Displaying a dazzling combination of technical brilliance and a uniquely profound musical personality, Hagai Shaham is internationally recognized as one of the astonishing young violinists who have emerged from Israel in recent years. Hagai Shaham began studying the violin at age of six and was the last student of the late renowned Professor Ilona Feher. He also studied with Elisha Kagan, Emanuel Borok, Arnold Steinhardt and the Guarneri Quartet.
In September 1990, Hagai Shaham and his duo partner, Arnon Erez, won the first prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in the Violin-Piano duo category, the first competitors to be awarded this coveted first prize since 1971. His other awards include first prizes at the Ilona Kornhouser competition, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority Young Artist competition, The Tel-Aviv Rubin Academy competition, four Clairmont Awards, and annual scholarship from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation.
As a soloist he has performed with many of the world’s major orchestras, including the English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique Francais, Taipei, Singapore and SHanghai Symphony Orchestras, SWF Baden-Baden Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. In 1985 he was invited to join Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman in a gala concert at Carnegie Hall, following which Zubin Mehta invited him to perform Brahms’ Double Concerto at Carnegie Hall.
In 2006 he performed once again this work under Mehta, at the Isrel Philharmonic 70th anniversary’s celebrations with cellist Misha Maisky.
Hagai Shaham is in great demand as recitalist. He regularly tours throughout Europe, North and Central America and performing at international recital series and festivals.
Hagai Shaham recorded for Decca International, Chandos, Biddulph, Naxos, Classic Talent and AVIE. He records regularly for Hyperion, where his CDs received critical acclaim.
Hagai Shaham is faculty member of the Thornton School of Music at USC, Los Angeles His Master Classes in Europe and Israel attract many students.
Together with his colleague, violinist Ittai Shapira, he is co-founder of The Ilona Feher Foundation.
“Stereotypical playing is definitely not his cup of tea, the evening showed how he can fulfil his Musicality with Inspiration and strength of Imagination.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Hartmut Rohde was, in 1993, appointed a professorship at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, he also teaches at the Royal Academy of Music London, where, as a visiting professor and Honorary Member, he regularly gives Chamber Music and solo viola master classes. Hartmut Rohde is a founding member of the Mozart Piano Quartet, which for many years has been regarded as one of the world’s leading Piano Chamber Music ensembles. He was a student in Vienna and Hannover, under the guidance of Hatto Beyerle.
Through recognition in various Competitions (1st prize in the Deutschen Musikwettbewerb, the “Konzerte junger Künstler” program in 1990 and prize-winner in the International Naumburg Competition in New York, 1991) Hartmut Rohde’s performing career has blossomed to be intense and richly international. Tours as a soloist and also later with his Chamber Ensembles, have taken him to the USA, Canada, Australia, Asia, the CIS and throughout all parts of Europe. Hartmut Rohde’s main interests lie in the Historic analysis of various musical styles, the application of the rhetorical musical language of the Baroque period and the progression of the Classical into the Romantic era. New perspectives and experiences in the discussion of music serve as a basis for his unique style of interpretation. In 1991 he presented his arrangement of B. Bartok’s Viola Concerto, to which further changes were made in 2010 in preparation for the Premiere in Baden-Baden. In addition, he was the Soloist chosen for the first performance of Franz Beyer’s version of the Viola Concerto from F.A. Hoffmeister.
As a soloist Hartmut Rohde has performed, among others, with the Staatkapelle Weimar, the Beethovenhalle of Bonn, the Bremer Philharmoniker, NDR Hannover, the Nordwestdeutschen Philharmonie Rostock, the Lithuanian Philharmonic, the Philharmonie Baden-Baden and the Kapellsolisten of Dresden. In Haydn’s commemorative year, 2009, D.Geringas, J-P. Maintz and H. Rohde toured Germany, Poland, the USA and Italy with the “Baritone Trios” originally composed for Prince Esterházy. For the Season 2011/2012, a program including works from Sándor Veress, L.v. Beethoven and Vladimir Mendelssohn is in motion, as well as Trio tours with Michel Lethiec and Jeremy Menuhin. In 2011, two CD recordings of Classic and Romantic Viola Concertos are planned. 2011 also brings Viviane Hagner, Latica Honda-Rosenberg, Hartmut Rohde and Jens-Peter Maintz together to create the newly formed Joachim Quartett Berlin, a string-quartet which feeds from the immense tradition of the old Joachim Quartet from 1869. Among others he is guest conductor of the Wroclaw Chamber Orchestra LEOPOLDINUM.
