Philippe Cassard has established an international reputation as concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician since giving a joint recital with Christa Ludwig in Paris in 1985. The same year he was finalist at the Clara Haskil Competition and in 1988 he won the First Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition. His concerto appearances include performances with the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and BBC Wales, Orchestre National de France, Hungarian State Opera Orchestra… He has worked with many conductors including Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Jeffrey Tate, Sir Roger Norrington, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Charles Dutoit, Armin Jordan, Marek Janowski, Vladimir Fedosseiv… His performance of the complete piano works of Debussy (four recitals in a single day) received extremely enthusiastic press and media coverage. He has presented the cycle in London Wigmore Hall, Dublin, Paris, Lisbon, Sydney, Vancouver, Singapore and Tokyo. He also visits China, Australia, South America and Canada regulary. Philippe plays a huge repertoire of chamber music, he appearead with such artists as Wolfgang Holzmair, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Karine Deshayes, Donna Brown, Paul Meyer, Jörg Widmann, Matt Haimovitz, Isabelle Faust, the Ebene, Takacs, Vanbrugh, Danish, Chilingirian string quartets. In 2012, Philippe becomes soprano Natalie Dessay’s exclusive pianist. They have performed in France, England (Barbican and Wigmore Hall in London), Ireland, Japan, Russia, Austria (Musikverein Vienna), Canada and USA (Carnegie Hall in New York)… The duet has recorded Debussy Songs, a French Mélodies album (Erato), and a Schubert’s Lieder programme (Sony Classical). Philippe Cassard has been artistic director of the festival « Nuits Romantiques du Lac du Bourget » (1999-2008), and since 2005, he has presented over 600 live weekly programmes on France Musique Radio dedicated to piano interpretation (awarded Prix SCAM in 2007 as “Best radio programme”). His last CD’s releases include Beethoven’s Trios with David Grimal and Anne Gastinel (awarded Diapason d’Or and Choc de Classica), Beethoven’s Symphony n°9 in the transcription for 2 pianos by Liszt, with Cédric Pescia.
A musician renowned for his intellectual curiosity, his taste for all kinds of musical adventures and his commitment to society, David Grimal regularly performs on the world’s greatest stages: Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Vienna’s Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Zurich’s Tonhalle, New York’s Lincoln Center, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Budapest’s Liszt Academy, Geneva’s Victoria Hall, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, Brussels’ Bozar… David Grimal has collaborated as soloist with the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Chambre d’Europe, Berliner Symphoniker, Russian National Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra Lisbon, Sinfonia Varsovia. He has performed alongside conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Heinrich Schiff, Lawrence Foster, Emmanuel Krivine, Mikhail Pletnev, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Peter Eötvös, Andriss Nelsons, Jukka Pekka Saraste, Christian Arming… Numerous composers have dedicated their works to him: Marc-André Dalbavie, Brice Pauset, Thierry Escaich, Lisa Lim, Jean-François Zygel, Alexandre Gasparov, Victor Kissine, Fuminori Tanada, Ivan Fedele, Philippe Hersant, Anders Hillborg, Oscar Bianchi, Guillaume Connesson, Frédéric Verrières, Eric Montalbetti, Richard Dubugnon, Menachem Zur, Graciane Finzi… For 20 years, David Grimal has devoted part of his career to developing Les Dissonances, of which he is the founder and musical and artistic director. David Grimal has brought together musicians from some of Europe’s finest orchestras, as well as many young talents at the start of their careers, to experience music as a rediscovered joy, tackling the great symphonic repertoire in the spirit of chamber music under his musical direction.The orchestra has been a regular guest on major European stages and international festivals. Films of concerts given by Les Dissonances have been broadcast in over 60 countries. Today he works as soloist and conductor on the Dissonances model with numerous orchestras: Strasbourg, Metz, Galicia, Budapesti Vonosok, Anima Chamber Orchestra, Cracovia, Bilbao, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Radio Bucarest, Murcia, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Neojiba, Kuopio, Sonderjylland, Trondheim, Enescu Philharmonic, Lille … David Grimal has recorded for EMI, Harmonia Mundi, Aeon, Naïve, Transart, Dissonances records and is currently recording for La Dolce Volta. His recordings have been acclaimed by the press: BBC choice, Choc de l’année Classica, Arte selection, ffff Telerama, diapason d’or etc. A sought-after chamber musician, David Grimal is a guest at the greatest international festivals. Today, he regularly performs in piano trio with Philippe Cassard and Anne Gastinel, and in recital with pianist Itamar Golan. David Grimal, for whom the transmission of knowledge to young musicians has always been essential, created in 2022 the Lumières d’Europe Academy-Festival under the presidency of Serge Haroche, Nobel Prize winner in Physics. Lumières d’Europe is aimed at talented young musicians at the start of their