European Chamber Music Academy

European Chamber

Music Academy

Oslo Session 2015

Norwegian Academy of Music

9 – 13 April

Dear friends,

Welcome to five intensive days of sharing, learning and mu-sic making at the highest levels of artistic excellence. This year’s session features masterclasses, lectures and concerts with some of the best and most passionate advocates of chamber music in the education of young professionals. The programme reflects this commitment by exploring the many roles of Creativity in the development of classical music. We’re proud to welcome so many distinguished members of the ECMA community to Oslo, and wish you all a productive and thorougly enjoyable stay with us.

Peter Tornquist - Principal

Classical music appears as a synthesis of free, autonomous expression and strictly structured forms. The improvisational element has since the early 1900s been toned down in art music, but a new interest in improvisation is currently emer-ging throughout the music world. During this year’s ECMA gathering, with Beethoven’s works as the point of departure, we will explore the liberating aspects of improvisational per-formance. Among several prominent Norwegian musicians joining us this year, are the players of the Vertavo String Quar-tet, who established this high standing ensemble while study-ing with Hatto Beyerle nearly 30 year ago.

Are Sandbakken - Artistic director Oslo session

The Spirit of Creativity

Opening Concert

Thursday 9 April 07:30 pm Lindemansalen

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809):

String Quartet in C major, Op. 33 No. 3, Hob. III, No. 39 Allegro moderato

Allegretto, (scherzo) Adagio ma non troppo Rondo, (presto, finale) Mettis Quartet

Bèla Bartok (1881-1945):

String Quartet in a-minor, No. 2, Op. 17 Moderato

Allegro molto capriccioso Lento

Hanson Quartet Break

--Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Trio in E flat major, Op. 38

Adagio; Allegro con brio Adagio cantabile

Tempo di menuetto

Thema: Andante con variaizioni Scherzo: Allegro molto e vivace

Andante con moto alla Marcia; Presto Trio ClariNord

Final Concert

Franz Schubert (1797-1828):

String Quartet in C major, D 46 No. 4 Adagio – Allegro con moto

Andante con moto Menuetto. Allegro Allegro

Quartetto Testosterone

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Piano Trio in B major No. 1, Op. 8

Allegro con brio

Scherzo. Allegro molto Adagio Allegro Munich ARTISTrio

Concert

String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 76 No. 4, ”Sunrise” Allegro con spirito

Adagio

Menuetto: Allegro

Finale: Allegro ma non troppo Polychord Quartet

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827):

String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 18 No. 6 2. movement; Adagio ma non troppo Improvisation

Ergo Quartet Break

--Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Divertimento in E flat major, KV 563 Allegro Adagio Menuetto Andante Menuetto Allegro Boccherini Trio

Friday 10 April 3:00pm Levinsalen

Concert lecture: Beethoven and the Art of Improvisation Tor Espen Aspaas (piano)

Saturday 11 April 3:00pm

Levinsalen and Lindemansalen Improvisation workshop

Wolfgang Plagge (piano) and Henning Kraggerud (violin)

Sunday 12 April 3:00pm Levinsalen

Lecture: Chamber Musical Theater Sports Berit Cardas of the Vertavo String Quartet

Monday 13 April 3:00pm Levinsalen

Concert Presentation: Approaches to Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C# minor, Op. 131

by composer Nils Henrik Asheim

Vertavo String Quartet: Øyvor Volle and Annabelle Meare (violin), Berit Cardas (viola), Bjørg Lewis (cello)

Lectures

Masterclasses

Experience the Masters at Work

Masterclasses with the ECMA ensembles are held every day (Thursday - Monday) from about 9:30am till the afternoon. Avo Kouyoumdjian, Hatto Beyerle, Johannes Meissl, Elise Båtnes, Per Lundberg and Are Sandbakken will be giving masterclasses.

Detailes and schedule are available at the Academy. Open to the public.

Instructors & Lecturers

Hatto Beyerle

Viola

Hatto Beyerle is the founder and current artistic director of the Eu-ropean Chamber Music Academy ECMA. He is also artistic director of the Europäisches Kulturforum Grossraming in Austria.

