Alexander Sitkovetsky - violin
Wu Qian - piano
Leonard Elschenbroich - cello
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 last year and have already received numerous awards and critical acclaim. They have won the Philharmonia-Martin Chamber Music Award, the Kirckman Society Award, the Tillett Trust, Hattori Foundation, and they held the Junior Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music 2007-2008. Recently they became the first recipients of the Golubovich Fellowship at the Trinity college of Music resulting in many performances across London and also a concert in Russia.
In January, the trio made a highly successful Southbank debut, playing a recital in the Purcell Room, and was recently invited to play in front of Her Majesty the Queen in London. They will be making their debut appearance at the Wigmore Hall in November 2008 and have already been invited to give Recitals at various Festivals throughout the UK and abroad. Recently the trio won first prize at the International Commerzbank Chamber Music Award 2008. 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 including the Bach Double Concerto, Bartok Duos at St James's Palace, and when Alexander played the Mendelssohn concerto under Menuhin’s baton. He has gone on to perform in international music festival throughout Europe, 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 featured as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic and BBC Concert Orchestras.
Wu Qian, born in Shanghai, where she received her early training before coming to the Menuhin School at 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. Qian gave 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, 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".
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 18 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. Leonard has received awards from the Kronberg Academy, the EBU-Union and the Verbier Festival and is supported insensively by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation as their only cellist. He plays the `Leonard Rose’ Matteo Goffriller Cello.