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The French cellist Edgar Moreau, who turned 21 in 2015, can already look back on a number of exceptional achievements, among them becoming the winner – at the age of just 17 – of the Second Prize in Russia’s formidable Tchaikovsky Competition, winning the Young Soloist Prize in the 2009 Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris, and performing with such distinguished musicians as Valery Gergiev, Gidon Kremer, András Schiff, Yuri Bashmet, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gustavo Dudamel, Renaud Capuçon, Nicholas Angelich, Frank Braley, Khatia Buniatishvili, Gérard Caussé and the Talich Quartet. In 2013 his huge potential was highlighted by France’s top music awards, Les Victoires de la Musique, which named him the year’s ‘Révélation’ among young classical instrumentalists.
He released his debut album in March 2014 on Erato with pianist Pierre-Yves Hodique: Play is a collection of short pieces and brilliant encores from Popper, Paganini, Chopin, Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Dvořák, Massenet, Schubert, Poulenc and Tchaikovsky among others. His follow-up album, Giovincello, presents 18th-century cello concertos recorded with the Italian Baroque ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro.
A Parisian by birth, Edgar Moreau first realised he wanted to play the cello when he was just four years old – the instrument caught his imagination when he saw a girl having a cello lesson in an antique shop he was visiting with his father. He began lessons soon afterwards, and was giving concerts with major orchestras by the time he was 11 years old. Since the age of 13 he has been a student at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. He has participated in masterclasses given by such cellists as Lynn Harrell, Anner Bylsma, Miklós Perényi, Gary Hoffman and David Geringas, and since October 2013 has been attending the Kronberg Academy near Frankfurt – home to the Emanuel Feuermann Conservatory, named after the legendary Ukrainian-born cellist.
When the editor of the international music website Bachtrack saw Edgar Moreau perform in Gstaad in early 2013, he had the following to say: “One always comes to a young musician’s concert with a hope that this will be that special day when you hear a performer who you are absolutely sure will be a star of the future. That hope only comes to fruition on a small number of occasions: this concert was one of them. I’m willing to take bets that nineteen year-old Parisian cellist Edgar Moreau is going to have a glittering career … His playing is muscular and he throws himself into the music … and Moreau has bags of stage presence, with a flexible face which can turn from smile to grimace and back in an instant but always shows deep involvement with the music … Even at such a young age, Moreau can completely win over an audience with his big sound and no-holds-barred style. I think he’s going to be a winner.”
Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. Known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment and rare interpretive depth, she was recognized with a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship in 2011. Today her career is truly global in scope, taking her to the most prestigious international venues for solo recitals, chamber concerts, and concerto collaborations with all the preeminent conductors and orchestras worldwide.
“Weilerstein is a throwback to an earlier age of classical performers: not content merely to serve as a vessel for the composer’s wishes, she inhabits a piece fully and turns it to her own ends,” marvels the New York Times. “Weilerstein’s cello is her id. She doesn’t give the impression that making music involves will at all. She and the cello seem simply to be one and the same,” agrees the Los Angeles Times. As the UK’s Telegraph put it, “Weilerstein is truly a phenomenon.”
Weilerstein has appeared with all the major orchestras of the United States, Europe and Asia, collaborating with conductors including Marin Alsop, Daniel Barenboim, Jiří Bělohlávek, Semyon Bychkov, Thomas Dausgaard, Sir Andrew Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Mark Elder, Alan Gilbert, Giancarlo Guerrero, Bernard Haitink, Pablo Heras-Casado, Marek Janowski, Paavo Järvi, Lorin Maazel, Cristian Măcelaru, Zubin Mehta, Ludovic Morlot, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Peter Oundjian, Rafael Payare, Donald Runnicles, Yuri Temirkanov, Michael Tilson Thomas, Osmo Vänskä, Joshua Weilerstein, Simone Young and David Zinman.
In 2009, she was one of four artists invited by Michelle Obama to participate in a widely celebrated and high-profile classical music event at the White House, featuring student workshops hosted by the First Lady and performances in front of an audience that included President Obama and the First Family. A month later, Weilerstein toured Venezuela as soloist with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra under Dudamel, since when she has made numerous return visits to teach and perform with the orchestra as part of its famed El Sistema music education program.
