Johannes Pramsohler & Jadran Duncumb
Biography Johannes Pramsohler & Jadran Duncumb
Johannes Pramsohler
Born in South Tyrol and now living in Paris, baroque violinist Johannes Pramsohler has in recent years become one of the most versatile representatives of his profession.
As artistic director and first violin of the Ensemble Diderot, which he founded in 2009, he brings to life unknown repertoire with great precision and a keen sense for significant rarities. The ensemble’s debut recording of chamber music from the Dresden court of August the Strong received international acclaim.
As concertmaster, Johannes has collaborated with The King’s Consort, Le Concert d’Astrée, the European Union Baroque Orchestra, the International Baroque Players, and as a guest of the Berlin Philharmonic with its early music ensemble Concerto Melante. As soloist, Johannes recently performed under Iván Fischer with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and with the Taiwan Baroque Orchestra. Recitals with chamber music partners such as Philippe Grisvard (harpsichord) and Jadran Duncumb (lute) take him to Europe’s concert halls on a regular basis.
His first solo CD, of world premiere recordings of violin concertos from Dresden, was nominated for the International Classical Music Award. A desire for artistic independence even in the recording studio led Johannes to found his own CD label in 2013. The first recording released by Audax Records, of works by Corelli, Telemann, Handel, Leclair, and Albicastro, was nominated for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award). Audax Records has since released four more CDs to great critical acclaim.
Johannes studied with such renowned teachers as Georg Egger, Jack Glickman, and Rachel Podger. His collaboration with Reinhard Goebel continues to the present day, and is an important source of inspiration for his work. He was a prizewinner at the Magdeburg International Telemann Competition. Since 2008, Johannes has had the honour of owning Reinhard Goebel’s violin, a P. G. Rogeri made in 1713.
Jadran Duncumb
is an English/Croatian/Norwegian guitarist and lutenist. He was the first guitarist in twenty years to be accepted into the Barratt-Due Music Institute in Oslo, where he spent seven years learning the guitar under Vegard Lund. In 2008, he was a finalist on the guitar of the BBC Young Musician of the Year and NRK’s Norwegian equivalent, and the success in these competitions gave Jadran the oportunity to give recitals all over Europe, appear as a soloist with orchestras including the Norwegian State Radio Orchestra, London Mozart Players and BBC National Orchestra of Wales as well as have a BBC Radio-recorded recital at Wigmore Hall.
Since winning the Norwegian National Youth Competition twice in 2005 and 2006 with his pianist brother Emil, they have regularly played together in programmes of lesser-known pieces for their combination as well as more mainstream solo repertoire, as well as concerts on period instruments of music from early 19th century Vienna.
Jadran began playing the theorbo during his studies at the Royal College of Music (where he studied lute under Jakob Lindberg) in London and has since been very active as a continuo player in small chamber ensembles as well as in orchestras and opera pits, and has performed with leading ensembles including the English Baroque Sloloists at the BBC Proms, I Fagiolini, Ensemble Diderot and the International Baroque Players as well as being a member of the Emsemble Amaranthos and regularly playing for the English Touring Opera.
His duo with the violinist Kinga Ujszàszi, "Repicco", was selected in the Ambronay Festival's "Eeemerging Artists Programme" giving concerts and and classes in Romania, Latvia, Italy and at the Ambronay Festival where they were awarded the Eeemerging audience prize for their Assassini, Assassinati programme. They have subsequently been invited to give several concerts throughout Europe in the coming concert seasons.
He also frequently concertises with violinist Johannes Pramsohler, touring with programmes of music for baroque lute and violin by Bach and Weiss and their contemporaries. With Ensemble Diderot - Johannes' ensemble - they recently made the first recording of Antonio Montanari's violin concertos for Audax Records (available in June 2015), while a CD of music by Bach and Weiss, including their jointly-composed Suite BWV 1025 will be released in 2016 on the same label.
Other regular collaborators include the viola da gamba player André Lislevand, harpsichordist and baritone Iason Marmaras, violinist Maria Ines Zanovello, and the soprano Elizabeth Dobbin and her group "Le Jardin Secret"with whom he has recorded 17th century airs de cour by de Bousset.
In 2015, he was awarded the 1st prize at the international "Maurizio Pratola" lute competition in L'Aquila, Italy (Paul O'Dette, jury foreman), as well as receiving a distinction for his Master Degree recital at the Musichochschule in Trossingen, Germany where he studied under Rolf Lislevand.
When Jadran is not practising, tuning and performing on plucked instruments, he likes to play the viola da gamba with varying degrees of success, and football, with no success at all*.
* apart from in the internal Trossingen Hochshule für Musik Indoor Football Tournament 2013
