Julie Sevilla-Fraysse / Antoine De Grolée FOLKLORE

A French cellist born in 1988, Julie is among today’s young soloists and recently performed the Concerto by Saint-Saëns with the Antwerp-based orchestra deFilharmonie at the Flagey concert hall in Brussels and L. Boccherini’s Cello Concerto in B-flat major with the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia In 2013 she was the laureate of the Fondation Natexis Banque Populaire and performed Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations at the Festival des Rencontres de Violoncelle de Bélaye broadcast on France Musique.Passionate about chamber music, Julie has performed alongside artists such as Emmanuelle Bertrand, Augustin Dumay and Gérard Caussé in the Flagey concert hall and in trio with Régis Pasquier and Abdel Rahman El Bacha. Julie was notably part of the Werther trio until 2010, with which she performed at the Festival de la Roque d’Anthéron. The trio won the Prix de la Presse at the International Chamber Music Competition of Lyon in 2011. She was also a guest at the Chamber Music Festival of Rome and at the Festival des Violons de Légende à Beaulieu-sur-Mer in 2013 and at the Schiermonnikoog Chamber Music Festival in the Netherlands in 2014.Julie studied at the Conservatoire de Nice then at the Académie Rainier III de Monaco in the class of Frédéric Audibert. At the age of 17 she integrated the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in the class of Roland Pidoux, then the Juilliard School of New York. Julie has just recorded her first album on the theme of Central Europe on the Klarthe label. It includes Zoltan Kodaly’s Cello Sonata and will be released in 2016.She obtained a grant from the Princess Grace of Monaco Foundation to take part in the International Cello Competition of the Naumburg Foundation that will take place in October in New York.

Dana Zemtsov ENIGMA Works for Solo Viola

Unlikely other stringed instruments the viola repertoire hasn't been as thoroughly explored, but this colourful anyhology of music for solo viola contains some of the most challenging works. Famous for her soulful dedication to the viola Dana Zemtsov takes the listener along to a world of warm, deeply touching sounds. She wants to warn the listener for the music on her debut recording: ... here one will scarsely find
lyrical melodies and heartwarming beauty with which music is so often associated.
Instead, there will be tales of war, perplexed wanderings through obscured labyrinths, intense cries of despair, sour tears of sorrow, maybe at places an ironic grinn...
For 2014 and 2015 Channel Classics and Dana agreed on two more recordings, one with piano acccompaniment and another with orchestra.
Winner of numerous competitions and developing an outstanding career, Dana Zemtsov (b. 1992) is one of the most promising international viola soloists of her generation.
Highlights in the 2012 / 13 season include Dana’s performance of the Bartók Viola Concerto in the Great Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, chamber music with Janine Jansen and Martin Frost during the Utrecht Chamber Music Festival and a recital in Carnegie Hall of New York.
Dana is First Prize laureate of several competitions in Luxemburg, Italy, Austria, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands. In 2010 she won the Dutch Television competition ‘Evening of the Young Musician’ becoming the ‘Young Musician of the Year’ and representing The Netherlands at the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition in Vienna.
Dana is regularly appearing on the most important international stages and festivals as well as chamber music partner as soloist.
Dana Zemtsov was born in 1992 in Mexico City. She comes from a family of musicians. At the age of 5 she received her first music lessons from her grandmother and from her parents, both viola players, Mikhail Zemtsov and Julia Dinerstein. Since 2012 she studies with the famous viola virtuoso Michael Kugel.

Emmanuelle Bertrand LE VIOLONCELLE PARLE

The Harmonia Mundi album Le Violoncelle Parle (The Cello Speaks) takes its name notably from the Pascal Amoyel work for solo cello entitled Itinérance, a slow but evocative work in which the cellist must supplement the cello's own voice with vocalizations from the player him/herself. Beyond that, though, cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand selected her program of well-known works for solo cello as a way of demonstrating her instrument's ability to "speak" and transcend national borders. Her program includes the Russian folk-imbued Third Suite of Benjamin Britten, the Spanish panache and fieriness of Gaspar Cassadó's suite, and finally with the technically taxing and rhythmically exciting Hungarian writing of Zoltan Kodály's Op. 8 Solo Sonata. From start to finish, one thing is abundantly clear: Bertrand is a master of her instrument. Her copious, nearly flawless technique allows her to toss off even the most devilish passages in the Britten and Kodály with seeming ease. Her energies can then be spent on conveying the unique musical styles and languages of each composer, truly allowing her instrument to speak to her listeners. Her sound is magnificently rich and voluminous, and Harmonia Mundi's recorded sound gives listeners a dynamic front-row seat filled with vigorous finger-falls and punctuated breathing. (Mike D. Brownell)