Duo Ádám Jávorkai & Clara Biermasz

DUO ADAM JAVORKAI & CLARA BIERMASZ:

Ádám Jávorkai and Clara Biermasz met in Budapest in 2005. They attended chamber music classes at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
In July 2008, Jávorkai and Biermasz won first prizes at the international music competition ‘Premio Città di Padova’ the first prize in the category of chamber music and ‘Primo Premio Assoluto’ – the overall winner in all categories (respectively in duo with Ádám Jávorkai) at the international competition ‘Premio Città di Padova’, Italy (2008). In 2008, Clara was also a prize-winner at the ‘18th International Chamber Music Competition Thessaloniki’ in Greece.
Amongst other places, they have performed in the Netherlands, France, Italy, Great Britain, Austria, Oman and Italy. 
The duo Ádám Jávorkai and Clara Biermasz has a wide repertoire and is always in search of undiscovered compositions or composers that deserve to be performed. In the past, they have had great success with their performances of the cello sonatas by Zoltán Kodály and Ernö (Ernst von) Dohnányi and with rarely performed pieces like the two cello sonatas by Camille Saint-Saëns.
In 2013 their first CD was released with sonatas for cello and piano by Brahms and Grieg (Gramola). 
 
‘Two exceptional talents with brilliant technical and refined interpretative skills’ – Padova Cultura (2008)
 
‘Absolutely top class, simply stunning…’ – Cziffra Foundation Vienna (2009)
 
‘With their interpretations, the cellist and the pianist managed to move the audience equally. The versatility of the cello was shown to advantage during the castle concert as well as the musicians’ enthusiasm for music.’ – Selina Straßer (Kärntner Woche, 2011)

ADAM JAVORKAI: 

The Hungarian cellist Ádám Jávorkai, born in Györ, attended the Hans Richter Conservatoire in his native city and the Béla Bartók Conservatoire in Budapest, which he completed with distinction. From 1996 to 2004, he studied in the classes of Prof. Angelika May and Prof. Reinhard Latzko at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna. He completed his M.A. with unanimous distinction. Currently, he is pursuing a doctorate in musicology in Vienna. For further perfection, he has attended master classes held by Miklós Perényi, Ina-Esther Joost, Tobias Kühne, Ferenc Rados and Anner Bijlsma.
Ádám Jávorkai has ended many competitions with honours.  As a teenager, he won the Hungarian Emil Vajda Stringed Instruments Competition for three years in succession after 1991 and the first prize of the National Cello Competition in Hungary in 1990, 1993 and 1996. 1998: Bohuslav Martinu Prize of the International Summer Academy Prague-Vienna-Budapest; 2000: Appreciation Prizes ‘Cellist of the Year’ and ‘Best Interpreter of Slovenian Compositions’, awarded by the Association of Slovenian Composers; 2002: Bartók Prize, Semmering, Austria; 2003: Kodály Prize for the duo with Sándor Jávorkai, Austria; 2008: in a duo with Clara Biermasz first prize at the international competition ‘Premio Città di Padova’, Italy, category chamber music, and at the same place awarded the ‘Primo Premio assoluto’ together with Clara Biermasz as the overall winners of all categories; the same year, first prize at ‘Soloist and Orchestra’, Italy. In 2009, Sándor and Ádám Jávorkai were together honoured as ‘Artist of the Year’ by Jeunesse and Bank Austria.
From 2001 to 2003, Ádám was a scholarship-holder of the Annie Fischer Foundation in Budapest, in 2002 he received a scholarship from the Herbert von Karajan Centre in Vienna and scholarships from the Nippon Foundation, Tokyo, in 2003 and 2004.
Ádám Jávorkai regularly holds master classes in different countries, e.g. at the Asahikawa International String Seminar in Japan, at the Orpheus Academy in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, at the Judenburg Summer in Austria, at the Music University in Bogota, Colombia, and at the Kodály Society in Wales.
As a soloist, Ádám Jávorkai regularly appears with the Budapest Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Györ, the North Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Youth Symphony Orchestra in Genoa, the Sinfonietta Baden, the Savaria Symphony Orchestra, the Szeged Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia Soloists, the Orchestra of the Arena di Verona and other orchestras as well as with the concert organizer National Philharmonia Budapest.
As a cello soloist, he has worked together with conductors such as Marcello Viotti und Mariss Jansons. He has made many recordings for international radio and television stations (including for the Austrian classical channel Ö1 and Radio Stephansdom and for the Hungarian Radio Bartók). He has also collaborated in an ORF television production. In 2002, he produced a CD with works by Brahms (Double Concerto), Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Györ under Ádám Medveczky. In 2009, he made a second CD with the Concerto for Cello op. 104 by Dvořák (Gramola 98865) and in 2011 a further CD with duos for violin and cello by Bartók, Kodály etc. (Gramola 98916). In 2013, a third CD was released under the aegis of the Mozarthaus String Quartet with two string quartets by Mozart (Gramola 99000) and in 2014 a further CD with cello sonatas by Brahms and Grieg. 
Ádám was a representative of Austria at the International Jeunesse Festival in Brussels in 2005 and at the EU Music Festival in Warsaw on the occasion of the EU’s eastward expansion. In 2003, he followed an invitation from the Tokyo Foundation and took part in the Sylff Africa/Europe Regional Forum in Cairo in 2003 as a representative of Vienna Music University.
As a soloist or chamber musician, he has held concerts in Tokyo Opera City, the ‘Forbidden City’, Beijing, the Suntory Hall, Tokyo, the Vienna Musikverein, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Berlin Konzerthaus, at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, in the New Philharmonia in Luxembourg, at the ‘Settimane musicali al Teatro Olimpico’ in Vicenza, at the Chopin Festival in Gaming, at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, at the Cello Festival in Dordrecht, in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest and many other places.

