“Avery Gagliano is a distinctive young talent who has already graduated to the big league of professional pianists while still a student at music college.” – International Piano magazine  

Having recently made her Carnegie Hall debut and released her debut album “Reflections” on the Steinway & Sons label, 21-year-old pianist Avery Gagliano captures audiences with her sensitivity, emotional depth, and musical expression. She gained international attention as the First Prize and Best Concerto Prize winner of the 2020 National Chopin Piano Competition, and as the only American semifinalist at the 18th International Chopin Competition in 2021. 

Recent performance highlights include appearances at world-renown stages such as the Verbier Festival, Gilmore Festival, Bravo!Vail Festival, Ravinia Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Swiss Alps Classics Festival, Carnegie Hall, Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, Cavatina Hall, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Salle Cortot, and WQXR Greene Space.

Avery has soloed with orchestras throughout the United States, including the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, Tuscarawas Philharmonic, MostArts Festival Orchestra, Oregon Mozart Players, the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra and Symphony in C.  A passionate chamber musician, she regularly collaborates with ensembles, most recently sharing the stage with the Balourdet Quartet at Bravo!Vail. She also frequently performs as a guest artist with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York.Avery received the Audience Prize at the 2019 Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition, and was the winner of the Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition, MostArts Festival Piano Competition, and 2019 National YoungArts Competition. She is an alumna of the Verbier Festival & Academy, Gstaad Piano Academy, and the Lang Lang International Music Foundation’s Young Scholars Program, a four-year winner of the US Chopin Foundation Scholarship, and has made several appearances on Philadelphia’s WRTI classical radio and National Public Radio’s (NPR) From The Top.

At the invitation of Sir András Schiff, she will join the Building Bridges concert series and appear in recitals throughout Europe in the 2022/23 season.  She will also make her debut with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Fort Collins Symphony, and Avanti Orchestra.

Avery is originally from Washington, D.C., where she studied with Marina Alekseyeva. She currently resides in Philadelphia and studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Robert McDonald.  She has also studied with Gary Graffman and Jonathan Biss while at Curtis. 

Piano

Avery Gagliano

Personally nominated to the Classeek Ambassador Programme by Sir András Schiff, pianist Avery Gagliano joins us with a recital spanning nearly 200 years and encompassing a broad range of musical styles and influences. She opens with one of the more delicate of Bach’s ‘French’ Suites, which first appeared in a music book he compiled for his second wife, possibly as a wedding present. Written in B minor, a key often reserved for some of Bach’s most impressive – and melancholic – works, the suite brings together musical influences from across Europe, making the ‘French’ moniker somewhat misleading. Following the form of a Baroque dance suite, these were designed to challenge Bach’s students as he was developing his reputation as one of Europe’s leading music teachers. 

Chopin sits at the heart of this programme, with a set of three grand, rhythmic mazurkas, thick with melodic invention and expressive range. Written during one of his summers in Nohant in France with the writer George Sand, the three mazurkas showcase the very best of Chopin’s contrapuntal writing, with contrasting lines interwoven to create a vibrant range of textures.

This gives way to Chopin’s Barcarolle in F sharp major, a piece written a few years later towards the end of the composer’s life. Although it is a lyrical work, full of sweeping romantic phrases, it’s also incredibly demanding of the pianist, requiring large interval reaches in the left hand and balanced, even passages in the right. There is a childlike simplicity and dreaminess to the playfulness of each phrase, while still being peppered with the folk-inspired harmonic language you’d expect of a barcarolle, a traditional folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers. 

Szymanowski brings us into the 20th century with his set of 10 Variations in B flat minor, dedicated to his friend and one of the world’s greatest ever pianists, Arthur Rubinstein. They follow on from Chopin’s Barcarolle with a similarly romantic style, in a hat tip to the 19th-century ideals of form construction. However, there’s a uniquely modern flavour added throughout, with moments of heavy chromaticism and dissonance thanks to Szymanowski’s bold harmonic language. 

French Suite No. 3 in B minor, BWV 814 

Mazurkas, Op. 50

Barcarolle in F sharp major, Op. 60

Variations in B flat minor, Op. 3

Piano Recital

First Prize at the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover in 2012, and prizewinner at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition and at the Singapore International Violin Competition, Alexandra Conunova has been hailed by her virtuosity, warm tone, impressive range of color, and flawless technique. In 2016 she received the prestigious Fellowship by the Borletti-Buittoni Trust in London and has recently recorded a disc of Prokofiev Violin Sonatas with Michail Liftis on Aparté, which was was received with great acclaim by publications such as Gramophone and The Strad. 

Violin

Alexandra Conunova

Born in Caen in 1968, Éric Tanguy is to this day one of the most performed French composers in the world. Named “Composer of the Year” by the Victoires de la musique classique in 2004 and 2008, Éric Tanguy studied under Horatiu Radulescu, Ivo Malec, Gérard Grisey, and Betsy Jolas at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. 

He has been awarded numerous prizes throughout his career, including the Darmstadt Stipendienpreis (1988), the Prix Villa Médicis Hors les murs (1989), the Haut Conseil culturel francoallemand scholarship (1991), the Villa Médicis competition prize (1992), the Darmstadt Kranichsteiner Musikpreis (1992), the French Institute André-Caplet prize (1995), the SACEM Hervé-Dugardin prize (1997), the SACEM lifetime achievement award (2012), and the “Grand prix Lycéen des compositeurs” (2014). 