As a much sought after chamber musician, he has played with Heinrich Schiff, Itamar Golan, David Geringas, Lars Vogt, Daniel Hope, Janine Jansen, Pascal Devoyon, Frans Helmerson, Michel Lethiec, Nobuko Imaii, Antje Weithaas, Jörg Widmann, Jérémy Menuhin, Peter Hoerr, J-P. Maintz, the Tallich- Quartett, Vogler-Quartett, Vermeer-Quartett. Always being open to new possibilities of conveying the language of music is an important aspect of life for him, which is what led Hartmut Rohde also to work in the spheres of Modern Music with such composers as Aribert Reimann, Wolfgang Rihm, Kristof Maratka, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jörg Widmann and Brett Dean.
Kent Nagano, Georg Alexander Albrecht, Paavo Järvi, Massimo Zanetti, Christoph Prick, Juozas Domarkas , Pavel Baleff and Michael Sanderling are just some of the many conductors with whom he has worked, in such venues as the Berliner Festspiele, Salzburger Festspiele, Ravinia-Festival (Chicago), Oleg-Kagan Festival, Braunschweiger Kammermusikpodium, “Spannungen” Heimbach, Concert du Louvre (Paris), Mahler-Festspiele Toblach (Italy) and Festival Pablo Casals (France), Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Kumho Asiana Festival in Seoul, Beethoven Easter festival Warschau, Kronberg Academy, International Jerusalem Music Festival, Kuhmo Festival and West Cork Music Festival Bantry.
Alongside many Radio recordings with large international broadcasting companies, Hartmut’s CD-recording portfolio has become substantial including recordings with EMI classics, Decca, BMG/Sony, Musikproduktion Dabringhaus + Grimm, Naxos and also the Freiburg Musikforum. In 2003 Hartmut Rohde received the renowned Echo-Classic-Prize and in 2004 the Supersonic Award.
Eminent in the Teaching world, he often gives Master classes in Europe, the USA, Australia and Asia. His students have won prizes in various international solo and chamber-music competitions and hold a number of important orchestral positions including with the Berlin and Munich Philharmonic, Staatsoper Berlin, BBC London, HR and Semperoper Dresden. Since 1997 he is the artistic director of the International Max-Rostal-Competition for Violin and Viola, Berlin, and jury member of many well known competitions such as the International ARD Competition in Munich and the Tertis Viola Competition on the Isle of Mann. Since 2010 He works for the publishers PARTITURA and Hofmeister Publishing Leipzig as a publisher and editor.
Hartmut Rohde plays on instruments from Michael Ledfuss (2002) and a Giuseppe Fiorini (1899).
Tanja Becker-Bender was early on awarded top prizes at the international competitions in Geneva, Tokyo, Houston, Gorizia and Genoa. As a soloist, she performes under the baton of Kurt Masur, Gerd Albrecht, Lothar Zagrosek, Uriel Segal, Fabio Luisi, Hartmut Haenchen, Hubert Soudant, Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi and Carlos Miguel Prieto with renowned orchestras such as the Tokyo Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, and Houston Symphony, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart of the SWR, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, and the Vienna, Zurich and Prague Chamber orchestras, as well as the English Chamber Orchestra. She is a regular guest at international chamber music festivals.
