Alban Gerhardt

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Alban Gerhardt in the Tonhalle Düsseldorf , 2014

Alban Gerhardt (* 1969 in Berlin ) is a German cellist . As a soloist, he established himself as one of the well-known cellists of our time and has performed with many international orchestras, for example with the Berlin Philharmonic , the Cleveland Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra . He plays a Matteo Gofriller cello , built in 1710.

Life

Alban Gerhardt was born into a Berlin family of musicians. At the age of eight he began playing the cello and piano. He learned and studied with Boris Pergamenschikow in Cologne, Marion Vetter, Götz Teutsch, Markus Nyikos and Frans Helmerson , among others . He lives in Madrid.

Musical career

Gerhardt made his debut on February 22, 1987 with Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in D major with the Chamber Orchestra of the Berlin Philharmonic. Gerhardt was able to celebrate successes in various competitions early on and won prizes, for example in 1990 at the German Music Competition in Bonn, the ARD Music Competition in the same year and the Leonard Rose Competition in 1993.

His international career began with his debut at the age of 21 with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Semyon Bychkov . Since then, he has been invited to over 250 orchestras around the world including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra , London Philharmonic Orchestra , NHK Symphony Orchestra , Cleveland Orchestra , Boston Symphony Orchestra , San Francisco Symphony Orchestra , Philadelphia Orchestra , Chicago Symphony Orchestra , City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra , Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich . Partners at the podium included Myung-Whun Chung , Christoph von Dohnányi , Christoph Eschenbach , Marek Janowski , Neeme Järvi and Paavo Järvi , Wladimir Jurowski , Sir Neville Marriner , Kurt Masur , Andris Nelsons , Sakari Oramo , Kirill Petrenko , Esa-Pekka Salonen , Christian Thielemann , Michael Tilson Thomas and David Zinman . From 2012 to 2015 Alban Gerhardt was Artist in Residence of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra and in the 2014/15 season Artist in Focus at London's Wigmore Hall .

Alban Gerhardt's repertoire is extensive - he has already performed over 70 different cello concertos. It is very important to him to save lesser-known works from disappearing from the concert stage. He is constantly expanding his repertoire through frequent collaboration with contemporary composers such as Peteris Vasks , Brett Dean , Jörg Widmann , Osvaldo Golijov , Matthias Pintscher , Thomas Larcher and Mathias Hinke . Particularly noteworthy is the cello concerto written for Alban Gerhardt by the composer Unsuk Chin , which he premiered at the Proms in London in 2009 and has since performed in the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, the Far East and the USA.

At the premiere, the Guardian wrote : “The hugely challenging cello part was composed specifically for Alban Gerhardt, who made its difficulties and teeming luminous detail seem the most naturally expressive things in the world, playing from memory and maintaining perfect coordination and balance with Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony. It's a major addition to the concerto repertory. ”In August 2014, Deutsche Grammophon released the recording of the concert in the revised version from 2013.

In addition to his intensive solo activity, chamber music also plays an important role in Alban Gerhardt's work. At international festivals such as the BBC Proms in London or the Edinburgh Festival and in renowned halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie , the Wigmore Hall in London, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet, he regularly performs with chamber music partners such as Steven Osborne and Cecile Licad , Jörg Widmann, Brett Dean, Nils Mönkemeyer, Lars Vogt , Christian Tetzlaff , Lisa Batiashvili , Arabella Steinbacher , Gergana Gergova, Baiba Skride and Emmanuel Pahud .

Recordings

Alban Gerhardt's CD recordings have won several awards, including three times the ECHO Klassik (1998, 2003 and 2009) and the ICMA. The complete recording of the works for violoncello by Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) on his 100th birthday for the British label Hyperion Records , with which he was nominated for the 2013 Gramophone Award , received great attention . There is an intensive and long-term cooperation with Hyperion.

