Zebra Trio
Ernst Kovacic, Violin
Steven Dann, Viola
Anssi Karttunen, Cello
The String Trio, a unique and largely unexplored genre that includes in its repertoire masterpieces from all periods of musical history, has found a new champion in the collaboration between three remarkable string players. Ernst Kovacic, Steven Dann and Anssi Karttunen represent a wealth of experience, commitment and virtuosity, which brings something exceptional to this transparent and highly individual form of chamber music.
With the versatile, creative and highly adaptable species of the Zebra, the three musicians have found the perfect animal to represent their identity as a chamber ensemble, as they explain with a wink: "Despite the fact that no two zebras are alike, each bearing a completely unique set of stripes, when one puts several zebras together, their differences combine to create the impression of a single organism. This amalgamation gives them the ability to make a powerful collective impression on lions, leopards, hyenas, and...audiences. But perhaps the most important quality zebras possess is their refusal to be swayed by public opinion. Zebras are the only horse which has never been domesticated. They are far too stubborn. Would we be bringing all this new music into the world if we were not a little inclined in this direction?"
Ernst Kovacic, Steven Dann and Anssi Karttunen have each enjoyed close working relationships with major composers of our time and they wish to share their passion for contemporary music by combining new and unknown works with the pillars of the repertoire. The first composers to write for the Zebra Trio were Pablo Ortiz and Michael Spassov. Since their first concerts in Canada and their European debut in Madrid's Museo Reina Sofia, they have premiered new trios written for them by Kaija Saariaho, Friedrich Cerha, Rolf Wallin and Miroslav Srnka. The trio's 2010/11 concert season included performances in Austria (Styriarte Graz, Arcana Festival, Konzerthaus Wien) and France (Musica Strasbourg). In 2011/12 they will appear in Toronto, Ottawa, Bergen and Cologne. Composers currently working on new compositions for the trio include Simon Bainbridge, Pascal Dusapin, Luca Francesconi, Asbjørn Schaathun, Beat Furrer, HK Gruber, Peter Lieberson and Johannes Maria Staud.
Ernst Kovacic, Violin
Vienna, with its fruitful tension between tradition and innovation, informs the musical language of the Austrian violinist Ernst Kovacic. His interpretations of Bach's solo works and Mozart's violin concerti, as well as his dedication to contemporary music, secured him a place as one of his generation's leading soloists early in his career. Over the years many composers have written works for him, including Krenek, Holloway, Osborne, Gruber, Schwertsik, Eröd, Bischof, Haas and Essl. He performed the world premiere of violin concerti by Beat Furrer and Django Bates with the Vienna Philharmonic and London Sonfonietta, and Friedrich Cerha's violin concerto with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
He performs often as a soloist with prominent orchestras under conductors such as Franz Wesler-Möst, Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle, Esa Pekka Salonen and Michael Gielen in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas. As both a violinist and chamber musician, he has been invited to play at Festivals in Vienna, Berlin, Salzburg, Edinburgh, and the London Proms. He also regularly conducts chamber orchestras, both with and without his violin. From 1996 until 1998 he was the artistic director of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.
Ensembles with which he regularly works include the Scottish, Irish and English Chamber Orchestras, the Northern Sinfonia, Britten Sinfonia, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Roman, St. Pauls Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgarter Chamber Orchestra, as well as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, BIT20 Ensemble, Camerata Salzburg, and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. For the next three years he will be the artistic director of the Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum in Wroclaw, Poland. He plays a Guadagnini violin from 1754.
Steven Dann, Viola
Steven Dann's career covers the gamut of violistic possibilities. He has been principal viola of some of the world's leading orchestras, is a veteran of the string quartet and chamber music world, has worked extensively as a soloist and recitalist and is a dedicated teacher. Mr. Dann was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1953. His foremost teacher was Lorand Fenyves. In addition he studied with William Primrose, Robert Pikler and Bruno Giuranna. Mr. Dann also spent six summers studying the string quartet repertoire with Zoltan Szekely and members of the Hungarian String Quartet.
