Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi
Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi was born in Tokyo and had his early cello lessons from Hideo Saito. He made his debut with theTokyo Philharmonic Orchestra when he was just 12 years old. He subsequently performed with Japan's leading orchestras and won prizes at many important competitions, including the most significant Japanese competition, the Mainichi Music Competition. In 1963 he won the International Pablo Casals Competition in Budapest. A Fulbright Foundation scholarship gave him an opportunity to study with Janos Starker at Indiana University in Bloomington (USA). Over the years, audiences have been able to experience Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi in concert with, for example, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic and many other orchestras. Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi taught at Western Ontario University, Toho Gakuen School of Music and the University of Illinois before being appointed a faculty member at Indiana University in 1988. He has given master classes in Asia, Europe and the USA and is regularly invited to serve on the jury of renowned international music competitions. Some of his CD recordings have been released on the Sony label. The Suntory Award was conferred onTsuyoshiTsutsumi for his key role in Japanese musical culture.Tsutsumi is a recipient of a particular honour, the award of the National Academy of Arts by the Japanese Emperor.
Yuri Laniuk
Born in 1957 in L'viv, Ukraine, Yuri Laniuk is a composer, cellist and professor of cello and composition at the The Lviv Lysenko National Music Academy. Yuri is winner of the L. Revutski Prize for composition (1990), the B. Liatoshynski Award (2001), a laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine (2005), and 1st prize winner at the Lysenko Cello Competition in Kyiv (1979).
In 1975-1980 he studied cello with Yevhen Shpitzer and composition with Desideri Zador at the L'vi v Lysenko Conservatory. In 1972 he had lessons with Mstislav Rostropovich in L'viv. In 1975 he studied composition with Andrzej Nikodemowicz. Yuri Laniuk completed his postgraduate studies with Vadim Chervov in Kyiv (1980-1982). Since 1982 he has been a Professor at the L'viv Lysenko National Music Academy. His compositions have been perfomed at concerts and festivals in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Russia the USA and many other countries. His music bas been perfomed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the German Radio Symphony Orchestra (MDR), the Polish Radio Symphony, Sinfonia Varsovia, NOSPR, Canadian Sinfonietta, Aukso, the Silesian quartet, DAFO quartet, Ensemble Recherche with conductors including; E. London, G. Nowak, V. Sirenko, R. Kofman, P. Guelke, G. Kulesha, V. Baley, R. Rewakowicz, and Cellists including; I. Monighetti, A. Bauer, soprano O. Pasiecznik amongst many others.
In 1999 the Polish label CD-ACCORD relesead a CD of Yuri’s compositions, which are published by the Swiss publishing house SORDINO. He has been a member of various jurys at perfoming and composers competitions, including the International Lysenko Celto Competition in Kyiv (2002, 2007 - head of jury) and the Lutosławski Award for Cornpositon (2005, Warsaw) and VIII Witolda Lutoslawski International Cello Competition (Warsaw, 2011), Justus Dotzauer Internatinal Cello Competition (Dresden, 2013). In 2014 he was awarded with a Merited Honor for Polish Culture by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Jesus Castro-Balbi
An active presence on the international scene, JESÚS CASTRO-BALBI has appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, and at the Aspen, Cartagena and Lincoln Center festivals. He performs as soloist with symphony orchestras in the USA, Latin America and Europe, and will give his debut performance with the China Philharmonic Orchestra in 2015. He is featured on 12 compact discs and has presented 54 world premiere performances and recordings, including 22 works written for him by prominent composers. His recording of the Jimmy Lopez cello concerto with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra led by Miguel Harth-Bedoya will be released by Harmonia Mundi in the spring 2015.
Jesús Castro-Balbi is the cello professor at the TCU School of Music in Fort Worth, Texas, and the founding artistic director of the TCU Cellofest. He gives master-classes and lectures at Beijing’s Central Conservatory, The Juilliard School, Paris Conservatoire, the Leipzig Hochschule, the Yale School of Music, and is a juror for the Sphinx Competition (Michigan), and for the Aiqin Bei (China) and Carlos Prieto (Mexico) International Cello Competitions.
He is a graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur at Lyon, Indiana University at Bloomington, Yale, and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School. He had the privilege to study with Aldo Parisot and Janos Starker, as well as with members of the Amadeus, Juilliard, Ravel and Tokyo String Quartets.
