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Roby Lakatos is not only a virtuoso on the violin, but also an extremely versatile musician who is equally adept to performing classical music, jazz and the folk idiom of his home country of Hungary. He is hard to define: most often, he is described as a Gypsy violinist, a devil’s fiddler, classical master, jazz improviser, composer and arranger – and his unique artistic personality is all that. He is a universal musician combining brilliant technique that makes him one of the best violinists in the world with creativity in improvisation and composing power.
Roby Lakatos was born in 1965 to a legendary family of Romani musicians as a member of the seventh generation of direct descendants to János Bihari – the famous “King of Gipsy Violinists”, who was admired by Ludwig van Beethoven, introduced Johannes Brahms to the themes for his Hungarian Dances and of whom Franz Liszt said: “The sweet tones drawn from his magic violin fell like drops of nectar on our enchanted ears.” From early childhood, Roby Lakatos lived with the musical tradition of his family – he played in his uncle Sándor and father Antal’s band and appeared as the first violinist of a Gipsy orchestra at the age of nine.
Thus, he learned the tradition of violin technique and ornamentation at an early age, but also gained formal education at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest.
After winning the first prize for violin at the age of 19, he left for Belgium and first played in Liège, and then in the newly opened club Les Ateliers de la Grande Ile in Brussels, which quickly became a hotspot thanks to him and his ensemble. In the ten years of performing in the club, the ensemble attracted numerous fans: the shows were regularly visited by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, for example, and Roby made connections and collaborated with a number of musicians, including violinist Vadim Repin and his role model for violin jazz music performances Stéphane Grappelli.
His concert career developed gradually, and now Roby Lakatos spends most of his time performing in various stages around the world. His ensemble has appeared, among other places, at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, in Académies Musicales de Saintes, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Ludwigsburg Schloßfestspiele and the Helsinki Festival, as well as in prestigious concert halls (Santa Cecilia in Rome, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Zankel Hall – Carnegie Hall in New York). His versatility has given him and his ensemble the opportunity to collaborate with major orchestras–The London Symphony Orchestra, French National Radio Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, to name a few – as well as with numerous exceptional artists, including Giora Feidman, Herbie Hancock, Joshua Bell, Maksim Vengerov, Nigel Kennedy and Randy Brecker. In Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan he first performed in 1999, and has since been regularly playing in Asia. He records for Hungarian and Belgian television networks and has also appeared on German television and German national radio stations, as well as on BBC in London.
Roby plays a violin made by Fabien Gram.
Seven years after the release of their 1991 album Gypsy Style for MW Records, The Roby Lakatos Ensemble recorded their first CD for Deutsche Grammophon, titled Lakatos. With a presentation of a unique style, which is a fusion of typical Gipsy music elements and jazz with improvisation as an important feature and specific technical effects, some of which he created himself (such as the fascinating left-hand pizzicato), Roby Lakatos and his ensemble also reflected a universal approach to the musical material by including on their CD the works by composers ranging from Zoltán Kodály and Johannes Brahms to John Williams’s music for Schindler’s List and Charles Aznavour’s chanson La Bohème. This album, which received the prestigious German Echo Klassik award, was followed by four more releases for Deutsche Grammophon: Lakatos Gold and Post Phrasing (1998/1999), Live From Budapest (1999), and As Time Goes By (2002) offering an equally exciting combination of
jazz and Gipsy music idioms with contemporary and classical elements. Apart from recording for other labels – With Musical Friends (Universal, 2001), Kinoshita Meets Lakatos (Prime Direction, Inc., 2002), Prokofiev… (Avanticlassic, 2005), Fire Dance (Avantijazz, 2005) and Klezmer Karma (Avanticlassic, 2006) – Roby Lakatos also started his own label Lakatos Recording Company to present somewhat different music, i.e. experimental works such as the project named The Legend of the Toad (2004), which is a sort of musical story told through his performances and the performances of his ensemble whose member, pianist Kálmán Cséki, also arranged the music.
Except for his long-time associate, violinist Lászlo Bóni, Roby Lakatos’s ensemble today is composed of young virtuoso musicians with classical musical education who are also well versed in the folklore tradition of Hungarian Gypsies.