Upon graduation he was named Principal Viola of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, a position he also held with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Vancouver Symphony and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has also been a guest principal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle and, in both performance and recordings, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paavo Berglund and Pierre Boulez. Other conductors with whom he has collaborated as a soloist include Sir Andrew Davis, Rudolph Barshai, Jiri Belohlavek, Sir John Elliott Gardiner, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Oliver Knussen. Since 1990 Mr. Dann has been a member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players in Washington D.C. and was a founding member of the Axelrod String Quartet.
Solo recordings include A Portrait of the Viola, Winter Music for viola and orchestra by Alexina Louie, Mega4 Meta4 by Christos Hatzis and the Sequenza 6 of Luciano Berio. He released a CD of the viola music of Brahms in June 2006. Upcoming recording projects include two more CDs for ATMA and the second disc in a series of the complete piano chamber music of Brahms and Schumann with the Smithsonian Chamber Players as well as the complete Haydn baryton trios.
Many composers have written works for Mr. Dann, including Alexina Louie, Peter Lieberson, R. Murray Shafer, Frederick Schipitsky and Christos Hatzis. Recently, he has performed concerti by Peter Lieberson, Giya Kancheli, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Alexina Louie, Christos Hatzis and Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Steven Dann is a regular guest at many international festivals including the National Arts Centre's Young Artist Program, the Domaine Forget in Québec and the Banff School of Fine Arts. He teaches viola and chamber music at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music. He lives in Toronto and plays a viola made by Joseph Gagliano from 1780.
Anssi Karttunen, Cello
The Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen is one of the most renowned and versatile musicians in the classical music world today and enjoys a busy career as a soloist and chamber-music player. He performs on modern cello, classical and baroque cellos and on violoncello piccolo. Anssi Karttunen performs all the standard cello works, but has also discovered many forgotten masterpieces and arranged a number of pieces for the instrument.
He is a passionate advocate of contemporary music and has performed over 50 world premieres of works by composers such as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi and Tan Dun. He gave the world premieres of Magnus Lindberg's Cello Concerto with Orchestre de Paris, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Mania with Avanti!, Martin Matalon's Cello Concerto with Orchestre National de France and Luca Francesconi's Cello Concerto with RAI Torino. The Boston Symphony Orchestra commissioned a Concerto from Kaija Saariaho for Anssi Karttunen, which received its premiere in February 2007. The European premiere took place in March 2007 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, subsequent performances followed with Swedish Radio, NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam and Orchestre de Paris.
Anssi Karttunen has worked with outstanding orchestras such as Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, London Sinfonietta, NHK Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble Modern, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Orchestra, Dutch Radio Philharmonic, Dutch Radio Chamber Ochestra, Barcelona Opera Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Danish Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, RAI Torino, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Avanti! and many others. He performs at major festivals in Europe including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Spoleto, Berlin, Venice, Montpellier, Strasbourg and Helsinki.
Anssi Karttunen's discography ranges from the complete Beethoven works for cello and fortepiano (on period instruments) and 20th-century works for solo cello to concerti with London Sinfonietta and Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen. He is a founding member of www.petals.org, a non-profit organisation for the production and sales of CDs on the Internet. He appears on the first contemporary music CD-ROM: Prisma, on music of Kaija Saariaho. Deutsche Grammophon issued a DVD of Tan Dun's The Map for cello, orchestra and video, and Sony Classical released the cello concerti by Lindberg, Saariaho and Salonen on CD.
Anssi Karttunen was born in 1960. His teachers included Erkki Rautio, William Pleeth, Jacqueline du Pré and Tibor de Machula. Between 1994 and 1998, he was artistic director of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. He was also artistic director of the 1995 Helsinki Biennale and the Suvisoitto-Festival in Porvoo, Finland from 1994-1997. From December 1999 to June 2005, Anssi Karttunen was principal cellist of the London Sinfonietta. He has also appeared as conductor: in February 2000 he conducted Lindberg's Kraft in Antwerp on short notice and in January 2003 he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic Cello Ensemble. Anssi Karttunen plays a cello by Francesco Ruggeri, circa 1680.
