Mikhail Pochekin, Ivan Pochekin, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester
Biography Mikhail Pochekin, Ivan Pochekin, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester
Mikhail Pochekin
is one of the most distinguished violinists of his generation.
His expressive and bright artistic charisma helped him to earn the love of the audience and has been recognized by international critics and many of the world’s finest orchestras. So in recent years he has had the privilege of performing, among others, with the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra or Ural Philharmonic.
Mikhail has appeared at numerous venues worldwide. Solo performances have taken him several times to the renowned festivals and concert halls such as the Mariinski Theater Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, Fundación Juan March in Madrid, Kronberg Academy Festival, the Great Hall of Moscow State Conservatory, Festival Schubertiada de Vilabertrán, Grosser Saal der Stiftung Mozarteum, The Concordia International Festival of Contemporary Music named after Sofia Gubaidulina, Cultural Center "Gasteig" in Munich or Festival «Tchaikovsky Homeland».
Mikhail is also a constant participant of the “Stars of the 21st Century” project organized by the Moscow Philharmonic Society.
He has collaborated with eminent conductors including Vasily Sinaisky, Heinz Holliger, Yuri Simonov, Ilmar Lapinsch, Kevin Griffiths, Valery Poliansky, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Dimitris Botinis, Mei-Ann Chen, Alexander Sladkovsky, Mikhail Agrest, Gavriel Heine or Bojan Sudjic.
Mikhail is a passionate and committed chamber musician who performs frequently with artists like Wen-Sinn Yang, Kian Soltani, Benedict Klöckner, Alexander Ramm, Petrit Çeku, Rainer Schmidt, Ana Chumachenco, Kiveli Doerken, Yuri Favorin or Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev.
Special mention should be made of his duet with his brother, violinist and violist Ivan Pochekin. In 2018, label Melodiya released their debut album entitled “The Unity of Opposites”, which included works for two violins as well as for violin and viola.
And in 2019, the german label Solo Musica released the album "6 Sonatas & Partitas BWV 1001-1006" for violin solo by J.S. Bach.
The album has been highly praised by the international press – among others by “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (reviews by Harald Eggebrecht and Reinhard Brembeck) and The Strad (recommendation and review by Julian Haylock)
Mikhail was born to a musical family: his father is a violin maker, his mother is a violin teacher, and his older brother is a violinist and violist. Thus, the sounds of the violin accompanied Mikhail from his early childhood.
He received his first lesson from G.S. Turchaninova at the age of five and continued his studies with Ana Chumachenco, Viktor Tretiakov and Rainer Schmidt, at the music academies of Cologne, Munich and Basel, the “Reina Sofia” school of music in Madrid and also at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. Great artistic influence on him had the masterclasses and lessons with Christian Tetzlaff.
Already at a young age, he won the prizes of prestigious international competitions, among them Premio Rodolfo Lipizer, Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition, Concorso Ruggiero Ricci, or Jasha Heifetz International Violin Competition.
In 2008, he was awarded the Pablo Sarasate National Prize in Spain, after which he received an invitation from the Royal Conservatory of Madrid to give a concert on the famous violin by Antonio Stradivarius "Ex Boissier", which once belonged to the famous spanish violinist.
The next projects highlights include engagements among others with the Moscow State symphony orchestra,, State symphony orchestra of Russia "Evgeny Svetlanov" (conductor - Valentin Uryupin), Kammerphilharmonie Landshut (conductor - Maximilian Hornung), as well as Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen and Neubrandenburger Philharmonie (conductor - Sebastian Tewinkel). Together with these two last orchestras, in addition to concert performances, CD recordings are also planned.
Ivan Pochekin
is one of the most brilliant violinists of the Russian school in his generation. He rose to stardom in 2005 after winning the 3rd Niccolò Paganini International Violin Competition in Moscow. Ivan Pochekin has performed under the baton of such eminent conductors as Valery Gergiev, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Spivakov, Vladimir Jurowski, Alexander Sladkovsky, Yuri Simonov, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Gintaras Rinkevičius, Mark Gorenstein, Friedrich Haider, Mladen Tarbuck, Sergei Skripka, Dmitry Liss, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Jan Latham-Koenig, Fabio Mastrangelo, and Charles Olivieri-Munroe.
Ivan has participated in various festivals, among them “The Musical Kremlin,” the Moscow Easter Festival, "La Folle Journée" in Nantes, and "Pianoscope" in Beauvais. In 2008 and 2013, on Denis Matsuev’s invitation, he performed in the "Crescendo" Festival in Kaliningrad and Pskov and the “Stars on Lake Baikal” Festival in Irkutsk. In September 2014, the violinist was honored to play the legendary ex-Paganini violin by Carlo Bergonzi, provided courtesy of Maxim Viktorov’s family, during the Grand Festival of the Russian National Orchestra when he, the Russian National Orchestra and maestro Pletnev performed Niccolò Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 2.
Over the years, Ivan Pochekin has collaborated with the Yevgeny Svetlanov State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia, the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Tchaikovsky Great Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Republic of Tatarstan’s State Symphony Orchestra, the Urals Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Academic Chamber Orchestra of Russia, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Republic of Korea Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Oviedo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsches Kammerorchester, and the Basel Symphony Orchestra.
In 2006, the violinist recorded music by Niccolò Paganini and Ernest Chausson on a debut CD sponsored by the Violin Art Foundation. In the same year, "PhilArtis" Vienna in Austria released an album entitled “Chanson Russe” with Ivan’s recordings of works by Sergei Prokofiev, Karol Szymanowski, Peter Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky and Aram Khachaturian.
In August 2011, Ivan Pochekin signed a contract with "Naxos" Records, an internationally famous classical music label, to record two albums of music by Niccolò Paganini, including his Violin Concertos No. 5 and 6 and several virtuoso violin pieces. The albums were released to receive highly enthusiastic critical acclaim.
