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov), Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Alondra de la Parra), Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Simonov), Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Jonathan Nott), Cleveland Orchestra (Jakub Hrůša), Prague Radio Symphony (Alexander Liebreich), San Francisco Symphony (Dima Slobodeniouk).
Highlights of the past season included Sergey’s residency at the BOZAR, Brussels which comprised of a pair of recitals and concert with Orchestre National de Belgique and Hugo Wolff. Sergey also embarked on a tour of the US and Europe with Alisa Weilierstein and Inon Barnaton with a programme entitled Transfigured Nights featuring the music of Beethoven, Schoenberg and Shostakovich.
The 2017/18 season saw Sergey’s debuts at the Aspen Festival in Colorado, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg with the Hamburger Symphoniker and at the Salzburger Festspiele performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Re-invitations included the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rotterdam and Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestras, St Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Other recent projects included a tour of Japan with the Nippon Foundation and in 2014/15, Sergey performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto at the Lucerne Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel as the latest recipient of the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award.
Piano | Germany
Severin von Eckardstein, one of the leading German pianists of his generation, has an already lengthy record of solo concerts and concerto performances on major stages around the world.
He has delighted the public with many highly acclaimed concerts, for example in Berlin, Munich, Milan, Moscow, Madrid, London, Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Budapest, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul. His talent could be enjoyed at great music festivals, including Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Aldeburgh / UK, the Gilmore Festival in Michigan / USA, La Roque d’Anthéron / France, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Husum Festival (“Raritäten der Klaviermusik”) and the Miami International Piano Festival, where he played the opening concert in 2009. He has performed with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Philippe Herreweghe, Lothar Zagrosek and Marek Janowski, and made important debuts, among others in 2007 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaap van Zweden in 2012 and the Hungarian National Philharmony under Zsolt Hamar in 2017.
In 2018 he made his debut at the Thompson Art Center in New York with two different recitals.
Many of Von Eckardstein’s concerts have been recorded and broadcasted by major broadcasting corporations. As a frequent guest of the concert series “Meesterpianisten” at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, von Eckardstein opened the gala concert celebrating the series’ 25th anniversary in 2012. In 2020 he was reinvited to this extraordinary series for the 8 th time.
Born in Duesseldorf, Germany, in 1978, the pianist won prizes at numerous noteworthy international competitions, e.g. “Ferruccio Busoni” in Bozen (1998), the “Leeds International Piano Competition” (2000), “José Iturbi” in Valencia (2002), the ARD- Competition in Munich (1999) and was awarded first prize at the “Concours Reine Elisabeth” in Brussels (2003).
On several occasions he has been awarded special prizes for the “Best Interpretation of Contemporary Music.”
Several foundations and societies, including the Mozart Society and the highly regarded German National Merit Foundation, have honored him with scholarships. In 2002 he received the “European Culture Prize” and in 2003 the “Echo Classic Prize.”
Von Eckardstein’s education in the musical arts was predominately shaped by his teachers Prof. Barbara Szczepanska, Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Prof. Klaus Hellwig, University of Arts, Berlin, where he also successfully completed his concert exams. In an additional course of study at the International Piano Academy Lake Como, Italy, he profited from further instruction and inspiration. He took private lessons from teachers such as Alfred Brendel and participated in master classes instructed by Vitalij Margulis, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Alicia de Larrocha, Leon Fleisher and Menahem Pressler, to name only a few. He himself has been serving as master class instructor on many occasions, among others in South Korea, Finland, Belgium and at the “UdK”, Berlin.
Chamber music also plays a significant role in his repertoire with performances at festivals such as the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Finland, and the Risør Chamber Music Festival, Norway, where he appeared with the cellist Heinrich Schiff. He has often given concerts with young but highly renowned musicians, for example Andrej Bielov, Barnabasz Kelemen, Franziska Hölscher, Judith Ermert, Danjulo Ishizaka and Nicolas Altstaedt. In 2015 he founded the chamber concert series “Klangbrücken” at Konzerthaus Berlin together with violinist Franziska Hölscher.
Von Eckardstein‘s comprehensive repertoire spans the baroque period up through music of the 21st century. As such, he has premiered the works of modern-day composers, in particular the American Sidney Corbett. One of his special focuses is the demanding late romantic piano music of less known composers, especially Nicolai Medtner.
CD recordings with compositions by Medtner, Scriabin, Wagner, Schubert, Schumann, Debussy and others aroused great interest. His latest album of Dupont´s cycle “La maison dans les dunes” was awarded with “Diapason d´Or”. Another recording of sonatas by Prokofiev is presently under preparation.
Violin | USA
"Lauded for her “phenomenal maturity” and “fresh and spontaneous, yet emotionally profound and intellectually well-structured performance” (Jerusalem Post), American violinist Stella Chen has been bursting onto the world stage following her first prize win at the 2019 Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competition. In the last year alone, Stella was named a recipient of a prestigious 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant and 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award.
Concerto highlights for Stella in the upcoming season include appearances with the Chicago Symphony, Hangzhou Philharmonic, and her Lincoln Center concerto debut with the Juilliard Orchestra featuring the U.S. premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Concerto No. 2, conducted by the composer. In her most recent season, Stella had debuts with the Belgian National Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, the Luxembourg Philharmonia, and many others. She also made first appearances at the Salzburg Mozarteum, Ravinia, and Kronberg Academy Festivals, and performed throughout Europe, East Asia, and India, including a concert tour of South Korea.
Stella’s approach to music-making is fundamentally guided by the concept of exploration: deep-diving into the works she performs, looking into interpersonal and collaborative approaches, and seeking opportunities for cross-cultural exchange. This perspective guides such projects as her ongoing investigation of Schubert’s Fantasie for Piano and Violin, a phenomenal example of vulnerability, sincerity, and humanity in music.
Her dedication to this perspective manifests as well in her many treasured collaborations with phenomenal artists. Collaborative partners have included extraordinary musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Robert Levin, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Stéphane Denève, Matthew Lipman, and the Silk Road Ensemble. She has appeared as a chamber musician in festivals including the Perlman Music Program, Music@Menlo, the Sarasota Festival, and YellowBarn. She is a member of the Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center starting in the 2021-2022 season.
Stella enjoys the privilege of cross-cultural exchange through performances and educational experiences. She and colleagues at Harvard University represented Western classical music at the first Bhutan International Festival, a multicultural celebration of the arts on the occasion of the 35th birthday of the King of Bhutan. She was also a part of the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute trip to Cuba and participated in performances at the Festival de Música de Cámara as well as opportunities to interact with young Cuban musicians in an educational capacity. With the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Stella visited Jordan and Israel on a tour that she considers very important to her musical and personal growth.
Stella believes in the importance of cultivating an appreciation for classical music among the younger generations, and as such devotes time and energy to teaching. To this end, Stella has worked with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, and serves as a teaching assistant for her longtime mentor Li Lin at the Juilliard School.
She is the first recipient of the Robert Levin Award from Harvard University, the top prize winner of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition and youngest ever prize winner of the Menuhin Competition. She has given solo performances at venues such as the Kennedy Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, WQXR’s Greene Space, Rockefeller University, and on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. Other concerto appearances include those with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín, London Chamber Orchestra, and Welsh National Symphony Orchestra.
A graduate of the Harvard/New England Conservatory Dual Degree Program, Stella received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology with honors from Harvard University and a Master of Music from NEC. Stella is currently finishing up her studies as C.V. Starr doctoral candidate at the Juilliard School, writing her dissertation on one of her favorite pieces of music, Schubert’s Fantasie for Piano and Violin. She is a professional studies candidate at Kronberg Academy. Teachers and mentors include Mihaela Martin, Li Lin, Donald Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, and Miriam Fried. She plays the ‘Huggins’ 1708 Stradivarius violin, generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
In her free time, Stella loves figure skating and is a big fan of NCT and all of its sub-groups.
Cello | UK
Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a uniquely varied and distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster.
As a concerto soloist he appears with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, London Philharmonic and Zurich Tonhalle orchestras, He gives recitals every season in major musical centres, and plays with many of the world’s foremost chamber orchestras, including the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Australian, Mahler, Norwegian, Scottish, Zurich and St Paul Chamber Orchestras, as well as period-instrument ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello.
He works with many contemporary composers and regularly premieres new works on the international concert stage.
