Carnegie Hall

Marc Bouchkov was born in 1991 to a family of violinists. He received his first lessons at age five from his grandfather, Mattis Vaitsner, and later studied with Claire Bernard and Boris Garlitsky. From 2014 to 2017, he studied with Mihaela Martin as a Young Soloist of the Kronberg Academy, and since October 2018, he has been the tutee of Eduard Wulfson. Mr. Bouchkov is professor of violin at the Conservatoire royal de Liège and the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein.

Mr. Bouchkov is winner of the Henri Koch International Violin Competition, Queen Elisabeth Competition, and Concours Musical International de Montréal. Most recently, he was awarded second prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition and the music prize of the Kulturstiftung Dortmund. He is a frequent guest at international festivals that include the Verbier, Davos, and Heidelberger Frühling, and has performed at many reputable concert halls, such as the Théâtre de la Ville, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. In October 2016, he made his debut at Wigmore Hall, where he was honored with a London Music Masters award.

Mr. Bouchkov has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Stanislav Kochanovsky, Andrey Boreyko, and Christoph Eschenbach; artists such as Georgiy Dubko, Alexey Stadler, Behzod Abduraimov, Christopher Park, Kian Soltani, and Adrien Boisseau; and orchestras such as the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orchestre National de Belgique, RAI National Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, and Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie. In 2014, at the invitation of Mariss Jansons, Mr. Bouchkov performed the inaugural concert of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Essentials series.

In the fall of 2017, Mr. Bouchkov’s first album was released. It was produced as part of the new harmonia#nova series by Harmonia Mundi and was awarded a Diapason Découverte and nominated for a 2018 International Classical Music Award.

Highlights of the 2019–2020 season include performances at the Mariinsky Theatre under Valery Gergiev, Bernstein’s Serenade, after Plato’s Symposium with the Hamburg Ballet and John Neumeier, a recording of Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto under Howard Griffiths with pianist Claire Huangci and the Kammerorchester Basel, and recitals and chamber concerts around Europe.

Dutch-American violinist Stephen Waarts began his studies with Li Lin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and continued with Aaron Rosand at the Curtis Institute, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree. He was also admitted to the Perlman Music Program led by Itzhak Perlman.

With competition successes as a prizewinner at the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2015), first-prize winner at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists (2014), and second-prize winner at the Concours musical international de Montréal (2013), Mr. Waarts is in worldwide demand and takes part in numerous international festivals. In 2017, he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 2019, he received the Orchestra Award of the International Classical Music Awards from the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra; he returns to Lucerne this season for a recital at the KKL Luzern.

In 2015 and 2017, Mr. Waarts was an active participant in the Kronberg Academy Festival, during which he participated in master classes with Mihaela Martin and Christian Tetzlaff. In 2018, he took part in Chamber Music Connects the World, and in 2019, he performed Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante with Timothy Ridout and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the baton of Sir András Schiff as part of the Kronberg Academy Festival. Since October 2016, he has studied at the Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin. These studies are funded by the Bubmann/Rühland Stipendium.

American violist Matthew Lipman has come to be known as one of the leading players of his generation, frequently appearing as both a soloist and chamber music performer.

Highlights of recent seasons include appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and Juilliard Orchestra. Mr. Lipman has worked with conductors who include Edward Gardner, Osmo Vänskä, and Nicholas McGegan. His recent solo debuts include appearances at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Seoul’s Kumho Art Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. This season, Mr. Lipman makes his debut at Carnegie Hall with the Soloists of the Kronberg Academy, as well as at Michael Tilson Thomas’s Viola Visions Festival of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach.

Mr. Lipman’s 2019 release by Cedille Records, Ascent, was celebrated by The Strad as a “most impressive” debut album, praised for its “authoritative phrasing and attractive sound.” The album marks the first-ever recording of a recently discovered work by Shostakovich—Impromptu for Viola and Piano—and Clarice Assad’s Metamorfose for viola and piano, which was commissioned for the recording. Mr. Lipman has also been featured on a recording of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by the late Sir Neville Marriner.