careers, who are invited to work and perform alongside international artists in concert. Leading scholars are invited to shed philosophical, literary, historical or scientific light on the themes addressed in each session. Lumières d’Europe takes place in several European capitals, in collaboration with major cultural institutions (Fondation Royaumont, Institut Weizmann, Jerusalem Music Center, Festival International Georges Enescu, Institut de France, Collège de France…) and contributes to the professional integration of young European musicians. In 2004, David Grimal also created L’Autre Saison: a season of concerts in aid of the homeless in Paris, now in partnership with ARTE, where the greatest artists have performed and which has enabled over 400 people to escape from extreme poverty. David Grimal was made a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2008 by the French Ministry of Culture.A renowned pedagogue, David Grimal teaches violin at the Musikhochschule in Saarbrücken and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, and is regularly invited to sit on juries at major international competitions and give masterclasses around the world. He plays the 1710 Ex-Roederer Stradivarius and the Don Quichotte built for him by Jacques Fustier.He plays bows by Louis Tourte, Dominique Peccatte and Pierre Grunberger, depending on the repertoire.
The Washington Post has praised violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez as having “…the sweetest, most sonorous tone…” (Charles T. Downey), while the Atlanta Journal Constitution describes him as “…tender, lyrical, loaded with personality” (Pierre Ruhe). Performances as soloist and chamber musician have seen Juan-Miguel Hernandez on some of the world’s leading halls, including Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Disney Hall (Los Angeles), Salzburg Mozarteum, King’s Place (London), Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and The White House. As a soloist Juan-Miguel has made appearances with orchestras including the Rochester Philharmonic, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Chicago Sinfonietta, iPalpiti Orchestra, as well as the Colorado and Atlanta Symphonies, and as a chamber musician he has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Lynn Harrell, Ralph Kirshbaum, Kim Kashkashian, Gérard Caussé and Itzhak Perlman. Chamber music being at the forefront of his career, Juan-Miguel was a founder and member of the Harlem Quartet from 2006 to 2012 after which he joined the legendary Fine Arts Quartet from 2013 until 2018, and he is also founder and member of the “Trio Virado” (Flute, Viola, Guitar) as well as the “Boreal Trio” (Clarinet, Viola, Piano), both specializing in the creation of new repertoire. Festival and program appearances as guest artist and pedagogue include the Festival Pablo Casals (Prades, France), the Festival Des Arcs (France), the Amalfi Coast Music Festival (Italy), Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (South Africa), the Brevard Summer Institute (USA), the Mozaic Festival (USA), Festicamara (Colombia), Montreal Jazz & Panama Jazz Festivals and Musica Mundi International Festival (Belgium), Borromeo (Switzerland) & Madeline Islands (USA) Chamber Music Festivals and the Festival Del Lago (Mexico). Juan-Miguel has been featured on radio airwaves and television broadcasts throughout Canada and the United States including NBC’s Good Morning America, The Today Show, NPR radio, PBS and the Telemundo Network, and his recordings were released by Cedille Records, the White Pine, Navona and Naxos music labels. Born in Montreal, Canada, Juan-Miguel Hernandez began his musical studies at the age of seven, and among his teachers were Jean MacRae, Paul Coletti at the Colburn Conservatory and Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory, and he also worked with Dimitri Murrath, Paul Neubauer, Karen Tuttle, Steven Dann, James Dunham, Barbara Westphal and Pinchas Zukerman. Juan-Miguel won the First Prize at the International Johannes Brahms Competition (Austria), adding to other top prizes won at the National Canadian Music Competition and the 9th National Sphinx Competition presented by JPMorgan Chase, and was honored with the medal of the National Assembly of Quebec for his significant international achievements. His strong commitment to educate and engage new audiences all around the globe has brought him to reach young musicians and various communities through art convoys in South Africa and Venezuela, various music festivals in South America and outreach projects in Europe and North America. In 2016 Juan-Miguel was appointed as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music (London), and he was invited to serve on the jury of the 2017 Johannes Brahms International Competition/Austria and the 2018 Sphinx Competition/USA. Beyond his extensive classical repertoire he has regularly performed with jazz living legends Gary Burton, Stanley Clarke, Paquito D’Rivera and Chick Corea, and is currently working on a project which will feature classical repertoire for viola and analog synthesizer with Yamaha artist Merlin Etorre. Further collaborations include Norah Jones’ album “Broken Little Hearts” as well as the album “Hot House” playing alongside Chick Corea and Gary Burton for which a Grammy was awarded. Juan-Miguel Hernandez plays on a 2008 Miralles viola from Altadena/CA and is a recipient of the Sphinx Organization’s MPower Artist Grant.