He was most recently named composer in residence for the 2018 and 2019 Festival international de musique in Besançon, Franche-Comté. His catalogue contains over one hundred compositions, ranging from solo works to concertos, vocal works and symphonies, performed by many of today’s greatest conductors; Lionel Bringuier, Semyon Bychkov, Louis Langrée, Seiji Ozawa, Pascal Rophé, François- Xavier Roth, Heinrich Schiff,  Esa-Pekka Salonen, to name just a few. His works have been performed by performers such as Suzana Bartal, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Francois Leleux, Igor Levit, Edgar Moreau, Emmanuel Pahud,Arditt Quartet, Ensemble Intercontemporain Tokyo Sinfonietta, London Sinfonietta, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio- France, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Tonhalle Orchestra, S Scottish Chamber Orchestra,  and many more.

In 2002, Eric Tanguy was named Professor of composition at the Paul Dukas conservatory in the 12th arrondissement in Paris, and since 2017 at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. His reputation as a composer and professor have earned him regular master class and conference invitations throughout the world (UCLA, USC, Colburn School, NEC, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of music). The works of Éric Tanguy have been published by the Éditions Salabert since 1989, and many of these have been recorded by the record labels Decca, Erato, Naïve, Transart, Intrada, Ohems Classics, Brilliant Classics and Genuin.

Composer

Eric Tanguy

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

Passacaille

In a Dream

Romanian Folk Dances

Deux Moments Musicaux

Sonata for violin and piano

Alexandra Conunova, David Kadouch & Suzana Bartal

Paul Zientara began studying the viola at the age of seven at the Music school of Yerres in Yves Pruvot's class. In 2015, he joined the CRR (Regional Conservatory) of Paris studying with Françoise Gnéri, before continuing his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris with teachers Sabine Toutain and Christophe Gaugué. 

Paul regularly participates in various international academies and masterclasses including the Kronberg Academy Festival and the Anton Rubinstein Academy in Düsseldorf. He had the opportunity to improve his skills with masters such as Tabea Zimmermann, Gérard Caussé, Tatjana Masurenko, Bruno Pasquier, Nils Mönkemeyer, Claire Désert, the Ebene Quartet and Laurent Korcia. In addition, he received a scholarship from the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein and took part in the academy's intensive weeks and activities. 

Paul has won several prizes at international competitions, including the 3rd prize at the prestigious “Lionel Tertis Competition” (Isle of Man), Grand Prix at the Safran Foundation, 1st prize at the “Concours de Cordes d 'Epernay” and 3rd prize of the “Autumn Musical Festival of Young Performers”, which paved the way to performances as a soloist with several orchestras under the direction of Nicolas Simon, Philippe Barbey-Lallia, Nicolas Krauze, Roman Dumas and Martin Lebel. 

At the age of just 16, Paul performed Bartók's Concerto with the Pasdeloup Orchestra, and has since performed as a soloist with the Republican Guard Orchestra, Column Orchestra, New Europe, Pocket Symphony and the COGE. 

Furthermore, he is passionate about chamber music, and has shared the stage with artists such as Valeriy Sokolov, François Salque, Pierre Fouchenneret, Jérôme Pernoo, Marc Coppey, Adam Laloum, Emmanuel Strosser, Adrien Boisseau, Liya Petrova, Adrien La Marca, Jérôme Ducros, Jérémy Menuhin, Victor Julien-Laferrière and Nicolas Baldeyrou, and many others. 

Viola

Paul Zientara

Nominated onto the Classeek Ambassador Programme by esteemed French violinist Renaud Capuçon, Paul Zientara performs a trio of lyrical viola works alongside pianist Arthur Hinnewinkel. They open the recital with Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, one of the best loved works in the orchestral repertoire, which has undergone many arrangements for every imaginable instrumentation. Extracts of the ballet are heard here for viola and piano, adapted by renowned Soviet violist Vadim Borisovsky. The drama and heightened intensity of the large-scale production are stripped back to expose the raw emotion of Prokofiev’s writing and storytelling. 

To follow, Brahms’ Viola Sonata No. 2, a mellow, intimate work with a contrasting, impassioned central movement. Originally written for the clarinet, the sonata was written at a time when the combination of clarinet and piano was rarely heard, but Brahms enjoyed experimenting with the rich variety in the clarinet’s sound and tonal colours. The altered arrangement for viola also exploits the rich colours and timbres of the instrument, before ending on a sweet, tranquil note that brings us to a calm, contented conclusion. 

To complete this expressive programme is Enescu’s Concertstück, a piece written at the turn of the 20th century as a commission from Fauré for a work for the annual viola concours at the Paris Conservatoire. It is, by its very nature, a show piece, exhibiting the full potential of the instrument and its player – but is rigorously demanding of both. Its composer Enescu was a virtuoso string player himself, still remembered as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history. His cultural heritage manifests throughout the piece with a bold, rhapsodic style, with influences and elements of Romanian folk music. 

