Emmanuel Tjeknavorian & Anna Vinnitskaya

Respected by audiences and professionals alike as a versatile artistic personality, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian has shifted the focus of his musical work to conducting since the 2022/23 season. Most recently, he has conducted orchestras such as the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the philharmonie zuidnederland, the Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. As part of his residency at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in summer 2022, he conducted the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the Kammerakademie Potsdam.

The current season will see renewed collaborations with the Graz Philharmonic, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra for a performance of Beethoven’s C major Mass with the Vienna Singakademie, among others. Tjeknavorian also makes his debuts with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with concerts in the Vienna Konzerthaus and on tour in Germany and Switzerland, with the Spanish Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, the hr-Sinfonieorchester, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Gürzenich Orchester Köln, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien with a concert performance of Johann Strauss’ operetta “Die Fledermaus”. As a resident artist, Tjeknavorian has also appeared several times at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Graz Musikverein, the hr-Sinfonieorchester and the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn.

Emmanuel Tjeknavorian’s career as a conductor follows on from his previous work as a violinist. Since his success at the International Sibelius Competition in 2015, Tjeknavorian has performed in the most internationally renowned halls and with the great musicians of our time. He will also be heard as a violinist during his current residencies. He also tours Europe with the Filarmonica della Scala under Riccardo Chailly, plays Mozart’s own Costa violin at the Salzburg Mozart Week and gives trio recitals with Anna Vinnitskaya and Daniel Müller-Schott. For several years, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian has played on a violin by Antonio Stradivari (Cremona 1698), a generous loan from a benefactor of the Beare’s International Violin Society.

As an OPUS Klassik prize winner, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian has already released several albums: After a highly acclaimed solo album as well as recordings of the Brahms and Sibelius violin concertos, his debut album as a conductor was released in 2021, on which he leads the Tonkünstler Orchestra in Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”, among other works. Emmanuel Tjeknavorian is also a passionate music communicator and as such has hosted his own monthly radio show “Der Klassik-Tjek” on Radio Klassik Stephansdom since 2017, in which he talks to well-known personalities from a wide range of fields about their shared passion for classical music.

Emmanuel Tjeknavorian was born in Vienna in 1995 into a family of musicians and began his musical education at the age of five. Simultaneously with his violin studies, he was introduced to conducting from his earliest youth by his father, the composer and conductor Loris Tjeknavorian.

Whoever witnesses Anna Vinnitskaya in concert is inevitably enthralled by the aura of this artist. Audiences and critics alike celebrate her ability to paint grand canvases, aside from sparking spectacular fireworks. Her technical splendor is not a virtuosic means in itself, but blends with a natural, always colorful sound. Anna Vinnitskaya is a major pianist of our time who tells stories with her music.

The first prize at the Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels in 2007 marked the beginning of Anna Vinnitskaya’s international career. She is a valued partner of the great orchestras and conductors such as Marek Janowski, Krzysztof Urbański, Kirill Petrenko, Andris Nelsons, Alan Gilbert or Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

The 2019/2020 season saw her debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Staatskapelle Dresden – with immediate reinvitations to both orchestras. As the „Artist in Residence“ at the Philharmonie Dresden, Vinnitskaya performed in a series of solo, chamber and orchestral concerts. In 2020/2021, BOZAR Brussels will dedicate her an Artist Portrait and stage five concerts with Anna in manifold constellations. Invitations to the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Cologne and Stuttgart and to the recital series of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic underline her excellence and outstanding reputation.

Anna Vinnitskaya’s recordings have been recognised with numerous awards, such as the Diapason d’Or, the Gramophone Editor’s Choice and the ECHO Klassik. On her latest albums she presents works by Rachmaninov with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Krzysztof Urbański and Bach’s piano concertos with Evgeni Koroliov, Ljupka Hadzi Georgieva and the Kammerakademie Potsdam (Alpha Classics/Outhere Music).

Anna Vinnitskaya was born in the Russian city of Novorossijsk. She was a student of Sergei Ossipienko in Rostov and Evgenyi Koroliov at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. Since 2009 she has been a professor there herself – that is, when she is not touring the stages of the wide musical world.