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CENTRAL EUROPEAN MUSIC AGENCY
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CONDUCTOR SINGERS PIANO HARPSICHORD ORGAN HARP VIOLA CELLO FRENCH HORN ENSEMBLES PROJECTS |
| Alexander Besa (1971*) belongs to the prominent young viola generation. He enjoys a career as a soloist, chamber musician, and leading orchestral player and joins regularly the jury of the "Beethoven International Viola Competition”. He studied at the Brno State Conservatory (with A. Moráň), at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland (with A. Lysy, J. Eskaer, P. Coletti and Lord Y. Menuhin) and at the Music Academy in Basle (with Ch. Schiller). He gained the first prizes at "Beethoven Viola Competition" in 1994, the "Czech Conservatories Competition" in 1987 and the "H. Schäeuble Viola Competition" in Lausanne in 1995. He joins awarded the Morris Madrell Prize at the "Lionel Tertis Viola Competition" in the Isle of Man in 1997. As the chamber player he won the competition in Caltanissetta 1991, Trapani 1992 and became a laureate of the festival Prague Spring 1988 and Vittorio Gui in Florence 1993. He has performed extensively throughout Europe, Japan, South and North America in such renowned venues as the Berliner Festwochen, Concentus Moraviae, Euroart Festival Prague, Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte, Lucerne Festival, the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Phillips Gallery Washington, Prague Spring and Salzburger Festspiele. His solo repertoire includes over 30 compositions for viola and orchestra, which he has performed with many Swiss and Czech Orchestras as Basle Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Bern, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Virtuosi, Kurpfälzisches Chamber Orchestra Mannheim, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia and the State Opera of Prague, among others. As chamber player he is member of the Merel String Quartet based in Zurich. He collaborated with such artists as Magdalena Kožená (mezzo-soprano), Ruth Ziesak (soprano), Ana Chumachenko, Alberto Lysy, Bohuslav Matoušek, Thomas Zehetmair (violin), Nobuko Imai, Christoph Schiller and Tabea Zimmermann (viola), Jiří Bárta, Patrick and Thomas Demenga (violoncello), Jana Boušková (harp), Heinz Holliger (oboe), Ludmila Peterková, Dimitri Ashkenazy and Michel Lethiec (clarinet), Marie Louise Neunecker and Radovan Vlatkovich (horn) and ensembles as the Aria Quartet, the Basle Quartet, the Stamitz Quartet, the Wallinger Quartet, the Wihan Quartet, the Zehetmair Quartet, The Serenade String Trio, Swiss Nonet, Ensemble Kaleidoscope and Ensemble Paul Klee. He recorded for many international labels and radios, his profile CD featuring pieces for viola and piano and the recording of the Max Burch’s Concerto for Clarinet, Viola and Orchestra was in 1999 und 2002 awarder title „The Best recording of the Year" by critics of the Czech musical journal "Harmonie”. He recorder for the label Supraphon the complete edition of the Sonatas for Viola and Bass, by the Italian 18th century virtuoso Alessandro Rolla. His newest CD contains chamber music works for viola by Bohuslav Martinů. Alexander Besa lives in Switzerland and he is solo violist of the Camerata Bern and principal violist of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. 2008 |
