Soloists
International soloists presented with complete biographies, performance media, and official links.
Alexandra Soumm
Dmitri Makhtin
Alexei Volodin
International soloists presented with complete biographies, performance media, and official links.
Born in 1992, twin brothers Alexander and Daniel started their clarinet and music education in the year 2000. In 2004, at the age of 12, they were invited by maestro Zubin Mehta to the solo position at the annual concert for young musicians with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, performing Krommer's Double Concerto under the maestro's baton.
In the 2010-2011 season, Duo Gurfinkel were invited to play again with Mr. Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, as well as with the Zagreb Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra, and in Kiev (Ukraine), plus a tour in France of 11 concerts with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire under the baton of Nader Abbassi, Moscow Virtuosi, and the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion.
French violinist Alexandra Soumm is a multi-faceted artist who is equally at home in concerto and chamber repertoire.
Alexandra has appeared with the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Galicia Symphony, Danish National Symphony, NHK Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, among many others. She has given recitals at the Auditorium du Louvre (Paris), Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), and Wigmore Hall (London), and appeared at the City of London Festival, plus the Deauville, Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier, and Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad festivals.
A passionate supporter of younger generations of musicians, she has worked with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, the Animato Foundation, the Sphinx Foundation, and Orchestre Francais des Jeunes, and has maintained involvement with the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland for over ten years.
Alexandra has long-standing ties to France and England, with ongoing relationships with leading orchestras including Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon, Montpellier, and most of the BBC ensembles, including through her period as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and London Music Masters Awardee.
Born in Moscow, Alexandra began violin at age five and gave her first concert at age seven. She later moved to Vienna to study with Boris Kuschnir and won the Eurovision Competition in 2004. In 2012, she co-founded Esperanz'Arts, a non-profit making the arts accessible in schools, hospitals, prisons, and homeless shelters. She was named Godmother of El Sistema France.
She has given masterclasses in the United States, Venezuela, Brazil, the UK, Japan, Israel, and Kenya. In 2018, she joined the Artistic and Pedagogical Committee of Musica Mundi (Belgium), and from October 2021 she has taught at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.
Alexandra actively performs repertoire from baroque to contemporary music and develops cross-disciplinary projects with poetry, literature, and philosophy. She collaborates with contemporary composers including Christoph Ehrenfellner, Krystof Maratka, Benoit Menut, Emile Daems, and Eric Tanguy. Alexandra plays on a Gioffredo Cappa violin made around 1700.
Born in St Petersburg in 1975, Dmitri Makhtin started his musical education at the age of 4 with his parents, both professional violinists. In 1981 he entered the conservatoire for highly talented children. In 1989 he won the National Competition for Young Violinists in Novosibirsk and was invited to perform recitals in Russia, appearing as a soloist with the St Petersburg Philharmonic and Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestras.
In 1990, he obtained a scholarship from the Young Musicians' Foundation in the USA and gave his first recitals in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Dallas.
From 1992 to 1995 he continued his musical education with Philip Hirshborn and Hermann Krebbers. From 1993 to 1996 he won international competitions including Kloster Schontal, Premio Paganini, Louis Spohr, Tibor Varga, Montreal, Sibelius, and Pretoria.
Dmitri Makhtin made his French debut in Paris in 1997 with Evgeny Svetlanov and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, followed by his American debut in 1998 with the Cleveland Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. He has since performed with Het Residentie, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, St Petersburg Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras, Sydney Radio and TV Orchestras, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Montpellier National Orchestra, New Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, Solistes Europeens du Luxembourg, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Acclaimed for his highly sensitive touch and technical brilliance, Alexei Volodin is in demand by orchestras at the highest level. He possesses an extraordinarily diverse repertoire, from Beethoven and Brahms through Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and Scriabin, to Shchedrin and Medtner.
Highlights of the 2022/23 season include returns to Singapore Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liege, and Euskadiko Orkestra, as well as first appearances with Kyoto Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, and Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal. Volodin also joined Orchestre de chambre fribourgeois at the Besancon International Music Festival and toured with Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen across Belgium and the Netherlands with Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1.
He returned to SWR Symphonieorchester in a chamber concert of Franck and Schoenberg at the Pentecost Festival Baden-Baden and joined Igor Levit for duo performances at Wigmore Hall and the Lucerne Piano Festival.
Previous seasons have included performances with Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, NCPA Orchestra China, BBC Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, The Mariinsky Orchestra, and St Petersburg Philharmonic, collaborating with conductors including Semyon Bychkov, Stanislav Kochanovsky, and Robert Trevino.
Born in 2002 to a family of musicians, Danielle plays an Enrico Orselli cello graciously put at her disposal by Dr. Moshe Kantor through the Vladimir Spivakov International Foundation. Danielle currently studies with Prof. Frans Helmerson at the Barenboim-Said Music Academy in Berlin.
An active soloist from an early age, she has performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, The Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and Vladimir Spivakov, National Philharmonic of Russia, DARMSTADT Staatsorchester (Germany), Budafok Dohnanyi Orchestra (Budapest), ORCHESTRE FILHARMONIA DE BELLO HORIZONTE (Brazil), National Symphony of Slovakia, Macedonia National Philharmonic, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Cannes Symphony Orchestra, Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt, Vadim Repin and The Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, Israel-Jerusalem Camerata, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, and Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble.
Danielle performed as soloist on major stages worldwide, including Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium (NY), Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Moscow), The Barbican (London), Lincoln Center (NY), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Sala Sao Paulo (Brazil), Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Symphony Center (Chicago), and Roy Thomson Hall (Toronto).
A grant-holder of the Vladimir Spivakov International Foundation, she is also a recipient of the Oleg Yankovsky Prize of Artistic Discovery (2016), the Young Artist Award presented by Maestro Vladimir Spivakov, and America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships with distinction since 2013, including the Wolfgang Laufer Memorial Cello Scholarship for Outstanding Merit.
Praised by critics as one of the leading young prodigy cellists, she was named by the Daily Gazette among the Top 10 classical music performers in 2016 and earned the Critic's Choice by the Times Union.