Trio Fratrès,
Fedor Rudin, violin
Fedor Rudin made his debut at the Berlin Philharmonic with a program called ‘Violin Magic’—an apt title, for he truly brings out the magic of the instrument. He captivates his audience, including the jurors of the 2018 Premio Paganini competition, with his superior finger dexterity and sound quality. Yet he is also one of today’s most exciting young musical figures. At the age of thirty-two, he is now enjoying a phase of significant debuts: Fedor Rudin has recently performed as a soloist at the Laeiszhalle and Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Prague's Rudolfinum, the Paris Philharmonie, and Carnegie Hall in New York. He was also a guest at the Salzburg Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Fedor Rudin has performed with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris and the SWR Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has collaborated with conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Petr Popelka, Andris Poga and Lorenzo Viotti. He enjoys playing classics as well as lesser-known important works such as Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and the avant-garde repertoire of his grandfather Edison Denisov.
Fedor Rudin is a passionate chamber musician who collaborates with renowned partners such as pianists Boris Kusnezow, Julien Libeer, and Florian Noack; cellists Julia Hagen, Ivan Karizna, and Bruno Philippe; the Pavel Haas Quartet; and the Signum Saxophone Quartet. Since 2022, he has served as the artistic director of the Rencontres Musicales de Chaon chamber music festival in France.
The 2024-25 season will take him all over the globe. Fedor Rudin will debut with the Brno Philharmonic under Tomáš Netopil, return to the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under designated chief conductor Dmitry Matvienko, and make his conducting debut at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. Chamber music will lead him to collaborate for the first time with partners such as Adam Laloum, Paul Meyer, Alexandre Tharaud, and István Várdai. He will also conduct premieres of commissioned works by composers Elise Bertrand, Fabien Cali, and Fabien Touchard.
Florian Noack, piano
Imagine a map of the world, turned upside down. When such a world is your point of reference, the terms ‘obscure’ and ‘well-known’ do not necessarily apply. Much in the same way, Florian Noack (1990, Belgium) discovered the world of repertoire for piano. Even as a teen, composers like Alkan, Medtner, Lyapunov were studied next to Chopin and Beethoven, thanks to the highly inspirational book ‘Piano Music’ by Guy Sacre.
Sources of inspiration
Out of love for Russian literature and studies with pianist-composer Vassily Lobanov, Florian developed a natural affinity with Russian heritage. His piano transcriptions, based on orchestral works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov, have attracted the attention of musicians such as Boris Berezovsky and Dmitri Bashkirov. ‘It is a form of creativity and ingenuity that forces me to approach my instrument differently; searching for new textures, richness, colours or ways to combine my ten fingers’, Florian says. Praise for the recording of these works include the ECHO Klassik Award ‘Emerging Artist of the Year 2015’, the International Classical Music Award, the Octave de la Musique, a nomination for Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d’Or of the Year 2017.
‘Virtuosity’ being a word regularly connected to Florian, the press and his peers acknowledge it as a means to an end. With his interpretation and programmatic innovation, Florian strives to keep audiences on their toes. Le Figaro commented on a recent recording: ‘A portrait of Prokofiev in Noack’s own image: contrasting but authentic. Restless and bright. Tender but incisive.’
Background
Formative experiences have been the studies with Claudio Martinez-Mehner at the Musikhochschule Basel, and Academy masterclasses with the socratic teachings of Ferenc Rados in Prussia Cove, Cornwall. Florian Noack has won numerous prizes including the International Rachmaninoff Competition, the international Robert Schumann Competition and the International Piano Competition Cologne.
Invitations from around the world keep building his presence in festivals and concert halls, allowing meaningful collaborations with other musicians, conductors and orchestras. Florian has recorded six well-received CDs with various off-the-beaten-track repertoire and with his own piano transcriptions.
He joined the Fratres Trio with violinist Fedor Rudin (Konzertmeister of the Wiener Philharmoniker) and saxophonist Hayrapet Arakelyan in 2016. A particular interest is repertoire typical from the 1920s and beyond, merging the world of jazz and classical.
Florian Noack was a tutor at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, teaches at the Miami Piano Festival Academy 2020, and gives master classes on a regular basis.
Hayrapet Arakelyan, saxophone
Hayrapet Arakelyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1991. ln 1999, he began studying saxophone with Alexander Manukyan at the Alexander Spendarian Music School.
