8/27/2008 | Augustin Dumay, English ...

Augustin Dumay

Augustin Dumay is one of the most prominent violinists of his generation. The Strad Magazine described him as a legitimate heir to the royal Belgian line of Ysaÿe, Dubois and Grumiaux.

Mr Dumay became a student of the Paris Conservatory at the age of ten, and studied there for two years before continuing with a private teacher. He was a student of Nathan Milstein and studied under Arthur Grumiaux for five years in Brussels. In 1979, Herbert von Karajan selected Mr Dumay as a guest performer at a gala concert in Paris. Immediately following this, he was invited to play Bartok's second violin concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis. This was the start of his ever growing international career. Mr Dumay plays regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Suisse Romande Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and collaborates with renowned conductors: Sir Colin Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Sanderling, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Marc Minkowski, Emmanuel Krivine and Kurt Masur.

As a soloist, Mr Dumay has performed at the most prestigious concert halls in the world, such as the Centre of Fine Arts in Brussels; Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall in London; La Scala in Milan; the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall; Victoria Hall in Geneva; the National Concert Hall in Taipei; Suntory Hall in Tokyo; and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. He has also performed at many famed festivals - in Montreux, Bath, Berlin, Lucerne, Monaco, Aix-en-Provence, Leipzig, Montpellier, Ravinia, Nantes, Amsterdam and at the Mostly Mozart festival in New York.

English Chamber Orchestra

English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) has a privileged status in London's cultural life as well as on the international music scene. Shortly after its establishment in 1948, the orchestra started to work closely with the Aldeburgh Festival, playing in the world premieres of Benjamin Britten's operas A Midsummer Night's Dream, Owen Wingrave, Curlew River and several other works of his. Britten personally conducted the orchestra on several occasions, and made a number of records with the group under the patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales. The ensemble took its current name in 1990, and enjoys the regular patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales. In addition to its musical activities, the ECO is also inherently associated with the most prestigious ceremonial events in the lives of the British royal family.

At the beginning of its existence, the ensemble did not have a principal conductor and work with renowned conductors Sir Colin Davis, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Charles Mackerras and Daniel Barenboim. In 1985, Jeffrey Tate was named principal conductor, followed by Ralf Gothóni in 2000; the main guest conductor is presently Roy Goodman. The artistic director (only the fourth in the history of the orchestra) is violinist Stephanie Gonley, also known for her solo recordings of Bach's complete Brandenburg concertos and her partnership with Maxim Vengerov in interpreting Mozart's Concertone for two violins in C, K 190.

In addition to performances at prestigious concert halls in London (Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Cadogan Hall etc), the orchestra's full annual concert program includes tours around the world; over three months of each year is spent touring. The orchestra collaborates with renowned soloists - Maxim Vengerov, Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Joshua Bell, Pinchas Zukerman, Mitsuko Uchida, Alison Balsom and Lisa Batiashvili. It has recorded over 1,200 works, and a number of recordings have received prestigious international awards.

The ECO was also selected to record the music for a number of successful films, including the Dario Marianelli's music to the films Pride and Prejudice and Atonement (both films directed by Joe Wright).