Recent performing highlights include his debut with Dresden Staatskapelle, and as Artist-in-Residence with Kammerakademie Potsdam. On 21 June 2019 Steven performed with his close friend Radu Lupu at Lupu’s final-ever concert with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, where Steven directed pieces including Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 23 in A, K488, with Lupu as soloist. Other appearances include with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salzburg Mozartwoche; the US premiere of Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, following world and UK premieres in Lucerne and at the BBC Proms, and a further performance of the work in Amsterdam with the Britten Sinfonia, all conducted by the composer; Prokofiev’s Concerto Op. 58 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, in London and at the Dresden Music Festival; Haydn’s C major Concerto with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Adam Fischer; and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.1 on an Australian tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
As a chamber musician, he has curated series for many of the world’s most famous festivals and venues, including the Wigmore Hall, the 92nd St Y in New York, and the Edinburgh, Verbier and Salzburg Festivals. Recent highlights include a major exploration of two musical visionaries to whom he feels particularly close and is an enthusiastic champion: Gabriel Fauré and Robert Schumann, performed over a series of four concerts at the Wigmore Hall. A specially-devised new programme ‘Composers and their Muses’, exploring three pairs of composers who provided mutual inspiration for each other’s compositions – Clara and Robert Schumann, Vitezslava Kaprálová and her teacher Martinů and Augusta Holmès and her teacher César Franck, was performed with pianist Connie Shih and performed at Wigmore Hall and on tours of the US and Japan. Other specially devised programmes have included ‘In the Shadow of War', a major four-part series for the Wigmore Hall to mark the centenary of the First World War and the 75th anniversary of the Second World War; explorations of Czech music; the teacher-pupil line of Saint-Saëns, Fauré and Ravel; ‘Cello and Voice’, a unique series of three programmes exploring the affinity of the cello and the human voice; varied aspects of Robert Schumann’s life and music; and the music of Sergei Taneyev (teacher of Steven’s grandfather, Julius Isserlis) and his friends and students. For these concerts Steven was joined by a regular group of friends which includes the violinists Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Pamela Frank, and Janine Jansen, violist Tabea Zimmermann, and pianists Jeremy Denk, Stephen Hough, Alexander Melnikov, Olli Mustonen, Connie Shih, and Dénes Várjon. In 2019, he also undertook a major US tour with his longtime friends and collaborators Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk, performing trios by Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, Ravel and Rachmaninov
On his 60th Birthday on 19 December 2018, Steven was joined by a group of his closest musical friends Radu Lupu (in a rare guest appearance), Sir András Schiff, Connie Shih, Ferenc Rados, Joshua Bell, and Sir Simon Keenlyside, both performing with and for him. Isserlis also performed the world premiere of For Steven Isserlis 60, composed especially for him by Márta and György Kurtág. The concert was preceded with favourite literary readings by actor Gabriel Woolf. He also takes a strong interest in authentic performance. Recent Hyperion releases include a recording of the Chopin Cello Sonata, Schubert’s Arpeggione sonata and other works by the two composers with Dénes Várjon, using an Érard piano of 1851. In recital, he gives frequent concerts with harpsichord and fortepiano. With harpsichordist Richard Egarr, he has performed and recorded the viola da gamba sonatas of J.S. Bach as well as sonatas by Handel and Scarlatti. Past seasons have featured a special performance with Sir Andras Schiff at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, using Beethoven’s own cello; and recordings with Robert Levin of Beethoven’s complete music for cello and piano (selected for the Deutsche SchallplattenPreis), using original or replica fortepianos from the early nineteenth century, as well as performances of the cycle in London, New York, San Francisco, Norway and Tokyo. Steven and Robert recently toured extensively in the US and Europe with Beethoven recitals, including performances of the whole cycle in Florence, Milan and Chicago.
He is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has premiered many new works including John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil (as well as several other pieces by Tavener), Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, Stephen Hough’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Left Hand (Les Adieux), Wolfgang Rihm's Concerto in One Movement, David Matthews' Concerto in Azzurro, and For Steven and Hilary’s Jig by György Kurtág. In 2016, he gave the UK premiere of Olli Mustonen’s of Frei, aber einsam for solo cello at the Wigmore Hall.
Writing and playing for children is another major enthusiasm. He has written the text for three musical stories for children - Little Red Violin, Goldiepegs and the Three Cellos, and Cindercella - with music by Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley; these are published by Universal Edition in Vienna. He has also given many concerts for children, for several years presenting a regular series at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Steven Isserlis’ books for children about the lives of the great composers – Why Beethoven Threw the Stew and its sequel, Why Handel Waggled his Wig – are published by Faber and Faber, and have been translated into multiple languages. His latest book, a commentary on Schumann’s famous Advice for Young Musicians, was published by Faber and Faber in September 2016, and in the US by Chicago University Press in 2017. The UK paperback edition will be published by Faber and Faber in March 2020.
As an educator, Steven Isserlis gives frequent masterclasses all around the world, and since 1997 he has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, where his fellow- professors include Sir Andras Schiff, Thomas Adès and Ferenc Rados. He is also a regular participant, alongside Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff and Sir Andras Schiff, in the bi-annual series ‘Chamber Music Connects the World’ at the Kronberg Academy in Germany.
As a writer and broadcaster, he contributes regularly to publications including Gramophone, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, has guest edited The Strad magazine, and makes regular appearances on BBC Radio including on the Today programme, Soul Music, as guest presenter of two editions of Saturday Classics, and as writer and presenter of a documentary about the life of Robert Schumann. Most recently for BBC Radio 4, he presented a documentary about his hero Harpo Marx - ‘Finding Harpo’s Voice’, described by The Guardian as “sheer charm ... a winner”; and a conversation, ‘Only Artists’, with playwright and novelist Sebastian Barry, which The New Statesman reviewed as “perfect ... strikingly and joyously something from an earlier time”.
His diverse interests are reflected in an extensive and award-winning discography. His recording of the complete Solo Cello Suites by J.S. Bach for Hyperion met with the highest critical acclaim, and was Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year and Critics’ Choice at the Classic BRITS. His latest recordings include the Brahms Double Concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and – as director and soloist – concertos by Haydn and CPE Bach with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Grammy Nominee for Classical Instrumental Solo in 2017, winner of Limelight Magazine’s Orchestral Disc of the Year in Australia 2017, and shortlisted for a Gramophone Award in the Concerto category in 2018). A special First World War-inspired disc with Connie Shih was also released in 2017, including works performed on a travel cello - now known as “the Trench Cello” - played in the trenches by WWI soldier Harold Triggs. Other recent releases include the Elgar and Walton concertos, alongside works by Gustav and Imogen Holst, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Paavo Järvi; Prokofiev and Shostakovich concertos with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, also under Paavo Järvi; Dvořák’s Cello Concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding; and recital discs with Stephen Hough, Thomas Adès and (for BIS) a Grammy-nominated album of sonatas by Martinů, as well as works by Mustonen and Sibelius, with Olli Mustonen. His 2019 release with pianist Olli Mustonen Shostakovich & Kabalevsky: Cello Sonatas, entered the UK classical chart at Number One.
The recipient of many awards, Steven Isserlis’s honours include a CBE presented by the Queen in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, and the Piatigorsky Prize in the USA. He is also one of only two living cellists featured in Gramophone’s Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was awarded the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award in Dresden, the Wigmore Hall Gold Medal, and the Walter Willson Cobbett Medal for Services to Chamber Music. In 2018, Steven was awarded with the Gold Medal and Certificate of Merit by the Armenian Ministry of Culture, and received the prestigious Maestro Foundation Genius Grant, awarded in recognition of his work as a dedicated educator.
He gives most of his concerts on the Marquis de Corberon (Nelsova) Stradivarius of 1726, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.
Piano | South Korea/Germany
Sunwook Kim came to international recognition when he won the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006, aged just 18, becoming the competition’s youngest winner for 40 years, as well as its first Asian winner. His performance of Brahms’s Concerto No.1 with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder in the competition’s finals attracted unanimous praise from the press. Since then, he has established a reputation as one of the finest pianists of his generation, appearing as a concerto soloist in the subscription series of some of the world’s leading orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Berlin Radio Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Finnish Radio Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Orchestra of Wales, Radio-France Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Hallé Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for his BBC Proms debut in Summer 2014. Conductor collaborations include with Karina Canellakis, Nathalie Stutzmann, Thomas Sondergard, Tugan Sokhiev, Daniel Harding, Paavo Jarvi, David Afhkam, Edward Gardner, John Elliot Gardiner, Myung-Whun Chung, Osmo Vänskä, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kirill Karabits, Marek Janowski, Sakari Oramo, Andrew Manze, Vassily Sinaisky, Paavo Järvi, Michael Sanderling, Yuri Bashmet and Sir Mark Elder.
As soloist in the 2022/23 season, Sunwook will return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Tianyi Lu), London Symphony Orchestra (Michael Tilson Thomas), Chamber Orchestra of Europe to tour South Korea as well as to the Soul Philharmonic in their tour of Europe (Concertgebouw, Cadogan Hall). Sunwook will also return to Bournemouth Symphony both as soloist (Karabits) and to conduct Dvorak’s Cello Concerto alongside Brahms Symphony No. 2. Sunwook’s return to the Bournemouth Symphony as conductor follows his instant success having made his play-direct debut with the orchestra and international conducting debut with the KBS Symphony only last season. In August 2022, Sunwook also had the honour to conduct the Seoul Philharmonic in their National Liberation Day Concert marking the 77th anniversary of Korea’s National Liberation Day. Further conducting debuts this season include with the Fundación Excelentia Madrid and Macao Orchestra.
Recitals highlights to date include regular appearances in the “Piano 4 Etoiles” series at Salle Pleyel in Paris, as well as at the Wigmore Hall, the London International Piano Series (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Stockholm Konserthuset, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, La Roque d’Antheron International Piano Festival in France, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Centree, Symphony Hall Osaka, Brussels Klara Festival, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele.
Sunwook Kim’s debut recital disc was released on the Accentus label in October 2015, featuring Beethoven’s Waldstein and Hammerklavier sonatas, this was followed by a recording of Franck’s Prelude, choral et fugue paired with Brahms Sonata No.3. He has released further recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, Sonata No. 8; Pathetique, Sonata No. 14; Moonlight and Sonata No. 23; Appassionata as well as sonatas No. 30-32 and his most recent chamber music release features the Violin Sonatas of Beethoven in collaboration with Clara-Jumi Kang. His discography also includes multiple concerto recordings; on Accentus Music with the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Myung-Whun Chung featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 1 and Six Piano Pieces (2020) in addition to recordings on Deutsche Grammophon with the Seoul Philharmonic conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, a CD featuring Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto (2014) and a CD featuring Beethoven Concerto No.5 (2013).
Conductor | Spain
An inspired and highly sensitive conductor, Tomàs Grau is characterized by his precise and clear gesture and by the sincerity of his musical readings, which seek to transmit the light, delicate emotions of each of the scores, sharing with the audience his love for the music.
