6, WESTIN DRAGONARA RESORT,
Dragonara Road, St Julians, Malta
academy@eufsc.eu – general inquiries
participation@eufsc.eu – masterclasses inquiries
Sergey Eletskiy was born in 1989 in Moscow. He commenced his musical education at Central Music School in Moscow studying with V.Ferapontov. Since 2007 till 2012 he has been studying with prof. E. Petrov in Moscow State Conservatory. In 2009-2013 he has also been studying in the Music Highschool in Luebeck (Germany) with prof. R.Wehle.
He played as soloist with many orchestras (the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Duesseldorf Symphony Orchestra, and another.)
He is a prize-winner of several international music competitions, such as 3rd International Clarinet competition in Gent (2015, Gent, Belgium) ,Carl Nielsen International Competition (2013, Odense, Denmark), International music competition – ARD (2012, Munich, Germany).
At the moment Sergey is a principal clarinet in the Russian National Orchestra and in the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre.
"Boriso-Glebsky is an astounding instrumentalist, with a prodigious technical armoury and an uncompromising artistic vision”. — Weekend Special, 2018
Nikita Boriso-Glebsky was born in 1985 in Volgodonsk. He graduated from Moscow State Conservatory and its PhD program (class of professor Eduard Grach and assistant professor Tatiana Berkul). He then improved his technique under the supervision of Augustin Dumay in Brussels and Ana Chumachenko in Kronberg. He participated in international masterclass Keshet Eilon in Israel under the patronage of Shlomo Mintz.
Nikita is a winner and a laureate of many international competitions including: the Yampolsky International Violin Competition (2002, 3rd prize), the International Competition for Violin in Kloster Schöntal (2003, 1st prize), the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition (2006, laureate), the Moscow International David Oistrakh Violin Competition (2007, 1st prize), the International Tchaikovsky Competition (2007, 2nd prize), the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels (2009, 5th prize).
Recipient of the 2011 Leonard Bernstein Award, First Prize Winner of the Walter E. Naumburg Viola Competition and the 2010 Avery Fisher Career Grant, David Aaron Carpenter is widely considered one of the most talented and charismatic musicians of his generation.
Recently called “the hottest violinist of the 21st century” by the influential music critic Norman Lebrecht and “stunningly talented” by The New Yorker, David is also a former Rolex “Protégé” for which he was mentored by Pinchas Zukerman. David made his solo debut at the Kennedy Center in 2002 after winning the Presidential Scholar Award and the first-ever Gold Medal Award at the National Foundation For Advancement In The Arts. Since then he has performed with leading musicians and orchestras around the world, from the Philadelphia Orchestra to the Philharmonia, the Dresden Staatskapelle to the Lucerne Symphony. In May 2013, David played the Schnittke Viola Concerto at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. The concert was a musical tribute to the great cellist and conductor, Mstislav Rostropovich.
After bright successes at the most precious violin competitions Sergei Dogadin acquired international fame as one of the best violinists of his generation.
In 2019 Sergei was awarded First Prize and Golden Medal at the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Among his other significant victories were such major contents as IX Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover and Singapore International Violin Competition.
Sergei is the grant-holder of the Russian Ministry of Culture, Prize-winner of the Mozart Society in Dortmund (Germany), winner of the award established by Maestro Yuri Temirkanov and winner of the Prize of the President of Russia.
“When performing the music of great masters and feel how something turns out, you feel an inner thrill, as if you rise above this reality and touch something metaphysical” (Maxim Rubtsov)
∙ Honored Artist of Russian Federation
∙ Principle Flute & Concertmaster of the group of flute band of Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev
∙ Leader and Founding member of the Russian National Orchestra Wind Quintet
∙ Recipient of most prestigious national & international awards
∙ Pedagogue
∙ Producer & co-producer
∙ Yamaha Artist since 2018
"Maxim Rubtsov is the perfect Pied Piper. He has both the charm and excitement that a great performer must have. With his movie star looks and charisma, and his magnificent playing and acting of the part, the legendary piper becomes alive for all to see." (Composer John Corigliano)
Since her public debut aged 7, Italian pianist Costanza Principe has performed extensively in Italy, UK, France and South America both as a soloist and a chamber musician. Winner of several national and international competitions, such as the Lilian Davies Prize from the Royal Academy of Music, the second prize at the Beethoven Society of Europe Intercollegiate Piano Competition, the second prize (first not awarded) at the Premio Pecar International Competition in Gorizia, Italy, and the second prize at the Concours International de Piano in Lagny sur Marne, she made her debut with orchestra in 2008 playing three Mozart Concertos with the Filarmonici Europei Orchestra conducted by Aldo Ceccato.
