Cellomania(cs) is a unique sounding quartet, formed out of young professional cellists recently graduated from The Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag and The Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

Coming from different continents and cultural backgrounds, these four talented cellists create a quartet like no other.

They capture the attention of the public and are able to satisfy any musical taste by having a wide diversity of the repertoire, from Bach to Tchaikovsky and from Piazzolla to The Beatles.

The enchanting sound of four cellos brings a new flavor to the well-known classics and creates an unforgettable experience not to miss!

Program:

– Georgy Sviridov : Suite “Snow Storm”

Troika -Romance -Waltz

– Johann Sebastian Bach: “Air” from Suite N3

– Alexander Borodin: fragment from “Polovtsian Dances”

– Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky : “Andante Cantabile” from String quartet N.1

– Carlos Gardel:  “Por Una Cabeza”

– Astor Piazzolla:  “Adios Nonino” “Oblivion” “Libertango”

– Antonio Carlos Jobim:  “Girl from Ipanema”

Musici

Lidy Blijdorp

At the age of 12 Lidy Blijdorp was admitted in the class of Monique Bartels at The Hague Royal Conservatory. She continued her studies with Michel Strauss at the Conservatoire National Súperieur in Paris. In 2011 she received her Master’s Degree with the highest acclaim: 1ière Prix a l’Unanimité, avec félicitations du jury. During her studies in Paris she took part in an exchange program with the University of Michigan, where she studied with Richard Aaron for four months. In January 2011 she was asked to join the Sylff Chamber Music Project at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Lidy won several prizes, a.o. at the Princess Christina Competition, the Young Musicians’ Talent Foundation, The Amsterdam Cello Biennale and the Grachtenfestival Conservatory Competition. Lidy’s cello was built by Saskia Schouten and sponsored by the Foundation for the Acquisition of Musical Instruments.

 Jonathan Butler

Jonathan Butler recently graduated from the University of Michigan with high honours, where he studied with Richard Aaron. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in the Netherlands at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, working with Michel Strauss and Jan- Ype Nota. Jonathan began his musical studies at the age of 4, and is the recipient of the Sal Werner fellowship in cello at the Aspen Music Festival. He has been a section player in the Lansing and Dearborn Symphonies, and has won prizes in the Hubbard Chamber Music and Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra concerto competitions. He has collaborated with artists such as Paul Kantor, Espen Lilleslatten, Victoria Chiang, and Virginia Weckstrom.

Yulia Kharitonova

Recently graduated from Koninklijk Conservatorium of Den Haag under the guidance of M.Strauss and Jan-Ype Nota, originally Yulia comes from St.-Petersburg (Russia) where she finished “Special Music School of Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory”. During her career she took part and became a laureate in a number of international competitions in Russia and abroad and became a laureate of the prestigious award “Hope of Russia”. Yulia played in the biggest halls of St. Petersburg and participated in many international festivals in Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Portugal and took master classes with world famous musicians, such as Ivan Monighetti, Nathaniel Rosen, Anner Bijlsma, Daniel Veis, Dmitri Ferschtman and Levon Mouradian.

 Juliette Froissart

Juliette Froissart began the cello at the age of 8 with Françoise Vautrin at the Conservatoire Regional de Nancy, France, and two years with Jean-Charles Rougier at the Conservatoire de Metz, France. She also studied two others years at the Musikhochschule von Bremen, Germany with Alexander Baillie. She became a student of Michel Strauss and Jan-Ype Nota in 2009 at the Prins Claus Conservatorium in Groningen and graduated three years later. She is now studying with the same teachers at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. She did masterclass with great cellists, such as Michel Strauss, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Maria Kliegel, Roland Pidoux, Anner Bylsma, Henri Demarquette.

Nb: For this concert, Julliette Frossart will replace the cellist Kevin Downs