Reed Tetzloff, Alexandra Tirsu, Danjulo Ishikaza, Prague Philharmonic Orchestra & Paweł Kapuła
Biography Reed Tetzloff, Alexandra Tirsu, Danjulo Ishikaza, Prague Philharmonic Orchestra & Paweł Kapuła
Reed Tetzloff
“an artist of broad musical tastes and individuality,” (South Florida Classical Review) has been hailed for his “richly communicative” performances (The Cincinnati Enquirer). He came to international attention at the XV Tchaikovsky Competition, where he was dubbed “the lyric hero of the competition.” (Сноб Magazine). He has excited audiences worldwide, ever since making his Lincoln Center concerto debut at Alice Tully Hall in 2012.
He has performed in major European venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Düsseldorf’s Kunstpalast, the Allerheiligen Hofkirche at the Munich Residenz, Prague’s Rudolfinum, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Place Flagey in Brussels, and De Singel in Antwerp. His frequent solo recitals in the United States have been heard from coast to coast. In Asia, his 2024 debut at the Seoul Arts Center was broadcast on Korean television. He has also performed in major venues across China.
South Florida Classical Review recently named Tetzloff’s performance of Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Miami International Piano Festival Orchestra as one of the Top Ten Performances of 2023, and wrote: “Combining artistic intelligence, immaculate technique, and daredevil bravura, Tetzloff’s playing was idiosyncratic in the best sense of the term.”
Other orchestral engagements include the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra, and the Wisconsin Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. He has been in residence at festivals such as the Grand Teton Music Festival, the International Keyboard Institute and Festival, the Miami International Piano Festival, and the Festival de Musique de Wissembourg.
Reed Tetzloff has recorded for the Aparté, Master Performers, and Romeo Records labels. In May 2024, the first volume of a recording of the complete Beethoven Concertos was released on the Aparté label, with Paweł Kapuła conducting the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The album garnered five-star reviews in Diapason and Classica magazines, and was presented on France Musique as Disc of the Day. The release of the complete Beethoven cycle is scheduled for 2025.
He previously received career grants from Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi and from the Center for Musical Excellence, which sponsored his debut album Sounds of Transcendence on Romeo Records. Reviewing the album, Patrick Rucker in Gramophone Magazine extolled his “kaleidoscopic colors” and “fervent rapture” in music of Franck, Scriabin, and Charles Griffes. His album of Schumann pianos works was released in 2021 on Master Performers and noted for its “originality and uncommon perceptiveness” (Voix des Arts). This was followed by a second release on Master Performers, Concord—produced by the Grammy-award-winning Steven Epstein—which garnered wide acclaim, including a five-star review in Fanfare Magazine that praised his “warmth and wide range of colors” in sonatas by Ives and Beethoven.
Born in Minneapolis, MN, Reed Tetzloff studied at Mannes College in New York with Pavlina Dokovska, having previously studied in his hometown with Dr. Paul Wirth. Within his first year and a half of undergraduate study at Mannes, he had won the school’s two largest awards: the Concerto Competition and the Nadia Reisenberg Competition. He also won prizes from various international competitions, including the Tbilisi International Piano Competition and the Cincinnati World Piano Competition.
Tetzloff is an acclaimed writer. Huntley Dent in Fanfare Magazine praised his essay on Schumann for how it “explores (the music’s) intricacies deeper than any other pianist I’ve heard commenting on the piece.” He is currently at work on a collection of essays.
Alexandra Tirsu
is a violinist recognised internationally for her expressive artistry and award-winning performances. 3rd prize and audience-award winner of the prestigious 2021 ARD Competition, the young Moldovan violinist Alexandra Tirsu, who completed her undergraduate studies with Pavel Vernikov in Vienna and Janine Jansen in Sion, is fast gaining recognition as one of the leading violinists of her generation.
A laureate of the 2018 Seoul International Music Competition and 2014 Osaka International Competition, her performances have garnered critical acclaim in publications such as The Strad, Classical Music Magazine, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, among many others.
Her 2022/23 season included collaborations with Sol Gabetta, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Kirill Troussov, Ioana Cristina Goicea, and Richard Galliano, as well as orchestral engagements with the London Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Kiev Virtuosi Orchestra, Pilsen Philharmonic, Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic (with immediate re-invitation), the Orquesta Fimarmónica Marchigiana, Incheon Philharmonic and Orquesta Vigo 430. Additionally, she has also performed at the Solsberg Festival, the Crans Montana Classics Festival and Sion Music Festival.
The 2023/24 seasons brings Alexandra to Seoul, Korea, where she makes her debut with the celebrated Korean Chamber Orchestra, the Residence Hall as well her debut in the Isar Philharmonie (Munich) with the Bavarian Youth Orchestra playing Britten Violin Concerto, and Romanian Athenaeum (Bucharest), alongside some of the other halls she has performed in the past seasons, including the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Herkules Saal and Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Seoul Arts Center, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and the Beijing Concert Hall.
