Johann Sebastian Bach - Sarabande in d minor

2022 09 24
Played at the Palace of Arts, Budapest, as an encore, after Bartók's first Violin Concerto
Barnabás Kelemen has established himself as one of the leading and most versatile artist of his generation.
An artist of “innate musicality” with a technical execution that belongs “only to the greatest” (The Guardian)
“...a penchant for fiery display and a lyricism suited to the stage, Barnabás Kelemen Hungarian soloist met the composer's demands unflappably, stirring a rousing ovation” as the soloist of the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium.” (New York Times)
Conquering the most famous concert halls in the world with his dynamic and passionate performances with his open-minded and individual playing he is an outstanding soloist chamber musician and conductor. As well he has been artistic director of festivals and professor at renowned institutions. In recent years he has been invited more and more as a jury member at world's leading violin and chamber music contests.
Due to his exceptional style sensitivity and his comprehensive technical proficiency, Barnabás Kelemen navigates with confidence through the entire catalogue of music written for violin. His repertoire is thus extremely diverse from solo, concerto, chamber music to string quartet works and he performs with incredible authenticity from early baroque, through classical, and romantic to contemporary music, with world- or Hungarian premieres of works by Kurtág, Ligeti, Schnittke, Gubajdulina, Steve Reich or Ryan Wigglesworth.
He regularly performs at the world's most prominent concert venues, including the Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, the Royal Festival Hall, the Palais de Beaux Arts, the Suntory Hall, the Musikverein or the Berliner Philharmonie. He is a frequent guest of such eminent ensembles as the BBC Symphony, the London Philharmonic- and Symphony orchestras, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony, Hannover's NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra or the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Estonian National Philharmonic Orchestra or the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra to name but a few.
Kelemen has achieved outstanding results at worlds greatest contests, including first prizes at both the 1999 Salzburg International Mozart Violin Competition and the 2002 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, the third prize at Brussels’ 2001 Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition. His artistry has been recognized with the highest professional and state honors: he has been awarded Liszt, Bartók-Pásztory and Kossuth Prizes, Prima and the London-based Gramophone Awards, and is the holder of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.
On top of all Barnabás Kelemen is a passionate chamber musician who has been playing regularly together with artists like Zoltán Kocsis, Joshua Bell, Schlomo Mintz, Miklós Perényi, Ferenc Rados, Maxim Rysanov, Steven Isserlis, Alina Ibragimova, Nicolas Altstaedt, Vilde Frang, José Gallardo or Andreas Ottensamer at chamber music festivals such as: Edinburgh, Jerusalem, Prussia Cove, Salzburg, Graz, Delft, Lockenhaus, Mondsee, Mantova, Kuhmo etc.
He had been professor of violin later chamber music at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in Budapest and worked as a regular guest professor at the Indiana University in Bloomington/USA. Since 2013 he is a violin professor at the Cologne University in Germany as a successor of Zakhar Bronn and Viktor Tretyakov. He has been giving masterclasses at renowned institutions like Salzburg Mozarteum, Brussels Chapelle Rheine Elizabeth and at universities of Tokyo, Paris, Glasgow, Dallas, Toronto, Helsinki, Antwerpen, Brussels, Florance etc.
Barnabás Kelemen has been invited as jury member to prestigious international violin and chamber music/string quartet competitions like: Singapore, Wieniawsky (Poland), Szigeti (Hungary), Kloster Schöntaal (Germany), Bartók (Hungary), or Banff (Canada).
Together with Katalin Kokas, he is the founder and artistic director of the Festival Academy Budapest which regularly features artists such as Joshua Bell, Vilde Frang, Maxim Rysanov, Nicolas Alsteadt, Andreas Ottensamer, Alina Ibragimova, Shlomo Mintz, Ferenc Rados or Gidon Kremer and hosts 50-60 university students from all over the world for masterclasses and to work and perform with the festival artists.
He performs on the “ex-Dénes Kovács” Guarneri del Gesú violin of 1742, generously loaned to him by the Hungarian State and on a period baroque violin made by Januarius Gagliano in 1771.
More information:
barnabaskelemen.com

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beautiful