Veronika Eberle Vilde Frang Sergey Khachatryan Jaime Laredo Viktoria Mullova Julian Rachlin Alexandra Soumm Thomas Zehetmair

Alexandra Soumm

Introduction

This young violinist of outstanding ability and technique was born in Moscow, and now divides her time between France and Austria, where she studies intensively with Professor Kuschnir. In 2004 Alexandra won the Eurovision Competition for young musicians in Lucerne, and is the recipient of a number of scholarships including the presitgious Herbert von Karajan Scholarship of the Karajan Centrum in Vienna.

Alexandra's steadily growing repertoire list already includes the Beethoven concerto, Paganini no.1, Bruch, Glazunov, Mozart no.4, Sibelius, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Bach. Her repertoire development is paralleled by the rapidly expanding list of orchestras booking her; so far including the Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre national de Lyon, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and the Orcheastre national d'Ile de France.

Alexandra's debut recording released in 2008 on the Claves label was a double concerto CD comprising the Bruch and first Paganini concerto. Her second disc with Claves, a recording of the violin sonatas by Grieg, was released in Spring 2010.

Biography

Alexandra Soumm was born in 1989 into a family of musicians. She started to learn the violin with her father at the age of five and gave her first concert two years later in the Ukraine. In 2000, she entered the Vienna Conservatory and the Graz University of Music in the class of the eminent pedagogue Boris Kuschnir. Alexandra won the Grand Prize of the Vienna Conservatory Competition in 2002, which led to an invitation to perform at the Vienna Konzerthaus. Alexandra was then selected by the Beracasa Foundation to perform at the Radio France Festival in Montpellier, her hometown.

Alexandra won the First Prize in the 2004 Eurovision Competition for young musicians in Lucerne and was subsequently awarded the Herbert von Karajan Scholarship of the Karajan Centrum in Vienna.

In 2006 she made her debut with the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Yoel Levi, performing the first Paganini concerto and immediately secured a re-invitation to perform Mozart Concerto no. 4 in 2007 and the Paganini concerto with Rafael Fruhbeck de Borgos in 2008. Their collaboration is set to continue when Alexandra returns to perform Mozart with the IPO and Herbert Blomstedt in May 2011.

In January 2009 Alexandra made her debut with the Orchestre de Paris and Neeme Järvi performing the Bruch concerto at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Alexandra has appeared with many leading orchestras within France, including the Beethoven concerto with the Orchestre National de Lyon and Michel Plasson, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse with Tugan Sokhiev, the Orchestre National de Montpellier with Juraj Valcuha, the Orchestre National d'Ile de France with Enrique Mazzola and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice with Frédéric Lodéon.

Alexandra has performed the Glazunov concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Alexander Lazerev as well as with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and John Storgård, the Lalo Symphonie Espagnol with Frankfurt Radio Symphonieorchester and Lionel Bringuier, the Beethoven concerto with Alexander Shelley and the London Mozart Players and Mozart concerto no. 4 at the Vienna Konzerthaus with the Wiener Kammerorchester. She recently performed the Mendelssohn concerto with the Grazer Philharmonic Orchestra with Johannes Fritzsch and the Sibelius concerto with Alexander Joel and the Staatsorchester Braunschweig.

Alexandra regularly appears at international festivals such as the Verbier Festival, Schleswig Holstein, Strasbourg Festival, St Denis, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Martha Argerich festival in Lugano, the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the Dubrovnik Festival, the Menton Festival, Festival de Musique de Besançon, Festival de Radio France et Montpellier and the Septembre Musical festival in Montreux.

In the Spring of 2008 Alexandra’s debut recording of the Bruch and Paganini concertos was released on the Claves label, and Le Monde de la Musique described her interpretation as ‘displaying a passionate and lyrical personality’. Her second disc with Claves, a recording of the violin sonatas by Grieg, was released in Spring 2010.

Alexandra’s 2010-11 season will include a third visit to the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Herbert Blomstedt and a return visit to the Orchestre de Paris, as well as debuts with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia in Moscow, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. She will also be performing recitals in the series of the Societe Philharmonique de Bruxelles and the Auditorium de Louvre in Paris.