She has performed under the baton of Semyon Bychkov, Ronald Zollman, Gabriel Bebeselea, Dmitri Jurowsky, among others, and have collaborated with musicians such as Ivry Gitlis, Michael Guttman, Daishin Kashimoto, Alexander Chaushian, Friedrich Thiele, Razvan Popovici, Uto Ughi, Diemut Poppen, Boris Brovtsyn, Vladmir Landsmann, Svetlana Makarova, Levon Chilingirian and Kyril Zlontnikov. An advocate of bringing violin music to wider audiences, she regularly collaborates with the celebrated music-comedy duo Igudesman & Joo.
Alexandra plays the 1717 “Reifenberg” Stradivari, on generous loan through The Stradivari Society. She has been a Thomastik-Infeld artist since 2021.
Danjulo Ishikaza
After receiving first prize in both the ARD Competition and Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann, Danjulo Ishizaka is today ranked among the most outstanding cellists of his generation internationally. His unique timbre and straightforward musical tone testify to the highest degree of individualism and Expressiveness. He “is (…) a veritable musical personality, phenomenal in his technical potential” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), “spectacular, brilliant and highly expressive” (FAZ), he “sings on the cello (…), each melodic vibration expresses an emotion, profoundly musical and profoundly human” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), “his performance is certain to be the highlight of the evening” (Tagesspiegel Berlin), “captivating and highly poetic”. (Guardian)
Danjulo, born into a German-Japanese family in Bonn, received his first cello lessons at the age of four. Boris Pergamenschikow, with whom he studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin from 1998 until 2004, has been a fundamental influence on him, both artistically and personally. From 2004 to 2006, he studied at the Academy with Tabea Zimmermann. In addition, he has been strongly influenced by Bernhard Greenhouse, Michael Denhoff, György Kurtág, Menahem Pressler and the Amadeus-Quartet.
At a tender age, Danjulo was able to call attention to himself through numerous prizes won at international competitions. Particularly noteworthy is the first prize at the renowned international ARD Competition in Munich, though he also previously was a first prizewinner at other important international competitions, exceptionally noteworthy are the international Gaspar Cassado Competition in Spain and the international Lutoslawski Competition in Warsaw. Upon entering his last competition, he became first prizewinner at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann in Berlin, held for the first time under the patronage of Daniel Barenboim for the legendary cellist’s centenary.
First concerts brought the cellist to the Berlin Philharmonic Hall at the young age of 17. Finally, in 2003 he debuted at the Musikverein in Vienna, in 2004 at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, in 2006 at Carnegie Hall in New York, in 2008 at the Royal Albert Hall in London and in 2010 at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
At his last stage of his live Mstislav Rostropovich has supported Danjulo by inviting him for concerts under his baton and influenced him through lessons – Danjulo has probably been one of the last ones to receive direct lessons from him. He held Danjulo in high regard and described Danjulo’s performances with these words: “phenomenal in his technical ability, perfect in his musical creative power”. Unfortunately, the European Tour planned for 2007 under the direction of Rostropovich in honor of his 80th birthday could not take place due to Rostropovich’s rapidly deteriorating health and his subsequent death.
Danjulo was chosen to participate in BBC Radio 3's renowned "New Generation Artists Scheme," offering him the opportunity to produce numerous studio recordings in 2007 and 2008 – solo, accompanied by piano and by the five BBC Symphony Orchestras – as well as holding debut recitals at Wigmore Hall London.
On his debut CD with Sony BMG, he recorded sonatas by Britten, Franck and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy with pianist Martin Helmchen. In 2006, the CD was awarded the “Echo Klassik” award of the German Phonographic Academy.
At the end of 2012, Danjulo was honored with the Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award, one of Japan’s biggest music awards, presented by the Sony Music Foundation in Tokyo.
In 2014, he was awarded the Gramophone Award for the Chamber Music Recording of the Year for his recording of the Schubert String Quintet with the Pavel Haas Quartet.
His international concert schedule regularly takes him throughout Europe, Asia and the US. He has been performing around the world with artists including Gidon Kremer, Lisa Batiashvili, Tabea Zimmermann, Julia Fischer, Veronika Eberle, Ray Chen, Martin Helmchen, Nils Mönkemeyer, Vadim Repin and Viviane Hagner and with leading orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Opera National de Paris, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, to mention a few.
Among others, he performed under the baton of such famous conductors as Gerd Albrecht, John Axelrod, Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Michail und Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Roger Norrington, Michael Sanderling, Mstislaw Rostropovich and Leonard Slatkin.
Danjulo is regularly invited to perform at renowned music festivals such as the Cellofestival in Kronberg, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, the Kissinger Sommer, the BBC Proms, the Verbier Festival, the Luzern Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Salzburg Easter Festival.
Danjulo Ishizaka is Professor of Violoncello at the City of Basel Music Academy and the Berlin University of the Arts (UDK Berlin).
Danjulo performs on the Wolfgang Schnabl cello, formerly played by Boris Pergamenschikow and provided by the Kronberg Academy, as well as the Stradivarius cello ‘Feuermann’ (1730) on loan to him from the Nippon Music Foundation, previously played by the legendary cellist Emanuel Feuermann.