Paul Zientara, viola | Arthur Hinnewinkel, piano

Extracts from Romeo and Juliet (arr. for viola and piano)

Viola Sonata No.2 in E flat major, Op.120

Concertstück for viola and piano

Duo Recital

Born in 2002 in South Korea, Jeein You began playing cello at the age of five. Between 2009-2016 she studied with Myung-wha Chung at Korea National University of Arts Preschool and the Korea Institute for Gifted in Arts, at the age of 13, gained a place at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in the class of Michel Strauss, obtaining her Bachelors and Masters degree. She has engaged in masterclasses with renowned cellists such as Arto Noras, Frans Helmerson, Song-young Hun, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and many others. 

Jeein was selected as a laureate for Gautier Capuçon’s Classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle at the Louis Vuitton Foundation during seasons 2019-2022, and in the 2022-23 season will also partake in the recently launched Fondation Gautier Capuçon. 

This season, Jeein will perform in recital at the Seoul Arts Center in IBK Hall, as well as on tour throughout Europe (including Konzerthaus Vienna, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris, Salle Métropole Lausanne and Victoria Hall Geneva) with Gautier Capuçon and ensemble Capucelli. In 2021 the ensemble of eight cellists recorded works to be released on Gautier’s upcoming album ‘Sensations’. Later this season Jeein will also perform at Classeek’s concert hall in Switzerland, as part of their Ambassador Programme concert season for emerging young artists. 

Championing many acclaimed competitions, Jeein has won several first and special prizes including the International Dotzauer competition for Young Cellists in Dresden, Germany (First prize and special prize), 23rd International Cello Competition in Heran, Czech Republic (First prize and grand prize), and the 11th OSAKA International Music Competition (First prize). Furthermore, she won both the first prize and contemporary music prize at the 10th International Competition for Young Musicians in Tallinn, Estonia, which was followed by a winners performance of Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C with the Tallinn Philharmonic Orchestra. 

As a soloist, Jeein has performed concerti with the Philharmonia Korea Orchestra, Guro Arts Valley Orchestra, Gunpo Philharmonic Orchestra, Wonju Philharmonic Orchestra, Tallinn Philharmonic Orchestra, Kaunas Philharmonic Orchestra, amongst others. In recital, she has also performed in many established concert series and venues throughout Europe and Asia. 

Cello

Jeein You

Cellist Jeein You joins the Classeek Ambassador Programme under the recommendation of Gautier Capuçon, bringing us a wide-ranging virtuosic recital programme with pianist Samuel Parent. Bookending the evening are arrangements and reimaginings of much-loved operas: Granados’s Goyescas and Bizet’s Carmen.

Goyescas was the last of Granados’s six operas, beginning life as a series of piano pieces inspired by the lavish paintings of Francisco Goya, a fellow Spaniard who had dominated the art scene a century earlier. These were later expanded into an opera, but the Intermezzo doesn’t feature in the original scores. It was added later – as many intermezzos are – to allow for staging changes between scenes. Despite this late edition, it has developed a life of its own beyond the opera halls, becoming a popular independent concert piece, performed in both orchestral and chamber arrangements. Evocative and dramatic, it is full of technical and musical challenges for both cellist and pianist, with Spanish influences heard throughout.

Moving from the sounds of Spain to the textures and sonorities of the Russian church, we are introduced to Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata in G minor, one of his most famous pieces of chamber music. Neither instrument is dominant here, with the piano introducing themes which are then embellished and expanded upon in the cello line. Written in 1901, it was a particularly critical time for Rachmaninov as a composer. He had endured a nervous breakdown and subsequent mental health crisis in 1897 following the failure of his First Symphony. 1901 signalled his return to his creative powers. His now hugely popular Second Piano Concerto was premiered in November, around the same time he started work on this sonata. 

We are brought back to the opera hall to finish, with Buxton Orr’s brilliant rendering of Bizet’s much-loved Carmen. Devised as an encore piece for a recital in 1985 New York, Orr’s Fantasy exploits the cello’s capabilities with double stopping, plucked notes and fast passages, while also remaining loyal to the original keys and Bizet’s musical style. It’s far from a whistle-stop tour of the opera’s famous tunes – they are merely hinted at, instead offering us an entirely new virtuoso composition.

Jeein You, cello | Samuel Parent, piano

Intermezzo from 'Goyescas' (arr. G. Cassadó)

Sonata in G minor, Op.19

A Carmen Fantasy (arr. Buxton Orr)

Pianist Julia Hamos combines her American and Hungarian roots with an adventurous spirit to explore the essence of repertoire ranging from Bach to composers living today. Instinctive artistic expression, a forward-thinking attitude, a joyful physical flexibility at the instrument, and an unyielding fascination with the music she plays makes her an artist to watch. 

Julia is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London with Christopher Elton and the Mannes College of Music in New York with Richard Goode, and currently studies with Sir András Schiff at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin and at the Kronberg Academy. She worked with Daniel Barenboim in a series of filmed masterclasses on Beethoven, and delved into György Kurtág’s 8 Pieces, Op. 3 together with the composer at the Budapest Music Center. 

