Professors - Triple Viola Masterclass - tripleviolamasterclass.com

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P r o f e s s o r s

N o b u k o I m a i | P e i j u n X u | V e i t H e r t e n s t e i n

N o b u k o I m a i
With her exceptional talent, musical integrity, and charisma, Nobuko Imai is considered to be one of the most outstanding violist of our time. After finishing her studies at the Toho School of Music, Yale University and the Juilliard School, she won the highest prizes at both the prestigious international competition in Munich and Geneva.

Formerly a member of the esteemed Vermeer Quartet, Ms. Imai combines a distinguished international solo career with various teaching commitments. She has appeared with numerous wolrd's prestigious orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw, the London Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony. As a keen chmaber musician, Ms. Imai has performed with various prominent artists such as Gidon Kremer, Midori, Isaac Stern, Mischa Maisky, and Martha Argerich. In 2003, she formed the Michelangelo Quartet. The quartet gained the international reputation quickly and now became one of finest quartets in the world. Ms. Imai has dedicated a large part of her artistic activities to explore the diverse potential of the viola.
Since 2004, Glassl is professor of viola at the at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt as successor of Tabea Zimmermann. Roland Glassl was born in Germany, into a luthier's family with a tradition of many generations of violin making. He currently performs on a viola made by his father, who was also his first violin teacher. Later, he continued his studies at the “Musikhochschule München” with Ana Chumachenco. After receiving his artist diploma with distinction, he came to the United States to study violin with Paul Biss and viola with Atar Arad at Indiana University. Fascinated by the deep, warm sound of the viola, he decided to devote himself to the instrument and its music.

P e i j u n X u
Peijun Xu, born in Shanghai, is widely recognised as among the foremost violists of her generation. As soloist Peijun Xu has performed at prestigious venues such as the Shanghai Concert Hall, Hamburg Laeiszhalle and Frankfurt Alte Oper. She has appeared with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Moscow Soloists, the State Symphony Orchestra 'New Russia', the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Hofer Concert Orchestra, the Osnabrueck Symphony Orchestra, Baden-Baden Philharmonie, Kurpfaelzisches Chamber Orchestra , the Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra, Heilbronn and the Hamburger Camerata, under conductors such as Muhai Tang, Yuri Bashmet, Pavel Baleff and Ralf Gothóni. Peijun Xu's chamber music partners have included Paul Rivinius, Marina Chiche, Niklas Schmidt, Evgenia Rubinova, Boris Garlitsky, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Jens-Peter Maintz and Stéphan Picard.

Peijun Xu's debut CD including works of Bach, Schubert, Vieuxtemps, Chopin and Rebecca Clarke was released by Label Ars in 2012. It has since been broadcast by WestDeutscher Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Deutschlandradio Kultur. In August 2014, her second CD of works of Vieuxtemps, Milhaud, Fauré and Franck was released by Profil Haenssler.

Peijun Xu studied at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts with Prof. Roland Glassl, the Kronberg Academy with Prof. Nobuko Imai and the Berlin University of Music 'Hanns Eisler' with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann.

She is the recipient of several international awards. Including the first prize and audience prize at the International Max Rostal Competition, Berlin; first prize as well as two special prizes at the International Yuri Bashmet Viola Competition in Moscow and the second prize in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition.

From 2011-2015, Peijun Xu was teaching at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and from 2015 -2018 at Detmold College of Music in Germany. Since 2018 Peijun Xu has a professorship for Viola at the Music University Cologne/Aachen in Germany.

V e i t H e r t e n s t e i n
German violist Veit Hertenstein plays with „brigthly ringing, luminous and finly finessed sound (The Stard Magazine 2022). Mr. Hertenstein is Professor for Viola at the Musikhochschule Detmold, Germany since 2015 and joined the Schumann String Quartet beginning 2022.

Mr. Hertenstein has been invited to the Marlboro Music Festival, the Seiji Ozawa International Music Academy, the Viola Space Festival Tokyo, Menuhin Festival in Gstaad and the Verbier Festival, where he was awarded the “Henri Louis de la Grange” viola prize. He has also been several times invited to the La Folle Journée Festival in Nantes and Tokyo.
As a chamber Musician he collaborated with Trio Wanderer, Modigliani and Ysaye Quartets, Brigitte Engerer, Valentin Erben (Alban Berg String Quartet), Soyoung Yoon, Nobuko Imai and with Midori.

In the United States Mr. Hertenstein performed in concert halls such as The Merkin Hall, New York, The Kenendy Center in Washington D.C. after winning First prize as well as eight performance prizes in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions 2011 in New York City.
Mr. Hertenstein has won several prestigious competitions. In 2009 he was the first violist to win the New Talent Competition of the European Broadcasting Union in Slovakia founded by Yehudi Menuhin, which was followed by world-wide radio broadcasts. He was a prize-winner of the first Tokyo International Viola Competition 2009. In 2007 he was the first violist to win First Prize at the Orpheus Competition in Zurich, Switzerland, which enabled him to record his debut CD with Euro Classics. Pro Helvetia commissioned a Viola Concerto by Swiss composer Nicolas Bolens which was premiered in Geneva 2014.

Born in Augsburg, Germany, Mr. Hertenstein began studying the violin and piano at the age of 5 and switched to the viola when he was 15. In 2009 he graduated with distinction from the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva, where he worked with violist Nobuko Imai. He also has been artistically influenced by György Kurtag, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gabor Takács-Nagy and Kim Kashkashian. 2011 until 2017 Mr. Hertenstein was the principal violist in the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland. Further he held the visiting chair for viola at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England from 2016 to 2021.
He plays on a viola made by Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza, Milano 1767.