Alexei Volodin

(piano, Russia)

"...the outer movements crackled with energy while the minuet had the sweetest cantabile..." - The Independent, June 2012

Volodin regularly works with the world's top orchestras, among them the New York Philharmonic, Gewandhaus-Orchester Leipzig, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich and the London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor collaborations include Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Vasily Sinaisky, Mikhail Pletnev, Semyon Bychkov, Lawrence Foster and Marek Janowski.

Recent highlights have included Radio-Sinfonieorchester des SWR Stuttgart, Symphonieorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and l'Orchestra dell'Accademia del Teatro alla Scala. Forthcoming engagements include RAI Turin, the Danish National Symphony, the Netherlands Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic orchestras as well as the Bamberger Symphoniker and Orquesta Municipal de Santiago de Chile. 

Recitals are a prominent part of Volodin's engagements and following on from his critically acclaimed debut at London's international Piano Series, this season he performs at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Teatro Olimpico Vicenza, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Munich's Herkulessaal, Berlin's Philharmonie and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw.

Alexei Volodin is a regular artist at Festivals including the Bad Kissingen Sommer, La Roque d'Anthéron, Festival La Folle Journée, Sommets musicaux in Gstaad, White Nights in St. Petersburg and the Moscow Easter festivals.

Volodin has recorded with record labels such as Live Classics (Germany), ABC Classics (Australia) and Challenge Records (Netherlands). His recording of solo Schumann, Ravel and Skriabin works was released by Challenge Records in 2011 and prompted Carsten Dürer to write in Piano News that "this last recording shows that Alexei Volodin is one of the very best pianists of today ... outstanding". His previous release, a recital programme of works by Chopin, won a Choc Classica and was awarded five stars by Diapason. His most recent recording of solo Rachmaninov works was released by Challenge Records in 2013.

Born in 1977 in Leningrad, he studied under Irina Chaklina and Tatiana Zelikman at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music and later with Elisso Virsaladzé at the Moscow Conservatoire. In 2001 he continued his studies at the International Piano Academy Lake Como (Italy). He gained international recognition following his victory at the Géza Anda Piano Competition in Zurich (Switzerland) in 2003.

Alexei Volodin is an exclusive artist for the company Steinway and Sons.

Géza Hosszu-Legocky

(violin, Switzerland)

The exceptional musical world of Geza Hosszu bears a striking resemblance to the violin titans of the past. His rare and beautiful expression transmutes and glows at every moment, tantalizing the audience with fire, allowing limitless boundaries to his performances and a spiritual transfiguration which sometimes even evokes the dashing bravery of legendary heroes in a mythical battle with ghostly lighting. He has undoubtedly an overwhelming personality yet is always driven by the forces of love and through omnipresent feelings he unveils the realm of the sacred, leading his poetic side to such mystical moments of restraint, that when the power of imagination takes over the audience he could even induce audible levitation. But his greatest power in radically altering the state of the listener is an enormous gift to communicate the dramatic meaning of life, embodying in his sound an intensity beyond the unusual that pierces the hearts and awakens sensitivity. Most probably it is for this reason he has been compared more than once to the divine Maria Callas. Strangely they were born on the same day.

He continues to perform regularly at the most renowned music festivals around the world and previous performances include sold-out concerts at the prestigious Verbier Festival with Roby Lakatos and other artists such as Ida Haendel, Vadim Repin, and Sayaka Shoji.  In 2003, he was invited by the Violin Festival in Cassis (France) to perform with Ruggiero Ricci and Ivry Gitlis and at the 2005 Saratoga Festival Geza made his recital debut with Martha Argerich to thunderous standing ovations. His regular chamber music partners include also many other musicians such as Gautier and  Renaud Capucon, Luiz Gustavo Carvalho, Nelson Freire, Gabriela Montero, Akane Sakai, Giorgia Tomassi and Lily Maisky.

Praised by musicians, audiences, and music critics as a rising "tour de force" in the classical music scene, Geza Hosszu-Legocky's critical acclaim culminated with the nomination of two Grammy  Awards, including the "Best Classical Music Album 2005" and "Best Chamber Music Recording 2005" for his recording of the Schumann Violin Sonata in A minor and other chamber music works with an all-star cast including Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov, Lilya Zilberstein, and Gabriela Montero on EMI Classics. In 2003, he also released his first EMI Classics recording performing traditional Hungarian Gypsy music with his ensemble "The Five Devils" and as a guest soloist he was invited to perform with major orchestras and ensembles throughout the world including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Myung-Whun Chung and Thierry Fischer, the NHK Orchestra with Charles Dutoit, and the Kremerata Baltica with Gidon Kremer.

