Mathis Rochat, Abigel Kralik, BBC National Orchestra of Wales & Howard Griffiths
Biography Mathis Rochat, Abigel Kralik, BBC National Orchestra of Wales & Howard Griffiths
Mathis Rochat
Swiss-french violist Mathis Rochat is quickly gaining attention as “one of the most upcoming and creative violist of his generation” (concerti.de). As a soloist, Mathis has appeared with the Geneva Chamber Orchestra, The Camerata Schweiz and the Norddeutsche Philharmonie.
Praised for “His rich and subtle viola sound” and “…a marvelous poetic imaginative power” (Bieler Tagblatt), he takes the freedom to both uncover forgotten original works and add his personal transcriptions to the viola repertoire.
He is a passionate chamber musician and frequently performs across Europe in different formations. He also has appeared as a featured artist at the Schleswig Holstein (DE), Tsinandali (GR), Deauville (FR) and Davos (CH) Festivals, as well as Kronberg’s CMCW and Krzyzowa Music programs. Rochat has collaborated in chamber music with Fazil Say, Pinchas Zuckermann, Augustin Dumay, Christian Tetzlaff and Lynn Harrel.
His first album “L’alto Parnassien” dedicated to the impressionistic French music was “favorite of the month” for Klassik Radio (DE, 2018) and he looks forward to his second release “Rachmaninoff Stories” in June 2022 which will include 7 new viola transcriptions.
Rochat studied as part of the “young student program” with Antoine Tamestit in Cologne and earned his Bachelor’s degree from the “Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hochschule Leipzig” under the tutelage of Tatjana Masurenko. He earned his Artist Diploma as artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo mentored by Miguel Da silva.
Rochat holds a professorship position at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp and is the co. Founder and Artistic Director of TARA Chamber Concerts in Brussels.
Abigel Kralik
The only musician listed in the 2020 Forbes Hungary “30 under 30” list, Hungarian & Nicaraguan-American Abigél Králik is quickly gaining attention as “a shooting star in the truest sense of the word” (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Kultur). Her musical journey taking her from Dublin to Budapest, eventually to Juilliard and now to Brussels, Abigél frequently performs with orchestras, most recently with the Mexico City Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Casco Philharmonic as well as the MÁV Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to her solo appearances, Abigél is a passionate chamber musician, appearing as a featured artist at the Verbier, Clasclas, Budapest, Krzyzowa, Moritzburg and Prussia Cove Festivals, as well as the Perlman Music Program and Festival Mozaic. She collaborates with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Guy Braunstein, Vilde Frang, Tabea Zimmermann, Barnabás Kelemen, Maxim Rysanov, Benedict Kloeckner, and Gary Hoffman amongst others.
Abigél began her studies with Éva Ácsné-Szily and continued with Eszter Perényi and Kristóf Baráti in Budapest. Soon after, she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from The Juilliard School, under the tutelage of Itzhak Perlman and Laurie Smukler. She was awarded the highest merit-based scholarship, the Kovner Fellowship for all six years.
2024-25 will be an exciting season. Abigél will release a recording of the Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 2 and Laurent Couson’s Yiddish Concerto, with the MÁV Symphony Orchestra and Robert Farkas. She will perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto with the Casco Phil, Kachaturian’s Violin Concerto with Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, Arthur Benjamin’s Romantic Fantasy with Timisoara Philharmonic as well as BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In the Spring she will record a series of works by Saint-Saens for violin and Orchestra for the CPO label with ORF Radio Symphonie Orchester Wien and Howard Griffiths. Through all this, she will continue her work towards the next edition of the TARA Concerts Festival in Belgium, of which she is Founder and Co-Artistic Director.
Howard Griffiths
was artistic director and chief conductor of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra for ten years, becoming freelance in 2006. He was born in England and studied at the Royal College of Music in London. Since taking up residence in Switzerland in 1981, he has performed as guest conductor with many leading orchestras worldwide including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London, the Orchestre National de France, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Radio, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Finland, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra Basel, London Mozart Players, Orquesta Nacional de España, Slovakian Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR and SWF orchestras in Germany and the Polish Chamber Orchestra. From 1994 to 1997 he was principal guest conductor of the Oxford Orchestra da Camera. Howard Griffiths collaborates on a regular basis with the English Chamber Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia of England, with whom he has given many concerts, made many recordings and undertaken several tours. With the Collegium Novum Zurich, which specialises in contemporary music, first performances by Howard Griffiths include the Swiss première of Hans Werner Henze’s Requiem in the presence of the composer. He has also worked closely with Sofia Gubaidulina, George Crumb, Arvo Pärt and Mauricio Kagel. More than sixty recordings so far by Howard Griffiths under various labels bear witness to his extremely broad artistic profile. These include, for example, works by contemporary Swiss and Turkish composers, as well as first recordings of rediscovered eighteenth and nineteenth century music.
