15TH INTERNATIONAL MUSIC WORKSHOP AND FESTIVAL
Schloss Kirchberg an der Jagst, Germany
August 6-19, 2018
About
The International Music Workshop and Festival is a unique, rewarding, and intensive summer festival for advanced instrumentalists, pianists, and vocalists. Participants work with fellow musicians and our world-class faculty in the beautiful Schloss Kirchberg an der Jagst castle. In our small and intimate program, participants will have daily lessons and coachings from all faculty members, and the opportunity to work on both chamber music and solo repertoire. There will be at least 3 concerts in the castle, and participants will be given numerous opportunities to perform in public concerts.
Faculty

Kyoko Hashimoto
Piano - McGill University
The legendary pianist and a teacher, Gyögy Sebök described Kyoko Hashimoto “extraordinary musical talent” “one of the finest of her generation.”
She has been regularly performing throughout the world, so far in more than 30 countries, including many major cities and halls such as the Wigmore Hall in London, the Lincoln Center and the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, etc. She has been invited to many important festivals including the Prague Spring Festival, the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Pacific Music Festival and the Saito Kinen Festival.
Kyoko Hashimoto was born in Tokyo and began to study the piano at the age of three. After graduating from the Toho-Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, she studied at the International Menuhin Music Academy, Indiana University and the Juilliard School. She received full scholarships from the Menuhin Academy and the Juilliard School. Among her teachers were György Sebök, Menahem Pressler, György Janzer, William Masselos, György Sandor, Felix Galimir, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados.
Besides performing Solo recitals in many countries in Europe, North America and Asia, she has performed Concertos (wide range of repertoire from Bach to contemporary, including the pieces such as Trangalila Symphony by Messiaen) with distinguished orchestras such as the Prague Chamber philharmonic Orchestra and the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed as well many duo recitals with Ruggiero Ricci(Vn), Thomas Zehetmair(Vn) and Antonio Meneses(Vc), and duo and chamber music concerts with artists such as Sandor Vegh(Vn), Mischa Maisky(Vc), Jean-Jacque Kantorow(Vn), Aaron Rosand(Vn), Ralph Kirshbaum(Vc), Steven Isserlis(Vc), András Adorján(Fl), Patrick Gallois(Fl), Maurice Bourgue(Ob), Hansjörg Schellenberger(Ob), Barry Tuckwell(Hr), Atar Arad(Va), Anthony Marwood(Vn), Nobuko Imai(Va) Sergio Azzolini(Fg), Isabelle van Keulen(Vn), Chantal Juillet(Vn), Hermann Baumann(Hr), Regis Pasquier(Vn), Matt Haimovitz(Vc) and Bruno Giuranna(Va).
Ms. Hashimoto was awarded numerous prizes such as the 1st grand prize and the public prize at the Concours International de Musique Française, the top prize at the Concours Musical de France, and the special prizes at the Budapest International Music Competition and at the Spohr International Competition. She has recorded many times for TV and radio all over the world including a series of 20 works by Beethoven for Dutch radio. She has been a frequent performer for CBC (Canada) and BBC (UK) and in 2012, she was chosen as representative performance for the Schubert Impromptus together with Edwin Fischer, William Kapell and Wilhelm Backhaus for BBC “Schubert Marathon”. She has also made more than a dozen CD-recordings, including the early piano pieces (all the Preludes+4 pieces) by Messiaen, 34 piano pieces by Schumann,24 Preludes by Scriabin combined with 24 Preludes by Shostakovich, 4 Impromptus by Schubert and 12 Preludes Book II by Debussy, as well as other piano solo pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Blumenfeld, and Bartok.
She is Professor of Piano and Piano Area Chair at Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and was on the piano faculty and the chamber music faculty of the Utrecht Conservatory in Holland for 12 years. She has been invited many times as a visiting professor at the European Mozart Academy in Poland and in the Czech Republic and at the International Chamber Music Academy in the Czech Republic. She served as an International Jury member for many competitions such as the Gina Bachauer International Piano Artists Competition, CMC Stepping Stone Competition, Montreal International Piano Competition, The Piana del CavaliereInternational Piano Competition (Chair of the Jury) and YAMAHA Benelux Competition. She has been the Artistic Director of the International Music Workshop and Festival (IMWF) in the Czech Republic, Germany and in Portugal since 2004. She has also given master classes atmajor institutions in France, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, the Czech Republic, the U.S.A.,the UK, Holland, Germany, Taiwan,Brazil, China, Thailand and Japan.

Martti Rousi
Cello - Sibelius Academy
Martti Rouai is one of the leading cellists of his generation. He is internationally know both as a soloist and a pedagogue. After playing piano for 2 years Martti Rousi begun his cello studies inspired by the strong finnish cello school.His early teachers were Timo Hanhinen and Seppo Kimanen. In 1979 he moved to the Sibelius- Academy to continue his studies with Prof Arto Noras. At age of 21 he won the first prize at Turku cello competition and was invited as a soloist by all major Finnish symphony orchestras. In 1985 he received Fulbright scholarship to study with Prof Janos Starker at the Indiana University winning the annual cello competition there. Between 1977 and 1983 he regularily had masterclasses with William Pleeth and Valter Deshpalj and took private lessons with Natalia Gutman.
