#FLVfromhome : Concert de la Classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle

Concert engagements have led her to play in halls like the Beethovenhaus Bonn, Casals Forum Kronberg, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Recipient of the Prix Jean-Nicolas Firmenich at the Verbier Festival 2021 for the best young cellist and the 2022 Leyda Ungerer prize, Anouchka Hack is a "Debut“ artist in Nikolaisaal Potsdam, the series featuring recitals and solo appearances in three seasons.

Concert engagements for the current season comprise solo appearances with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and recitals with Katharina Hack in Laeiszhalle Hamburg and at Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern amongst others, as well as chamber concerts in Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. Anouchka Hack most recently appeared as a soloist with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, the Erfurt Symphony Orchestra, the Brandenburger Symphoniker, the Zagreb Soloists and the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, and as a chamber musician in the prestigious Rheingau Musikfestival. Solo appearances lead her to play concerts in the Konzerthaus Dortmund amongst others.

In 2020, her Duo first album, featuring works by Dmitri Shostakovich and an encore together with Gautier Capuçon, was released at GENUIN classics, and was nominated for the German record critics award and the Opus Klassik award. Anouchka and Katharina Hack are the artistic directors of the meetMUSIC Open Air Festival in Mettingen, Germany, which celebrated its first two successful editions in 2021 and 2022. Next to the big works of the Duo repertoire, the sisters incorporate free Duo improvisations in their concerts as well.

Anouchka Hack is a scholarship holder of the Mozart-Gesellschaft Dortmund and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. She is currently studying with Prof. Frans Helmerson at the Kronberg Academy. As a prizewinner of the Competition of the German Music Instruments fund, Anouchka Hack plays on a Cello by Bartolomeo Tassini, Venice 1769. 

Raphaël’s style is characterised by his curiosity and openness. His personal repertoire includes several concertos (Vivaldi on baroque instrument, Haydn, Schumann, Saint-Saens, Beethoven…) with orchestra, as well as the Bach cello suites, which he first performed at the ‘Festival de la Haute Clarée’, invited by Zhu Xiao Mei with whom he has been studying piano. He is a member of the Hussam Aliwat Quartet, formed by two cellos one oud and drums. Mix between rock, groove and improvisation, they play in jazz clubs like the Sunset. 

Passionate about chamber music, he gives concerts in prestigious concert halls (Pleyel, Cortot, Philharmonie de Paris) and during various festivals in France (Les Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, Via Aeterna, Folles Journées de Nantes) and abroad (Hohenstaufen Festival, Molaeb Festival in Lebanon, Folles Journées in Varsovie and Tokyo…). 

In 2014, Raphaël founded the Hélios Trio with Alexis Gournel (piano) and Camille Fonteneau (violin). Currently studying with Itamar Golan and François Salque, they benefited from the teachings of Claire Désert and the Wanderer Trio. Laureates of international competitions (Illzach, Prix d’Europe…) they have also been advised by G. Paoletti, Y. Markovitch, E. Strosser, C. Ivaldi, J. Meissl, G. Sutre, the Modigliani and Ebène quartets… They are in residency at the festival de la Roque d’Anthéron in 2015 and 2016, and at the festival des Arcs since 2016. 

Raphaël plays a cello by Etienne Vatelot, generously lent by Michel Strauss. 

In 2014, he pursued his studies at the Mozarteum University Salzburg in the class of Giovanni Gnocchi. Since 2016, he has  been studying under Clemens Hagen. He has also had a lot of opportunities coached by other eminent cellists, such as Jens Peter Maintz, Natalia Gutman, Jian Wang, Danjulo Ishizaka, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Masato Iwai and Wolfgang Boettcher.

Shizuka is a laureate of numerous competitions at home and abroad. For instance, the Gold Prize at the Izumino-Mori Cello Competition (2009), the 2nd prize at the Japan Classic Competition (no 1st prize, 2010), Kirishima International Music Festival Award (2011), the 1st Prize at the Enrico Mainardi Competition (2016), and the 2nd prize at the Tokyo Music Competition (2017). In May 2017, he was one of the Semifinalists of the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels.