He has had master classes with Theodoros Kerkezos, Jean-Marie Londeix, Vincent David, Arno Bornkamp and Claude Delangle, and continued his studies with Daniel Gauthier at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne Germany. Since 2014 he has studied at the Konservatorium Privatuniversität in Vienna with Lars Mlekusch.
He has been the First Prize winner of many international saxophone competitions, including the lnternational Saxophone Competition in Nantes, the International Saxophone Competition in Carquefou, and the Yamaha Competition in Yerevan. ln 2009, he won the Federal Competition for Young Musicians (Bundeswettbewerb Jugend Musiziert) in Germany and was awarded a special prize by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. He was also a prize winner of the International Adriatico Competition in Ancona, the Vlth International Competition in Oldenburg, the Poznan Philharmonia, the Selmer Paris lnternational Saxophone Competition in Kiev, the lntemational Marco Fiorindo Saxophone Competition in Turin, and the lnternational Saxophone Competition in Lodz. ln 2009, he received the Special Prize of the Younger Musical Generation by the Senioren-Union der CDU in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany.
ln May 2010, Hayrapet represented Germany in the finals of the Eurovision Young Musicians contest in Vienna, which was broadcast live in more than 18 countries.
The young musician has appeared in numerous musical festivals, including the lnteniational Festival in Paris, the International Aram Khachaturian Festival in the United States, the XII International Palace and Musical Olympus Festivals in St. Petersburg, the Aberdeen International Youth Festival, and the Festival Assisi nel Mondo in ltaly. Hayrapet Arakelyan has also appeared in festivals in Zurich (2008), New York (2009), Berlin (2010), and Singapore (2011) and in the Riva del Garda and Rheingau music festivals.
ln 2011, he was invited by the ltalian Saxophone Association to give a master class and a solo recital at the XVII Stage Internationale del Saxofono di Fermo.
ln addition, he has perfonned as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the State Chamber Orchestra of Russia, the Poznan Philharmonie Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Armenia, the Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, the Kölner Sinfonietta, the Symphony Orchestra of Kaliningrad, the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra and the Julliard School Orchestra in New York.
Hayrapet is also an active chamber musician. As a member of various chamber music ensembles, he has performed at many music festivals, including the Mosel Festival, the Beethoven Fest in Bonn, the Schumann Festival in Düsseldorf, the Festival Middle Europe, the Summerwinds Festival in Münster, the Emilia Romagna Festival, and the New York Chamber Music Festival.
ln the period from 2016-2018 he worked together with the Alliage Quintet. ln 2010, Hayrapet founded a duo with the pianist Gleb Koroleff.
A year later, the Arakelyan-Koroleff duo won the First Prize and the special “New York Debut” Prize at the International Salieri-Zinetti Chamber Music Competition in Verona. He subsequently performed numerous concerts in Italy and Germany, with recordings by the radio station RAI 3 and the Bavarian Broadcasting Company.
In 2012, he extended his chamber music vision by co-founding the Fratres Trio with the pianist Rudolvs Vanks and the violinist Fedor Roudine. This unusual instrumental trio has excited great interest in the musical community: shortly after its foundation, the Fratres Trio was invited to play at music festivals in Germany, Italy and Armenia and played live on the WDR 3 radio station. In March 2013, the ensemble won the 2nd prize at the 18th International Chamber Music Competition in Illzach, France.
Since 2018 he took the position of Alto Saxophone in the SIGNUM saxophone quartet.
Hayrapet Arakelyan’s debut CD French Connection, including the works of Denisov, Milhaud, Borne, Swerts and Muczynski, was released in spring 2012 with ARS Production and supported by the P. E. Förderkreis.
Most recently, he has been performing in numerous European countries as well as Russia, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, United States, and Canada. He has performed in the Concert Halls of the Moscow Conservatory and the Berlin Philharmonic as well as in Gasteig Hall in Munich, the Esplanade Hall in Singapore, Tonhalle Zürich, Boston Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York.
Hayrapet Arakelyan has won scholarships from the International Spivakov Fund, the AGBU Fellowship Arts Program, the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, and the Solti Foundation. He is a Program Guzik Foundation Award winner as well as a winner of the Dr. Carl Dörken Scholarship.
Hayrapet Arakelyan is a Henri SELMER Paris performing artist.
