Prof'in Elisabeth Kufferath

Violinist and violist Elisabeth Kufferath has recently been a soloist with the WDR-Symphony Orchestra Cologne under the direction of Heinz Holliger, Ensemble Oriol Berlin with Marcus Creed, conductor, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Konzertante Oper Hamburg, State Philharmonic Orchestra of Bacau, Romania, and the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Kufferath was the soloist with the Munich Chamber Orchestra (Christoph Poppen, conductor) on their tour of Asia and was subsequently invited to return as concerto soloist with the Bangkok Symphony in Thailand. As a soloist and chamber musician, Ms. Kufferath has performed in Berlin (Philharmonie), Hamburg (Große Musikhalle), Cologne (Philharmonie), and has toured throughout Europe, the US, in China, Israel, and Russia. A member of the Tetzlaff Quartet since 1992, she has performed on the stages of the most renowned halls in Berlin, Colgne, Paris, Rome, Florence and Vienna (Musikverein).

Her chamber music partners include Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Alexei Lubimov, Isabelle van Keulen, Patrick Demenga, Christoph Poppen, and Sephen Perry. She is regularly invited to perform at such prestigious festivals as Berliner Festwochen, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, International Festival Davos/Switzerland, Wittener Tage für Neue Musik, Rheingau-Festival, St. Gallen Chamber Music Festival, Römerbadmusiktage Badenweiler, and the Interlochen, Ravinia, Aspen, and Sarasota festivals in the US.

Equally active as a violinist and violist, Ms. Kufferath plays both the violin Sequenza (VIII) and the viola Sequenza (VI) by Luciano Berio, the viola part to Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and Morton Feldman’s "The viola in my lifeIV" for solo viola and Symphony orchestra. Contemporary music plays an important role in her musical life: During the next season, Ms. Kufferath will perform solo works written for her by Johannes Harneit, Jochen Neurath, Kai Ivo Novak, Bernfried E.G. Pröve, and Robert Brownlow. Born in Hamburg, Elisabeth Kufferath received degrees from the Musikhochschule Lübeck, where she studied with Uwe-Martin Haiberg, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was a student of Donald Weilerstein. Masterclasses with Pinchas Zukerman, Joseph Gingold, Walter Levin and Miriam Fried rounded out her musical education. Ms. Kufferath was first prize winner of the 1995 Vienna Modern Masters International Competition, winner of the Cleveland Concerto Competition, the NDR prize in Hamburg and several national competitions in Germany.

Elisabeth Kufferath has been Associate Concertmaster of the Bamberg Symphony since 1996. In addition, she has frequently served as guest concertmaster with Camerata Salzburg, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and Ensemble Oriol Berlin and has given violin master classes at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan.

Professor Arie Vardi

Air Vardi ranks among the most important pianists of Israel. It studied piano in Israel and in Basel (with Paul Baumgartner) and composition with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz stick living.

After the profit of the Chopin of competition in Israel and the Enescu of competition in Bucharest concentrated it world-wide as soloist with nearly all considerable orchestras.

Its repertoire covers the complete piano concerts of brook and Mozart as well as the complete work of Debussy and Ravel. Many of its RCA CD won international honors.