Concert tours have also taken him to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Oman, Colombia, Austria, the UK, Belgium, Denmark, Kosovo, France, Turkey, Japan, Norway, Egypt, Germany, Spain, China, Siberia, Italy, Israel, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Greece and Russia.

in 2014, in recognition of his work against discrimination and for international understanding he was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation by Baruch Tenembaum. 

‘What the cellist got out of his instrument bordered on wizardry’ (Franz Patocka, Festival der Klänge Vienna, 2009)

‘One of the most outstanding duos that I actually know’ (Matthias Naske on the duo Ádám & Sándor Jávorkai)

‘Two exceptional talents with brilliant technical and refined interpretative skills’ (Padova Cultura on the Duo Ádám Jávorkai & Clara Biermasz (2008)

CLARA BIERMASZ:

The Dutch-born pianist Clara Biermasz received her musical training in the classes of Prof. Alexander Warenberg and Prof. Klára Würtz at the Academy of the Arts in Utrecht, the Netherlands. She completed her bachelor studies in 2004 and then studied in the classes of Prof. Balázs Szokolay and Prof. Balázs Réti at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, Hungary, and in the class of Prof. Michael Hruby at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna. She completed her M.A. with distinction in 2012.
Clara has attended master classes held by Itamar Golan, Jan Wijn, Alan Weiss, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, Martijn van den Hoek, Gergely Bogányi, Istvan Gulyás and Paolo Giacometti.

She is an award-winner at many international competitions, including the first prize (VSB Prize) and the Youth Jury Prize at the Princess Christina Competition in the Netherlands (1996), the first prize in the category of chamber music and ‘Primo Premio Assoluto’ – the overall winner in all categories (respectively in duo with Ádám Jávorkai) at the international competition ‘Premio Città di Padova’, Italy (2008). In 2008, Clara was also a prize-winner at the ‘18th International Chamber Music Competition Thessaloniki’ in Greece.
Clara has held concerts at the following venues: in the Vienna Konzerthaus, at the Beethoven Festival Wien, at the Chopin Festival in Gaming (Austria), as well as at such prestigious places as the Palazzo Leoni Montanari, Vicenza, the Palazzo Albrizzi in Venice, the Palazzo Zacco-Armeni in Padua (Italy), the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, the National Theatre in Miskolc (Hungary), the Dutch Embassy in Vienna, the Dutch Embassy in Cairo (Egypt), the Bogense Summer Festival (Denmark), the Festival Peinture en Musique (France), Vredenburg in Utrecht, de Doelen in Rotterdam, the Muziekcentrum Frits Philips, Eindhoven, the Hermitage Amsterdam (Holland) and at festivals like the Cello Festival in Dordrecht and the ‘Settimane musicali al Teatro Olimpico’, Vicenza, as well as the Kodály Society Wales, where she also has held master classes. 

She has made several recordings for international radio and television stations, among others for ATV and ORF (Austria).
In 2014, she made her first CD with sonatas for cello and piano by Brahms and Grieg for the austrian label Gramola. 

Clara Biermasz has been the scholarship-holder of different cultural funds in the Netherlands such as the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Stichting Willem Mengelberg Fonds, Stichting Fonds voor de Geld- en Effectenhandel, Stichting A.F.V.O.M.S., Stichting Niemeijer Fonds and Stichting Vreedefonds.

‘… An exceptional talent with great technical skills …’ (International Federation of Chopin Societies and the International Chopin Society in Vienna, 2011)

‘Her wonderfully clear narrative tone simply made us forget everyday concerns …’ (Wiener Chopin-Blätter, 2012)

'The solo pieces she played-impressionist poems in music by Debussy and one of Chopin's Nocturnes-were a testament to the talent that has won Clara many international prizes...'
(Times of Oman, 2014) 

‘Two exceptional talents with brilliant technical and refined interpretative skills’ – Padova Cultura on the Duo Jávorkai & Biermasz (2008)