NUME Academy & Festival will host internationally acclaimed artists that will be performing and holding extraordinary masterclasses.
Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a unique and distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster.
As a concerto soloist he appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, London Philharmonic and Zurich Tonhalle orchestras. He gives recitals every season in major musical centres, and plays with many of the world’s fore- most chamber orchestras, including the Australian, Mahler, Norwegian, Scottish, Zurich and St Paul Cham- ber Orchestras, as well as period-instrument ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello in classi- cal programmes.
As an educator Steven Isserlis gives frequent masterclasses all around the world, and since 1997 he has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, where his fellow-pro- fessors include Sir Andras Schiff, Thomas Adès and Ferenc Rados.
The recipient of many awards, Steven Isserlis’s honours include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, and the Piatigorsky Prize in the USA. He is also one of only two living cellists featured in Gramophone’s Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was awarded the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award in Dresden, the Wigmore Hall Gold Medal, and the Walter Willson Cobbett Medal for Servi- ces to Chamber Music.
He gives most of his concerts on the Marquis de Corberon (Nelsova) Stradivarius of 1726, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.
Nobuko Imai is considered one of the most outstanding violists 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.
She has appeared with numerous worldwide prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw, the London Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony.
An impressive discography of over 40 CDs includes her recordings for BIS, Chandos, Hyperion, Philips, and Sony, among others.
With a growing reputation for the courage, vitality and intensity of its performances the Marmen Quartet is fast establishing itself as one of the most impressive and engaging new talents in the chamber music arena.
2019 marked a year of significant achievement for the Quartet, with First Prizes at both the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition and Banff International String Quartet Competition, where they were also awarded the Haydn and Canadian Commission prizes. Other accolades include first prize at the Royal Overseas League Competition (2018) and awards at the International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition.
She has been awarded in several national and international competitions, both in the soloist and in chamber music categories. Mari played at the Prometeo festival with the homonymous quartet, at the Portogruaro Festival and at the Chamber music Festival in Mantua, "la folle Journeé" festival in Japan, and others. She has collaborated as piano accompanist in masterclasses and musical courses, in Italy, the United States, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium held by renowned teachers such as Ilya Grubert, Pavel Vernikov, Gli Shaham, Natalia Gutman and many others. She works as a pianist collaborator for the two-year experimental advaced training courses at the "Maderna" Conservatory of Cesena, the higher Institute for musical studies "Peri" of Reggio Emilia and "Vecchi-"Tonelli" of Modena, as well as for the violin advanced training courses held by the the Portogruaro Music School, clarinet masterclasses in Milan held by M° F. Meloni, as well as constantly collaborating with the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano.
Japanese-American pianist MIWA GOFUKU began her music education at the Yamaha School of Music in Los Angeles and made her debut performing Mozart’s Concerto K. 414 with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Heiichiro Ohyama. During her youth, she won several competitions honoring her with multiple performance opportunities including Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor with the San Luis Obispo Symphony and Maestro Michael Nowak. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the acclaimed Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington under the tutelage of Professor Leonard Hokanson (one of the last pupils of Artur Schnabel and pianist to Hermann Prey) where she won top prize at the University’s Piano Concerto Competition that led to a performance of Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with the IU Concert Orchestra. Her collaborative skills were enhanced by artists of the highest caliber as a pianist for the studios of Franco Gulli, Miriam Fried, Janos Starker, Virginia Zeani and Kim Walker among others. Her advanced studies brought her to the Mozarteum Festival in Salzburg (Austria), Internationale Festival de Musique in Tours (France) and Aspen Music Festival (Colorado, USA). Beyond Miwa’s musical skills, her curiosity in management and creative projects led to careers as artistic manager of the Music Academy of the West, Director of Artistic Planning at the Santa Barbara Symphony in addition to representing concert artists including violinists Gilles Apap and Caroline Campbell, flutist Jasmine Choi and former principal percussionist of the Chicago Symphony, Ted Atkatz. Most recently, she has had the honor of performing with the American tenor Will Ferguson, flutist Jasmine Choi, soprano Chiara Taigi and the Amsterdam-based Ruysdael Quartet.
Internationally recognized as one of today’s finest interpreters of Bizet’s Carmen, she first performed the role at the 2004 Glyndebourne Festival.
She has since portrayed Carmen in over 45 productions worldwide including in Vienna, Rome, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Cologne, Baden Baden, Lisbon, Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Sydney, Moscow and throughout the USA and Asia. Equally acclaimed as an orchestral soloist and recitalist, Rinat Shaham has collaborated with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Mark Elder, William Christie, André Previn, Leonard Slatkin and David Robertson in works ranging from Bach Magnificat to Stravinsky Les Noces.
She has recorded excerpts from operas by Lully under William Christie for Erato as well as a solo CD of Gershwin and Purcell and another of Benedetto Marcello with The Viol Group “Fuoco e Cenere” on ATMA. She made her feature film debut as the “Jazz Singer” in the István Szábo film, “Taking Sides”, with Harvey Keitel. Her performance as Carmen from Opera Australia has also been released on DVD.
The Canadian pianist was awarded in '93 at the Sylva Gelber Award for most outstanding classical artist under age 30. At the age of nine, she made her orchestral debut with Mendelssohn's first Piano Concerto with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. As soloist, she has appeared extensively with orchestras throughout Canada, the U.S.A. and Europe. In a solo recital setting, she has made countless appearances in Canada, the U.S., Iceland, England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan and China. Connie has given chamber music performances with many world-renowned musicians. To critical acclaim, she appears regularly in recital with cellist Steven Isserlis. Including chamber music appearances at the Wigmore and Carnegie Halls, she performs at the prestigious Bath Music Festival, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Weill Hall, and at the Kronberg Festival. Her collaborations have included Maxim Vengerov, Tabea Zimmerman, and Isabelle Faust.
Winner of the 2nd Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1985 and the 1st Prize at the ARD in Munich in 1988, Mi-kyung Lee was guest teacher at the UDK in Berlin and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Since 2005 she is teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.
Has appeared as soloist with orchestras such Royal Philharmonia ancd Philharmonia Orchestras of London, Camerata Salzburg, Zurich Tonhalle and others. Lysy has recorded for CBC Radio, BBC Radio, Classic FM and many live performances for cello solo.
Prize winner in the Enescu, Valsesia and Molinari competitions, Vlad Stanculeasa is an active solo and chamber music performer, as well as a teacher in european conservatories. As a soloist, he’s performed with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Kammersymphonie Leipzig. He’s collaborated as soloist with many conductors including Kent Nagano, Lahav Shani, Han Na Chang, Konrad von Abel.
Was selected by Lord Yehudi Menuhin to be the pianist of the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland where she performed concerts and tours. Tecu has recorded together with violinist Alberto Lysy “Romantic pieces for violin and piano. Lorena is a staff pianist at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and the Boston University College of Fine Arts.
