Expressive Violin World

Grammy nominated conductor, cellist and conductor Dmitry Yablonksy was born in Moscow into a musical family. He began playing the cello when he was 5 years old and was accepted to the Central Music School for gifted children. At the age of 9 he gave his orchestral debut playing Haydn’s cello concerto.

Since then, his career had taken him to the most important stages in the world, such as the Carnegie Hall, La Scala, Moscow Great Hall, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Taiwan National Hall, Theatre Champs Elysees,, Tokyo Opera City Hall among others.

He has collaborated with many world renown artists as Monserrat Caballe, Roberto Alagna, Olga Borodina and many more.

Kristóf Baráti is recognised increasingly across the globe as a musician of extraordinary quality with a vast expressive range and impeccable technique. Applauded repeatedly for the poetry and eloquence that he brings to his playing, he has been described as “a true tonal aesthete of the highest order”. In recent seasons, Baráti has performed at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at London’s Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and he was the featured soloist in the opening concert of the 2019 Verbier Festival. Baráti has played with orchestras such as Zurich Tonhalle, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC Philharmonic and Hague Philharmonic orchestras. He performs regularly with Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra both in Russia and on tour around the world including in the US and China. Highlights of his 2020/21 season included performances with the Budapest Festival and Bern Symphony orchestras, and his debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and in 21/22 he looks forward to his debut with the Indianapolis Orchestra. A regular recital and chamber music player, Baráti has performed with partners such as Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet, Enrico Pace, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Zoltán Kocsis and Kim Kashkashian amongst others. He performs every year at the White Nights Festival and in 2019 made his debut at the Seattle Chamber Music and Aspen Festivals. In 2016 he made a sensational debut at the Verbier Festival when he performed the complete solo Sonatas and Partitas of Bach. Baráti has an extensive discography which includes the five Mozart concerti, the complete Beethoven and Brahms sonatas with Klára Würtz, and Ysaÿe solo sonatas for Brilliant Classics, and Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo violin on the Berlin Classics label. Of his disc of encores “The Soul of Lady Harmsworth” recorded in 2016, Gramophone magazine said “for those who like to hear the violin played at its sweet and acrobatic best, then Baráti is out of the top drawer.” Having spent much of his childhood in Venezuela, where he played as soloist with many of the country’s leading orchestras, Baráti returned to Budapest to study at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and was later mentored by Eduard Wulfson, himself a student of Milstein and Menuhin. Still resident in Budapest, Barati performs regularly across Hungary and together with István Vardái, is Artistic Director of the Kaposvár International Chamber Music Festival.

Baráti plays the 1703 "Lady Harmsworth" Stradivarius, by kind arrangement with the Stradivarius Society of Chicago.

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, IBA was established in 1936 as a small studio ensemble, which grew into the Palestine Broadcasting Service Orchestra. With the foundation of the State of Israel the orchestra became the national radio orchestra, known as the Kol Israel Orchestra. In the 1970s, the orchestra was expanded and became the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Broadcasting Authority. The orchestra was the first to perform in Israel the works of Sofia Gubaidolina, Henri Dutilleux, Alfred Schnittke and others. Through the years some of the greatest musicians have performed with the orchestra, among them Arthur Rubinstein, Igor Markevitch, Otto Klemperer, Henryk Szeryng, Isaac Stern, Radu Lupu and Yefim Bronfman. One of the most notable premières performed by the orchestra was The Seven Gates of Jerusalem by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, conducted by Lorin Maazel, which was composed for the finale of the Jerusalem 3000 celebrations. This was a joint venture with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra. The orchestra often tours in Europe and the United States, and has played in some of the most prestigious venues.

Recently JSO had successful tours to USA, where concerts took place from Florida to Massachusetts and for the first time a tour in Japan, both tours with Dmitry Yablonsky as conductor and soloist.