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In 2022, Hans Christian Aavik was awarded First Prize at the Carl Nielsen International Competition and was recipient of the Usedom Prize (Usedom Festival, Germany). Following his success at the Carl Nielsen, he was invited to record his first orchestral album with Orchid Classics. Earlier this year, he was also featured together with pianist Karolina Aavik in the new Deutsche Grammophon series ‘Rising Stars’ on STAGE+. Hans Christian has studied at the Tallinn Music High School, the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts with Erik Schumann and the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien, with Julian Rachlin. He now studies at the Kronberg Academy, with the support of Dr Ratjen-Patronat. Hans Christian was previously a member of the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra.
Australian violist Isabella Bignasca is completing a master’s degree with Paul Neubauer and Heidi Castleman at The Juilliard School, where she also completed her undergraduate studies. Last year, she attended the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, was on the artist roster for Parlance Chamber Concerts, and was a substitute violist with the Florida Orchestra. She has collaborated and performed alongside Itzhak Perlman, the Borromeo Quartet and members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Isabella has taken part in Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Heifetz International Music Institute, where she later became part of the Heifetz on Tour series.
Vsevolod Zavidov began his musical training at age four and made his concert debut at the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory at 8. In 2016, at age 10, he made his solo recital debut in the United States at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. The following year he performed Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto with the Moscow Virtuosi Orchestra, and a year later performed solo recitals in Manchester and Vienna, and toured the Northeastern United States. Vsevolod was winner of the 54th Dvorak International Concertino Praga (2020), which enabled him to record a CD. The following year, he won First Prize at the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition (Salt Lake City). He took part in The Stars of the White Nights and Mariinsky International Piano Festival a year later and last fall awarded the Georges Leibenson Prize at the Concours de Genève. Vsevolod is invited by Japan Arts to perform in Japan during 2023. He is an alumnus of the Lieven Foundation.
Tony Yike Yang first rose to international acclaim at the age of 16 after becoming the youngest-ever laureate in the history of the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, winning the Fifth Prize in 2015. Tony has also won prizes at the Van Cliburn, Gina Bachauer, Hilton Head and the Cooper International Piano Competitions. Recital highlights include performances at Koerner Hall (Toronto), Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Athenaeum in Bucharest, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Seoul Arts Center, Esplanade Singapore and Dubai Millennium Amphitheatre. He has also appeared with prominent orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic and Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal. Tony is a recent graduate of Harvard University where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Economics. He is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Ingesund Piano Center in Sweden.
Ethan Loch began piano lessons at age 4 with his mother. He now studies with Fali Pavri at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Diagnosed completely blind since birth, Ethan already explored the piano for hours as a toddler, imitating his first inspiration, Rowlf the piano-playing dog from The Muppet Show. His other inspiration was a DVD of Horowitz in Vienna, which he played relentlessly. Today, in his spare time, he can be found in his music room composing and improvising for hours and hours. After winning the keyboard category of the BBC Young Musician in 2022, he went on to the grand final, where he performed Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto with the BBC Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.
Jonas Aumiller is winner of the 2021 Brahms Competition in Detmold and received the Silver Medal and Audience Prize at the Eighth Sendai International Music Competition in Japan in 2022. Born in Munich, Jonas began piano lessons at age seven. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Conservatorio F.A. Bonporti (Trento, Italy) where he studied with Massimiliano Mainolfi. Since 2018, he has worked with Sergei Babayan, first at the Juilliard School and later at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma on full scholarship. A great admirer of the pianist traditions of the 19th and 20th century, Jonas transcribes orchestra and organ works for piano and performs them regularly in his recitals.
Nicola Benedetti is one of the most sought-after violinists of her generation. Her ability to captivate audiences with her innate musicianship and spirited presence, coupled with her wide appeal as a high-profile advocate for classical music, has made her one of the most influential classical artists of today.
Born in the Scottish town of Irvine, of Italian heritage, Nicola began violin lessons at the age of four with Brenda Smith. In 1997, she entered the Yehudi Menuhin School where she studied with Natasha Boyarskaya. Upon leaving, she continued her studies with Maciej Rakowski and then Pavel Vernikov. In 2004, she won “BBC Young Musician,” launching her career as an international concert violinist.
With concerto performances at the heart of her career, Nicola is in much demand with major orchestras across the globe. Conductors with whom Nicola has worked include Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jiří Bělohlávek, Karina Canellakis, Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, James Gaffigan, Jakub Hrůša, Kirill Karabits, Kristjan Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Cristian Măcelaru, Zubin Mehta, Andrea Marcon, Gianandrea Noseda, Michael Tilson Thomas, Robin Ticciati, Vasily Petrenko, Donald Runnicles, Thomas Søndergård, Pinchas Zukerman and Jaap van Zweden.
Nicola enjoys working with the highest level of orchestras including collaborations with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC.
