Description

The annual Credit Suisse China Chamber Music Circle will open its prelude in May, 2013. Hungarian violinist Vilmos Olah in collaboration with Croatian pianist Ana Granik will visit China again under the invitation of Credit Suisse and Wu Promotion. From May 19th to 24th, they will give private concerts in Shanghai, Chongqing and Beijing. Olah and Granik first time toured China in 2008 and their performances were widely acclaimed by Chinese audience.

Programme

Violinist: Vilmos Olah

Vilmos Olah was born in Budapest in 1975. At the age of 13, he was invited to play solo recitals at the Julia Richmann Hall and the UN Palace in New York as well as at Harvard University. Vilmos Olah is the three times 1st Prize winner in the János Koncz Hungarian National Competition (1986, 1989 and 1992).

In 1991, he gave a series of successful concerts in Hamburg and Munich. In that year, he also won the 1st prize of the Pacem in Terris International Competition in Bayreuth and moreover was awarded a full scholarship by the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He won a Mozarteum Prize Concert in the same year and subsequently became a concertmaster and the leader of the Hungarian Radio and Television Youth Orchestra. During that time, he performed in several concerts in Europe and made his first solo CD record, which became a Record of the Year in Scandinavia. In 1995, he won the prestigious First Prize at the Grand Luc Adolph International Competition in Luxembourg.

Shortly thereafter he was appointed as the leader of the Camerata Transsylvanica Orchestra. With this ensemble, he also successfully performed as soloist in Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, France and Netherlands. In 1998, he won the International Concerto Competition in Santa Barbara. In ensuing years, he recorded three more CDs while also appearing as a chamber musician. With Quartet Camerata, Vilmos Olah also completed a successful concert tour in France performing among others six quartets by Bartók. In 2000, he won the 1st prize in the Leo Weiner Chamber Competition in the string trio and sonata category at the same time winning the Best Performance prize for the Weiner Sonata.

In 2001, Vilmos Olah worked as a violin professor in Bangkok, Thailand and served as the principle soloist and concertmaster of the Pan Asian Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2003, Olah founded the first Hungarian-based music institution in SE Asia, serving as the school's Artistic Director.

Vilmos Olah took part in many master classes of the world's leading violinists such as Isaac Stern, Ruggiero Ricci, Tibor Varga, Yehudi Menuhin, Dénes Zsigmondy and Lorand Fenyves. He regularly plays together with leading musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma, Jurij Bashmet, Gil Shaham as well as a number of the world's major conductors such as Jeffrey Tate, Andras Ligeti, Jurij Simonov, Tamás Vásáry, Yoshikazu Fukumura, Uri Majer and Adrian Sunshine.

Vilmos Olah actively performs as a concert master for the renowned Hungarian Radio Orchestra. Maestro Olah also serves as guest concert master of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian State Opera, the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Society Orchestra, Budapest Strings. Moreover he was also seen appointed as the concertmaster of the Bangkok Opera Orchestra.

Most recently, Vilmos Olah has travelled to the United States for the US premiere of Eric Funk's groundbreaking work,"Vili: Concerto for the Violin Alone, Op 109", which he premiered in Budapest on March 12, 2012. This project is also the subject of an hour long documentary THE VIOLIN ALONE which will be released internationally in the fall of 2013.

Pianist: Ana Granik

After completing her primary education at Vatroslav Lisinski Music School, Ana Granik enrolled at the Franz Liszt Academy Academy, Hungary's leading such institution. She graduated in 2002 in the class of Professor Laszló Baranyay, a laureate of numerous international piano competitions. She continued her professional formation by joining the master classes of Rudolf Kehrer and Eugen Indjic both leading pianists while being awarded numerous prizes in major international competitions. In recent years Ana Granik has performed much acclaimed recitals in leading musical centres such as Rome, Krakow, Vienna, Moscow and New Delhi. In 2002, she has performed with the North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra on her German tour and a year later she went on a tour across India.

As a chamber musician Ana Granik performs with most of Hungary's leading musicians and ensembles. She is currently a member of the Intermodulation Ensemble associated with a number of premieres of contemporary composers from around the world. As a soloist and chamber musician she has furthermore premiered numerous works by Croatian and Hungarian composers. Ana Granik also regularly records as soloist for the Hungarian Radio, the Hungaraton label as well as for the Croatian Radio and Television. Ana is currently a professor at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest. Leading critics regularly refer to Ana Granik's conceptual intelligence allowing to render even the most complex compositions in a differentiated but at the same time transparent interpretation. She is moreover recognized for her rhythmatic verve, clear articulation and before all uniquely singing tone regularly reminiscent of the great Slavic tradition of piano playing.