Festival Artist-in-Residence: Alban Gerhardt
Alban Gerhardt has established himself among the great cellists of our time over the past decade. His sound is unmistakable and he distinguishes himself with interpretations of great originality; the cello simply sings under his hands, familiar works are reborn and unknown works come to life with vibrancy and flair. One of those rare artists who fascinate audiences with unerring musical instincts, intensity of feeling and an arresting stage presence, Mr. Gerhardt is breaking with the constraints placed on classical music by traditions of the recent past to bring the excitement of classical music to younger audiences - the reason for his dedication to the project “Rhapsody in School”.
After early successes at competitions and his debut as a 21-year-old with the Berlin Philharmonic under Semyon Bychkov he started his career nineteen years ago, which led him in the meanwhile to more than 180 different orchestras worldwide, among which you’ll find most of the top European and American orchestras (including the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic) led by conductors such as Kurt Masur, Christoph von Dohnányi, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Thielemann, Sir Neville Marriner, Marek Janowski, Leonard Slatkin, Sakari Oramo, Paavo Järvi and Miguel Hardt-Bedoya.
In the 2008/09 season Alban Gerhardt made his debuts with the WDR Radio Symphony Cologne (T.Koopman), the Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Orchestra Helsinki and the Symphony Orchestras of Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania and New Zealand (tour with J.Jones). Reinvitations brought him back to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radio Symphony Hamburg (C.v.Dohnányi) und Radio Symphony Berlin (M.Janowski), the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Gürzenich-Orchestra Köln (M.Stenz), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (A.Nelsons), Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony as well as to the Czech Philharmonic (E.Gulberg Jensen).
First highlight of the coming season is the world premier of the concerto written for Alban by Unsuk Chin at the Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Scottish Symphony (I.Volkov) followed by his debuts with the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (N.Järvi), Tonhalle Zurich (A.Nelsons), Danish Radio Symphony, Vienna Symphony (A.Boreyko), Orchestre National de France (Kurt Masur),
Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg (M.Albrecht), Deutsche Sinfonieorchester Berlin (I.Metzmacher), Netherlands Radio Philharmonic (M.Pintscher), the Kansas City Symphony (M.Stern) and the New World Symphony (O.Vänskä). Besides recitals a.o. at Londons Wigmore Hall, Montreal and the Philippines he returns to the Orchestre Suisse Romande, the Orchestre National de Belgique (W.Weller), the HR Radio Symphony Frankfurt (M.Stenz) and the Houston Symphony Orchestra (H.Lintu).
Alban Gerhardt‘s repertoire is extensive.He played already about 60 different cello concerti, among them some new discoveries. His collaboration with composers like Unsuk Chin, Peteris Vasks, Brett Dean, Jörg Widmann, Osvaldo Golijov, Mathias Hinke and Matthias Pintscher demonstrate his interest in enlarging the cello repertoire. Chamber music plays, in spite of his intensive soloistic occupation, an important role in his life: at international festivals like the „Proms“ in London and the Edinburgh Festival and in prestigious halls like the Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Suntory Hall Tokyo and the Chatelet Paris he plays with colleagues such as Steven Osborne, Cecile Licad, Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, Lisa Batiashvili, Arabella Steinbacher, Tabea Zimmermann and Emmanuel Pahud.
His cd’s have been highly acclaimed and won among others three times the prestigious ECHO Classic Award, most recently for his all-Reger double cd (2009). He earned some reputation for recording rare concertos (von E.d’Albert, S. Barber, A. Dietrich, E. Dohnányi, G. Enescu, F. Gernsheim,
A. Honegger, R.Schumann, R. Volkmann, A. Rubinstein), and also his latest cd combines the concerto and the Sinfonia Concertante by Prokofiev (Bergen Philharmonic, Andrew Litton, Hyperion, September 2009) for the first time on one recording.
Alban Gerhardt‘s most important teachers were Boris Pergamenschikow, Markus Nyikos and Frans Helmerson.