In December 2020, Nicola formed the “Benedetti Baroque Orchestra” which gathers freelance period-instrument players who collectively join together to create the highest level of collaborative and energised musicmaking. Baroque was released on Decca Classics in July 2021, and features Nicola play-directing this newly formed ensemble. The album reached number one in the UK’s Official Classical Album Chart and received a 5* review in The Times.
Nicola champions the commissioning of new works which has recently included Mark Simpson’s critically acclaimed Violin Concerto, written for Nicola with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto which won a GRAMMY Award for “Best Classical Instrumental Solo” in 2020.
A devoted chamber musician, Nicola collaborates with cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk, who have been performing as a trio since 2008. Past performances include Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Edinburgh International Festival, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, the Ravinia Festival, 92nd Street Y, New York and City Hall, Hong Kong. In June 2021, the trio embarked on a UK tour giving seven performances across the country, and in spring 2022 performed a thirteen-date European tour with works by Schumann, Rihm and Brahms. In 2023, the trio will return to North America, visiting 8 cities across both East and West coasts.
In 2021-2022 Nicola opened the Barbican Centre’s season and amongst others, performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Cincinnati Symphony. Other highlights included engagements with the LA Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, play-directing the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and a tour to Spain with the Philharmonia Orchestra as well as a performance with the Benedetti Baroque Orchestra at the Aldeburgh Festival.
Nicola begins her 2022-2023 season with a performance of the Marsalis Violin Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at the BBC Proms and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Kazuki Yamada and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Further engagements include the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, a tour to Japan with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Hallé, DSO Berlin, St Louis Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony and Orchestre de Paris amongst others.
Nicola has continued her role as a dedicated, passionate ambassador and leader in music education. Her commitment to supporting the UK’s music practitioners was underlined in July 2018, when Nicola took over as President of the European String Teachers’ Association. Nicola continues to hold key positions in a number of the country’s most established and high-quality youth music organisations including the National Children’s Orchestras (Vice President), Sistema Scotland (Big Sister), National Youth Orchestras of Scotland’s Junior Orchestra (Patron), Music in Secondary Schools’ Trust (Patron), Junior Conservatoire at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Patron) and many more. In 2019, Nicola formalised her commitment to music in education when she established The Benedetti Foundation. Since its launch, the Foundation has worked with over 29,000 participants, age 2-92, from 103 countries through its transformative in-person workshops and online sessions for young people, students, teachers and adults. The Foundation unites those who believe that music is integral to a great education and demonstrates ground-breaking teaching by producing and delivering innovative and creative musical experiences accessible to all.
Winner of the GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo in 2020, as well as Best Female Artist at both 2012 and 2013 Classical BRIT Awards, Nicola records exclusively for Decca (Universal Music). Her most recent recording of Elgar’s Violin Concerto entered at number one in the UK’s Official Classical Album Chart and received critical acclaim including a 5* review in The Times: “Yet beyond sheer agility, Benedetti offers listeners something even more valuable: a dynamic personal interpretation, refreshing and convincing.” Other recent recordings include her GRAMMY award-winning album written especially for her by jazz musician Wynton Marsalis: “Violin Concerto in D and Fiddle Dance Suite for Solo Violin.” Nicola’s recording catalogue also includes works from Shostakovich and Glazunov Violin Concerti, Szymanowski Concerti (London Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Harding) to Homecoming; A Scottish Fantasy, which made Nicola the first solo British violinist since the 1990s to enter the Top 20 of the Official UK Album Chart. In 2021, BBC Music Magazine named her “Personality of the Year” for her online support of many young musicians during the pandemic.
In March 2022, Nicola became the Director Designate of the Edinburgh International Festival, becoming Festival Director on 1 October 2022. In taking the role she will be both the first Scottish and the first female Festival Director since the Festival began in 1947. Nicola was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours list, awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2017, the youngest ever recipient, and was appointed as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2013 in recognition of her international music career and work with musical charities throughout the United Kingdom. In addition, Nicola has received nine honorary degrees to date.
A renaissance man and a magnetic creative force, Dmitry Sitkovetsky is recognised throughout the world as having made a considerable impact on every aspect of musical life. A prolific recording artist, with a career spanning more than four decades, he is celebrated globally as a violinist, conductor, creator, transcriber, and facilitator – and holds an undisputed and venerable position in musical society as a giant personality and educator.
As violinist and/or guest conductor, the 2022-2023 season and beyond sees Sitkovetsky perform extensively throughout Europe and North America. He performs chamber music at the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival and conducts the Israel Jerusalem Camerata in Israel; plays at the Guadalajara Chamber Music Festival and conducts the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in Mexico; and is featured in concerts in Berlin, Germany; Mexico City, Mexico; Bucharest, Romania; Havana, Cuba; Istanbul, Turkey; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Sofia, Bulgaria. Sitkovetsky is also the President of the jury of the George Enescu International Violin Competition in Romania and a member of jury at the International Fritz Kreisler Violin Competition in Austria and the Concours Musical International de Montréal in Canada. In summer 2023, he performs in the Verbier Festival’s 30th anniversary season.
