Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra

The Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra (VFCO), which comprises alumni musicians from the Verbier Festival Orchestra, was founded in 2005. Its Music Director is Gábor Takács-Nagy. The Chamber Orchestra is the resident chamber orchestra at the Verbier Festival and performs 6 concerts during the Verbier Festival with works from the chamber orchestra repertoire. One of its first big projects was to perform and record Mozart's Violin Concertos with soloist/conductor Maxim Vengerov. A tour of 22 concerts followed in 2006 through Canada, USA and Europe.

The VFCO tours yearly and holds an annual residency during the Verbier Festival Week at Schloss Elmau, Germany. In early spring 2013, the VFCO toured for one week in China with the 8 seasons of both Piazzolla and Vivaldi, lead by Kirill Troussov, followed by a tour through Asia with Gábor Takács-Nagy and soloists Martin Fröst and Joshua Bell. In May 2014, the orchestra toured with David Garrett in Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

With Joshua Bell as director/soloist, the orchestra gave a 4-concert tour of Switzerland in October 2016, performing in Zurich, Geneva, Bern and La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Conductor: Gábor Takács-Nagy

Born in Budapest, Gábor Takács-Nagy began studying the violin at the age of eight. As a student of the Franz Liszt Academy, he won First Prize in 1979 in the Jeno Hubay Violin Competition and later pursued studies with Nathan Milstein.

From 1975 to 1992, he was founding member and leader of the acclaimed Takács Quartet performing with legendary artists, Lord Menuhin, Sir Georg Solti, Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovitch, and Paul Tortelier. In 1996 he founded the Takács Piano Trio and made world-premiere recordings of works of Hungarian composers Franz Liszt, Lászlo Lajtha and Sandor Veress. Gábor Takács-Nagy is considered one of today’s most authentic exponents of Hungarian music.

In 1998 he established the Mikrokosmos string quartet with compatriots Zoltan Tuska, Sandor Papp and Miklos Perényi, recording in 2008 the complete cycle of Bartok’s string Quartets for which they were awarded the « Excellencia »prize by Pizzicato Magazine. In 1982, he was awarded the Liszt Prize.

In 2002, following in a long-line of Hungarian musical tradition, Gábor Takács-Nagy turned to conducting. In 2006 he became the Music Director of the Weinberger Kammerorchestra and in August 2007, the Music Director of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. A DVD of the performances of Beethoven’s 2nd piano concerto and Shostakovich’s concerto for piano, trumpet and strings with Martha Argerich, David Guerrier and the VFCO was released in June 2011. From 2010 until 2012 he was Music Director of the MAV Symphony Orchestra Budapest . Since September 2011 he is Music Director of Manchester Camerata, one of the UK’s leading chamber orchestras and in September 2012 became Principal Guest Conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra . In January 2013 he was nominated Principal Artistic Partner of the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Gábor Takács-Nagy is also a dedicated and highly sought-after chamber-music teacher. He is Professor of String Quartet at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva and International Chair in Chamber Music at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. In June 2012 he was awarded honorary membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Cellist: Gautier Capuçon

"It’s the rare performer who can bring such ease and refinement to this music, while still giving everything he plays a sense of dramatic urgency."

- San Francisco Chronicle

Gautier Capuçon is a true 21st century ambassador for the cello. Performing each season with many of the world’s foremost conductors and instrumentalists, he is also founder and leader of the ‘Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle’ at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris – based in the stunning new Auditorium designed by Frank Gehry. He is acclaimed internationally for his deeply expressive musicianship and exuberant virtuosity, as well as for the glorious sonority of his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello. 

During 2016/17 he returns to such orchestras as the London Symphony and Philharmonia orchestras, Berliner Philharmoniker, Russian National Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Münchner Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony – and is being reinvited for concerts in Japan, China and Korea. In recent seasons he has also performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Sydney Symphony and Mariinsky orchestras, as well as with all of the major orchestras across France.

Gautier Capuçon continues to work regularly with conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Semyon Bychkov, Valery Gergiev, Gustavo Dudamel, Lionel Bringuier, Andris Nelsons, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and collaborates with contemporary composers including, amongst others, Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Jerome Ducros, Henry Dutilleux, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm.

A regular recital and chamber musician, Capuçon appears annually in the major halls and festivals worldwide alongside artists such as Nicholas Angelich, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Lisa Batiashvili, Frank Braley, Renaud Capuçon, Jérôme Ducros, Leonidas Kavakos, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and the Artemis and Ebène quartets. Forthcoming highlights include an extensive European recital tour of Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley, supporting the international release of an album featuring the same repertoire.

Capuçon records exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics) and has won multiple ECHO Klassik awards. Most recent releases include Shostakovich’s Cello Concertos with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev; and Schubert’s String Quintet with Quatuor Ebène. Prior to that he won plaudits for a recital disc of music by Schubert, Schumann, Debussy, Britten and Carter with Frank Braley, and Saint-Saëns’ First Cello Concerto and Muse et le poète with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Lionel Bringuier. He has also recorded chamber music with Martha Argerich, Nicholas Angelich, Renaud Capuçon and Gabriela Montero; and in 2013 Deutsche Grammophon released a DVD featuring Capuçon as soloist with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Gustavo Dudamel in a live performance of Haydn’s Cello Concerto No.1.

