Chamber concert Kühlhaus

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2017. He has meanwhile extended his contract until 2027. In parallel, he has been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.

After receiving training at the Moscow Conservatory The conductor, pianist and musicologist Vladimir Jurowski emigrated to Germany in 1990. Here he continued his studies at the music conservatories in Dresden and Berlin.  In 1995 he made his international debut at the British Wexford Festival with Rimski-Korsakov’s Mainacht and in the same year at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with Nabucco. Subsequently he was, among other things, First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997- 2001) and Music Director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001-2013). In 2003 Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and has been its Principal Conductor since 2007 until 2021. He was also Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra Yevgeny Svetlanov of the Russian Federation until 2021, Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain. He works regularly with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the ensemble unitedberlin.

Vladimir Jurowski has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

He is a recurring guest conductor in in London, Berlin, Dresden, Luzern, Schleswig-Holstein und Grafenegg as well as at the Rostopowitsch-Festival. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, in future he would like to concentrate his activities on that geographical area which is acceptable to him from an ecological point of view.

In 2022/2023 he performed with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in concerts in various cities in Germany, Italy and Antwerp in the Netherlands. The joint CD recordings of Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and soon again Schnittke.

Vladimir Jurowski has been the recipient of numerous awards for his achievements, including various international record prizes. In 2016, he was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Prince Charles at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2018, the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards named him Conductor of the Year. In summer 2020, Jurowski was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit by the Romanian President in recognition of his work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival.

Born in Stuttgart in 1971, Michael Kern grew up in Eigeltingen on Lake Constance.
He received piano lessons at the age of six and clarinet lessons at twelve. Between 1985 and 1989 he won several national prizes in “Jugend musiziert” and was a member of the Baden-Württemberg State Youth Orchestra and the Federal Youth Orchestra.
In 1987 Michael Kern was awarded the Karel Kunc Prize of the city of Bad Dürkheim and the Cultural Promotion Prize of the city of Singen/Hohentwiel.

From 1989 to 1995 he studied clarinet at the Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen. From 1993 to 1995 Michael Kern was a scholarship holder of the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Since April 1995 he was solo clarinetist of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.

In September 1996 Michael Kern joined the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin as principal clarinetist.
In addition to symphonic work, Michael Kern is clarinetist of the orchestra’s wind quintet.

Born in Israel, violinist Erez Ofer has been the first concertmaster of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2002.

His musical career is flanked by several important successes in competitions: 1. Award at the ARD Competition in Munich, gold medal at the Zino Francescatti Competition in France, 1st prize at the Israeli Radio Competition, silver medal at the world-famous Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium and Paganini laureate at the University of Indiana and winner of the Tibor Varga Competition.

Despite his involvement with the RSB, Erez Ofer continues to be an active soloist and chamber musician. As a soloist, he was enlisted by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and the Jerusalem Symphony.

Between 1993 and 1998, Erez Ofer was concertmaster of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Lorin Maazel and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch.

Erez Ofer plays a violin made by Domenico Montagnana in 1729.

Nadine Contini, principal second violin, has been a member of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since March 2005.

She was born in 1979 in Saarbrücken and received her first violin lessons at the age of 5 years with Ms Christa Schmitt-Rink. Later she studied under Ulrieke Dierick. In 1996 she was admitted to the Pflüger-Stiftung Freiburg and the Spohr-Akademie for the promotion of highly gifted young violinists, where she was trained by Wolfgang Marschner and Ariane Mathäus. In 2000, she began her studies at the Musikhochschule “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin with Antje Weithaas, where she graduated with the concert exam of 2008. She attended master classes with Antje Weithaas, Wolfgang Marschner, Christian Tetzlaff, Guy Braunstein, and Boris Pergamenchikov.

Nadine Contini has won awards in numerous competitions: In 1998, she was awarded with the first “Young Musicians” federal prize. In addition, she received a second prize at the International Max Reger Competition and a special prize for the best interpretation of a solo work by Max Reger. In 2004, she won the competition of Ibolyka-Gyarfas-Stiftung. She was awarded with prizes for cultural promotion by the Casino Gesellschaft Saarbrücken and the Saarländischen Rundfunk. In addition, she was the prize winner and scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

As a soloist, she has performed with the Landesjugendorchester of Saarland, the Cairo Chamber Orchestra, the Cairo Opera Orchestra, the Deutsche Spohr Philharmonie, the Symphonieorchester des Saarländischen Rundfunks as part of the concerts of young artists, the Max Bruch Philharmonie and the Brandenburger Symphoniker.

Nadine Contini plays a violin made by master violinmaker Stefan-Peter Greiner from Bonn and is involved as a mentor in the orchestra academy of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

Alejandro Regueira Caumel, born in 1991 in Málaga/Spain, began playing the violin and piano at the age of six. In Madrid, he studied with Anna Baget and moved to Dionisio Rodríguez as a violist in 2008. In 2009 he came to Germany and studied at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” with Pauline Sachse and Tabea Zimmermann. Master classes with Wilfried Strehle, Andreas Willwohl, Roberto Díaz, Felix Schwartz and Jean Sulem complemented his education.

Chamber music has been a particular focus of his career to date. He participated in the chamber music festival of the “Kronberg Academy” and in the “Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland”, performed repeatedly with the Frielinghaus Ensemble and can be heard regularly at chamber music festivals such as the “Festival Ribeira Sacra” or in the Nikolaisaal Potsdam. He also won first prizes at various competitions, including the “Concurso Ibérico de Música de Cámara con Arpa” (in duo with harpist Maud Edenwald), the XII. International Competition for Viola and Cello “Villa de Llanes”, at the “Concurso María Cristina” for young soloists and at the competition of “Jeunesses Musicales” in Spain.

Alejandro Regueira Caumel gained orchestral experience as a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Spanish National Youth Orchestra, as well as through substitute work with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and as principal violist with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and the Orquesta Nacional de España.

From 2010 to 2012 he was an academist with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and has been its principal violist since 2015.

Hans-Jakob Eschenburg received his first cello lessons at the Rostock Conservatory. After studying with Josef Schwab at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, he was principal cellist of the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1988.

With the renowned Petersen Quartet, of which he was a founding member until 2000, he won several international competitions (Prague, Evian, Florence, Munich) and appeared on the major concert stages and at numerous festivals in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. Several of the Petersen Quartet’s numerous CD recordings have won international awards.

Since 1999 Hans-Jakob Eschenburg has been principal cellist of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. He held the same position in the chamber orchestra “Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach”. He frequently appears as a soloist and chamber musician, including as a member of various chamber ensembles such as the Gideon Klein Trio. Hans-Jakob Eschenburg teaches as an honorary professor at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin. He is also involved as a mentor of the Orchestra Academy of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.