Portrait
- (
January 2010 - please, do not
use outdated versions)The young swiss soloist Rachel Kolly d'Alba, born in Lausanne (Switzerland), received her first violin and piano lesson at the age of five. Since her debut as a soloist at the age of twelve, she appeared with famous orchestras as the Berne Symphony Orchestra, the OSUL Lausanne, the Bern Chamber Orchestra, the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the national symphony Orchestra of Lituenia, the Bienne Chamber Orchestra, The Orchestre de chambre de Toulouse, the Orchester Gesellschaft Zürich, the Sinfonietta Lausanne, the Arcademia Symphonica Germany, the New Europa Orchestra, The Biel Symphonic Orchestra or the Orchestre de chambre Fribourgeois and has worked with conductors such as Dmitri Kitajenko, Laurent Gendre, Pascal Rophé, Kaspar Zehnder, Jonathan Harrisson, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Urs Peter Schneider, Zolt Nagy, Hervé Klopfenstein or Marc Kissoczy.
Considered as one of the most talentend swiss violinist, the sought-after artist performs all over Europe. As a soloist she is invited to play at numerous renowned festivals such as Menuhin Festival Gstaad (Switzerland), Festival de Divonne (France) or Internazionale Festival di Musica in Este (Italy), Festival de musique contemporaine d’Erevan (Armenia), Festival « Schleswig Holstein » (Germany), Festival de Poitiers (France), « Encuentros » und « mozarteum » at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires (Argentina), « Sigall » (Chile), International festival of Flanders (Belgium) or Murten classics (Switzerland).
She studied at the Conservatory in Lausanne where she received, with 15 years old, the diploma for teaching, for the violin and for the chamber music. 1998 she went on with her studies at the University for Music and Drama in Berne in the class of the renowned Slovenian violinist and teacher Igor Ozim, where she received her diploma as a soloist in 2003. She continued her studies with Jean-Jacques Kantorow in Paris and in addition to her violin studies, she studied orchestration with Jean Balissat in Lausanne, composition with Michael Jarrell in Geneva and contemporary chamber music with Bruno Canino.
She takes also master classes with Maestro Franco Gulli (Bloomington), with Thomas Kakuska (Alban Berg Quartet), with Thomas Brandis (Berlin), György Pauk (London) and Ivry Gitlis (Paris).
Rachel Kolly d'Alba signed with
Warner classics & Jazz for her next CD: the 6 solo sonatas by
Ysa˙e released worldwide in may 2010. She will record next
the Works by Saint-Saëns and Ysa˙e for violin and orchestra. Rachel
Kolly d'Alba recorded two other CD, besides radio and television
broadcasts for DRS, Radio Espace 2, as in Austria, Germany, France,
Slovenia and Armenia.
The young and passionate violinist is a first prize winner at
several international competitions. Already 1994 she won the first
prize at the Jeunesses Musicales Competition in
Zurich, followed by first prizes at the Music Competition
Moudon - with distinction - (1998), the Paderewski Prize
(1998). 2000 she reached the finals at the Councours
Eurovision in Lugano, or the first Prize winner at the
Kiefer-Hablitzel-Wettbewerb (2001) or the Fridl-Wald-Wettberwerb
Switzerland (2002). 2005 Rachel Kolly d'Alba won the first prize
and the prize of the audience at the international competition
Julio Cardona in Covilha, Portugal.
Highlights of the 2010/11 season include performances of the
Mendelssohn concerti, Schostakovitch, Bruch, Tchaikovski, Lalo,
Paganini « la campanella », Saint-Saëns Nr 3, Ravel,
Chausson, Bach and Vivaldi concerti.
Rachel is also the artistic director of the concert serie
« Riviera-Concerts ».
Rachel plays an italian violin from 1730.
5 years old