Wassily Gerassimez (cello)

PROGRAMME:
Carlo Alfredo Piatti
From 12 Caprices for cello solo, Op. 25
No 7. Maestoso
No 12. Allegretto capriccioso

Wassily Gerassimez
Zwischen den Steinen for cello solo (2011)
In memory of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989

Johann Sebastian Bach
Suite for Cello Solo No 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011
Prelude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gavottes I & II
Gigue

Wassily Gerassimez
Amira for cello solo (2015)

tonali

The concert will take place with the amicable support of the Senate and Ministry of Culture of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

About the Concert

„It is different. It is creative, idiosyncratic and trend-setting in all aspects. It is much more than a difficult to win music contest – TONALi. It drives top sponsorship and at the same time initiates the impulse for cultural education. It addresses young composers, high potential young musicians and numerous young listeners (more than 10,000 in 12 Hamburg based schools), who often find to classical music because of TONALi. It is a total work of art, which has been cleverly and effectively adjusted to the actual music situation. The city of Hamburg, which has strong musical scene, can be proud of TONALI, which no one today wants to miss anymore and which has found much attention far beyond Hamburg.
It is with much personal solicitousness and respect in my role as honorary president that I see the rapid development of TONALi. This unique and highly demanding music project, initiated in 2009 by two young cellists Amadeus Templeton and Boris Matchin will see its fourth edition in 2014 as a result of tireless dedication, voluntary commitment and the support of many personalities, institutions and sponsors.
The 2014 competition focuses on the violin. 12 violinists (with residence in Germany), all aiming for a solo career, may qualify and compete to win the TONALi-prize worth 10,000 Euro. Those making it to the final, will be invited to perform a violin concert in the big hall at Laeiszhalle Hamburg with the renowned The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. This poses a strong incentive for the young musicians to perform at their very best and makes them happily engage themselves with TONALi fundamental principles:
• A distinctive interest in the future of classical concerts, which in its format looks for new ideas, new rituals and contemporary communication.
• Active discussion about the question the musician can take more responsibility for the development of classical concert future.
• The willingness to widely communicate these new formats, encouraged by TONALi by its unique school activities that prove a contemporary relation between audience and musician.
TONALi sets a trend as a result of its threefold structure: „writing (composition prize), performing (Grand Prix) and listening (TuttiContest)“ and challenges many in various ways. Christoph Eschenbach, Conductor and TONALi Honorary President.
The next stage of collaboration between the Mariinsky Theatre and TONALi came with the new cultural and educational project The Sounds of Change. The task of the project is to interest young audiences in classical music concerts and involve them in organising such concerts on a practical level – right in their schools.

Official website: www.tonali.de

About the performers

Cellist Wassily Gerassimez, a member of a family of musicians, was born in Essen (Germany) in 1991 and began playing the cello at the age of five. Since 2007 he has been a student of Professor Peter Bruns in Leipzig.

Since 2012 he has been a TONALi beneficiary, indicating his special qualifications in musical communication, and was lauded as the best musical communicator by the student jury of TONALi. He was also awarded the 1^st prize at the International Cello Competition in Liezen (Austria, 2002) and the 1^st prize at the International Dotzauer Competition in Dresden (Germany, 2005). In 2006 he was awarded the Aalto-Theater Award in his home town. At the German national competition Jugend musiziert in 2004 and 2010 he won the 1^st prize with maximum points and special awards. Together with his brother Nicolai, in 2012 he won the 1^st prize at the German National Music Competition in the category “cello duo”.

As a soloist he has appeared with the Staatsphilharmonie of Rheinland-Pfalz at the Schwetzingen Festival, the Neubrandenburg Philharmonie and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He has performed at the music festival The Next Generation III, the Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany) and the Zermatt Festival (Switzerland).

Furthermore, he has made several radio recordings for WDR, SWR, NDR and BR. Wassily Gerassimez is a scholarship-holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben as a prize-winner of the competition run by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

Wassily Gerassimez plays a cello crafted by Georges Chanot (Paris, circa 1840).

Age category 6+