She has appeared as a soloist with, amongst the others, the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Santa Fe, the Turkish National Youth Orchestra, the Orchestra del Teatro Coccia di Novara, the Melicus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana and the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, and she played in many prestigious concert halls and festivals in such as Wigmore Hall in London, Verdi Hall, Puccini Hall, al Verme Theatre, Milan Auditorium, Piccolo Theatre, Milan State and Bocconi Universities, Modern Art Gallery in Milan, Filarmonico Theatre in Verona, Fraschini Theatre in Pavia, Rossini Theatre in Pesaro, Muse Theatre in Ancona, Politeama Theatre in Palermo, Serate Musicali, Ravello Festival, Spazio Teatro 89, Lyceum in Florence, Cappella Paolina in Quirinale, Rome, Steinway Hall in London, Duke's Hall and David Josefowitz Halls in the Royal Academy of Music, Teatro 1ro de Mayo in Santa Fe (Argentina).
“A mesmerizing, heroic soloist” (The Strad), Alexander Ramm is one of the most sought-after cellists of his generation. Having emerged on the international stage as the silver medalist of the 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition, he has recently attracted much attention and critical praise with his recording of Benjamin Britten’s Cello Suites, which was made with titanium pins in his left elbow following a freak accident. Enthusiastic comparisons to Rostropovich (The Strad, Pizzicato.lu) and the Listeners’ Choice award of The Violoncello Foundation have placed this album among the most acclaimed recordings of cello repertoire.
Alexander’s regular collaborations with Vladimir Jurowski, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Mikhail Jurowski, Antoni Wit, Alexander Sladkovsky and other prominent artistic partners have taken him to Philharmonie de Paris, London’s Cadogan Hall as well as to Linz’s Brucknerhaus, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Tokyo’s Nikkei Hall and to many of the most prestigious stages in the UK, Germany, Lithuania, Sweden, Austria, Finland, South Africa, Japan, France and Russia, including Mariinsky Theatre and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.
"The goddess of flute"- Korea Times
“Jasmine Choi is a revisionist"- Philadelphia Inquirer
"Anyone who hears Jasmine Choi's performance will encounter a totally new level of flute playing” - Nikkei Daily Newspaper, Japan
"One of best flutists in the history of music"- Sinfini Magazine, UK
Austrian-based Korean flutist Jasmine Choi has performed across the globe in a variety of genres from classical solo, chamber, and orchestral to experimental, jazz, and pop. Her infinite curiosity has also led her to make her own arrangements of major works, including the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky violin concertos, as well as performing world premieres of works composed by Daniel Dorff, Detlev Glanert, Texu Kim, Mark Laycock, Gary Schocker, Clint Needham, Uriel Vanchestein and Patrick Zimmerli, to name a few.
Selected as one of the best flutists in the history of music by Sinfini Magazine UK in 2015, along with Marcel Moyse, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Julius Baker, James Galway and Emmanuel Pahud, Ms. Choi is a full-time soloist giving almost 90 concerts each season. Before her full-time career as a soloist has begun, Ms.Choi has served a post in Vienna Symphony Orchestra as principal flute under Fabio Luisi, after serving as associate principal flute at the Cincinnati Symphony under Paavo Jarvi.
Graf Mourja is generally recognized as one of most talented and distinctive Hungarian-Russian violinists of his generation. He began studying music at the age of three under the supervision of his father. Then for two years, his teacher was a professor at the Ural State Conservatory, Wolf Usminsky (Sverdlovsk). In 1982, Graf Mourja entered the Tchaikovsky Central Music School in Moscow, the class of Prof. Irina Bochkova. Even in school, at age of 16, he became the laureate and winner of two famous international competitions: Niccolò Paganini in Genoa (1990) and Vianna da Motta in Lisbon (1991), where he was also awarded a special prize for Chaconne Bartók.
Graf Mourja graduated from Moscow Conservatory in 1997, and did his postgraduate studies under the supervision of Professor I. Bochkova in 1999. He was awarded the scholarship of the President Yeltsin, for his outstanding results in his studies. At the same time he finished his postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Mateja Marincovich; he won the Hattory prize in London for outstanding achievements in his studying.