Louise Hopkins
Louise Hopkins studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Raphael Wallfisch
and Steven Isserlis. From a very early age she attended the International Musicians'
Seminars at Prussia Cove studying intensively with Andras Schiff for duo class and Gyorgy
Kurtag for Chamber Music alongside the Cello Masterclasses with Steven Isserlis and
Ralph kirshbaum.
Louise made her debut at the Barbican Hall playing Witold Lutoslawski's Cello Concerto
with the composer conducting of which The Times commented that ‘players with such
personality agility and power are rare'. At this time she won a number of young artist
awards resulting in numerous engagements.Louise also won the Frank Britton Award
which resulted in her Wigmore debut aged 19, quickly followed for several years in
succession with concerts at the Wigmore supported by the Tillet and Kirkman Trusts. She
has continued to perform as a soloist and chamber musician and has developed an
international career which has taken her all over Europe the USA, Australia, New Zealand
and Japan.
A regular participant at major festivals Louise has been on several occasions to Aldeburgh
where she has performed chamber music and solo concerts including a performance of
Britten’s Cello Symphony for a BBC live broadcast with Leonard Slatkin conducting the
BBC Symphony Orchestra. Other festivals include Cheltenham, Bath, Brighton, Harrogate,
the Vertavo Quartet’s festival at Elverum in Norway, Dijon, the Belgrade Cello Festival ,
Amsterdam Cello biennale 2010/ 2014, the Irish Chamber Orchestra's summer festival and
Trondheim International Chamber Music Festival 2013.
Louise has regularly attended Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove for over 20 years.
She has broadcast frequently on the BBC, RTE, WfMT, Swiss Romande, ABC , New
Zealand Radio and Radio France. London Sinfonietta chose to release as part of its
Jerwood Foundation series a CD of a BBC recording of the piece for Cello and Orchestra
by Dai Fujikura 'Fifth Station' with Martyn Brabbins conducting and Hopkins as the soloist
taken from a live performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The Times reviewed the CD as
"brilliantly played".
As a chamber musician Louise has performed in venues from the Wigmore Hall to the
Sydney Opera House. She has been the guest on several occasions of the Takacs Quartet
and also Thomas Adès with whom she has recorded his piano quartet 'Catch' for EMI. In
November 2013 Louise performed the 'cello and piano piece 'Lieux Retrouvés' composed
by Adès with the composer at the piano live for BBC Radio 3. She has also been invited by
Emmanuel Pahud to perform at the Wigmore and at his festival in Salon de Provence.
Other collaborations have included those with Andras Keller, Anthony Marwood, Alexander
Janiczek , Ferenz Rados, Denes Varjon, Aleksandar Madzar, Kathryn Stott, Alexander
Melnikov, Piers Lane, Tamara Stefanovich , Francois Leleux and Steven Kovacevich.
Louise has participated in the foremost chamber music festival in Australia in 2009/10/11
and will be returning for the 25th anniversary of the festival in 2015. She performs regularly
with the pianist Aleksandar Madzar with whom she has recorded a recital disc for Intim
Musik of sonatas by Schnittke, Carter and Rachmaninoff.
At the age of 25 Louise was one of the youngest ever professors to be appointed to the
Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She also began teaching at the Yehudi Menuhin
School, a relationship which continued until 2006. Louise was appointed as Head of
Strings at the Guildhall in 2011 She has given masterclasses in France, Germany, Austria,
Switzerland, Serbia ,The Netherlands, Australia , Norway, Singapore, and throughout the
UK. Louise also held a position as a Cello Professor at the Hochschule in Bern
Switzerland 2007-14. She has been a jury member on a number of international
competitions including the Banff and Trondheim String Quartet competitions.
Jens Peter Maintz
The top prize for violoncello at the ARD competition in Munich had not been awarded for 17 years when Jens Peter Maintz won the first prize of this major competition in 1994. Since then he has developed into a highly multifaceted concert performer and one of the most versatile cellists of our time. He gained several years of valuable orchestra experience as principal cellist of the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin and travelled the world as cellist of the renowned Trio Fontenay. Since 2006 he has been principal cellist of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under the baton of ClaudioAbbado. During his career as a soloist, Maintz has worked with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Marek Janowski and Franz Welser-Most, performing with ensembles such as the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO), the Leipzig MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart RSO, the Residentie Orkest of The Hague and the Berlin Komische Oper Orchestra. Maintz is however a dedicated and much sought-after chamber musician as well. His partners in this field include eminent musicians such as Kolja Blacher, Janine Jansen, Heene Grimaud, Isabelle Faust andWolfram Christ, and also ensembles such as the Artemis Quartet, the casalQuartett and the Auryn Quartet. Jens Peter Maintz’s discography is just as broad as his repertoire. His debut CD released by Sony Classical with works by Bach, Kodaly and Dutilleux received the ECHO Klassik award. He made a recording of Isang Yun’s cello concerto for Capriccio and withArte Nova he recorded aCDof romantic repertoire from the Circle of Tchaikovsky. Oehms Classics issued a recording with works by the cellist/composer Wilhelm Fitzenhagen. In 2008 the label Berlin Classics released his much admired recording of Joseph Haydn’s cello concertos, accompanied by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Jens Peter Maintz studied with David Geringas and took master classes from Heinrich Schiff, Frans Helmerson, Boris Pergamenschikow and Siegfried Palm. Since 2004 Maintz has been a professor at the Berlin University of Arts. He plays a cello made byVincenzo Rugeri in 1696 and another one made byWolfgang Schnabl in 2010.
