Sylvia Huang & Boris Kusnezow
Biographie Sylvia Huang & Boris Kusnezow
Sylvia Huang
Appreciated for her "true lyricism and her touching musicality, her simplicity and her sensitivity", and delivering a "wide color palette" (Le Soir), the Belgian violinist Sylvia Huang is described as a “moving and honest” musician with a “rich sound” (De Standaard). In 2019 she became laureate of the Queen Elisabeth International Competition and won the two audience prizes: the Musiq'3 Prize and the Canvas-Klara Prijs. She also received the Caecilia Prize of the Young Musician of the Year 2019 by the Union de la Presse Musicale Belge.
Since 2023, Sylvia has been concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra of La Monnaie in Brussels and plays on a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, on loan from the Arthur Grumiaux Foundation. In November 2025, her new album with pianist Boris Kusnezow,"Ode to Mother Nature," will be released by Fuga Libera.
She made her debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in February 2021 playing Mozart Violin Concerto K.218 with Andrew Manze, which she also performed in July 2021 with Iván Fischer and the RCO at the Konzerthaus in Berlin during the official state visit of the King and Queen of the Netherlands. She has collaborated with many other orchestras such as the Belgian National Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, the Bad Reichenhall Philharmoniker, in halls such as the Palais des Beaux-Arts and Flagey in Brussels, the Vlaamse Opera in Gent, deSingel in Antwerp and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She took part in several international festivals including B-Classic Festival van Vlaanderen, Les Echappées Musicales du Médoc, Festival Musiq’3, Klara in deSingel, Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi and the Festivals de Wallonie.
Her first CD recording "Lointain passé" with pianist Eliane Reyes, dedicated to composers Eugène Ysaÿe and Guillaume Lekeu was released in September 2021 for the Outhere Music-Fuga Libera label, and was highly appreciated by critics.
Born in 1994, Sylvia had her first violin lessons with her father and continued her studies at the Académie des Arts de la Ville de Bruxelles, and later on with Alexei Moshkov and Liviu Prunaru. She won first prize at the Belfius Classics National Musical Competition in 2004 and at the Lions European Musical Competition in 2008. From 2012 to 2014, she was a member of the National Orchestra of Belgium before joining the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam until 2022. As a passionate chamber musician, she founded the GoYa Quartet with three of her RCO colleagues. After having won the prestigious "Prix de Salon 2015" awarded by the business network of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the GoYa Quartet Amsterdam was able to make recordings of two live performances of all Brahms and Schumann string quartets.
Boris Kusnezow
is one of the most sought after collaborative pianists of his generation. He performs with eminent instrumentalists and singers worldwide. His performances have taken him to renowned concert venues such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall London and the Berlin Philharmonie.
His artistic activities are documented in 12 CDs and numerous radio recordings. Several of his CDs have been nominated for prizes, including the Opus Klassik and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Boris Kusnezow is in demand as an official pianist for some of the world’s most prestigious instrumental and singing competitions, most recently being invited to the ARD Competition in Munich, the Joseph Joachim Competition in Hannover, the Stuttgart International Violin Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.
Boris Kusnezow was born in Moscow and began his musical education at the traditional Gnessin Academy. He has lived in Germany from the age of eight and completed his musical studies in Hannover with Professor Bernd Goetzke. Thereafter followed first place at the German Music Competition, international awards such as Fellowship of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and scholarships from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.
In addition to his active performing activities, he is founder of the piano chamber music academy Chamber Lab in Montecastelli/ Italy, artistic director of the International Music Academy for Soloists (IMAS) as well as the Schaumburger Schlosskonzerte at Schloss Bückeburg and volunteers for the Loewe Foundation, where he focuses on the promotion of classical music.
Teaching has become an important element in Kusnezow‘s artistic career. In 2020 he was appointed professor for piano chamber music at the University for Music and Theatre „Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“ Leipzig.