Violinist Haik Kazazyan has performed with orchestras such as Orchestra of The Mariinsky Theater, Orchestre National de France, Scottish Royal National Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Yu. Simonov, Moscow Symphony Orchestra named after E. Svetlanov, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra under P. Kogan, Prague Philharmonic orchestra, Dublin National Orchestra, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, Katowice Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, ‘Musica Viva’ Orchestra, S.Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Samara Symphony Orchestras and many others.
The musicians Haik worked with as a soloist and chamber musician are conductors Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis, Andrew Litton, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Liebreich, Alexander Lazarev, Constantine Orbelian, Jonathan Darlington, Ricardo Averbach, Alan Buribayev, Jac van Steen, David Brophy, Pavel Kogan, Alexander Polianichko, pianists Denis Matsuev, Freddy Kempf, Eliso Virsaladze, Aleksey Lubimov, Alex Kobrin, Ekaterina Mechetina, Rem Urasin, violinists Pavel Vernikov, Gordan Nikolitch, Boris Brovtsyn, cellists Natalia Gutman, Alexander Rudin, Alexander Bouzlov, Sergey Antonov, Boris Andrianov and many other great musicians of our generation.
Emmanuel Hovhannisyan was born in Yerevan. He graduated from Yerevan State Conservatory after Komitas.In present he teaches there. He is honored with numerous international prizes.
In 2010 he founded a Duduk School "Dudukman" studio,where duduk is taught both to Armenian and international students.
In 2015 he founded "Emotion band" . The band mainly performs compositions created by Emmanuel Hovhannisyan.
In 2016 Emmanuel founded the “Sheram” ensemble. The ensemble. In the repertory of the ensemble are compositions of Armenian ashughs from.
He cooperates with various musicians, participates in many international projects.In 2011 and in 2015 together with Gurjieff ensemble recorded CDs that are produced by well known ECM records.The first CD is awarded an Edisson prize.
One of the most successful musicians of his generation, violinist Andrey Baranov enjoys an exclusive career as an outstanding soloist and a sought after ensemble partner, performing on main stages and festivals in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia.
He is the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition of 2012, the Benjamin Britten and Henri Marteau International Violin Competitions.
Since making his debut in 2005 at the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Grand Hall under Vasily Petrenko and Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Baranov went on to performing with Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, MusicAeterna Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic London and Camerata Salzburg.
Andrey is the first violinist and founding member of David Oistrakh String Quartet, an ensemble established in 2012. His chamber music partners include, among others, Martha Argerich, Eliso Virsaladze, and Julian Rachlin.
His album „The Golden Violin“, released on the MUSO Label and featuring romantic violin pieces, has won the prestigious „Diapason d’Or“ award in 2018.
Friedrich Lips is not only one of the most well-known and most renowned musicians of Russia, but he also received broad international recognition. The versatile creative activity of Friedrich Lips, People’s Artist of Russia and professor at the Russian Gnessin Music Academy determines also the recent development of the academic bayan essentially.
Lips appeared in the most famous concert halls of the world (Big Hall of the Tschaikovsky conservatory - Moscow, Suntory Hall - Tokyo, Lincoln center - New York, J. F. Kennedy Center - Washington, Concertgebouw – Amsterdam, Barbican Hall in London) with many outstanding musicians: among others G. Roshdestvensky, V. Spivakov, G. Kremer, Y. Bashmet, V. Gergiev, W. Yurovsky, Yo-Yo Ma.
Lips’art of interpretation is documented on many CDs (about 40) released in Russia, Japan, the USA, Austria and Sweden.
Among the graduates of the class of Professor Lips are about 60 winners of national and international competitions.
Lips is an author of three books "The Art of Bayan Playing", "The Art of Arranging Classical Music for Accordion" and “It seems like yesterday”, as well as a set of articles on the art of the bayan. The books and articles are published in Russia and abroad in their translation in German, English and other languages.
Sofia Sakhnova and Antonina Luzko completed their master and PhD programmes in “Piano Performance” at the Gnessins’ Academy of Music in Moscow in 2016. The idea of creating a piano duo, which they called “ST-Duo”, has been constantly growing during their studies. “ST-Duo” debuted on the stage of The Gnessin' Academy of Music in October 2016.
