The International Anton Rubinstein Competition 2017 - CELLO

Josef Alin was born in Stockholm 1995 into a family of musicians and started playing the cello at the age of six. After six years of studies at the Junior Academy of Music in Stockholm with Ulrika Edström he is since October 2014 a student at University of the Arts in Berlin with Prof. Jens Peter Maintz. He has taken part in master courses across Europe with cellists such as Gary Hoffman, Steven Isserlis, Anner Bylsma and Torleif Thedeen.! ! In 2012, Josef Alin won First Prize at the ”Rondo International Music Competition”. He was also a prize-winner at ”Stockholm International Music Competition” and ”The Polar Star Prize”. Josef has received numerous scholarships from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, was a scholarship holder at the Kuhmo Festival Music Course in 2013 and in 2015 he received the prestigious ”Guido Vecchi-Scholarship”.! ! The young cellist is an active chamber musician and has performed at the Royal Concert Hall in Stockholm and worked with renowned chamber music ensembles and artists such as the ”Brodsky Quartet”, ”Kungsbacka Piano Trio”, ”Trio Con Brio” and Dmitry Sitkovetsky. Additionally, he has as a member of the ”Aurora Piano Quartet” played concerts in England, Czech Republic and Sweden. As an orchestra musician he is a member of the Swedish National Youth Orchestra which has performed in Carnegie and Chicago Symphony Hall under conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Tõnu Kaljuste. Formerly, he also used to be principal cellist with the Stockholm Youth Symphony Orchestra. Josef currently plays on a cello built by Peter Westerlund on loan from the Swedish Welin Foundation.

Rolando Fernandez Lara, , was born in Havana, Cuba, 1990, in the family of Cuban and Mexican musicians. He started playing cello at the age of 4 under the guidance of his father.

Rolando performed as soloist for the first time with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Queretaro being 10 years old. Later with the same orchestra he played the Saint-Sans Concert for cello and at the age of 14 the Rococo Variations by Tchaikovsky. In the subsequent years, he performed solo with the Silvestre Revueltas Youth Orchestra the concerts for cello by Dvorak and Haydn.

In 2004, he attended a summer course in Basel, Switzerland with Emil Rovner and Ivan Monighetti and was awarded a full scholarship for the International Chamber Music Festival of Viana do Castelo in Portugal, simultaneously receiving master classes by Levon Mouradian, Rovner and Monighetti performing as soloist in the concert “Rising Stars” of the festival.

In August, 2009, Rolando was awarded the special prize of the jury in the sixth International Cello Competition “Carlos Prieto”.

In the summer of 2011, he performed the Cello Concerto by sir E. Elgar with Queretaro Symphonic Orchestra.

Andreas erhielt seinen ersten Cellounterricht im Alter von fünf Jahren bei Hartmut Tröndle (Leopold-Mozart-Konservatorium Augsburg).

2003 wechselte er zu dem legendären Cellopädagogen Prof. Eldar Issakadze an die David-Oistrach-Akademie (Ingolstadt).

Ab 2005 unterrichtete ihn Prof. Stephan Haack (Solocellist der Münchner Philharmoniker). Meisterkurse besuchte Andreas bei Prof. Wolfgang Böttcher, Emmanuelle Bertrand, David Pia, Tristan Cornut, Prof. Raphael Wallfisch, Prof. Laszlo Fenyö, Maximilian Hornung und Kent Nagano. Wichtige kammermusikalische Impulse erhielt er zudem von Prof. Herwig Zack und Prof. Bernd Glemser.

2006 und 2013 erhielt er das Stipendium von Domaine Forget für den internationalen Meisterkurs „Stage des Cordes“ in Quebec/ Kanada bei Matt Haimovitz. Es folgten Engagements im Mozart-Geburtstags-Spezial „Wunderkind Mozart“ in München im Carl-Orff-Saal des Gasteigs und beim Projekt „klasse Klassik“ mit dem Rundfunkorchester München.

2007 erhielt er den Kulturpreis der Stadt Bobingen.

2008 zeichnete der Bayerische Rundfunk Josef Haydns Cellokonzert C-Dur mit dem damals 13-jährigen Solisten auf.