Winner of the Sterndale Bennett Prize for romantic music at the Royal Academy, the Fidelman Prize for contemporary music from the Mannes School of Music, and the Grand Prix of the International Virtuoso Competition in New York City, Julia is in international demand as a soloist and chamber musician. She performs at the Pierre Boulez Saal and Konzerthaus, Berlin, the Wigmore Hall, London, in New York at Lincoln Center, 92nd St. Y and Carnegie Hall, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, as part of the Verbier Festival Academy, at the Prussia Cove festival in Cornwall, and at the Krzyzowa Festival in Kreisau, Poland. 

Recent notable performances are with Christian Tetzlaff and Tabea Zimmermann at Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World and performing the Ligeti Concerto at the Spoleto Festival USA and at the Trasimeno Music Festival in Italy. From 2017-2019 she taught at the 92nd Street Y School of Music in New York. She also gains new insights from working closely with other art fields, resulting in collaborations with the Martha Graham Dance Company, the New English Ballet Theatre and the New School’s Drama Division. 

She will appear in the Building Bridges series of concerts throughout Europe in 2022/23 (at the invitation of Sir András Schiff) in addition to performing at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, in King’s Place, London, at the new Casals Forum in Kronberg, with the National Radio Orchestra of Poland in Wroclaw, and in the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam.  In the summer of 2023 she will record Mozart’s Concerto for three pianos with the Camerata Schweiz conducted by Howard Griffiths under the Alpha Classics label. She currently serves as the assistant to the musicology program at the Barenboim-Said Akademie and is also in the process of recording her first solo CD. 

Julia Hamos

Nominated onto the Classeek Ambassador Programme by international superstar Sir András Schiff, pianist Julia Hamos brings a programme of works showcasing her boldness as an artist and the breadth of her technical capabilities. She begins with the fourth of Bach’s much-loved ‘French’Suites, a set of pieces initially compiled for Bach’s wife, possibly as a wedding present. These highly stylised Baroque dance movements are split into seven short movements, designed for home music-making for Bach and his students.

Hamos then cycles forward a few centuries to another set of dances, this time based on avariety of asymmetric rhythms common in Bulgarian folk music. Bartók wrote six books of Mikrokosmos, bringing together 153 pieces of music predominantly designed as teaching materials. These Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm are taken from the final book, which hasenjoyed a life beyond the practice room in the concert hall, thanks to its joyful, drivingenergy, playful motifs and grand flourishes. It’s not only the complex rhythms that makethese pieces difficult for the performer – it’s also the use of ‘biomodalism’, a widelyembraced technique at the time, in which two keys are used at the same time to create anunusual tonality. 

Hamos brings us finally to another set of piano pieces inspired by a composer’s great love. Like Bach’s French Suites, Schumann penned Davidsbündlertänze in tribute to ClaraWeick, with whom he was deeply in love at the time of writing. The set of 18 piano pieces for the piano are based on a mazurka by Clara, and the work in its entirety is a very personal tribute to her, containing, as Schumann later put it, ‘many wedding thoughts’. Davidsbündlertänze is full of vibrant characterisations and is named after the composer’s music society. The Davidbündler was a partly real, partly imaginary group of artists created by Schumann in his writings – a group organised to discuss and defend the cause of contemporary music. The two predominant members, Florestan and Eusebius, appear in much of Schumann’s work at this time but are explicitly portrayed in the Davidsbündlertänze. This selection ofintimate character pieces are shown to be musical dialogues between these two figures– symbolising the extroverted and introverted sides of Schumann’s personality respectively.

French Suite No.4

Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm from Mikrokosmos

Davidsbundlertänze Op.6

Bilal Alnemr was born in Damascus in 1996. He discovered the violin thanks to a small toy violin given to him by his father and he continued to learn alone using only a DVD. Bilal won the Syrian national violin competition in 2007 and the Solhi Alwadi competition, and has since given concerts across India, Russia, Qatar, Jordan and Lebanon. Following his participation in the Mediterranean cultural exchange ECUME, he joined the conservatory of Aix-en-Provence in the class of Sophie Baduel and moved to Paris in 2012 to study with Suzanne Gessner at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris.  Four years later, he graduated from the Paris Conservatoire (CNSMDP) where he studied with Roland Daugareil and Olivier Charlier. He then joined the Barenboïm-Saïd Academy in Berlin to perfect his skills with Michael & Daniel Barenboïm. 

Bilal recently made his debut with the ORF Radio Symphonie Orchester Wien, under the direction of Thomas Zehetmair. Since the age of sixteen, his professional career has brought many successful collaborations, including performances alongside Renaud Capuçon, Hélène Grimaud, Barbara Hendricks and Daniel Barenboim. A special place in his repertoire goes to concertos for violin and orchestra. He is also very interested and curious to learn from the modern and contemporary repertoire, often performing programmes including works such as Anthème I and II by Pierre Boulez, as well as Sequenza by Luciano Berio. As an orchestral and chamber musician, Bilal Alnemr regularly plays in the Boulez Ensemble of Berlin and in the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble. Furthermore, Bilal has been a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra since 2018.

In July 2022, he created Les Rencontres Musicales de Vauvenargues, a musical festival aimed at thanking this Provençal village for having welcomed his family fleeing the war in Syria. Bilal also co-founded UGARIT, a non-profit association aimed at developing cultural exchanges in the field of music, between Syria, France and the rest of the world.

