Trans-Siberian Art-Festival 2018.
Vadim Repin, Clara-Jumi Kang

Vadim Repin is one of the world’s best and most sought-after violinists. Born in Novosibirsk, he won the renowned Wieniawski Competition and gave his first recitals in Moscow and Leningrad aged 11. At 14, he played in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin and Helsinki, and gave his debut at Carnegie Hall a mere year later. At 17 he became the youngest ever winner of the Concours Reine Elisabeth. Since then, he continues to perform at the world’s major concert venues and international festivals. 

The list of his stage partners includes illustrious conductor’s names such as Ashkenazy, Boulez, Chailly, Chung, Dohnányi, Dutoit, Gergiev, Jansons, Levine, Mehta, Muti, Nagano, Ozawa, Temirkanov and Thielemann, as well as of chamber musician partners such as Argerich, Bartoli, Capuçon, Golan, Kissin, Knyazev, Korobeinikov, Lang Lang, Lugansky, Maisky and Matsuev.

Mr Repin recorded the great Russian violin concerti by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky for Warner Classics. Deutsche Grammophon released the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti, the Kreutzer Sonata with Martha Argerich, as well as the Brahms Double Concerto (with Truls Mørk) and Violin Concerto with the Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly. His DG recordings of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff trios with Mischa Maisky and Lang Lang won the Echo Prize, a sonata CD with works by Grieg, Janáček and César Franck with Nikolai Lugansky the BBC Music Award. 

In 2010 Vadim Repin received the Victoire d’Honneur and the highest French distinction, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres, for his services to music. He was named Honorary Professor of Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music in 2014 and awarded the same title by the Shanghai Conservatory in 2015. Apart from holding masterclasses in most countries where he performs, he also serves as a juror, at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London and at the “Concours Reine Elisabeth” in Brussels, amongst others. 

A large portion of Mr Repin’s work is focussed on the Trans-Siberian Art Festival, a large cultural enterprise he founded in 2013/14. With Vadim Repin as artistic director, this festival encourages the building of local, as well as international cultural, social and geographical bridges. Besides its Novosibirsk hub, this festival is now present in most major cities and numerous regional towns in Russia. Moreover, the festival’s roster includes Japan, Korea, Israel, Belgium, France, Germany and both the U.S. states of California and New York. Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Berlin Philharmonic Hall were added for the first time in 2019. The Trans-Siberian Art Festival also commissions at least one new concerto per year. Thus, several violin concertos - Benjamin Yussupov’s “Voices of Violin”, Lera Auerbach’s “De Profundis”, Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Dialogue: You and I”, Alexander Raskatov’s “Ex Oriente Lux”, and a new verion of Arvo Pärt’s “La Sindone” – were premièred by Vadim during his festival in Novosibirsk. 

In recent seasons, the joint programme “Pas de deux for Toes and Fingers” with prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova and Vadim Repin was performed in Hong Kong, Muscat, Japan and Korea. Moreover, he played with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic conducted by Sascha Goetzel, at the Enescu Festival Bucharest, in Verbier - most recently with Lahav Shani conducting – and at the Montreal Festival with Kent Nagano. Further highlights include appearances with the RAI Torino Orchestra, a return to the Enescu Festival, to Vienna with Gubaidulina’s new violin concerto, to Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, as well as numerous concerts in Korea, Japan and China. 

Vadim Repin plays the magnificent Rode Stradivari violin from 1733.

Multi-award winning German-Korean violinist, Clara-Jumi Kang is an artist of supreme sophistication, impeccable refinement and poise. Winner of the Indianapolis International Violin Competition (2010), Seoul Violin Competition (2009) and the Sendai Violin Competition (2010), she has carved an international career performing with leading orchestras and conductors across Asia and Europe. 

The 2021/22 season sees the release of her complete Beethoven Violin Sonata cycle on Accentus with pianist Sunwook Kim. She recorded the sonatas during lockdown in the Beethoven anniversary year as a personal homage to the composer after more than 15 years performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto, and the release will be accompanied by an extended recital tour in Korea.

Having made her concerto debut at the age of five with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Kang has performed with orchestras including the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Warsaw Philharmonic, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Lionel Briguier, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Andrey Boreyko, Christoph Poppen, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Temirkanov, Gidon Kremer, Gilbert Varga, Lü Jia, Myun-Whun Chung, Heinz Holliger and Kazuki Yamada. 

In the USA she has performed with orchestras including the Atlanta, New Jersey, Indianapolis and Santa Fe Symphony Orchestras, whilst elsewhere engagements include the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, NCPA Beijing Orchestra, Macao Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, KBS Symphony and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. She was selected as one of the top 100 “Most promising and influential people of Korea” in 2012 by major Korean newspaper Dong-A Times and was awarded the Daewon Music Award (2012) for her outstanding international achievements as well as Kumho Musician of the Year (2015). 

Clara-Jumi Kang’s first solo album entitled Modern Solo (Decca) featured works including Schubert’s Erlkönig and Ysaÿe Sonatas, and was followed by Brahms and Schumann Violin Sonatas with Yeol-Eum Son (Decca 2016). A dedicated chamber musician, she is a member of the Spectrum Concerts series at the Berlin Philharmonie and a regular visitor to festivals across Asia and Europe with recent highlights including the Pyeongchang, Hong Kong, Ishikawa and Marvao Chamber Music Festivals. 

Born in Germany to a musical family, Clara-Jumi Kang took up the violin at the age of three and a year later enrolled as the youngest ever student at the Mannheim Musikhochschule. She went on to study with Zakhar Bron at the Lübeck Musikhochschule and at the age of seven was awarded a full scholarship to the Julliard School to study with Dorothy Delay. She took her Bachelor and Masters degrees at the Korean National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim before completing her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen. 

Clara-Jumi Kang currently plays the 1708 Ex-Strauss Stradivarius, generously loaned to her by the Samsung Cultural Foundation Korea.