He has conducted many international soloists, including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maria João Pires, Midori, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Gautier Capuçon, Mischa
Maisky, Javier Perianes, Sabine Meyer,Steven Isserlis, Paul Lewis, Alexei Volodin, Stephen Kovacevich, Alexander Melnikov, Seong-Jin Cho, Mark Padmore and Alice Sara Ott in all the main concert halls in Spain, including the National Auditorium in Madrid, the Auditorio in Zaragoza, the Palau de la Música Catalana and the Auditori in Barcelona, as well as internationally at the Tonhalle in Zurich.
Nowadays, Tomàs is the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Franz Schubert Filharmonia, and he is often invited to conduct other orchestras, such as the Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de Murcia, Orquesta de Córdoba, Orquesta Sinfónica de Burgos, Beethoven Philharmonie and Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, among others. He has recorded for labels such as SONY Classical, ARS Produktion (label of the year at the International Classical Music Awards) and Discmedi.
Among his immediate commitments, he will be conducting such soloists as Ivo Pogorelich, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Katia & Marielle Labèque and, once again, Midori. Born in Barcelona in 1979, Tomàs Grau studied music at the Superior Conservatory of Music in his own city. He continued his conducting studies at the Superior School of Music of Catalonia, where he graduated in Orchestral Conducting, with top ratings. His Orchestral Conducting studies were completed in the Wiener Meisterkurse.
PIANO, VIOLIN, CELLO | France
Trio Wanderer’s stage-name is entirely appropriate. “Wanderer” pays homage to Schubert and more widely to German Romanticism which is often imbued with the leitmotiv of the wandering traveler. These three French musicians are avid, openminded wandering travelers who explore the musical world, spanning the centuries from Mozart and Haydn to the present. Acclaimed for its extraordinarily sensitive style, almost telepathic mutual understanding and technical mastery, the Trio Wanderer is one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles.
Called a “Wandering Star” by the Strad Magazine, the Trio performs on the most prestigious music stages: Musikverein Vienna, Berlin Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall, Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Teatro alla Scala in Milano, Opéra of Pékin, Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Place des Arts in Montreal, Herkulessaal in Munich, Library of Congress in Washington, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, Tonhalle in Zürich. They have also performed at major festivals including Salzburg, Edinburgh, Montreux, Schleswig Holstein, la Roque d’Anthéron, Stresa, Feldkirch, Granada, Osaka, Folles Journées de Nantes, Rheingau Musiksommer and Schwetzinger Festspiele.
In triple concertos, the Trio Wanderer has collaborated more than a hundred times with international orchestras such as Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, orchestras of Toulouse, Nice, Pays de Loire, Picardie, Pau-Pays de Béarn, Montpellier, Liège, Tenerife, Santiago de Chile, La Coruna, the Radio Symphonie Orchester in Berlin, Malaysian Philharmonia Orchestra, Württembergische Philharmonie, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, Sinfonia Varsovia, Grazer Philharmoniker Orchester, Nürnberger Philharmoniker, National Philharmonic Orchestra in Moscow, Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, under the baton of Yehudi Menuhin, Christopher Hogwood, James Loughran, François-Xavier Roth, Luis Langrée, Arie van Beek, Marco Guidarini, Ken-David Masur, Ion Marin, José Areán, Charles Dutoit and James Conlon amongst others.
In addition to records for Sony Classical, Universal, Cyprès, Mirare and Capriccio, the Trio Wanderer began a collaboration with Harmonia Mundi in 1999. Twenty recordings have been issued since then: trios by Chausson, Ravel, Haydn, Shostakovich, Fauré, Pierné, Arensky, Tchaïkovsky, Copland, Saint-Saëns, Mendelssohn, Smetana; the complete trios by Schubert, Brahms and Beethoven; Schubert and Hummel’s piano quintet; triple concertos by Beethoven and Martinù with the Gürzenich-Kölner Philharmoniker; and pieces by Liszt and Messiaen.
These recordings have received many awards and commendations: Choc of the year by Le Monde de la Musique, Editor’s Choice by Gramophone, CD of the month by Fono Forum, CD of the Month by BBC Music Magazine, Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Midem Classical Award. Their interpretation of trios by Mendelssohn was chosen as a standard reference by the New-York Times on the occasion of the bi-centenary of the composer’s birth, as was their interpretation of Schubert’s trio opus 100 in 2016 by the BBC, from amongst fourteen contenders. Their most recent recordings are devoted to the trios of Rachmaninov (may 2019) the Quintet op. 57 and Romances op. 127 of Shostakovich (August 2020). The next album will be dedicated to Schumann (trios op. 63, 80 & 110, Phantasiestücke op. 88, Quartet with piano op. 47, Quintet with piano op. 44).
With a particular fondness for contemporary music, the Trio Wanderer has premiered works by composers including Thierry Escaich, Bruno Mantovani, Frank Michael Beyer, Christian Rivet, Matteo Francescini and Philippe Hersant. In addition to their numerous radio and television recordings (Radio France, BBC, ARD, Mezzo), the Trio Wanderer was the subject of a film made by the French-German television company ARTE, broadcast in June 2003. In 2017, for the Trio’s 30th anniversary, a book written by Olivier Bellamy, tracing the history of the Trio, was published by Art3 Edition.
Acclaimed by the professional music world, the Trio Wanderer was awarded for the third time in February 2009 (previously in 1997 and 2000) a Victoire de la Musique as “Best Instrumental Ensemble of the year”.
In 2015, Trio Wanderer’ members were bestowed with the title of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres).
Trio Wanderer’s members all graduated from the Paris’ Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. In 1989/90 they studied in Bloomington’s School of Music and New York’s Julliard School. During this period, they participated in masterclasses with such masters as Jean-Claude Pennetier, Jean Hubeau, Janos Starker, Menahem Pressler from the Beaux-Arts Trio, and the Amadeus Quartet. In 1988, they won the ARD Competition in Munich and, in 1990, the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in the USA. Their career quickly rose to major international heights and they have enjoyed many years of music-making at the highest level.
Conductor | Turkey
Born in 1983, Conductor Valid Ağayev is originally from Baku, Azerbaijan. Valid Ağayev attended a Specialised Music School, and then studied violin at the Baku State Academy and earned a Bachelor of Music cum laude in 2006. In 2008 he achieved Master of Music also with honours.
From 2012 to 2017 Valid Ağayev studied conducting at the High School of Music and Dance in Cologne; first with Professor Michael Luig and later on with Professor Alexander Rumpf. At the end of 2016, he successfully passed his final conducting exam with honours.
As part of his studies, he regularly led the Philharmonie Südwestfalen Orchestra. Since 2017, Valid Ağayev was invited regularly as a guest conductor to the Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia. In April 2017, he flew to Madrid on short notice to perform with the orchestra for the first time, and then later in May to perform at the scene of Auditorio Nacional de Música. In November 2017 he shared the stage with the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra in Kiel, Germany.
In December 2019, Mr. Ağayev worked very successfully with the Azerbaijan State Chamber Orchestra and then went to Astana to work with the world famous violinist Shlomo Mintz and "Academy of Soloists of Kazakhstan”. Since 2021 Mr. Ağayev works as Associate Professor in Çukurova State Conservatory in Adana, Türkiye.
In 2022 started intensive cooperation between Çukurova State Symphony Orceestra,Valid Ağayev and famous artists such as Jasmine Choi, Mark Bouchkov, Manu Brazo, Ji Young Lim and Salem Ashkar.
Piano | South Korea
Gold medallist of the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Yekwon Sunwoo has been hailed for his “unfailingly consistent excellence” (International Piano) and celebrated as “a pianist who commands a comprehensive technical arsenal that allows him to thunder without breaking a sweat” (Chicago Tribune). A powerful and virtuosic performer, he also, in his own words, “strives to reach for the truth and pure beauty in music”.
The first Korean to win Cliburn Gold, Yekwon’s 19/20 season includes appearances with Fort Worth and Tuscon Symphonies and the Bucheon Philharmonic and debuts with Washington Chamber Orchestra, Royal Danish Orchestra and Danish Radio Orchestra amongst others as well as a debut appearance at the Vail Festival with Dallas Symphony. Recital highlights include Four Season Arts, San Antonio Arts and the Stadttheater Aschaffenburg. 20/21 will see Yekwon make his debut with Orchestra Chambre de Paris and Tugan Sokhiev and return to KBS Symphony with Jaap Van Zweeden.
In previous seasons, he has performed as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop, Houston Symphony, National Orchestra of Belgium, Sendai Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National Orchestra amongst others. Recital appearances include Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie, Salle Cortot and Kumho Art Hall.
An avid chamber musician, Yekwon’s collaborators include Benjamin Beilman, Linus Roth, Andrei Ioniță, Sebastian Bohren, Isang Enders, Tobias Feldmann, Gary Hoffman, Anne-Marie McDermott and the Jerusalem and Brentano Quartets. He has also toured Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama with the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation, performed at Chamber Music of Lincoln Center’s Inside Chamber Music Lectures and been invited to the Summit Music, Bowdoin International and Toronto Summer Music Festivals.
In addition to the Cliburn Gold Medal, Yekwon won first prizes at the 2015 International German Piano Award, the 2014 Vendome Prize held at the Verbier Festival, the 2013 Sendai International Music Competition and the 2012 William Kapell International Piano Competiton.
Born in Anyang, South Korea, Yekwon began learning the piano at the age of 8 and made his recital and orchestral debuts in Seoul at 15. His teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Robert McDonald, Richard Goode and Bernd Goetzke.
In 2017, Decca Gold released Cliburn Gold 2017 two weeks after Yekwon was awarded the Gold Medal and includes his award-winning performances of Ravel’s La Valse and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Sonata.
A self-proclaimed foodie, Yekwon enjoys finding Pho in each city he vists and takes pride in his own homemade Korean soups.
