Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège & Pablo González
Biography Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège & Pablo González
Svetlin Roussev
Since winning the first prize at the widely acclaimed first Sendai International Competition along with the audience prize and the best Bach concerto performance, the charismatic violin virtuoso Svetlin Roussev enjoys a prestigious international career.
Roussev is a regular guest soloist with various orchestras in the USA, Latin America, Asia and Europe. He has performed under the baton of conductors such as Myung.-Whun. Chung, Leon Fleisher, Yehudi Menuhin, Marek Janowski, Emmanuel Krivine, François-Xavier Roth, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Emil Tabakov, Denis Russel-Davies, Pablo Gonzáles, Jean-Jacques Kantorow in various orchestras such as the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre National de Belgique, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, and all of the leading symphony orchestras in his home country of Bulgaria.
Roussev performs a broad repertoire with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra as its artist in residence every season for the past few years, and once as artistic director. He is an honored artist in Bulgaria, where he received the Presidential Honorary Award and three Cristal Lyra distinctions from the Ministry of Culture. He even became an Honorary Citizen of his hometown Ruse.
His discography includes works by Vladigerov, Sibelius, Hartmann, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Ravel, Martin, Brahms, Grieg, Medtner, Tchaikovsky, Ysaÿe, Lalo for the labels Claves, Arcantus, Fondamenta, Musique en Wallonie, DECCA…
As a child of violinists, Svetlin began playing the violin at the age of five. At the age of 15, he was accepted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. In 2008, he succeeded his teacher Jean-Jacques Kantorow as one of the youngest professors in the school’s history. He is still teaching violin students there today.
Since October 29th 2024 Svetlin Roussev performs on the 1716 Stradivarius Baron Wittgenstein violin kindly loaned by the Bulgarian state.
George Tudorache
is concertmaster of the Orchester Philharmonique Royal de Liège (OPRL) and “Guest Leader” of the London Symphony Orchestra. He began studying the violin at the age of 5 with Stefan Gheorghiu and Magdalena Ursu, at the National College of Arts “Dinu Lipatti” in Bucharest, in his native Romania. In 2007, he continued his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris. Under the tutelage of Jean Jacques Kantorow and Svetlin Roussev, he graduated with 1st Prize in violin and 1st prize in Chamber Music in the class of Itamar Golan.
George has won numerous international competitions, including Rodolfo Lipizer, Colmar, Flame, and Bucharest and participated in the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2015), whose performance in the semi-finals was highly praised by international critics as well as by the public.
George is regularly invited to perform as soloist and concertmaster, notably with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, the Orchestre Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre National Bordeaux, the Opera de Valencia … under the baton of prestigious conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Chailly, Kirill Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda, and Myung-Whun Chung. He has performed in the most important halls of the world, such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Paris Philharmonic, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Barbican Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, the Atheneum Hall in Bucharest, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Munich Philharmonic, Sala São Paulo, Buenos Aires Teatro Colón etc.
Passionate about chamber music, George collaborates with artists such as Menahem Pressler, Thomas Zehetmair, Svetlin Roussev, David Grimal, Lorenzo Gatto, David Cohen, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Itamar Golan, etc. His musical career subsequently inspired him to venture into conducting, where he made his debut as a conductor with the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, an experience that he continued with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège and the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra in Czechia.
George is the principal violin professor at the Institute of Music and Pedagogy of Namur (IMEP) and is invited regularly to give masterclasses in Europe and Asia. He is also a recurring jury member in competitions such as Arthur Grumiaux Competition in Brussels and the Ysaÿe Competition in Liège.
His recording of the Violin Concerto by Philippe Boesmans with the OPRL and Gergely Madaras (Cypres, 2019) was awarded numerous prizes, including 5 Diapasons by the notable French publication.
George currently plays on a Tomaso Balestrieri 1770 “Ex Grumiaux”, loaned by the Royal Baron Fondation Grumiaux.