Born in Siberia in 1971, Vadim Repin was eleven when he won the gold medal in all age categories in the Wienawski Competition and gave his recital debuts in Moscow and St Petersburg. At 14 he made his debuts in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin, Helsinki; a year later in Carnegie Hall. At 17 he was the youngest ever winner of the Reine Elisabeth Concours.
Since then he has performed with all the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors. Among the highlights of his career in the past few seasons have been tours with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, the NHK Orchestra and Dutoit; a tour of Australia with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, and acclaimed premières in London, Philadelphia, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Salle Pleyel in Paris and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw of the violin concerto written for him by James MacMillan, culminating in a BBC Prom at the sold out Royal Albert Hall.
Vadim Repin recorded the great Russian violin concerti by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky on Warner Classics. For Deutsche Grammophon he recorded the Beethoven Violin Concerto, the Brahms Violin Concerto and Double Concerto (Truls Mørk, cello) with the Gewandhaus Orchester, the Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov trios with Mischa Maisky and Lang Lang (which won the Echo Classic) and works by Grieg, Janacek and César Franck with Nikolai Lugansky, which won the 2011 BBC Music Award.
In 2010 he received the Victoire d’Honneur, France’s most prestigious musical award for a lifetime’s dedication to music, and became Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Following master classes and concerts in Beijing in December 2014 he was awarded an honorary professorship of the Central Conservatory of Music, and in 2015 an honorary professorship of the Shanghai Conservatory.
Highlights of the last season included concerts in Hong Kong and Beijing, a European tour with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Neeme Jarvi, and concerts in Vienna with Kent Nagano and Lionel Bringuier. In April 2014 Vadim Repin as Artistic Director presented the first Trans-Siberian Festival of the Arts in Novosibirsk’s magnificent new concert hall, featuring a new commission, ‘Voices of Violin’ by Benjamin Yussupov, and a joint appearance by Vadim Repin and prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova. The Festival was enthusiastically received and was repeated and extended in the spring of 2015, this time featuring a specially commissioned violin concerto, ‘De Profundis’, by Lera Auerbach.
Last season began with concerts in Vilnius, Prague, Vienna, Paris and Ankara and a Vadim Repin Festival in Tokyo in November with chamber music and orchestral concerts. Performances in the United States were followed by concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy in London and Cardiff, the German première of the Yussupov concerto in the Berlin Philharmonie, and a return to Japan for concerts with the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the Tchaikovsky centenary. This season began with concerts in Yerevan, Barcelona and Madrid and a tour of European capitals with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, and will culminate with a ‘Transsiberia goes to Tel Aviv’ project.
Vadim Repin plays on the 1733 ‘Rode’ violin by Stradivari.
Composing music that both embraces and challenges western classical traditions, Gabriel Prokofiev has emerged as a significant voice in new approaches to classical music at the beginning of the 21st century. After completing his musical studies at Birmingham and York Universities, and dissatisfied with the seemingly insular world of contemporary classical music, he developed a parallel music career as a dance, grime, electro and hip-hop producer. This background in dance music combined with his classical roots gives his music a unique and truly contemporary sound.
Gabriel has built up a large body of orchestral and chamber works and has composed seven concertos (three featuring turntables), as well as many electronic works, often combining synthesisers and samples with classical instrumentation. His works have been performed internationally by orchestras including Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig, Copenhagen Phil, Luxembourg Philharmonique, Buenos Aires Filharmonica, Porto Symphony and Real Orquesta de Sevilla. Also, he frequently collaborates with contemporary dancers and has worked with companies including Stuttgarter Ballet, Rambert Dance, Bern Ballet, Shobana Jeyasingh, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Alexander Whitley Dance and Gandini Juggling. In 2019, his first full-length opera Elizabetta was premiered by Regensburg Opera in Bavaria.
Gabriel is also an events curator, producer and founder of the Nonclassical record label and club night, home to a host of artists who defy conventions. Through Nonclassical, he has been one of the leading proponents of presenting classical music in non-traditional venues; and he regularly performs in East London nightclubs, warehouses and electronic music festivals, often DJing and doing live remixes of the works just performed.
Gabriel studied electroacoustic composition under Jonty Harrison in Birmingham, and a Masters in composition with Ambrose Field & Roger Marsh. He is published by both Faber Music and Mute Song, and resides in Hackney, London, with his wife and their three young children.
