Baiba Skride
Skride’s natural approach to her music-making has endeared her to some of today’s most important conductors and orchestras worldwide. She is consistently invited for her refreshing interpretations, her sensitivity and delight in the music.

The list of prestigious orchestras with whom she has worked include the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouworkest, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and NHK Symphony Orchestra. Notable conductors she collaborates with include Marin Alsop, Christoph Eschenbach, Ed Gardner, Susanna Mälkki, Andris Nelsons, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Andris Poga, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Tugan Sokhiev, John Storgårds, Juraj Valcuha and Kazuki Yamada.

Highlights of Baiba Skride’s 2021/22 season include the season opening of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, with which she performs Sofia Gubaidulina’s Triple Concerto with Harriet Krijgh (cello) and Martynas Levickis (bajan) under the baton of Andris Nelsons. In celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday she returns to the orchestra once again for a performance of Gubaidulina’s Violin Concerto No. 1 “Offertorium”, which she also plays with the London Symphony Orchestra and Dima Slobodeniouk as well as with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder this season. Additionally, she returns to the hr-Sinfonieorchester with Alain Altinoglu to perform the composer’s Violin Concerto No. 3 “Dialog: Ich und Du”. Furthermore, Skride looks forward to her return to orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, amongst others.

Baiba Skride is a sought-after chamber musician internationally and commits to the long-established duo with her sister Lauma. She is one of the founding members of the Skride Quartet, with which she has performed at venues such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna, Wigmore Hall London and Louvre Paris and has toured in North America and Australia in previous seasons. In 2021/22 Skride also performs in trio with her sister Lauma Skride and Harriet Krijgh as well as in different chamber music projects with Alban Gerhardt and Brett Dean and others.

Baiba Skride is anticipating the release of her latest solo recording in January 2022, which adds to her prolific discography including her recently released Mozart recording with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and her Bartok recording with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, both with Eivind Aadland, as well as her American disc featuring Bernstein, Korngold and Rózsa with the Gothenburg Symphony and Tampere Philharmonic Orchestras under the baton of Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the debut recording of the Skride Quartet, all under the Orfeo label.

Skride was born into a musical Latvian family in Riga where she began her studies, transferring in 1995 to the Conservatory of Music and Theatre in Rostock. In 2001 she won the 1st prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Baiba Skride plays the Yfrah Neaman Stradivarius kindly loaned to her by the Neaman family through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

Ivan Vukcevic
s a solo viola of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano, Switzerland), a position he has held since 2002. He is also a founder and violist of the internationally renowned Quartetto Energie Nove, with which he has recorded critically acclaimed Janáček and Prokofiev quartets for Dynamic. Since 2012, he is a Professor of Viola at the International Menuhin Music Academy, Gstaad, Switzerland.

As a soloist, he has performed the most important works from the viola repertoire and his performances have been broadcast throughout the world. Ivan has appeared as a soloist with ensembles in Australia and Europe, such as the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (Norway), Camerata Menuhin, Camerata Lysy Gstaad (Switzerland), Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, Chernivtsi Symphony Orchestra (Ukraine) and the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano, Switzerland). With the latter, he has recorded Harold in Italy by H. Berlioz, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante (with the violinist Klaidi Sahatci) and B. Bartók’s Viola Concerto under the baton of Alain Lombard.

Ivan’s orchestral engagements included tenure as a Co-Principal violist of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (Norway) from 2001 to 2002, and the Solo Viola position with the Sinfonieorchester Basel in 2008. While a student, he was also regularly a guest violist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Ivan Vukčević is a former student of the Victorian College of the Arts, a First Class Honours graduate of the University of Western Australia and a graduate of the International Menuhin Music Academy, Gstaad. While at university, Vukčević was the winner of the 1998 Vose Concerto Prize, having performed Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. He also won first prizes in several chamber music competitions, including the 1996 Margaret Bello Prize and the 1995 West Australian Chamber Music Competition. During this time, Ivan Vukčević was the Principal Violist of the Australian Youth Orchestra and Camerata Australia, touring throughout the world with these groups from 1996 to 1998. In 1997 he was awarded several scholarships including the Youth Music Australia Opportunity Grant and the University of Western Australia Travelling Scholarship, enabling him to take a study trip to Europe during that year, which subsequently lead to his acceptance into the International Menuhin Music Academy.

After his undergraduate studies, Ivan Vukčević completed a performance course at the International Menuhin Music Academy in 2001, having studied with Prof. Alberto Lysy and Prof. Johannes Eskaer. During his studies at this school he was also the principal violist of the Camerata Lysy Gstaad, appearing regularly as a soloist and in chamber formations in some of the most important venues and festivals in Europe. In 2001, he was the winner of the Köckert Viola Competition (Zurich, Switzerland).

Ivan Vukčević plays on a rare 1789 Joseph Gagliano viola and a 1991 F. Bissolotti instrument.