Ilya Hoffman, the son of composer Leonid Hoffman, was born in Moscow in 1977. From childhood he studied composition with his father and also attended the Gnesin Music School (his viola teacher was Elena Ozol). He graduated from the Moscow State Conservatoire and completed post-graduate studies with Yuri Bashmet. He was winner of the Gaetano Zinetti Competition (2004, with Sergey Koudriakov) and the Vienna International Music Competition (2005), also winner of the Sir Georg Solti Foundation Award (UK). As performer and composer he has taken part in music festivals such as the Moscow Autumn Festival (Russia), the Emilia Romagna Festival (Italy), the Eesti Muusikafestivalid (Estonia) and others, as well as conducting on several occasions. He was the first performer of works by Valentin Silvestrov (Lacrimosa for solo viola) and Leonid Hoffman (Four Poems for soprano, viola and piano, Fantasia for viola and chamber orchestra, and Epitaph for viola and string orchestra).
Sergey Koudriakov was born in Moscow in 1978. He studied under Mikhail Voskresensky at the Moscow Conservatoire and now teaches as Voskresensky’s assistant. He performs solo and with renowned Russian and Western European orchestras (the Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, etc.). He concentrates particularly on the chamber repertoire. Among the musicians performing with him: the pianist Alexander Ghindin, cellist Denis Shapovalov and violist Ilya Hoffman. Koudriakov has participated in various music festivals, including the Festival of Radio France in Montpellier, the Ruhr Piano Festival (Germany) and the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland). He has received first prizes at the Concours de Genève (2002), the Gaetano Zinetti Competition (Italy, 2004; in a duet with Ilya Hoffman) and the Concours Géza Anda (2006). |