Arts Global

Alexander Sitkovetsky violin
Wu Qian piano
Leonard Elschenbroich cello

First Prizewinner of the International Commerzbank Chamber Music Award 2008, the Sitkovetsky Trio is a collaboration between three young musicians who share a passion for chamber music. Having met and worked together at the Yehudi Menuhin School, they founded the trio in 2007 and have emerged as one of the most outstanding trios of today, receiving numerous awards and critical acclaim. They have won the Philharmonia-Martin Chamber Music Award, the Kirckman Society Award, the Tillett Trust, and are supported by the Hattori Foundation, the Fidelio Trust and the Music Benevolent Fund. They held the Junior Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music from 2007 to 2008 and were the first recipients of the Golubovich Fellowship at the Trinity College of Music in 2008-2009. The trio will continue their partnership with Trinity in 2009-2010, having just received the prestigious Richard Cairns Fellowship for Chamber Music.

Last year, the trio made a highly successful Southbank debut, playing a recital in the Purcell Room, and was invited to play in front of Her Majesty the Queen in London. They made their debut appearance at the Wigmore Hall in November 2008, followed by another critically acclaimed recital there in May 2009. The trio has already given recitals at various Festivals throughout the UK and abroad, in venues such as Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, King's Lynn in Brighton, St. George's in Bristol, and the prestigious Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival in Germany. They were the Trio in Residence at the first ever Jersey Liberation Music Festival and held a masterclass for the music students of Jersey. Plans for the coming season include debuts in the Chamber Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, as well as further performances in the UK including Leicester, a return to Kettle's Yard and Blackthorpe Barn. They will also perform the Beethoven Triple Concerto five times with the Munich Symphoniker in November 2009. All three musicians enjoy varied careers as soloists and chamber musicians in their own right.

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. Lord Menuhin was his inspiration throughout his school years and they performed together on several occasions. Performances included the Bach Double Concerto, Bartok Duos at St James' Palace, and a concert of the Mendelssohn Concerto under Menuhin's baton. He has gone on to perform in international music festivals throughout Europe, and has appeared in many famous halls not only in the UK (the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and St. John's Smith Square) but also in Israel, Russia, Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA. Last season he toured with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in Bangkok, Bermuda, the USA, Japan and Europe. He made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra and was featured as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic and BBC Concert Orchestras.

Wu Qian, received her early training in Shanghai before coming to the Menuhin School at age thirteen. At fifteen she performed Mozart's concerto in the Queen Elizabeth Hall and again at the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland. She also played the Saint-Saens Concerto No.2 with the Philharmonic Orchestra in St. John's, Smith Square. She made her debut recital at the South Bank Purcell Room in 2000 and has since played there again on several occasions, including a recital broadcast by BBC Radio 3 the following year. Ms Wu presented recitals throughout Europe including the Steinway Halls of Hamburg and New York, where her performance was broadcast throughout Asia. She has appeared in many of the UK's major venues including the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival and Bridgewater Halls, and she has made her debut recital in City Hall Hong Kong. She was selected by the Independent as a "Rising Star for 2007". Her debut recording has been released in April 2009 on the Dal Segno label.

Leonard Elschenbroich, this year's winner of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, has already received invitations for orchestral performances from international conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Semyon Bychkov, Fabio Luisi, Paavo Järvi, Manfred Honeck and Christoph Eschenbach, and as a chamber musician from Gidon Kremer, Katia & Marielle Labeque and from Anne-Sophie Mutter. He has appeared as a recitalist in eighteen European countries with pianists such as Marc-André Hamelin, Martin Helmchen and Anna Vinnitskaya. He has just recorded his debut CD for Naxos featuring works by Alfred Schnittke. Mr Elschenbroich has received awards from the Kronberg Academy, the EBU-Union and the Verbier Festival and is supported intensively by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation as their only cellist. He plays the "Leonard Rose" Matteo Goffriller cello.