Leonid Gorokhov
was born in St Petersburg,then Leningrad,and begun his cello studies at the age of seven. His first cello teacher was S. Zagursky, from the age of 12 he joined the cello class of Prof.Anatoli Nikitin,where he stayed until graduating the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire. He also took part in masterclasses of Daniil Shafran.

Winner of Concertino Praga (First Prize) and Paris chamber music competition (Premier Grand Prix), Leonid Gorokhov is the only Russian cellist to be awarded the Grand Prix and the First Prize of the Geneva Concours. In 1995 the European Association for Encouragement of the Arts awarded the Cultural Achievement Prize to Leonid Gorokhov for “exceptional talent and outstanding artistic accomplishment”.

In 1991 Leonid Gorokhov appeared as soloist with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Lord Menuhin ,who took interest in the young cellist and invited him to join the Yehudi Menuhin School in the UK as a teacher. That also provided Leonid with chances to perform under Maestro Menuhin’s baton with many leading orchestras and to share a stage as a chamber music partner in Piano Trios and Beethoven Triple Concerto, which was enormously inspiring for a young musician.

Some of the highlights of this work were appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, The Royal Philharmonic as well as other British,Russian,Swiss,Scandinavian orchestras with a range of repertoire,from Haydn,Schumann,Tchaikovsky and Dvorak to Walton and Lutoslawsky.

Leonid returns regularly to Russia to perform a range of repertoire, most recently in Moscow with the Russian premiere of Sonata Notturna by Nicholas Maw under Evgeny Bushkov as conductor and as a soloist and chamber musician with Musica Viva, a chamber orchestra conducted by Alexander Rudin.

His passion is chamber music where the main interest is to involve younger musicians alongside more prominent and experienced partners.

The other passion is teaching. Leonid is a Professor at the Hochschule Für Musik,Theater und Medien in Hannover,Germany, since 2008.

“I am delighted and thrilled to hear artistry of such superior order…” (Bernhard Greenhouse)

Niklas Sivelöv
As one of the leading Scandinavian pianists, the award-winning pianist and composer Niklas Sivelöv has taken his career to new international heights with an extensive catalogue of recordings for such labels as BIS, Caprice, Dacapo, Naxos, Toccata Classics and AMC Classical, some of which have been awarded the Diapason d’or, CHOK and the Penguin Rosette. His concert career spans four continents, including venues such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Tivoli Copenhagen and the Atheneum in Bucharest.

He has won critical acclaim and enchanted audiences for his artistic temperament, impeccable technique and spellbinding stage presence.

His wide-ranging concert repertoire covers Bach to Skryabin, Scandinavian composers and beyond, and includes approximately 50 piano concerti including four of his own. As a composer of note, his catalogue of works includes three symphonies, 4 Concertos for piano, 24 Preludes for piano and several chamber music pieces. Niklas Sivelöv is also a notable improviser, with several successful recordings and collaborations: the CD Improvisational 1 was a sensational success at The Independent Music Awards, where he was the first Scandinavian to win the prize for the best classical album and was given the People’s Choice Award.

The leading orchestras with which Niklas Sivelöv has performed include the Stockholm Philharmonic, Zürich Tonhalle, Suisse Romande (Geneva) and Prague Radio Symphony under the baton of many distinguished conductors, among them Alan Gilbert, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kristjan Järvi, Sakari Oramo, Mario Venzago Jukka-Pekka Saraste , Grzegorz Nowak, Janos Fürst and Leif Segerstam The instrumentalists with whom he has performed include the Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst, cellist Leonid Gorokhov, flautist Patrick Gallois and violinist Zakhar Bron.

Niklas Sivelöv grew up in Skellefteå in northern Sweden, where he began playing the organ as a six-year-old; his first compositions followed soon after. He played by ear until he was 14, when he began traditional piano instruction and learned to read music. He studied with, among others, Gabriel Amiras and Maria Curcio Diamond, students of the famed Heinrich Neuhaus and Artur Schnabel..

He lives in Malmö and is professor at the Royal Danish Music Academy in Copenhagen. His book on the art of piano-playing, distilled from a lifetime of performance and study, will be published in October. He was recently knighted by the Queen of Denmark as Knight of the Order of Dannebrog.