Soloists:
Tirsu
Carpenter
Conductor:
Madaras
Programme
Alexandra Tirsu
Violin
Alexandra Tirsu is an internationally recognized violinist celebrated for her expressive artistry and award-winning performances. A 3rd Prize and Audience Award winner at the prestigious 2021 ARD International Music Competition, the Moldovan violinist is rapidly establishing herself as one of the leading artists of her generation.
A laureate of the 2018 Seoul International Music Competition and the 2014 Osaka International Music Competition, Alexandra completed her undergraduate studies in Vienna with Pavel Vernikov and later continued under the guidance of Janine Jansen in Sion. Her performances have received wide critical acclaim in publications such as The Strad, Classical Music Magazine, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Her 2022/23 season included collaborations with Sol Gabetta, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Kirill Troussov, Ioana Cristina Goicea, and Richard Galliano, as well as orchestral engagements with the London Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Kiev Virtuosi, Pilsen Philharmonic, Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic (with immediate re-invitation), Orquesta Filarmónica Marchigiana, Incheon Philharmonic, and Orquesta Vigo 430. She also appeared at major festivals including Solsberg Festival, Crans Montana Classics, and Sion Music Festival.
In the 2023/24 season, Alexandra made her debut with the Korean Chamber Orchestra in Seoul, performed Britten’s Violin Concerto with the Bavarian Youth Orchestra in the Isar Philharmonie Munich, and appeared at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest. She has performed in some of the world’s leading concert halls, including the Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie, Herkulessaal and Prinzregententheater in Munich, Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, and Beijing Concert Hall.
She has performed under the baton of conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Ronald Zollman, Gabriel Bebeșelea, and Dmitri Jurowsky, and collaborated with artists including Ivry Gitlis, Michael Guttman, Daishin Kashimoto, Alexander Chaushian, Friedrich Thiele, Razvan Popovici, Uto Ughi, Diemut Poppen, Boris Brovtsyn, Vladimir Landsmann, Svetlana Makarova, Levon Chilingirian, and Kyril Zlotnikov. An advocate for making classical music accessible to wider audiences, she also regularly collaborates with the celebrated music-comedy duo Igudesman & Joo.
The 2025/26 season marks a new artistic chapter with several major debuts and return invitations.
Highlights include her debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Cadogan Hall in London, the release of her debut album featuring works by Shostakovich and Hindemith, a return engagement with the Neubrandenburger Philharmonie performing Prokofiev Violin Concerto No.1.
She will also make her debut with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, debut with Győr Philharmonic Orchestra performing Duo Concerto for Violin and Viola by Alexey Shor, and a return engagement to Poland, Łódź performing Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2. In addition, she returns to the Musikverein Graz to perform a work by Academy Award-winning composer Rachel Portman, and embarks on a European tour with Hans Zimmer Live, merging classical virtuosity with cinematic soundscapes.
Alexandra plays the 1717 “Reifenberg” Stradivari, generously on loan through The Stradivari Society, and has been a Thomastik-Infeld Artist since 2021.
David Aaron Carpenter
Viola
Recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award, First Prize Winner of the Walter E. Naumburg Viola Competition and the Avery Fisher Career Grant, David Aaron Carpenter is widely considered one of the most talented and charismatic musicians of his generation.
David is a former Rolex “Protégé” for which he was mentored by Pinchas Zukerman. David made his solo debut at the Kennedy Center after winning the Presidential Scholar Award and the first-ever Gold Medal Award at the National Foundation For Advancement In The Arts. Since then he has performed with leading musicians and orchestras around the world, from the Philadelphia Orchestra to the Philharmonia, the Dresden Staatskapelle to the Lucerne Symphony.
As a chamber musician, David has collaborated with such renowned artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Sarah Chang, Leonidas Kavakos, Gidon Kremer, Alan Gilbert, Julian Rachlin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Jan Vogler, and Yuja Wang. He is a regular guest artist at the Verbier Music Festival, and was proud to be an integral part of their 20th anniversary season. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Salomé Chamber Orchestra, which he co-founded with his brother Sean and sister Lauren.
David received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Relations from Princeton University in 2008. David was featured in The New Yorker article “Musical Gold” by Rebecca Mead in July, 2014, on the cover of The Strad magazine in August 2013, and a few months earlier was the subject of a three-page article in The New York Times. Along with the Salomé Chamber Orchestra, David released his Warner Classics recording featuring Vivaldi, Piazzolla and Shor's Twelve Seasons. His newest release on Warner Classics features the Bartok, Walton, Shor and Dvorak Concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestros Vladimir Jurowski, David Parry, and Kazushi Ono.
David plays on a viola made by Michele Deconet, Venice (1766).
Gergely Madaras
Conductor
Hungarian conductor Gergely Madaras was named 2025 ‘Conductor of the Year’ at the Bartok Radio Awards. He served as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège from 2019-2025 where his successful tenure was recently marked by him being named an Honorary Citizen of the City. Previously, he served as Music Director of Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne (2013-19) and Chief Conductor of Savaria Symphony Orchestra (2014-2020).
The 2025/26 season includes high-profile symphonic debuts with the Staatskapelle Dresden, NDR Elbphilharmonie-Orchester, Dresdner Philharmoniker, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Mulhouse, Tampere, Trondheim Symphony Orchestras as well as Welsh National Opera (Tosca). He returns to the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Luxembourg, Oslo, Turku and Warsaw Philharmonics, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and BBC NOW as well as Hungarian State Opera and a special project with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, celebrating the 100th birthday of György Kurtág.
Recent symphonic highlights include performances with the Oslo Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Hungarian National Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Jewish World Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Sao Paulo State Symphony and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
Gergely was the inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Fellow at the English National Opera, that culminated in his debut with the company. In recent seasons he has conducted critically acclaimed productions at the Dutch National Opera, Grand Théàtre de Genève, La Monnaie and Hungarian State Opera.
Born in Budapest in 1984, Gergely first began studying folk music with the last generation of authentic Hungarian Gipsy and peasant musicians at the age of five. He then went on to study classical flute, violin and composition, graduating from the flute faculty of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, as well as the conducting faculty of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he studied with Mark Stringer.
Gergely resides in London with his wife, the flutist Noemi Gyori and their two daughters.