Piano | South Korea
Yeol Eum Son’s graceful and timeless interpretations, crystalline touch and versatile, thrilling performances have caught the attention of audiences worldwide. Praised for her widely eclectic concerti repertoire, ranging from Bach, all-Mozart, early German and Russian Romantic to Gershwin and Ligeti, Yeol Eum has collaborated with major ensembles worldwide such as Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Dresdner Philharmoniker, The Tonkunstler Orchestra at the Grafenegg Festival, Bergen Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Seoul Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Moscow Virtuosi among many others.
Yeol Eum performs with conductors such as Dmitri Kitayenko, Valery Gergiev, Vasily Petrenko, Vladimir Spivakov, Andrew Manze, Susanna Mälkki, Omer Meir Wellber, Cristian Măcelaru, Pietari Inkinen, Jonathan Nott, Mikko Franck, Nicholas Collon, Joshua Weilerstein, Joana Carneiro, Pablo González, Case Scaglione, Roberto González-Monjas and Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Across the 20/21 season Yeol Eum serves as Artist in Residence with the Residentie Orkest from the Hague. In front of the Dutch audience and under the baton of conductors Nick Collon, Pablo González and Joshua Weilerstein, Yeol Eum presents a selection of some of the finest concerti of the piano repertoire including Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.4, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. Beyond Zuiderstrandtheater in the Hague, her residency will take her to some of the major venues across the Netherlands including Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Apeldoorn's Orpheus and Utrecht's TivoliVredenburg, Yeol Eum also gives a recital at the Hague's Nieuwe Kirk and a Masterclass at the Hague's conservatory.
In summer 2019 Yeol Eum made her Royal Albert Hall and BBC Proms debut with the BBC Philharmonic interpreting Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15. Her most recent debut with the Liverpool Philharmonic (Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto) was met with high acclaim for which Johanna Roberts wrote: Yeol Eum Son throughout demonstrated the technical excellence partnered with lyrical sensitivity that have made her one of the most sought-after concert pianists in a virtuoso performance that was much appreciated by the audience. During her recent UK tour with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Yeol Eum returned to London’s Cadogan Hall and debuted at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall and at Basingstoke’s the Anvil Concert Hal (Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the left hand). Following her hugely successful debut with Aurora orchestra earlier in 2019, Yeol Eum © 2017 IMG Artists; Please do not make alterations to this biography without contacting IMG Artists. was instantly re-invited and features as a soloist on their March 2020 tour under Nick Collon (Mozart Piano Concerto No.23) with concerts taking place at King’s Place in London as well as at St George’s concert hall in Bristol and at the Apex concert hall in Bury St Edmunds. Yeol Eum subsequently makes her debut with Aurora Orchestra at the opening of the Heidelberger Frühling festival.
A distinguished Mozart interpreter, in the recent concert seasons, Yeol Eum made major UK debuts with the CBSO in Birmingham (Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 21) and at London’s Cadogan Hall with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Mozart’s Piano Concerti No’s 8 & 21). Her London debut coincided with Onyx CD release of a highly acclaimed all-Mozart recording featuring Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.21 with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner for whom it was the very last recording. According to The Times Yeol Eum Son is a model of clarity and fleetness whilst Gramophone called the recording an uncommonly fine Mozartian debut.
Further concerti debuts across the 19/20 season and beyond include collaborations with Budapest Festival Orchestra (Rachmaninov No. 2); West Australian Symphony Orchestra (Mozart No. 21); New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (Mozart No. 27); St Paul Chamber Orchestra (play-direct of Beethoven No.4); Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven No.4); Liège Philharmonic (Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue and Variations on I got Rhythm); Helsinki Philharmonic (Yashiro Piano Concerto); WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne at the RadiRo Festival in Bucharest (Rachmaninov No. 2); Philharmonie de Paris debut with Orchestre National d'Île-de-France (Rachmaninov No.2); RTVE Symphony Orchestra (Szymanowski Sinfonia Concertante) and a tour of Belgium with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra (Liszt No.1). Following her previous successful collaborations, Yeol Eum returns to Gävle Symphony Orchestra (Chopin No.2), Bergen Philharmonic (Rachmaninov No.2), Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne (Prokofiev No.2) and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken (Prokofiev No.3).
A sensitive, emotional and powerful recitalist, Yeol Eum gives frequent solo and chamber performances across the globe. Most recent recitals include debuts with San Francisco Chamber Music Society, The Phillips Collection in Washington DC, Helsingborg Piano Festival, International Piano Series Fribourg, Istanbul Recitalleri, Moscow's House of Music, Welsh debut at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Scottish recital debut at the East Neuk Festival for which The Scotsman presides Yeol Eum for having found that vital emotional connection with the music and physically embracing its raw energy and dynamic extremes with ferocious virtuosity. In the 19/20 season and beyond Yeol Eum makes recital debuts in Luzerne's KKLSaal, Bern's Paul Klee Centre, Porto's Casa da Música, Belgrade's Kolarac Concert Hall and at the Tallin Piano Festival.
An avid chamber musician, in 2018 Yeol Eum was appointed Artistic Director of Music in PyeongChang, the biggest music festival in her native Korea. Yeol Eum is responsible for programming both summer and winter festivals at the Olympic site in PyeongChang. Further chamber highlights in 2020 include appearances at Philharmonie Cologne for collaborations with the principle players from WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne (Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 arranged for Piano and String Quintet) and with Quatuor Modigliani. © 2017 IMG Artists; Please do not make alterations to this biography without contacting IMG Artists. Yeol Eum’s new releases include two DECCA albums: recital CD Modern Times- featuring solo piano music written between 1910-1920 by Berg, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Ravel, and Schumann and Brahms CD with violinist Clara-Jumi Kang. Previous albums include debut CD of complete Chopin Etudes (2004); Chopin Nocturnes for Piano and Strings (2008); prize-winning Cliburn Competition live performance (2009) and a multi-channel SACD O’ New World Music (2012).
Yeol Eum is Honorary Ambassador of the Seoul Arts Center and her home city of Wonju. A double Second Prize winner at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in 2011 and at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, Yeol Eum Son was a student of Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik Theater und Medien Hannover in Germany, where she now lives. She holds a degree from the Korean National University of Arts.
Piano | Hong Kong/USA
Zee Zee (Zhang ZUO) has performed with leading orchestras worldwide such as the BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Belgian National Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Tonhalle Zurich, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Pasadena Symphony.
Zee Zee regularly works with some of today’s leading conductors, including Marin Alsop, Charles Dutoit, Domingo Hindoyan, Michał Nesterowicz, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, and Xian Zhang. She played at prestigious venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Vancouver Recital Society, Lucerne Festival, the Gilmore Festival, Aspen Festival and Ravinia Festival.
A passionate chamber musician, Zee Zee frequently performs with the Z.E.N. Trio alongside violinist Esther Yoo and cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan. The trio tours throughout the world. They had their first U.S. tour in October 2019 and will tour in Australia in August 2022.
In October 2019, Universal released her first album, featuring Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G and Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Paavo Järvi and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Zee Zee’s latest solo album "Journey", which features works from Wagner, Schönberg, and Liszt, was released in May 2022.
Armenia
Emerging from a group of lovers and devotees to classical music, the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra was created in 2005 by Sergey Smbatyan, the present Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the orchestra. From the very onset of its existence, the orchestra has been home to bright and energetic musicians, assembled around the shared vision of amplifying the cultural awareness in Armenia and elevating the spiritual excellence of human nature by the power of classical music.
The orchestra performs over 50 concerts annually, with a rich and multifarious repertoire covering multiple music genres and performance formats. Today, the 15-year-old orchestra has accrued both local and international reputation for its orchestral virtuosity and performing precision and has been spotlighted with many uplifting reviews by renowned critics and art reviewers.
The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra has been hosted by many reputable concert halls around the world, including Opera Garnier (Paris), Konzerthaus (Berlin), Dr. Anton Philipszaal (Hague), Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the Great Hall of Conservatory (Moscow), Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Royal Theatre (Madrid), Dubai Opera House and others. It has been profiled a multitude of times with such world-class composers as Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Karl Jenkins, Giya Kanchelli and Tigran Mansuryan as well as a number of highly distinguished performing artists. A remarkable chapter in the history of the orchestra was the 2020 European Tour with the renowned violin virtuoso and the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra artist-in-residence Maxim Vengerov with whom brilliant performances were hosted on famous stages around Europe- Berliner Philharmonie, Vienna's Musikverein, London's Barbican Center, Prague's Dvorak Hall, Salzburg's Grosses Festspielhaus, Moscow's Zaryadye Concert Hall and elsewhere.
The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra has a history of close relationships with world-scale artists, such as Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Maxim Vengerov, Denis Matsuev, Vadim Repin, Vag Papian, Boris Berezovsky, Zakhar Bron, stemming from the orchestra’s lifelong endeavor to bridge Eastern and Western musical traditions through its performances and networking with prominent figures of classical music.
Led by Sergey Smbatyan, the orchestra released its first CD under the title 'Music is the Answer' in 2011. Recorded with the Sony records label, the CD includes works by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich and Eduard Hayrapetyan.
Aside from the extensive concert activity in Armenia and overseas, the orchestra also enjoys recognition and is highly esteemed for its increasing role in educating young people in Armenia. Since 2018, in the framework of DasA educational-cultural project the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra has been sparking interest and liking for classical music in high-school students across Armenia, with an attempt to galvanize a larger movement for cultivating noble insights and taste for classical music among the young generation. True to its commitment to foster access to classical music among all parts of the society and taking ownership of its social responsibilities, the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra frequently organizes charitable events and special projects in an attempt to engage people from different communities in the cultural life that largely unfolds away from them.
A number of orchestra’s concerts have been broadcast by Medici.tv, Euronews, and Classic.fm. In 2019, a documentary was released by Mezzo TV, featuring Sergey Smbatyan and the history of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra.
The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra is represented worldwide by Only Stage.