“ST-Duo” is a prize winner in “XVIII International Maria Yudina competition” (Saint-Petersburg, January 2017), “XI International S.I. Taneev chamber ensembles competition” (Kaluga-Moscow, November 2017) and also received a special prize from the “Yamaha” company for “The best piano duet, XVIII Roma international piano competition (Roma, Italy, November 2018)
Antonina and Sofia actively participate in concerts, performing on stages of Moscow International House of Music, Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. “ST-Duo” collaborates with several charity foundations such as “International Y. Rozum Charity Foundation”, “Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation”, “Open Sea” foundation and others. Sofia and Antonina participate in projects of the Moscow Youth Philharmonic Society. In March 2017 “ST-Duo” had the honour of performing at the opening of the “II Russian Ball” in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. In 2019 Sofia and Antonina performed on a stage of Russian House in Berlin.
Moscow-born concert pianist Andrey Gugnin is rapidly gaining international acclaim as a passionately virtuosic performer, who possesses an “extraordinarily versatile and agile technique, which serves an often inspired musical imagination” (Gramophone). Since winning the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition in 2016, Gugnin has gone from strength to strength in concerts and recordings which exhibit his impassioned interpretations.
In addition to winning in Sydney, Gugnin also received prizes at this illustrious competition for Best Overall Concerto, Best 19th/20th Century Concerto, Best Violin and Piano Sonata, and Best Preliminaries for his first-round recital. His also won the Gold Medal and Audience Award at the XCI International Gina Bachauer Piano Competition in 2014, and second prize at the 2013 Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna.
Tenor Angelo Muscat started singing at an early age with the Chorus Urbanus, under the direction of Dr. John Galea.
He later proceeded with his opera and classical studies with Juliette Bisazza Zanni and subsequently furthered his studies with Dr. Andriana Yordanova at the Malta School of Music.
He has participated in numerous masterclasses with Soprano Miriam Gauci, Soprano Eteri Lamoris, Prof. Carlos Conde Conzales, and many more. Muscat achieved a scholarship “Artivisti” in 2018 to further his professional opera studies.
He participated in various concerts locally as well as internationally as in the UK, Italy and Austria as well he was accompanied by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Eurode Jugendorchester Herzogenrath and St. Paul Metropolitan Orchestra.
Maltese Soprano, Malta Airport Foundation Ambassador and BOV Joseph Calleja Foundation Scholar Nicola Said has performed the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Festival Lyrique-En-Mer, covered the role of Nannetta Falstaff with The Grange Festival, and sang Madame Herz The Impresario at Teatru Manoel. In 2018, Nicola premiered the role of Maria in the first Maltese opera cycle Belt il-Bniedem - City of Humanity, produced by Maltese composer Reuben Pace as part of Valletta 2018 European Capital of Culture, and reprised the role of Lucia Lucia di Lammermoor in a revival of Fulham Opera's production with Grimeborn at the Arcola Theatre. Other roles include Adele Die Fledermaus (Lyric Opera Studio Weimar), Adina Elixir of Love (New Sussex Opera), Blondchen Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Warsaw Chamber Opera), Zerlina Don Giovanni (Teatru Manoel), Queen of the Night The Magic Flute (Charles Court Opera), Zerbinetta Ariadne auf Naxos (Opera Project at West Green House Opera), and Hlas Jenufa (Grange Park Opera).
Clare Ghigo is a theatrically and musically versatile mezzo soprano. Her operatic roles include Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Annio in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, Madrigale in Puccini’s Manon, Hänsel in Humperdinck‘s Hansel and Gretel, the Third Lady in Mozart’s Zauberflöte, the old Gypsy Woman in Rachmaninov’s Aleko, Speranza , Proserpina in Monteverdi's l’Orfeo, Carmen in Bizet's Carmen, Angelina in Rossini's la Cenerentola, Maria in Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires, and Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Clare also performed contemporary works such as works by Schoenberg, Morten Feldman, Luciano Berio, Reuben Pace, Karl Fiorini, Euchar Gravina, and Veronique Vella. In the 2021 Malta International Spring Orchestra Festival, Clare will perform the role of the Trommler in Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis.
Apart from operas Clare performed a number of recitals internationally in cities such as San Francisco (United States ), London, Cardiff, Edinburgh (United Kingdom) , Paris, Dijon (France) Karlsruhe, Berlin, Frankfurt (Germany), Pesaro, Lanciano (Italy), Yerevan (Armenia) Bethlehem (Israel), and La Mancha (Spain), and Luxembourg.