Roman Kim
Violin
Roman Kim is internationally acknowledged as one of the most innovative violinists of our time. He has been constantly contributing to the evolution of violin playing technique, expanding the boundaries of what – some years ago – had been considered impossible by even the best violinists in the world.
International career
When, in 2010, he published a video on YouTube, performing his transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach's Air from the Orchestral Suite No. 3, the then 19-year-old caused a sensation. The fact that he was playing all four parts of the score on a single violin amazed experts and famous violinists. Ever since, his fresh and unconventional approach to classical music has been applauded by audiences all over the world. After winning the International Violin Competition "Valsesia Musica" (2012), Kim played concerts in Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Russia, USA, China, South Korea, Romania, Switzerland and Taiwan. Among others, he appeared in auditoriums such as the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Cologne Philharmonic, the Romanian Athenaeum, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Herkulessaal, the Beijing Concert Hall, the Bari Teatro Petruzzelli, the Seoul Arts Centre, the Franz List Music Academy Budapest and the Taipei National Concert Hall. He performed with orchestras like the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Aachen Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra del Teatro Petruzzelli, the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, under the baton of distinguished conductors such as Aziz Shokhakimov, Dirk Kaftan, Josep Caballé Domenech, Daejin Kim, Alexandre Bloch and Alpesh Chauhan.
Composing soloist inspired by the past
As a soloist, Roman Kim is especially devoted to the works of Niccolò Paganini, fighting against the prejudice of Paganini's compositions being merely superficial virtuoso show pieces. Resuming the great and old tradition of composing soloists, Roman Kim is also a performer of his own compositions. In 2015, he started a close collaboration with the renowned German music publisher "Bärenreiter". The first edition of Kim's arrangement of Bach's Air was sold out within a few months. Roman Kim's music is romantic, tonal and melodic. While it reminds of the the great composers of the 19th century, his music is also highly original, due to his technical innovations that allow him to create absolutely astonishing sounds. Roman Kim's paraphrases "I Brindisi" on themes by Italian opera composer Verdi strengthened his reputation as a modern Paganini. Inspired by Arcangelo Corelli's “La Folia”, Kim proposed his own approach to the famous musical theme that inspired so many composers of the past.
Combining musical brilliance and spiritual depth
In April 2017, Roman Kim's "Three Romances" for violin and piano were published by "Bärenreiter". The same year, his debut album “Kimpossible” was released by Sony Classical and
received with enthusiasm by critiques around the globe. One of Kim's latest works is an arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Piano Concerto in d-Minor. It does not only translate Bach's orchestral music to the solo violin, but also disposes of a cadenza that Kim composed for this version. In 2019, Roman Kim published his arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”. During the last two years, Roman Kim worked on his “Requiem”. The expressive large scale composition for solo violin was inspired by Gregorian chants and the Roman Catholic Mass for the dead. The movements follow the traditional liturgical form, combining musical brilliance and spiritual depth. The “Requiem” should have been inaugurated in Hiroshima, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city. However, the event had to be postponed due to the 2020 pandemic.
Pupil of Galina Turchaninova
Born in Kazakhstan into a family of Korean-Tatar-Belarussian descent, Kim started to play the violin at the age of five. Only three years later, he went to Moscow to attend the class of Galina Turchaninova who, as a professor at the Moscow Central Music School, taught many famous violinist like Maxim Vengerov. In 2008, Roman Kim was accepted, aged 16, at the
Musikhochschule Cologne, where he studied with Prof. Viktor Tretyakov. Roman Kim currently lives in Cologne and studies composition at the local conservatory. He plays a violin he designed himself. The instrument was created in 2015 at the workshop of master violin maker Alexander Hazin (Cologne) and named „Superior".
Severin von Eckardstein
Piano
Severin von Eckardstein, one of the leading German pianists of his generation, has an already lengthy record of solo concerts and concerto performances on major stages around the world.
He has delighted the public with many highly acclaimed concerts, for example in Berlin, Munich, Milan, Moscow, Madrid, London, Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Budapest, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul. His talent could be enjoyed at great music festivals, including Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Aldeburgh / UK, the Gilmore Festival in Michigan / USA, La Roque d’Anthéron / France, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Husum Festival (“Raritäten der Klaviermusik”) and the Miami International Piano Festival, where he played the opening concert in 2009. He has performed with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Philippe Herreweghe, Lothar Zagrosek and Marek Janowski, and made important debuts, among others in 2007 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaap van Zweden in 2012 and the Hungarian National Philharmony under Zsolt Hamar in 2017.
In 2018 he made his debut at the Thompson Art Center in New York with two different recitals.
Many of Von Eckardstein’s concerts have been recorded and broadcasted by major broadcasting corporations. As a frequent guest of the concert series “Meesterpianisten” at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, von Eckardstein opened the gala concert celebrating the series’ 25th anniversary in 2012. In 2020 he was reinvited to this extraordinary series for the 8 th time.
Born in Duesseldorf, Germany, in 1978, the pianist won prizes at numerous noteworthy international competitions, e.g. “Ferruccio Busoni” in Bozen (1998), the “Leeds International Piano Competition” (2000), “José Iturbi” in Valencia (2002), the ARD- Competition in Munich (1999) and was awarded first prize at the “Concours Reine Elisabeth” in Brussels (2003).
On several occasions he has been awarded special prizes for the “Best Interpretation of Contemporary Music.”
Several foundations and societies, including the Mozart Society and the highly regarded German National Merit Foundation, have honored him with scholarships. In 2002 he received the “European Culture Prize” and in 2003 the “Echo Classic Prize.”
Von Eckardstein’s education in the musical arts was predominately shaped by his teachers Prof. Barbara Szczepanska, Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Prof. Klaus Hellwig, University of Arts, Berlin, where he also successfully completed his concert exams. In an additional course of study at the International Piano Academy Lake Como, Italy, he profited from further instruction and inspiration. He took private lessons from teachers such as Alfred Brendel and participated in master classes instructed by Vitalij Margulis, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Alicia de Larrocha, Leon Fleisher and Menahem Pressler, to name only a few. He himself has been serving as master class instructor on many occasions, among others in South Korea, Finland, Belgium and at the “UdK”, Berlin.
Chamber music also plays a significant role in his repertoire with performances at festivals such as the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Finland, and the Risør Chamber Music Festival, Norway, where he appeared with the cellist Heinrich Schiff. He has often given concerts with young but highly renowned musicians, for example Andrej Bielov, Barnabasz Kelemen, Franziska Hölscher, Judith Ermert, Danjulo Ishizaka and Nicolas Altstaedt. In 2015 he founded the chamber concert series “Klangbrücken” at Konzerthaus Berlin together with violinist Franziska Hölscher.
Von Eckardstein‘s comprehensive repertoire spans the baroque period up through music of the 21st century. As such, he has premiered the works of modern-day composers, in particular the American Sidney Corbett. One of his special focuses is the demanding late romantic piano music of less known composers, especially Nicolai Medtner.
CD recordings with compositions by Medtner, Scriabin, Wagner, Schubert, Schumann, Debussy and others aroused great interest. His latest album of Dupont´s cycle “La maison dans les dunes” was awarded with “Diapason d´Or”. Another recording of sonatas by Prokofiev is presently under preparation.