Gustav Rivinius is the first and only German musician to be awarded a First Prize Gold Medal at the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. In addition, he received a special prize for the best interpretation of a Tchaikovsky composition, outperforming all other competitors. Since then he has appeared with leading musicians, orchestras and conductors around the world. Among the many highlights of an illustrious career, Gustav Rivinius has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lorin Maazel, Ingo Metzmacher and Hans Zender. In celebrations marking the re-opening of the Spanish Hall at Prague Castle, Gustav Rivinius joined the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Vaclav Neumann, and in a gala marking the 50th anniversary of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, where he has been invited back as soloist many times. In the US, Gustav Rivinius has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and with orchestras in Saint Louis, Cincinnati, Washington D.C. and with the Houston Symphony. In Tokyo, he took the stage with the Moscow Philharmonic, in Seoul with the KBS Symphony Orchestra and in Beijing with the National Ballet Orchestra. He has worked together with conductors such as Marek Janowski, Christoph Eschenbach and Dmitri Kitajenko. He has also played alongside orchestras of Lisbon, Toulouse, Lyon, the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Swedish Radio Orchestra, as well as in Lucerne with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. Gustav Rivinius has appeared with all of Germany’s radio symphony orchestras as well as with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, the Leipziger Gewandhausorchester and the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin. Along with his solo work, Gustav Rivinius has a passion for chamber music. He plays regularly alongside his brothers in the Rivinius Piano Quartet and performs recitals with his brother Paul at the piano. Gustav Rivinius is also an annual participant in the Heimbach Spannungen festival, where he performs alongside his muscial friends Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, Antje Weithaas, Isabelle Faust and Sharon Kam, and in numerous festival CD recordings. Rivinius founded the Gasparo da Saló Trio, the Bartholdy String Quintet and the Tammuz Piano Quartet, which recorded both piano quartets by composer George Enescu for the cpo label. This label also released Gustav Rivinius’ performance of the Cello Concerto by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari accompanied by the Frankfurt Radio Sympony Orchstra under Alan Francis, and Henze’s Ode to the West Wind featuring the RSO Saarbrücken conducted by Stanislaw Skrowaczewki was released by Arte Nova. Gustav Rivinius recorded the Brahms Clarinet Trio along with Sharon Kam and Martin Helmchen for Berlin Classics. For many years Gustav Rivinius has been a Professor at the University of Music in Saarbrücken. He is cofounder of the Kammermusiktage Mettlach and thus has been influencing the musical landscape of his native Saarland for over 30 years. He teaches a number of masterclasses annually, including at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and is a regular juror at major music competitions and sat on the jury at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Born in 1990 in Tel Aviv, Udi Perlman is an award-winning composer whose music showcases a distinctive fusion of influences from his upbringing in Israel with contemporary classical music sensibilities. With a penchant for crafting captivating musical narratives and unexpected formal twists, Perlman’s work has been hailed as ‘fascinating, surprising, rich, and colorful’ (Haaretz). With a vibrant harmonic palette and kaleidoscopic instrumental textures, his genre-bending compositions often playfully transform and recontextualize simple, ordinary musical gestures, revealing hidden beauty and evoking emotional expressiveness. Perlman’s orchestral, chamber, and vocal works have received recognition and commissions from institutions and ensembles such as the Aspen Music Festival, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, European Capital of Culture Festival, American Guild of Organists, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, Philharmonie der Nationen, Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheva, The Yale Glee Club, Ensemble Modern Academy, Meitar Ensemble, Israel Contemporary Players, Jerusalem Street Orchestra, Arab-Jewish Youth Orchestra, the Israeli Flute Choir, Tacet(i) Ensemble, Tremolo Ensemble, MultiPiano Ensemble, Omer String Quartet, and the Lysander Piano Trio. His works have been performed in Israel, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Austria, Britain, and the United States. Perlman has been honored with various accolades, including the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Ronald