February master classes at Liszt Academy

Kati Debretzeni (photo: Joe Plommer)

Kati Debreczeni and Malcolm Bilson are holding a master class 10 to 14  February at the Chamber Hall of the Old Academy of Music. You may apply with Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert chamber music for strings and fortepiano ensembles.  Debreczeni Kati, or better known worldwide as Kati Debretzeni, was born in Transylvania, and moved to Israel at the age of 15. She studied the violin with Ora Shiran in Tel-Aviv, and later her specialised in the baroque violin. She studied baroque violin techniques Music with Catherine Mackintosh and Walter Reiter at the Royal College of  Music in London. Currently she is the leader and frequent soloist of the English Baroque Soloists (J. E. Gardiner) and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (F. Bruggen, S. Rattle, V. Jurowski, I. Fischer).  Malcolm Bilson began his pioneering activity in the early 1970s as a performer of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert on late 18th- and early 19th-century pianos.  Since then he has proven to be a key contributor to the restoration of the fortepiano to the concert stage and to fresh recordings of the "mainstream" repertory. Malcolm Bilson is a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, has an honorary doctorate from Bard College and is the recipient of the 2006 James Smithson Bicentennial Medal. The master course is open for students and musicians who are interested in baroque techniques. You may apply with Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert chamber music for strings and fortepiano ensembles. The participation fee is provided free of charge for the students of the Liszt Academy and the Conservatory of Béla Bartók. Other students may apply as active participants (5000 HUF/day or 20 €/day) or passive applicants (2500 HUF/day or 10 €/day). Kati Debretzeni and Malcolm Bilson's sonata concert is on 12 February and the final concert of the master course with the participated ensembles is on 15 February.

Malcolm Bilson

Christine Schornsheim is holding a harpsichord master class on 13-16 February Room Nr. X of the Main Building on Liszt Ferenc Square. With an almost endless sound variety on the different historical keyboard instruments she is familiar with, harpsichordist and fortepianist Christine Schornsheim has been guest of various concert series and festivals all over the world. In 2005, her milestone recording of Joseph Haydn's complete keyboard solo works was awarded many times. Christine Schornsheim received high critical acclaim for her recording of Mozart works with Andreas Staier, as well as for her recording J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, rarely played Bach works for harpsichord. Since 2002, she has held a professorship for harpsichord at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich. Schornsheim will also have a concert on the 15^th of February 2014 at 7 pm in the Liszt Academy's George Solti Hall. The participation is free of charge for students of the Liszt Academy, other students may apply as active participants (5000 HUF/day or 20 €/day) or passive applicants (2500 HUF/day or 10 €/day).

Christine Schornsheim (photo: Laion)
 

John Thwaites and Alexander Baillie are holding mastercourses on 18-19 Feburary, in the same time, but severally.  They start their mastercourses with a common chamber concert on 17 February. Alexander Baillie born in Stockport, UK, began playing the cello at the comparatively late age of twelve having been directly inspired by the late Jacqueline du Pré. He went on to study at London's Royal College of Music and with André Navarra in Vienna. He has appeared with many British orchestras and has worked with Sir Simon Rattle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and has appeared regularly as cello soloist in concertos, recitals and festivals throughout the world. He has given notable first performances of works by Penderecki, Hans Werner Henze, Takemitsu, Colin Matthew and H.K.Gruber. Recordings include the Tippett Triple Concerto with the composer conducting and the Shostakovich First Concerto with Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic. He is Professor of Cello at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen and founder member of "Gathering of the Clans" Cello School. John Thwaites studied on the Joint Course between Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music, at the Guildhall, in Siena, Vienna in the United States. His teachers included Harvey Dagul, Sulamita Aronovsky, Paul Berkowitz, Martino Tirimo and Christian Blackshaw. He has been working with Alexander Baillie for thirty years. They appeared in the first and last Manchester International 'Cello Festivals, released a recital CD in 2000, and selected live performances in 2009. Another longstanding association is with Sue Lowe's 'Cello Schools, and John has performed with Johannes Goritzki, Louise Hopkins, Pierre Doumenge, Li Wei, Oleg Kogan, Melissa Phelps, Alexander Ivashkin, Alexander Boyarsky, David Cohen and Natalie Clein.  Having run the Piano Department at Christ's Hospital, and taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, John is currently Head of Keyboard Studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and Course Director of the Cadenza International Summer Music School, a piano and strings festival resident at the Purcell School, London, in July. The piano & chamber music master class is held in the Chamber Hall of the Old Academy of Music, while the cello & chamber music master class will be held in the Room Nr. X of the Main Building. For both course application deadline is 13 February, terms of application are the same as the two other courses'.

For more information on the application and other details with regard to the master courses, see the Students' Notice Board.