Henri Demarquette
a passionate musician with a multi-faceted personality, plays the cello like someone who sets fire to a dense forest: no stroke of the bow leaves the listener indifferent, because Demarquette awakens the subconscious of music’. O. Bellamy (Le Monde de la Musique)
Henri Demarquette was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 13, where he studied with Philippe Muller and Maurice Gendron and was awarded a Premier Prix à l'unanimité. He also worked with Pierre Fournier and Paul Tortelier and then with Janos Starker in Bloomington, USA.
He quickly developed an international career that took him to many major cities, where he performed alongside the great French and foreign orchestras or his favourite piano partners: Boris Berezovsky, Michel Dalberto, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Fabrizio Chiovetta, Vanessa Benelli-Mosell and Jean-Frédéric Neuburger.
Since 2015, he has played in a string quartet with Augustin Dumay, Svetlin Roussev and Miguel da Silva.
He premiered the cello concerto by Michel Legrand. A recording with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France under Micco Franck was released by Sony.
Henri Demarquette is the founder of Vocello, an original formation for violoncello and a cappella choir with the ensemble Vocal Sequenza 9.3, conducted by Catherine Simonpietri. The repertoire combines works from the Renaissance with contemporary music. Numerous new works have been composed for this ensemble since 2012. In 2016, Vocello was orchestra in residence at the Collège des Bernardins in Paris.
This openness is reflected in a varied discography that has been recognised with numerous awards in France and abroad.
Henri Demarquette received the Simone et Cino del Duca Foundation Prize from the Académie des Beaux-Arts. He plays on the Vaslin cello by Stradivari from 1725, on loan from LVMH/Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Sarah Defrise
is a young Belgian soprano. Her acting and piano training contributed to her personality and to her eclectic repertoire ranging from chamber music, to operas, recitals with orchestra or solo-voice shows, with a particular taste for XXth Century and contemporary music.
Her recent success as the Teenager, in Jean-Luc Fafchamp's Is this the end ? at la Monnaie / De Munt in Brussels marked the beginning of her international career. In 2022, she made critically acclaimed debuts at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and the Grand théâtre de Genève where "her crystalline voice and impressive tops were absolutely stunning" (Crescendo Magazine) in a role written for her by Peter Eötvös (the Girl/Sleepless). That year she also sang the Little Chinese in Der Goldene Drache at the Nouvel Opéra Fribourg and made her debuts as Zerlina (Don Giovanni) with Christophe Rousset at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie. In 2023, she makes her debuts as Zdenka (Arabella) at the Teatro Real Madrid in Christof Loy's production. Her performance is unanimously praised by the press for her "perfect phrasing and beautiful lyrical voice" (Opernmagazin) and for her "magnificent" incarnation of "a complex role full of implications and details" (El Debate).
As a prominent performer of Ligeti's vocal music, she was invited as principal guest singer to perform Aventures/Nouvelles Aventures in 2021 for György Kurtág's 90th birthday, and again in 2023 together with Mysteries of the Macabre and the Requiem at Müpa and BMC for the 100th Anniversary of György Ligeti under the direction of Peter Eötvös and Gregory Vajda.
In 2022, she was awarded the prestigious Caecilia Prize in Belgium as "Young Musician of the Year" and was labeled "Musician of the year" in 2023 by the Belgian Musical Press.
This season she will sing the role of Naomi in Bernard Foccroulle's new opera Cassandra at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and make her debuts at the Theater an der Wien as die Jungfrau in Das Paradies und die Peri (Schumann) and at the Komische Oper Berlin as Suzanne in Robinson Crusoe (Offenbach).
In concert, She will be the guest of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège in Gorecki's 3rd symphony. She will premiere a piece by American composer Natacha Diels with Ensemble Contrechamps (Switzerland) and open the Poznan Music Festival with the Ensemble Intercontemporain (Poland).
Sarah released two solo albums : the complete recording of Joseph Jongen's songs (Entrevisions and Fêtes rouges, Musique en Wallonie, 3 Cd's) and an a cappella album dedicated to Cathy Berberian For Cathy (Sub Rosa).
Sarah holds a Master in Music from the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel and a PhD in the Arts from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
