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Our 2008--2009
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The Altenberg Piano Trio
The Altenberg Trio is named in honor of the revered Viennese poet Peter Altenberg. The trio had its "official" debut during the Salzburg Mozart Week in January 1994. At the time it was formed, the ensemble became Trio-in-residence of Vienna's Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, the renowned Musikverein, where it gives an annual series of concerts in the Brahms Saal. The ensemble is also the Trio-in-residence of the Vienna Conservatory. In addition, the Altenberg Trio performs regularly at the International Brahms Festival at Muerzzuschlag in Austria, whose Claus-Christian Schuster is its Artistic Director and for the Accademia di Musica di Pinerolo (Piedmont), where the trio offers monthly master classes for young ensembles. Pianist Claus-Christian Schuster was born in Vienna in 1952. He studied in Vienna, Bloomington, Indiana and at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, working with his father, with Wilhelm Huebner, Hans Graf, Dieter Weber and Vera Gornostayeva. In 1984, he founded the Vienna Schubert Trio. After the Vienna Schubert Trio disbanded in 1993, he founded the Altenberg Trio Vienna with his colleagues Amiram Ganz and Martin Hornstein (replaced by Alexander Gebert in 2004). Between 1976 and 1986 Mr. Schuster taught at the Vienna Musikhochschule. Violinist Amiram Ganz was born in Montevideo in 1952. He began studying violin in Uruguay. At the age of 11 he won the Jeunesses Musicales Competition and then continued his studies with Richard Burgin in the U.S.A. and Alberto Lysy at the International Academy of Chamber Music in Rome. Between 1974 and 1979 he studied on a scholarship at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He became first concert master of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg in 1980. Since 1981 Mr. Ganz has been teaching at the Strasbourg Conservatory. From 1987 until the foundation of the Altenberg Trio in 1994 he was the violinist of the Shostakovich Trio. Mr. Ganz plays a violin by Goffredo Cappa (Saluzzo 1686). Cellist Alexander Gebert was born in 1977 to a musical family in Warsaw. When he was three years old, they moved to Finland, where in 1982 he started to study cello at the Turku Conservatory. Later he became a student at the Sibelius Academy. From 1995 through 1998 he received a Polish state scholarship to study at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw. After his graduation there he continued his studies at the Paris Conservatory and on a DAAD scholarship with Natalia Gutman in Stuttgart. In 2002 he was granted a three-year scholarship from the Groupe Banques Populaires in Paris. Mr. Gebert won his first international contest at the age of 16. In 1997 he came in second at the Lutoslawski Competition in Warsaw, and in 2000 he won Third Prize at the Antonio Janigro Contest in Zagreb, Second Prize and Audience Prize at the International Geneva Cello Competition, and First Prize at the Valentino Bucchi Contest of Rome. Mr. Gebert was invited to join the Altenberg Trio Vienna in 2004. |