In 1986 Rousi won the silver medal at the VIII Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow. Since that he has been performing with leading Scandinavian and European orchestras like Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo Radio symphonies,Copenhagen philharmonic,CBSO in Birmingham, Mariinsky orchestra,Moscow symphony, Polish and Hungarian national orchetras, Statsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfaltz, Shanghai and Johannesburg philharmonic working with conductors like Esa-Pekka Salonen, Valeri Gergiev, Okko Kamu, Osmo Vänskä, Sakari Oramo, Olli Mustonen, Ari Rasilainen, Leif Segerstam, Emmanuel Krivine, Bernhart Klee, Joseph Swensen and Muhai Tang. Rousi has an extensive repertoire with smaller orchestras from baroque to modern appearing with Moscow, Munich , Ostrobotnia,, Tallinn and Toulouse chamber orchestras.
During 1990s Rousi played in piano trio with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Peter Nagy, performing also Beethoven triple and Brahms double concertos. In recitals he appears with pianists like Olli Mustonen, Kathryn Stott, Henri Sigfridsson, Laura Mikkola, Massimo Somenzi and Juhani Lagerspetz. He is also invited to many leading chamber music festivals all over the world. Between 1993 and 2009 Rousi was the artistic director of Turku music festival, during his years many legendary artists like Svjatoslav Richter, Yehudi Menuhin, Vladimir Azkenazy, Valeri Gergiev and Lang Lang appeared there.In 2010 he became the artistic director of SIBAFEST in Helsinki, 2010-2011 he was artistic director of Sibelius –series at Verkatehdas in Hämeenlinna. 2012 he was named artistic director of Suvisoitto in Sysmä. He has been serving as a jury member for major international competitions like the XIV Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow 2011and 2015,Vittorio Gui in Florence, Lyon International duo competition, Eleanore Schoenfeld competition,Mravinsky competition, Solistpriset in Stockholm and Paulo cello competition in Helsinki.
Since 1995 Rousi has been professor of cello at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. His cello class there is attracting talents from around the world. In 2016 he was invited to be a guest professor at the Shanghai conservatory of music.In 2010 Rousi formed a cello ensemble Sibelius academy cello virtuosi with his best students and since they have been performing in prominent concert halls like Mariinsky concert hall, Tampere talo and Verkatehdas in Hämeenlinna. Summer 2017 they were invited to prestigious Stars of the White Nights festival. Rousi is invited to do masterclasses in leading academies on all continents, he regularily teaches at the House of Music in St Petersburg. His recordings include several solo and chamber recordings for ONDINE and FINLANDIA labels. He plays on cellos by Carlo Giuseppe Testore from 1690 and J-B Lefevre from 1760, his favourite bow is FX Tourte from 1810.

Helge Slaatto
Violin - Hochschule Münster
The Norwegian violinist Helge Slaatto (born 1952), since 1993 professor at the Musikhochschule in Münster, Germany, before that concertmaster of the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark, has given concerts throughout Europe, often with works composed specially for him.
He made his successful debut in Oslo in 1977 with a pure solo violin programme, a rarity at the time.
In London in the 1970'ies - together with pianist/conductor Jan Latham-Koenig and the Koenig Ensemble - he championed works by Janacek, Poulenc and Szymanowski, and the encounter with Hans Werner Henze and the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte in Montepulciano, where Helge Slaatto was a regular guest for many years, was of lasting importance.
His teacher, the late Sandor Vegh, was a great influence, not only as far as the classical repertoire was concerned. Veghs collaboration with Bartok was a decisive inspiration: Helge Slaatto's recording of the Bartok solo sonata (2002, ambitus 96847) was highly praised by the press. Berlingske Tidende wrote: ”Rarely has a work for solo violin sounded so convincing!” and other corner stones in the 20ieth century repertoire, like the works by Berg and Schoenberg, in particular the latter's string trio, are among his favourites (e.g. Schoenberg String Trio recorded by Trio Slaatto).
The performance of Scelsi's violin concerto ”Anahit” with the Koechlin Ensemble for the Süddeutsche Rundfunk led to further involvement with contemporary music, both as orchestral musician and as soloist. For many years Helge Slaatto was concert master of Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen, and the Danish composer Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen composed a violin concerto for Helge Slaatto and the Randers Chamber Orchestra, where Slaatto for several years was concert master, as well as a suite for solo violin. (He was also rewarded the special prize of the Randers Chamber Orchestra).
Helge Slaatto's more than 20 years collaboration with German double bass player Frank Reinecke has led to more than 50 premieres for the ensemble, the latest being the 70 minutes' Raga by German composer Wolfgang von Schweinitz, which had its highly successful premiere in Hamburg June 08 and was performed in Los Angeles, Munich, Berlin , Copenhagen and the Lucerne Festival. The CD recording on the label NEOS was rewarded with the "Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik".
