Sendai International Music Competition

Alena BAEVA | Sendai International Music Competition Official Website

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Alena BAEVA(Russia)

1st Prizewinner of the 3rd SIMC Violin Section

Alena Baeva is one of the brightest stars of violin playing today. She appears to great critical acclaim at the world’s most famous concert venues, among them, Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, the Great Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Sala Verdi in Milan, the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris and many others.

The highlights of Ms. Baeva’s season 2013/2014 include the opening violin recital in the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, the appearance with Yuri Bashmet and the English Chamber Orchestra in Cadogan Hall, London, the tour with Orchestre National de Lille under JeanClaude Casadesus. In February 2014, Alena Baeva performs Shostakovich’s Second Violin Concerto in Salle Pleyel in Paris, joining the complete cycle of Shostakovich’s symphonies and instrumental concertos, performed by Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev.

She works regularly as concerto soloist with orchestras including the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the Svetlanov Academic Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, German Radio Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium and with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Neville Marriner, Yuri Bashmet, Vladimir Fedoseyev and Paavo Berglund. Her chamber music partners have included Marta Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Аlexander Knyazev, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Shlomo Mintz, Itamar Golan, and Аlexander Melnikov. Since 2007, Ms. Baeva is regularly collaborating with the Gold Medal winner of 2013 Van Cliburn international Piano Competition, Vadym Kholodenko.

Alena Baeva was born in 1985 in a musical family. At the age of five she began studying the violin in AlmaAta under Olga Danilova. From 1995 she was a student with Professor Eduard Grach, at the Central School of Music of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire and from 2002 to 2007 at the Moscow Conservatoire itself. Apart from formal studies, her two most important influencers and supporters were Mstislav Rostropovich and Seiji Ozawa. In 2003, she was invited by Rostropovich to study in France. And since 2007, Ms. Baeva has participated in Seiji Ozawa Academy in Switzerland. She has participated to various masterclasses, including those under Ida Haendel and Maxim Vengerov. Alena Baeva has enjoyed great success at competitions. Starting in 1994, she has won 1st prizes at competitions in Novosibirsk, Warsaw, Germany and at the Henryk Wieniawski competition in Poznań. She won the Grand Prix at the Moscow International Niccolò Paganini Competition (2004), giving her the right to perform on the Stradivarius violin that belonged to Henryk Wieniawski, as well as the Gold Medal and audience prize at the 3rd Sendai International Music Competition Violin Section (2007).

The violinist’s discography includes recordings of concerti by Bruch and Shostakovich with the Russian National Orchestra (Pentatone Classics), concerti by Szymanowski (DUX) and sonatas by Poulenc, Prokofiev and Debussy (SIMC). The most recent recording was Schubert’s Erlkonig with Yuri Bashmet released by Sony Classics in 2013. She also has a rich range of recordings made on radio and television in Belgium, Germany, Israel, Poland, Japan, Portugal, Russia and the USA.

Her rapidly expanding repertoire includes over forty violin concerti and numerous sonatas and other works from different eras. She performs on a Stradivarius violin provided by the Russian State Collection of Unique Musical Instruments.

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