Barnabás Kelemen, Nicolas Altstaedt, Alexander Lonquich
Biography Barnabás Kelemen, Nicolas Altstaedt, Alexander Lonquich
Barnabás Kelemen
has established himself as one of the leading violinists of his generation, appearing regularly as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician at many of the world's major musical venues and festivals. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, North and South America, South Africa, Japan and Taiwan.
In addition to having performed with all the major orchestras in Hungary, Barnabás has also performed with the Belgian National Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic, Holland’s Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Limburg, Prague, Arnheim, Lahti, Münich, and Saarbrucken Radio symphonies, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Flemish Radio Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra among others. Festival appearances have included Jerusalem, Lockenhaus, Ittingen, Schleswig-Holsten, Menton, Moritzburg, Colmar, Cambridge, Delft, Capetown, IMS Prussia Cove, Budapest, Prague, Salzburg and Grand Teton...
He has collaborated with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Denis Russel-Davies, Eiji Oue, Robert Spano, Zoltán Kocsis, Michael Stern, Péter Eötvös, Tamás Vásáry and Rumon Gamba. Barnabás has performed at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, and New York’s Carnegie Hall where his debut was reviewed as "a dazzling performance" (American Record Guide).
Highlights for next season include solo engagements with the Greenwich Symphony, the North Netherlands Oschestra, the Halle Orchestra, the Kymi Symphony, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mainz Syimphony, the Hungarian National Symhony Orchestra and the Arnheim Philharmonic Orchestra. He also performs at the Dallas Chamber Music International series, at the Budapest Spring Festival and at the Salzburger Summer Festival in 2008 among others.
In addition to winning the Gold Medal at the 2002 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and six of the eight special prize and also the loan of the 1683 Ex-Gingold Stradivari violin and Tourte bow for four years. Barnabas has won prizes at many international competitions including Second Prize at the 1997 Szigeti Competition, First Prizes at the 1999 Mozart Competition in Salzburg, the International Piano Trio Competition in Kuhmo, and Third Prize at the 2001 Queen Elisabeth Competition. In 2007 he was awarded Grand Prize at the Central Europien Classical Music Festival.
In recognition of his talent and achievements, Barnabás Kelemen received the ‘Rózsavölgyi’ the ’Jelenlét’ and the ‘Franz Liszt’ prizes by the Hungarian Government. In 2003 he was awarded Classical Musician of the Year by Gramophone magazine (Hungary) and his recording of the Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano (Hungaroton) with pianist Tamás Vásáry won France’s Diapaison d’Or. His double CD, The Complete Works for Violin and Piano by Franz Liszt, with pianist Gergely Bogányi, won the International Liszt Society’s 2001 Grand Prix du Disque. In 2006 he received the Chevalier Chross Award of the Hungarian State acknowledging his excellent professional work from the President of Hungary. Recently he was nominated as the youngest ever to award with 'Prima Primissima Award' in the category of musician. Barnabás Kelemen was requested to play each of the violin works and the violin solo of the Divertimento for the CD-recording series of Béla Bartók's complete works releasing by Hungaroton.
Barnabás’ repertoire spans from early baroque to contemporary music. He performed the Hungarian premieres of the Ligeti and Schnittke Violin Concertos and gave the Hungarian premiere of Gubajdulina’s and world premiere of Kurtág’s violin pieces.
As a chamber musician, he has appeared with, amongst others, Steven Isserlis, Zoltán Kocsis, Dezső Ránki, Kirill Gerstein, Shai Wosner, José Gallardo, Radovan Vlatkovic, Claudio Bohorquez and performs regularly with Katalin Kokas (violin/viola), Miklós Perényi (cello), Dénes Várjon, Péter Nagy and Gergely Bogányi (piano).
