Martha Argerich was born in Buenos Aires (Argentina). She began her first piano lessons at the age of five with Vincenzo SCARAMUZZA. Considered a child prodigy, she soon performs in public. In 1955, she moved to Europe and continued her studies in London, Vienna and in Switzerland with SEIDLHOFER, GULDA, MAGALOFF, Mrs LIPATTI et Stefan ASKENASE.In 1957, she won the Bolzano and Geneva Piano Competitions, and in 1965 the Warsaw International Chopin Competition. Since then, she has been one of the most prominent pianists in the world both in popularity and ability.

Martha Argerich has been rated highly for her performance of the virtuoso piano literature of the XIX and XX centuries. Her large repertoire includes Bach and Bartok, Beethoven and Messiaen, as well as Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Franck, Prokofiev, Stravinski, Shostakovitch, Tchaikovski.

Though she is permanently invited by the most prestigious orchestras, conductors and music festivals in Europe, Japan, America and Israel (with Zubin Mehta and Lahav Shani), chamber music takes a significant part of her musical life. She regularly plays and records with Nelson FREIRE, Alexandre RABINOVITCH, Mischa MAISKY, Gidon KREMER, Daniel BARENBOIM: « This harmony within a group of people gives me a strong and peaceful feeling ».

Martha Argerich has recorded for EMI, Sony, Philips, Teldec, DGG and many of her performances were broadcasted on television worldwide. She has received many awards : “Grammy Award” for Bartok and Prokofiev Concertos, “Gramophon – Artist of the Year”, “Best Piano Concerto Recording of the Year” for Chopin concertos, “Choc” of the Monde de la Musique for her Amsterdam’s recital, “Künstler des Jahres Deutscher Schallplatten Kritik”, “Grammy Award” for Prokofiev’s Cinderella with Mikhael Pletnev and lately a “Grammy Award” for Beethoven Concertos 2 & 3 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Claudio Abbado (DGG / Best Instrumental Soloist Performance), “Sunday Times – Record of the Year” and “BBC Music Magazine Award” for her Shostakovitch recording (EMI – 2007). Last recordings: Mozart concertos K466 and K503 with Orchestra Mozart et Claudio Abbado, duo recital with Daniel Barenboim (Deutsche Grammophon.)

Since 1998 she is the Artistic Director of the Beppu Festival in Japan; in 1999 she creates the International Piano Competition and Festival Martha Argerich in Buenos Aires, and in June 2002 the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano. In 2018, she launched the Martha Argerich Festival in Hamburg.

Martha Argerich has received numerous distinctions: – “Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres” in 1996 and “Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres ” in 2004 by the French Government – “Accademica di Santa Cecilia” in Rome in 1997 – “Musician of the Year” by Musical America 2001 – « The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette » by the Japanese Emperor and the prestigious « Praemium Imperiale » by the Japan Art Association in 2005. – Kennedy Center Honnors by Barack Obama on december 2016 – Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by Sergio Mattarella in October 2018.

Source: Artemon Music

“Sergei Nakariakov plays the trumpet the way the rest of us breathe – if we are lucky.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

Sergei Nakariakov, the israeli-russian trumpet player, has established himself as one of the most sought-after trumpet players on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, a suave and velvet-toned sound and a deep sensitivity he was named “The Paganini of the trumpet” and “Caruso of the trumpet”. Nakariakov has single-handedly brought the flugelhorn to prominence on the concert platform. He has developed long-standing relationships with many of the world’s most respected leading orchestras, conductors and musicians.

Nakariakov’s repertoire covers not only the entire range of original literature for trumpet, but is continually expanding into broader territories, comprising many fascinating transcriptions and commissions by Peter Ruzicka, Uri Brener, Enjott Schneider and Jörg Widmann, while he searches for ever new means of musical expression.

