Winning the place on Classeek's first ever open application, violinist Alexey Stychkin joins the Classeek Ambassador Programme for the 2022-23 season.

Russian-Greek violinist Alexey Stychkin comes from a family with deep musical and artistic roots. Born in Moscow in 2000, at the age of five he started his violin studies at the Central Music School for Gifted Children in the class of Galina Tourchaninova. During his school years, he performed in Greece, Israel, Italy and throughout Russia. He has continued his studies with Marc Bouchkov in Liege Royal Conservatory. Currently, Alexey is studying with Mihaela Martin in the masters program at the Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz in Cologne. Concurrently, starting with the 2022/23 season, he has received an academy position in the first violin section of the Staatskapelle Berlin and moved to Berlin. 

Alexey Stychkin  | Tchaikovsky  - Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Op. 42 -  No. 3 Mélodie

Classeek Showroom performance, 24 May 2023

Violin

Alexey Stychkin

Russian-Greek violinist Alexey Stychkin comes from a family with deep musical and artistic roots. Born in Moscow in 2000, at the age of five he started his violin studies at the Central Music School for Gifted Children in the class of Galina Tourchaninova. During his school years, he performed in Greece, Israel, Italy and throughout Russia. He has continued his studies with Marc Bouchkov in Liege Royal Conservatory. Currently, Alexey is studying with Mihaela Martin in the masters program at the Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz in Cologne. Concurrently, starting with the 2022/23 season, he has received an academy position in the first violin section of the Staatskapelle Berlin and moved to Berlin. 

Alexey Stychkin & Raúl da Costa | Cesar Franck - Violin Sonata

Classeek Showroom performance, May 2023

Alexey Stychkin & Raúl da Costa | Ravel - Sonata in G 

Ambassador Programme open application jury

Selecting this year's applicants

We are thrilled to announce our newest addition to the Classeek Ambassador family, Miguel da Silva. Franco-Swiss violist and passionate chamber musician, Miguel's international career has led him to  concert halls across the world, as well as the founding of the renowned Ysaÿe Quartet,  with whom he performed for thirty years. 

Miguel's ambassadorship will support the Classeek Ambassador Programme in the capacity of artist coach, performer, and in collaboration with the  Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, Miguel will bring together the musicians of both programmes. 

Announcing new Ambassador

Miguel da Silva joins the team of ambassadors

Applications for the Classeek Ambassador Programme 2023-24 are now open!

The Classeek Ambassador Programme is a one-year career enhancement programme for promising young classical artists, ready for a career at the highest level. 

This year, there will be two spaces open to applicants from around the world, looking to pursue an international career in the classical music industry. We will have one space for instrumentalists, and for the first time, we will also have one space open to composers. 

 page to find out more about the programme, entry requirements and how to apply.

Entry onto the scheme for the remaining artists of the programme is via nomination by one of Classeek’s internationally renowned Artist Ambassadors. This year, ambassador nominations will be presented by Sir András Schiff, Steven Isserlis, Renaud Capuçon, and Sonia Simmenauer.

Classeek Ambassador Programme 2023-24

Applications now open!

We are delighted to announce the appointment of world-renowned cellist Steven Isserlis, as a Classeek Ambassador.

Acclaimed for his unique and distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster, Steven is very much a passionate advocate for young artists. Sharing Classeek's mission of Discovering, Following and Supporting artists globally, he has been a mentor to many young musicians, and has been a strong advocate for the importance of music education.

“Nourishing and encouraging young musical talent is an important part of my life; so I am very happy to become an Ambassador for Classeek. I hope that we will collaborate in various ways in order to assist in the emergence and development of young talent.”

“When I met Steven I was immediately struck by his energy and commitment towards the younger generation. He will be a great addition to our roster of Ambassadors and we’re thrilled with this collaboration.”

 - Catarina Amon, Classeek Founder & CEO

We are very proud to have Steven join us as a figure of our Ambassador Programme, a powerful advocate for the importance of the future of music, and a valuable mentor providing advice and guidance to artists on their musical journey. We are thrilled to have Steven on board!

Announcing Steven Isserlis' Ambassadorship

Classeek Ambassador

Alexandra Conunova

In this specially curated concert featuring Alexandra Conunova, Suzana Bartal and David Kadouch, the artists join forces with composer and Classeek Ambassador, Eric Tanguy, in a recital programme featuring Tanguy's own music, bookending a trio of works from the first half of the 20th century. 

