KYOKA MATSUYAMA, violin       
MILANA CHERNYAVSKA, piano

MAJA VRBNJAK, guitar

Programme

F. Schubert: 3 Sonatinas for Violin and Piano, Op. 137
F. Schubert: Fantasie in C major, D. 934

***

M. de Falla: Homenaje pour ‘Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy’
E. Granados: Valses poéticos
W. Walton: Five Bagatelles Op. 23

Born in Japan in June 1994. Kyoka Matsuyama started her violin study at the age of 6. She won numerous major music contests in Japan, taking 1st Prize at the 63th and 65th Student Musik Competition of Japan regionale competition Category Junior high school and high school, 5 Prize at the 22th Japan Classic Music Competition, Avenir Prize at the 12th OSAKA International Music Competition Category Age-H, 1 Prize at the 10th Svirél International Musik Competition (Slovenia) Category Master. In March 2018 at the Concert of Nagoya Original Project for young musicians she was awarded Nagoya-city Cultural Promotion Agency Award and Mayor of Nagoya Award by Japan Academy of chamber music. Kyoka Matsuyama has been studying under Miho Kamiya, Mizuki Katoh, Takaya Urakawa and Kohta Nagahara. She has studied at the Toho Gakuen Collage Music Department with Shizuko Ishii, from October 2017 started studying at Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf with Prof. Andrej Bielow.

Milana Chernyavska, a German artist with Ukrainian roots, has established herself as one of the leading pianists of our times, already looking back on an impressive career. At the age of seven, she played her first concert at the Philharmonic Hall in her native town of Kiev. In 1990, she graduated with distinction from the State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where Prof. W. Sagaidachny was her teacher. In 1994 Milana Chernyavska received the most important award of her homeland, “Merited Artist of the Ukraine”. Milana Chernyavska’s discography now contains more than twenty CDs which have been published with leading labels. In her doctorate theses ” the evaluation and paedagogical aspects of the theory of  Interpretation” she leads a discourse on insights from a perspective of musicology. Milana Chernyvska is a sought after teacher at international master classes as well as a jury member at various prestigious piano competitions, be it the ARD in Munich or the Bluethner Goldawald in Vienna. Her students are regularly winners of first prizes at international competitions.

Maja Vrbnjak, born in 1994, began her musical education with Anja Pirjevec at music school in Maribor in 2003. She continued her training at the Maribor Conservatory of Music and Ballet in the class of V. Vešligaj and then at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, graduating in the class of T. Rajterič in 2015 and then completing a master’s degree with him. She spent one semester of her postgraduate studies as an Erasmus+ exchange student in Vienna with A. Swete. She began taking part in national and international competitions when still at lower music school. In 2012 she won first place and first prize at the Krško Guitar Days. She regularly participates in guitar festivals in Slovenia and abroad (Sarajevo Guitar Festival, Koblenz International Guitar Festival, Forum Gitarre Wien, Postojna International Guitar Festival, Mikulov Guitar Festival) and attends masterclasses with renowned teachers. She is a regular member of the Muliers Guitar Quartet, with which she won first place and first prize at the international Krško Guitar Days competition in 2016. She is also a member of the duo Claro (with Urška Kočar).