Zlata Chochieva - piano and Hyeyoon Park - violin

Assembly House Classical presents

Thursday 29th June at 1:00 pm

The Assembly House, Norwich

Programme to be announced...

Hailed by Jeremy Nicholas in the Gramophone magazine as “one of the most consistently inspired, masterfully executed and beautiful-sounding versions I can recall” and being included in Gramophone’s list of 10 greatest Chopin recordings, Zlata Chochieva came to international attention with her disc of Complete Chopin Etudes along with recordings of Rachmaninov. Since then, she has become known for her distinctive voice amongst pianists and appeared regularly at many prestigious concert halls, festivals and with major orchestras and conductors.

In the 2022/23 season, Chochieva returns to BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Chopin Society, and the Berliner Klavierfestival to perform Rachmaninov for the composer’s 150th anniversary year in 2023. Elsewhere, she performs Dvorak’s Piano Concerto with the Hamburg Camerata at the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg. Last season saw Chochieva make her debut in Singapore, giving a recital in Victoria Hall, and in Taiwan performing Chopin’s first Piano Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra. As well as making her US orchestral debut at the Bard Music Festival, she returned to the US for a five-recital tour and to venues across Europe, including the Serate Musicali series in Milan, Tilburg, and Brucknerhaus Linz. She also returned to Aachen Symphony Orchestra following from having been “Artist in Focus” there in the 19/20 season.

Chochieva has appeared at many of the world’s most notable concert halls including London’s Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Philharmonie de Paris, Taiwan’s National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, Casa da Musica Porto, and Teatro La Fenice in Venice. She has performed with numerous major orchestras including the Copenhagen Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Conductors Chochieva has enjoyed working with include Simon Gaudenz, Terje Mikkelsen, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Mikhail Pletnev, Tugan Sokhiev, Vladimir Spivakov, and Karl-Heinz Steffens.

She has been regularly invited to leading music festivals, including the Miami International Piano Festival where she returns regularly for teaching, masterclasses, and performing, Gilmore Keyboard Festival, “Rarities of Piano Music” in Husum, Zaubersee Festival Lucerne and the Lugano Festival “Il Progetto Martha Argerich”.

Chochieva, now signed exclusively with Naïve records, is set to release her second disc on the label this season. Her first album on the label, Chiaroscuro (May 2022), is a combination of Mozart and Scriabin, coinciding with Scriabin’s 150th anniversary year and was crowned Critic’s Choice in International Piano Magazine. Chochieva’s previous disc (re)creations on Accentus is a collection of piano transcriptions by Rachmaninov, Liszt, and Friedman, winning a Schallplattenkritik award in the keyboard category and was selected as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone.

Chochieva was born in Moscow and is now a resident of Berlin. Her teachers have included Mikhail Pletnev at the Central Special Music School and Pavel Nersessian at the Moscow State Conservatory. Subsequently, Chochieva completed two years of postgraduate studies under Professor Jacques Rouvier at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg where she was his assistant for several years. Having acquired many international competition prizes over the years, Chochieva moves on from competing and often joins the jury, and was part of the esteemed panel for the 15th Geza Anda Competition in Zurich.

Chochieva established the International Festival at Rachmaninov’s estate in Ivanovka and has been Director since 2018.

Hyeyoon Park is an artist of outstanding focus and virtuosity, combining effortlessly rich sonority with musical integrity. Described as ‘Breathtaking’ by the Süddeutsche Zeitung for a recital in Munich in Spring 2022, she is in high demand on the international stage.

Forthcoming highlights of her 22/23 season include performances with Orchester Mainz (Korngold), her debut with Poznan Philharmonic, Iasi Philharmonic for concerto performances (also at the Classix Festival), masterclasses and a chamber project, IMUKO Festival in Koblenz (Mendelssohn) and in a charity concert with the European Doctor’s Orchestra (Shostakovich 1) at Cadogan Hall, London. In recital, she performs a programme featuring Debussy’s Sonata and Schubert’s Fantasie in C major with both Benjamin Grosvenor (Singapore) and Zlata Chochieva (Norwich) as well as at the Cologne Philharmonie with regular collaborators Kian Soltani, Timothy Ridout and Benjamin Grosvenor.

Recent performances include Zuger Sinfonietta, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin, the Orchestra of Casa da Musica Porto, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bath Philharmonia, and an acclaimed North American recital tour with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, culminating in a performance at New York’s Frick Collection. She has also worked with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Chamber Orchestra of Belgium, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener KammerOrchester, Mariinsky Orchestra St Petersburg, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Tokyo and London Philharmonic Orchestra.

A passionate chamber musician, she regularly appears at major festivals and venues such as Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, London’s Southbank Centre, Birmingham’s Town Hall, Spannungen Festival Heimbach, Moritzburg Festival, Les Rencontres Musicales d'Évian, Internationales Musikfestival Koblenz, Molyvos International Music Festival and Marlboro Festival at the invitation of Mitsuko Uchida. She has collaborated with Kian Soltani, Timothy Ridout, Gidon Kremer, Andras Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Antje Weithaas, Yuri Bashmet, Lars Vogt, Daniel Hope, Alban Gerhardt, Jan Vogler, Kian Soltani and Florian Uhlig.

She gave the world premiere of a work written for her by composer Mark Bowden with Huw Watkins at the Newbury Spring Festival, subsequently recording this for the NMC record label. She has also given recitals at the Tonhalle Zurich, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Musical Olympus Festival and Les Violons de la Paix.

Hyeyoon made her debut with the Seoul Philharmonic aged nine and was the youngest ever first prize winner of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich at the age of 17 in 2009, she was also a recipient of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2011. Hyeyoon went on to receive the London Music Masters Award in 2012, which led to numerous concerts in prominent venues throughout the UK.

Hyeyoon studied at the junior colleges of the Korean National University of Arts and University of Cincinnati with Professor Piotr Milewski. She also studied with Professor Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin and with Christian Tetzlaff as a Young Soloist at the Kronberg Academy, where she completed her Master’s degree in 2016 which was kindly supported by the Nikolas Gruber Stipendium.

Hyeyoon is proud to be an Ambassador of Music Masters, a charity which gives children from underprivileged areas a much-needed platform to experience classical music education in the UK.

Hyeyoon plays a violin made by German violin-maker, Stefan-Peter Greiner.

Host or Publisher Assembly House Classical