As violist and chamber musician, Beyerle tours worldwide with the Vienna Soloists, the Alban Berg Quartet and the Vienna Chamber Ensemble. In addition to his perfor-ming activities he holds teaching posts in Vienna (MDW), Cincinnati (CCM), Hanover (HMTMH), Basel (MAB) and Fiesole (Florence) and is much in demand for master clas-ses in both viola and chamber music in Europe, Australia, Canada, China and the USA.

Among his present and former stu-dents are many prize winners of in-ternational competitions, including the Hagen Quartet, Artis Quartet, Wihan Quartet, Szymanowski Quar-tet, Iturriaga Quartet and Meta4 Quartet, the Quatuor Ysaye, Qua-tuor Debussy, QuaQua-tuor Manfred, the Quartetto di Cremona, the Trio Jean Paul and the Trio Ernest Chausson. Hatto Beyerle lives in Benthe, Ger-many.

Born in Beirut into a family of Arme-nian descent, Avedis Kouyoumdjian began his studies when he was 12 years old at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He was the youngest student at the time majoring in piano performance. Since winning first prize at the Sixth International Beethoven Competition in Vienna in 1981, Kouyoumdjian has enjoyed a successful and diverse ca-reer as performer, professor, director and administrator. He has performed in renowned concert halls in Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan, is a sought after jury member for major international competitions and gives master classes at numer-ous universities in Europe and Japan. His recordings are testament to his artistry as a pianist and a chamber musician.

In 1997 he was appointed Professor

of Piano and Chamber Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He is founder of the International Joseph Haydn Cham-ber Music Competition at the same university and, in 2002, became the co-founder and director of the Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Institute at the university. Since the summer of 2004, he has been Artistic Director of the International Piano Festival at St.-Ursanne in Switzerland.

Avedis Kouyoumdjian

Piano

Johannes Meissl

Violin

Johannes Meissl is professor for string chamber music and vice director of the Joseph Haydn Institut for Chamber Music at Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts. Artistic director of isa (International Summer Academy Prague-Vienna-Budapest), he also gives masterclasses at numerous renowned schools and summer academies such as CNSM Paris, Guildhall School of Music and Drama London, Tokyo Geidai and Casals Festival Prades, to name a few. Born in Austria, J. Meissl studied at A. Bruckner-Conservatory Linz ( violin and composition ) and at the Academy of Music in Vienna with W. Schneider-han and G. Hetzel and got strong artistic impulses by Hatto Beyerle. He gradu-ated with distinction and special award. In 1982 he joined the Artis Quartet. As a member of this ensemble he took the opportunity for further studies with the LaSalle Quartet in the USA. After several prizes at international competitions the

quartet became a regular at the world’s most important music centres and fes-tivals from New York to Tokyo. Numer-ous prizes for more than 30 recordings (such as Grand Prix du Disque, Diapa-son d’Or, Deutscher Schallplattenpreis Echo etc.), and the “Artis series” at the Gesellschaft d. Musikfreunde in Vienna, now running its 19th season, also prove the international position of the quartet. Beside the quartet work J. Meissl ap-pears in recitals and as a soloist and at numerous chamber music festivals. J. Meissl is co-initiator of numerous international projects in the field of chamber music and shares with Hatto Beyerle the function of artistic director of ECMA.

Having done regular coaching with sev-eral orchestras and youth orchestras for many years he has recently sucessfully taken up conducting.

Elise Båtnes

Violin

Per Lundberg

Piano

Elise Båtnes began playing the violin at the age of four, and made her de-but four years later as a soloist to-gether with the Trondheim Sympho-ny Orchestra. She performed with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time at the age of 10 in 1981, as a soloist in a children’s concert with Mariss Jansons conducting. In 1982 she performed once again as a solo-ist with Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra during the performance of Vivaldi’s double concerto. She has since per-formed as a soloist with all of the Norwegian symphony orchestras, as well as in numerous other countries. Today she has the position of First Concert Master in the Oslo Philhar-monic Orchestra and her concert ac-tivity also includes solo performanc-es under recognised conductors and orchestras abroad. She has previous-ly held the position of Concert Mas-ter in Denmark’s Radio Symphony

Orchestra for a total of nine years, as well as the Westdeutsche Rundfunk Sinfornieorchester, in Cologne. In addition to symphony music, Bårnes has considerable experience playing chamber music, and has per-formed at many festivals and cham-ber music festivals; among them the Bergen International Festival, the Oslo, Risør and Trondheim Chamber Music Festivals and the ICMF in Sta-vanger. In these settings she often performs with famous Norwegian pianists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Håvard Gimse and Sveinung Bjelland. Together with Håvard Gimse on the harpsichord, she recorded a CD in 2008 with music by Bela Bartok (Simax Classics).