Bilal Alnemr plays a 1774 Lorenzo Carcassi violin generously lent by Michael Barenboim.

Bilal Alnemr

Syrian violinist Bilal Alnemr kickstarts his time on the Classeek Ambassador Programme with a selection of sonatas by Schumann, Fauré and 20th-century Syrian composer Solhi al-Wadi. 

Opening the programme is Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, a piece written at the tail end of Schumann’s life, long after his other chamber works. Unlike these, the sonata is set in three movements as opposed to the usual four, with the central Allegretto combining the stylings of both a slow and scherzo movement. The surging main theme shows off the rich sonorities of the violin, particularly in the first movement where the low registers of both violin and piano are exploited. The second movement is faster paced, with short phrases, more frequent tempo changes and barlines hidden with syncopations and overlapping phrases. The perpetually moving finale sees the melody passed back and forth between the two instruments, before a dramatic final flourish. 

While Schumann’s sonata was one of his later successes, Fauré’s First Violin Sonata marked a turning point in his career, with fame coming rather late to the French composer. The sonata quickly made its way into the programmes of some of Europe’s top performers, including Ysaÿe, Enescu and Saint-Saëns, who was Fauré’s former piano teacher and a notable fan of his work. It was Saint-Saëns who introduced Fauré to the French mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot and her daughter Marianne, with whom Fauré quickly fell in love. The violin sonata was dedicated to her brother, Paul Viardot, who gave the premiere of the piece with Fauré himself on the piano. 

To complete this evening’s programme, Alnemr tips his hat to a fellow Syrian musician, Solhi al-Wadi. Having been born in Iraq, al-Wadi moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He spent the rest of his life in Syria, where he was a significant champion of opera and music in the country. He campaigned for the opening of various musical institutes and the Damascus Opera House, and also helped form the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra.

Bilal Alnemr, violin | Giuseppe Mentuccia, piano

Sonata in A minor, Op. 105 

Sonata No.1 in A major

Violin Sonata No.2

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2000, Giorgi took his first piano lessons without ever thinking about becoming a professional pianist. Passionate about singing and arranging Georgian folk and pop songs, he successfully competed in various Georgian singing contests at the age of 12. He did however continue his formal musical training at the Paliashvili Central Music School for Gifted Children and at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire, under the guidance of Revaz Tavadze.

Everyone has an idol, and for Giorgi it has always been Martha Argerich. His pianistic career’s turning point came about in April 2019 when he won the 1st Prize at the Vigo International Piano Competition, where Martha Argerich chaired the jury with Nelson Freire at her side. Some months later Giorgi also won the Third Prize and the Audience Prize at the 62nd Busoni International Piano Competition.

The outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic obliged him to remain in Georgia, where he began to write electronic music and songs which have become extremely popular.

2021, on the other hand, offered a fresh stimulus for Giorgi’s other calling, the classical piano: the Hortense Anda-Bührle Bursary, awarded to him at the 15th Géza Anda Piano Competition in Zurich, brought him an invitation to the KlavierOlymp in the German town of Bad Kissingen, where he won the 1st Prize as well as the Audience Prize. At the same time, he joined Nelson Goerner’s class at the Geneva University of Music.

Giorgi is supported by Martha Argerich for his studies in Geneva, by the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation and the Géza Anda-Foundation.

Giorgi Gigashvili

Giorgi Gigashvili opens his programme with a pair of Scarlatti Keyboard Sonatas, a set of one-movement works with idiomatic harpsichord writing, which demands great technical proficiency from the performer. The D major is particularly challenging, asking the player to tackle multiple instances of hand crossing, parallel intervals moving together and quick, repeated note patterns. The use of these techniques reveals the development of new playing techniques of the time, which, combined with the innovative use of new musical structures, point to the emerging Classical style of the time. 

We move into the 19th century for the second part of the concert, with a set of three solo piano Intermezzi composed by Brahms towards the end of his life when he was staying in Bad Ischl, a spa town in Austria. This triptych of dreamy, elegiac pieces are autumnal in mood, supposedly once described by the composer as ‘three lullabies to my sorrow’. The first intermezzo is recognisable by its gentle rocking lullaby, featuring two lines from ‘Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament’, an old Scottish ballad. When Clara Schumann first heard of the existence of these pieces, she wrote to Brahms – a close friend – asking him to send them to her. There are subtle echoes of the ‘Clara Theme’ which ran through a lot of the work of her husband, Robert Schumann, who incidentally is the dedicatee of the final work in the programme, Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor. 

By the time Liszt’s sonata was completed in 1853, his career as a travelling virtuoso had almost entirely ended and he was focusing almost exclusively on composition. In contrast to the Brahms work, Clara Schumann refused to perform this sonata because she found it ‘merely a blind noise’. While much of the initial response was critical, Wagner praised the piece after a private performance in London. ‘The sonata is beautiful beyond compare,’ he wrote to Liszt. ‘Great, sweet, deep and noble, sublime as you are yourself. It moved me most deeply.’ In the years since, it has attracted a lot of discussion from scholars concerning its symbols and potential meanings. Some have argued that it’s autobiographical, with contrasts in the music representing the different facets of Schumann’s personality, while others have suggested that it might be a musical portrait of the Faust legend, or an allegory set in the Garden of Eden dealing with the fall of man.

