Concert and Dinner at Wank

(c) Nikolaj Lund
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Wankbahn Talstation, Wankbahnstraße, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Deutschland
Pieces from MANUEL DE FALLA, JAVIER ALVAREZ, CASEY CANGUELOS, HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS UND ALEXEJ GERASSIMEZ
Alexej Gerassimez
percussion
Hiyoli Togawa
viola

You will enjoy this concert with all your senses and make an extraordinary exprience from the spectacular view of the Zugspitze to a delicious Bavarian-inspired dinner. The young percussionist Alexej Gerassimez is as multi-faceted as his instruments. His repertoire ranges from classical and new music to jazz and minimal music, and he also enlarges his repertoire with his own compositions.

He is an absolute star of the scene, exploring all the rhythmic and acoustic potential of his instruments. His unique sounds and the joy of crossing borders are just as much his characteristics as technical perfection and outstanding musicality. At his concerts, which have already taken the ARD prizewinner to the USA, China, South Korea and many European countries, he regularly inspires his audience.

Alexej Gerassimez will perform togethere with his wife, the violist Hiyoli Togawa.
 

  • 5.30 pm Cable car Wank (Mountain ascent)
  • 6.30 pm Concert
  • 8:00 pm Dinner
  • 9.30 pm Cable car Wank (Mountain descent)
(c) Nikolaj Lund
(c) Nikolaj Lund

Alexej GerassimezPercussionist Alexej Gerassimez, born 1987 in Essen, Germany, is as multi-faceted as the instruments he works with. His repertoire ranges from classical to contemporary and jazz to minimal music whilst also performing his own works.
Alexej Gerassimez performs as a guest soloist with internationally renowned orchestras including those of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin under the direction of conductors such as Gerd Albrecht, Tan Dun, Kristjan Järvi, Eivind Gullberg Jensen and Michel Tabachnik. In addition, Alexej Gerassimez creates solo programmes and participates as an enthusiastic chamber musician in a vast variety of ensembles. His partners include the pianists Arthur and Lucas Jussen, the jazz pianist Omer Klein and the SIGNUM saxophone quartet.

In the new concept program “Genesis of Percussion” Alexej Gerassimez and his percussion group take the audience on a discovery voyage through a wide variety of rhythmic and stylistic cultures, making the origin of sounds and rhythms within our everyday environment visible. Concerts in 2019 lead the ensemble to the Prinzregententheater Munich, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and the Heidelberger Frühling. Other highlights of the 2018-2019 season include his Japan debut, the beginning of a three-year residency at the Konzerthaus Dortmund as “Junger Wilder” and the beginning as a stART artist of Bayer Kultur in Leverkusen.
His own compositions are characterized by the exploration of rhythmic and acoustic possibilities as well as by the creation of individual sounds and the joy of crossing borders. Accordingly, Alexej Gerassimez integrates not only the usual percussion and melody instruments but also objects from different contexts such as bottles, brake discs, barrels or ship propellers. His first CD published by GENUIN in 2012, which also includes his own works, was received enthusiastically by the press.
Concerts have led the winner of the ARD Music Competition to China, South Korea, the USA, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and to festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Bonn Beethovenfest and the Niedersächsische Musiktage. He is a regular guest at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and in the summer of 2017 he performed over 20 concerts as artist in residence.
In January 2017 Alexej Gerassimez participated in Sasha Waltz’s choreographic and musical exploration of space as part of the opening ceremony of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Since then he has performed amongst other things as a soloist with the NDR Radio Philharmonic under the direction of Tan Dun in the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie.
Since November 2017 he is professor for percussion at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. Furthermore, he is a regular guest teacher at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

(c) Anne Hornemann
(c) Anne Hornemann

Hiyoli TogawaIt all starts with a great deal of curiosity. As a child Hiyoli Togawa plays the violin but cannot resist the temptation to play secretly on her father’s valuable old viola although explicitly told not to do so. This is how she finds a way to give her life its voice.
As a young student, Hiyoli Togawa first studies with Rainer Moog and later with Antoine Tamestit. With the Artemis Quartett she acquires first-hand and comprehensive knowledge of quartets. Her most important mentor and teacher, however, will be Hariolf Schlichtig.

After early successes in competitions – among others she won the 1.Bundespreis of “Jugend musiziert” – she gets awards at various other competitions as well: at the Internationaler Viola-Wettbewerb in Markneukirchen, the Internationaler Brahms-Wettbewerb in Pörtschach and, repeatedly, at the “Musikinstrumentenfonds” of Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.
Already from an early age on curiosity and open-mindedness have been the guiding principles of Hiyoli Togawa’s life. Grown up in the Rhineland and having Japanese and Australian roots, Hiyoli Togawa speaks her three “mother tongues” German, Japanese and Australian fluently. Building bridges between people, cultures and art by means of words and sounds is a primary concern of the cosmopolitan artist. In her concerts Hiyoli Togawa does not only use the viola but also presentations to speak to her audience. She even developed novel types of concerts, in which she places music in new contexts by combining it with graphic art, literature, video and dance. An example thereof is “Brush and Bow – about colour tones and tone colours”, a programme for viola solo and video installation with colours and brushstrokes.
Hiyoli Togawa travels around Europe and Japan to give chamber music concerts and solo recitals. She performs together with artists such as Igor Levit, Jörg Widmann, Alexej Gerassimez or Hariolf Schlichtig and is a regular guest performer at renowned festivals like the Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or the Heidelberger Frühling.
As a soloist she performs together with the Hamburg Camerata, the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonie Bad Reichenhall or the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn. Various foundations sponsor the innovative projects of this extraordinary artist, as for example: Oscar und Vera Ritter Stiftung, Orlandus Lassus Stiftung, Alfred-Töpfer-Stiftung, Werner Richard-Dr.Carl Dörken Stiftung and Yehudi Menuhin’s “Live Music Now”.
Hiyoli Togawa’s viola playing inspired the prestigious Finnish composer Kalevi Aho to write a superb work for viola solo: “Solo XII – In memoriam EJR”. In 2017 Hiyoli Togawa premieres this composition, which is dedicated to her, and also records it on CD. The official release is planned for autumn 2019.
In January 2018 Naxos released her debut CD that was enthusiastically praised by critics.