The third year of the established Enescu Society concert series starts with a recital by celebrated musicians Gil Sharon, Adriana Winkler, Catalin Ilea and Michael Abramovich.
They will perfom L. van Beethoven: Trio no 5 in D Major op. 70 M. Bruch: from Eight Pieces op. 83 G. Enescu: Trio in A Minor J. Brahms: Piano Quartet in C Minor op. 60
Gil Sharon (violin/viola) Gil Sharon was born in Bucharest, Romania, that he left in 1961, moving to Israel, where he completed his studies with Prof. Partos at the Rubin-Academy in Tel-Aviv, performing at the same time both in many chamber music concerts and as soloist with various Israeli orchestras. In 1969 he moved to the Netherlands, becoming 1st concertmaster of the Limburgs Symfonie Orkest in Maastricht. His international career began in 1971 with winning the International Emily Anderson Violin Competition in London; he has been ever since present on all important concert scenes in Europe, North-America and Israel, displaying not only the broad and better known, huge violin-repertoire, but offering his public also more unusual, lesser spread works like the Concerto for Violin, Viola, Piano and String-quartet by Chausson, that he performed in Athens together with the pianist Dmitri Sgouros and the Borodin-Quartet, or Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, that he played together with Shlomo Mintz in Barcelona. His reputation as a musician of chamber-music is wide-spread; he is first violin of the Sharon Quartet and founder of the Amati Ensemble. Gil Sharon is a frequent guest of the Prades aux Champs Élysées-series of the prestigious Thêatre de Champs Élysées in Paris as well as of the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades. In 1997 Gil Sharon was conferred by Queen Beatrix for his outstanding merits for music in the Netherlands the title of Knight of Oranje-Nassau.
Adriana Winkler (violin) From 1997 and until 2007 Adriana Winkler was 1st concert master of the Royal Philharmony in Santiago de Compostela and taught a violin class at the Escuela de Altos Estudios Musicales de Galicia. She has been an award-winning participant in many national and international competitions like the "Tibor Varga"-Competition in 1990 (Sion, Switzerland). In 2007 she was appointed cultural attaché of the Romanian Embassy in Berlin. Ever since she has in parallel sustained many concerts both as soloist as well as chamber musician (she plays 2nd violin in the Ensemble Contempo Paris) in Romania, Spain, Portugal and Germany.
Catalin Ilea (cello) Catalin Ilea was born in Romania. He started playing the cello at the age of seven in his home town of Cluj. Dimitrie D. Dinicu, who had himself been a pupil of Diran Alexanian, became then his teacher at the Bucharest Academy for Music "Ciprian Porumbescu", where Catalin Ilea finished his studies as head of his class. He completed his studies with Enrico Mainardi, Milos Sadlo and Pierre Fournier. Catalin Ilea became immediately afterwards first a member and, only very short time later, 1st solo cellist of the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra "George Enescu". At only 29 years of age he was also appointed professor for chamber music at the Music Academy in Bucharest. After choosing West-Germany as his new home in 1977, he once more became 1st solo cellist first with the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra and later-on with the Philharmonia Hungarica. In 1994 he then became professor for cello at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. His solo-career started with four first prizes at international competitions in Italy, Spain and Romania and has brought him since as a guest to all major concert halls of Europe, North America and Asia. In 1976 he was awarded the Premio CIAC (Centro Italiano de Arte i Cultura) in Rome. In 1992 and 2001 he was again awarded with two distinctions of the press for his outstanding solo performances. 2005 he received the "Ordre pour le Mérite" in the rank of commander. His numerous recordings include the Bach-Suites for cello solo and Sonatas for cello and piano, the Brahms-Sonatas, the Enescu-Sonatas and Symphonie Concertante, the concertos by Schumann, Lalo, Offenbach, Vieru etc., as well as a large variety of chamber and contemporary music. He is frequently appearing both as a soloist with renowned symphony orchestras and as a chamber musician in major festivals all over the world, and his presence is requested in international master classes and juries of famous competitions such as the Tchaikovsky-, Casals- and Brahms-Competition.
Michael Abramovich (piano) The pianist Michael Abramovich was born in Bucharest and grew up in Jerusalem. He studied in Israel with Esther Narkiss and Viktor Derevianko and with Nina Svetlanova in New York. He was recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship. 1993 he won the first prize at the Tel-Aviv Rubin Academy Piano Master Competition. 1994 he made his debut with a solo recital in Merkin Hall, New York. Since 1997 Michael Abramovich lives in Berlin. Mr. Abramovich has given solo recitals in Mexico City, Salt Lake City, Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), St. Petersburg, Israel and throughout Germany. He toured South Africa with Ludwigsburg Festival Orchestra under Wolfgang Gönnenwein in a complete cycle of Beethoven's Piano Concertos. He played with Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi and Asian Youth Orchestra. He is a regular guest of George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra Bukarest. Mr. Abramovich made Radio Recordings for SWR 2 (Südwest-Rundfunk Deutschland), IBA (Israel Broadcasting Authority) and Radio France. His performance of Ravel's G Major piano concerto with National Orchestra Bukarest was broadcasted on TV. Together with violinist Ittai Shapira he recorded violin Sonatas by Janácek, Debussy and R. Strauss for Meridian Records U.K. He gave the first performance of "Neuf Études pour piano et dispositif informatíque" by Pierre Charvet and recorded the cycle for Accord, Universal Classics France. This season Mr Abramovich performed in Mozarteum Salzburg, Philharmonie Köln, Birmingham Symphonie Hall, Palais des Beaux-Arts Bruxelles, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Cité de la Musique Paris, Rheingau Musik Festival and Megaron Athens.
The Enescu Society was established by the Romanian Cultural Institute in 2007 under the Royal Patronage of HRH Princess Margarita of Romania.
The Institute runs the Enescu Society Concerts Season from October to June, on the first Thursday of each month. The concert stage of the Institute hosts outstanding musicians performing George Enescu's music alongside an international repertoire.
From September 2009 the Romanian Cultural Institute awards the Enescu Society sholarship to a student at the Royal Academy of Music.
When: Thursday, 1 October 2009, 7-9 pm;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute, London
Admission is free but places are limited. Early booking is well recommended.
Please reserve your seats at T: 020 7752 0134, E: office@icr-london.co.uk.
Latecomers will not be able to go to their seats until after the interval.