Named the American Viola Society’s 2019 Artist-in-Residence, Mr. Lipman has also been featured on WFMT Chicago’s “30 Under 30” list of the world’s top classical musicians, and is a published contributor to The Strad, Strings, and BBC Music Magazine. He performs regularly with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at music festivals that include White Nights of St. Petersburg, Music@Menlo, Marlboro, Ravinia, Bridgehampton, and Kissinger Sommer. His frequent chamber music partners include Martin Helmchen, Tabea Zimmermann, Mitsuko Uchida, Itzhak Perlman, Sir András Schiff, Henry Kramer, and Pinchas Zukerman. Dedicated to expanding the repertoire for viola, Mr. Lipman has also performed premieres of works by composers such as Helen Grime and David Ludwig.

Mr. Lipman is the recipient of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Kovner Fellowship, and the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, and is a major prizewinner in the Primrose, Tertis, Washington, Johansen, and Stulberg string and viola competitions. He studied at The Juilliard School with Heidi Castleman and was further mentored by Tabea Zimmermann at the Kronberg Academy. A native of Chicago and an alum of The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two), Mr. Lipman is on the faculty of Stony Brook University. He performs on a 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola, loaned through the generous efforts of the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation.

As a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, Antoine Tamestit is recognized internationally as one of the great violists. In addition to his peerless technique and profound musicianship, he is known for the depth and beauty of his sound with its rich, deep, burnished quality. His repertoire is broad, ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary, and he has performed and recorded several world premieres.

In the 2019–2020 season, Mr. Tamestit is artist-in-residence at the Kammerakademie Potsdam, where he will perform play/conduct concerts throughout the season and appear as a soloist. He is also the subject of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Artist Portrait, playing three concerto programs and four chamber music programs.

Last season, Mr. Tamestit toured the US with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. He returned to the London Symphony Orchestra and performed with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre de Paris, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo.

Mr. Tamestit is a founding member of Trio Zimmermann with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Christian Poltéra. Together they have recorded a number of acclaimed albums for BIS Records, most recently Bach’s Goldberg Variations, released in May 2019. Mr. Tamestit records for Harmonia Mundi; his second release of 2019 was Bach’s sonatas for viola da gamba, recorded with Masato Suzuki.

Together with Nobuko Imai, Mr. Tamestit is co–artistic director of the Viola Space Festival in Japan, which focuses on the development of viola repertoire and provides a wide range of education programs.

Born in Paris, Mr. Tamestit studied with Jean Sulem, Jesse Levine, and Tabea Zimmermann. He is the recipient of several coveted prizes, including first prize at the ARD International Music Competition, Primrose International Viola Competition, and Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He is also an awardee of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists Scheme, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and the 2008 Credit Suisse Young Artist Award.

Mr. Tamestit plays on a viola made by Stradivarius in 1672, loaned by the Habisreutinger-Stradivari Foundation.

Gary Hoffman’s style is characterized by fullness of sound, instrumental mastery, and exceptional artistic sensibility.

Mr. Hoffman made his debut at Wigmore Hall in London at the age of 15, which was quickly followed by his New York debut. At the age of 22, he became the youngest faculty appointee in the history of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. After winning the grand prize of the Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris in 1986, he embarked on an international career, appearing with the world’s most acclaimed orchestras, in major recital and chamber music series, and at prestigious festivals.

Although he has great affection for the classical cello repertoire, Mr. Hoffman is a committed champion of contemporary music. Numerous composers—among them Graciane Finzi, Renaud Gagneux, Joel Hoffman, Laurent Petitgirard, and Dominique Lemaître, to name a few—have dedicated concertos to him.

Mr. Hoffman is a regular guest with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as a remarkable and much sought-after chamber partner. He has made recordings for BMG (formerly RCA), Sony, EMI, and Le Chant du Monde, and now records on the La Dolce Volta label.

Mr. Hoffman has lived in Paris since 1990. He performs on the 1662 “ex–Leonard Rose” cello by Nicolò Amati. In 2011, he was appointed maître en résidence for cello at the prestigious Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Brussels.