Alban Gerhardt | |
|---|---|
 Gerhardt in 2015 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 25 May 1969 Berlin, Germany |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Cello |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Labels | |
| Website | albangerhardt |
Alban Gerhardt (born 25 May 1969) is a German cellist. Since his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1991, he has appeared with many of the world's leading orchestras. [1]
Born to a musical family, Gerhardt's mother sung coloratura soprano, and his father, Axel Gerhardt, was a second violinist of the Berlin Philharmonic for over 40 years. His brother Darius is a guitarist. [2]
Gerhardt took up both the piano and cello at age eight, and studied with Marion Vetter and Götz Teutsch of the Berlin Philharmonic, and eventually began working under Markus Nyikos. He had also been a student of Boris Pergamenschikow and Frans Helmerson. [3]
Gerhardt's debut came in February 1987, when he performed the Haydn Cello Concerto No. 2 at the Philharmonie Berlin. He won top prizes in several competitions including the 1990 Deutsche Musikwettbewerb in Bonn and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich that same year. In 1993, he won the International Leonard Rose Cello Competition. [4] His international career was launched in 1991 when he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov. Gerhardt was a member of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme from 1999 to 2001.
Gerhardt regularly appears with many of the world's leading orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Munich Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France. [5] [6] In the US, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra among others. [7] [8]
At the 2009 BBC Proms, Gerhardt performed the world premiere of Unsuk Chin's Cello Concerto, which Chin composed for him. [9] He subsequently recorded the concerto with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Myung-Whun Chung for Deutsche Grammophon. [10] He has also collaborated with other composers such as Thomas Larcher, [11] Brett Dean, [12] Jörg Widmann, Osvaldo Golijov, [13] Mathias Hinke and Matthias Pintscher.
Gerhardt has won three ECHO Klassik Awards (1998, 2003 & 2009 [14] ) as well as ICMA [15] and MIDEM [16] Classic awards. His DG recording of Unsuk Chin's Cello Concerto won the BBC Music Magazine Award in 2015 [17] and was nominated for a Gramophone Award in 2015. [18] He has made several commercial records for Hyperion. [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] He has also recorded for Chandos Records. [26]
Gerhardt plays a Matteo Goffriller cello, [3] made in 1710. In addition to his concert performances, Gerhardt has done various projects that have involved performance outside of traditional concert halls, such as in schools, hospitals and young offender institutions. [27] In 2012, he also began collaboration with Deutsche Bahn, involving live performances on the main commuter routes in Germany. [28]
Gerhardt has been married twice. His marriage to his first wife, Katalina, produced a son. His second wife is the violinist Gergana Gergova, [12] and the couple have a son.
Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt or historically Johann Nikolaus Graf de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt; was an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble, Concentus Musicus Wien, in 1953, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement. Around 1970, Harnoncourt began conducting opera and concert performances, soon leading international symphony orchestras, and appearing at leading concert halls, operatic venues and festivals. His repertoire then widened to include composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2001 and 2003, he conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert. Harnoncourt was also the author of several books, mostly on subjects of performance history and musical aesthetics.
The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107, was composed in 1959 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich wrote the work for his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who committed it to memory in four days. He premiered it on October 4, 1959, at the Large Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky. The first recording was made in two days following the premiere by Rostropovich and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Aleksandr Gauk.
Steven Isserlis is a British cellist. An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, educator, writer and broadcaster, he is widely regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. He is also noted for his diverse repertoire and distinctive sound which is deployed with his use of gut strings.
Unsuk Chin is a South Korean composer of contemporary classical music, who is based in Berlin, Germany. Chin was self-taught piano from a young age and studied composition at Seoul National University as well as with György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.
The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) is a South Korean orchestra based in Seoul. Founded in 1948, it is one of the oldest orchestras in South Korea. Its first foreign tour came on a 1965 trip to Japan, followed by performances in Southeast Asia in 1977, the United States in 1982, 1986, and 1996, a 1988 tour of Europe before the Seoul Olympics that year, and a 1997 performance in Beijing. The Philharmonic is an incorporated foundation since 2005.
Elisabeth Batiashvili, professionally known as Lisa Batiashvili, is a prominent Georgian violinist active across Europe and the United States. A former New York Philharmonic artist-in-residence, she is acclaimed for her "natural elegance, silky sound and the meticulous grace of her articulation". Batiashvili makes frequent appearances at high-profile international events; she was the violin soloist at the 2018 Nobel Prize concert.
Susanna Ulla Marjukka Mälkki is a Finnish conductor.
Kari Kriikku is a Finnish classical clarinetist.
Martyn Charles Brabbins is a British conductor. The fourth of five children in his family, he learned to play the euphonium, and then the trombone during his youth at Towcester Studio Brass Band. He later studied composition at Goldsmiths, University of London. He subsequently studied conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory.
Paul Watkins is a Welsh classical cellist and conductor. His brother is the composer Huw Watkins. Watkins studied cello with William Pleeth, Melissa Phelps and Johannes Goritzki. In 1988, he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in the string section. From 1990 to 1997, he was principal cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Andrew Shulman is an English virtuoso cellist, conductor and composer. He is currently the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and maintains his cello studio at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, California.
Antônio Meneses Neto is a Brazilian cellist with the National Symphony Orchestra, was born into a family of musicians. His father was first horn player at the Opera of Rio de Janeiro. He began to study the cello when he was ten. During a tour in South America, the famous cellist Antonio Janigro met him and asked him to join his classes in Düsseldorf and then in Stuttgart. In 1977, he won the first prize at the International Competition in Munich and in 1982 he was awarded first prize and gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Sunwook Kim is a South Korean pianist living in London. He came to international recognition when he won the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006.
Sol Gabetta is an Argentine cellist. The daughter of Andrés Gabetta and Irène Timacheff-Gabetta, she has French and Russian ancestry. Her brother Andrés is a baroque violinist.
The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) are music awards first awarded 6 April 2011. ICMA replace the Cannes Classical Awards formerly awarded at MIDEM. The jury consists of music critics of magazines Andante, Crescendo, Fono Forum, Gramofon, Kultura, Musica, Musik & Theater, Opera, Pizzicato, Rondo Classic, Scherzo, with radio stations MDR Kultur (Germany), Orpheus Radio 99.2FM (Russia), Radio 100,7 (Luxembourg), the International Music and Media Centre (IMZ) (Austria), website Resmusica.com (France) and radio Classic (Finland).
The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra is a cello concerto by the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski. The work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. It received its world premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on October 14, 1970 by the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Edward Downes.
Unsuk Chin's Piano Concerto was composed between 1996 and 1997 on a commission from the BBC for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The piece was first performed by the pianist Rolf Hind and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Mark Wigglesworth at St David's Hall, Cardiff, on 6 June 1997.
Unsuk Chin's Clarinet Concerto was written in 2014 on a joint commission from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Philharmonia Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. A partial premiere of piece was given by the clarinetist Kari Kriikku and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano at the Gothenburg Concert Hall on May 8, 2014; the complete concerto was given its world premiere by Kriikku and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert at Avery Fisher Hall on September 23, 2014.
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