Giovanni Sollima, Italy and Boris Andrianov, Russia (cello)

Giovanni Sollima is a true virtuoso of the cello, playing for him is not an end in itself, but a means of communicating with the world.

He is a composer out of the ordinary, he communicates with a music full of mediterranean rhythms, with a melodic vein typically Italian, his world covers all eras "from the Jurassic of the Cello" as he calls the baroque period to the "Metal". He writes mainly for the cello and contributes significantly to the creation of new repertoire for his instrument. His audience is diverse; from classical music lovers to young "metalheads" Giovanni Sollima conquers all.

Sollima was born in Palermo into a family of musicians. He studied cello with Giovanni Perriera and Antonio Janigro and composition with his father and Eliodoro Sollima and Milko Kelemen. From an early age he worked with musicians such as Claudio Abbado, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Jörg Demus, Martha Argerich, Riccardo Muti, Yuri Bashmet, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Ruggero Raimondi, Bruno Canino, DJ Scanner, Victoria Mullova, Patti Smith, Philip Glass and Yo-Yo Ma.

His works as a soloist with orchestra and various ensembles (including the Giovanni Sollima Band, which he founded in New York in 1997) - unfolds between official and alternative locations: Brooklyn Academy of Music, Alice Tully Hall , Knitting Factory and Carnegie Hall (New York), Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Salle Gaveau (Paris), Santa Cecilia, RomaEuropaFestival (Roma), Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Kunstfest (Weimar), Kronberg Cello Festival , Time Zones Festival (Bari), Teatro Massimo, Teatro alla Scala (Milan), International Music Festival in Istanbul, Cello Biennale (Amsterdam), Tokyo Summer Festival, the Venice Biennale, Ravenna Festival, "The Sounds of the Dolomites", Ravello Festival, Expo 2010 (Shanghai), Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Liverpool Philharmonic ...

Giovanni Sollima, teaches at the Accademy of Santa Cecilia in Rome and at the Fondazione Romanini of Brescia. He plays a cello by Francesco Ruggieri cello (1679, Cremona).

"He makes me look like a pussycat!" said Ma, 54, sounding proud and almost relieved. He's very elusive. He goes silent for months at a time. You just can't find him. He's a supervirtuoso of the cello. He studied with [the eminent] Antonio Janigro but plays like a jazz musician and is part performance artist. He has no fear, and that's unusual in the classical world - we're all terrified of wrong notes"

Yoyo Ma, Philadelfia Inquirer

Boris Andrianov is the Artistic Director of and the inspiration behind the new Star Generation project, which produces and manages concerts by talented young musicians in all cities and regions throughout Russia. For this project, in 2009 Boris Andrianov was awarded the Russian Federation Prize for Culture.  In 2008 Moscow hosted the first-ever cello festival in Russia, VIVACELLO festival the Artistic Director of which is Boris Andrianov.

Boris Andrianov was born in 1976 to a family of musicians. He graduated from the Moscow Gnessins’ School of Music, later studying at the Moscow State Conservatoire (class of Natalia Shakhovskaya) and at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler under the tutelage of David Geringas. In 1991 Boris Andrianov was allocated a grant by the New Names programme.

Boris Andrianov has been a prize-winner at the International Tchaikovsky Youth Competition, the International Shostakovich Competition Classica Nova in Hannover (together with Alexei Goribol, 1st prize, 1997), the VI International Mstislav Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris (1997), the XI International Tchaikovsky Competition (3rd prize and Bronze Medal, 1998), the International Antonio Janigro Competition in Zagreb (1st prize and special awards, 2000) and the International Isang Yun Competition in South Korea (2003).

He performs with symphony and chamber orchestras, among them are Mariinsky Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, t Orchestre National de France,  Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra,  Kammerorchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic and t Kammerorchester Wien. He has also performed with such conductors as Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Vedernikov, Vasily Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda, Roman Kofman and others.

Since 2005, Andrianov has played the “Domenico Montagnana” cello from the Russian State Collection of Unique Musical Instruments. Since 2009 he is a professor of Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory.