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Alexander Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow into a family with a well-established musical tradition. His concerto debut came at the age of eight, and in the same year he moved to the UK to study at the Menuhin School. Lord Menuhin was his inspiration throughout his school years and they performed together on several occasions.
The forthcoming season will see his returns to Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Chattanooga Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic and Rogue Valley Symphony Medford in the United States. He will also visit New York again several times as part of the prestigious CMS at Lincoln Center. He will also return to the direct the Romanian Youth Orchestra, Detmold Chamber Orchestra and Leopoldinum Orchestra Wroclaw and appear at numerous festivals across Europe, such as Stavanger, Music for Galway and Verbier Festival at Schloss Elmau.
Amongst the highlights of previous seasons are his debuts at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Tonkünstler Orchester, tour with the North Netherlands Orchestra as well as return visits to the Manchester Camerata, Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonietta Riga, English Symphony Orchestra and Anima Musicae Orchesta Budapest. He also tours regularly with Julia Fischer as a permanent member of her string quartet.
Highlights of his recent concerto performances include appearances with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin’s in the Fields, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bolivia, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orkest The Hague, Welsh National Opera Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra.
He is also much in demand as a director and has directed and performed as a soloist regularly with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Players, Camerata Zurich, Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and the Romanian Sinfonietta. He is also regularly invited as guest soloist with orchestras touring the UK and these have recently included the Russian Philharmonic Novosibirsk, Brussels Philharmonic, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and the Tonkünstler Orchester.
His critically acclaimed CPO recording of Andrzej Panufnik’s Violin Concerto with the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin commemorating the composer’s 100th birthday won an ICMA Special Achievement Award. His most recent recording with the English Symphony Orchestra of Philip Sawyers’s Violin Concerto was released to great critical acclaim.
Alexander was awarded 1st prize at the Trio di Trieste Duo Competition alongside pianist Wu Qian. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Bowers Program (previously named Chamber Music Society Two) at the Lincoln Center, and in 2016 received the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award.
Alexander is a founding member of the award-winning Sitkovetsky Trio with whom he has performed worldwide. The trio won the BBC Music Magazine award for Chamber Music in 2022.
Alexander plays the 1679 ‘Parera’ Antonio Stradivari violin, kindly loaned to him through the Beare’s International Violin Society by a generous sponsor.
“Barenboim makes it all sound easy, though, with performances spilling over with life and drama. Every work’s soul has been ignited and revealed, every second telling a story, all unmarred by a single glitch in intonation or articulation […] this is indisputably exciting playing across an indisputably effective programme.” – Gramophone
Michael Barenboim’s 1995 performance of Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto with Pierre Boulez in the Cologne Philharmonie was the beginning of a remarkable career. Following this celebrated debut, he has since performed the Schoenberg concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim, the Chicago Symphony under Asher Fisch, the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, and the Berlin Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko. Michael regularly gives solo recitals in the world’s most prestigious concert halls, such as Wigmore Hall in London, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Sydney Opera House, and Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. He presented a program with works by Pierre Boulez in Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Opéra National de Paris, the Barbican Centre in London, the Dortmund Konzerthaus, and the Salzburg Festival.
As a member of the Boulez Ensemble, Michael has premiered numerous new works by composers such as Jörg Widmann, Kareem Rouston, and many others. He is a professor for violin and chamber music at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, and has since 2020 been the academy’s Dean. In addition, he and seven other selected members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra founded the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble in 2020 and were able to complete a 13-concert tour of the USA shortly before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Among Michael’s last solo performances before the lockdown were Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Robert Trevino and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel.
Michael Barenboim’s first solo album featured compositions by Bach and Bartók as well as Boulez’s Anthèmes 1 & 2. In 2018 there followed a CD with works by Tartini, Berio, Paganini, and Sciarrino. For Deutsche Grammophon, Michael has recorded the Mozart piano quartets and trios as well as the complete Beethoven piano trios – together with Kian Soltani and Daniel Barenboim.
Winner of the 2019 prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition, Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene “is not just a virtuoso like many others, he is a voice. He has a tone, a presence” (Diapason). At the age of 24, he has performed with leading orchestras and in celebrated recital halls both at home and abroad. His ability to “make his Stradivarius sing like a master” (Le Monde), coupled with his refreshingly honest musicality and engagement with musicians and audiences alike, has won him countless admirers. In 2022, he was named Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year.
After simultaneous residencies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Gavle Symphony, Johan takes on a new collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, working with conductors such as Antonello Manacorda and Robert Trevino. An advocate for new music, he continues to perform the concerto written for him by Tebogo Monnakgotla, notably with the Berlin Radio Symphony and Giedrė Slekyte, having given the world premiere with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and John Storgards in April 2023.
Johan’s other recent and forthcoming highlights include debut performances with the Minnesota Orchestra and Thomas Sondergaard, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Sakari Oramo and San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen; return appearances with the Bergen Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, and Warsaw Philharmonic.
Johan is equally passionate about chamber music and will be going back to North America to give recitals, notably on the Vancouver Recital Series, San Francisco Performances and at the Gardner Music in Boston, as well as making his debut tour in Australia. He is otherwise making return appearances at the Verbier and Rosendal festivals, as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, where he is now a regular guest.
Recording exclusively for BIS, Johan released his fourth album on the label in October 2023, a recital disc comprising Ravel’s Sonata and Prokofiev’s Second Sonata, alongside short pieces by Arvo Part, Lili Boulanger and Grazyna Bacewicz. The Strad hailed this album as ‘interesting by its repertoire and marvellous by its quality’.
His previous recording featured the Nielsen and Sibelius Concerti, with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic with John Storgards, and garnered Johan his third coveted ‘Editor’s Choice’ from Gramophone Magazine, as well as a prestigious Swedish Grammis Award.
Johan began playing the violin at the age of four and made his professional concerto debut three years later. In Summer 2016, he was student-in-residence at Switzerland’s Verbier Festival (where he made his performance debut in 2021) and in 2018 was accepted on to the Norwegian Crescendo programme, where he worked closely with mentors Janine Jansen, Leif Ove Andsnes and Gidon Kremer. Andsnes subsequently invited Johan to play at the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival and they performed together again in May 2019 at the Bergen International Festival. In 2019 he joined Janine Jansen and other members of the Crescendo Programme for a performance at the Wigmore Hall in London, and at the International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht.
Johan studied with Per Enoksson, Professor at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, as well as with Janine Jansen, and has also participated in masterclasses with several distinguished teachers, including Dora Schwarzberg, Pamela Frank, Gerhard Schulz, and Henning Kraggerud. He has been awarded various scholarships and prizes, notably from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, The Anders Wall Giresta Scholarship, Queen Ingrid’s Honorary Scholarship, The Håkan Mogren Foundation Prize, Equinor Classical Music Award, Norwegian Soloist Prize, Sixten Gemzéus Stora Musikstipendium, Expressen Cultural Prize Spelmannen and Rolf Wirténs Kulturpris.
Johan plays the 1725 ‘Duke of Cambridge’ Stradivarius, generously on loan from the Anders Sveaas’ Charitable Foundation.
Augustin Hadelich is one of the great violinists of our time. Known for his phenomenal technique, insightful and persuasive interpretations and ravishing tone, he tours extensively around the world. He has performed with all the major American orchestras as well as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Concertgebouworkest, Orchestre National de France, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, and many others.
Augustin Hadelich’s engagements in the 2022/23 season include concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Toronto. He performs with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Wiener Symphoniker, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As this season’s Artist-in-Residence of the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Augustin Hadelich began the season by joining the orchestra on a summer festival tour to London, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Bonn, in addition to other festival appearances in Aspen, Lucerne and Salzburg. He returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg as its Associate Artist, and performs on tour with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. In June 2023, he will join the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra on a concert tour to South Korea.
Augustin Hadelich is the winner of a 2016 GRAMMY Award – “Best Classical Instrumental Solo” – for his recording of Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto, L’Arbre des songes, with the Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot (Seattle Symphony MEDIA). A Warner Classics Artist, his most recent release is “Recuerdos”, a Spain-themed album featuring works by Sarasate, Tarrega, Prokofiev and Britten with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and Cristian Măcelaru. Writing about his GRAMMY-nominated 2021 release of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of Germany’s most prestigious newspapers, boldly stated: “Augustin Hadelich is one of the most exciting violinists in the world. This album is a total success.” Other albums for Warner Classics include Paganini’s 24 Caprices (2018); the Brahms and Ligeti violin concertos with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra under Miguel Harth-Bedoya (2019); and the GRAMMY-nominated “Bohemian Tales”, which includes the Dvořák Violin Concerto with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks conducted by Jakub Hrůša (2020).
Augustin Hadelich, now an American and German citizen, was born in Italy, to German parents. He studied with Joel Smirnoff at New York’s Juilliard School. Hadelich made a significant career leap in 2006 when he won the International Violin Competition in Indianapolis. Other distinctions include an Avery Fisher Career Grant (2009); a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in the UK (2011); an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter in the UK (2017); and being voted “Instrumentalist of the Year” by the influential magazine “Musical America” (2018).
Augustin Hadelich is on the violin faculty of the Yale School of Music at Yale University. He plays violin from 1744 by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, known as “Leduc, ex Szeryng”, on loan from the Tarisio Trust.
Gerhard Schulz studied with Franz Samohyl in Vienna, Sándor Végh in Düsseldorf, and Shmuel Ashkenasi in the USA. He was a founding member of the Salzburg String Trio, the Schulz Ensemble, and the first violinist of the Düsseldorf String Quartet.
As a member of the world-renowned Alban Berg Quartet, he performed regularly for over 30 years in the most important music centers around the world. As an exclusive artist with EMI, the quartet recorded a large portion of the string quartet repertoire and was awarded numerous prizes for its work. After the Alban Berg Quartet concluded its concert activities in the summer of 2008, Gerhard Schulz founded the Waldstein Ensemble (Piano Quartet). In November 2009, he debuted as a conductor with the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra and continues to equally enjoy performing on stage and working with his students. Since 1980, Gerhard Schulz has been a professor of violin at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna and since 1993, a guest professor of chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.
Salvatore Accardo made his debut in recital at the age of 13 playing Paganini’s Capricci.Two years later he won the Geneva Competition and in 1958 the Paganini Competition in Genoa.
His repertoire ranges from pre-Bach to post-Berg; composers like Sciarrino, Donatoni, Piston, Piazzolla, Colasanti and Xenakis wrote for him.
In addition to playing with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, Accardo performs in recital and particularly loves chamber music.
In 1992 he founded the Accardo Quartet and in 1986 the Walter Stauffer Academy together with Giuranna, Filippini and Petracchi in Cremona, where they regularly give master classes. In 1971 he founded the Settimane Musicali Internazionali in Naples, where rehearsals were open to the audience, and the Cremona String Festival.
Accardo has also dedicated part of his activities to conducting important European and American Orchestras. He recorded as conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. Since 1987 he conducts also opera (Rossini Festival with Ponnelle, Rome Opera House, Monte Carlo Opera, Lille and Naples Opera House).
In 1992 for the 200th anniversary of Rossini’s birth, he conducted in Pesaro Festival and in Rome the first modern edition of the Messa di Gloria (recorded live by Warner Fonit), that did again in 1995 in Vienna with the Wiener Symphoniker.
He recorded for DGG Paganini Capricci and Concertos for violin with Charles Dutoit , for Philips several recordings (Bach Sonatas and Partitas, Max Bruch works for violin and orchestra with Kurt Masur, Čajkovskij, Dvořák and Sibelius Concerts with Colin Davis, Mendelssohn Concert with Charles Dutoit, Brahms and Beethoven Concerts with Kurt Masur). He also recorded for ASV, Dynamic, EMI, Sony Classical, Collins Classic and Foné. Among these recordings are: Beethoven Concerto in D major and 2 Romances with Accademia della Scala Orchestra conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini for Sony Classical; Brahms Sonatas for violin and piano, Schubert Quartets, Paganini Capricci and Homage to Heifetz and Homage to Kreisler for FONÉ playing the legendary violins from the Cremona collection; for Dynamic Accardo played Paganini’s violin. Recently Foné re-masterised the Mozart Complete works for violin in 13 CDs in high quality technology.
Accardo has been awarded in Italy with Abbiati Prize by the Italian Musical Critics in recognition of the exceptional standard of his playing and interpretation and with the Italian highest honour “Cavaliere di Gran Croce”. In 1996 the Beijing Conservatoire named him “most honourable Professor”, in 1999 he was named”Commandeur dans l’ordre du mérit culturel” in Monaco and in 2002 he received “A Life for the Music” Award, and this year he was awarded by the Kennedy Center of New York with the Gold Medal in the Arts.
In 1996 Accardo recreated the Orchestra da Camera Italiana (OCI), whose members are the best pupils of Cremona “Walter Stauffer Academy” and recorded two CDs with them: The virtuoso violin in Italy and Masterpieces for violin and strings for Warner Fonit Cetra. In 1999 Accardo and OCI recorded the complete Paganini Concerti for violin and orchestra for EMI Classics, the “Concerto per la Costituzione” and in 2003 the complete Astor Piazzolla works for violin in 3 SACDs for Foné.
Accardo and OCI do every year many concerts together especially in Italy, where they play every season for the most important concert Societies and Theaters.
Starting in 2007 he realized until now for Foné the second recording of J. S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, the third recording of Paganini’s 24 Capricci (Urtext) and the third recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with OCI (Urtext).
Salvatore Accardo plays a violin Guarneri del Gesù “Reade”- 1734.
Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud is Artistic Director of the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. His extraordinary reach as an artist is a result of his versatility and passion for music, as well as the genuine quality to his playing and the beauty of his performances. His teaching and educational writings provide fascinating insights into his multi-faceted approach to music-making, while his composing, arranging and improvising – frequently bringing his own works into the concert hall – recall the spirit of the old masters such as Josef Suk and Eugène Ysaÿe.
In the 18/19 season, Henning is Artist in Residence with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway and the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland. His eminence as a soloist and play/director have led to invitations time and again to many of the world’s most significant orchestras, most recently the Toronto Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Tonkünstler Vienna, BBC Scottish Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony and Macao orchestras. Highlights of the current season include debuts with the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, Orchestra della Toscana, Royal Danish Opera orchestra and Kuopio Symphony. Henning also returns to Helsingborg Symphony and Vancouver Symphony orchestras and appears with Camerata Salzburg and Janine Jansen at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and on tour in Germany.
Henning is a prolific composer whose works are performed by many prominent musicians and orchestras around the globe. His largest-scale work to date is entitled Equinox: 24 Postludes in All Keys for Violin and String Orchestra. Commissioned, premiered and recorded by the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra with Henning as soloist, the work was composed as a musical counterpart to a story specially written by world-famous author Jostein Gaarder, and has been hailed as “a fascinating composition to return to over and over again” (MusicWeb International). In 2017, Henning composed a violin/piano version of Equinox, which was premiered in Norway in 2018 with pianist Clare Hammond and Jostein Gaarder narrating.
Henning’s output as a composer also includes Preghiera, commissioned and performed by the Brodsky Quartet in 2012, and The Last Leaf, given its first performance in 2014 by the Britten Sinfonia, as well as cadenzas for two of Haydn’s cello concertos commissioned by Clemens Hagen in 2015 and Victimae Paschali for choir and orchestra commissioned by the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival. In 2017, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra commissioned and performed Topelius Variations for string orchestra, which Henning performed again later that year in an extensive national tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
With his ever-present spirit of discovery, Henning gave the 21st century premiere of the Johan Halvorsen Violin Concerto with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra at the 2016 Risør Chamber Music Festival. Originally premiered in 1909, the concerto was subsequently considered lost until its re-discovery over 100 years later. Henning went on to play the work with the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic orchestras, and in 2017 released a recording on the Naxos label with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Bjarte Engeset, leading BBC Radio 3’s Record Review to comment, “It’s difficult to imagine more ardent advocates for this sleeping beauty of a piece”. In the current season, Henning gives the first ever performances of the work in Poland with the Poznan Philharmonic and in Finland with the Kymi Sinfonietta.
Henning regularly performs on both violin and viola at major festivals and venues; recent collaborations have taken place at Wigmore Hall, King’s Place, Bruges Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus and Budapest’s kamara.hu festival, with artists such as Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell, Lawrence Power, Leif Ove Andsnes, Håvard Gimse, Kathryn Stott, Natalie Clein, Christian Ihle Hadland, Christian Poltéra and Jeremy Menuhin. In the 18/19 season, Henning tours the UK with Adrian Brendel and Imogen Cooper, including a return to Wigmore Hall.
In 2015, Henning became International Chair in Violin at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and in 2017 received a Fellowship. Passionate about musical education, Henning is a Professor at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo, and in 2018 was a jury member at the Menuhin Competition in Geneva, where he also performed the opening concert with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Marin Alsop. This season, he is a jury member at the Leeds Piano Competition.
Henning’s eclectic discography includes many recordings on the Naxos label. His Naxos recording of Mozart Concertos Nos. 3, 4 and 5 with the Norwegian Chamber orchestra included Henning’s own cadenzas, and was awarded an ECHO Klassik Award as well as chosen as Classic FM’s Album of the Week, NDR Kultur’s CD of the Week, Editor’s Choice in Classical Music Magazine, Recommended in The Strad, and featured on BBC Radio 3’s Record Review.
On the Simax label, Henning’s most recent release is a collaboration with the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra and world-famous author Erik Fosnes Hansen. Entitled Between the Seasons, the disc features Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons interspersed with Henning’s own compositions. Also for Simax, Henning has recorded the complete solo sonatas of Ysaÿe, on a disc which won the prestigious Spellemann CD award. On the ACT label, he released a disc entitled Last Spring which explored improvisations on Norwegian folk music with jazz pianist Bugge Wesseltoft. This season, the two artists re-join for a performance at Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic.
Born in Oslo in 1973, Henning studied with Camilla Wicks and Emanuel Hurwitz. He is a recipient of the Grieg Prize, the Ole Bull Prize and the Sibelius Prize.
Henning Kraggerud plays on a 1744 Guarneri del Gesù, provided by Dextra Musica AS. This company is founded by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB.
Violinist, violist and conductor Julian Rachlin is one of the most exciting and respected musicians of our time. In the first thirty years of his career, he has performed as soloist with the world’s leading conductors and orchestras. Mr. Rachlin is Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. He also leads the “Julian Rachlin & Friends Festival” in Palma de Mallorca.
Highlights of Mr. Rachlin’s 2018/19 season include performances with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Mariss Jansons, Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Juanjo Mena, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck, as well as the KBS Symphony Orchestra and Myung-Whun Chung. Alongside soloist Sarah McElravy and the Royal Northern Sinfonia, he will perform the UK premiere of Penderecki’s Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, which is dedicated to him. Additionally, Mr. Rachlin will conduct among others the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Symphony, Essen Philharmonic, Strasbourg Philharmonic, Slovenian Philharmonic, Zagreb Philharmonic and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.
Julian Rachlin’s recent highlights include a residency at the Prague Spring Festival and his own cycle at the Vienna Musikverein. He also performed with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Yuri Temirkanov, Filarmonica della Scala and Riccardo Chailly, Munich Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, Philharmonia Orchestra and Jakub Hrůša, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale and Vladimir Ashkenazy, as well as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Lahav Shani. As conductor, he toured Europe with the English Chamber Orchestra, and led the Royal Northern Sinfonia across South America and Japan. Additionally, he conducted the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, and made his USA conducting debut at the Grand Teton Music Festival.
In recital and chamber music, Mr. Rachlin performs regularly with Itamar Golan, Denis Kozhukhin, Denis Matsuev, Mischa Maisky, Sarah McElravy, Vilde Frang and Janine Jansen.
Born in Lithuania, Mr. Rachlin immigrated to Vienna in 1978. He studied violin with Boris Kuschnir at the Vienna Conservatory and with Pinchas Zukerman. After winning the “Young Musician of the Year” Award at the Eurovision Competition in 1988, he became the youngest soloist ever to play with the Vienna Philharmonic, debuting under Riccardo Muti. At the recommendation of Mariss Jansons, Mr. Rachlin studied conducting with Sophie Rachlin. Since September 1999, he is on the violin faculty at the Music and Arts University of Vienna. His recordings for Sony Classical, Warner Classics and Deutsche Grammophon have been met with great acclaim. Mr. Rachlin, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, is committed to educational outreach and charity work.
Julian Rachlin plays the 1704 “ex Liebig” Stradivari and a 1785 Lorenzo Storioni viola, on loan to him courtesy of the Dkfm. Angelika Prokopp Privatstiftung. His strings are kindly sponsored by Thomastik-Infeld.
The Ukrainian violinist, Valeriy Sokolov, is one of the most outstanding young artists of his generation. Working regularly with the world’s leading orchestras, he has enjoyed collaborations with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Cleveland Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Rotterdam Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, NAC Ottawa, Orchestre National de France and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. He works frequently with conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, David Zinman, Susanna Malkki, Andris Nelsons, Peter Oundjian, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vasily Petrenko, Herbert Soudant & Juraj Valcuha
He has appeared in many major European festivals including Verbier and Lockenhaus. He regularly performs in the major concert halls around the world with highlights including regular Sunday Morning series appearances in Theatre du Chatelet as well as at the Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, Mariinsky Theatre, Prinzregenten Theatre in Munich and Musikverein in Vienna.
Exclusively signed with Erato records (formerly EMI Classics) Valeriy has developed a strong and varied catalogue of recordings, releasing Enescu’s Sonata No. 3 for them in 2009. His first concerto DVD was of the Sibelius Violin Concerto under Vladimir Ashkenazy and with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Bruno Monsaingeon’s film “un violon dans l’âme / Natural Born Fiddler”, a record of Valeriy’s recital in Toulouse in 2004, received much praise from the critics and continues to be frequently broadcast on ARTE TV. In 2010 Valeriy recorded violin concertos of Bartok and Tchaikovsky under the direction of David Zinman and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. Since 2016 Valeriy teaches regularly at the International Masterclasses in Schaffhausen (Switzerland).
Valeriy has recently given performances with the St Petersburg Philharmonic, NDR Hamburg Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia Orchestra, Singapore Symphony & the Bournemouth Symphony amongst others. He has also recently completed a successful tour of a chamber music project with Lisa Batiashvili and Gautier Capuçon throughout Europe including venues in Paris, Vienna, Cologne, Amsterdam and London. Highlights of the 2017-18 season include debuts at the Lucerne Festival and with the MDR Leipzig, as well as Valeriy’s subscription debut with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. This season also sees Valeriy return to the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, MDR Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk as well as the Concertgebouw with the Noord Nederlands Orkest. Valeriy will begin his role as Artist-in-Residence with the Weimar Staatskapelle, in which he will embark on an extensive US tour with the orchestra and its Music Director, Kirill Karabits.
Born in 1986 in Kharkov, Ukraine, Valeriy is one of the leading violinists to come out of Ukraine in the past twenty years. Valeriy left his native country age 13 to study with Natalia Boyarskaya at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England. He continued his studies with Felix Andrievsky, Mark Lubotsky, Ana Chumachenko, Gidon Kremer and Boris Kushnir. He was the first prize winner of the 2005 George Enescu International Violin Competition in Bucharest, Romania
Valeriy Sokolov has had a violin concerto (2014 ) and a sonata (2017) written for and dedicated to him by Ukraine’s most significant composer Yevhen Stankovich.
Lisa Batiashvili, the Georgian-born German violinist, is praised by audiences and fellow musicians for her virtuosity. An award winning artist, she has developed long-standing relationships with the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and musicians.
Batiashvili is also the Artistic Director of Audi Sommerkonzerte, Ingolstadt. For the 2019 festival – ‘Fantastique’ – she curated a diverse programme featuring artists such as Daniel Harding with Bayerische Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Gautier Capuçon. For the 2020 festival, Batiashvili designs a programme to celebrate Audi’s anniversary year, as well as Beethoven year 2020 under the motto ‘Lights of Europe’.
Lisa Batiashvili appears with the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa and Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Recording exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, Batiashvili’s latest album ‘City Lights’ is released in June 2020. The project marks a deeply personal musical journey that takes listeners around the world via eleven pieces that represent the most important cities in Lisa’s life. Her previous recording – ‘Visions of Prokofiev’ (Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Yannick Nezet-Seguin) – won an Opus Klassik Award and was shortlisted for the 2018 Gramophone Awards. Earlier recordings include the concertos of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius (Staatskapelle Berlin/Daniel Barenboim), Brahms (Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian Thielemann), and Shostakovich No. 1 (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Esa-Pekka Salonen).
Batiashvili has had DVD releases of live performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker/Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Bartok Violin Concerto No.1) and with Gautier Capuçon, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (Brahm’s Concerto for Violin and Cello).
She has won a number of awards: the MIDEM Classical Award, the Choc de l’année, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana International Prize, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award and the Beethoven-Ring. Batiashvili was named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2015, was nominated as Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2018 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Sibelius Academy (University of Arts, Helsinki).
Lisa lives in Munich and plays a Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu” from 1739, generously loaned by a private collector.