Danjulo Ishizaka
The son of a German-Japanese family born in Bonn, received his first cello lessons at the age of four. After completing studies with Hans Christian Schweiker, he spent time in the United States studying at Indiana University. Boris Pergamenschikov, with whom he studied at the Hanns Eisler Conservatory in Berlin from 1998 until 2004, has been a fundamental influence on him, both artistically and personally. From 2004 to 2006, he studied at the Conservatory with Tabea Zimmermann. He has also been strongly influenced by Bernhard Greenhouse, Michael Denhoff, György Kurtág, Menahem Pressler and the Amadeus-Quartet.
After previously winning 1st prizes at the 1998 international Gaspar Cassado Cello Competition in Spain and the 1999 International Lutoslawski Cello Competition in Warsaw, Danjulo Ishizaka won the 1st prize at the renowned ARD international music competition in Munich, Germany in 2001. In 2002, he claimed the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann of the Kronberg Academy and the Universität der Künste in Berlin - this competition, under the patronage of Daniel Barenboim, was created in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the legendary cellist, Emanuel Feuermann.
Danjulo Ishizaka’s debut at the Vienna Musikverein with the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra under the baton of Krzysztof Penderecki in November 2003 marked the launch of his international career. Since then he has been performing around the world with leading orchestras such as the Gewandhaus Orchester zu Leipzig, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Budapest Festival Orchester the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.
Among others, he performed under the baton of conductors such as Gerd Albrecht, John Axelrod, Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Michail und Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Roger Norrington, Christoph Poppen, Mstislaw Rostropovich and Leonard Slatkin.
He worked in close collaboration with Rostropovich. The cello legend described Ishizaka’s performance with these words: “phenomenal in his technical ability, perfect in his musical creative power”.
Danjulo Ishizaka was chosen for BBC Radio 3's renowned "New Generation Artists scheme," providing him with the opportunity to make numerous studio recordings in 2007 and 2008 – solo, with piano and with the five BBC Symphony Orchestras – as well as debut recitals at Wigmore Hall London.
Ishizaka is regularly invited to perform at renowned music festivals such as the Bachwoche Ansbach, Cellofestival in Kronberg, te Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Penderecki Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Kissinger Sommer, the Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus, the BBC Proms, the Verbier Festival, the Luzern Festival, the City of London Festival, the Manchester Cello Festival, the HongKong Arts Festival and the Salzburg Easter Festival.
His international concert schedule regularly takes him throughout Europe, Asia and the US. In March 2006 he had his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Ishizaka has performed chamber music with artists including Gidon Kremer, Lisa Batiashvili, Viviane Hagner, Tabea Zimmermann, Julia Fischer, Baiba Skride, Antje Weithaas, Veronika Eberle and Ray Chen. Pianists José Gallardo, Martin Helmchen, Shai Wosner and Markus Schirmer are among his recital partners.
On his debut CD with Sony BMG, he recorded sonatas by Britten, Franck and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy with pianist Martin Helmchen. In 2006 the CD was awarded the “Echo Klassik” award of the German Phonographic Academy.
During the past season 2013/13 Danjulo Ishizaka performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Sir Roger Norrington, with the Orchestre National de Belgique and Hugh Wolff, with the Opéra National de Paris with Philippe Jordan as well as with l'Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and John Axelrod.
At the end of 2012 Danjulo Ishizaka was honored with the Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award, one of Japan’s biggest music awards, awarded by the Sony Music Foundation in Tokyo.
