MUSIC SUMMER

The German-Greek pianist, conductor and composer Aris Alexander Blettenberg, was born in 1994. His maternal family is from Kalamata, where he spends a large part of his life. His studies in piano, chamber music and conducting followed with Antti Siirala, Lars Vogt (†), Silke Avenhaus and Bruno Weil in Munich, Hannover and Salzburg. In October 2021, he won the 16th International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and has also been a Bösendorfer Artist since 2022. He has already performed at the Vienna Musikverein, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Konzerthaus Berlin, and many other venerable venues.

In spring 2023 Blettenberg made his debut as conductor and pianist with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra which is highly acclaimed by audiences and the press.

In May 2023, Blettenberg opened the Saxon Mozart Festival as pianist and conductor. As a 2023 scholarship recipient, he performed at the Ruhr Piano Festival. He also made his debut this summer at the Schwetzingen Festival with the Trio Neo and performed at the Vienna Musikverein with Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock Tchaikovsky’s 2nd Piano Concerto.

Blettenberg is the designated music director of the Munich Chamber Opera. In April 2023, a CD (Genuin) of Beethoven piano concertos, custom arrangement by himself for twelve musicians was recorded. In May 2023, his first solo album entitled “Hommage à Beethoven” (including own transcriptions) was released on the AVI/Deutsche Grammophon label.
For more information: www.arisalexanderblettenberg.com

Andrej Skorobogatko was born in Ukraine. He studied oboe at the Moscow Gnesin Academy of Music, at the University of Arts in Graz and at the University of Music in Hannover, as well as orchestral conducting at the University of Arts in Graz. He has many years of relevant orchestral practice as principal oboist in the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Graz Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Bach Soloists. Numerous international concert tours from Germany to China. Andrej Skorobogatko has been the musical director of various projects of the Graz Children’s Theater “Next Liberty” for over ten years and has participated in numerous opera productions. The works “Nabucco” by Giuseppe Verdi and “The Creation” by Joseph Haydn were performed under his direction and arrangement not only in Graz but also in Vienna, Essen and Leipzig (Gewandhaus). Andrej Skorobogatko has been the conductor of the Graz University Orchestra since 2011. During this time, the orchestra participated in the ” Styrian Autumn”, performed at the Castle Concerts in Gleinstätten and traveled to Maribor, St. Petersburg, Trieste, Zagreb and Mérida, Mexico.

The Graz University Orchestra, since 1992, consists to a large extent of students, members and graduates of the University of Graz and the Graz University of Technology – from students to university professors.
In addition to the symphonic semester concerts held twice a year in the auditorium of the University of Graz, additional concerts, chamber music projects and concert tours are always on the program. In 2015, an associated chamber orchestra was founded. Tours have taken the orchestra to Greece, Holland, Spain, Finland, Turkey, Slovenia, Russia, Italy, Croatia and Mérida. www.guo.at