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Biography

Alexander Sitkovetsky, violin
Wu Qian, piano
Leonard Elschenbroich, cello

“unbounded, tireless energy… Bravo!”
The Strad April 2008
"their performance was reminiscent of the Beaux Arts Trio in its heyday"  
Independent Jan 2008
“Sonorously singing, drastically energetic, with immanent vehemence and riveting verve.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Sep 2008

First prizewinner of the International Commerzbank Chamber Music Award 2008 and recipients of the NORDMETALL Chamber Music Award at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival 2009, The Sitkovetsky Trio is a collaboration between three young musicians who share a passion for Chamber Music. Having met and worked together at the Yehudi Menuhin School, they founded the trio in 2007 and have emerged as one of the outstanding trios of today, receiving numerous awards and critical acclaim. They have won the Philharmonia-Martin Chamber Music Award, the Kirckman Society Award, the Tillett Trust, and are supported by the Hattori Foundation, the Fidelio Trust, the Music Benevolent Fund and the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation. They held the Junior Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music 2007-2008, and from 2008-2010, the trio were recipients of the Golubovich Fellowship and the Richard Cairnes Junior Fellowship for Chamber Music at the Trinity college of Music resulting in many performances and educational worships at the College and across London.

The trio recently performed at the Wigmore Hall's Coffee Concert series and was immediately re-invited for an evening recital as well as another Coffee Concert. In 2011-2012, The trio will hold a three concert residency at the King's Place in London, another three concert residency at the Kettle's Yard in Cambridge as well as various recitals in the UK and abroad including a re-invitation to Bath's Mozartfest. They will be Trio in Residence at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival's Chamber Music week and will perform the Beethoven Triple there in the Summer of 2012 with the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin.  

They made their highly successful Southbank debut, playing a recital in the Purcell Room, and was invited to play in front of Her Majesty the Queen in London. They made their debut appearance at the Wigmore Hall in November 2008 and another recital there in May, 2009. as part of the Kirckman Society's award and have already been invited to give Recitals at various Festivals throughout the UK and abroad, in venues such as King’s Lynn, Brighton, St. George’s Bristol, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival, the Bath Mozartfest, the Chamber hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. The trio also performed the Beethoven Triple on tour with the Orchestra of the Swan and the Munchen Symphoniker in November 2009 and again in 2010. 

The trio has been broadcast several times by BBC Radio 3 including on the In Tune Program and the Lunchtime Concerts series. 

Alexander Sitkovetsky, born in Moscow into a family with an established musical tradition, made his concerto debut at the age of eight and the same year came to study at the Menuhin School. Lord Menuhin was his inspiration throughout his school years and they performed together on several occasions including the Bach Double Concerto, Bartok Duos at St James’ Palace, and when Alexander played the Mendelssohn concerto under Menuhin’s baton. He has gone on to perform with the Netherlands Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin’s in the Fields, and the BBC Concert Orchestra among many others. He has shared the stage with Julia Fischer, Janine Jansen, Misha Maisky, Polina Leschenko, Julian Rachlin and many others. Alexander has recorded for Angel/EMI, Decca and Orfeo including the Bach Double Concerto with Julia Fischer. Plans this season have included orchestral invitations in England, Holland, Spain, Russia and Germany as well as recital and festival appearances in Norway, Japan, Romania, England, France, Holland and the USA.  

Wu Qian, Selected as the classical music bright young star for 2007 by the Independent Newspaper. Born in Shanghai, where she received her early training before coming to the Menuhin School at thirteen. At fifteen she performed Mozart’s concerto in the Queen Elizabeth Hall and again at the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland. She also played the Saint-Saens Concerto No.2 with the Philharmonia Orchestra in St. John's, Smith Square. She made her debut recital at the South Bank Purcell Room in 2000 and has since played there again on several occasions, including a recital broadcast by BBC Radio 3 the following year. Qian gave recitals throughout Europe including the Steinway Halls of Hamburg and New York, where her performance was broadcast throughout Asia. She has appeared in many of the UK’s major venues including the Wigmore, Royal Festival and Bridgewater Halls, and she has made her debut recital in City Hall Hong Kong. Qian’s debut recording was released in April 2009 on the Dal Segno label to unanimous critical acclaim. This season she has made her recital debut at the Chamber Hall of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and has performed other recitals in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin, Padova and Koblenz.

Leonard Elschenbroich, winner of the Leonard Bernstein Award and the Borletti- Buitoni Trust, has received invitations for orchestral performances from Valery Gergiev, Semyon Bychkov, Fabio Luisi, Dmitri Kitajenko, Manfred Honeck and Christoph Eschenbach, and has performed with the Swedish Radio Symphony, Basel Symphony, WDR Symphony, Stavanger Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Russian National Philharmonic, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He also performed the Brahms Double at the opening of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival with Anne-Sophie Mutter. Other festivals have included the Verbier Festival, Rheingau Festival and Ravinia Festival. 
This year Leonard will debut with Stastaskapelle Dresden at the Vienna Musikverein and Birmingham Symphony Hall, with the Nagoya Philharmonic, and with the London Philharmonic at the Royal Festival Hall. He will give recitals at Alte Oper Frankfurt, in Tokyo and Hong Kong, and at the Istanbul Festival and Lucerne Festival. 
Born 1985 in Frankfurt, Leonard was invited to the Yehudi Menuhin School in London at the age of 11 and performed at the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Wigmore Hall. He plays the `Leonard Rose’ Matteo Goffriller Cello, Venice, 1693.

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