Born in 1982, Alisa Weilerstein discovered her love for the cello at just two and a half, when she had chicken pox and her grandmother assembled a makeshift set of instruments from cereal boxes to entertain her. Although immediately drawn to the Rice Krispies box cello, Weilerstein soon grew frustrated that it didn’t produce any sound. After persuading her parents to buy her a real cello at the age of four, she developed a natural affinity for the instrument and gave her first public performance six months later. At 13, in 1995, she made her professional concert debut, playing Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo” Variations with the Cleveland Orchestra, and in March 1997 she made her first Carnegie Hall appearance with the New York Youth Symphony.
A graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Richard Weiss, Weilerstein also holds a degree in history from Columbia University. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) at nine years old, and is a staunch advocate for the T1D community, serving as a consultant for the biotechnology company eGenesis and as a Celebrity Advocate for JDRF, the world leader in T1D research. Born into a musical family, she is the daughter of violinist Donald Weilerstein and pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, and the sister of conductor Joshua Weilerstein. She is married to Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, with whom she has a young child.
Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a uniquely varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster. He appears with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, and gives recitals in major musical centres. As a chamber musician, he has curated concert series for many prestigious venues, including London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s 92nd St Y, and the Salzburg Festival. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello in classical programmes.
He has a strong interest in historical performance, working with many period-instrument orchestras and giving recitals with harpsichord and fortepiano. He is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has given many premieres of new works, including Sir John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil and many other works, Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, three works for solo cello by György Kurtág, and pieces by Heinz Holliger and Jörg Widmann.
Steven’s wide-ranging discography includes J S Bach’s complete solo cello suites (Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year), Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano, concertos by C P E Bach and Haydn, the Elgar and Walton concertos, and the Brahms double concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Since 1997, Steven has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, Cornwall. He also enjoys playing for children, and has created three musical stories, with the composer Anne Dudley. His two books for children, published by Faber & Faber, have been translated into many languages; his latest book for Faber is a commentary on Schumann’s Advice for Young Musicians, and a book about the Bach suites was published in 2021. He has also devised and written two evenings of words and music, one describing the last years of Robert Schumann, the other devoted to Marcel Proust and his salons, and has presented many programmes for radio, including documentaries about two of his heroes – Robert Schumann and Harpo Marx.
The recipient of many awards, Steven’s honours include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, the Piatigorsky Prize and Maestro Foundation Genius Grant in the U.S, the Glashütte Award in Germany, the Gold Medal awarded by the Armenian Ministry of Culture, and the Wigmore Medal.
Steven plays the ‘Marquis de Corberon’ Stradivarius of 1726, on loan from the Royal Academy of Music.
Being one of the most promising talents of her generation, Anastasia Kobekina debuted with an orchestra at the age of six. Since that time she has had the opportunity to perform with many renowned orchestras, such as Moscow Virtuosi, Kremerata Baltica, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, and many others – under guidance of Krzysztov Penderecki, Heinrich Schiff, Vladimir Spivakov and Valery Gergiev.
In June 2019 Anastasia won the Bronze medal at the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition in St. Petersburg. In 2018 she became a „New Generation Artist“ of the BBC 3 Radio Scheme and was also awarded the Prix Thierry Scherz and the Prix André Hoffmann at the Swiss Winter Music Festival “Sommets musicaux de Gstaad”, a reward that comprises a recording with orchestra for the Swiss recording label Claves (released in April 2019).
In the upcoming season 2019-2020 she will debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, participate in the chamber music week of Verbier Festival in Elmau, and will go on concert tour with the Konzerthaus orchestra Berlin.
One of young cellist’s main dedications and passions is chamber music – she has been participating in many festivals performing with artists, such as Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Giovanni Sollima, Denis Matsuev, Fazil Say, Vladimir Spivakov, and Andras Schiff.