Elise Båtnes performs on a A. Stradi-vari from 1689 (also called “Arditti”) on loan from The Savings Bank Foun-dation DNB / Dextra Musica.

Per Lundberg was born in Stockholm in 1962 but grew up in Norrköping. He studied at the Swedish Broadcast-ing Music School at Edsbergs castle in Sollentuna (1979-82) and at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstel-lende Kunst in Vienna (1982-85) where he gained his soloist’s diploma 1985.

Per Lundberg is internationally ac-tive as both soloist and chamber mu-sician. He has performed with some of the major Swedish symphony orchestras such as Göteborg, Helsing-borg, Norrköping symphony orches-tra and Chamber orchesorches-tra Musica Vitae Växjö.

He was the first Swede to perform the Lutoslawski piano concerto to-gether with Göteborg’s symphony orchestra. The concert was recorded live by the Swedish Radio.

Per Lundberg is a member of the Swedish piano trio, Trio Poseidon, together with Sara Trobäck, first concertmaster of the Göteborg Sym-phony Orchestra and Claes Gunnars-son, solo cellist of the Göteborg Sym-phony Orchestra.

Per Lundberg is represented on the Labels BIS, Chandos and SoloMusica. He is one of the organizers of the suc-cessful Lyckå Chamber Music Festival that had its 30th anniversary celebra-tions in 2013.

Per Lundberg holds the position of professor of chamber music and accompaniment tat the Norwegian academy of Music in Oslo and the Royal Academy of Music in Stock-holm, Edsberg.

Are Sandbakken

Viola

Are Sandbakken studied with Leif Jørgensen in Oslo and Sándor Vegh in Salzburg. For several years he played principal viola with Camerata Aca-demica Salzburg and The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. From 1995 to 2002 he was principal viola of the Oslo Philharmonic under Mariss Jan-sons. He performed as soloist with this orchestra on numerous occasions, as well as with other Nordic orches-tras. Since 2003 he has been professor of chamber music at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

In 1991 Sandbakken was among the founding members of the Oslo String Quartet, which today is regarded as one of the most outstanding and innovative string quartets in northern Europe. The quartet performs regu-larly at leading European festivals and their recordings of Scandinavian

repertoire (Grieg, Sibelius, Stenham-mar and contemporary works) for the labels Naxos and CPO have received outstanding reviews in the internatio-nal press. The quartet’s recordings of the Nielsen string quartets were Edi-tors Choice in Gramophone magazine in 1999.

Oslo String Quartet is especially de-dicated to alternative concert forms. Their children’s concerts, where Are Sandbakken has also performed as a singer and actor, have become very popular. In 2006 the quartet celebra-ted its 15th anniversary with perfor-mances of the complete Beethoven string quartets in a series entitled The Beethoven Code. Are Sandbakken plays a viola by Mattio Goffriller of 1729, on loan from Dextra Musica.

Tor Espen Aspaas

Piano

Tor Espen Aspaas is one of the most distinguished pianists and music communicators of his generation in Norway. In 2006 he was appointed professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music. In addition to his teaching duties, he is presently researching the role of improvisation in the creative processes and works of Beethoven. Aspaas gained his postgraduate solo-ist’s diploma from the Academy in 1996 and gave a critically acclaimed debut recital in Oslo the follow-ing year. He has received numerous grants and awards, and he has ap-peared as soloist with international orchestras, as well as with all major Norwegian symphony orchestras. In 2011 Aspaas gave the first perfor-mance of O.A. Thommessen’s Third Piano Concerto, commissioned by Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to recitals and worldwide concert tours, Aspaas is regularly invited to festivals and concert series in Norway and abroad. In the autumn of 2010, Aspaas received attention for his performances of the complete collection of Debussy’s 24 Preludes, and in March 2013 he made his US debut with a solo recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Tor Espen Aspaas has a comprehen-sive discography, including critically acclaimed solo CDs of works by Bee-thoven, Schönberg, Berg and Webern, as well as the complete piano works by Paul Dukas.

