Cecilia Bernardini & Masumi Nagasawa
Biography Cecilia Bernardini & Masumi Nagasawa
Cecilia Bernardini
is widely considered to be one of the most versatile violinists of her generation, performing on both the modern and the baroque violin.
She obtained prices in major violin competitions amongst which Oskar Back Vioolconcours, Concorso Internazionale Violinistico Andrea Postacchini and Leopold Mozart Competition Augsburg.
As a soloist, Cecilia has performed in many of Europe's most prestigious concert halls, including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna and Konzerthaus Berlin, playing much of the main violin concerto repertoire, including the Bach violin concertos and double concertos, several Mozart concertos, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch and Szymanowski. In 2010, she performed the violin solo part at the world première of Philip Glass's Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra with the Residentie Orkest.
Cecilia frequently leads and directs modern and period instrument ensembles including Ensemble Zefiro, Arcangelo with Jonathan Cohen (recordings with Hyperion), Pygmalion with Raphael Pichon (recordings with Erato), Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto, Holland Baroque Society, The King’s Consort (performing and recording with them widely across Europe in repertoire as diverse as Purcell, Handel, Bach, Haydn, Stanford and Britten), Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Robin Ticciati (including the Edinburgh International Festival), Camerata Salzburg (including the Linz Brucknerhaus and the Salzburg Festival), Bach Collegium Japan, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and The Netherlands Bachvereniging with Jos van Veldhoven.
With her great passion for chamber music, Cecilia is a member of the Serafino String Trio, joining violist Giles Francis and cellist Timora Rosler. She has a duo with fortepianist Keiko Shichijo (with whom she did an extensive tour at the Utrecht Oude Muziek Festival) and regularly performs with her father, baroque oboist Alfredo Bernardini. Past Chamber music partners include baroque violinist Stanley Ritchie, double-bass player Rick Stotijn, fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, pianist Alexandre Tharaud and cellist Colin Carr.
In 2012 Cecilia was appointed leader of the Dunedin Consort, based in Scotland, with whom she has recorded Bach's St. John Passion and a best-selling disc of the Brandenburg Concertos, which has been nominated for a Gramophone award at the same time as Mozart’s Requiem by the same group. Future releases with the Dunedin Consort include Bach's Violin Concertos and Bach's Christmas Oratorio and Magnificat.
Future engagements include several appearances at the Wigmore Hall in London, both as an orchestral leader and as a soloist (Bach violin concertos with Dunedin Consort), performances at the Bruges Early Music Festival (Biber's Rosary sonatas with Richard Egarr), Thüringer Bachwochen (Brandenburg Concertos with Holland Baroque Society), Sablé Early Music Festival and several recordings including Purcell's sonnatas in three parts with the King's Consort.
Masumi Nagasawa
is one of the few harpists to perform on the modern Grand Harp, the single-action pedal harp (18th-19th century historical harp), the Irish harp and the kugo or Japanese ancient harp. She studied modern harp with Phia Berghout at the Conservatory in Maastricht and historical harp with Mara Galassi. She gained her solo diploma cum laude as well as the award of the Prix d’Excellence. She received the Muramatsu Music Prize Grand Prix Japan in 1990, awarded only to prestigious musicians. She has since been invited to International Festivals and also to various International Harp competitions as a jury member, these including the Concours de harpe Lily Laskine in Paris. Numerous of her CDs are released by Toshiba EMI Japan, Etcetera and Channel Classics.
Masumi has given recitals in major concert halls in Amsterdam, Tokyo, Budapest, Rome, Prague, Washington D.C., Copenhagen and Brussels. Her recitals are highly varied, always changing with the development and expansion of her repertoire. She has been a soloist with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, St. John’s College Choir Cambridge and has also appeared as a soloist together with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Cecilia Bartoli. International festivals where she has been invited to perform include the Kuhmo International Chamber Music Festival, the Salzburg Music Festival, the Geneva Music Festival, the Akiyoshidai International Music Festival, the Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte, and the Torino Milano Festival Internazionale della Musica.
On historical harp she has performed with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Freiburger Baroque Orchestra, the Balthasar-Neuman Ensemble, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Orchestra La Scintilla and the Netherlands Bach Society.
Alongside her concert appearances she both composes and arranges music for the harp; this has also been published and recorded.
She currently teaches at the Conservatory in Maastricht. She is also completing her PhD at Leeds University in England under Professor Clive Brown on “ Single-action pedal harp and their implications for the performing practice of its repertoire from 1760 to 1830”.