Violinist Pierre Colombet is a founding member of Quatuor Ébène. The quartet began its rise to fame in 2004 as winner of the ARD Music Competition, following studies with the Quatuor Ysaÿe in Paris, and also Gábor Takács, Eberhard Feltz and György Kurtág. Today it is internationally fêted for its distinctive, charismatic playing, and the complexity of its oeuvre, including its trademark jazz and pop improvisations. Beyond numerous awards for its recordings, including Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine and the Midem Classic Award, the quartet became in 2019 the first ever ensemble to be honoured with the Frankfurt Music Prize. Quatuor Ébène is an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy.
Joshua Bell is a GRAMMY®-winning American violinist and one of the most celebrated artists of his generation. His career spans nearly four decades, during which he has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields since 2011, succeeding Sir Neville Marriner.
He performs with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, and New York Philharmonic. Recent projects include tours in Europe, South America, and the U.S., as well as collaborations with artists such as Steven Isserlis, Jeremy Denk, Renée Fleming, Chick Corea, Sting, and Anoushka Shankar.
Bell champions contemporary music, premiering works by John Corigliano, Edgar Meyer, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Nicholas Maw. He has contributed to film soundtracks, notably The Red Violin (Oscar-winning score by Corigliano) and Ladies in Lavender, and has pioneered digital and educational initiatives, including VR experiences and a partnership with the Trala violin learning app.
He is deeply committed to music education through Education Through Music and Turnaround Arts, and has led masterclasses and family concerts under the The Man With The Violin project.
Joshua Bell plays the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius and has recorded over 40 albums, earning GRAMMY®, Gramophone, and OPUS KLASSIK awards. He began violin at age 4, studied with Josef Gingold, debuted with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra at 14, and made his Carnegie Hall debut at 17.
Celebrated for combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity and depth, GRAMMY Award-winning Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov has made a spectacular ascent of the classical music world since taking both First Prize and the Grand Prix at the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition. ‘He has everything and more … tenderness and also the demonic element. I never heard anything like that,’ pianist Martha Argerich has said. Further awards include Artist of the Year for Musical America (2019) and Gramophone (2016). His current season includes concertos with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Antonio Pappano, and the Israel Philharmonic under Lahav Shani, a two-piano programme at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala with Sergei Babayan, and solo recitals at Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. Trifonov records exclusively with Deutsche Grammophon, most recently Bach: The Art of Life.
Founder and Education Director of La Bulle d’Air—la musique qui se partage—, Martine Pernoud is a music therapist, psychologist, flutist, singer and business manager. She has been leading musical awakening workshops and giving flute lessons for more than 30 years. A specialist in Baschet instruments, she develops, coordinates and conducts musical projects for children and adults with disabilities. As an adult educator in early childhood institutions, in specialised institutions, in the context of higher education institutions and continuing education organisations in Switzerland and France, she also provides annual training courses for La Bulle d’Air team.
Augustin Dumay began his career in 1980 thanks to Herbert von Karajan who invited him to play as a soloist with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Since then, he has gone on to perform with top orchestras, under the direction of famous conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Yuri Temirkanov and Kurt Masur, as well as with the leading conductors of the new generation. Augustin Dumay is also intensely active as a conductor all over the world. Since 2011, he has been the Music Director of the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra. Very involved with the next generation, he is Master in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where he teaches young violinists of a very high level. His 50 recordings for EMI and Deutsche Grammophon have won multiple international awards. The French violinist plays a 1743 Guarnerius del Gesu, which was the violin of Leonid Kogan.
Hunju Sohnn has been the pianist and coordinator of the Verbier Festival Academy’s viola class for more than 20 years. She received her Master’s degree from New England Conservatory, and holds a Doctoral degree for Piano Performance from Rice University. Her teachers included John Perry, Russell Sherman and Robert Roux. HunJu performs throughout Europe and America, while holding a teaching position at the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique Danse et Théâtre in Geneva.
Tobias Koch’s extensive musical career has taken him across Europe, North America, the Middle East and far beyond as soloist, chamber musician and lied accompanist. He is the Music Prize Winner of the State Capital Düsseldorf and teaches at the Robert Schumann University of Düsseldorf and at the University of the Arts in Berlin. He has been pianist and coordinator of the Verbier Festival Academy’s violin class for a number of years and is a specialist in historical keyboard instruments.