Alexandra Conunova & Suzana Bartal | Eric Tanguy, In a Dream

In a Dream

Classeek Showroom performance, October 2022

Composer

Eric Tanguy

Suzana Bartal | Eric Tanguy, Deux Moments Musicaux

Deux Moments Musicaux

David Kadouch | Eric Tanguy, Passacaille

Passacaille

One of the most widely performed French composers of today, Eric Tanguy's latest disc of chamber works 'In a Dream', released earlier this year, evokes “imagination, poetry and an interior world”.  

Featuring a selection of his works, composed over the past twenty years, the disc showcases an array of artists including violinists Alexandra Conunova and Rosanne Philippens, violist Lise Berthaud, cellist Edgar Moreau, clarinettist Pierre Génisson, pianists Suzana Bartal and David Kadouch, Quatuor Diotima.

"For an entire CD of chamber music by Eric Tanguy, Erato has brought together a group of artists who play the eight compositions with great dedication."

Eric Tanguy joins us here at Classeek next week, on 19th October, in a special live-stream concert featuring music from this latest release, performed by Alexandra Conunova, David Kadouch and Suzana Bartal. You can watch live on our website

The latest on Eric Tanguy

CD and concerts

A specially curated programme, by the performers and Classeek Ambassador Eric Tanguy, this recital programme features the music of Eric Tanguy, bookending a trio of works from the first half of the 20th century. Having studied under the likes of Horatiu Radulescu, Gérard Grisey and Betsy Jonas, Tanguy has become one of France’s most widely performed composers. Violinist and Classeek Ambassador Programme alumnus Alexandra Conunova is a featured artist in this recital, along with pianists David Kadouch and Suzana Bartal.

The recital opens with Tanguy’s Passacaille for solo piano, before Alexandra Conunova leads a performance of In a Dream, a piece she recorded for an acclaimed album of Tanguy chamber works earlier this year. The recording was awarded a four-star review by BBC Music Magazine, who praised Conunova’s rendition, stating that it was ‘performed with strength and conviction.’ Now better known in its orchestral arrangement, Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances is heard here in its original version: a suite of short piano pieces based on Romanian folk tunes. The dances include ‘Stick Dance’ – a piece inspired by a tune Bartók overheard two gypsy violinists playing, ‘Sash Dance’ and ‘Romanian Polka’, showing the richness and variation of traditional Romanian gypsy music and dance. 

We then cycle forwards a few decades to 1940s Paris with Poulenc’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. Written in memory of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, the sonata is peppered with Spanish influences throughout and, as a result, is not instantly recognisable as Poulenc’s style. Premiered with the composer himself at the piano, this was never a piece Poulenc looked too favourably upon. In fact, he had difficulty writing the piece at all, with various attempts made. It is an intense and deeply moving work, with moments of grief, anger and bittersweet sentiment. 

Staying with the French theme, the musicians present Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye in its original piano duet form. Another work now better known in its orchestral arrangement, Ma mère l’Oye was originally written by Ravel for the Godebski children, whose parents had been the dedicatees of an earlier work by the great composer. With the subtitle ‘Five Children’s Pieces’, the work is made up of a series of movements which take their names from children’s stories, such as Sleeping Beauty and Tom Thumb. 

The evening is then brought to a close with another contemporary work by Eric Tanguy, Deux Moments Musicaux.

An evening with Eric Tanguy

Ma mère l'Oye

Romanian Folk Dances

Sonata for violin and piano

Alexandra Conunova, David Kadouch & Suzana Bartal

The Ambassador Programme is a one-year career enhancement programme for promising young classical musicians, ready for a performance career at the highest level. Starting this year we are opening one place on the programme per season, to young artists looking to pursue an international career as a performer, via an application process. 

The programme is open to all instrumentalists holding a Bachelor of Music or equivalent. Applicants must be aged 30 or under on August 1, 2022. 

 page to find out more about the programme and how to apply. 

Classeek Ambassador Programme 2022-23

Last night saw a memorable concert here at Classeek with a performance by Ambassador Programme artist and pianist Kim Bernard, joined on stage by our Ambassador, Gautier Capuçon.