Aspaas was one of the founders of the Røros Winter Chamber Music Festival and served as its first artistic director from 1999-2008 in addition to pro-gramming the festival of 2014.

Berit Cardas

Viola

The Vertavo

Quartet

Berit Cardas studied violin with Leif Jørgensen, Oslo, Jens Ellermann in Hannover and with Almita and Ro-land Vamos in Minneapolis. Other great influences where the string quartet teachers Norbert Brainin and Hatto Beyerle.

As a founder member of the Vertavo Quartet, chamber music has always been Cardas’ musical passion and she has performed in the major halls of America, Europe and Australia. The quartet celebrated 25 years together in 2009.

The Vertavo has received several prizes, among them the 1st prize, Audience’s prize, Critic’s prize and the Radio listener’s Award in the Melbourne International Chamber Music competition 1995, as well as 1st prize in the Nordic Chamber Mu-sic Competition 1997 and the Grieg Prize of Norway 2005.

Cardas has been a leader of the Norwegian Chamber orchestra, and performed as a soloist with major Scandinavian orchestras.

She is also a renowned pedagog in and has great success with a cham-ber music teaching method that in-cludes theatre sport, improvisations and huge amounts of humour.

Among Berit Cardas ambitions is letting as many children as possible get the chance to experience music making on a high level. This has led to developing school programs for exercising listening to classical mu-sic, as well as gotten her involved in a unique “violins for everyone” project, with sixty eight year olds playing the violin.

Cardas plays a beautiful Lorenzo Sto-riono violin from around 1770, which is lent to her by Dextra Musica.

The Vertavo Quartet is internationally recognised as one of the most masterful string quartets playing today. Since their formation in Norway in 1984, their dynamic and deeply thoughtful perfor-mances have captivated audiences. In June 2005, the quartet was honoured with the Grieg-Prize: a prize bestowed on artists of high international standing. Vertavo now play at all the major con-cert venues in the world. They tour ex-tensively throughout Europe and also in Japan and the US. Their last US tour in-cluded performances at Stanford Lively Arts, Chamber Music in Napa Valley and Lincoln Center. In the past year, tours and concerts have also taken them to Norway, Spain, Mexico, Sweden, Poland, the US and the UK. They gave concerts at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Barbi-can, London; Kings Place, London and in last year’s celebration of Benjamin Brit-ten’ s centenary, Vertavo were invited to play at the Aldeburgh Festival 2013.

Collaboration also plays an integral role in the Vertavo Quartet’s concert life; they have formed partnerships with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leif Ove Andsnes, Lambert Orkis, Steven Kova-cevich, Håkan Hardenberger, Martin Fröst, Sabine Meyer, Isabelle van Keu-len and Paul Lewis.

Vertavo have always had a great af-finity for contemporary music. They have given commanding performances of works by Ligeti, Adès, Widmann, Gabriela Frank and works by con-temporary Nordic composers such as Nørgård, Edlund and Asheim. In March 2013 to great critical acclaim, they gave the world premiere of Poul Ruders’s 4th String Quartet at a major festival of Danish and Finnish composers at the Barbican Hall in London.

Vertavo Quartet are Artistic Directors of the Elverum Summer Music Festival in Norway.

Wolfgang Plagge

Piano/Composer

Wolfgang Plagge showed an early in-terest in classical music, playing the piano and composing from the age of four. At the age of ten he won an international talent competition on British television. He completed his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg.

Wolfgang Plagge is active as a per-former all over the world and is a sought-after chamber musician. He has performed as soloist with numer-ous orchestras and collaborated with many prominent musicians.

His first compositions were publis-hed when he was 12. Since then he has developed into a mature, original and versatile creative artist with a considerable body of work behind him. His work includes liturgical sic, symphonies, chamber music, mu-sic for solo piano, and several works for woodwind and brass chamber music ensembles.

He has long had a love of the ancient music of Northern Europe, and many

of his works have grown out of his researches into early medieval Nor-wegian music.

Ever since his student days, the phenomenon of time has been an important component of his music: observations on and studies of the course of time, manipulation of the sense of time and the use of time as a formal element are essential factors in his creative process.

Wolfgang Plagge’s music is perfor-med by musicians, ensembles and orchestras all over the world, and his reputation as a composer is steadily growing.

