Today, the Symphony Orchestra Festival “Riga Jurmala” announced launching its educational initiative, the Riga Jurmala Academy, with an online music master classes led by the world-renowned musicians, scheduled to perform this summer. The upcoming master classes will take place on February 16 and 18 and will be led by the leading Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) musicians - cellist Lionel Cottet and double bassist and concertmaster Philipp Stubenrauch. The master classes will be publicly available on the academy’s Facebook page: facebook.com/rigajurmalaacademy.
“The traditional format is the masterclass, a lesson between the professor and the student that is observed by an audience. The festival offers the student a rare chance to work with a master and to also see them perform. Last season 28 artists have taught over 90 students from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia with professors including strings and winds soloists from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouworkest and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as well as pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and Yefim Bronfman, violinist Renaud Capuçon, cellists Mischa Maisky and Gautier Capuçon, singers Benjamin Appl, Joseph Calleja, Alice Coote and Olga Peretyatko and others. Altogether these masterclasses were viewed over 100 000 times,” said Toms Ostrovskis, Director of the Riga Jurmala Academy.
Cello and double bass master classes with leading BRSO musicians already in February
On 16 February from 3 to 5 p.m. in a public online masterclass with the cellist Lionel Cottet students from Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music will participate: Pauls Ēriks Skujiņš, (doc. D. Ozoliņa class) will perform J.S. Bach - Cello Suite No.2 in D minor, BWV 1008: Allemande and Courante, Elīza Čaša, (G. Šnē class / accompanist V. Miķelsone) will perform R. Schumann - Fantasiestücke, Op.73, and Tomass Ančs, (doc. D. Ozoliņa class) will present G. Rossini - Une larme: Theme and Variations for cello and piano.
Whereas on the 18 February from 3 to 5 p.m. together with Philipp Stubenrauch Haralds Arnis, student at Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music (S.Brīnums class / accompanist E.Bērtiņa) will perform C. Saint-Saëns - Allegro appasionato, Op.43, Laine Luīze Freidenberga, student at Emīls Dārziņš Music School (S.Brīnums class / accompanist E.Jēkabsone) will perform D. Dragonetti - Double Bass Concerto No.5 in A major (orchestral tuning version in G major), 1st mvt Allegro moderato, and Dāvis Vilks, Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music (S.Brīnums class) will play C.D. von Dittersdorf - Double Bass Concerto No.1 in E major, Krebs 172, 1st mvt Allegro moderato.
“We are glad that after a few months’ break, the festival’s academy will resume, offering master classes for various instrument groups and singers, so that in the summer the online format can be replaced with live master class performances as a part of the otherwise rich festival programme,” Ostrovskis added.
About Lionel Cottet
Lionel Cottet was born in Geneva as well as with Clemens Hagen at the Salzburg Mozarteum, at the Zurich University of the Arts and at New York’s Juilliard School of Music. He also appears regularly in partnership with the pianist Louis Schwizgebel and has performed in this capacity at many major festivals, including the Marlboro Festival in the United States, the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, the Bergen Festival in Norway, the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, the Davos Festival, the Olympus Festival in St Petersburg and the Septembre Musical in Montreux. Lionel Cottet plays on a violoncello made by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume in 1852. Since February 2016 he has been the principal violoncellist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Lionel Cottet has performed at the Riga Jurmala Music Festival and has been a part of the festival’s education programme Riga Jurmala Academy, teaching cello to young artists of the Baltic countries.
Philipp Stubenrauch
Philipp Stubenrauch, born in 1978 in Mainz, began playing the piano at the age of six. After completing secondary school, he initially studied at the Music Academy in Frankfurt with Günter Klaus, then in Munich at the Academy of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Finally, his studies took him to Geneva, where he was a member of Franco Petracchi’s soloist class.
In 2004 he completed his diploma in Frankfurt and thereafter was engaged as principal double bassist by the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, with which he played the Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra by Johann Baptist Vanhal under the direction of Chief Conductor Mariss Jansons in 2009. He gained orchestral experience in the German Federal Youth Orchestra, the Young German Philharmonic and in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. Meanwhile he himself is a regular instructor for the Bavarian Youth Orchestra.
Beyond this, he also teaches at the Academy of the Akademie des Symphonieorchesters, at the Munich Music Academy and receives invitations to give master classes all over the world. Philipp Stubenrauch is a co-founder of the nonSordino Ensemble and a member of the Clemente Ensemble.