Born in Chambéry in 1981, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. The winner of various first prizes in many leading international competitions, including the International André Navarra Prize, Capuçon was named ‘New Talent of the Year’ by Victoires de la Musique in 2001.

Violinist: Daniel Lozakovich

Having regularly performed throughout Europe with orchestras including the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic of Russia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai. Daniel is quickly establishing himself as a highly sought after soloist on the international concert stage. He collaborates with such distinguished conductors as Adam Fischer, Vasily Petrenko, Leonard Slatkin, Vladimir Spivakov, Robin Ticciati as well as Valery Gergiev, whom he maintains a strong artistic partnership with since their first collaboration in 2015. Returning to the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra on several occasions since, he also recently opened the Münchner Philharmoniker’s festival MPHIL 360°.

Highlights of his 2017/18 season include his much anticipated debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons in Tanglewood, as well as tours to Japan and Asia with Valery Gergiev and with the hr-Sinfonieorchester under its current music director Andrés OrozcoEstrada. Lozakovich returns to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with Semyon Bychkov, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse under Tugan Sokhiev, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Krzysztof Urbanski and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Lahav Shani. He will further appear with such orchestras as Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and in recital at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Tonhalle Zürich, Convervatorio G. Verdi Milan as well as at the Verbier Festival.

Daniel Lozakovich regularly appears at many international music festivals, including the Verbier Festival, Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, Carinthischer Sommer in Austria, Moscow Meets Friends, Colmar festival, Sommets musicaux de Gstaad, Gergiev Festival Rotterdam and White Nights Festival in St Petersburg,Festival de Pâques - Aix-en-Provence. A keen chamber musician, Daniel Lozakovich enjoys collaborations with such distinguished artists as Emanuel Ax, Ivry Gitlis, Renaud Capuçon, Khatia Buniatishvili, Seong-Jin Cho, Martin Fröst, Shlomo Mintz and Maxim Vengerov. Having previously performed together on ARTE TV, Daniel recorded a selection of Bartók’s violin duos with Daniel Hope for Deutsche Grammophon.In June 2016, he signed an exclusive recording contract with the yellow label.

Awarded numerous prizes and accolades including 1 st prize at the 2016 Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition, both 1 st Prize and the “Grand Prix” at the 2012 EMCY International Music Competition, “Ohrid PEARLS”, Macedonia. Daniel Lozakovich is also recipient of the 2015 Manfred Grommek Prize of the Kronberg Academy. Most recently he received the Excelentia Prize, awarded to him under the honorary presidency of Queen Sofia of Spain and “The Young Artist of the Year 2017” award at the Festival of the Nations. Born in Stockholm in 2001, Daniel Lozakovich took up the violin in 2007 and made his concerto debut with the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra under Vladimir Spivakov two years later. Daniel studies at the Karlsruhe University of Music with Professor Josef Rissin, and is mentored by Eduard Wulfson. He is a student at the Collège du Léman in Geneva.

Pianist: George Li

Praised by the Washington Post for combining "staggering technical prowess, a sense of command and depth of expression," pianist George Li possesses brilliant virtuosity and effortless grace far beyond his years. He captured the Silver Medal at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition and was the recipient of the 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Recent and upcoming concerto highlights include performances with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, Hamburg Philharmonic with Manfred Honeck, a tour of Asia with the London Symphony Orchestra and Giandrea Noseda, St. Petersburg Philharmonic with Yuri Temirkanov, Philharmonia Orchestra with Long Yu, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Mälmo Symphony, Verbier Festival Orchestra, DSO Berlin, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, Sydney Symphony and Frankfurt Radio Symphony. He frequently appears with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, including performances at the Paris Philharmonie, Luxemburg Philharmonie, New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music, Graffenegg Festival and in various places throughout Russia.

Recital highlights include Carnegie Hall, Davies Hall in San Francisco, the Mariinsky Theatre, Munich's Gasteig, the Louvre, Seoul Arts Center, Tokyo's Asahi Hall and Musashino Hall, NCPA Beijing, Ravinia Festival, Lanaudiere Festival, Edinburgh Festival and Montreaux Festival.

An active chamber musician, George has performed chamber music with James Ehnes, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Benjamin Beilman, Kian Soltani, Pablo Ferrandez and Daniel Lozakovich.

George is an exclusive Warner recording artist, with his debut album releasing in October 2017 which was recorded live from the Mariinsky.

George Li gave his first public performance at Boston's Steinway Hall at the age of ten and in 2011, performed for President Obama at the White House in an evening honoring Chancellor Angela Merkel. Among George's many prizes, he was the First Prize winner of the 2010 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and a recipient of the 2012 Gilmore Young Artist Award. George is currently in the Harvard University / New England Conservatory joint program, studying with Wha Kyung Byun.