Academy

With Ernst Kovacic and Léo Marillier coaching the violin class at the impuls Academy 2027 a wide range of expertise comes together. Musicality nourished by passion, stupendous technical mastery and experience, not only, but particularly with regard also to the latest literature, characterizes Léo Marillier (amongst others member of Quatuor Diotima, one of the most in-demand string quartets in the world today). Ernst Kovacic, one of the founders of impuls, again, shares a lifetime of experience as internationally acclaimed violinist, directing soloist and conductor, curator and educator. His love for music knows no bounds and embraces all epochs, needless to say also new music. Many composers, including Ernst Krenek, Friedrich Cerha, Nigel Osborne, Heinz-Karl Gruber, Kurt Schwertsik, Ivan Eröd, Georg-Friedrich Haas, Beat Furrer, Django Bates, Johannes-Maria Staud, Clemens Gadenstätter, wrote works for him, and also with the Zebra Trio he focused not only on traditional repertoire, but also on commissioning new works for this line-up. His ability to let music speak and convey its core messages to the people is just one of his manifold gifts.

With these two coaches, participants of the violin class are given the opportunity to receive support on many levels – from, amongst others, advanced instrumental techniques, questions of interpretation and musicological topics, up to insights into what it means to be a musician. In any case participants are encouraged to suggest pieces they would like to work on during the Academy, and raise specific questions and individual needs. Aside from 1:1 lessons and coaching of solo literature, participants will also be connected with other instrumentalists for chamber music playing, and, triggered by a couple of Special Programs, also with young composers at the Academy.

 

 

Born in 1995, French violinist Léo Marillier earned a Masters and a Graduate Diploma at New England Conservatory in Miriam Fried’s studio, having benefited from the Florence Gould Merit Award. He obtained an Artist Diploma at the Paris Conservatory in 2019, followed by a Masters in Research at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague with Joseph Puglia and Philippe Graffin, graduating in 2020. Following a special prize at the Tchaikovsky competition for Young Musicians in Seoul, and first prizes at the Marschner and Balys Dvarionas Competitions, he was granted full scholarship at the 2016 Aspen Music Festival & Academy, as well as the Banff Center, and the Starling-DeLay Symposium.

He worked in America and Europe with such pedagogues as Midori Goto, Kim Kashkashian, Mihaela Martin, Donald Weilerstein, Hae-Sun Kang, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Alexis Galpérine, composers such as Stratis Minakakis, Katie Balch, Louis Goldford, Bruno Mantovani, Noriko Baba, Thomas Simaku, Olga Neuwirth, Kaija Saariaho, and with conductors such as Robert Spano, Ludovic Morlot, Hugh Wolff, Valery Gergiev, Gil Rose, Julian Kuerti, Charles Dutoit, Joshua Weilerstein, Stefan Asbury. Among his chamber music partners are Joseph Houston, Christopher Redgate, Emile Naoumoff, Takuya Otaki, Raphaël Chrétien, Pierre Strauch. Since 2019 he has been touring Europe and the world as a member of the Diotima Quartet, giving premières and performing a multitude of most recent contemporary, but also classical literature, from Beethoven and Schubert to Berg and Boulez.

He performed in venues such as the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Cologne Philharmonie (string quartet), Radio-France auditorium, Jordan Hall, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. He performed and recorded in Paris Beethoven’s violin concerto, with the Aletheia Ensemble, led by American conductor Jacob Bass, following his own research on the manuscript and his elaboration of it, which led to his thesis in The Hague. At age thirteen he began performing as a soloist with orchestra the Beethoven romances, concerti by Haydn, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, Glazunov, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Saint-Saëns, Kurt Weill, accompanied by the Wiener Symphoniker, the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, and others. He premiered Eun-Hwa Cho’s concerto "Jouissance de la Différence V" in Berlin. He worked with Ensemble InterContemporain, 2e2m, Multilatérale, and is a regular member of Cairn Ensemble and, as mentioned already, of the Diotima Quartet. He is artistic director of the Inventio festival in Paris and a founding member of the Joyce Quartet. He is recipient of the Fondation de France, Fondation des Etats-Unis, and Cité des Arts.

 

leomarillier.com

 

 

Léo Marillier will be present at impuls between February 15th and 20th.