Musicians
Dongkyun An, Violoncello
Born in Korea, Canadian cellist Dongkyun An began his musical education with Chun-Ja Choi at the age of 13. After moving to Edmonton, Canada, he continued receiving guidance from Tanya Prochazka, Colin Ryan, and David Tutt.
Reto Bieri, Clarinet
Born in Zug (Switzerland) and raised amid the sound of Swiss folk music, Reto Bieri first studied at the Basel University of Music with François Benda and then with Charles Neidich at the New York Juilliard School. His chamber music lessons with the composer György Kurtág and the pianist Krystian Zimerman as well as encounters with the author Gerhard Meier had a major influence on his work. In 2001, Reto Bieri was a laureate of the "Tribune International des Jeunes Interprètes", awarded by the European Radio Stations.
Jana Boušková, Harp
Jana Boušková undoubtedly ranks amongst the world’s most distinctive and sought-after harpists. Apart from her artistic cooperation with leading orchestras, she devotes herself to chamber music with musicians such as Maxim Vengerov, Christian Tetzlaff, Yury Bashmet, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Radek Baborák, Emmanuel Pahud, Mathieu Defour, Patrick Gallois, and Sharon Kam, to name a few.
Alexander Chaushian, Violoncello
Regarded as one of the finest cellists of the younger generation, Alexander Chaushian has performed extensively throughout the world. As a soloist with orchestra his appearances include the Vienna Chamber Orchestra at Vienna’s Konzerthaus and at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, as well as with the London Mozart Players and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Royal National Orchestra of Belgium, Les Solistes Européens de Luxembourg in a gala concert conducted by Yehudi Menuhin, the Boston Pops Orchestra at Boston Symphony Hall, and the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
Viacheslav Dinerchtein, Viola
Violist Viacheslav Dinerchtein has appeared as soloist with orchestra, in recitals and chamber music concerts throughout North and South America and Europe, including venues such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington), Centro Nacional de las Artes and Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Sociedad Filarmónica de Lima (Peru), Teatro Nacional (Ecuador), in concert series for the U.S. State Department, International Viola Congresses (USA, South Africa, Germany), the Spoleto Music Festival (Italy), the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts (Chicago), and the Niagara Music Festival (Canada), among numerous others. He has been featured in television and radio broadcasts.
Ilya Hoffman, Viola
Born in Moscow in 1977, Ilya Hoffman started his studies at the Special Gnessin School of Music in the class of Elena Ozol. Later, he was accepted into the class of Yuri Bashmet at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky State Conservatory. Mr Hoffman graduated from the Conservatory on completion of a post-graduate course that marked the end of his formal instrumental education.
Aleksei Kiseliov, Violoncello
Aleksei Kiseliov is one of the foremost cellists of his generation. Born in Belarus in 1985, he began his musical studies when he was only 5 years old at the Republican Music College with Vladimir Perlin. At the age of 8, Aleksei gave his first recital and a year later had his first tour to Holland as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of the Republican Music College. He developed his work as a soloist, performing with the Belarus Philharmonic Society, the Opera and Ballet House and the Chamber Hall. It was at this time that he won the International Competition “Music of Hope”.
Yura Lee, Violin/Viola
Violinist/violist Yura Lee, recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, is enjoying a career that spans almost two decades, and takes her all over the world. Her musical integrity and her compelling artistry were praised by both critics and some of the most respected artists of today.
Anna Lipkind, Violin/Viola
Anna was born in Moscow into a musical surrounding that is deeply rooted in the string playing traditions passed on by luminaries such as David Oistrakh and the original members of the Borodin Quartet. She began her violin studies at a young age with her mother Elena Mazor and from the age of five with Professor Irina Svetlova in Tel-Aviv.
Gavriel Lipkind, Violoncello
Gavriel Lipkind, born in Tel Aviv in 1977, enjoyed an early stellar rise to international renown as a young cellist, before making the decision to rethink a predefined life and halt a predictable path. He took a three-year period of retreat from stage life, during which he devoted himself to extensive further studies and recording.
Lipkind Quartet
Artiom Shishkov, Anna Lipkind (Violin)
Viacheslav Dinerchtein (Viola)
Gavriel Lipkind (Violoncello)
This extraordinary string quartet, founded by its cellist, stands out due to its radical and profound intellectual consideration of each creative phase it experiences, starting with social and interpersonal aspects of quartet work right through to the most refined details of an inspired bow stroke. All four members of the Lipkind Quartet are established musicians and renowned artistic personalities with significant experience in their respective fields. Nevertheless, the Lipkind Quartet’s main motivation is to harmonise as a group and to adhere to a clearly defined work structure in order to create the highest quality chamber music without compromise for many years to come.
Gwendolyn Masin, Violin
By invitation, Gwendolyn Masin created the multifaceted chamber music festival that she named “GAIA” in 2006. It has become synonymous with the design of a home, not only for its artistic director, but also for the more than eighty musicians and visual artists that have been involved with the Festival to date.
Andrei Pushkarev, Vibraphone / Arrangements
Andrei Pushkarev was born into a family of musicians in Kiev in 1974. He began his musical education as a pianist. In 1980 he enrolled in the Kiev Special Music School. At the age of 14, he started studying percussion. In 1992 Andrei Pushkarev became a student of Kiev’s Tschaikovsky National Conservatory, where he continued his professional development with Professor Alexander Blinov. In 1995, as a solo vibraphonist, he was awarded the first prize in the newly established “New Names of Ukraine” competition, where he also performed his own musical compositions.
Artiom Shishkov, Violin
Born in Minsk in 1984, Artiom started to play violin at the age of five with Janna Kutchinsky as his teacher and successfully debuted as a soloist with chamber orchestra in the Belarus State Philharmony when he was only eight. From 1994 till 2002 he studied at the Republic Music College, thereafter at the Belarus State Academy of Music with Eduard Kutchinsky and in 2010-2012 as a postgraduate student at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts with Dora Schwarzberg.
Alexander Sitkovetsky, Violin
Alexander Sitkovetsky, born in Moscow into a family with an established musical tradition, made his concerto debut at the age of eight and the same year came to study at the Menuhin School. His teachers include Natalia Boyarskaya, Hu Kun, Maya Glezarova, Pavel Vernikov, and Ana Chumachenco.
Kaspar Zehnder, Flute
Born in 1970 in Riggisberg/Bern, Kaspar Zehnder studied flute (Heidi Indermühle) and conducting (Ewald Körner) at the Bern University of the Arts simultaneously with his attendance at school, where he received the Matura Leaving Certificate. Aged 23, he graduated as a teacher, soloist and conductor within one year, then continuing his studies with Aurèle Nicolet (Basel/Siena) and at the European Mozart Academy, where he received chamber music lessons from lecturers from the Juilliard School New York, the Conservatoire de Paris, and the Mozarteum Salzburg.
Yurodny
Founded in Dublin in November 2007 by saxophonist, composer and producer Nick Roth, Yurodny perform contemporary interpretations of traditional music from around the world and work collaboratively with performers and composers who share their passion for the reimagining of tradition and the vitality of the present.
Directions to Thun
For detailed information including an online timetable at BLS, our public transport partner, please click here.
Accommodation in Thun