Born into a family of musicians, she received her first cello lessons at the age of four at her home in Ekaterinburg, the capital of Ural part of Russia. Following the completion of her studies at the Central Music school in Moscow she was invited to study at the famous Kronberg Academy in Germany with Frans Helmerson. She continued her studies at the University of Arts in Berlin in the class of Professor Jens Peter Maintz. She is currently a student of Jerome Pernoo at the Conservatoire of Paris and at the Frankfurter Hochschule at the class of Kristin von der Goltz (barockvioloncello).
In 2015 Anastasia won the prestigious TONALi Competition in Hamburg and was given the opportunity to borrow a beautiful violoncello by Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini which dates back to 1743.
Hailed by The Times as a “remarkable cellist” and described by Gramophone as “sheer perfection”, Kian Soltani’s playing is characterised by a depth of expression, sense of individuality and technical mastery, alongside a charismatic stage presence and ability to create an immediate emotional connection with his audience. He is now invited by the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and recital promoters, propelling him from rising star to one of the most talked about cellists performing today.
In 2020/21 Soltani has been invited to make debuts with orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Furthermore, Soltani will embark on extensive orchestral touring including with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim, Bolshoi Orchestra and Tugan Sokhiev, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, Orchestre Philharmonique de la Radio France and Myung-whun Chung and the Tonhalle Orchestra with Paavo Järvi. Recent orchestral highlights include the Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Berlin Staatskapelle, NCPAO, Boston Symphony and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Soltani commences a multi-year residency with Junge Wilde at Konzerthaus Dortmund from Autumn 2018.
As a recitalist, Soltani has recently performed at Carnegie Hall, Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals, Wigmore Hall and the Boulez Saal, where he will return to curate an evening of cello music in April 2021. In January 2021, Soltani will perform Beethoven trios on tour with Daniel and Michael Barenboim at venues including Paris Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, London Southbank Centre and Munich Philharmonie im Gasteig.
In 2017, Soltani signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and his first disc ‘Home’, comprising works for cello and piano by Schubert, Schumann and Reza Vali, was released to international acclaim in February 2018, with Gramophone describing the recording as “sublime”. His recording of the Mozart Piano Quartets with Daniel and Michael Barenboim and Yulia Deyneka was released in August 2018. In April 2019, Warner Classics released a disc of the Dvorak and Tchaikovsky Piano Trios with Lahav Shani and Renaud Capucon, recorded live at Aix Easter Festival in 2018. Soltani’s latest disc for Deutsche Grammophon was released in August 2020 and features Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim, amongst other works arranged by Soltani for solo and cello ensemble.
Soltani attracted worldwide attention in April 2013 as winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki where he was hailed by Ostinato magazine as “a soloist of the highest level among the new generation of cellists”. In February 2017 Soltani won Germany’s celebrated Leonard Bernstein Award and in December 2017, he was awarded the prestigious Credit Suisse Young Artist Award.
Born in Bregenz, Austria, in 1992 to a family of Persian musicians, Soltani began playing the cello at age four and was only twelve when he joined Ivan Monighetti’s class at the Basel Music Academy. He was chosen as an Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation scholarship holder in 2014, and completed his further studies as a member of the Young Soloist Programme at Germany’s Kronberg Academy. He received additional important musical training at the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein.
Kian Soltani plays “The London, ex Boccherini” Antonio Stradivari cello, kindly loaned to him by a generous sponsor through the Beares International Violin Society.
Nicolas Hartmann studied at the Conservatoire à rayonnement départemental d’Orléans, then at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris with André Navarra and Philippe Muller. In 1983, he won a virtuosity prize at the Geneva Conservatoire and went on to perfect his skills in Cologne with Boris Pergamenschikow. After winning the Pablo Casals Competition in Barcelona in 1986, he became principal cellist of the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie, before joining the Orchestre National de Lyon in 1992, where he holds the same position.
Nicolas Hartmann has performed as soloist with Franz Welser-Möst, Emmanuel Krivine, Alexandre Lazarev, David Robertson, Thierry Fischer, Tibor Varga and Roy Goodwin, and has played chamber music with Emanuel Ax, Éric Le Sage, Joseph Silverstein, Jennifer and Alan Gilbert, Harvey de Souza, Boris Garlitzky, Emmanuel Pahud and Bruno Pasquier. A keen student of early instruments, he was a member of the Chambre philharmonique, the orchestra founded by Emmanuel Krivine. Since 2001, he has taught the cello section of the Orchestre français des jeunes.