Kim Bernard performed a lyrical and sensitive interpretation of Chopin's Ballade in F minor Op.52 and a spirited selection from Debussy. Joined by Gautier Capuçon for the latter half of the concert, the pair united to perform Grieg's Cello Sonata in A minor, followed by four captivating encores. 

Our season opened with a chamber concert by violinist Filipe Johnson, violist Dor Sperber, pianist Natalia Morozova, and composer/Classeek Ambassador Nimrod Borenstein. The season continued with artists of our Ambassador Programme, such as pianists Shir Semmel, Nathalia Milstein and Kiana Reid (nominated by Sir Andràs Schiff) and cellists Caroline Sypniewski and Anouchka Hack. 

We continue to collaborate with the Conservatoire de Lausanne in our pre concerts, offering the students a valuable platform to perform. We're looking forward to bringing you a whole new season of concerts with emerging young classical artists. Stay tuned for news on our upcoming season. 

Season 2021-22

Looking back on Classeek's season highlights

Cello

Gautier Capuçon

Piano

Kim Bernard

Kim joined the Classeek Ambassador Programme in season 2021-22, following his nomination by Gautier Capuçon. 

Born in 1999, Bernard Kim began studying piano at age 5 with Michèle Mary. He later went on to study at the Lyon National Superior Conservatory with Florent Boffard and Laurent Cabasso where he earned his masters degree in 2018, after which he began the Concertiste program at the Paris Regional Conservatory. With support from the Fondation, Kim has recorded his first album, “Chopin, Debussy, Ravel” on Warner Classics & Erato (2022).

Kim Bernard & Gautier Capuçon | Improvisation & Piazzolla, Oblivion (Encore)

Oblivion

Classeek Showroom performance, June 2022

Kim Bernard & Gautier Capuçon | Monti, Czardas (encore)

Czardas

Chopin’s fourth and final Ballade in F minor has been viewed as a masterpiece ever since its creation in 1842. After a seven-bar introduction in A flat major, it tips into its famous, slavic-sounding F minor theme which – eventually joined by a rocking, chorale-like second theme in B flat major – is subjected to increasingly florid variations. The Ballade then concludes with a turbulent and highly virtuosic final coda, full of contrapuntal complexities. And all this via a narrative voice whose most beguiling quality, besides its melting lyricism and the passion of its heroic climaxes, is the way in which, in its reflectiveness, it appears to be frequently hesitating and turning back on itself.‍

Composed two years later, the Berceuse in D flat major is equally a series of variations. Sixteen of them, over a ground bass. Its own notable quality is that its dynamics remain soft throughout, the dramatic arc coming instead through texture and sonority.‍

Another ostinato-like bass underpins the Barcarolle in F sharp major, completed in 1846. While the barcarolle was a popular nineteenth century musical genre, evoking the lilting boat songs of Venetian gondoliers, Chopin’s took the form in revolutionary new directions through both its sophisticated and even dissonant harmonies, and a climax of almost oceanic drama and power.‍

Debussy’s ‘Reflets dans l’eau’ is the first of three pieces which make up his first book of Images, completed in 1905. A musical depiction of light reflecting off the surface of water, its harmonically complex ornamentations and fluidly shifting rhythms feel full of the influence of Chopin.‍

‘Masks of the commedia dell’arte, young women singing and dancing; everything culminating in the glory of the setting sun’ is how Debussy himself described L’isle joyeuse of 1904. Sparklingly energetic, with the whole-tone scale occasionally lending a more ambiguous note to its joy, it culminates in radiant and highly virtuosic waltz writing. ‍

Spontaneity and passion are equally present across the first movement of Grieg’s Cello Sonata, composed for his cellist brother in 1882/3. Also, subtle shades of his famous Piano Concerto in A minor, whose key it shares. 

Discover the next generation of artists in Classeek’s online concert series, broadcast live here on the Classeek website, and social media channels. 

Kim Bernard, piano | Gautier Capucon, cello

Ballade in F minor No.4, Op.52

Berceuse in D flat major Op.57

Barcarolle in F sharp major Op.60

Reflets dans l’eau

L’isle Joyeuse

Sonata for cello and piano in A minor, Op.36, I. Allegro agitato

Cello & Piano Recital

Jeein You

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