Shizuka Mitsui was invited to appear at the International Cello Festival “Alfredo Piatti” in Bergamo, where he performed all Piatti’s Caprices in one concert. He also performed at “the Mozart Festival” in Cuba, “Prize Winner Concert” in Salzburg Festival, and Kusatsu International Music Festival, and “The Japan Festival” in Indiana University.

She has performed as a soloist at numerous festivals, among them the Pablo Casals festival, the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, Musique à l’Emperi, W Krainie Chopina à Varsovie, Orangerie de Sceaux, the Edinburgh Festival, the Ohrid Summer Festival, the Clos-Vougeot festival, and the Variations Musicales de Tannay. She has also appeared at most of Europe’s top concert halls such as the Victoria Hall, the Paris Philharmonie, the Champs-Elysées Theatre, the Opera Garnier, the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Baden-Baden Kurhaus, Schloss Elmau, the Salle Cortot, the Casa de Música in Porto, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation. In April 2018, she was selected to represent the Van Cleef & Arpels Brand at a private event at Beijing’s Summer Palace.

She has played with several great artists such as Emmanuel Pahud, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Alexandre Kantorow, Adam Laloum, and Abdel Rahman El Bacha. She plays regularly in string trio with her two sisters Anna and Magdalena Sypniewski. As the soloist, she has played with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dijon-Bourgogne Orchestra, the Apassionato Ensemble, the Chamber Orchestra of Varsovia Philharmonie, the Elektra Orchestra, and the New-Europe ChamberOrchestra.

She has been awarded several prizes and distinctions including the "Révélation Classique » Adami 2017, the young Talent prize of the Clos-Vougeot Wine and Music Festival, a scholarship from the Safran Foundation, the Ginette Neveu prize at the Carl Flesh Academy 2015, and the Grand Prize of the Ravel Academy 2018.

In 2012-2014, she studied with Professor Valter Despalj at the Zagreb Academy of Music. She is also a graduate from the Edsberg Chamber Music Institute/Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she studied with professor Torleif Thedéen and Mats Zetterqvist.   

Kristina was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1994 and started to play the cello at the age of six with the Russian teacher Maria Zhuravleva. She made her solo debut at the age of 8 with the “Cantus Firmus Chamber Orchestra” in Moscow. She has since then performed with many orchestras internationally, including the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, National Philharmonic of Maryland, The National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C among others. Future engagements in include a solo debut with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra in Sweden.

In 2016, she won the ‘Soloist Prize’ at the Royal College of music in Stockholm and got to perform Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with the RCM Symphony Orchestra. She is a scholarship holder from the Royal Music Academy in Sweden, the John Andersson Foundation and the International Music academy in the Principality of Liechtenstein.

Kristina has a big passion for chamber music, and she therefore frequently enjoys playing at festivals in Sweden and around Europe. Recent engagements include Musethica Festival Israel, Podium Festival Croatia, Festival Next Generation in Switzerland and the Chamber Music Festival in Allhelgona Church, Stockholm. Together with the Swedish pianist Pontus Carron, she is a prize winner in the prestigious Swedish Duo Competition 2017.

Throughout the years, Kristina has had the opportunity to collaborate with and receive coaching from many esteemed musicians, such as Konstantin Bogino, Dora Schwarzberg, Andreas Brantelid, Nazanin Aghakhani, Bengt Forsberg, Reinhard Latzko, Jens Peter Maintz, Frans Helmerson and Anner Bylsma.  

She is also the first person in the history of the Aspen Music Festival to have won both the low strings competition and the piano concerto competition. Sarina has been featured five times on the national radio program “From the Top”, as both a pianist and a cellist, in addition to her appearance on their TV series. Sarina has performed as a soloist with the St. Louis, Detroit, San Diego, Albany, and Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Prague Youth Philharmonic, among others. Most recently, Sarina made her debut with the Juilliard Orchestra and Maestro Susanna Mälkki performing Schumann’s A minor Piano Concerto in Alice Tully Hall. Sarina was also selected as one of eleven young artists to attend Music@Menlo’s prestigious Chamber Music Institute International Program in 2015. Sarina graduated in May with a Bachelor of Music from the Juilliard School, where she studied piano with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Hung-Kuan Chen, and cello with Richard Aaron and David Finckel and was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. She will be continuing her studies this fall at the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik in Weimar, Germany, with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.