Born in 1996 in Geneva, Gabriel Esteban grew up in a family of musicians. After studying with François Abeille, he benefited from the teaching of François Guye at the Haute École de Musique de Genève and is currently studying with Giovanni Gnocchi at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. At the same time, he received advice from cellists such as Christophe Coin, Marc Coppey, Enrico Dindo, David Geringas, Thomas Grossenbacher, Frans Helmerson, Clemens Hagen, Gary Hoffman, Maria Kliegel, Reinhard Latzko, Philippe Muller, Raphaël Pidoux, Troels Svane, István Vardái and Wen-Sinn Yang. Gabriel Esteban won the 2nd prize at the David Popper International Competition in Hungary, numerous 1st prizes at the Swiss Youth Music Competition, where he also received the SUISA Foundation prize for the best interpretation of a work by a Swiss composer, and was also a laureate of the Enrico Mainardi Competition in Austria. He has been invited to perform at the Festival Lavaux Classic with Tedi Papavrami, at the Kronberg Academy with Jehye Lee and István Várdai and regularly gives recitals in Switzerland, Austria and Italy. As a soloist, he has already performed with several orchestras in Europe and will tour with the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra in 2019 in some of the country’s largest concert halls. Gabriel Esteban is the cellist of the Aurora Piano Quartet, the first piano quartet in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium. The ensemble performs regularly in concerts in Switzerland, France, Belgium and Austria. The quartet works regularly with members of the Artemis, Danel, Ébène, Takács and Ysaÿe quartets, the Trio Wanderer, as well as with Nobuko Imai, Tedi Papavrami, Jean-Claude Pennetier and Pavel Vernikov. Winner of the Illzach International Chamber Music Competition and the Orpheus Chamber Music Competition, the ensemble toured Brazil and Argentina in 2016. The Aurora Piano Quartet has been invited to perform at the Festival de Piano de la Roque d’Anthéron, the Swiss Chamber Music Festival, the Académie Villecroze and the Festival Piano à Porrentruy. Gabriel Esteban has been principal cellist of the Verbier Festival Orchestra and the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has performed with conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Iván Fischer, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Manfred Honeck, Paavo Järvi, Jesús López-Cobos, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas and is a regular member of various Swiss orchestras.
He has played as a soloist with a number of orchestras, including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev, the Polish Radio Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. His passion for chamber music has led him to the world’s most famous festivals, such as Marlboro, Verbier, Bergen, Gstaad, where he performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Mitsuko Uchida, Nobuko Imai, Pierre Amoyal or with his Duo partner pianist Louis Schwizgebel. He has also been invited to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic and with the 12 cellists of this legendary orchestra.
Winner of the Swiss Ambassador’s Award, Lionel Cottet has received numerous prizes at international competitions including Lutoslawski Competition in Warsaw, Brahms Competition in Austria and Astral Artist Auditions in Philadelphia. He is also a Soloist of the swiss Migros Kulturprozent Classics and was finalist at the Eurovision competition.
He studied in the prestigious Artist Diploma program of the Juilliard School in New York, at the Salzburg Mozarteum, at the Zurich Hochschule and at the Geneva Conservatoire with Joel Krosnick, Clemens Hagen, Thomas Grossenbacher and François Guye.
Lionel is deeply committed to communicating with the young generation in various outreach programs in Mexico, Colombia, USA and in Switzerland. He plays an 1852 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume cello.
Mäkelä’s third season as Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic features eleven contrasting programmes, with repertoire ranging from Jean Baptiste Lully and Pietro Locatelli to Alban Berg and Mahler to Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Julia Perry. In Autumn 2022, Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic embark on their second European tour with performances in Germany, Belgium and Austria with soloist Sol Gabetta.