In 2013 and 2014 Danjulo Ishizaka is going to debut - alongside several re-invites to the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the Musikverein Wien, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam - with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna with Krzysztof Penderecki, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra with Masahiko Enkoji and at the Haydn Festspiele with the Austrian-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic Orchestra with Adam Fischer. During the Spring 2015 a recital tour is to follow with pianist Shai Wosner in conjunction with the release of their common CD Album with Onyx comprising works by Grieg, Janacek and Kodály.
He’s a member of jury panels of international Cello competitions such as the 2013 editions of the International Instrumental Competition Markneukirchen and the International Penderecki Cello Competition in Kraków as well as the 2014 editions of the International Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann in Berlin and the 2015 edition of the International Lutoslawski Competition in Warsaw.
Danjulo Ishizaka has performed on the Stradivari Cello “Lord Aylesford” (1696), previously played by Gregor Piatigorsky and Janos Starker from 2004 to 2014 loan to him from the Nippon Music Foundation. From 2014 on he’s playing on the Feuermann Stradivari (1730) previously played by the legendary Emanuel Feuermann and later by Steven Isserlis, also on loan to him from Nippon Music Foundation. In addition Danjulo Ishizaka performs on the Wolfgang Schnabl cello, formerly played by Boris Pergamenschikov and provided by the Kronberg Academy.
Danjulo Ishizaka is currently Professor for cello at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden.
Daniel Veis
Daniel Veis has been recognized as the finest Czech cellist since winning the First Prize at 1976 Prague Spring Competition and the Silver Medal at 1978 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Born in Prague he studied there and five years at Moscow Conservatory with N. Shakhovskaya. Since 1979 he has performed regularly as a reliable soloist with the most of major orchestras in such centers likeAvery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall N.Y., Royal Albert Hall London, Orchard Hall Tokyo, Auditori de Barcelona and Auditorio National de Madrid, with V. Neumann, Ch. Mackerras, S. Baudo, L. Pesek, J. Belohlavek, G. Delogu, J.P. Saraste,Y.P. Tortelier etc. His repertoir is substantial and includes a lot of contemporary compositions.He has recorded works by DvořaÅLk, Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Martinů, Shostakovich, Kabelač, Hanus, Sommer. In 1989 he became a guest-soloist of Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to his solo career he is a member of international Rosamunde Trio (M. Tirimo, B. Sayevich). Over twenty yers he had been professor of cello and vice-dean at the Music faculty of theAcademy of PerformingArts, Prague, currently he is professor of cello at Park University, Kansas City. He frequently gives master classes and works in juries of international competitions.
Kazimierz Michalik
Kazimierz Michalik, born 1933 in Cracow, studied cello at the MusicAcademy in Katowice with professor Józef Drohomirecki, and at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague with Karel P. SaÅLdlo and Miloš SaÅLdlo, and was awarded a Diploma with honors. Later encounters with Mstislav Rostropovich and AndreÅL Navarra had a great influence on his artistic development. He started his professional career in 1951 with the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Katowice. From 1965 he played with the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw. In both orchestras he was the principal cellist. He also played chamber music with the Silesian Trio and later in the Soloists of theWarsaw Philharmonic ensemble, which went on many tours and made a number of recordings. As a soloist Kazimierz Michalik performed with many orchestras and conductors, among others Jan Krenz, Zygmunt Latoszewski, Bogusław Madey, Vaclav Neumann, and Marek Pijarowski. Kazimierz Michalik began teaching in 1974. He was a professor of cello at the Frederic Chopin MusicAcademy inWarsaw. He was alsoVice President of the Academy, responsible for artistic productions, and held the post of the Chair of String Department. He is often invited to teach abroad as a visiting professor. He has taught at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki from 1989 to 1991 and at Keimyung University in Daegu in 1995 and from 2000 till 2002. He taught many master classes in Poland, Finland, Germany, Yugoslavia, Spain, and Korea. For the last twenty years he teaches also at the SummerAcademy in Żagań of which he is a cofounder. Kazimierz Michalik, co-founder and Juror of the Witold Lutosławski International Cello Competition in Warsaw is also often invited to the juries of national and international competitions. Apart from numerous Polish competitions he has been a Jury member for the Bach Competition in Leipzig, the Prague Spring Festival Competition, the Competition in Markneukirchen, the Gaspar Cassado International Violoncello Competition in Tokyo, Beijing International Music Competition and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Many of his past and present students won prizes in national and international competitions, and many of them play now important roles in the music life in Poland and abroad, among them Andrzej Bauer,Tomasz Strahl, Piotr Janosik and Bartosz Koziak.