Germany
For more than five decades, the Berliner Symphoniker have been an integral part of Berlin's musical and cultural life and have enriched the German orchestra landscape. Since 1990 they have been the orchestra for all Berliners.
In addition to the popular and long-established symphony concerts that take place in the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berliner Symphoniker perform throughout Berlin and the surrounding area: They are regular guests at the Konzerthaus Berlin, the University of the Arts, the Berlin Cathedral, the Kulturbrauerei and the Chorin Monastery, among others. With guest performances in Europe and tours to North and South America, Africa and Asia as well as appearances at international festivals (including in France, Italy, Austria, Spain and Israel), the Berliner Symphoniker have presented themselves successfully worldwide and see themselves as Berlin's cultural ambassadors.
In addition to the classical, wide-ranging and popular range of concerts, the repertoire of the Berliner Symphoniker also includes special rarities - unknown and forgotten works as well as contemporary compositions.
Music communication as a special focus has always been a trademark of the orchestra. It was the Berliner Symphoniker, for example, who were the first orchestra in Berlin to develop a music education profile with school concerts and children's and family concerts and who established and promoted work with young people in the long term. Numerous CD recordings and television recordings round off the multifaceted work of the Berliner Symphoniker.
Turkey
Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra which was established under Directorate General of Fine Arts of Culture and Tourism Ministry of Republic of Turkey is the fourth Symphony Orchestra which was established following Presidential Symphony Orchestra (CSO), İstanbul State Symphony Orchestra (İDSO) and İzmir State Symphony Orchestra (izDSO). Our Orchestra was officially established in 1988 and firstly started its working at the end of 1991 with a very small staff consisting 17 people under the direction of Emin Güven YAŞLIÇAM who was the General Director of Music and Conductor of the orchestra. It gave its first concert in 1992, on the 5th January which was the day celebrated as the celebration day of Adana for liberation from the enemy occupation.
After that, orchestra expanded its musician staff through examinations which were conducted in the following years. Moreover, it still sustains its concerts with the assistance of the guest musicians from other Symphony Orchestras, Opera and Ballet Orchestras and State Orchestras also with the contribution of Cukurova Philharmonic Association. In addition to this kind of works, Willy Claes who is Secretary General of NATO and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium conducted the Orchestra in the first part of a special concert. With the assistance of Adana 6th Corps Command, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture was vocalized in Open Air Theater of Cukurova University accompanied by real cannon shots.
Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra has had lots of domestic and foreign tours since its foundation. Some of these destinations are Tarsus, İskenderun, Diyarbakır, Malatya, Trabzon, Mersin, Gaziantep, Antalya, Ancient Theatre of Aspendos, Ankara, istanbul, Cyprus, Syria, Germany and Japan. During Japan tour, Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto and 5th Symphony was recorded in CD.
It carefully organizes its concert schedule every season and carries out its works in order to promote polyphonic universal music to Adana public. Moreover; many music pieces are vocalized for the first time in Turkey and in the world.
Between 2000 and 2006, it organized concerts regularly to the domestic and foreign tourists in May and September in Antalya Aspendos Open Air Theater. It also still organizes such special concerts as "Memorial of Hacı Sabancı" concert for Adana audience.
Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra carries out its concerts under the light of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's idea of "CULTURE IS THE BASIS OF REPUBLIC OF TURKEY" in order to be in His running.
Germany
In the shadow of the First World War, committed citizens in Landau met in September 1919 to decide on the formation of a travelling state symphony orchestra. After the founding concert on 15 February 1920, the orchestra set out on an initial concert tour through the Palatinate and Saarland. This was the start of the history of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, which in the meantime can look back on a more than 100-year tradition.
Even in the initial years the orchestra attracted transregional attention under the conducting of Richard Strauss and Hermann Abendroth. Principal conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach and Leif Segerstam, today honorary conductors, helped the orchestra to achieve international recognition. Michael Francis, who is also principal conductor of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz this season, will provide considerable fresh impetus and thus continue the orchestra’s tradition.
As an orchestra without a permanent domicile, providing the federal state with symphonic music is the most important task of the State Philharmonic Orchestra. It brings the music to the people with over 100 concerts per season. Guest performances at home and abroad as well as collaboration with internationally renowned conductors and soloists bears witness to the excellent reputation that the orchestra enjoys. Arrangement and family formats enhance the offer for young people. Even the very youngest are introduced to the world of classical music with visits to rehearsals and concerts for children. Regular concert recordings by SWR (“Southwest Broadcasting”) and Deutschlandfunk Kultur (German World Radio Service, Cultural Programming) as well as numerous CD productions round off the State Philharmonic Orchestra’s diverse range of activities.
Not only wanderlust and awakening characterise the orchestra in geographical terms. The State Philharmonic Orchestra also repeatedly hits the road in the figurative sense. As far as the orchestra is concerned, brining music to people not only means being on site, but also reaching people directly. So 101 years after formation the orchestra is also an integral part of cultural life, and more than ever a cultural beacon for the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and beyond.
Spain
The Franz Schubert Filharmonia has enjoyed a great reception from the audience since its inception, both for its artistic quality and for the relevance of its programmes.
Formed by a new generation of the best musicians in the country who perform under the inspired direction of Tomàs Grau, Music Director and Founder, the orchestra has collaborated with such soloists as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maria João Pires, Joshua Bell, Mischa Maisky, Midori, Ivo Pogorelich, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Rudolf Buchbinder, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Stephen Kovacevich, Gautier Capuçon, Sabine Meyer, Steven Isserlis, Paul Lewis, Alexei Volodin, Roberto Alagna, Mark Padmore, Seong-Jin Cho, Alice Sara Ott, Javier Perianes, Ainhoa Arteta, Asier Polo, Leticia Moreno, Pablo Ferrández, Judith Jáuregui and Iván Martín.
The Franz Schubert Filharmonia has also worked with such conductors as Josep Pons, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Antoni Ros Marbà, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Salvador Mas, Pablo González, Edmon Colomer, Paul Agnew, Guillermo García Calvo, Thomas Rösner, Virginia Martínez, Jordi Mora, Josep Caballé Domenech, Marzio Conti and Salvador Brotons, among others.
The orchestra has performed in such venues as the Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Gran Teatre del Liceu, L’Auditori de Barcelona, Auditorio de Zaragoza, Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao and Palau de les Arts in Valencia, and has made concert tours in the United States, Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
The Franz Schubert Filharmonia performs its subscription seasons in Barcelona, Tarragona and Lleida, and since 2009 has had the honour of being the resident orchestra of El Vendrell, the birthplace of the maestro Pablo Casals.
The orchestra has recorded several albums, among which we can highlight Alba Eterna, an opera by the composer Albert Guinovart and produced by the Sony Classical label, and Die Romantische Seele with the pianist Judith Jáuregui, produced by the label ARS Produktion, winner of the International Classical Music Awards, and nominated for the Opus Klassik Awards.
Israel
The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, IBA was established in 1936 as a small studio ensemble, which grew into the Palestine Broadcasting Service Orchestra. With the foundation of the State of Israel the orchestra became the national radio orchestra, known as the Kol Israel Orchestra. In the 1970s, the orchestra was expanded and became the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Broadcasting Authority. The orchestra was the first to perform in Israel the works of Sofia Gubaidolina, Henri Dutilleux, Alfred Schnittke and others. Through the years some of the greatest musicians have performed with the orchestra, among them Arthur Rubinstein, Igor Markevitch, Otto Klemperer, Henryk Szeryng, Isaac Stern, Radu Lupu and Yefim Bronfman. One of the most notable premières performed by the orchestra was The Seven Gates of Jerusalem by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, conducted by Lorin Maazel, which was composed for the finale of the Jerusalem 3000 celebrations. This was a joint venture with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra. The orchestra often tours in Europe and the United States, and has played in some of the most prestigious venues. Recently JSO had successful tours to USA, where concerts took place from Florida to Massachusetts and for the first time a tour in Japan, both tours with Dmitry Yablonsky as conductor and soloist.
Russia
The first concert of the Kaliningrad Symphony Orchestra was performed on March the 14th in 1988. The program of the first concert included Symphony № 40 by W.A. Mozart, “The Unfinished Symphony” by F. Schubert, “Waltz-fantasy” by M. Glinka and the Overture to the opera “The Barber of Seville” by G. Rossini. The Founder of the Orchestra is the composer and conductor Arkadiy Feldman, who is an artistic leader and the main conductor. He was rewarded the honorary title “The honoured Art worker” for his achievements in the creative activities and propaganda of the musical art.
During all the time orchestra prepared a range of programs, which showed a wide possibility of the musicians, devotion to the artistic ideals. The systematic performances in front of audience, participation of the well-known musicians in some programs, special programes for children and young people determined the wide repertoire aspirations, it’s level of performance. Among the bright interpretations the most famous are Symphony № 6 and Fantasy “ Francesca da Rimini” by P. Tchaykovski, “Scheherazada” and “Spanish Capriccio” by N. Rimsky-Korsakov, Symphony № 5 by L. V. Beethoven. Symphonies by J. Brahms, A. Dvorak, S. Frank. The orchestra performed all the symphony plays of M. Glinka and A. Lyadov, it often performs some symphony fragments from Wagner’s operas.
Performances of symphonies № 5, 6, and 7 by D. Shostakovich, symphony “Iyeremia” were a considerable step forward in the creative biography of the orchestra. The collective originally read the scores of symphony plays of the Kaliningrad composers T. Terehova, E. Storodgeva, A. Feldman and also the German composer Z. Mattus, who was born in the East Prussia.
A creative friendship connects the orchestra and it’s conductor with the Saratov composer A. Brening: his symphony poems were played in the programs, he created symphony № 9 “From the History of the Cathedral” specially for the Kaliningrad Orchestra.
