LEIPZIG – Thursday 5 march 2026 - 19h30 – Zoltan DESPOND, cello & Vesselin STANEV, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven - Sonata for cello and piano n°5 in D major, op. 102, n°2
Robert Schumann - Romances for oboe and piano op. 94 (version for cello and piano)  
Richard Strauss - Sonata for cello and piano n°5 in F major, op. 6

Born in 1992, the cellist Zoltan Despond studied with Pierre-Bernard Sudan in Fribourg, Marc Jaermann in Lausanne and Thomas Grossenbacher at the Zurich University of the Arts, where he graduated with a master's in solo performance in 2018. From Enrico Dindo at the Pavia Cello Academy he received valuable advice and he also attended Master Classes with such teachers as Antonio Meneses, Christophe Coin and Giovanni Sollima. He concertizes across Europe and also performs regularly as an adjunct with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. 

Vesselin Stanev was born in Varna, Bulgaria. At the age of ten he began his training at the Music Academy of his native city, transferring in 1981 to the Academy of Music in Sofia. Starting in 1983 he studied with Dmitri Bashkirov at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he obtained his soloist diploma in 1988. He subsequently went to Paris to study with Alexis Weissenberg; from 1992 to 1995 he took classes for advanced students at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. In London Peter Feuchtwanger became a mentor from whom he has gained valuable inspiration.Within a short timespan Vesselin Stanev earned an outstanding reputation as a musician, as attested by his distinctions at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and at the Concours Marguerite Long - Jacques Thibaud.Vesselin Stanev’s career has taken him to such major concert venues in Europe as Wigmore Hall in London, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and the Salle Gaveau in Paris, as well as to the Nordic countries, Southeastern Europe, Russia, and Japan. He has enjoyed successful collaborations with such conductors as Paul Daniel, Alexander Lazarev, Hubert Soudant, David Zinman, and others. He also performs regularly as a chamber musician in a duo with the violinist Ekaterina Frolova.Vesselin Stanev has recorded six CDs for the Bulgarian label Gega New including works by Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff. His first CD for Sony Classical comprises early works by Alexander Scriabin. For the RCA label he has also made two recording projects of music by Franz Liszt: the "Etudes d'exécution transcendante" in 2010 and, in 2014, a program titled "Music and Myth."

Prices of the ticket:
20€ - 15€

To book:
https://tickets.gewandhausorchester.de/webshop/webticket/seatmap?eventId=24016&_gl=1*hnsm0y*_gcl_au*ODM5NDM0MTkuMTc1NjAxOTcyNg..