Noa Wildschut, Pablo Barragán, Frank Dupree, Anton Spronk
Biography Noa Wildschut, Pablo Barragán, Frank Dupree, Anton Spronk
Noa Wildschut
The Dutch violinist Noa Wildschut (2001) is only 23 years old, but has already taken her place on the international classical music scene. At the age of six she played live on Dutch television as part of the “Kinderprinsengrachtconcert 2007” in Amsterdam, and a year later she made her debut in the great hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Since September 2016 she has been an exclusive artist with Warner Classics.
Over the years, Noa has built up a considerable reputation and is regularly invited to festivals, recitals and solo concerts with orchestras at home and abroad. She performs with inspiring musicians such as Janine Jansen, Menahem Pressler, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniel Müller-Schott, Pablo Ferrández, Amihai Grosz, Timothy Ridout, Kian Soltani, Nils Mönkemeyer, Igor Levit, Enrico Pace, Arthur and Lucas Jussen, as well as with her duo recital partner, the pianist Elisabeth Brauß.
Noa has worked with orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Bamberg Symphony, Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orkest The Hague, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Kremerata Baltica, Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Liechtenstein Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica de João Pessoa in Brazil and Orquesta Sinfónica de Guayaquil in Ecuador, working with conductors such as Manfred Honeck, James Gaffigan, Michael Sanderling, Vasily Petrenko, Anja Bihlmaier, Nicholas Collon, Elim Chan, Patrick Hahn, Matthias Pintscher, Fabien Gabel and Ariel Zuckermann.
Noa is already the winner of numerous awards and has won first prize at the Louis Spohr International Violin Competition in Weimar (aged 9), first prize at the Iordens Violin Competition in The Hague (aged 10) and the Concertgebouw Young Talent Award 2013 (aged 11). Last year she received the Anton Kersjes Violin Scholarship 2017 (aged 16). Noa is the recipient of the 2018 WEMAG Soloist Award from the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. Noa was chosen as “ECHO Rising Star” for the 2019-20 season by the European Concert Hall Organisation; that's why she tours Europe and visits the big concert halls. Noa had the honor of being the artistic director of the Rügen Spring Festival 2023 as part of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.
Noa began her violin lessons at the age of 4 with Coosje Wijzenbeek and from 2013 to 2018 Noa studied with Professor Vera Beths at the Amsterdam Academy of Music. Noa recently completed her studies with Professor Antje Weithaas at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. In addition to the regular courses, Noa attended master classes and lessons with Janine Jansen, Ivry Gitlis, Jaap van Zweden, Menahem Pressler, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Anner Bijlsma and Liviu Prunaru. From 2014 to 2019 Noa was a member of the “Mutter Virtuosi” under the direction of Anne-Sophie Mutter, and was a fellow of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.
Noa plays a violin by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù known as “Lady Stretton”, Cremona za. 1729 – generously loaned by a member of the Stretton Society. Noa's bow is a beautiful Léonard Tourte, za.1800, kindly loaned by the Stretton Society.
Pablo Barragán
The Spanish clarinetist Pablo Barragán made his solo debut in 2013 at the Lucerne Festival, which was broadcast live on Radio Télévision Suisse and subsequently released as a CD by the Credit Suisse Foundation. The critics describe him as an outstanding musician, not only for his overwhelming playing, but also for his stage presence, passion, communicative ability and sensitivity.
Awarded the Prix Credit Suisse Jeunes Solistes 2013, in addition to numerous other international competitions, such as the ARD Music Competition 2012, the first prize of the Juventudes Musicales de España 2011 or the special prize of the European Music Competitions for Youth 2011 (EMCY), Pablo Barragán is one of the most versatile and interesting musicians of his generation. He works regularly with orchestras such as the Sinfonieorchester Basel, Orquesta de Radio Television Española, Bratislava Sinfonietta, Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre du Chambre Delemont, Orquesta Betica de Camara and Neues Orchester Basel and conductors such as Clemens Schuldt, Adrian Pravaba and Gabriel Feltz.