Remarkable soloists played with the Kaliningrad Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Feldman. They are Antony Hewitt (the piano) – laureate of the international competitions in London, Washington, Munich, Claudio Bohorquez (violoncello) – laureate of the international competitions in Germany, Prague, the P. I. Tchaikovski’s competition in Moscow, Paris and Holland, Eric Shuman (the violin) – laureate of the international competitions in Novosibirsk and Poland, Irina Osipova (the piano) – laureate of the S. V. Rachmaninov’s international competitions in Moscow, the Long-Thiboud Compettitions in Paris, Honoured Artist of Russia J. Skvortsov (bassoon), laureates of the international Tchaikovsky competition Hayk Kazazyan, Boris Andrianov, Alexander Ramm, laureate of the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati, USA Ekaterina Mechetina and other solosts.
The Kaliningrad symphony orchestra always takes part in international festivals in Kaliningrad and abroad, various charity actions, performances in the Kaliningrad Drama Theatre, concerts i ballets in Yantar-Hall in Svetlogorsk.
The Kaliningrad Symphony Orchestra often goes on tour to the countries of Europe: Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain. Together with the chorus from Germany, chorus from America, Amy Wagar (soprano) – soloist from Metropolitan-Opera, Elizabeth Ann Sadilek (flute) – professor of the Iowa State (the USA) cantata “Veni Creator Spiritus” by the American composer Jeffrey Prater was played in the cultural program of the international exhibition “EXPO – 2000” in Hannover, the orchestra took part in the premiere of the oratorio "Night" by the American composer Leib Glantz, based on the book of the Nobel Prize laureate in literature Elie Wiesel, held in 2019 in Kaliningrad and in 2020 at the Kuppel Hall in Hanover.
Kazakhstan
The Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra is the leading musical ensemble of the Republic of Kazakhstan, consisting of a highly professional roster of musicians, with a brilliant virtuoso technique, rich sound palette, and a dedication towards developing the best traditions of chamber music.
The orchestra, consisting of 90 talented musicians, performs works from different epochs and styles and is skilled in interpreting baroque, classical and contemporary music. Performances of national music, with orchestral arrangements of folk songs, as well as performances of works by contemporary Kazakh composers occupy a significant place in the group's work.
The orchestra successfully represents the musical art and performing traditions of Kazakhstan abroad and develops international cultural ties. The creative team has collaborated with world-famous performers from Russia, Austria, Israel, Germany, USA, Norway, Sweden, and many others.
The orchestra carries out special concert programs with the invitation of leading conductors. The recognition of the mastery of the Kazakh orchestra is evidenced by performances led by a variety of famous foreign conductors, including I. Suk, V. Chapek, E. Schmider, O. Schmidt-Gertenbach, J. von Bertoli, V. Fedoseev, K. Orbelyan, Rin Yong Yang, D. Bartolossi, G. Emilson, etc. With the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the orchestra has performed with great success in the best concert halls in Europe, Asia and America. The ensemble also takes part in many international classical music festivals.
The orchestra was established in 1991 on the initiative of the world famous violinist, People's Artist of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Hero of Labor of Kazakhstan, professor, rector of the Kazakh National University of Arts, artistic director of the orchestra Aiman Musakhadzhayeva. The chief conductor of the orchestra is the Honored Worker of the Republic of Kazakhstan, professor of KazNUA Bakhytzhan Musakhodzhaeva.
Malta
For half a century, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) has been recognised as Malta’s foremost musical institution.
The orchestra was founded in April 1968, when musicians from the defunct “Commander-in-Chief” (C-in-C) orchestra of the Malta-based British Mediterranean Fleet regrouped as the Manoel Theatre Orchestra. It continued to serve as the theatre’s resident orchestra until September 1997, when it became an independent orchestra, taking up the name National Orchestra of Malta. The orchestra became the MPO in 2008 when it expanded into a full-size symphony orchestra, bringing together the best of Maltese talent and musicians from Europe and beyond.
Joseph Sammut, the C-in-C’s last conductor, was the orchestra’s first conductor, remaining at the helm until 1992. Since then, the orchestra has also been under the direction of Joseph Vella, John Galea, Michael Laus, and Brian Schembri. In 2019, the MPO has appointed Sergey Smbatyan as Principal Conductor, joining Resident Conductor Michael Laus as part of the orchestra’s Artistic Team. The MPO also works with local and international guest conductors and soloists including Lawrence Renes, Michalis Economou, Guy Braunstein, Alexei Volodin, Camilla Tilling, Joseph Calleja, and Enrico Dindo.
As Malta’s leading musical ensemble, the MPO averages more than one performance a week including symphonic concerts, opera productions in Malta and Gozo, community outreach and educational initiatives, as well as various concerts of a lighter nature.
The orchestra has performed in leading venues across the globe, including in the United States, Russia, Germany, Austria, China, Italy, and Belgium, and presently embarks on at least one international tour each concert season.
The MPO is a keen exponent of Maltese composers, regularly performing their works in Malta and overseas, as well as frequently premiering and commissioning new compositions.
Through the MPO Academy and the Malta Youth Orchestra, which regularly give concerts across Malta, the MPO is also responsible for the training and professional development of the next generation of Maltese musicians.
UAE
Founded by SAMIT Event Group, the Middle East Orchestra (MEO) is an exciting new initiative which seeks to tap into the rich musical potential that is harboured in this fast-growing region.
For as long as history can recall, the Middle East has not only been a vital artery allowing the transfer of knowledge and wisdom around the globe, but has itself been a crucial multicultural melting pot, bringing together talented artists and innovative creators from all over the world, and enriching them with its own heritage.
This was the spirit that inspired SAMIT when it launched the MEO back in 2022, bringing together an eclectic group of international musicians for the Second Edition of the Middle East Classical Music Academy, which was organised together with the Fujairah Fine Arts Academy under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi. Taking on the role of Orchestra-in-Residence for the event, the ensemble performed to great acclaim in multiple concerts throughout the UAE alongside various esteemed soloists under the baton of internationally acclaimed conductors.
Now, heading into 2023, the MEO boasts a roster of musicians from more than 10 different nations, all communicating ideas through the international language that is Music!
Guided by the invigorating vision of Artistic Director Gianluca Marciano and the direction of Chief Conductor Howard Wong, the Orchestra now looks forward to a packed 2023, where they will be presenting a new concert programme that has been specially prepared for this season.
Through it all, the Middle East Orchestra will continue to celebrate the value of individual identity and global citizenship, while working tirelessly to provide a vital contribution to the cultural fabric of this region.
Uzbekistan
The National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan is a highly professional community of musicians, one of the leading collectives of the republic, rightfully constituting the pride of the national musical culture.
In the 80-year history of the orchestra there are a lot of significant events: participation in numerous music festivals, joint performances with outstanding soloists of our time - masters of the domestic and foreign scenes. The repertoire of the orchestra includes almost all major works of Uzbek, Russian, Western European classical music, many modern composers trust the team to premiere performances of their compositions. Also an important place in the activity of the orchestra is occupied by symphonic educational programs for children and youth.
Today there are about 80 musicians in the orchestra. Among them are many of those whose creative activity in this team has been going on for more than a dozen years. At the same time, recently, fresh forces — creative youth, graduates of the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan — have actively joined the orchestra. The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) was created on December 1 in 1937. Its founder and first conductor was N. Gorchakov. In 1948 he was replaced by A. Kozlovsky. From 1956 to 1963, the orchestra was headed by a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory Nariman Alimov, and from 1963 to 1997, the orchestra was headed by a professor, People's Artist of Uzbekistan - Zahid Khaknazarov. In 1986, the NSO was awarded the title of Honored Team of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
In connection with the independence of Uzbekistan, the government of the Republic showed great concern for the aesthetic, cultural, quality service of the population in 1998, the orchestra was separated into an independent creative and economic unit: “The State Unitary Enterprise“ National Symphony Orchestra ”of the Republic of Uzbekistan. This was a new, powerful impetus for the development and fruitful work of the team. The NSO was led by new, young, talented, energetic leaders: People's Artist Ismail Dzhalilov was appointed artistic director and director; chief conductor - composer - Anvar Ergashev; conductor - Vladimir Neimer.
Among the conductors with whom he had the honor of performing the orchestra are the chief conductor of the Sicilian Academy of Music, Gaetano Kolayianni, and the principal conductor of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra (USA) is Ricardo Capasso. These concerts were a great success with the Tashkent public.
The National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan is widely known not only in its own country, but also abroad. Twice the NSO went on tour to foreign countries - to Thailand, where he performed with an independent concert program. All these performances have always been a great success, and as noted by the foreign press at the highest professional level. The concerts of the group were appreciated by the audience of Russia, Germany, France and other countries.
The main achievement of the orchestra in recent years has been the acquisition of its public, primarily due to its high performing skills and well-thought-out repertoire policies. The repertoire of the orchestra is truly limitless - it is a kind of “calling card” of the collective: compositions of all eras, genres and styles, numerous- premiere performances of works by contemporaries. Concerts of world vocalists: A. Bocelli, A. Safin, H. Carreras, A. Netrebko, and instrumentalists: Behzod Abduraimov (piano), Vladimir Sverdlov-Ashkenazi (piano), Yuri Gandelsman (alto) caused a big resonance in the musical life of Tashkent. , Rochelle Sennet (piano), Igor Kalnin (violin) and many others.
But a truly grand event was the Open Spring concert, held on April 15 2018 at the Palace of the International Forums "Uzbekistan", dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, which was attended by stars of national, national, academic and pop music.
The National Symphony Orchestra continues to develop successfully and still remains in the very center of the cultural life of the capital. It is doubly pleasant to see that the orchestra not only keeps its high-quality brand, but also surprises listeners with professional growth and surprises in the form of rarely performed compositions. Today, the country's musical life is unthinkable without symphony concerts for connoisseurs of classical music, without programs opening the world of great music for small ones, without meetings with new and new soloists and conductors.
