Exploring the genre of the violin-cello duo: Kaja Nowak on violin, Anastasia Feruleva on cello. Repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Ravel and his contemporaries. Concert programmes consisting either only of violin-cello duo pieces, or a mix of those with works for violin solo and cello solo.
Polish violinist Kaja Nowak started her education in her home town, ?a?cut, at the age of six with Valentina Gorodiskaya. She later became a student of Robert Na?ciszewski, and went on to enter the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw with the highest marks for performance in the entrance exams. She studied there with Konstanty Andrzej Kulka and was awarded her Bachelor degree in June 2012. At present she is continuing her studies at the Master level with Philippe Graffin at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Among the pedagogues who contributed to her development as a musician are also Vera Beths, Janet Krause, Helen Brunner and Marcin Baranowski. Kaja’s performances have included soloing with the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and soloing with the Rzeszów Philharmonic Orchestra. A dedicated chamber musician, Kaja has also appeared in concerts alongside artists such as Ivry Gitlis, Philippe Graffin, Jean-Marc Philips-Varjabedian, Gary Hoffman, Quirine Viersen, Charles Neidich, Nobuko Imai, Gérard Caussé, Christian Ivaldi, David Lively. She has been invited to perform at international chamber music festivals, such as Consonances (France) and Schiermonnikoog (Netherlands), and in renowned concert halls (Flagey - Brussels, Concertgebouw – Amsterdam, Anton Philipszaal – The Hague). Kaja’s regular chamber music partners are cellists Anastasia Feruleva and Magdalena Sas and pianist Ivan Penkov. Kaja is also a laureate of several music competitions, both in violin and chamber music (among them the national Groblicz Family Violin Competition in Kraków, Poland, and the International Accordion Festival in Przemy?l, Poland, where with the ensemble Mumuki Tango Quintet she was awarded the first prize). Kaja plays a Carlo Antonio Tanegia violin (Italy, 18th century). It is kindly loaned to her by Helen Brunner, to whom Kaja is also interpreter and assistant during her classes at the yearly Zenon Brzewski International Music Courses in ?a?cut (Poland).
Anastasia Feruleva, born in 1992, currently based in The Hague, where she is studying with Larissa Groeneveld at the Royal Conservatoire, started her musical education at the age of five in native Russia with Tatyana Demsheva as her first teacher. Between the ages of fourteen and eighteen Anastasia was a student in the Young Talent department of the prestigious Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where she was taught by Vadim Messerman. Among the pedagogues who also contributed to her musical development are Godfried Hoogeveen, Harro Ruijsenaars, Nicholas Jones, Stefan Metz, Eberhard Feltz, Richard Young and Raphael Wallfisch. Having been awarded a number of prizes in regional and nationwide competitions in her home country at an early age, Anastasia went on to become a laureate of the International String Competition in Saint Petersburg, and to take part in international music festivals in Norway and Germany. More recently she was awarded the first prize at the International Cello Competition in Hilversum. She also served as principle cellist of the Dutch National Youth Orchestra during their winter tour of 2013. She has performed in Russia, Norway, Finland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands; has appeared as soloist performing the works of Dvorak, Lalo and Vivaldi with orchestra. The cello Anastasia plays is a Rombouts – it has kindly been given to her on loan.