The clarinetist has performed at numerous festivals throughout Europe such as the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Schloss Elmau Chamber Music Weeks with his chamber music partner Maki Wiederkehr. He has also performed at festivals such as the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Salzburg Chamber Music Festival, Young Euroclassics Berlin, the Davos Festival, the Zurich Lake Music Summer, the Montecastelli Pisano Festival under the artistic direction of Heinrich Schifft, the Schlewig-Holstein Music Festival and the Saitenspiel Wuppertal, as well as in well-known
venues such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Lingotto Torino, the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, L'Auditori and the Palau de la Musica de Barcelona.
Highlights of his 2017/2018 season include the solo CD recording with the Orchestre Musiques des Lumieres under the artistic direction of Facundo Agudin with Mozart's Concerto KV 622 and works by the well-known composers Marco Perez Ramirez and Dominique Gessenay-Rapp, followed by a tour.
Pablo Barragán's chamber music partners include Maki Wiederkehr, Juan Pérez Floristán, Goldmund Quartet, Adam Golka, Esther Hoppe, Benjamin Engeli, Belenus Quartet, Cristina Gomez Godoy, Torleif Thedéen, Viviane Hagner, Andrei Ioniţă, Tobias Feldmann, Daniela Koch and Theo Plath.
As an artist open to new music, he performed the premiere of “NothingTwoSay” together with soprano Laurence Guillod and visual artist Leandro Suarez, which explores the physical limits of communication through texts by John Cage and music by Berio, Sariaaho and Fröst.
Since 2007, Pablo Barragán has been a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Daniel Barenboim, with performances worldwide. Pablo Barragán is also committed to music education and has been invited to the Middle East, among other places, to teach as a professor at the Barenboim-Said Foundation.
The clarinetist, born in 1987, initially studied at the Conservatorio Superior de Música Manuel Castillo in Seville with Antonio Salguero and at the Barenboim-Said Foundation with Matthias Glander before moving to the Basel Music Academy in 2009 as a scholarship holder of the Fundación Caja Madrid, where he continued his education in the master class of François Benda. He studied chamber music with professors such as Anton Kernjak, Ferenc Rados, Benjamin Engeli, and Sergio Azzolini and took part in master classes with well-known clarinetists such as Martin Fröst, Charles Niedich, and Dimitri Ashkenazy.
Frank Dupree
Winner of the International Classical Music Award and the Opus Klassik, he is one of the most versatile pianists and conductors of the young generation. With his infectious energy and unbridled joy of playing, he inspires audiences as a soloist with first-class orchestras, as a play/direct artist, conductor and as a jazz pianist with the Frank Dupree Trio. His recordings of Nikolai Kapustin's piano concertos have attracted international attention (New York Times: "one of the most entertaining and put-on-repeat recording [of the] year"). Frank Dupree has been Artistic Partner of the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn since 2023.
In the 2023-2024 season, Frank Dupree will make his debut as a soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Kapustin & Tchaikovsky / Santtu-Matias Rouvali), Malmö Operaorkester (Mozart play/direct), the NDR Radiophilharmonie (Gershwin / Eiji Ōue), the Mainz State Orchestra (HK Gruber) and the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra (Gershwin / Patrick Hahn). Recitals and chamber music projects will take him to Lincoln Center New York, Wigmore Hall London, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Brucknerhaus Linz.
Highlights of Frank Dupree’s career include concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Symfoniorkester, Malmö SymfoniOrkester, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and the Sinfónica Nacional de México. Frank Dupree regularly works as a soloist and conductor with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Dortmund Philharmonic, the Essen Philharmonic, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the German State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Weimar State Orchestra and the Liechtenstein Symphony Orchestra.
Concert tours have taken Dupree to the Verbier Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Vaduz Classic, the Beethoven Festival Bonn, the Heidelberg Spring Festival, the Kissinger Summer Festival, the Kurt Weill Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, and the stages of renowned concert halls such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Tonhalle Zurich.