Siktovetsky also leads his final and 20th season as Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina. Throughout the past two decades at the helm of the orchestra, Sitkovetsky curated more than 120 different orchestral programs from Bach to Brubeck with world-class soloists. Among his many accomplishments, he developed the Rice Toyota Presents “Sitkovetsky & Friends” chamber series, consulted on the biggest installation of the Meyer System in the U.S. in the new 3000-seat Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts, and commissioned important new works by composers such as such as Jakov Jakoulov and Mark Engebretson. The 2022-2023 GSO season features Sitkovetsky leading six Masterworks concerts with acclaimed soloists including Michelle Cann, Sergey Antonov, James Ehnes, Trio Zimbalist, and Branford Marsalis.
Sitkovetsky also enjoys a flourishing career as a conductor, having worked with such orchestras as Academy of St-Martin-In-The-Fields, Dallas Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de chambre de Paris, Lucerne Symphony, Orchestra della Toscana, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, and Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Japan Century Symphony, amongst others. In 1990, he founded the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra (NES) – bringing together the most distinguished string players from the top European ensembles, from both Russian and Western musical backgrounds (reflecting Dmitry’s own life story). Since 2003, Sitkovetsky has served as the Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina, to whom he has brought such soloists as Emmanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Garrick Ohlsson, and Pinchas Zukerman. Previous positions of artistic leadership have included the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y Leon (Artist in Residence, 2006-2009), Russian State Symphony Orchestra ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’ (Principal Guest Conductor, 2002-2005), and the Ulster Orchestra (Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor, 1996-2001).
In 2019, he celebrated the release of a recital disc on the Melodia label, recorded with Tchaikovsky Competition-winner Lukas Geniušas – with a programme designed as an homage to the legendary duo of Fritz Kreisler and Sergei Rachmaninov. His celebrated career as a violinist is documented in an extensive discography of more than 40 recordings, reflecting the impressive breadth of his repertoire. His recording collaborators to date include such orchestras as the London Symphony, Philharmonia, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, working with such legendary maestros as Sir Colin Davis, Mariss Jansons, Sir Neville Marriner, and Yehudi Menuhin. As soloist, he has performed with the world’s leading orchestras – including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland, LA Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, and Philadelphia, amongst others.
Given his unmatched ability to turn any project into a highly anticipated artistic event, Sitkovetsky has also been invited to create, develop and lead a number of festivals, including the Korsholm Music Festival, Finland (1983-1993, and 2002), the Seattle International Music Festival (1992-1997), the Silk Route of Music, Azerbaijan (1999), and the Festival del Sole, Tuscany (2003-2006). During his tenure at the Korsholm Festival, he hosted Alfred Schnittke, Krszystoff Penderecki & Rodion Shchedrin as composer-in-residence, performed with such luminaries as Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Evgeny Kissin, Mischa Maisky to name but a few.
Sitkovetsky is also in high demand as a jury member, musical expert and educator. Recent jury roles have included the Indianapolis International Violin Competition, Concours Musical International de Montréal, International Tchaikovsky Competition, and the Enescu Violin Competition. Additional highlights include Sitkovetsky’s debut TEDx talk, The Power of Curiosity; the launch of his first book, Dmitry Sitkovetsky: Dialogues; and his interview series on Medici.tv, It Ain’t Necessarily So.
Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s name has also become synonymous with the art of transcription. His iconic orchestral and string trio versions of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations have taken on a life of their own – enjoying regular performances and acclaimed recordings by many of the leading performers of today. Following this unprecedented success, Sitkovetsky has gone on to arrange over six60ty works of major repertoire by such composers as Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Schnittke, and Shostakovich. In 2015, he unveiled his transcription of Stravinsky’s Le baiser de la fée, commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and premiered by Augustin Hadelich at Carnegie Hall. The 2017/2018 season saw the successful premieres of a new multi-genre/multimedia work, Devil, Soldier & Violin (inspired by Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale), with sold-out performances across Russia. Summer 2018 saw the world premiere of Sitkovetsky’s transcription of Sarasate’s Navarra Fantasy, commissioned by the Verbier Festival. This performance – marking the Festival’s 25th anniversary – was broadcast live worldwide on Medici.tv, with an all-star lineup of musicians, including Lisa Batiashvili, Leonidas Kavakos, Mischa Maisky, Vadim Repin, Maxim Vengerov, Tabea Zimmermann, and Pinchas Zukerman – as well as Dmitry Sitkovetsky himself. The latest transcription, Bukovina Songs/Preludes by Leonid Desyatnikov, was recorded online by the NES during the Pandemic, and reached an audience of more than 250,000, is now much in demand and has been performed in Bucharest, Oviedo, Ljubljana, Baku, Korsholm, and Jerusalem.