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A former student of Roland and Almita Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy, Tabitha Rhee now studies at the Juilliard School with Misha Amory and Heidi Castleman, where she is a recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. She won the 2019 Juilliard Concerto Competition as soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra and conductor Peter Oundjian, and is a recipient of the Jerome and Elaine Nerenberg Foundation Scholarship from the Musicians Club of Women. Tabitha has attended the Music@Menlo International Program and Finckel-Wu Han Chamber Music Program at the Aspen Music Festival and is a founding member of the Wisconsin Intergenerational Orchestra, where she serves as an artistic mentor.
Haeji Kim switched from violin to viola at age 16, falling in love with its mellow tones and unique voice. She enjoys playing in an orchestral setting, having participated in the New York String Orchestra Seminar in 2012 as a violinist and in 2014 as principal violist, and as soloist, having played with orchestras throughout her state of Michigan. Her passion for chamber music was fuelled by summers in residence at the Caramoor and Ravinia Festivals. Haeji studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Roberto Díaz, Hsin-Yun Huang and Edward Gazouleas, and plays on a viola by Joseph Grubaugh and Sigrun Seifert on generous loan from the Virtu Foundation.
Korean-born violist Soyoung Cho began violin at age five and viola at eight. She is a prizewinner at the Johansen International and the Osaka International Music Competitions, was recently a semifinalist in the Young Concert Artists auditions in New York (2022), and appeared at the Primrose International Viola Competition (2021). Soyoung has taken part in programmes of Morningside Music Bridge, Heifetz Institute, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and, in 2021, the Verbier Festival Academy. She regularly plays in chamber ensembles and currently serves as principal viola of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Soyoung graduated from Curtis Institute of Music with a bachelor’s degree in 2022 studying with Roberto Diaz, Hsin-Yun Huang and Ed Gazouleas. She is continuing her master’s studies at Curtis as the Reaumur and Mary Corrin Winston Fellow, studying with Misha Amory and Ed Gazouleas.
Tabea Zimmermann began learning the viola at the age of three, and two years later began playing the piano. In the beginning, she received significant inspiration from her first teacher Dietmar Mantel. She studied with Ulrich Koch at the Musikhochschule Freiburg and subsequently with Sandor Végh at the Mozarteum Salzburg.
Following her studies, she received several awards at international competitions, amongst them first prizes at the 1982 Geneva International Competition, the 1983 Maurice Vieux Competition in Paris and the 1984 Budapest International Competition.
She has been playing an instrument built for her by Patrick Robin since 2019. From 1987 until his early death in 2000, Tabea Zimmermann regularly performed with her husband, the conductor David Shallon. She lives in Berlin and has three almost grown-up children.
Tabea Zimmermann has held teaching posts at the Musikhochschule Saarbrücken and Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt. Since October 2002, she has been a professor at the Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’.
Internationally-acclaimed viola player Lawrence Power is widely heralded for his richness of sound, technical mastery and his passionate advocacy for new music. Lawrence has advanced the cause of the viola both through the excellence of his performances, whether in recitals, chamber music or concertos and the creation of the Viola Commissioning Circle (VCC), which has led to a substantial body of fresh repertoire for the instrument by today’s finest composers. Lawrence has premiered concertos by leading composers such as James MacMillan, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Julian Anderson, Alexander Goer, and through the VCC has commissioned works by Anders Hillborg, Thomas Adès, Gerald Barry, Cassandra Miller and Magnus Lindberg.
Lawrence is Resident Artist at the Southbank Centre in 2024/25, which commences with a recital with Thomas Adès featuring works by Adès, Britten, Dowland, Stravinsky and Berio where they will be joined by a percussionist and internationally renowned dancer and choreographer Jonathan Goddard. Further performances include the UK Premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Viola Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, a ‘Lock-in’ featuring live performance and cinematic projection and a newly commissioned project from creative studio Âme.
Elsewhere in the season, Lawrence will give the German, US and Austrian premiere of the Lindberg Viola Concerto with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester (Alan Gilbert), St Louis Symphony (Hannu Lintu) and Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg (Aivis Greters). Further highlights include the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (Ivan Fisher), Orchestre National de Belgique (Antony Hermus) and a return to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for the Scottish premiere of Anders Hillborg’s Viola Concerto conducted by Andrew Manze.