Geza Hosszu-Legocky now plays the ex Joachim-Aranyi Stradivarius (1715), offered to him by the Nippon Foundation with the support of Lorin Maazel and Janos Starker. Recent unconventional collaborations include projects with Michael Guttman and the Roma-Sinti Orchestra, his recent performance with Michael Legrand and the creation of a new apotheosizing orchestra which will cause sensation very soon. He is also Executive Professor at the Lions-club Online Mozart Academy of Vienna.

Polina Leschenko

(piano, Belgium)

Polina Leschenko was born in St Petersburg into a family of musicians and began playing the piano under her father’s guidance at the age of six. Two years later she performed with the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra in St.Petersburg.

In 1991 Polina moved with her family to Europe where she studied with Pavel Gililov and Vitaly Margulis.

At the age of 12 Polina made her UK debut at the Barbican Hall in London playing Beethoven’s piano concerto n.5.

Leschenko has worked with such prominent orchestras as the Salzburg Camerata, Hallé Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Britten Sinfonia, Bern Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, Orquesta de Euskadi and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

 Polina has given critically acclaimed solo recitals and chamber music concerts at such renowned venues as the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Cité de la musique in Paris and the Opera House in Sydney. 

 An accomplished and admired chamber musician, Polina Leschenko also performs frequently at many festivals, including the Salzburg Festival, Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, Verbier, Risor, Stavanger, la Roque d'Anthéron Aldeburgh, Oxford, Cheltenham, Stift, Istanbul, and Musiktage Mondsee.

Regular collaborations with artists include Martha Argerich, Ivry Gitlis ,Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Ilya Gringolts, Julian Rachlin, Heinrich Schiff, Mischa Maisky, Torleif Thedéen and the Auryn Quartet.

In 2003 Polina Leschenko recorded a début CD for EMI Classics in the series ‘Martha Argerich presents...’ with works by Liszt, Chopin, Kreisler/Rachmaninov, Brahms and Bach/Feinberg. She has also recorded a well-received disc of Prokofiev chamber music with Martha Argerich, Christian Poltéra and Roby Lakatos, for Avanticlassic, with whom she has a recording contract. Her recital disc – featuring an all-Liszt program including the B minor Sonata – was released in May 2007 to great critical acclaim, receiving a “Choc” du Monde de la Musique.

Polina’s most recent CD’s include a recital CD entitled “Forgotten Melodies” (Avanticalssic), Mendelssohn double concerto with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Richard Tognetti (BIS ) and a recording of the Dvorak piano quartet op.87 on EMI Classics as part of the “Martha Argerich and Friends: Live from the Lugano Festival 2012” series.

During a three-year residency, from 2009 to 2012 Leschenko held the position of International Chair in Piano at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff.

Starting from September 2013 Polina will become professor of Piano at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, Belgium.

Polina currently resides in Brussels with her husband and their lovely daughter Alicia.

David Pia

(cello, Switzerland) 

David Pia began his professional formation as a young student in the class of Antonio Meneses at the City of Basel Music Academy.  Later he studied with Clemens Hagen at the Salzburg University Mozarteum. Healso participated in masterclasses of David Geringas, Bernard Greenhouse and János Starker.

Since 2010 he is assistant professor to Antonio Meneses at the Bern University of Arts (HKB).

In 2007 he was a prizewinner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and was additionally honored as "Best Interpreter" of the set competition work. This year, David Pia committed to supporting young musicians, he takes part as a jury member of the „Tonali Grand Prix„ in Hamburg.

David Pia was member and solo cellist of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, tackling the major orchestral repertoire with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Herbert Blomstedt, Myung-whun Chung and Franz Welser-Most. The orchestra of the “Accademia Gustav Mahler/Bolzano” invited him 2010 to perform as a soloist. In the same year, he gave his “debut concert” at the renowned Lucerne Festival.

David Pia performed as soloist with, among others, the Bern Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrey Boreyko, the Camerata de Lausanne under Pierre Amoyal and partnered jazz singer Bobby McFerrin with the Müncher Rundfunkorchester. 2012 David Pia was on tour in Switzerland with the outstanding violinist Sarah Chang and the Moskow Virtuosi chamber orchestra.

David Pia has also been a guest at "Young Artists in Concert" (Davos), at the American Ravinia Festival, and at "Chamber Music Connects the World" (Kronberg), with Menahem Pressler, Daishin Kashimoto, Benjamin Schmid and Raphael Oleg as his musical partners. 

He plays a 1697 Giovanni Grancino violoncello.

