Tatyana VASSILYEVA, cello

Winner of the First Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris at the 7th Concours de Violoncelle Rostropovitch in 2001 – the first Russian to be awarded the top prize in the history of the competition – and 'Revelation from Abroad' at the 2005 Victoires de la Musique Classique, Tatyana Vassilyeva has built a formidable reputation as one of the leading cellists of her generation.

Described as a 'phenomenon', she is known as a musician possessing an irreproachable technique and irresistible range of sonorities, whose superlative virtuosity is of only minor importance beside the strength of musical personality and ideas, and her ability to communicate them. Tatyana's innate musical curiosity is reflected by her extensive repertoire which ranges from baroque to contemporary music and includes several works of which she has given the world premiere.

Since beginning her performing career at the age of twelve, Tatyana has performed throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Russia and New Zealand with the most prestigious orchestras, including the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Moscow Soloists, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Basеl Sinfonie Orchestra, Deutsche Sinfonie Orchestra, Lithuanian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra under such distinguished conductors as Yuri Temirkanov, David Zinman, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Bashmet, Dmitri Kitaenko, Michail Jurowski, Sakari Oramo, Christoph Eschenbach and Krzysztov Penderecki.

In October 2006, Tatyana performed in Japan with Claudio Abbado's elite Lucerne Festival Orchestra, before giving a series of concerts at the Salle Pleyel, Paris and the Philharmonie Luxembourg with Rostropovich and Orchestre de Paris. Her 2007 schedule began with engagements with the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra, performances of the Elgar concerto in Nice with l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice/James Judd, followed by the Penderecki Concerto Grosso under the composer. During the next season, she will be touring with St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Yuri Temirkanov..

As a chamber musician, Tatyana Vassilyeva has performed at international festivals such as Lockenhaus, Kronberg, Colmar, Elba, the Rencontres de musique de chambre at Chambery and La Grange de Meslay in collaboration with Viktor Tretiakov, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov, Eugene Istomin, Nicholas Angelich, Lilya Zilberstein and Paul Badura-Skoda, with whom she performed the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven in 2005. In July, she made her debut at the Verbier Festival, playing a Bach solo recital. She regularly performs chamber music concerts with the Camerata of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Together with these prestigious artists, she is invited to play Brahms’ sextets and cello sonatas in the Brahms cycle to be given in Paris next season.

Since her first disc, on Naxos, with works by Stravinsky, Britten, Dutilleux and Debussy, Tatyana has made three recordings on the Accord/Universal label. The first, demonstrating her passion for solo contemporary music (Shchedrin, Dutilleux, Saariaho, Schnittke, Stroppa and Penderecki) was awarded the Diapason d’Or and was followed by a recording of works by Franck, Schubert and Stravinsky. However, it was with her most recent disc, presenting works for cello solo by Kodaly, Ysaye, Tcherepnine and Cassado that she stunned critics and has firmly established herself as 'the new diva of the cello'.

Tatyana Vassilyeva was born in Novosibirsk, Russia and began studying the cello at the age of six with Evgeny Nilov at the Special Music School, known for producing musicians such as Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin. Having won second prize at the Munich Competition in 1994, she moved there to study with Walter Northas at the Music High School and, after graduating with distinction, completed her postgraduate degree with David Geringas at the Hanns Eisler Music College in Berlin.

Tatyana peforms on the 1725 Vaslin cello by Antonio Stradivarius, on generous loan from LVMH.