Ensemble Astera
The woodwind quintet Ensemble Astera, was the first prize winner of the Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition of 2023. Since the founding of the Ensemble in 2019, the musicians of the Ensemble Astera have been united by friendship..
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Izabel Markova is born in 1997 in Sofia, Bulgaria in a non-musical family. She starts playing the piano at the age of 3 and then proceeds to enter the National School of Music “Lyubomir Pipkov” with the viola at the age of 11 without any experience in playing the violin in advance. She graduates in 2015 taking the two last academic years at once and gets accepted in Haute Ecole Musique de Lausanne, in Switzerland. In 2022 she graduated as a Master soloist student in the viola class of Professor Alexander Zemtsov.
Izabel is a laureate from international competitions for piano, viola and composition including the International String Competition, Serbia, Dobrin Petkov, Bulgaria, Artistes en Herbe, Luxemburg, First and EMCY Prize from the International Competition Young Virtuosos, Bulgaria and Special Prize of Blatow Foundation from the International Anton Rubinstein Competition, Düsseldorf.
Izabel is a laureate from international competitions for piano, viola and composition including the International String Competition, Serbia, Dobrin Petkov, Bulgaria, Artistes en Herbe, Luxemburg, First and EMCY Prize from the International Competition Young Virtuosos, Bulgaria and Special Prize of Blatow Foundation from the International Anton Rubinstein Competition, Düsseldorf.
Roberto González-Monjas is an extremely sought-after conductor and violinist who has rapidly established an international reputation. He is Chief Conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur, Principal Guest Conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra as well as Chief Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia in Spain. As of September 2024, he will also be Chief Conductor of the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg. As a committed educator, Roberto González-Monjas founded the Iberacademy together with conductor Alejandro Posada in 2013.
The institution aims to create an efficient and sustainable model of musical education in Latin America that focuses on disadvantaged sections of the population – as well as promoting highly talented young musicians.
The institution aims to create an efficient and sustainable model of musical education in Latin America that focuses on disadvantaged sections of the population – as well as promoting highly talented young musicians.
Swedish-American-French singer, violinist and composer, she began her musical training with classical violin and graduated from the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional in Paris (CRR). She holds a Master’s degree at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne in singing. She performed in Parisian venues such as Sunset-Sunside, La Bellevilloise, l’Entrepôt and in Switzerland at the Swiss national radio RTS, in Auditorium Stravinski, Montreux, Chorus Jazz Club in Lausanne and the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne 2020.
She arranges for various groups, and composes for film soundtracks. She works regularly with filmmakers such as Éléonore Geissler.
She arranges for various groups, and composes for film soundtracks. She works regularly with filmmakers such as Éléonore Geissler.
The Swiss Ukrainian pianist Andriy Dragan, currently based in Basel, regularly performs in Switzerland and Europe. His curiosity as a pianist has enabled him to optimize his musical work with new projects and an extended repertoire, including works by Franz Xaver Mozart and Ukrainian composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, and to inspire audiences. Andriy impressively proves this with Franz Xaver Mozart’s piano concertos, which still radiate surprising musical finesse to this day, more than 200 years after their composition.
One may ask why such masterpieces, particularly the Second Piano Concerto, have not “yet” entered the standard repertoire. This is probably primarily due to the “myth” of his famous father, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but probably also to the sometimes inadequate printed music material.
One may ask why such masterpieces, particularly the Second Piano Concerto, have not “yet” entered the standard repertoire. This is probably primarily due to the “myth” of his famous father, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but probably also to the sometimes inadequate printed music material.
"La jeune violoniste danoise Anna Agafia (°1996), actuellement artiste en résidence à la Chapelle musicale Reine Elisabeth, a obtenu en 2022 le Prix Thierry Scherz, parrainé par la Fondation Pro Scientia et Arte et les Amis des Sommets musicaux de la cité suisse de Gstaad. Décédé prématurément en 2014 à l’âge de 41 ans, Thierry Scherz était directeur artistique de ces Sommets musicaux. Comme l’...
L’année dernière, le label Claves proposait un album de deux CD (50-3018/19) consacré à des pages de Pierre Wissmer (Concertos pour clarinette, pour guitare et pour piano n° 3, ainsi que le Divertimento et la suite symphonique du ballet « Alerte puits 21 ! ») -notre article du 29 avril 2021-, avec, en couverture et en pochette intérieure, la reproduction d’œuvres de la période abstraite du pei...
Dans ce premier volet d’une intégrale des concertos pour instruments à vent de Mozart, Alexis Kossenko tord définitivement le cou à la rumeur tenace selon laquelle Mozart aurait détesté la flûte. Dès le Concerto en sol majeur, celle-ci sait se rendre aimable. D’abord par une impressionnante agilité qu’on ne retrouve pas dans le KV 314, écrit à l’origine pour le haut- bois et transcrit à l’été 1...
L’aube, le matin, le temps de midi, le soir, puis la nuit… Les moments de la journée ont inspiré les compositeurs, de l’époque romantique à aujourd’hui. C’est ce fil universel que tire le pianiste Finghin Collins, dans un récital discographique qui illustre l’inspiration d’une dizaine de femmes et d’hommes, qui se sont servi du piano solo pour transcrire leurs sensations, du réveil confiant au...