For his second season as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä has chosen to spotlightcomposers Pascal Dusapin, Betsy Jolas, Jimmy López Bellido, Magnus Lindberg and Kaija Saariaho, the latter featured with three different works. There is also a focus on the Ballets Russes, with two key Diaghilev scores: Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Rite of Spring. In Spring 2023, Mäkelä and Orchestre de Paris tour throughout Europe with Janine Jansen as soloist.
With the Concertgebouworkest Klaus Mäkelä embarks on a long-term collaboration, joining the orchestra as Artistic Partner with effect from the 2022-23 season and as its next Chief Conductor in 2027. For their first season together, they perform six programmes including Mahler Symphony No. 6, the Mozart Requiem and Strauss Alpine Symphony as well premieres by López Bellido, Sauli Zinovjev, Alexander Raskatov and Sally Beamish. On tour they performed the opening concert of the Musikfest Berlin and at the Koln Philharmonie.
As a guest conductor in the 2022/23 season Klaus Mäkelä makes his first appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester and Wiener Symphoniker and returns to the USA to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Mäkelä studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula and cello with Marko Ylönen, Timo Hanhinen and Hannu Kiiski. As a soloist, he has performed with several Finnish orchestras and as a chamber musician at the Verbier Festival, as well as with members of the Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
Scottish cellist Alasdair Tait has performed in many of the world’s major concert halls and is also much sought after as a chamber music coach. He was Head of Chamber Music at Guildhall School of Music until 2016 when he decided to devote his attention to the promotion and career development of young artists through his role as Chief Executive of Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT). He previously held the posts of Director of Chamber Music at the RNCM in Manchester, Artistic Director of the RNCM International Chamber Music Festival, Professor of Chamber Music at the International Chamber Music Institute of the Reina Sofia Conservatoire in Madrid and has been a regular professor on the Britten-Pears International Quartet Academy and the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA). He is frequently invited as jury member on international competitions such as Melbourne, London and Banff International String Quartet Competitions. Most recently he has given masterclasses at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Glen Gould School in Canada, New England Conservatory and Stanford University in USA, and in Australia, Japan and Singapore as well as throughout Europe.
Alasdair studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester under Emma Ferrand and Ralph Kirshbaum and at the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland, with Thomas Demenga. On returning to the UK in 1998, Alasdair joined the Belcea Quartet and was its cellist until 2006. During this time he has performed around the world with tours to Australia and New Zealand, the Far East, North and South America as well as throughout Europe and at some of the world’s most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Köln Philharmonie, Concertgebouw, Chatelet, Cité de la Musique, Frankfurt Alte Oper and the Casals Hall in Tokyo. For five years the quartet was Resident Quartet at Wigmore Hall, a position which also included regular education work. As a member of the Belcea Quartet Alasdair has recorded for EMI CD’s of Schubert, Brahms, Britten, Mozart, Fauré and Barber and collaborated with Ian Bostridge, Thomas Ades, Thomas Kakushka and Jonathan Lemalu. Their disc of Debussy, Ravel and Duttilleux quartets won a Gramaphone Award and an earlier recording of Janacek was awarded a Diapason d’Or in France. As well as being one of the first groups to participate in the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme, the quartet were also twice recipients of the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Awards for Chamber Music Ensemble.
Alasdair has participated in many of the world’s important festivals including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Schubertiade, Risør, Delft, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham and Bath, performing alongside artists including Piotr Andrezewski, Christian Zacharias, Kathryn Stott, Imogen Cooper, Aleksander Madzar, Robert Levin, Isabelle van Keulen, Alexander Janicek, Valentin Erben, Borodin Quartet, Heinz Holliger, Michael Collins, Simon Keenlyside, Dame Anne Murray and Christine Schäfer.
He is currently a council member for Aldeburgh Music, a trustee for the Ann Driver Trust, and previously was a Governor for Live Music Now UK and founder board member of the European Chamber Music Teachers Association. In 2013 he was made a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy for his contribution to excellence in Teaching and Learning. In 2016, Alasdair was awarded the ABO (Association of British Orchestras) Artist Manager of the Year.
Alasdair is also a psychodynamic psychotherapist in private practice in London, registered with BPC, and FPC.