The earlier recording of the ensemble, ”Together” (amb 97845) was praised as ”one of the best recordings of the year” and ”Street Music”, the following recording, was given maximum points by Klassik Heute (amb 96882).
The classical standard repertoire, in particular romantic music, is very close to his heart, not least due to intensive collaboration with several very fine pianist like the late Roberto Szidon, Jan Latham- Koenig, Wolfgang Plagge and Einar Steen-Nøkleberg. With Steen- Nøkleberg he performed all three Grieg sonatas at the Grieg Festival in Oslo, 2008.
Helge Slaatto is a devoted teacher, he loves teaching and being witness to the successes of young musicians. So e.g. in case of the young Suyoen Kim, who was his student for 12 years, winning top prices at several international competitions like the Mozart Competition, the Joachim Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and performing with conductors such as Walter Weller , Jan Latham-Koenig, Kurt Masur and Maris Jansons.
He gave courses in Germany, Greece, Denmark, Portugal, Mexico, USA and South Korea and was artistic director of the SynCrete Festival on Crete, Greece, from 1995- 2000, and the Late Summer Festival in Denmark from 2014.
Festival History
The 1st International Music Workshop
Mariánské Lázně, Czech Republic, 2004
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Laurentiu Sbarcea (Cello)
The 2nd International Music Workshop
Schloss Kapfenburg, Germany, 2005
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Matthias Lingenfelder (Violin), Mick Stirling (Cello)
The 3rd International Music Workshop
Schloss Kirchberg, Germany | August 14-27, 2006
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Ellen Jewett (Violin)
The 4th International Music Workshop
Beja, Portugal | August 10-26, 2007
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Ekkehard Hauenstein (Flute)
Read more
Schloss Kirchberg, Germany | August 2-15, 2008
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Laurentiu Sbarcea (Cello)
The 6th International Music Workshop
Schloss Kapfenburg, Germany | August 10-23, 2009
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Matthias Buchholz (Viola)
The 7th International Music Workshop and Festival
Schloss Kirchberg, Germany | August 9-22, 2010
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Benzion Shamir (Violin), Rafael Rosenfeld (Cello)
The 8th International Music Workshop and Festival
Schloss Weikersheim, Germany | August 12-25, 2011
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Laurentiu Sbarcea (Cello)
The 9th International Music Workshop and Festival
Schloss Kirchberg an der Jagst, Germany | July 30-August 12, 2012
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Rafael Rosenfeld (Cello)
The 10th International Music Workshop and Festival
Schloss Kirchberg an der Jagst, Germany | July 29-August 11, 2013
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Rafael Rosenfeld (Cello), Laura Andriani (Violin)
The 11th International Music Workshop and Festival
Schloss Kirchberg an der Jagst, Germany | August 4-17, 2014
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Rafael Rosenfeld (Cello), Alexander Janiczek (Violin)
The 12th International Music Workshop and Festival
Schloss Kirchberg an der Jagst, Germany | July 27 - August 9, 2015
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Rafael Rosenfeld (Cello), Alexander Janiczek (Violin)
The 13th International Music Workshop and Festival
Schloss Kirchberg an der Jagst, Germany | August 8 - 20, 2016
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Rafael Rosenfeld (Cello), Alexander Janiczek (Violin)
The 14th International Music Workshop and Festival
Schloss Kirchberg an der Jagst, Germany | August 7 - 20, 2017
Faculty: Kyoko Hashimoto (Piano), Mark Gothoni (Violin)
Testimonials
By the end of the festival, I had changed as a musician; I left the festival with a more diversified sound palette, and with a more mature interpretation of music. It was very satisfying to be able to perform our pieces in their entirety for such warm audiences as we had at Schloss Stetten and Schloss Kirchberg. The best part of IMWF was meeting musicians from all over the world – snippets of at least five languages could be heard at dinner table conversation, and there were many intercultural discussions, regarding music or otherwise.
The Workshop was one the most rewarding musical experiences of my life – intense coaching, rehearsing and practicing plus good opportunities to play, all in a friendly atmosphere. Precious advice from Ms. Hashimoto and the other professors made me progress greatly and broadened my musical understanding.
This is the perfect workshop for the real hardcore chamber musicians – a unique opportunity to collaborate with high caliber musicians from around the world!
The Workshop was one of the most magical musical experiences of my life. The combination of a world-class faculty, intense lesson schedule, friendly atmosphere, and wonderful, talented colleagues made for the perfect summer music program. I have never heard of a workshop that offers such a generous schedule of instruction. Professor Hashimoto is the ideal teacher–unflaggingly demanding yet encouraging, serious yet whimsical, utterly brilliant yet down-to-earth. She is a true inspiration.
Tuition and Fees
The cost of tuition is 800 euros. Accommodation (housing and two meals a day) is free! Scholarships are offered to returning or highly skilled participants.
Location
About the location:
More information about the town (German)
More information about the castle (German)
Getting there:
DB BAHN (Train to Crailsheim)
BUS (From Crailsheim to Kirchberg an der Jagst)
Apply or Contact
Applying is free and easy! To apply, just contact Artistic Director Kyoko Hashimoto at kyokopiano@gmail.com