G. Pogorzelski and Lester D. Yankee Award from the American Guild of Organists, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Composer Award, the Rena Greenwald Memorial Prize from the Yale School of Music, the François Schapira Prize for Composition from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and the 1st Prize at the Israel Conservatory’s National Composition Competition. Additionally, Perlman has received scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, the Israeli Composers League, the Siday Fellowship for Musical Creativity, and the Baden-Württemberg-Stipendium. He was composer-in-residence at MacDowell, I-Park Foundation, and Herrenhaus Edenkoben, and also held fellowships at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA and Meitar Ensemble’s Tedarim Project for Contemporary Music. In 2021, Perlman was recognized by the Haaretz newspaper as one of the nine ‘most promising Israeli contemporary composers’. Currently, Perlman is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition at the Yale School of Music, where his doctoral thesis won the 2022 Friedmann Thesis Prize. He holds degrees from the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin (Artist Diploma) and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (B. Mus. & M.Mus.). His mentors include Christopher Theofanidis, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Martin Bresnick, Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Yinam Leef, and Menachem Wissenberg. He resides with his wife in Berlin.
Serge Haroche is a renowned physicist. After his studies at the University of Paris VI, he worked for almost ten years at the CNRS. He developed new methods for laser spectroscopy, based on the study of quantum beats and superradiance. He taught in many prestigious institutions and since 2001, he is a professor at the Collège de France and holds the chair of quantum physics. On 9 October 2012 Haroche was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, together with the American physicist David Wineland, for their work regarding measurement and manipulation of individual quantum systems.
Nicolas Grimal was awarded the Agrégation in Classics in 1971 and the Doctorat d’Etat in 1984. Since 1988, he has been Professor of Egyptology at the Sorbonne (Paris IV). From 1989 to 1999 he was director of the Institut français d’archéologie orientale in Cairo. Since 1990, he has been scientific director of the Franco-Egyptian Centre for the Study of the Temples of Karnak (CFEETK). He held the Chair of Egyptology at the Collège de France from 2000 to 2020. Since 2022, he has been Permanent Secretary of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. He was awarded the Prix Gaston-Maspero by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1987 and the Prix Diane Potier-Boes by the Académie Française in 1989.
Born into a family of musicians, Jérôme Akoka studied in Paris, Budapest, Moscow and Siena, before beginning to play as a soloist and chamber musician, and as solo violinist in various groups. He has performed with orchestras and in recital all around the world and has recorded several albums to critical acclaim. Several composers have called on him to premiere their works. After being a member of the Simon Quartet, he joined the Orpheus Quartet for an international career that lasted until 2008. Solo violinist of the Deutsche Kammer Akademie since 2004, he is also guest conductor of this ensemble. In the field of early music, he joined the Concert d’Astrée after directing the Ensemble Fragonard, which he founded. He takes part in the activities of the Chambre Philharmonique and the Cercle de l’Harmonie. He is artistic director of the music programme at the Abbaye Port-Royal des Champs. Jérôme Akoka is a member of the Prometheus 21 Ensemble.
Élie Barnavi is a historian and essayist, and Professor Emeritus of the History of the Modern Occident at Tel Aviv University. From 2000 to 2002, he served as Israel’s ambassador to France. Since 1998, as scientific adviser to the Museum of Europe in Brussels and scientific director of the Tempora society, he has directed or co-directed the scientific committees of several exhibitions. Élie Barnavi has published around twenty works on the French and European sixteenth century and on the contemporary history of Israel and the Jewish people, as well as studies in professional journals in Europe, the United States and Canada and political analysis articles in the mainstream press in Israel and abroad (France, Belgium, Spain, Italy). Élie Barnavi has received several awards, including the Grand Prix de la Francophonie from the Académie Française in 2007 for his entire work. Élie Barnavi is a member of several scientific and advisory boards. In France, he chaired the international symposium on the fiftieth anniversary of the Ministry of Culture in 2009.
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