Quirine Viersen, cello
During the past years, the 29-years old Dutch cellist Quirine Viersen has developed an impressive national and international career. With her powerful, intense and virtuoso playing, she has convinced the public, as well as the press and colleague musicians of her special musicality. With her performance in concerto and recital and with her participation at festivals, she has shown a broad insight in classical music literature.
Quirine was already a winner of various prizes at national and international competitions, such as the International Music Competition in Scheveningen , the International Cello Competition in 1990 in Paris,the International Cello Competition in Helsinki and the Philip Morris Finest Selection Foundation. In April 1994 Quirine Viersen was the first Dutch musician to win a prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1994. In that same year she also received the Dutch Music Award.
Quirine Viersen has performed with all the important Dutch orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In the Netherlands she has worked with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Hartmut Haenchen, Ton Koopman, Lawrence Renes, Jaap van Zweden, Mark Elder, Hugh Wolff, Ken-ichiro Kobayashi, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergejev, Lev Markiz and Vassili Sinaiski.
Coming seasons will see performances with among others Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Valéry Gergejev, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt and Hugh Wolff, Royal Concertgebouworchestra with Bernard Haitink, Bamberger Sinfoniker with Lawrence Renes and the Residentie Orchestra with Jaap van Zweden and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Jean Fournet.
Quirine is involved in many chamber-music projects as f.i. an extensive tour with the Prazak Quartet and numerous recitals with her duo partner Silke Avenhaus.
In November 1999 she received the "European Soloist Prize", given to her in Paris by the European Foundation of Cultural Awards and in March 2000 she won the Young Artists Award of the Credit Suisse Group in Vienna which enabled her to perform with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Zubin Mehta in the Luzern Festspiele in September 2000.
In November 1991 Sony Classical released a CD from Quirine Viersen with works of Bartók and Kodály and in 1994 the Dutch label NM Classics released a CD with Concertos for Violoncello and Orchestra, written by Dutch composers. Together with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and conducted by Ed Spanjaard, Quirine Viersen plays on lastmentioned CD the Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra by Hans Kox.
Quirine plays on a Joseph Guarnerius Filius Andreae cello from 1715 placed at her disposal by the National Musicinstrument Foundation.
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Per Tengstrand, piano
Per Tengstrand continues to establish himself as one of today's most exciting young pianists. Described by The Washington Post as "technically resplendent, powerful, intuitively secure," Mr. Tengstrand was the First Prize winner at the 1997 Cleveland International Piano Competition.
Tengstrand performs often with the leading symphony orchestras in Scandinavia such as Gothenberg, Malmo, Helsingborg, Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Tapiola Symphony and the Huarod Chamber Orchestra among others. He has appeared as soloist with the Orchestre National de France, French Radio Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra National de Lille, National Symphony of Taiwan, Singapore Symphony, New Japan and Osaka Philharmonic Orchestras. He has given recitals in Europe in such prestigious venues as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Zurich’s Tonhalle,
Paris’ Salle Gaveau and the Nice Opera House, as well as in Geneva, Bordeaux, Bergen, Norway, Montpellier Festival, Poland’s Chopin Festival and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. He performed the Dvorak Piano Quintet in Wigmore Hall with the Chilingirian String Quartet and this was repeated in Chicago and at Michigan State University.
In the United States, he has performed with the Detroit Symphony under Neeme Jarvi and the Cincinnati Symphony under Lopez-Cobos. He also played with the Alabama, Flint and Waterbury Symphony Orchestras. He enjoyed great critical acclaim for his New York recital debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and for his Kennedy Center recital debut in 2000. He returned in spring 2001 to Cleveland, the city of his 1997 triumph, for a recital under the auspices of the Cleveland Chamber music Society.
Mr. Tengstrand’s latest recording is a solo CD for ProPiano Records of Glazunov’s The Seasons, Op. 67 and Konzertwalzer, Op. 47 in a world premiere recording due for release by year’s end.
Mr. Tengstrand won the Geneva competition in 1996 and was a Laureate of the Paris International Long-Thibaud Competition in 1995. He was a recipient of the Anders Wall Foundation Scholarship in 1997. Most recently, he was awarded the 1999 Musician Award by The Swedish Arts Grants Committee. The Swedish-born pianist studied in Geneva, Paris and Malmö, where his teachers included Dominique Weber, Romuald
Sztern, Dominique Merlet and Hans Pålsson. While at the Paris Conservatory he received the Premier Prix and the Prix Spécial du Jury, and at the Geneva Conservatory he was awarded the Prix de Virtuosité.
Mr. Tengstrand received his first lessons from his mother and made his first public appearance when he was seven years old. Since then he has acquired a repertoire that spans from Bach to contemporary music and has become the dedicatee of a number of new pieces.
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