It should be noted that the National Symphony Orchestra makes a worthy contribution to the development of cultural ties in Uzbekistan, contributes to strengthening interaction in the field of classical music, as well as rapprochement of different peoples and nationalities of the world.
Belgium
Managing Director : Daniel Weissmann Music Director : Gergely Madaras Founded in 1960, the Liège Royal Philharmonic (OPRL) is French-speaking Belgium’s only professional symphony orchestra.
Supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Belgium’s French-speaking Community), and by the City of Liège and the Province of Liège, the OPRL performs in Liège – in the prestigious setting of the Salle Philharmonique (inaugurated in 1887) – and throughout Belgium (in Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi, Hasselt, Mons, Namur, Saint-Hubert, Sankt Vith, and other locations), as well as in great concert halls and at major festivals around Europe (in Amsterdam, Paris, and Vienna, for example, as well as in Spain, Switzerland, and elsewhere) and in Japan and the United States. OPRL engagements in 2019 include a tour of Japan and appearing as a guest of the prestigious Enescu Festival in Bucharest. In 2020, the orchestra will perform at the Rostropovich Festival in Moscow.
Moulded by its founder, Fernand Quinet, and by its Music Directors (Manuel Rosenthal, Paul Strauss, Pierre Bartholomée, Louis Langrée, Pascal Rophé, François-Xavier Roth, and Christian Arming), the OPRL has developed a sound identity at the crossroads of the Germanic and French traditions. This course will continue under Gergely Madaras, starting in September 2019. The OPRL combines a determination to support new work and to promote the Franco-Belgian heritage, while also exploring new repertoire, with a recording policy that has resulted in more than 100 recordings.
Recent and ongoing developments in its discography include the Sirba Orchestra! project (DGG/Universal France), Respighi’s complete symphonic works (BIS), and works by Saint-Saëns (BIS), Bloch and Elgar (La Dolce Volta), Ysaÿe (Fuga Libera), Franck (Fuga Libera, Musique en Wallonie), and Gabriel Dupont (Fuga Libera), as well as clarinet concertos with Jean-Luc Votano (Fuga Libera), and concertos by Boesmans (Cypres).
For almost twenty years now, the OPRL has taken up the challenge of presenting the greatest music to the widest possible audience through original projects such as the “Music Factory”, “Les samedis en famille”, “Happy Hour!”, and “OPRL+” and specific series such as “Musiques anciennes” (early music), “Musiques du monde” (world music), “Piano 5 étoiles”, and “Orgue” (organ). Since 2016, it has benefited from a partnership with the Mezzo Live HD television channel (in Europe, Asia, and Canada).
The OPRL is also very much committed to the social role it plays throughout the year, taking music to audiences with little or no experience of classical culture. It makes a particular effort to reach young people, via activities in schools, thematic concerts (including “L’Orchestre à la portée des enfants”), and especially, since 2015, through the establishment of neighbourhood orchestras with the ReMuA association (El Sistema Liège).
UK
Since 1998, the Oxford Philharmonic has brought exciting and inspirational classical music performances to Oxford and beyond. Praised as ‘remarkable’ by The Spectator, the Orchestra prides itself on creating exceptional and unique musical experiences, bringing new and engaging interpretations to well-loved works in the classical repertoire.
In June 2022 the Oxford Philharmonic made its Carnegie Hall debut, in a concert ‘enmeshed in soul-enriching playing’ (Oberon’s Grove) of ‘world-class quality’ (Blogcritics).
The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra is dedicated to the highest standards of artistic excellence and musical integrity, and strives to create bold musical statements with every concert it presents. Its continual search for excellence is underpinned by the uncompromising standards of its Founder and Music Director Marios Papadopoulos and maintained by some of the finest musicians, whom ‘Papadopoulos has moulded into a stunning group’ (ConcertoNet).
The Oxford Philharmonic attracts some of the world’s greatest artists to appear in concert, including Maxim Vengerov, Angela Gheorghiu, Sir Antonio Pappano, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Martha Argerich, Sir András Schiff, Lang Lang, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Evgeny Kissin and Sir Bryn Terfel.
In addition to its annual concert season in Oxford, touring performances across the UK, family concerts, annual Oxford Piano Festival, and Chamber Music Series, the Orchestra is proud to present a growing list of international engagements including its debut at the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen in June 2019, US debut at Carnegie Hall in June 2022, Munich with pianist Martha Argerich in April 2023, and Haydn’s The Creation in September 2023 at St Thomas Church Fifth Avenue New York, joined by the Choir of Merton College.
The Oxford Philharmonic was appointed the Orchestra in Residence at the University of Oxford in 2002, the first relationship of its kind between an orchestra and a higher education institution.
World-renowned violinist Maxim Vengerov became the Oxford Philharmonic’s first ever Artist in Residence following his remarkable debut with the Orchestra in 2013. Over an unprecedented four-season collaboration, Vengerov performed with the Orchestra across the UK, recorded the violin concertos of Brahms and Sibelius as well as Mendelssohn’s Octet. In July 2018 Vengerov appeared at Cheltenham Music Festival and Saffron Hall with the Soloists of the Oxford Philharmonic – a tight-knit group of musicians described by Jessica Duchen as ‘a line-up to match any top-notch international chamber ensemble and probably beat them on their own turf’.
In February 2023 the Orchestra celebrates its 25th anniversary in a special concert at the Barbican with Maxim Vengerov playing Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and a new commission from John Rutter.
In December 2020, the Orchestra recorded a concert in a tribute to all those working on developing a vaccine for Covid-19 at the University of Oxford, including the world premiere of John Rutter’s Joseph’s Carol, commissioned by the Orchestra for the occasion. In addition to Rutter, the Orchestra were joined in their tribute by Sir Bryn Terfel and the Choir of Merton College, Oxford. The film was presented by John Suchet, and also included a special performance by Maxim Vengerov alongside tributes from Anne-Sophie Mutter, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford Louise Richardson, and the Orchestra’s Royal Patron HRH Princess Alexandra.
The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra has been firmly committed to outreach work from its earliest days, with projects taking music to areas of social and economic disadvantage, including hospitals, special schools, and partnerships with Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council. In December 2021 the Orchestra’s Sub-Principal Violin Jamie Hutchinson was awarded the prestigious Salomon Prize, a joint prize between the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) and Association of British Orchestras (ABO), in recognition of the educational initiatives she spearheaded with the Orchestra’s education team during the pandemic.
As Orchestra in Residence at the University of Oxford, the Oxford Philharmonic frequently collaborates with the Faculty of Music in educational programmes with various tuition and performance opportunities for talented young musicians, including the Side-by-Side scheme, which provides an opportunity for young musicians to perform within the ranks of a professional orchestra.
The Oxford Philharmonic has appeared on several recordings including works by Nimrod Borenstein for Chandos, cello concertos by Shostakovich and Mats Lidström (Solo Cello of the Oxford Philharmonic), both conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, on BIS Records, A Merton Christmas with the Choir of Merton College, Haydn’s The Creation with the Choir of New College, and the Handel/Mendelssohn Acis and Galatea with Christ Church Cathedral Choir. The Orchestra’s most recent disc The Enlightened Trumpet with soloist Paul Merkelo was released on Sony Classical in September 2019.
A partnership with J & A Beare provides the Orchestra’s distinguished members with opportunities to play on Stradivari instruments, adding a new dimension to the sound of the Orchestra.
The Orchestra and its Music Director were awarded the City of Oxford’s Certificate of Honour in 2013, in recognition of their contribution to education and performance in Oxford.
UK
As the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) approaches its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2021, its mission to enrich lives through orchestral experiences that are uncompromising in their excellence and inclusive in their appeal, places the RPO at the forefront of music-making in the UK. Performing approximately 200 concerts each season and with a worldwide audience of more than half-a-million people, the Orchestra embraces a broad repertoire that enables it to reach the most diverse audience of any British symphony orchestra. Whilst artistic integrity remains paramount, the RPO is unafraid to push boundaries and is equally at home recording video game, film and television soundtracks and working with pop stars, as it is performing the great symphonic repertoire.
The RPO collaborates with the most inspiring artists and looks forward to welcoming its new Music Director, Vasily Petrenko, in September 2021. Vasily Petrenko will join a roster of titled conductors that includes Pinchas Zukerman (Principal Guest Conductor), Alexander Shelley (Principal Associate Conductor) and Grzegorz Nowak (Permanent Associate Conductor).
Cadogan Hall in London has been the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s home since 2004. Here it performs an annual season of concerts, many of which are subsequently toured to its seven principal residency venues. In addition, the Orchestra promotes more than forty-five concerts each season at partnership venues across the country, several of which are in areas where access to live orchestral music is very limited. In London, the Orchestra also promotes a season of symphonic concerts at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and a popular series at the iconic Royal Albert Hall, where it has recently been appointed as the Hall’s Associate Orchestra.
As a respected cultural ambassador, the RPO enjoys a busy schedule of international touring, performing in the world’s great concerts halls and at prestigious international festivals. This season’s touring highlights include visits to Belarus, Slovakia and a three-week tour of the USA.
The RPO is recognised as being the UK’s most in-demand orchestra, an accolade that would have pleased Sir Thomas Beecham, who founded the RPO in 1946. His mission was to lead a vital revival of UK orchestras after World War II and form an ensemble that comprised the finest musicians in the country. The Orchestra has since attracted a glittering list of principal conductors, including Rudolf Kempe, Antal Doráti, Walter Weller, André Previn, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Temirkanov, Daniele Gatti and Charles Dutoit.