*Note, the recital programme has been updated as follows: 

Schumann, Sonata Op. 11 No. 1 in F sharp minor

Sonata in C major K487

Sonata in D major K29

Three Intermezzi, Op. 117

Sonata in B minor, S 178

Alberto Navarra gained notable recognition in the spring of 2022, winning the Carl Nielsen International Flute Competition in Odense, Denmark. Other competition successes include the Severino Gazzelloni International Flute Competition (Italy) in 2021 and Dorel Baicu International Competition (Romania) in 2020.

This season, Alberto joins the Berliner Philharmoniker as a member of the prestigious Karajan Akademie, studying and performing alongside world renowned flautists Emmanuel Pahud, Sebastian Jacot and the entire BPO flute section.

As a soloist Alberto has performed with orchestras and ensembles such as the Orchestra del teatro "La Fenice" in Venice, La Filarmonica di Milano, Solisti di Pavia, Ensemble Albéniz, Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento and Orchestra Freixenet. Alberto also regularly collaborates with a range of chamber groups, performing across numerous festivals in Italy and Europe.

Born in Mondovì, Italy, he began his musical education with Maurizio Valentini at the Conservatorio di Musica Ghedini in Cuneo, followed by further studies with Andrea Manco and Andrea Oliva at the International Academy of Imola and National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. Awarded with scholarships to continue his studies, in 2019 he joined the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid as a student of Jacques Zoon and Salvador Martinez Tos. Here he was also awarded the "más sobresaliente", student of the year, presented by Queen Sofía of Spain.

Following his success at the Carl Nielsen International Flute Competition, Alberto will shortly record his first solo album alongside the Odense Symfoniorkester on Orchid Classics.

Flute

Alberto Navarra

Nominated to the Classeek programme by world-class flautist Emmanuel Pahud, Alberto Navarra brings a vibrant programme of chamber music to his first rehearsal on the scheme. He is joined by cello and piano for Weber’s Trio in G minor, one of the composer’s most substantial chamber pieces. With lively writing for all three instruments and plenty of melodic invention, there are opportunities for each of the musicians to dazzle audiences with their virtuosity. A melancholic, contemplative Allegro moderato gives way to a spirited waltz, before we end with a final movement referred to as Schäfers Klage (Shepherd’s Complaint or Shepherd’s Lament, an allusion to Goethe’s 1802 poem of the same name). 

We then move on to three works for flute and piano, starting with a piece originally written for clarinet and piano: Schumann’s Fantasiestücke. These have been a staple of the chamber repertoire, transcribed for various instrumentations. The three pieces are almost character studies, with sudden contrasting shifts in mood, moving from inward-looking darkness to light, extroverted buoyancy. The first piece is rather dreamy, with directions for the players to approach ‘tenderly, with expression’. The second piece moves to the major version of the key, in a much more playful, energetic temperament. The final movement stays in this new major key, but with a frenzied energy, pushing the players to their limits for a triumphant ending.

Navarra then moves us on to two prominent pieces within the 20th-century flute repertoire: Poulenc’s Sonata and Frank Martin’s Ballade, both of which have enjoyed further success in well-known orchestrated versions. The Poulenc is almost elegiac in its poignant main theme, infused with the composer’s trademark wit and playfulness. Martin is less well known as a composer, but his Ballade is an essential piece in any flautist’s arsenal. In his early life, he was influenced by French composers, particularly Fauré, before he went on to study with Schoenberg in the 1930s, which inevitably introduced new approaches to composition. The blend of these vastly different styles became Martin’s trademark, which you can hear in his Ballade – a piece with no real tonal centre but plenty of lyricism. 

Alberto Navarra, flute

Fantasiestücke op. 73 (arr. flute and piano)

Sonata for flute and piano

Ballade for flute and piano

Trio in G minor op. 63

Chamber Recital

VENUE: Conservatoire de Musique de Genève

Coming up this Spring, emerging artists of the Classeek Ambassador Programme will feature in MusiKa's season programme, performing as part of our new collaboration pre concert series, Les Premières. 

We are happy to provide opportunities to our young artists, to bring them closer to some of the industry's top artists of today, in this partnership between MusiKa and Classeek.

This upcoming pre concert at the  Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, features Ambassador Programme artist and flautist  Alberto Navarra, performing alongside pianist Leonardo Pierdomenico in a programme of Schumann Fantasiestücke and Martin Ballade. 

Tickets for the pre concert are part of the main concert ticket and can be purchased via the 

MusiKa pre concert

Fantasiestücke, Op. 12

Ballade

Alberto Navarra & Leonardo Pierdomenico

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 won the third prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for young musicians, as well as a special prize for the best Mozart performance.  Other prizes have included the “Andreas Postacchini” competition and the Radio Orpheus award. In 2020, Alexey won the 3rd and the public prize at the Henry Vieuxtemps competition in Belgium. 

Alexey’s musical horizons have been expanded by participation in masterclasses with Ivry Gitlis, Boris Kushnir, Christoph Poppen, Victor Tretyakov. He was selected to take part in the Kronberg academy biannual violin masterclasses in 2019 and 2021 studying there with Mauricio Fuks, Gerhard Schulz and Pavel Vernikov. 