“In Sergei Nakariakov Widmann found a soloist to whom he could write an almost unplayable solo part.” (Online Music Magazin)

Nakariakov has performed with many of the world’s most respected conductors including Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Saulius Sondeckis, Christoph Eschenbach, Yuri Temirkanov, Jiří Bělohlávek, Jaap van Zweden, Yuri Bashmet, Sir Neville Marriner, Mikhail Pletnev, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Hugh Wolff, Ton Koopman as well as great orchestras. Furthermore, he regularly collaborates with many of the world’s leading musicians like Vadim Repin, Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Emmanuel Pahud, Julian Rachlin, Dmitri Sitkovetsky for chamber music projects. With the pianist Maria Meerovitch and his sister, Vera Okhotnikova, he combines a long musical-friendly collaboration.

Sergei Nakariakov’s discography with Teldec Classics International (Warner) has drawn the most enthusiastic public and critical acclaim and incorporates the most famous original repertoire trumpet as well as numerous arrangements for trumpet and flugelhorn.

Born in Gorky Sergei began to play the piano when he was six years old, but moved on to the trumpet, a change of direction in which he was supported by his father, Mikhail Nakariakov, who has transcribed many classical concerts for the trumpet and created a unique repertoire for Sergei. He gave him his technical knowledge and helped him to develop still further his exceptional feel for music.

Sergei Nakariakov plays on AR Resonance trumpet and mouthpieces and flugelhorn by Antoine Courtois, Paris.

Source: Sergei Nakariakov

The French horn player and conductor Radek Baborák is one of the most prominent musical personalities of the Classical music scene internationally. Since his solo debut in 1989, he has been collaborating with many of the world’s top orchestras and leading conductors. After serving for many years as the principal French horn player of the Berlin Philharmonic, and having been enriched by a great deal of experience in the field of chamber music and as the artistic director of ensembles (the Baborak Ensemble, the Horn Chorus, and the Afflatus Quintet), in 2008 he began a parallel career as a conductor. In doing so, he is following in the tradition of conducting instrumentalists who decided to realise their artistic ideas and dreams by conducting their own performances. Along these lines, Baborák’s main mentor and model is Maestro Daniel Barenboim, whom he assisted with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and he has appeared as a soloist under Barenboin’s baton. He has taken part in chamber projects of the Boulez Ensemble, and he serves as a professor at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin.

The initial impulse that led him to the conductor’s podium was being asked by the musicians of the Mito Chamber Orchestra to step in for their ailing chief conductor, Maestro Seiji Ozawa, on a European tour in 2008. Baborák became Ozawa’s pupil, and the highpoint of their work together came at the jubilee 100th concert of the MCO, at which Radek Baborák conducted the first two movements of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, then Seiji Ozawa conducted the third movement and the finale.

In 2011 he took the initiative in founding the Czech Sinfonietta, a festival orchestra, of which he is the chief conductor, and in 2013 he took over as the artistic director of the Prague Chamber Soloists. Since the 2017 season he has been the principal guest conductor of the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra, and since the 2021 season he is the chief conductor of the West Bohemia Symphony Orchestra in Mariánské Lázně.

Radek Baborák has worked with such orchestras as the Duisburg Philharmonic, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Thuringia Philharmonic, the Rhine Philharmonic, the Malaysian Philharmonic orchestra, the Istanbul State Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, and the Prague Philharmonia.

He is exceptionally popular in Japan, where he has conducted many orchestras including the New Japan Philharmonic, the Mito Chamber Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Nagoya Philharmonic, and the Kioi Sinfonietta.

As a conductor and soloist, he has appeared at such renowned festivals as Maggio musicale Fiorentino, the Mozartwoche Salzurg, the Pacific Music Festival, the Martha Argerich Festival in Beppu, the Prague Spring Festival, the Dvořák Prague Festival, and Smetana’s Litomyšl. He has accompanied such renowned soloists as Yefim Bronfmann, Guy Braunstein, Julian Steckel, Saleem Aboud Ashkar, Marie-Piere Langlamet, Jana Boušková, Clara Dent, Janne Saksala, Dalibor Karvay, Jan Mráček, and Ricardo Galliano.

Radek Baborák’s repertoire includes music of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods and works of the 20th and 21st centuries by composers including N. Tamir, T. Hosokawa, J. Adams, E. P. Salonen, and A. S. Saario.

He has given world premieres of works by J.G.Páleníček, M.Bok, L. Hurník, and A.Březina as well as of his own compositions l’Orangerie and N.V.P. 

Source: Česká sinfonietta