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The Israeli cellist, Gavriel Lipkind, was born in Tel Aviv as the second child of an academic family that had emigrated from Russia. He began to play cello at the age of 6, made his radio performance debut at the age of 8, and studied at the S. Rubin Music Academy of Tel Aviv University under classical musician Uzi Wiesel (1984-1994). Lipkind left Israel aged almost 18 and had his military service waived. He graduated from the Tel Aviv University, the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, and the New England Conservatory. Lipkind has and having won more than twelve top prizes in major competitions, including at the 1994 Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris, the 1997 Leonard Rose International Cello Competition in Washington, D.C., and the 1998 ARD International Music Competition in Munich. He has worked alongside outstanding musicians such as Zubin Mehta, Philippe Entremont, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Pinchas Zukerman, and Yehudi Menuhin, performed in broadcasting, and played as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Münchner Philharmoniker, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
In 2002, Lipkind received two special prizes at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann competition in Berlin and decided to take time off performing to reassess his musical motivations. During this time, which would last three years, he made musicological studies, recordings, and revised his repertoire, and was included in a German documentary, The Solitude Cycle - A Journey to the Limits, about musical collaboration. From 2005 to 2006, Lipkind was a fellow of the Akademie Schloss Solitude. In 2006, he released the albums “Miniatures & Folklore” featuring his own arrangements and “J.S. Bach: 6 Suites a Violoncello Solo Senza Basso (Single Voice Polyphony, Vol. 1)” through Edel Music. These productions have already become celebrated jewels in the music world and represent very different, yet equally important facets of Lipkind’s musical creativity - his own compositional voice, coupled with a deep knowledge of the cello - and both show him moving from strength to strength as a conceptual musician and a true expressive virtuoso. As well as all the major works for cello, Lipkind’s repertoire now also encompasses numerous rarities, newly commissioned works and his own arrangements and transcriptions. Lipkind worked for two years on a production with pianist Roman Zaslavsky, and created the Lipkind Quartet. His 2009 touring schedule included concerts in Holland, Japan, Ireland, and Switzerland. Lipkind gives cello master-classes in Germany, the USA, Israel, and the Netherlands.
Following a summer gala performance of Bloch’s Schelomo Rhaphsody under Juozas Domarkas and the Lituanian Philharmonic, Gavriel Lipkind opened Flagey’s concert season and the Flanders Festival in Ghent live on Klara Radio with the Brussels Philharmonic and Anthony Witt, to the great acclaim of Belgium press. The season continued with a recording with RTE’s National Symphony in Dublin (Volan’s Cello Concerto), an exclusive MS Europa Cruise organized by Musikfest Bremen, Tokyo Symphony performing Dmitri Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto under Eliahu Inbal, a Japan Tour with the Slovak Philharmonic performing Dvorak, a gala concert at the Belgian parliament, coming back to Musikfest Bremen, a Debut Tour in Taiwan performing in the National Concert Hall, a tour with a whole program of cello concertos in South America concluding with the National Symphony of Mexico and a gala concert with the Mariinsky Theater under Valery Gergiev concluding the 2011-2012 season.
The latest collaboration with Valery Gergiev performing Lutoslawski’s Cello Concerto was to commemorate both the composer and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich for whom the piece was written. Gavriel Lipkind performed this concerto throughout the year with numerous different orchestras. In parallel to an active schedule of solo and duo recitals, Special events, and Lipkind Quartet performances, in 2013-2014 Lipkind will also serve as a Soloist in Residence of the Brussels Philharmonic and an Artist in Residence of Flagey with various project including a concerto tour in Belgium, France and China, as well as a Soloist in Residence of the Tokyo Metropolitan Orcehstra. Other upcoming highlights include re-engagements with: Theatro Colon, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony of Mexico, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Musikfest Bremen, Luisiana Philharmonic, Lituanian Philharmonic, Israeli Symphony Orchestra, Brock Orchestra (whole program of cello concertos), a promotional tour in Germany organized by Naxos Germany, Sibelius Academy, and a Bach Marathon performing all cello suites in the Tonhalle, Zürich.
Gavriel Lipkind plays a unique Italian cello labeled "Aloysius Michael Garani (Bologna, 1702)", estimated, however, to have been completed in the years 1670-1680; An enigma which has come to be known as “The Zihrhonheimer cello”. This instrument has been made available thanks to the generous support of D. & M. P. He lives in a nature preserve north of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and is married to the violinist Anna Lipkind. |
