Michael Barenboim, violin

“The moment you create a beautiful sound, it’s worth every effort.”

This sentence by Michael Barenboim (*1985) sums up his artistic path so far. Soloist and chamber musician on violin and viola, ensemble founder, concertmaster of the WestEastern Divan Orchestra, professor and dean: versatility and creativity are at the forefront of Barenboim's work.

Since his breakthrough as a soloist with Schönberg's Violin Concerto under the baton of Pierre Boulez in 2011, Michael Barenboim has been firmly anchored in the international concert scene and has since performed with outstanding colleagues, including the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Asher Fisch, the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, the Berlin Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. He has also worked as a soloist with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Filarmonica della Scala, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Orchestre de Paris and the Spanish National Orchestra.

Solo recitals regularly take Michael Barenboim to the most famous international halls and to renowned concert series. He has performed at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Elphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Sydney Opera House, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and the Lucerne Festival. Featuring selected works by Pierre Boulez he played recitals at the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Barbican Centre London, the Opéra national de Paris and the Salzburg Festival.

In the 2023/24 season, Michael Barenboim will appear at Tsinandali Festival, among others, he will also perform with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra and be a guest at the Konzerthaus Wien. Extensive tours take him to Italy, England, Germany and South America, among others with the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble. In the Boulez Saal Berlin, the violinist will perform Berg's Chamber Concerto with Thomas Guggeis and the Boulez Ensemble. After the great success with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra last season as a soloist on the viola, he will once again interpret Mozart's Concertante together with violinist Anne- Sophie Mutter, this time with the Vienna Philharmonic. Chamber music has been a major part of Michael Barenboim's concert activities not only since the founding of his West-Eastern Divan Ensemble in early 2020. The ensemble, featuring selected members of the West- Eastern Divan Orchestra, has already undertaken very successful tours of Asia, North America and Europe under his direction. In addition, he gives chamber music concerts at the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, the Verbier Festival, intonations, the Beethovenhaus Bonn, the Mendelssohn- Haus Leipzig, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Vienna Musikverein. His regular partners include Pinchas Zukerman, Daniel Hope, Elena Bashkirova, Kian Soltani, Daniel Barenboim, Jörg Widmann and others.

Michael Barenboim is deeply convinced that challenges can be found everywhere in the cosmos of music, the mastering of which opens up new perspectives on unknown and well-known pieces alike. This is why he is intensely involved in contemporary music: the interpretation of 20th and 21st Century pieces plays a major role in his work, both as a soloist with orchestra (Widmann, Dutilleux, Ligeti) and in chamber music. Michael Barenboim has already premiered numerous new compositions, including works by Jörg Widmann, Kareem Roustom, Matthias Pintscher and others.

But it is not only the contemporary music that finds space in his work: Michael Barenboim likes to keep his musical spirit alive with pieces from the most diverse periods. In addition to his intriguing concert programmes, his CD recordings also bear witness to this urge for constant renewal. On his last albums for Accentus, he devoted himself to works by Bach, Bartók, Boulez, Tartini, Berio, Paganini and Sciarrino. In addition, between 2018 and 2020, Deutsche Grammophon released Mozart's piano quartets and trios as well as the complete Beethoven piano trios together with Kian Soltani and Daniel Barenboim.

In September 2023 Michael Barenboim will release a recording of Elgar's Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra London conducted by Alessandro Crudele on Linn Records. Mendelssohn's “Songs without Words” in an arrangement by Ferdinand David with Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim at the piano will follow on the same label in spring 2024.

For Michael Barenboim, teaching does not only mean imparting perfect technique on the instrument; he is also particularly concerned with the universal education of his students at the Barenboim-Said Academy in various humanistic fields. After teaching for a long time and chairing the chamber music department, he currently holds a professorship for violin and ensemble playing. In 2020, he was also elected Dean of the Academy.

Elena Bashkirova, piano

The pianist Elena Bashkirova once said, “Chamber music is music’s soul,” and this belief is evident in her work as a soloist, accompanist, ensemble musician, and program planner. Her approach to all aspects of music is one of empathetic collaboration and communication.

Among the highlights of the 2023/24 are her performances as soloist with the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra in Cluj under the direction of Lawrence Foster with whom she will also join forces during her performance with the Opéra de Marseille Orchestra, the Cantus Firmus Orchestra in Plovdiv under the direction of Georgi Dimitrov, as well as the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Further multiday chamber music residencies are planned with the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival Ensemble, extensively as part of Blaibach Konzerthaus, the Musikverein Vienna, the Frauenkirche Dresden (curated by Daniel Hope), & Cologne Philharmonie, as well as a tour in South America. In December 2023 Elena, who is also the president of the Mendelssohn House Leipzig, will present a multiday Mendelssohn Festival at the Boulez Saal Berlin. Further artistic collaborations with Thomas Hampson will bring her to Israel in January and she will also give solo recitals at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Ludwigsburg, among others.

Bashkirova comes from a Russian musical dynasty going back generations. Born in Moscow, she began her studies at the age of 15 in the class of her father, the legendary piano pedagogue Dmitry Bashkirov. Together with violinist Gidon Kremer, with whom she has often performed as a duo and has made several recordings, Elena Bashkirova left the Soviet Union in 1978 and moved to Paris. She has been influenced by her work with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sergiu Celibidache, and Michael Gielen. Since 1992, she has lived in Berlin with her husband, Daniel Barenboim.

Bashkirova is Artistic Director of the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, which she founded in 1998. The festival takes place each year in September and has become a pillar of Israel’s cultural life, bringing together outstanding soloists from around the world. In addition, the widely acclaimed Intonations Festival has taken place in April of each year since 2012 in Berlin’s Jewish Museum. Together with musicians from these festivals, Elena Bashkirova performs regularly in the world’s most important chamber music series, including summer festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, and the Beethovenfest in Bonn. Numerous recordings document the highlights of programs conceived by Bashkirova for various chamber music groupings.

The repertoire for piano and voice is of particular importance to Bashkirova. The list of singers with whom she performs as a duo includes Anna Netrebko, Olga Peretyatko, Dorothea Röschmann, René Pape, and Robert Holl.

Bashkirova’s recording of two Tchaikovsky cycles, “The Seasons” and “Album for Children”, received the ICMA award in the category “solo instrument” in 2017. Her complete recording of Antonin Dvorak’s “Poetic Tone Pictures” op. 85 was released in October 2020. She also recorded an album with a selection of Mozart works under the title "Mozart: Sonatas & Fantasies", which was released in November 2022.

In 2018, Elena Bashkirova received the Ruhr Piano Festival Prize and was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She was recently named conductor Kurt Masur’s successor as President of the Felix Mendelssohn-artholdy Foundation in Leipzig.