Her latest CDs for Hyperion Records – Paganini “24 Capricci“, Schulhoff Works for Violin and Piano, Reger Violin Concerto, Respighi Works for Violin and Piano – were awarded numerous distinctions by the international press (Editor’s Choice, Gramophone and Classic FM, Disc of the Month, BBC Music Magazine, “Outstanding Award”, International Record Review, “Star of the Month”, Fonoforum). Working with contemporary composers is of special importance to her, leading to collaborations with Peter Ruzicka, Cristóbal Halffter, Peteris Vasks and Michael Gielen, as well as premieres of works by Alexander Goehr, Rolf Hempel and Benedict Mason. During this season, a CD of the Hindemith Sonatas will be released, played together with pianist Péter Nagy, and performances or recordings of Concertos by Strauss, Busoni and Ligeti will be a special focus.
Tanja Becker-Bender studied with the leading quartet musicians of the world, with Wilhelm Melcher (Melos Quartet) in Stuttgart, with Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet) in Vienna, and with Rober Mann (Juilliard String Quartet) in New York. Important impulses came through Eberhard Feltz and Ferenc Rados.
Already in 2006, she was appointed professor at the University of Music in Saarbruecken, and since 2009, she has been teaching as a professor at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg.
In 1958 at age 12, Régis Pasquier was awarded the First Prize for violin and chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Two years later, he went to the United States to give a recital in New York. This was a decisive year because he met Isaac Stern, David Oistrakh, Pierre Fournier, Nadia Boulanger and Zino Francescatti who heard him play, was impressed by his talents and a few years later requested his collaboration to record Bach’s Concerto for two violins. From that moment Régis Pasquier entered the very exclusive circle of great violinists of world fame. He performs with the greatest orchestras, particularly in the United States with the Cleveland Philharmonic conducted by the eminent George Szell.
His art has been acclaimed and rewarded in France with numerous prizes among which the Académie du Disque Français Prize, the Georges Enesco Prize and the Charles Cros Prize in 1988. In 1985, he was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Professor of violin and chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Régis Pasquier has made numerous concertos and chamber music recordings, notably Prokofiev sonatas for violin and piano with Pascal Rogé, Prokofiev violin concertos with the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Paganini’s 24 Caprices, Berg and Bartók violin concertos. His recording of Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano has won the Victoires de la musique. Recent releases include Mozart violin concertos.
Régis Pasquier is regularly invited abroad to Japan, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, South America and the United States.
Régis Pasquier is also well known as a chamber musician of a rare sensibility. The Piano Trio which he founded with Jean-Claude Pennetier and Roland Pidoux belongs to the world’s most praised chamber music groups. He plays a magnificent violin by Joseph Guarnerius (del Gesù), Cremona 1734.
Arto Noras is one of Finland’s most celebrated instrumentalists and amongst the most outstanding internationally acknowledged cellists of his generation. After completing his studies at the prestigious Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, he studied with Paul Tortelier at the Paris Conservatoire where he gained the coveted Premier Prix Diploma in 1964. Two years later, he was awarded second prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, which immediately opened his way to the most important concert halls in Europe and both North and South America where he has performed regularly ever since.
Arto Nora’s repertoire covers all the principal works that have been written for his instrument, including those by contemporary composers, and he has recorded extensively for the Finlandia recording label. In 1970 Noras was appointed Professor of Cello at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and he teaches also at the University for Music and Theater in Hamburg. Noras has served as a jurist for some of the most important music competitions in the world, including the Tchaikovsky, Casals and Cassadó competitions. He can be heard as a most distinguished chamber musician as a member of the Helsinki Trio and as a founder member of the Sibelius Academy Quartet as well as with several other groups of similarly distinguished musicians.
In 1980, Arto Noras founded the Naantali Music Festival, Finland, and he is still the Artistic Manager. He also founded in 1991 and remains the Artistic Director of the Paulo International Cello Competition.
Displaying a dazzling combination of technical brilliance and a uniquely profound musical personality, Hagai Shaham is internationally recognized as one of the astonishing young violinists who have emerged from Israel in recent years. Hagai Shaham began studying the violin at age of six and was the last student of the late renowned Professor Ilona Feher. He also studied with Elisha Kagan, Emanuel Borok, Arnold Steinhardt and the Guarneri Quartet.