Steven Dann, Viola
Anssi Karttunen, Cello
The String Trio, a unique and largely unexplored genre that includes in its repertoire masterpieces from all periods of musical history, has found a new champion in the collaboration between three remarkable string players. Ernst Kovacic, Steven Dann and Anssi Karttunen represent a wealth of experience, commitment and virtuosity, which brings something exceptional to this transparent and highly individual form of chamber music.
With the versatile, creative and highly adaptable species of the Zebra, the three musicians have found the perfect animal to represent their identity as a chamber ensemble, as they explain with a wink: "Despite the fact that no two zebras are alike, each bearing a completely unique set of stripes, when one puts several zebras together, their differences combine to create the impression of a single organism. This amalgamation gives them the ability to make a powerful collective impression on lions, leopards, hyenas, and...audiences. But perhaps the most important quality zebras possess is their refusal to be swayed by public opinion. Zebras are the only horse which has never been domesticated. They are far too stubborn. Would we be bringing all this new music into the world if we were not a little inclined in this direction?"
Ernst Kovacic, Steven Dann and Anssi Karttunen have each enjoyed close working relationships with major composers of our time and they wish to share their passion for contemporary music by combining new and unknown works with the pillars of the repertoire. The first composers to write for the Zebra Trio were Pablo Ortiz and Michael Spassov. Since their first concerts in Canada and their European debut in Madrid's Museo Reina Sofia, they have premiered new trios written for them by Kaija Saariaho, Friedrich Cerha, Rolf Wallin and Miroslav Srnka. The trio's 2010/11 concert season included performances in Austria (Styriarte Graz, Arcana Festival, Konzerthaus Wien) and France (Musica Strasbourg). In 2011/12 they will appear in Toronto, Ottawa, Bergen and Cologne. Composers currently working on new compositions for the trio include Simon Bainbridge, Pascal Dusapin, Luca Francesconi, Asbjørn Schaathun, Beat Furrer, HK Gruber, Peter Lieberson and Johannes Maria Staud.
Ernst Kovacic, Violin
Vienna, with its fruitful tension between tradition and innovation, informs the musical language of the Austrian violinist Ernst Kovacic. His interpretations of Bach's solo works and Mozart's violin concerti, as well as his dedication to contemporary music, secured him a place as one of his generation's leading soloists early in his career. Over the years many composers have written works for him, including Krenek, Holloway, Osborne, Gruber, Schwertsik, Eröd, Bischof, Haas and Essl. He performed the world premiere of violin concerti by Beat Furrer and Django Bates with the Vienna Philharmonic and London Sonfonietta, and Friedrich Cerha's violin concerto with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
He performs often as a soloist with prominent orchestras under conductors such as Franz Wesler-Möst, Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle, Esa Pekka Salonen and Michael Gielen in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas. As both a violinist and chamber musician, he has been invited to play at Festivals in Vienna, Berlin, Salzburg, Edinburgh, and the London Proms. He also regularly conducts chamber orchestras, both with and without his violin. From 1996 until 1998 he was the artistic director of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.
Ensembles with which he regularly works include the Scottish, Irish and English Chamber Orchestras, the Northern Sinfonia, Britten Sinfonia, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Roman, St. Pauls Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgarter Chamber Orchestra, as well as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, BIT20 Ensemble, Camerata Salzburg, and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. For the next three years he will be the artistic director of the Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum in Wroclaw, Poland. He plays a Guadagnini violin from 1754.
Steven Dann, Viola
Steven Dann's career covers the gamut of violistic possibilities. He has been principal viola of some of the world's leading orchestras, is a veteran of the string quartet and chamber music world, has worked extensively as a soloist and recitalist and is a dedicated teacher. Mr. Dann was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1953. His foremost teacher was Lorand Fenyves. In addition he studied with William Primrose, Robert Pikler and Bruno Giuranna. Mr. Dann also spent six summers studying the string quartet repertoire with Zoltan Szekely and members of the Hungarian String Quartet.