Henning Kraggerud

Violin

Norwegian violinist Henning Krag-gerud is an artist of exquisite musician-ship, who combines an unusually sweet tone and beauty of expression with impressive virtuosity. Kraggerud per-forms at a high level throughout Europe and North America, and is increasingly in demand in a play/direct capacity. Highlights of the current season in-clude Kraggerud’s debut with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at New York’s Carnegie Hall, concerts with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Seat-tle Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In the UK, Krag-gerud tours with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and returns to the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Maintaining a busy diary of European engagements, Kraggerud continues to work exten-sively in his native Scandinavia where he enjoys special relationships with several of the major orchestras. An experienced chamber musician, Kraggerud’s most frequent

collabora-tors include Christian Ihle Hadland, Truls Mørk and Lars Anders Tomter. This season includes a tour of UK and US festivals with Piotr Andersze-wski, including recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and New York’s Zankel Hall, and an appearance at the Verbier Festival where Kraggerud performs chamber music with Joshua Bell among others.

Born in Oslo in 1973, Kraggerud stud-ied with Camilla Wicks, Emanuel Hur-witz and Stephan Barratt-Due. He is a recipient of Norway’s prestigious Grieg Prize. In 2007 he was awarded the Si-belius Prize for his interpretations and recording of Sibelius’ music throughout the world. Henning is a Professor at the Barratt-Due Music Conservatoire in Oslo. From 2011 onwards he is co-shar-ing the artistic directorship of Norway’s Risør Chamber Music Festival.

Henning Kraggerud plays on a 1744 Guarneri del Gesu, provided by Dextra Musica.

Participating Ensembles

ECMA Session 2015

in alphabetical order

Boccherini Trio

Suyeon Kang – Violin Florian Peelman – Viola Paolo Bonomini – Cello

The Boccherini Trio was formed just over a year ago, as a result of various evening sight-reading sessions that frequent the Berlin music scene. Since their formation they have received coaching from Guenter Pichler and Na-tascha Prischenpenko, and have per-formed in numerous venues in Europe. Though a fledgling group, the trio has already received magnificent reviews of their performances.

As individuals, the musicians of the trio are active in a variety of fields of mu-sic, and are passionate in their solistic, chamber and orchestral endeavours. Suyeon Kang is a prizewinner at numer-ous international violin competitions, and has collaborated with Stephen Isserlis, Christian Teztlaff, etc. She is cur-rently a Konzertexamen student under Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule fuer Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin.

Florian Peelman is a graduate of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in

Brus-sels as well as the Hanns Eisler Musik-hochschule in Berlin, having previously also studied in Finland and England. As a thoroughly sought out chamber musician he has worked with Marie Hallynk, Ronald Brautigham, etc. His orchestral experience includes two years as principal viola of the Brussels Chamber Orchestra, and he substitutes regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Paolo Bonomini has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras. His various chamber music performances has taken him throughout Europe alongside art-ists such as Giovanni Sollima and Salva-tore Accardo. Currently studying under Jens Peter Maintz (Berlin), he was a former student of Antonio Meneses in Bern. He has received the Diploma of merit several times at the Accademia Chigiana summer course in Siena. In 2014 Paolo started a part time collabo-ration with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

The Hanson Quartet is founded in 2012 by four students of the Con-servatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP). Formed by Anton Hanson, Jules Dussap

(violins), Gabrielle Lafait (viola) and Simon Dechambre, they are currently studying in masters under prof. Jean Sulem (Rosamunde Quartet) in Paris, and have attended regularly master-classes with members of the Ebene quartet, Claire Desert, Christophe Giovaninetti.

In 2014, they played with Jean Sulem in quintet, and in festivals of the IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic/Music) and La Roque d’Anthéron where they per-formed in piano quartet and quintet.

The Hanson Quartet is now mem-ber of the European Chammem-ber Music Academy since 2014 and residents of the Singer-Polignac Foundation in 2015.

Hanson

Quartet

Mettis

Quartet

Metis is ancient Greek mythological figure, Oceanid from the Titans’ gen-eration. The Greek word metis meant quality that combined wisdom, cun-ning and skills.

“Mettis” string quartet was founded in 2011, professors’ Augustinas Vasi-liauskas class of Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LAMT).

