Sinfonia Concertante

Brimful of energy, Antje  Weithaas’ brings her compelling musical intelligence and technical  mastery to every detail of the music. Her charisma and stage presence  are captivating, but never overshadow the works themselves. She has a  wide-ranging repertoire that includes the great concertos by Mozart,  Beethoven and Schumann, new works such as Jörg Widmann’s Violin  Concerto, modern classics by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Ligeti and  Gubaidulina, and lesser performed concertos by Hartmann and Schoeck. 

As a soloist, Antje Weithaas has worked with most of Germany’s leading  orchestras, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberg  Symphony and the major German radio orchestras, numerous major  international orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San  Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra and the BBC Symphony, as well  as and the leading orchestras of the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and  Asia. She has collaborated with the illustrious conductors Vladimir  Ashkenazy, Dmitri Kitayenko, Sir Neville Marriner, Marc Albrecht, Yakov  Kreizberg, Sakari Oramo and Carlos Kalmar. 

Antje Weithaas begins the 2023/24 season with concerts at Marie-Elisabeth Hecker’s and Martin Helmchen’s new Fliessen Festival and at the Schubertiade. She continues her musical partnership with harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani in three concerts at the Wigmore Hall and at the Lammermuir Festival. Other highlights include concerts with Ensemble Resonanz, Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Camerata Bern and Kammerakademie Potsdam. With the Duisburger Philharmoniker under Axel Kober, she will premiere the new version of Manfred Trojahn’s Violin Concerto. She will make her debut in the Pierre Boulez Saal in a duo recital with Dénes Várjon. In trio concerts with Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Martin Helmchen, she will also appear at the Oberstdorfer Musiksommer and the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele. 

Through her  infectious zest for communication, Antje Weithaas‘ reputation for  inspiring play-lead concerts with international renowned chamber  orchestras is rapidly growing. Having been the Camerata Bern’s artistic  director for almost ten years, she was responsible for the ensemble’s  musical profile, leading large works such as Beethoven’s symphonies, and  recording music by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Beethoven. Her  concerts as artiste associé of the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris in the  2021/22 season led to an immediate re-invitation.

Antje Weithaas produced a reference recording of Beethoven and Berg’s  violin concertos in 2013 with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under  Steven Sloane (CAvi-music). The label cpo released her recordings of Max  Bruch’s complete works for violin and orchestra with the NDR Radio  Philharmonic under Hermann Bäumer to great acclaim. There were rave  reviews for Antje Weithaas’ project for CAvi, the complete recordings of  Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas and Eugène Ysaÿe’s  solo sonatas. Two CDs were released in 2019: a recording of the violin  concerto by Robert Schumann and the double concerto by Johannes Brahms  with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, cellist Maximilian Hornung and conductor  Andrew Manze, and a recording of the violin concerto and concert  rhapsody by Khachaturian with the Staatsorchester Rheinische  Philharmonie and conductor Daniel Raiskin. Spring 2023 saw the release of Vol. I of the planned complete recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's violin sonatas with pianist Dénes Várjon on the CAvi-music label.

Antje  Weithaas began playing the violin at the age of four and later studied  at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin with Professor Werner  Scholz. She won the Kreisler Competition in Graz in 1987 and the Bach  Competition in Leipzig in 1988, as well as the Joseph Joachim  International Violin Competition Hanover in 1991. Together with Oliver  Wille, she recently took over the artistic leadership of the renowned  Joachim competition. After teaching at the Universität der Künste  Berlin, Antje Weithaas became a professor of violin at the Hochschule  für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in 2004. She plays on a 2001 Peter Greiner  violin.

Georgy Kovalev, born in 1990 to a family of musicians in Tiflis (Georgia), pursued his musical education at the Kronberg Academy under the guidance of Nobuko Imai as well as in Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with Matthias Buchholz.

He later completed his studies with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann at Hochschule für Musik Hans Eisler.

He is a prize winner and a finalist of many international competitions such as the Yuri Bashmet International Competition in Moscow, Tokyo International Viola Competition and recipient of the 2011 Neva Foundation Prize awarded by the Verbier Festival. As a soloist Georgy Kovalev has performed with leading orchestras such as the Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra among others.
In recital and chamber music setting, performances have brought him all over
Europe, Russia, Asia and the US.
His chamber music partners include Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Steven Isserlis, Yuri Bashmet, Fazil Say, Emanuel Ax, Jörg Widmann, at renowned international music festivals such as Schubertiade, Verbier Festival, Ravinia Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, Delft Kamermuziek Festival, Westcork Chamber Music Festival, Robeco Summer Series Concertgebouw, Rheingau Festival and Kronberg Academy Festival. 

Since 2020, he has held the position of the principal violist in the "Amsterdam Sinfonietta" Chamber Orchestra.

In February 2018 Georgy recorded a CD with Bach‘s "The Art of The Fugue" with the Delian Quartett on German Radio which was nominated for the Opus Klassik “Best chamber music CD” prize.

In 2022 together with "Südwestdeutsche Kammerorchester Pforzheim" and Johannes Moesus as a conductor, Georgy recorded Viola Concerto as well as a Triple Concerto for Viola, Flute and the Double Base, with Roman Patkolo on the double base and Kathrin Christians on the flute composed by Johannes Speger for the famous CPO label.

As a solo violist and member of several chamber music groups Georgy has given many masterclasses at festivals such as Gioie Musicali in Asolo, Italy, Mit Musik mit einander in Kronberg, Germany, Lauter Project, Ferrara, Italy and Ortus Chamber Music Festival in Ireland.

Georgy plays on a viola made around 1650 by italian violin maker Antonio Mariani.