Essential Beethoven

Amsterdam Sinfonietta

Candida Thompson, Conductor & Violin
Since 2003, Candida Thompson has been the artistic leader of Amsterdam Sinfonietta. She places great importance on the individual contributions of all orchestra members when leading a project. Her musical approach demands maximum commitment and involvement from the musicians.

Candida Thompson studied with the renowned pedagogue David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she earned her soloist diploma with distinction. She continued her studies at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. Thompson has received several awards in competitions, including at the International Jeunesses Musicales in Belgrade. As a soloist, she has performed with various orchestras across Europe, the United States, and the Far East, including the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the English String Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and the Radio Kamer Filharmonie.

From a young age, Candida Thompson led chamber orchestras in Scandinavia, Spain, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. Since 1995, she has served as concertmaster of Amsterdam Sinfonietta and has been its artistic director since 2003. Under her leadership, Amsterdam Sinfonietta has recorded 14 CDs in collaboration with Channel Classics, including Schubert String Quintet (2015), Tides of Life (2017), Bartok Brahms (2018), Tsjaikovski Arenski (2019), and Lento Religioso (2020). The latest CD, Formidable! with singer Thomas Oliemans, was released in 2021.

Candida Thompson is a passionate chamber musician. She has played with musicians such as Isaac Stern, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Isabelle Faust, and Bruno Giuranna. She has also been a guest at the Kuhmo Festival in Finland, La Musica in the United States, Canossa Masterclasses in Reggio Emilia, the Gubbio Festival in Italy, and various chamber music festivals in Switzerland and Austria. In the Netherlands, she frequently performed at the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht.

Candida is also a member of the Hamlet Piano Trio, which she co-founded with Paolo Giacometti and Xenia Jankovic. The trio has released CDs featuring the piano trios of Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Beethoven on the Channel Classics label. In 2015, the ensemble toured the United States and recently had a successful debut at Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Candida Thompson plays a Guarneri del Gesù violin (1698-1744).

Tim Posner, Cello
Growing up in London in a musical family, Tim Posner developed a passion for chamber music and enjoys watching Arsenal matches in his free time. He is the new principal cellist of Amsterdam Sinfonietta.

David Kadouch, Piano
David Kadouch is a French pianist and chamber musician whose international career began early when, at age 13, he performed with Itzhak Perlman in New York. A finalist in several competitions, he was named Young Artist of the Year at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) in 2011. Kadouch has focused on chamber music and contemporary music throughout his career.

Born in Nice, Kadouch started his piano training at the Conservatoire de Nice and continued his studies at 14 with Jacques Rouvier at the Conservatoire de Paris. He furthered his education at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, studying piano with Dmitri Bashkirov and chamber music with Márta Gulyás and Ralf Gothóni. He has attended master classes with renowned musicians such as Daniel Barenboim, Murray Perahia, Maria João Pires, Maurizio Pollini, Stephen Kovacevich, and Eliso Virsaladze.

At 13, Kadouch won the Young Talents Competition in Milan and was invited by Itzhak Perlman to perform in New York. He achieved third place at the Telekom Beethoven Competition in 2005 and the Kissinger Klavierolymp in 2007, and fourth place at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2009. Kadouch was named Young Artist of the Year at the Victoires de la musique classique in 2010 and performed a solo recital at Metropolitan Hall in New York City that year. He was also recognized as Young Artist of the Year at the ICMA in 2011.

His repertoire spans classical and romantic piano works from Bach to Beethoven and Mendelssohn to Saint-Saëns, as well as less frequently performed music such as Arvo Pärt's Lamentate, Guillaume Connesson's piano concerto The Shining One, and Sergei Taneyev's Prelude and Fugue, Op. 29.

Kadouch has performed at international music festivals including the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Jerusalem Festival, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Verbier Festival, Colmar Festival, Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron, and La Folle Journée Nantes. He has collaborated with conductors such as Gábor Takács-Nagy, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Charles Dutoit, and Chung Myung-whun. His chamber music partners include the Quatuor Ébène, the Modigliani Quartet, Edgar Moreau, Renaud Capuçon, and Gautier Capuçon.