The recording of Unsuk Chin's Cello Concerto, published by Deutsche Grammophon, won the BBC Music Magazine Award in 2015 and was among the finalists of the Gramophone Awards 2015. Gerhardt earned himself by recording seldom played cello concerts, including by Eugen d'Albert and Samuel Barber , Albert Dietrich , Christoph von Dohnányi , George Enescu , Wilhelm Fitzenhagen , Friedrich Gernsheim , Hans Erich Pfitzner , Henri Vieuxtemps , Robert Volkmann and Eugène Ysaÿe .

social commitment

A major concern for Alban Gerhardt is to break old listening and concert habits and to inspire a new audience for classical music, for example with his programs specially aimed at a young audience, visits to schools and hospitals or projects like Bach in the train station . In cooperation with Deutsche Bahn , Gerhardt played small solo concerts in various train stations in 2012. In addition, he is involved in refugee aid.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ With Tchaikovsky in Viersen and Bochum. In conversation: the cellist Alban Gerhardt. (No longer available online.) In: WDR 3 . December 14, 2015, archived from the original on February 16, 2016 ; accessed on February 16, 2016 (moderation: Daniel Frosch).
  2. ↑ Laureate of the DMW. (No longer available online.) In: Deutscher Musikwettbewerb. Archived from the original on February 16, 2016 ; accessed on February 16, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Prize winner violoncello. (PDF download) of the ARD international music competition. In: Bayerischer Rundfunk. Retrieved February 16, 2016 .
  4. ^ Mark Carrington: Leonard Rose Cello Competition . In: Washington Post . July 26, 1993.
  5. ↑ Program of May 23, 2010. In: Royal Philharmonia Orchestra. Retrieved February 16, 2016 .
  6. ↑ John Rodes: Not a particularly promising debut. In: Concertonet.com. Retrieved February 16, 2016 .
  7. ↑ David Stapler: Cellist Alban Gerhardt is Oregon Symphony's first artist-in-residence . In: The Oregonian . February 16, 2012.
  8. ↑ Jonathan Swain: Prom 38 / Ravel, Unsuk Chin, Stravinsky. BBC Proms 2009. In: BBC Radio. Retrieved February 16, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Sybill Mahlke: As soon as possible. Alban Gerhardt with the Berlin Philharmonic. In: Tagesspiegel . May 10, 2014, accessed February 16, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Guy Dammann: Alban Gerhardt and friends review - music-making at its most invigorating. In: Tge Guardian . June 23, 2015, accessed February 16, 2016 .
  11. ↑ The winners of the Klassik Echo 2009. In: Die Welt . October 1, 2009, accessed February 16, 2016 .
  12. ^ Winners 2015. In: ICMA website. January 20, 2015, accessed February 16, 2016 .
  13. ^ Lydia Conolly: Alban Gerhardt (cello). In: Hyperion Records website. Retrieved February 16, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Rebecca Franks: Winners of BBC Music Magazine Awards 2015 announced. In: Classical-music.com. April 2, 2015, accessed February 16, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Chris O'Reilly: Awards - Gramophone Awards 2015: Finalists. In: Prestocalssical.co.uk. August 17, 2015, accessed February 16, 2016 .
  16. ↑ Dirk Hühner: Alban Gerhardt plays Vieuxtemps and Ysaÿe. An outstanding soloist. (No longer available online.) In: Weltkulturradio RBB. February 24, 2015, formerly in the original ; accessed on February 16, 2016 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kulturradio.de
  17. ↑ Johannes Schmitz: Elite cellist plays in train stations. Alban Gerhardt. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . May 23, 2015, accessed February 16, 2016 .
  18. ^ Nicolas Nebout: "People tend to forget how special a live performance is". Interview: Alban Gerhardt. (No longer available online.) In: classicaldiary.com . May 17, 2016, archived from the original on May 27, 2016 ; accessed on May 27, 2016 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Gerhardt, Alban
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cellist
DATE OF BIRTH 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin