Lisa Batiashvili
Violin

“Batiashvili’s fearless playing is so tonally rich and technically immaculate.” (The Guardian)

Lisa Batiashvili, the Georgian-born German violinist, is praised by audiences and fellow musicians for her virtuosity. An award-winning artist, she has developed long-standing relationships with the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and musicians.

Batiashvili is the Artistic Director of Audi Sommerkonzerte, Ingolstadt. For the 2020 festival, she originally designed a programme to celebrate the festival’s 30th anniversary year, as well as Beethoven year 2020 under the motto ‘Lights of Europe’. Due to the global pandemic, an adjusted version with streamed concerts under the motto ‘Together for Music’ featured Lisa and other leading musicians, sending out a strong message of solidarity and adaptability.

Lisa Batiashvili regularly appears on stage with orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa and Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Michael Barenboïm
Violin

Following this celebrated debut, he has since performed the Schoenberg concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim, the Chicago Symphony under Asher Fisch, the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, and the Berlin Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko. Michael regularly gives solo recitals in the world’s most prestigious concert halls, such as Wigmore Hall in London, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Sydney Opera House, and Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. He presented a program with works by Pierre Boulez in Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Opéra National de Paris, the Barbican Centre in London, the Dortmund Konzerthaus, and the Salzburg Festival.

As a member of the Boulez Ensemble, Michael has premiered numerous new works by composers such as Jörg Widmann, Kareem Rouston, and many others. He is a professor for violin and chamber music at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, and has since 2020 been the academy’s Dean. In addition, he and seven other selected members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra founded the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble in 2020 and were able to complete a 13-concert tour of the USA shortly before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Among Michael’s last solo performances before the lockdown were Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Robert Trevino and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel.

Michael Barenboim’s first solo album featured compositions by Bach and Bartók as well as Boulez’s Anthèmes 1 & 2. In 2018 there followed a CD with works by Tartini, Berio, Paganini, and Sciarrino. For Deutsche Grammophon, Michael has recorded the Mozart piano quartets and trios as well as the complete Beethoven piano trios – together with Kian Soltani and Daniel Barenboim.

Amihai Grosz
Viola

Amihai Grosz looks back on a very unusual career path: At first a quartet player (founding member of the Jerusalem Quartet), then and until today Principal Violist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and also a renowned soloist.

Initially, Amihai Grosz learned to play the violin, before switching to the viola at age 11. In Jerusalem, he was taught by David Chen, later by Tabea Zimmermann in Frankfurt and Berlin as well as in Tel Aviv by Haim Taub, who had a formative influence on him. At a very early age, he received various grants and prizes and was a member of the “Young Musicians Group” of the Jerusalem Music Center, a program for outstanding young musical talents.

As a soloist, Grosz has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Tugan Sokhiev, Klaus Mäkelä, Ariel Zukermann, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Alexander Vedernikov and Lionel Bringuier. He performs internationally with orchestras such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

In the world of chamber music, Amihai Grosz collaborates with artists such as Yefim Bronfman, Mitsuko Uchida, Daniel Hope & Friends, Eric le Sage, Janine Jansen & Friends, Julian Steckel, Daishin Kashimoto and David Geringas. Internationally, he can be heard regularly at the most prestigious concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Wigmore Hall in London and the Philharmonie Luxembourg, as well as at leading festivals including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Evian, Verbier and Delft Festivals, the BBC Proms and the Utrecht International Chamber Music Festival.

The highlights of the season 22/23 are concerts with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, performances with the Orchestra Del Teatro Massimo di Palermo & Omer Meir Wellber, the Filarmonica de Gran Canaria & Beatriz Fernandez and the Musikalische Akademie Mannheim & Ingo Metzmacher amongst others. In the winter of 2023 Amihai will be touring Japan extensively. Performances are planned with the NHK Symphony Orchestra & Tugan Sokhiev, play-lead with the Aichi Chamber Orchestra, as well as solo performances.

Under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle Amihai will perform the Martinu Viola Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In the upcoming summer 2023 Amihai will perform at the Verbier Festival the Sinfonia Concertante together with Janine Jansen and be involved in the festivals chamber music concerts.

As part of an important round of chamber music projects Amihai will return to perform at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Kammermusiksaal of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Collaborations and/or tours are planned together with with Emmanuel Pahud & Anneleen Lenaerts, the Modigliani Quartett & Nathalia Milstein and Made in Berlin.

The next recording to be released by Alpha Classic is the Bartok Viola Concerto together with the Orchestra National de Lille under the lead of Alexander Bloch. The release dates of this recording is to be announced at a later stage.

In the season of 21/22 Amihai Grosz has been appointed as Artistic Director of the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht

Amihai Grosz plays a Gaspar-da-Salò viola from the year 1570, which is a lifelong loan made available to him by a private collection.

Gautier Capuçon
Cello

Gautier Capuçon is a true 21st century ambassador for the cello. Performing internationally with many of the world’s foremost conductors and instrumentalists, he is also founder and leader of the ‘Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle’ at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and a passionate ambassador for the Orchestre à l’École Association, which brings classical music to more than 40,000 thousands school children across France. A multiple award winner, he is acclaimed for his expressive musicianship, exuberant virtuosity, and for the deep sonority of his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello “L’Ambassadeur”.

In summer 2020, mid-pandemic, Capuçon brought music directly into the lives of families across the length and breadth of France during his musical odyssey, ‘Un été en France’. He made a new edition of this project in summer 2021, taking 27 students along with him on the road for 19 concerts in a variety of towns and cities, showcasing both young musicians and young dancers within his concert presentations.

Committed to exploring and expanding the cello repertoire, Capuçon performs an extensive array of works each season and regularly premieres new commissions. His current projects include collaborations with Lera Auerbach, Richard Dubugnon, Danny Elfman and Thierry Escaich.

In the 2021/22 season Capuçon appears with, amongst others, the philharmonic orchestras of Vienna/Alain Altinoglu, Munich/Giedr? Šlekyt? and New York/Yu Long; the Concertgebouworkest/Myung-whun Chung, Cleveland Orchestra/Michael Tilson Thomas and Mariinsky/Valerie Gergiev. He is Artist-in-Residence at the Paris Philharmonie as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus. In addition, Capuçon plays at festivals worldwide, including the Enescu, Rostropovich, Prague Spring, St. Denis and Evian festivals.

As a chamber musician, he performs on tour with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Lisa Batiashvili in venues such as Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Tonhalle Zürich, Philharmonie Berlin, Herkulessaal der Residenz Munich and Philharmonie Paris. He also appears with Frank Braley, Jérôme Ducros, Nikolai Lugansky and Yuja Wang. Other regular recital partners include Nicholas Angelich, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Andreas Ottensamer, Daniil Trifonov, the Labèque sisters and the Artemis, Ébène and Hagen quartets. Throughout 2021/22, he performs solo recitals to celebrate his 40th birthday season.

Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon has won multiple awards and holds an extensive discography. His latest album Emotions (released in November 2020) shares music from composers such as Debussy, Schubert and Elgar and has since reached gold status in France, remaining at Number 1 in the charts for over 30 weeks and selling more than 50,000 copies. Earlier recordings include concertos by Shostakovich (The Mariinsky Orchestra/Valery Gergiev) and Saint-Saëns (Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Lionel Bringuier); the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley; Schubert’s String Quintet with the Ébène Quartet; Intuition with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris/Douglas Boyd and Jérôme Ducros; an album of Schumann works, recorded live with Martha Argerich, Renaud Capuçon and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Bernard Haitink; Beethoven Piano Trios with Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley; Chopin and Franck sonatas with Yuja Wang; and most recently a solo album featuring Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly as well as a “Best of” recording on occasion of his 40th birthday.

Capuçon has been featured on DVD in live performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker/Gustavo Dudamel (Haydn Cello Concerto No.1) and with Lisa Batiashvili, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (Brahms’s Concerto for Violin and Cello). A household name in his native France, he also appears on screen and online in shows such as Prodiges, Now Hear This, and The Artist Academy, and is a guest presenter on Radio Classique in the show Les Carnets de Gautier Capuçon.

Born in Chambéry, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. Now, he performs with world leading orchestras, works with conductors such as Lionel Bringuier, Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and collaborates with contemporary composers including Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Bryce Dessner, Jérôme Ducros, Henry Dutilleux, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm, and Jörg Widmann.

Mao Fujita
Piano

With an innate musical sensitivity and naturalness to his artistry, 21-year old pianist Mao Fujita has already impressed many leading musicians as one of those special talents which come along only rarely, equally at home in Mozart as the major romantic repertoire.
Born in Tokyo, Fujita was still studying at the Tokyo College of Music in 2017 when he took First Prize at the prestigious Concours International de Piano Clara Haskil in Switzerland, along with the Audience Award, Prix Modern Times, and the Prix Coup de Coeur, which first brought him to the attention of the international music community. He was also the Silver Medalist at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow where his special musical qualities received exceptional attention from the jury of leading musicians as well as Valery Gergiev who has invited him on a number of international tours since.

Fujita has been invited to appear in recital at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, at Verbier Festival as Academy Musician, and in the New Generation series at the Louis Vuitton Foundation. Orchestral highlights include his London debut with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra in 2019, and performances with top Japanese orchestras such as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In Tokyo in 2019, he jumped in a two days’ notice to perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.2 with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev to rapturous acclaim.

Fujita’s breathtaking performance at the Tchaikovsky Competition in particular has earned invitations at the very highest level worldwide, and the 2020/21 season will see him make his debuts with the Munich Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras under the baton of some of the world’s most prestigious conductors such as Gergiev, Petrenko and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. In recital, Fujita appears at London’s Wigmore Hall, Schloss Elmau and next summer’s Verbier Festival where he will perform a complete cycle of the Mozart piano sonatas. He will also make his debut at the Tsinandali and Riga-Jurmala Festivals in 2021.

Starting piano lessons at the age of three, Fujita won his first international prize in 2010 at the World Classic in Taiwan, and became a laureate of numerous national and international competitions such as the Rosario Marciano International Piano Competition in Vienna (2013), Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians (2015), and the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition (2016).