Upon graduation he was named Principal Viola of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, a position he also held with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Vancouver Symphony and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has also been a guest principal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle and, in both performance and recordings, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paavo Berglund and Pierre Boulez. Other conductors with whom he has collaborated as a soloist include Sir Andrew Davis, Rudolph Barshai, Jiri Belohlavek, Sir John Elliott Gardiner, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Oliver Knussen. Since 1990 Mr. Dann has been a member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players in Washington D.C. and was a founding member of the Axelrod String Quartet.
Solo recordings include A Portrait of the Viola, Winter Music for viola and orchestra by Alexina Louie, Mega4 Meta4 by Christos Hatzis and the Sequenza 6 of Luciano Berio. He released a CD of the viola music of Brahms in June 2006. Upcoming recording projects include two more CDs for ATMA and the second disc in a series of the complete piano chamber music of Brahms and Schumann with the Smithsonian Chamber Players as well as the complete Haydn baryton trios.
Many composers have written works for Mr. Dann, including Alexina Louie, Peter Lieberson, R. Murray Shafer, Frederick Schipitsky and Christos Hatzis. Recently, he has performed concerti by Peter Lieberson, Giya Kancheli, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Alexina Louie, Christos Hatzis and Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Steven Dann is a regular guest at many international festivals including the National Arts Centre's Young Artist Program, the Domaine Forget in Québec and the Banff School of Fine Arts. He teaches viola and chamber music at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music. He lives in Toronto and plays a viola made by Joseph Gagliano from 1780.
Anssi Karttunen, Cello
The Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen is one of the most renowned and versatile musicians in the classical music world today and enjoys a busy career as a soloist and chamber-music player. He performs on modern cello, classical and baroque cellos and on violoncello piccolo. Anssi Karttunen performs all the standard cello works, but has also discovered many forgotten masterpieces and arranged a number of pieces for the instrument.
He is a passionate advocate of contemporary music and has performed over 50 world premieres of works by composers such as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi and Tan Dun. He gave the world premieres of Magnus Lindberg's Cello Concerto with Orchestre de Paris, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Mania with Avanti!, Martin Matalon's Cello Concerto with Orchestre National de France and Luca Francesconi's Cello Concerto with RAI Torino. The Boston Symphony Orchestra commissioned a Concerto from Kaija Saariaho for Anssi Karttunen, which received its premiere in February 2007. The European premiere took place in March 2007 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, subsequent performances followed with Swedish Radio, NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam and Orchestre de Paris.
Anssi Karttunen has worked with outstanding orchestras such as Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, London Sinfonietta, NHK Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble Modern, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Orchestra, Dutch Radio Philharmonic, Dutch Radio Chamber Ochestra, Barcelona Opera Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Danish Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, RAI Torino, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Avanti! and many others. He performs at major festivals in Europe including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Spoleto, Berlin, Venice, Montpellier, Strasbourg and Helsinki.
Anssi Karttunen's discography ranges from the complete Beethoven works for cello and fortepiano (on period instruments) and 20th-century works for solo cello to concerti with London Sinfonietta and Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen. He is a founding member of www.petals.org, a non-profit organisation for the production and sales of CDs on the Internet. He appears on the first contemporary music CD-ROM: Prisma, on music of Kaija Saariaho. Deutsche Grammophon issued a DVD of Tan Dun's The Map for cello, orchestra and video, and Sony Classical released the cello concerti by Lindberg, Saariaho and Salonen on CD.
Anssi Karttunen was born in 1960. His teachers included Erkki Rautio, William Pleeth, Jacqueline du Pré and Tibor de Machula. Between 1994 and 1998, he was artistic director of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. He was also artistic director of the 1995 Helsinki Biennale and the Suvisoitto-Festival in Porvoo, Finland from 1994-1997. From December 1999 to June 2005, Anssi Karttunen was principal cellist of the London Sinfonietta. He has also appeared as conductor: in February 2000 he conducted Lindberg's Kraft in Antwerp on short notice and in January 2003 he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic Cello Ensemble. Anssi Karttunen plays a cello by Francesco Ruggeri, circa 1680.
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