The RPO aims to place orchestral music at the heart of contemporary society, collaborating with creative partners to foster a deeper engagement with communities to ensure that live orchestral music is accessible to as inclusive and diverse an audience as possible. To achieve this, in 1993 the Orchestra launched RPO Resound, which has grown to become the most innovative and respected orchestral community and education programme in the UK and internationally. The programme delivers bespoke, pioneering education, community and talent development projects to a wide range of participant groups, including homeless people, children, young people and stroke survivors, always with the overarching objective to leave a lasting legacy.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has always been entrepreneurial and in 1986 it was the first UK orchestra to launch its own record label. The RPO has gone on to embrace advances in digital technology and now achieves nearly thirty million downloads of its recorded music each year. The Orchestra is increasingly active online (www.rpo.co.uk) and on social media (@rpoonline) providing audiences with the opportunity to engage with the RPO and enjoy ‘behind-the-scenes’ film clips and photographs.
Passion, versatility and uncompromising artistic standards are the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s hallmarks, and as it looks forward to an exciting future with its new Music Director, Vasily Petrenko, it will continue to be recognised as one of the world’s most open-minded, forward-thinking and accessible symphony orchestras.
Russia
The Russian National Orchestra was founded in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. Of its debut at the BBC Proms in London, the Evening Standard wrote, 'They played with such captivating beauty that the audience gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure.' The RNO has been described as 'a living symbol of the best in Russian art' (Miami Herald) and 'as close to perfect as one could hope for' (Trinity Mirror).
Maintaining an active international schedule, the RNO 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.
RNO concerts are often aired on National Public Radio, the European Broadcasting Union, and Russia’s Kultura channel. Their discography, launched with a highly praised 1991 recording of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique, now numbers more than 80 critically acclaimed 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, cited as “the most exciting cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies to be put down on disc, and easily the best recorded” (SACD.net).
Their recording of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Beintus' 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.
Hungary
The Savaria Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1962, has become one of the most significant representatives of Hungarian music in the past few years. Its repertoire includes classical and romantic compositions and music from the 20th century. Besides performing as a symphony orchestra, the musicians of the ensemble frequently feature at opera galas of very high artistic standard. The orchestra regularly performs at various Hungarian and international festivals including International Bartók Festival and Seminar and the Iseum Festival. For its outstanding quality of work, the orchestra received the Béla Bartók-Ditta Pásztory Award in 1990.
The Savaria Symphony Orchestra is also renowned for being a successful performer of contemporary music. To acknowledge this fact, and to reward its remarkable success in performing and popularising Hungarian musical compositions, the orchestra was awarded the prize offered by the ARTISJUS Foundation of Music in 2001. The professional artistic standard represented by the orchestra is justified by a series of concerts broadcast in the radio, on TV and on LPs. The orchestra is well known all over Europe. It has performed in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland, Turkey, Italy and other countries of Europe, as well as in South Korea. In the towns and cities of Austria they perform on a regular basis.
The artistic leader and chief conductor of the orchestra is Gergely Vajda, whose professionalism, both as composer and conductor, is acknowledged in Europe and in the United States of America.
Slovakia
THE SLOVAK PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA was established in 1949. Two highly reputed, internationally acclaimed personalities, Václav Talich (Principal Conductor, 1949 – 1952) and Ľudovít Rajter (1949 – 1976, and the orchestra’s Artistic Director until 1961), stood at the orchestra’s birth. Other chief conductors who have played an instrumental role in the orchestra’s musical evolution include Tibor Frešo, Ladislav Slovák, Libor Pešek, Vladimir Verbitsky, Bystrík Režucha and Aldo Ceccato. Between 1991 and 2001 the role of Chief Conductor and Music Director was held by Ondrej Lenárd. In the 2003/2004 season Jiří Bělohlávek acted as Artistic Director. In 2004 Vladimír Válek became Chief Conductor, and was succeeded by Peter Feranec in 2007 – 2009. From 2009 – 2016 the French conductor Emmanuel Villaume was the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and from 2017 until 2020, the British conductor James Judd. Leoš Svárovský (from 2007 – 2018), Rastislav Štúr (from 2011 – 2019) and Petr Altrichter (for the 2018/2019 season) have been Permanent Guest Conductors of the Slovak Philharmonic. From the 2020/2021 season Daniel Raiskin became Chief Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra.
Among the many guest conductors who have worked with the Slovak Philharmonic over the years, international personalities like János Ferencsik, Witold Rowicki, Václav Smetáček, Karel Ančerl, Franz Konwitschny, Arvīds Jansons, Václav Neumann, Hermann Abendroth, Antonio Pedrotti, Sir Eugene Goossens, Sir Malcom Sargent, Roberto Benzi, Kurt Masur, Sir Charles Mackerras, Carlo Zecchi, Serge Baudo, Claudio Abbado, Kurt Sanderling, Zdeněk Košler (who, thanks to his longstanding fruitful collaboration with the orchestra, was awarded the honorary title of ‘Chief Conductor in memoriam’ in 1996), Riccardo Muti, Karl Richter, Kirill Kondrashin, Leif Segerstam, Alain Lombard, Sergiu Celibidache, Thomas Sanderling, Oskar Danon, Mario Rossi, Neeme Järvi, Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi, Evgeny Svetlanov, Mariss Jansons, Christoph von Dohnányi, Dmitri Kitayenko, Otmar Suitner, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, Alexander Rahbari, Fabio Luisi, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Peter Schreier, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Ralf Weikert, Miltiades Caridis, Pinchas Steinberg, Peter Keuschnig, Tomáš Hanus, Jakub Hrůša, Juraj Valčuha, Tomáš Netopil, Ion Marin, Pavel Baleff, George Pehlivanian, Jun Märkl, Ilan Volkov, Wayne Marshall, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Alan Buribayev must be mentioned, as well as composers and artists of own works like Jean Martinon, Krzysztof Penderecki a Aram Khachaturian.
The orchestra has made numerous recordings for radio, television and the music publishers OPUS, Supraphon, Panton, Hungaroton, JVC Victor, RCA, Pacific Music, Naxos and Marco Polo. The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra regularly gives guest performances on leading European stages and at festivals. In the course of its numerous tours abroad, the Slovak Philharmonic has performed in nearly every European country, as well as in Cyprus, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, the USA and Oman.
One of the most important events of the 2019/2020 season, which had to be ended prematurely due to the coronavirus pandemic, was a trio of concerts by the SPh at the Bratislava Music Festival with the conductors James Judd, Juraj Valčuha and Pinchas Steinberg, a special concert to commemorate the Milan Rastislav Štefánik Year, gala concerts to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Slovak Philharmonic, and the 30th Anniversary Concert of the Velvet Revolution.
The planned SPh concert tour to South Korea and Japan, which should have taken place this season, has been moved to 2023 as a result of the overall situation in the world.
Japan
In 2023, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates its 112th anniversary of Japan’s first symphony orchestra. With about 160 musicians, TPO performs both symphonies and operas regularly. TPO is proud to have appointed Maestro Myung-Whun Chung, who has been conducting TPO since 2001, as Honorary Music Director, Maestro Andrea Battistoni as Chief Conductor and Maestro Mikhail Pletnev as Special Guest Conductor.
TPO has established its world-class reputation through its subscription concert series, regular opera and ballet assignments at the New National Theatre, and a full, ever in-demand agenda around Japan and the world, including broadcasting with NHK Broadcasting Corporation, various educational programs, and tours abroad. While Tokyo Phil is a frequent recipient of the ACA National Arts Festival Award in Japan, its recordings have been highly acclaimed internationally, winning the "OPUS KLASSIK 2021" award in the symphonic category (20th-21st century).
TPO has partnerships with Bunkamura Orchard Hall, the Bunkyo Ward in Tokyo, Chiba City, Karuizawa Cho in Nagano and Nagaoka City in Niigata.
The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra has the longest history and tradition of any orchestra in Japan, having been originally established in Nagoya in 1911. It is currently the largest orchestra in Japan with 166 members and is distinguished for its active and varied schedule embracing symphonic concerts, opera and ballet.
After moving its base to Tokyo in 1938 the orchestra played a pivotal role in bringing authentic opera to the Japanese public under Chief conductor Manfred Gurlitt (1890-1972.) Shortly after the war, the orchestra became a fully independent organization and changed its name to the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra focusing on subscription concerts, opera and ballet while also pursuing an active broadcasting program with NHK.
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performs regularly at Tokyo's most distinguished Suntory and Orchard Halls and at Tokyo Opera City where it has its base. The orchestra has received many awards and honors, including the Ongaku No Tomo Sha Prize (1984), the Agency for Cultural Affairs "Art Festival Prize"(1986) and "Art Festival Grand Prize" (1995). Furthermore, the orchestra has been designated as one of the organizations for the Agency for Cultural Affairs "Special Program to Artistic Creativity". From 1997 it became the regular orchestra at Tokyo's New National Theatre.
In 1999, Norio Ohga, Chairman of SONY Corporation, was appointed Chairman of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2001, with visions of further growth, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra merged with the Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra.
From 2001, Myung-Whun Chung has been the Special Artistic Advisor of Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Under his guidance the Orchestra carries out regular subscription concerts at Orchard Hall and Suntory Hall in Tokyo and opera and ballet performances at the New National Theatre while also continuing a varied broadcasting and special concert program.
In 2011 Mr. Ryoji Chubachi, Vice Chairman, Representative Corporate Executive Officer of Sony Corporation,assumed the position of the Tokyo Philharmonic's President, and Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, Inc., became Chairman.
In 2012, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra's 100th Anniversary Special Concert, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, was held at Suntory Hall.
The Orchestra regularly performs in regions outside Tokyo and engages in regional cultural exchange and education programs. Tokyo Philharmonic has carried out 3 well-received European tours and is regarded as an upcoming world-class orchestra.
