Paris Mirages: Cellist Misha Quint and Pianist Alexei Volodin
PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES
Russian-born cellist MISHA QUINT captivates his audiences with his lyricism, passion and dazzling technique. Described by Bordighera TV as a “a musician of virtuosic genius ability and by Harris Goldsmith as a "brilliantly accomplished virtuoso - an embodiment of interpretive and executive music-making at its rarefied best", his repertoire ranges from Bach to premieres of the most outstanding composers of today, including Alfred Schnittke, Sophie Goubadalina, Robert Sirota, Shulamit Ran, Steven Gerber, Nathan Davis, Ezra Laderman, and Stepan Lucky. Quint is Founder and Music Director of the InterHarmony® International Music Festival that take place in Acqui Terme, Piedmont, Italy, InterHarmony® Concert Series at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and InterHarmony International School of Music. Quint’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Valse Sentimentale is featured in the 2022 Italian Netflix production of Fedeltà. Recent and upcoming engagements include appearances at Carnegie Hall and Verona, Italy with l’Appassionata and at Carnegie Hall with Antonio Di Cristofano.
A graduate of the Leningrad Special School for the Gifted and the Leningrad State Conservatory, Misha Quint made his orchestral debut at the age of 13 after winning first prize at the Boccherini Competition in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). He gained international recognition after capturing top prizes in the 1975 International Competition in Prague and the Russian National Competition. Quint immigrated to the US and made his critically acclaimed New York recital debut at the 92nd Street Y and his orchestral debut in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in 1992. He has given numerous solo recitals and master classes in the leading halls of England, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Russia, Latvia, Georgia, Belorussia, Romania, Italy, and the US. “[Quint] provides a fresh voice…The Russian school of string playing has taken on a different light with Quint” said Daniel Webster of the Philadelphia Inquirer and “a master of probing sentiment, shaded phrasing, and flawless technique” from MetroWest.
Misha Quint has appeared with such celebrated orchestras as the New York Chamber Symphony, Metropolitan Symphony, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Leningrad State Orchestra, Orchestra of Classical and Contemporary Music, National Irish Symphony, the OrquestraSinfônica do Teatro Nacional do Brasilia and with the Symphony Orchestras of Latvia and Georgia among others. He has worked with an equally illustrious group of conductors including Maxim Shostakovich, Christian Vásquez, Paul Lustig Dunkel, Colman Pearce, Sidney Harth, Ravil Martinov, Yakov Bergman, and Ira Levin. Quint is an active chamber musician and has performed with such artists as Nikolai Znaider, Vadim Repin, Shlomo Mintz, Bela Davidovich, Bruno Canino, Julian Rachlin, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Sherban Lupu, Boris Kushnir, and Mikhail Kopelman.
As a special guest artist, Misha Quint was broadcast in live television performances in Westchester, NY; "The Jewish Entertainment Hour"; German Television, Italian Television, RTN/WMNB; and live radio broadcast recitals on WQXR's "The Listening Room", WGBH (Boston), WMNB (NJ), WNYC (NY). Quint captured first prize of the CRS National competition in 2009, was a featured performer at The Festival of the Musical Citadel in Brasov, Romania in August 2013 and 2014, and is the Founder of the InterHarmony Concert Series at Carnegie Hall in New York and the former InterHarmony Concert Series at the Modern Museum of Art in Fort Worth, Texas. Quint’s discography includes Live Cello Recitals and Valse Sentimentale on the Volshebnik Productions Label, and the 2014 release of Tempo Trapezio and 2016 release of Matryoshka Blues on the Blue Griffin Label. Quint captured the gold medal inthe March 2016 Global Music Awards for his recording, Matryoshka Blues, on the Blue Griffin label in three categories: instrumentalist, album, and new release, and was featured in the top five spring albums in Global Music Awards.
Misha Quint is strongly committed to teaching and is on the faculty of InterHarmony International School of Music. He has been on the faculty of the International Institute of Music in Marktoberdorf, Germany, and was Music Director and Founder of the Soesterberg International Music Festival in Holland from 1998 – 2007, the Intensive Cello Studies Abroad in Blonay, Chalet de lacroix at the Hindemith Foundation in 1997, Interharmony Music Festival in Geneva, Switzerland in 2000, The Berkshires, Massachusetts from 2007 – 2008, San Francisco, California in 2009, Hinterzarten, Schwarzwald, Germany from 2008 – 2011, in Tuscany, Italy from 2012 – 2016, presently in Acqui Terme, Italy since 2017, and from 2005-2019 in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Bavaria, Germany. Quint studied with Emmanuel Fishman, Natalia Gutman, Boris Pergamenshikov, and Daniel Shafran. www.mishaquintcello.com www.interharmony.com www.interharmonymusicschool.com
Acclaimed for his highly sensitive touch and technical brilliance, ALEXEI VOLODIN is in demand by orchestras at the highest level. He possesses an extraordinarily diverse repertoire from Beethoven and Brahms through Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Scriabin, to Shchedrin and Medtner. Highlights of the 2024/25 season include performances with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Romanian Radio Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra de Extremadura, Saarland State Orchestra in Saarbrücken, and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Previous seasons have included performances with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, NCPA Orchestra China, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony, Singapore Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Kyoto Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, The Mariinsky Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, and St Petersburg Philharmonic. He has worked with conductors including Valery Gergiev, Semyon Bychkov, Stanislav Kochanovsky, and Robert Trevino.
Volodin regularly appears in recital in venues such as Wiener Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Barcelona’s Palau de la Música, Mariinsky Theatre, Paris’ Philharmonie, Alte Oper Frankfrut, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Música, Zentrum Paul Klee, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, and Dresdner Musikfestspiele.
As an active chamber musician, he has a long-standing collaboration with many artists including Igor Levit, Claire Huangci, and Sol Gabetta. Previous chamber partners include Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, and Mischa Maisky, as well as the Borodin Quartet, Modigliani Quartet, Cuarteto Casals and Cremona Quartet. This season he performs with artists such as Ilya Gringolts, Alban Gerhardt, and Eldbjørg Hemsing for trio recitals and regularly works with Olga Pashchenko, Claire Huangci, and his wife Edith Peña for piano duo recitals. Volodin’s latest album with the Mariinsky label was Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.4, conducted by Gergiev. Recording for Challenge Classics, Volodin’s disc of solo Rachmaninov works was released in 2013. He also recorded a solo album of Schumann, Ravel and Scriabin, and his earlier Chopin disc won a Choc de Classica and was awarded five stars by Diapason.A regular artist at festivals, Volodin has performed at Kaposvár International Chamber Music Festival, Festival Les nuits du Château de la Moutte, Variations Musicales de Tannay, Bad Kissingen Sommer Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron, Les Rencontres Musicales d'Évian, Festival La Folle Journée, the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg, St. Magnus International Festival, Interharmony Festival, and the Moscow Easter Festival.
Born in 1977 in Leningrad, Alexei Volodin studied at Moscow’s Gnessin Academy and later with Eliso Virsaladze at the Moscow Conservatoire. In 2001, he continued his studies at the International Piano Academy Lake Como and gained international recognition following his victory at the International Géza Anda Competition in Zürich in 2003. Alexei Volodin is an exclusive Steinway artist.
HarrisonParrott represents Alexei Volodin for general management.
Program
Fauré: Élégie, Op.24Franck: Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Major
Debussy: Nocturne et Scherzo
Debussy: Clair de Lune from Suite bergamasque for Cello and Piano in A Major
Debussy: Sonata for Cello and Piano
Misha Quint, cello
Alexei Volodin, piano