Alexey Stychkin

It is with great pleasure that we present violinist Alexey Stychkin's debut recital on the Classeek Ambassador Programme, featuring a captivating duo performance alongside pianist Raúl da Costa. The technical prowess of both musicians will be placed under the microscope this evening, with a range of demanding, diverse and highly expressive works.

The recital opens with one of Ysaÿe’s six violin sonatas, written in the early 20th century and representing the evolution of musical techniques and stylings of the time. Each sonata is dedicated to a fellow virtuoso of Ysaÿe, who was himself a celebrated violinist. The second plays homage to Ysaÿe’s friend and mentee, Jacques Thibaud, a violinist renowned for his elegant phrasing and charming tone. While the complete set of sonatas were inspired by the sonatas and partitas of JS Bach, Sonata No. 2 is subtitled ‘Obsession’ because of its particularly notable preoccupation with the great Baroque composer. The piece opens with a reference to the prelude of Bach’s Partita No. 3, which is soon dissected by Ysaÿe, who blends it with references to the Dies irae plainchant from the traditional Requiem mass.

It was Ysaÿe who, in turn, provided the inspiration for the next piece in tonight’s programme. Franck’s lone violin sonata was penned as a wedding present to Ysaÿe and his new wife, Louise Bourdeau, when they married in 1886, and quickly became a mainstay of Ysaÿe’s touring programmes around Europe. Imbued with lyricism and introspection, it has become a beloved gem in the Romantic repertoire, shifting between dramatic and delicate as the violin and piano dance around one another.

Ravel began writing his Second Violin Sonata in 1923, the very same year Ysaÿe wrote his sonatas. Unlike Ysaÿe however, Ravel wasn’t interested in the seamless interplay between the violin and piano. Instead, his focus was on their independence, describing the instruments as ‘essentially incompatible, which not only do not sink their differences, but accentuate incompatibility to an even greater degree.’ In this sonata, he celebrates their own distinct identities. As is the case in several other of Ravel’s works – not least his opera L’enfant et les sortilèges and his two piano concertos – the sonata pays tribute to the composer’s love of jazz, with its central movement ‘Blues’ referencing the American idiom with syncopations, honky-tonk rhythmic patterns and violin slides. Stychkin and da Costa will showcase Ravel’s unique blend of impressionistic and neoclassical elements in the intricate dialogues within this sonata.

From Ysaÿe’s technical brilliance to Franck’s emotional depth and Ravel’s innovative sonorities, this promises to be a fine display of music-making at its most dynamic, showing the full expressive range on offer to the violin.

Alexey Stychkin, violin | Raúl da Costa, piano

Sonata No. 2

Violin Sonata 

Violin Sonata No. 2

Duo recital

This upcoming pre concert at the  Victoria Hall in Geneva, features Ambassador Programme artist and violinist Bilal Alnemr, performing alongside pianist Itai Navon  in a programme of Prokofiev 5 Melodies and Soli al-Wadi Violin Sonata No. 2. 

5 Mélodies, Op.35

Bilal Alnemr & Itai Navon

In January 2019, Tom Borrow was called on to replace renowned pianist Khatia Buniatishvili in a series of 12 concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. At only 36 hours' notice, he performed Ravel's Piano Concerto in G to sensational public and critical acclaim. The chief music critic of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation, Yossi Schifmann, hailed his performance as "brilliant... outstanding", ending his review with the words, "Tom Borrow is already a star and we will all surely hear more about him". Following this successful series Tom was further presented by the IPO in gala concerts held in London and Mexico City, and reinvited for a second subscription series. Later that year, International Piano magazine named him their ‘One To Watch’. Soon afterwards, Gramophonegave him the same accolade (“an exciting young pianist...individuality and elegance"). In December 2021, after his hugely-praised US debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, Musical America named Tom their 'New Artist Of The Month'. Tom has been named a BBC New Generation Artist for 2021-23, a highly prestigious scheme that will see him perform with all the BBC orchestras, at Wigmore Hall and many more during the two-year tenure, including multiple BBC broadcasts.​

Born in Tel Aviv in 2000, Tom Borrow has performed as soloist with all major orchestras of his native country, including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Symphony Orchestra. He began studying piano aged five with Dr. Michal Tal at the Givatayim Music Conservatory, and currently studies with Prof. Tomer Lev, Head of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University. 

Tom has been regularly mentored by Murray Perahia, through the Jerusalem Music Centre’s program for outstanding young musicians.​Tom has won every national piano competition in Israel, including first prize at the Israeli Radio & Jerusalem Symphony Young Artist Competition in Jerusalem, and three first prizes at the "Piano Forever" Competition in Ashdod (in three different age categories). In 2018 Tom won the prestigious "Maurice M. Clairmont" award, given to a single promising artist once every two years by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and Tel-Aviv University.