“Mettis” regularly participates in masterclasses: ECMA sessions in Vilnius and Grossraming, now Oslo, also ISA’12 and ISA`14 summer acad-emies (Reichenau, Austria). In ISA’12 quartet got awarded Vienna‘s univer-sity of Arts Joseph Haydn institute prize. In 2012 December they have won the 1st place and special prize in XII international Lithuanian

cham-ber music performance competition in Vilnius and also were selected to represent the academy in Harmos‘13 festival (Porto, Portugal).

In 2013 May “Mettis” have partici-pated in European Festival of Music Academies (EFAM). In 2013 June quartet was invited to take part in 49th Chamber music festival of Plov-div (Bulgaria). In 2014 August they took part in ISA’14 masterclasses where they got awarded two prizes – chamber music and Gottfried von Einem foundation prize for outstand-ing interpretation of composers’ string quartet.

Since 2014 September “Mettis” are members of ECMA.

Anton Hanson – Violin Jules Dussap – Violin Gabrielle Lafait – Viola Simon Dechambre – Cello

Kostas Tumosa – Violin

Bernardas Petrauskas – Violin Karolis Rudokas – Viola

Polychord

Quartet

Munich

ARTISTrio

Munich ARTISTrio is an ensemble founded by pianist Katharina Khodos (Ukraine/Germany) and Slovenian sib-lings Maruša and Matjaž Bogataj. Upon successful completion of solo

master studies, they finished their chamber music master degree in July 2014 under the

guidance of Michael Schäfer (piano) and Wen-Sinn Yang (cello), at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with highest distinction. They recorded Ravel’s Trio in A Minor for RTV Slovenia, and Bavarian nation-al radio recorded their live concerts of Ravel, Brahms (B-major) and Schubert’s Piano Trio in B-flat major.

At the 14th competition ACM Trio di Trieste in September 2013, Munich

ARTISTrio was the only piano trio in the finals and eventually won the 2. prize. The trio is also member of the foundation LIVE MUSIC NOW in Munich.

The trio regularly elaborates and works with renowned musicians such as Bru-no CaniBru-no, Ana Chumachenko, Silvia Marcovici, Friedemann Berger.

The group has so far given concerts in Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Polychord Quartet was found in 2014 by students of Hochschule der Künste Bern in Switzerland. Al-though all four members come from different countries (Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Spain) and different musical environments, their mutual passion to chamber music has re-sulted in forming a new string quar-tet.

Each one of them has a great experi-ence in performing chamber music on stage.

For the last five years all of the members of Polychord Quartet have worked with each other on many occasions in several formations but it was not until the last year when they have decided to create a string

quartet together. Their common de-votion to chamber music has already resulted in very successful perfor-mances in Switzerland.

Mateusz Smól – Violin I

Dmitry Serebrennikov – Violin II Vladimir Paulen – Viola

Eric Abeijón – Cello Matjaž Bogataj – Violin

Maruša Bogataj – Cello Katharina Khodos – Piano

Trio ClariNord

Quartetto

Testosterone

Quartetto Testosterone is a string quar-tet based at The Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. After its foundation in 2008, the quartet has specialized in playing works by twentieth-century composers. In addition to this the quartet also frequently performs tradi-tional quartet repertoire.

The quartet has studied with prof. of chamber music at The Norwegian Academy of Music, Are Sandbakken (Oslo String Quartet), in addition to lessons with amongst others Lars Anders Tomter and Andrew Manze. Quartetto Testosterone has since 2013 participated in ECMA-sessions in Oslo, Vienna and Fiesole and received valu-able input from teachers such as Hatto Beyerle, Johannes Meissl, Avedis Kouy-oumdjian, Ferenc Rados and Shmuel Ashkenasi.

The quartet has in recent years

per-formed at scenes and festivals such as Oslo Quartet Series, Harmos festival (Portugal) and Risør Chamber Music Festival. In 2011, QT was awarded 1st prize in the Norwegian National Youth Music Competition.

The quartet has cooperated in concert with musicians and composers from different genres including Tor Espen Aspaas, Håvard Gimse, Stian Carstens-en and MortCarstens-en Gaathaug. The quartet has also had an active collaboration with composition students at the Nor-wegian Academy of Music.

