Ivan Zenaty & Igor Ardasev
Biography Ivan Zenaty & Igor Ardasev
Ivan Zenaty
reaches a broad public without abandoning the world of classical music for even a moment. Besides the technical perfection one would expect, he is also appreciated for his taste, style and a captivatingly beautiful tone.
With his exceptional wealth of repertoire including more than 50 violin concertos, he is a favored guest artist with many international orchestras. Known for his versatility, his engagements also include solo recitals and chamber music collaborations.
The springboard to his international career came as a result of being a prize winner in the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition followed immediately by debut engagements with the Moscow and Czech Philharmonic. Other successes include First Prize at the Prague Spring Competition, as well as being a chosen laureate of the UNESCO International Rostrum of Young Performers. In the subsequent years following his victories, Mr. Zenaty made his orchestral and solo debuts in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Zurich, Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Jerusalem.
The musicianship of Ivan Zenaty has been influenced the most by his personal encounters with Nathan Milstein, Ruggiero Ricci and André Gertler. Studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow under the tutelage of Igor Bezrodny, had the greatest impact on his technical approach to the violin.
The great Czech musical tradition was passed on to Mr. Zenaty through his mentor Josef Suk, which resulted in many subsequent years of professional partnership and culminated in a recording of the complete works of W. A. Mozart. Other collaborations include great artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Serge Baudo, Valery Gergiev and Neville Marriner.
Ivan Zenaty’s recordings have always aroused the enthusiastic acclaim of listeners and music critics. His prolific output of over 40 CD’s includes the complete works of Telemann, Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schulhoff, Dvořák and Grieg. His new recording of the complete works of Dvořák has attracted extraordinary attention, as has his recording of both violin concertos by J. B. Foerster with the BBC Symphony Orchestra London and its music director Jiri Belohlavek.
A natural counterbalance to Ivan Zenaty’s concert and recording activities is his work as an acclaimed teacher. Mr. Zenaty has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen and in the Fall of 2019 was invited to join the faculty of the Hochschule fur Musik in Dresden. Summer activities will include teaching at the Meadowmount School of Music.
Thanks to the Harmony Foundation of New York, Ivan Zenaty plays a rare Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu violin made in 1740.
Igor Ardašev
(Brno, 1967) practiced his piano skills with Inessa Janíčková at the Brno Conservatory as well as at Janáček Academy of Arts. He extended his education at master classes of Paul Badura-Skoda and Rudolf Serkin. He continued his youthful success (Smetana Competition and Concertino Praga) with a 5th place at the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow in 1987 and by a laureate title from the Prague Spring International Competition in 1988. In the 90's he received 1st prize at the Maria Callas Competition in Athens, 6th prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the title of laureate at the Marguerite Long and Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. Today he has a list of successful recitals behind him (Europe, America, Japan) as well as numerous excellent recordings.
The most interesting include solo projects (Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Beethoven, Dvořák, Ježek, Janáček, Martinů) as well as a four-hand version of Janáček's overture Jealousy realized together with Rudolf Firkušný. His discography was recently complemented by recordings of Dvořák's Slavonic Dances and Smetana's My Country in the four-hand version with his life- and artistic partner, Renata Ardaševová.
Igor Ardašev cooperated with many renowned local (Czech Philharmonic, Brno Philharmonic, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Virtuosi di Praga) as well as foreign orchestras (BBC Orchestra London, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Odense Symphonic Orchestra). He performs at principal local festivals (Prague Spring, Moravian Autumn, Concentus Moraviae, Janáček May, Český Krumlov International Music Festival) as well as foreign events (Hong Kong Arts Festival, Festspiele Europäische Wochen Passau, Internationales Musikfestival Schleswig-Holstein, Edinburgh International Festival, Musica Mundi Waterloo, Ohridsko leto).
Recently he was invited by the Orquesta de Valencia (2004, Dvořák's Piano Concerto), Edinburgh International Festival 2005, a cooperation with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (Poulenc: Concert for two pianos together with Renata Ardaševová), and the Malta National Orchestra where he guest performed in 2005 (Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto no.2) and in 2006 (Beethoven: Triple Concerto, Op. 56).