Nathan Braude

(Viola, Belgium)

The young Belgian violist Nathan Braude is rapidly emerging as one of the most promising viola players of his generation. Nathan has performed in many of the world's most prestigious concert venues including the Wigmore Hall in London, Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Palais des BeauxArts in Brussels. 

He has also appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the “Brussels Philharmonic”, “Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, “Limburgs Symfonie Orkest”,“Solistes Européens Luxembourg”…

Nathan’s festival appearances include “Progretto Martha Argerich” in Lugano, “Ravinia Festival” in Chicago, ‘’Festival de Radio France” in Montpellier’’ and the“Festival Juventus” where he was nominated “Lauréat Juventus” in 2008. Since 2010 Nathan regularly performs in duo recitals together with his wife Polina Leschenko.

Recent highlights have included Bartók's viola concerto and Paganini’s Gran Sonata per la viola with the “Limburgs Symphonie Orkest”, Berlioz's Harold en Italie with the Brussels Philharmonic under the baton of Maestro Michel Tabachnik at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, début recitals at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, the Palais des Beaux Arts and numerous chamber music concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

His début recording for the Fuga Libera label with the complete works for viola, by the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen, has been released to great critical acclaim.Nathan’s recording of the Dvorak piano quartet op.87 will be released on EMI Classics as part of the “Martha Argerich and Friends: Live from the Lugano Festival 2012” series.

Starting from September 2012 Nathan will start a new teaching position at the School of Arts/Royal Conservatory of Music in Ghent.

Nathan Braude plays a viola by Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza (Milano, 1772).

Valentin Uryupin

(conductor, Russia)

Valentin is one of the most diverse and wanted young Russian musicians. Being the most titled and acknowledged clarinetist in Russia, he has also became a part of promising young conductors.

His teachers in the musical school and Conservatory were such professors as E. A. Petrov (clarinet), G. N. Rozhdestvensky (conducting), A. Z. Bonduryansky (chamber ensemble). Valentin was enhancing his skills at master classes by Ch. Naidik, G. di Donato, N. Balderu, R. Giyo, M. Letiek (clarinet), and also he studied conducting with Neimer, Lonkin and Levin.

Valentin Uryupin is an award winner of 20 International clarinet competitions (Munich, Geneva, Prague, Beijing, Turin, Carlino, Chieri, Nichelino, Turku, Sophia, Bayreuth, Cortrich, Astana, St. Petersburg, Moscow). He is a winner and special prize holder of the Musin All-Russian Conductors Competition (Kostroma, 2011).

His tour destinations include China, Japan, Europe, CIS countries and over 40 Russian cities, including best concert halls in Moscow. As a conductor he has performed with leading Russian orchestras (Svetlanov SASO, Novaya Rossiya, NFOR, MusicAeterna, Musica Viva, orchestras of St. Petersburg and of many other Russian cities). He has also performed with orchestras from Prague, Geneva, Dublin, Brussels, Munich, Turin, Wroclaw, Kuhmo, Beijing, Zhizuoki.

His partners on stage were Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Viktor Tretyakov, Yuri Bashmet, Zlexandr Rudin, Theodor Kurentzis, Joyce di Donato, Howard Griffits, Ion Sturgards, Yang Yang, Lotar Seifart, Anatoly Levin, Felix Korobov, Alexandr Bonduryansky, Mark Pekarsky, Natalia Trull, Alexander Buzlov, Alena Bayeva and many other recognized musicians.

In 2007 he has established a chamber orchestra “Arpeggione”, and gave dozens of concerts in the best concert halls of Moscow and Russia.

In 2008 – 2011 he was the chief invited conductor of Kharkov Academic Symphonic Orchestra.

Since 2001 he is a permanent invited conductor of Belgosteleradio Symphonic Orchestra (Minsk, Belorussia)

Since 2011 he is the conductor if the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre. In the season of 2012-13 his repertoire in this theatre includes ballets “Nutcracker”, “Corsair”, “Sylph”, “Joker”, “Romeo and Juliette”, operas “Carmen”, “Yolanda”, “Clowns” and others. 

Sara Asabayeva 

 (Piano, Kazakhstan)

Graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (Professor Merzhanov Class) and had her internship in the Ashrafi Tashkent State Conservatory (Professor Yussupova Class).

She performs as a soloist and in ensembles in Kazakhstan and abroad. Sara works with Kazakhstan’s finest musicians, such as Ayman Musahadjayeva, Nurzhamal Usenbayeva, Askar Duysenbayev, Aisha Dosumova and many others.

Sara Asabayeva is a jury member of numerous republican and international music competitions.

She is also the head of Piano Chair of the Kazakh National University of Arts. Her students are laureates of various republican and international competitions.