The members study for their Master’s degrees at The Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, Edsberg Manor, Stockholm and the Norwegian Acad-emy of Music.

Emilio Borghesan – Clarinet Paula Cuetta – Cello

Jie Zhang – Piano

Formed in 2012, Trio ClariNord is a clarinet trio consisting of clarinetist Emilio Borghesan, cellist Paula Cuesta, and pianist Jie Zhang.

Trio ClariNord is the first chamber music group with a wind player to be accepted to the European Chamber Mu-sic Academy. ClariNord has studied with renowned pedagogues Hatto Beyerle, Johannes Meissl, Avedis Kouyoumdjian, Ferenc Rados, Per Lundberg, Are Sandb-akken and Håvard Gimse.

Trio ClariNord is working actively with contemporary composers to expand the repertoire for clarinet trio. Our two first commissions are from the leading Norwegian composers Jon Øivind Ness and Gisle Kverndokk.

Trio ClariNord performs frequently in Norway and abroad. In 2014-2015, the trio has played concerts in Norway,

Aus-tria, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic and in Wigmore Hall in London.

In spring 2015 Trio ClariNord will re-cord a cd of music by Beethoven, Früh-ling, and Ness with LAWO Classics. The three members of Trio ClariNord are all current students or alumni of the Norwegian Academy of Music. Clarinet-ist Emilio Borghesan came to Norway in 2011 and has played frequently with the Oslo Philharmonic. Pianist Jie Zhang has performed with all the major sym-phonies in Norway, and in 2010 she was the first foreigner to win the Princess Astrid Music Prize. Cellist Paula Cuesta has participated in the Verbier Music Festival, and she won first prize in the Alexander and Buono International String Competition and subsequently performed in Carnegie Hall.

Daniel Lyngstad – Violin

Sondre Fjose Sandberg – Violin Jakob Dingstad – Viola

ECMA - European Chamber Music Academy - is recognized as the number one ”talent factory” for European chamber music ensembles. ECMA is dedicated to promoting young, aspiring, elite ensembles, thus promoting the tradition and development of European chamber music. It has charitable status and its activities are non-profit-making.

ECMA was founded in 2004 on the initiative of Hatto Beyerle. It is an association of European music universi-ties, conservatoires and festivals which work together to provide on-going training for chamber music ensembles. Within this program the partner institutions host regular week-long sessions. Renowned tutors work intensively with ensembles who receive guidance and inspiration for their artistic work. ECMA also holds lectures and focus workshops in, for example, cultural history and historical performance, practice and philosophy. Furthermore ECMA naturally develops new networks by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures.

ecma-music.com

ECMA -

The European Spirit

The Norwegian Academy of Music, based in Oslo, offers the highest level of education for performers and composers, pedagogues and music therapists and is an artistic and creative centre providing research within various fields of music.

The Academy offers a variety of high quality courses at all levels and is Oslo’s biggest concert producer presenting approximately 400 concerts a year.

The Norwegian Academy of Music is a specialised univer-sity with 600 students, and offers both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. We have a permanent staff of 130 teachers, both academic and artistic, and a number of auxi-liary part-time teachers.

The Academy has 15 research fellow positions and in ad-dition admits candidates with external funding. The Aca-demy has 9 artistic research fellows at present.

nmh.no

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The Norwegian

Norwegian Academy of Music Slemdalsveien 11 PB 5190, Majorstua NO-0302 OSLO +47 23 36 70 00 post@nmh.no nmh.no

Session Organizers

ECMA Partners

Austria - Vienna - mdw - Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Austria - Grafenegg - Grafenegg Kulturbetriebsgesellschaft m.b.H. France - Paris - Conservatoire national supérieur de musique

Italy - Fiesole - Scuola di Musica di Fiesole – Fondazione Onlus Lithuania - Vilnius - Lietuvos muzikos ir teatro akademija Norway - Oslo - Norges musikkhøgskole

Switzerland - Bern - Hochschule der Künste

United Kingdom - Manchester - Royal Northern College of Music Cooperating partners

Austria - Großraming - Europäisches Kulturforum Großraming

Austria - Horn - Allegro Vivo Kammermusik Festival Austria - Vienna - isa - International Summer

Academy of the mdw

France - Prades - Festival Pablo Casals United Kingdom - London - Wigmore Hall