Over the past decade, Lawrence has become a regular guest performer with orchestras of the highest calibre, from Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Stockholm, Bergen and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, with conductors such as such as Osmo Vänska, Lahav Shani, Parvo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Andrew Manze, Edward Gardner, Nicholas Collon, Ilan Volkov and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Lawrence enjoys play-directing orchestras from both violin and viola, most recently at the Edinburgh International Festival with Scottish Ensemble, Australian National Academy of Music and with Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and leads his own orchestra, Collegium, made up of fine young musicians from across Europe. He is on the faculty at Zurich’s Hochschule der Kunst and gives masterclasses around the world, including at the Verbier Festival.
As a chamber musician he is in much demand and regularly performs at Verbier, Salzburg, Aspen, Oslo and other festivals with artists such as Steven Isserlis, Nicholas Alstaedt, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Vilde Frang, Maxim Vengerov and Joshua Bell. Lawrence was announced in 2021 as an Associate Artist at the Wigmore Hall, a position lasting for five years, with artists performing at least once each season.
Nobuko Imai studied at the famous Toho School of Music in Tokyo and then at Yale University and the Juilliard School.
She is the only violist to have won the highest prizes at both the Munich and Geneva International Viola Competitions, and she was formerly a member of the esteemed Vermeer Quartet. Miss Imai is now established as a distinguished international soloist, and as well as appearing regularly in the Netherlands, where she now lives, her career takes her to major cities in Europe, the USA and Japan.
She has worked with major orchestras all over the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC orchestras, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra. Nobuko Imai is a regular guest at the Marlboro Festival and has also appeared at the Lockenhaus, Casals, Aldeburgh and South Bank Summer Music Festivals, the International Viola Congress in Houston and the BBC Proms.
Nobuko Imai has been awarded many prizes, including the Avon Arts Award (1993), the Education Minister’s Art Prize of Music by the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs (1994) and the Mobil Prize of Japan (1995). In 1996 she received Japan’s most prestigious music prize, the Suntory Hall Prize, awarded to her by a unanimous jury. She is Professor at the College of Music in Detmold, Germany.
“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.
Some musicians are destined to forge artistic paths that will open up new horizons for future generations. Yuri Bashmet is undoubtedly one of them, since it is he that established the viola as a leading instrument on the contemporary concert stage. Born in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in 1953, Yuri Bashmet studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Vadim Borisovsky and Feodor Druzhinin. On winning first prize in the International Music Competition in Munich, he embarked on an unparalleled world career in 1976. He has performed as a soloist with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France. Contemporary composers, among them Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edisson Denissow, Mikael Tariverdijev, John Tavener, Giya Kancheli and Alexander Tchaikovsky, have composed and dedicated a total of over 50 works for and to him.
Yuri Bashmet took up the conducting baton in 1982. In 1992, he founded the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra comprising highly talented young graduates of the Moscow Conservatory. Together, Yuri Bashmet and the soloists of this group became the first Russian ensemble to win a Grammy Award in 2008. Yuri Bashmet has been the artistic director and principal conductor of the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra since 2002. Film and television broadcasters in several different countries have documented his artistic work, and he himself is the creator and host of the TV programme Station of Dreams.
Yuri Bashmet enjoyed a longstanding artistic friendship with Svjatoslav Richter and, following Richter’s death, took over from him as artistic director of the renowned “December Nights” festival in Moscow. Bashmet is also the founder and chairman of the Yuri Bashmet International Viola Competition in Moscow, and likewise founded an international charitable fund, which led to creation of the Dmitri Shostakovich Prize awarded for special artistic achievement. Its winners include Gidon Kremer, Thomas Quasthoff, Viktor Tretjakov, Valery Gergiev, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Olga Borodina, Irina Antonova, Natalja Gutman, Yevgeny Kissin, Maxim Vengerov, Alexei Ratmansky, Yefim Bonfman, Denis Mazuyev and Tan Dun. Further to these achievements, Yuri Bashmet has participated in a great number of important charitable events.
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.