Born in Hungary, Barnabás started his violin studies with noted Hungarian pedagogue Valeria Baranyai at the age of 6. He entered Eszter Perényi’s class at the Franz Liszt Music Academy at the age of 11. In 2001 he received his diploma and was also awarded the Sándor Végh Prize by the Sándor Végh Foundation in Budapest. In addition to his primary teachers, Barnabás has participated in master classes with Isaac Stern, Ferenc Rados, György Kurtág, Igor Ozim, Lorand Fenyves, Dénes Zsigmondy, György Pauk, Sergiu Luca and Thomas Zehetmair. Beginning in September 2005, he has began his appointment as Professor of Violin at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest and teaches regularly as a guest professor at the Bloomington Indiana University. He has released 11 solo recordings and the Complete Works for Violin and Orchestra by Mozart on a double live DVD.
He performs on the 1742 Ex-Dénes Kovács Guarneri del Gesú violin, which he received from the State of Hungary.
Nicolas Altstaedt
German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is one of the most sought after and versatile artists today. As a soloist, conductor and artistic director, he performs repertoire spanning from early music to the contemporary.
This season he is Artist in Residence at the SWR Symphonie Orchestra under Teodor Currentzis and Artist in Fokus at Alte Oper Frankfurt. Other highlights include a tour with B’Rock and René Jacobs, debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Ed Gardner and the NHK and Yomiuri Symphony at Suntory Hall.
Recent highlights include a residency at the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, debuts with European Youth Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko, Orchestre National de France with Emmanuel Krivine, Il Giardino Armonico at Grafenegg Festival, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, Netherland Philharmonic and Radio Philharmonic with Edo de Waart at Het Concertgebouw and reinvitations to the DSO Berlin with Robin Ticciati, Rotterdam Philharmonic with Lahav Shani, the BBC Symphony at the Proms and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra with the world premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund’s Cello Concerto; recital debuts at BOZAR Brussels, Carnegie Hall, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris and Koerner Hall, Toronto and a tour through Australia.
As a conductor, he regularly works with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and will debut at the SWR Stuttgart, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Orquesta Nacional de Espana. During the 17/18 season, Nicolas gave the highly acclaimed Finnish Premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto under the baton of the composer at the Helsinki Festival and was also the Artist in Spotlight at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
Awarded the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2010, he gave a critically praised performance of the Schumann Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne Festival. Since then, he has performed worldwide with orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, all BBC Orchestras, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras with conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Francois Xavier Roth, Sir Andrew Davis, Lahav Shani, Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Christoph Eschenbach Andrew Manze, Thomas Dausgaard, Thomas Hengelbrock, Giovanni Antonini and Andrea Marcon amongst others.
In 2012, Nicolas was chosen by Gidon Kremer to succeed him as the new artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival and in 2014 by Ádám Fischer to become the new Artistic Director of the Haydn Philharmonie whom he regularly performs with at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Esterházy Festival and recently on tour in both China and Japan. Nicolas is Artistic Director of the Pfingstfestspiele Ittingen 2019 and 2023.
As a chamber musician, Nicolas partners include Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Christian Tetzlaff, Pekka Kuusisto, Tabea Zimmermann, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit, Martin Fröst, Alexander Lonquich, Jonathan Cohen, Jean Rondeau and the Quatuor Ébène. He performs at both Salzburg Mozart and Summer Festival, Verbier, Utrecht, BBC Proms, Lucerne, Musikfest Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Rheingau. Nicolas has performed and worked with composers Thomas Ades, Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Thomas Larcher, Fazil Say and Sofia Gubaidulina and recently commissioned concertos by Anders Hillborg, Helena Winkelman and Fazil Say.
Nicolas’ recording of CPE Bach Concertos on Hyperion with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen received the BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award 2017. “Four Cities”, a recital programme of works by Say, Debussy, Shostakovich and Janacek with Fazil Say was released on Warner Classics to great acclaim and received the Edison Klassiek 2017. His latest recording includes the Complete Works for Fortepiano and Violoncello by Beethoven with Alexander Lonquich on historic instruments released on Alpha Classics.
Nicolas received the Beethovenring Bonn 2015 and Musikpreis der Stadt Duisburg 2018. Nicolas was a BBC New Generation Artist 2010-2012 and a recipient of the „Borletti Buitoni Trust Fellowship“ in 2009.
