Ramm plays with enormous musical authority. Unlike many young instrumentalists, he is not intimidated by the reflective or the elegiac; nor is he nervous about the length of pauses, or the creation of inter-phrase silence. He has a phenomenal technique, and he demonstrated it to full effect in this captivating performance.
Cape Times
Alexander Ramm was born in 1988 in Vladivostok. Graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (cello class of Natalia Shakhovskaya and chamber ensemble class of Alexander Bonduriansky) and completed a postgraduate course at the conservatory. Continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin (class of Frans Helmerson). He has taken part in masterclasses held by Philippe Muller, Reinhard Latzko, Maria Kliegel and Uzi Wiesel at International Holland Music Sessions and Courchevel’s Music Academy.
Prize-winner at the Moscow Competition for Young Cellists (2003; 1st prize), the Cambridge International Boston Competition (2005; 1st prize), the Moscow Romantic Music Festival (2006; Grand Prix), the Unisa International String Competition (Pretoria, South Africa, 2010; 4th prize), the Beijing International Music Competition (2010; 2nd prize), the All-Russian Music Competition (Moscow, 2010; 1st prize) and the International Cello Competition Antonio Janigro (Zagreb, 2012; 4th prize). In August 2012 together with pianist Anna Odintsova he took 4th prize at the Swedish International Duo Competition (Katrineholm). In April 2013 Alexander Ramm won 3rd prize at one of the most prestigious cello contests – the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki, making him the first Russian musician to be a prize-winner at that contest. In June 2015 he won 2nd prize and the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow – St Petersburg). Recipient of the Russian Presidential Prize for Young Culture Professionals for 2023.
Since 2011 Alexander has featured in concert programmes of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, including the project Stars of the 21st Century, and has been a soloist at the St Petersburg Music House. Regularly performs at the Moscow Easter Festival.
Has toured to many towns and cities in Russia, Great Britain, Germany, Lithuania, Sweden, Austria, Finland, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, France and Bulgaria; has performed at the Brucknerhaus Linz, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Philharmonie de Paris, London’s Cadogan Hall, the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow. Has collaborated with such conductors as Michail Jurowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Vladimir Spivakov, Valery Gergiev, Vasily Petrenko, Alexander Sladkovsky, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yuri Bashmet, Antoni Wit, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Alexander Lazarev, Valery Polyansky, Dmitri Jurowski. The musician’s regular stage partners include Denis Matsuev, Vadim Repin, Nikolai Lugansky, Sergej Krylov, Alexander Gindin, Pavel Milyukov and Philipp Kopachevsky. In 2023 he was a member of the jury of the XVII International Tchaikovsky Competition, becoming one of the youngest judges in the entire history of that contest.
In 2018 Alexander Ramm recorded a CD of Benjamin Britten’s cello suites that received the Listeners’ Choice Award by the Violoncello Foundation in New York.
Since 2011 he has been playing a cello created by the modern master Gabriele Jebran Yakoub.
Information for May 2024