Violin

Acclaimed as “a player of impressive authority and presence” (The Strad) and “one of the top violinists of tomorrow” (Diapason), Yossif Ivanov, has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting violinists of his generation. At the age of 16 he was awarded First Prize at the Montreal International Competition, and two years later the Second Prize, as well as the Public Prize, at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.
Over the past seasons Yossif Ivanov has made acclaimed debuts in all the major European halls. He has performed with orchestras such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI, Vancouver Symphony, Residentie Orchestra The Hague, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Lucerne Symphony, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Milano Verdi Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Luxemburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, as well as all major Belgian orchestras.
He has collaborated with well-known conductors such as Neëme Järvi, Marin Alsop, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vladimir Jurowski, Kazushi Ono, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Philippe Herreweghe, Jaap Van Zweden, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Ion Marin, Yuri Simonov, Louis Langrée and John Axelrod.In 2010 he was invited to tour North America with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (under Vladimir Jurowski) and made his Asian debut (Malaysian Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony Orchestras).
 

Born in Moscow to the family of the illustrious Oistrakhs, Valery Oistrakh represents the third generation of great violin virtuosi beginning with his grandfather David and followed by his father Igor.Valery Oistrakh took his first violin lessons from his grandfather David. He then studied at the famous Central Music School in Moscow where father Igor actually graduated. He continued his studies at the Gnessin Music-Pedagogical Institute in his native city. Some years later Valery completed his violin education in Germany with the world known professor Zakhar Bron - who in fact was also a disciple of his father at the Moscow Conservatory.

With his awe-inspiring technique, silky tone and consummate artistry he has beguiled audiences the world over performing on the great concert stages of Russia, United States, Canada, Australia, England, France, Germany. Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Japan... He has played as both violinist and violist with world-leading orchestras as the Moscow and Leningrad Philharmonics, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish National Symphony, Orchestre Colonne de Paris, Orchestra Santa Cecilia di Roma, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester , Toronto and Vancouver Symphonies, Sydney Symphony... He has been accompanied by such notable conductors as Kurt Mazur, Gennady Rozdestvensky, Yuri Simonov, Muhai Tang, Gyorgy Lehel, Saulius Sondetzkis, Vladimir Fedoseev, Tibor Varga, Yuri Botnari, Marco Parisotto…

Mr. Oistrakh was a winner at the All-Russian Competition of the former Soviet Union and the Tibor Varga International Competition in Switzerland, among others. He is the leader of the "Oistrakh Ensemble" and the "Oistrakh Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra" based in Germany.

Violinist Philippe Graffin has established an indisputable reputation for his interpretations of the French repertoire, natural perhaps for one of the few pupils of Josef Gingold, himself a pupil of Ysaye for whom most of the violin repertoire of this era was written.

As concerto soloist, he has performed with orchestras such as The Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken the Residentie Orkest, Gothenburg Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra di Padova et del Veneto and St Petersburg Philharmonic.

Graffin performs works of many living composers such as Dutilleux and Saariaho and has had works written for him by Rodion Shchedrin, Vytautas Barkaukas, David Matthews, Philippe Hersant and Yves Prin. Following a performance of his Concerto Cantabile with Rostropovich conducting, Shchedrin wrote Concerto Parlando for Graffin which is now awaiting release on CD.

Philippe is a highly sought after chamber musician and is founder and artistic director of the “Consonances” chamber music festival of St Nazaire, France which in 2012 marked the 150th anniversary of Debussy. Recent highlights include concerts with the Georges Eneso Philharmonic in Bucharest and a recital in Venice at the Palazzetto Bru-Zane, televised by Mezzo as well as recitals in the summer at many French festivals including the Festival d’Orangerie de Sceaux. Graffin also featured on a BBC 4 documentary on Delius, performing Delius’s ‘Legende’ for violin and piano.

Antal Zalai started his classical violin studies at the tender age of five and went on to graduate from het Koninklijk Conservatorium van Brussel in 2009, under the guidance of Kati Sebestyén. Before his time in Brussels, he was under the guidance of László Dénes, Péter Komlós, and Jozef Kopelman in Budapest. Furthermore, Zalai enriched his musical education by participating in masterclasses led by Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Erick Friedman, Tibor Varga, Lewis Kaplan, and György Pauk.

At the age of 15, he achieved international acclaim by performing Bartók's Violin Concerto No.1 at Lord Yehudi Menuhin's 80th anniversary tribute gala concert in the Grand Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest on October 1, 1996. Throughout his career, Zalai has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Fabio Luisi, Paavo Järvi, Yoel Levi, Lawrence Foster, Gilbert Varga, Shlomo Mintz, Ludovic Morlot, Laurent Petitgirard, Enrique Bátiz Campbell, Yip Wing-sie, and Gábor Takács-Nagy.

In 2008, he made his debut in the UK, performing Glazunov's Violin Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, conducted by Ludovic Morlot. He repeated this performance at his Berlin debut the same year, as a soloist with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin at the Berliner Philharmonie.
In April 2010, Zalai had his Viennese debut at the Vienna Symphony's "Frühling in Wien 2010" gala concert, conducted by Fabio Luisi, at the Wiener Musikverein. He earned this opportunity through an online competition on the internet platform Talenthouse.

As a recitalist, Antal Zalai has graced stages including the Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall in New York City, the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater in Washington, D.C., the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Concert Hall of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver, among others.