Frank Dupree is a passionate chamber musician who effortlessly crosses genre boundaries - a reputation that also precedes the FRANK DUPREE TRIO, in which Dupree, together with Jakob Krupp (bass) and Obi Jenne (drums), explores the tense relationship between jazz and classical music. In addition, Frank Dupree repeatedly creates creative and unusual programs in changing chamber music formations. He maintains a close artistic exchange with rising stars such as Kian Soltani, Vivi Vassileva, Timothy Ridout, Simon Höfele, Noa Wildschut and Pablo Barragán.
In his CD productions, Frank Dupree is currently devoting himself in particular to the works of the Ukrainian-born composer Nikolai Kapustin (1937-2020). Dupree's interpretations of the Piano Concerto No. 4 (Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn / Case Scaglione) and the Piano Concerto No. 5 (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra / Dominik Beykirch) were awarded the International Classical Music Award and the Diapason d'Or. Gramophone Magazine attested to Dupree's "boundless brilliance". The interpretations of the Piano Concerto No. 5 were also "fantastic", according to WDR, bringing out "the drive and pure joy [...] from this music." World premiere recordings, world premieres and close collaboration with composers such as Wolfgang Rihm, HK Gruber, Péter Eötvös and Christian Jost demonstrate Dupree's great enthusiasm for the music of our time.
The musician, who was born in Rastatt (Germany) in 1991, took piano and drum lessons from an early age. He later studied piano (Prof. Sontraud Speidel) and conducting (Prof. Péter Eötvös, Prof. Hans Zender) at the Karlsruhe University of Music. In 2012, he was awarded first prize at the International Hans von Bülow Competition in Meiningen for his Beethoven interpretation as a pianist and conductor. In 2014, Frank Dupree was the only prizewinner of the German Music Competition and also received a scholarship from the German Foundation for Music Life and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. He received important inspiration in master classes with Emanuel Ax, Menahem Pressler, Ferenc Rados and Gábor Takács-Nagy. He assisted in projects by Sir Simon Rattle, François-Xavier Roth and Mario Venzago. Frank Dupree is a Steinway Artist.
Anton Spronk
is one of the leading cellists of his generation. As a prizewinner of national and international competitions, he won, among others, 1st prize and two special prizes at the International Mazzacurati Cello Competition in Turin, 1st prize and audience prize at the Cello Biennale Amsterdam competition and he was a semifinalist at both the International ARD Music Competition in Munich and the International Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He was also awarded the Dutch Classical Talent Award in 2021 and the Prix du Rotary at the Verbier Festival 2019.
As a soloist, Anton Spronk has performed with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie and Orchestra sinfonica nazionale della RAI, among others, in collaboration with conductors such as Jakub Hrůša, Nicholas Milton, Vahan Mardirossian and Péter Eötvös. He has already performed in the major concert halls of Europe, America and Asia, including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall New York, Tonhalle Zurich, Berlin Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Dortmund and the Seoul Arts Center.
As a passionate chamber musician, Anton Spronk is a regular guest at internationally renowned festivals such as the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht, the Cello Biennale Amsterdam, the Gstaad Festival, the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, the Davos Festival and the Gonjiam Festival in South Korea. In 2019 he took part in the Verbier Festival Academy. He is the initiator and artistic director of the international Eggenfelden classical festival in Bavaria, which has been taking place since 2016, together with violinist Larissa Cidlinsky.
Since March 2024, Anton Spronk has been the principal cellist in the hr Symphony Orchestra in Frankfurt am Main.
The Dutch-Swiss cellist, born in 1994, began playing the cello under the guidance of his father. He completed his cello studies with Monique Bartels in Amsterdam and Thomas Grossenbacher in Zurich. He studied for his master's and concert exam at the Berlin University of the Arts under Jens Peter Maintz. Anton Spronk was a scholarship holder at the Liechtenstein Music Academy. He received other important musical inspiration from Steven Isserlis, Frans Helmerson, David Geringas, Anner Bijlsma, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Troels Svane and Wolfgang Boettcher.
As a young man he was already a multiple prizewinner in national and international competitions, including the Migros Culture Percentage Competition, the Kiefer Hablitzel Foundation, the International Lutosławski Competition and the Princess Christina Concours.
Anton Spronk currently plays a J. B. Vuillaume cello from 1865, which is provided to him by the Netherlands Musical Instrument Foundation.