​After the Israel Philharmonic success, Tom has been invited by major orchestras around the world - recent and forthcoming engagements include the Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, BBC Symphony Orchestra, ‘La Verdi’ Orchestra of Milan, Basque National Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Ulster Orchestra and others - and is invited by leading conductors including Semyon Bychkov, Fabio Luisi, Sakari Oramo, Thierry Fischer, Xian Zhang, Robert Trevino, Tomas Netopil, Sascha Goetzel, Omer Wellber, Dan Ettingerand Maxim Emelyanchev. Tom has also toured to Eastern Europe with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, to regular standing ovations, and to South Korea with the Tel Aviv Soloists.

​Equally in-demand on the chamber music and recital fronts, recent and forthcoming engagements include the Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall, Vancouver Recital Society, James Ehnes’s Seattle Chamber Music Society, Festival Piano Aux Jacobins (Toulouse), Aldeburgh Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Tsinandali Festival (Georgia), Bolzano Concert Society (Italy) and Bellerive Festival(Geneva).​

Throughout the many masterclasses Tom has participated in, he had the privilege of working under the instruction of such prominent artists and pedagogues as Sir András Schiff, Christoph Eschenbach, Richard Goode, Menahem Pressler, and Tatiana Zelikman, among many others.​

As well as the International Piano, Gramophone and Musical America recognition, WWFM Radio in the US recently featured him as an outstanding young talent, with the much-respected presenter Jed Distler commenting, "Tom Borrow is an immensely talented young pianist...keep your eye on this really, really talented youngster - he is special". International Piano livestreamed Tom’s recital for the Rubinstein Virtual PianoFest, RAI Television livestreamed his concert with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra under Semyon Bychkov, Spanish Television broadcast a performance of Brahms Piano Concerto No 2 with the Basque National Orchestra under Robert Trevino. Tom's first album is due out soon from Hanssler Classic.

Tom Borrow

Nominated by Sir András Schiff, Israeli pianist Tom Borrow joins us for his debut recital on the Classeek Ambassador Programme with a commanding programme of monumental solo piano works.

He opens with a masterful triptych by César Franck, demonstrating the French composer’s unique fusion of traditional forms and innovative, unexpected harmonies. While the form of the Prelude and Fugue had been made famous by JS Bach, it had been neglected for much of the 19th

century. Franck’s attempt to revitalise the form marked a move away from sacred and organ music, which had occupied much of his early career. The Prelude, Chorale and Fugue demand both expressive depth and technical prowess of the player, with contrapuntal lines weaving around each other. Franck takes us on a journey from a majestic, heroic opening via an introspective, reflective chorale into an exhilarating climax of the final fugue.

We then move onto the work of another French composer, working a generation on from Franck. The Chorale et Variations from Dutilleux’s only piano sonata is packed full of references to a range of Soviet and French impressionist composers. Dedicated to and premiered by Dutilleux’s wife Geneviève Joy in 1948, it is one of the composer’s first mature works.

As a final offering, Tom Borrow presents one of Schumann’s finest works for solo piano and a cornerstone work in the greater Romantic repertoire. The composer referred to his Fantasie in C major as ‘perhaps the most impassioned music I have ever written’ in a letter to Clara Wieck, the woman who went on to become his wife. The piece began life as Ruines, a single-movement lament for Clara, with whom Schumann was deeply in love. Clara’s father opposed their marriage and the pair were forced to live separately during a period of great anguish for the composer. The piece was then incorporated into a ‘Grand Sonata’ for one of Schumann’s great composing idols, Beethoven. Sweeping romantic gestures are littered throughout the work, which is similarly grandiose and intimate, with moments of profound lyricism and dramatic contrasts. In its final iteration, Schumann dedicated the piece to Franz Liszt, one of the few pianists of the time who had the technique to be able to tackle the technical challenges of the second movement. Schumann demands sustained passages of simultaneous leaps in both hands, requiring a great deal of physical stamina. It remains one of the most challenging but rewarding pieces for pianists today.

Season Programme

29.09.22

09.29.22

Avery Gagliano

CONCERT PROGRAMME

19.10.22

10.19.22

An evening with Eric Tanguy

CONCERT PROGRAMME

23.11.22

11.23.22

Paul Zientara, viola Arthur Hinnewinkel, piano

CONCERT PROGRAMME

13.12.22

12.13.22

Jeein You, cello Samuel Parent, piano

CONCERT PROGRAMME

24.01.23

01.24.23

Julia Hamos

CONCERT PROGRAMME

09.03.23

03.09.23

Bilal Alnemr, violin Giuseppe Mentuccia, piano

CONCERT PROGRAMME

13.04.23

04.13.23

Giorgi Gigashvili

CONCERT PROGRAMME

10.05.23

05.10.23

Alberto Navarra, flute

CONCERT PROGRAMME

13.05.23

05.13.23

MusiKa pre concert

CONCERT PROGRAMME

24.05.23

05.24.23

Alexey Stychkin, violin Raúl da Costa, piano

CONCERT PROGRAMME

30.05.23

05.30.23

MusiKa pre concert

CONCERT PROGRAMME

21.06.23

06.21.23

Tom Borrow

CONCERT PROGRAMME

Paul Zientara, viola
Arthur Hinnewinkel, piano

Jeein You, cello
Samuel Parent, piano

Bilal Alnemr, violin
Giuseppe Mentuccia, piano

Alexey Stychkin, violin
Raúl da Costa, piano