2009 begann er sein Studium als Jungstudent in der Klasse von Prof. Jean-Guihen Queyras, dem Leiter der Meisterklasse für Violoncello an der Musikhochschule Freiburg, sowie an der Musikhochschule Stuttgart Kammermusik bei Prof. Peter Buck (Melosquartett).

Beim Wettbewerb „Jugend Musiziert“ in der Wertung Violoncello solo erhielt er im Jahr 2010 den 1. Bundespreis. Im selben Jahr erhielt er ein Stipendium zur Teilnahme am Oberstdorfer Musiksommer und gewann den 1. Preis beim Deutschen-Klassikpreis des WDR und der Stadt Münster.

Seit März 2011 ist er Stipendiat der Yehudi Menuhin Stiftung — Live Music Now.

Zum Sommersemester 2011 folgte er Prof. Queyras an die Musikhochschule Freiburg und studiert seit Oktober 2014 bei Prof. Berger am Leopold Mozart Zentrum Augsburg.
Ein Jahr später gewann er den 1. Preis beim 6. internationalen Johann-Andreas-Stein Wettbewerb.

Konzerte führten ihn zu bedeutenden Festivals wie z.B. dem Amsterdam Festival, den Salzburger Festspielen, dem Gstaad Festival oder auch der Münchner Biennale.
Derzeit spielt Andreas auf einem Violoncello von Gennaro Gagliano aus dem Jahre 1750. Eine treuhänderische Leihgabe aus Familienbesitz.

Born in Australia February 1996, Sam began studying cello at age 12.                                                   Sam has won several Australian competitions and in 2011 won the Australian Concerto Competition 18 years and under. He has appeared with orchestras as soloist performing the Saint Saens Cello Concerto, Haydn Cello Concerto in D major No 2, Dvorak Cello Concerto, Elgar Cello Concerto and Bloch ‘Schelomo’. He performed as a soloist on tour at the Sofia Music Festival in Bulgaria and the Glebe Music Festival. He was a semi-finalist in the 2012 Gisborne International Music Competition and received the International String Player award. In 2013 Sam was a finalist in the National Youth Concerto Competition Australia and performed the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Queensland Youth Symphony. He was awarded 3rd prize in the 2013/2014 Gisborne International Music Competition. Sam won the 2015 Royal Over Seas League chamber music competition and toured Europe with his cello quartet ‘Quattro’. In 2016 Sam won the National Concerto Competition New Zealand performing Bloch ‘Schelomo’ with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. Later that year sam was awarded 6th place in the Brahms International Cello Competition and made his debut in Wigmore Hall. Sam currently studies at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf under Pieter Wispelwey.

Teodor Rusu was born in November 1991 in Brasov, Romania. His first solo performance was at the age of 8, with the “Gheorghe Dima” Philharmonic in Brasov, and later on at the age of 13, performing the first cello concerto written by Camille Saint-Saëns. In 2009 he was invited to make a tour in Germany and Austria together with Irina Rusu (violin) and Sebastian Deser (piano) in which they performed and recorded Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, under the direction of Karl Heinz Vater. He is the prize winner of various national and international competitions: Mihail Jora” National Cello Competition(2008), “Miniatura Romantica” National Cello Competition (2010), “Rudolf  Matz” International String Competition (2013), “Enrico Mainardi” International Cello Competition (2014) and “Liezen” International Cello Competition (2014).  In 2014 he received endorsement from the International Salzburg Association and Theodor-Rogler Foundation.  He regurarly performs in festivals such as Salzburg Chamber Festival, Mozart Week Festival and Musica Coronensis. Teodor attended several master classes throughout Europe with: Rafael Rosenfeld, Götz Teutsch, Heinrich Schiff, Thomas Grossenbacher, Martin Hornstein, Janos Starker and Laszlo Fenyo. As an avid chamber musician, he has worked and collaborated with artists such as: Wolfgang Redik, Rainer Schmidt, Pavel Gililov, Imre Rohmann, Andreas Weber and Cordelia Hofer- Teutsch. In the year of 2013 he founded a Duo together with pianist Paul Cartianu, and together they played in Germany, Romania, Austria and in 2015 having their English debut concert in St. Martin-in-the-Fields (London). In November 2016 he received the “Bachelor of Arts” diploma with honors from the  Mozarteum University of Salzburg. At the moment he is pursuing the Master Studies in the class of Enrico Bronzi.