Since 2004, Trio TONKUNST has united three top German artists from the University of Münster, Prof. Koh Gabriel Kameda, Prof. Elisabeth Fürniss and Prof. Peter von Wienhardt, to form one of the most exciting piano trios on the international concert scene. Successful as soloists on the great stages of Europe, America and Asia for several decades, these artists are united by the joy of playing with and through music as:
Trio TONKUNST
Over the years, the initial idea of arranging unexpected works for piano trio has become a manifest motto. Their individual humor, charisma and eloquence allow the unique ability to present commented programs in German, English, Hungarian, Spanish and Portuguese. They go far beyond the naked data on the works, but present entertaining, informative, contemplative and thoughtful interpretations and explanations.
Well established internationally, the three soloists are sophisticated virtuosi, so that even the most outrageous ideas of the arranger (Peter von Wienhardt) are realized with ease and brilliance. Their programs are thematically conceptualized and always focus on delighting the audience through the joy of making music. Sometimes they take you on a musical journey to places like Spain, France, Russia, Hungary or Latin America. In other programs, they bring fairy tales or a variety of dances to life. Sometimes, they present orchestral works like Mussorky's Pictures at an Exhibition or explore genres like film music. For example their much acclaimed Hollywood Suite combines over 100 iconic film melodies. With this personal, creative repertoire they extend the boundaries of the classical piano trio and surprise, inspire and transform their audiences.
KOH GABRIEL KAMEDA
First prizewinner of the Henryk Szeryng International Violin Competition in Mexico in 1997, violinist Koh Gabriel Kameda is recognized by international audiences and colleagues alike as one of the next generation’s foremost emerging artists. After hearing him play, Lord Yehudi Menuhin stated enthusiastically that he “was most impressed” with Mr. Kameda’s performance, and Sir James Galway proclaimed that “he is one of the most remarkable players of his generation”.
At the age of twelve Kameda enrolled in the University of Music in Karlsruhe, Germany, and studied with professor Josef Rissin. In 1993 violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman invited him to come to New York and work with him at the Manhattan School of Music.
Koh Gabriel Kameda debuted in 1988 at the age of thirteen in Baden-Baden, Germany, performing the Violin Concerto no.5 by Henri Vieuxtemps with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then he continues to perform throughout Europe, Asia, as well as in North and South America. He has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras around the world including the Staatskapelle Dresden, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Southwest Radio Symphony Orchestra (Germany), Austrian Radio and Televison Symphony Orchestra, Belgian Radio and Television Orchestra, Osaka Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Zürich Chamber Orchestra, Kölner Kammerorchester, National Symphony of Ireland, Athens State Orchestra, Philharmonica Hungarica, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Nordhausen Symphony Orchestra, Mexican State Symphony Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Chamber Philharmonic and the Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, amongst many others.
While residing in Germany, Mr. Kameda has also received voracious praise for his extensive artistic activities in Japan, where he has become an important new figure in the classical music scene. In 2000 he appeared at the renowned Suntory Hall five times - completely selling out the house each time. Ten years earlier in 1990, he made his concert debut in Japan playing two evenings of violin concertos in Tokyo (Suntory Hall) and Osaka (Symphony Hall). His career in Japan did not comence with these concerts however, but rather started on the primetime TV documentary program “NHK special: Einstein Roman” for the Japanese radio and television company NHK. He worked together with author Michael Ende (Neverending Story, Momo) and fashion designer Hanae Mori, starring in the lead role and recording the soundtrack. At the same time he recorded a laser disc of the program, the first classical music laser disc produced in Japan (BMG Fun House, Japan). Indeed, his popularity in Japan is such that it has led to the establishment of a fan club there. http://www.koh-fc.com
An outstanding moment in Mr. Kameda’s early career was the remarkable opportunity he had to collaborate in a series of concerts with the late Witold Lutoslawski in 1993, a year before the death of the Polish composer. He performed the work “Chain II” under the baton of the composer himself, and from those concerts the last live CD of the composer was produced, receiving great acclaim by the press: “outstanding”, according to Neue Musik Zeitung; “superb technique and expressive maturity”, wrote Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
His ongoing project, “Music Heals”, a series of concerts in hospitals where for many years Mr. Kameda has been actively volunteering to bring music to patients, was featured by TV Tokyo in a 60-minute television documentary broadcast in 1999, receiving much attention especially from outside the regular concert-hall-going circles.
In April 2002 Koh Gabriel Kameda premiered the Violin Concerto by Louis Gruenberg in Japan with the New Japan Philharmonic under the direction Gerard Schwarz. This work was commissioned by Jasha Heifetz in 1945 and had not been played since. Gruenberg’s daughter, Joan Gruenberg Cominos, on Mr. Kameda’s performance, remarked, “I was delighted to discover your brilliant performance of my father's violin concerto. You have perfected this difficult work and play it beautifully.”
The German press praised his virtuosity, with Scala magazine saying Mr. Kameda “sounds like Heifetz”, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung exclaiming that he is “miraculous”. In Japan, the music journal Ongaku no Tomo wrote that he has an “amazing sound”; in the United States, the Salt Lake City Deseret News was struck by his “unbelievable performance”. He is “one of the best in this orbit”, gushed El Dia of Mexico, in Brasil Zero Hora marveled that “his Stradivarius turned into a Magic Violin”, in Israel “..even among the brilliant and promising, there is one outstanding” and “genius violinist” the Yedhiot Ahronot newspaper wrote after his performance with Pinchas Zukerman and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
During the recent seasons, Mr. Kameda was scheduled for concerts in Japan, USA (Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Lukes, Germany, Switzerland (Tonhalle Zürich) and Latin America (Sala Cecilia Meireles, Rio de Janeiro, with Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, Paraguay with Orquesta Nacional de Paraguay and others).
Mr. Kameda taught at the Zurich University of the Arts from 2004 until 2009. In 2010 he accepted the position as violin professor at the University of Music Detmold and from 2018 he started to work at the University of Münster, Germany. Many of his students are winners of International Violin Competitions such as the Szeryng, Brahms, Flesch, Kloster Schöntal, Lipizer, Postachini, Zhuhai Mozart and others.
Koh Gabriel Kameda plays on the violin "Holroyd" made by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona 1727 and mainly uses a bow by the French maker Eugène Sartory.
For more information on Koh Gabriel Kameda please visit:
ELISABETH FÜRNISS
Elisabeth Fürniss was born as the second daughter to opera singer Judith and conductor/pianist Irving Beckman, in Düsseldorf, and today lives in Münster, Germany, with the two youngest of her five children. A product of her Jewish-American heritage, she is now a musician in third generation. Her love of the arts and science began young. Fondest memories include family chamber music enabled by her father’s arrangements for piano trio; at school, her interest in philosophy and psychology were encouraged and her education accelerated.
As a member of Gabor Rejto’s cello class at the University of Southern California, she was awarded several prizes for chamber music and performed with the acclaimed Contemporary Music Ensemble with Leonard Stein at the Schoenberg Institute in Los Angeles. Her studies completed as a “summa cum laude” scholar, she returned to Europe to begin work in the Kolischer piano trio in London. Her solo debut was taken at Wigmore Hall with pianist Phillip Moll.
Elisabeth’s teaching career began at the conservatory of Münster’s University, where she educates young cellists and teaches music psychology. Her psychology master’s degree from the University of London was accompanied by a prize for her research on the motivational effects of aesthetic work. Elisabeth also founded and manages a pre-college in a trans-institutional cooperation for gifted young musicians in Münster.
She plays a cello by the Fratelli Fiori from 1812 and a bow by Nicolas Maire.
Read more about Elisabeth on
www.elisabeth-fuerniss.de
PETER VON WIENHARDT
Peter von Wienhardt, pianist, composer and arranger, is increasingly in demand as a conductor. Always searching, it is his personal mark to explore new shores of musical expression. Information, improvisation, re-composition and cadencing have become as much a part of his music as they are of his life as a whole. The search for the meaning and the character in a piece of music lies at the heart of his artistry. His concerts are also enriched further by the verbal expression of his thoughts, which he shares with his audience. His technical virtuosity and sight reading facility have allowed him to acquire an extensive repertoire, which encompasses seldom-heard repertoire (pieces) of all styles.
To answer to the demands of expression and intention as performer, composer and arranger; to serve the orchestra as its conductor, to understand the piano and the orchestra as a living instrument playing an idea from and by the soul: these are his goals. He organizes, analyzes and brings structure to the music, not merely a regurgitating but always a creative musician, whose ideas frequently develop out of a specific situation, in a room or directly with the public. His special programmatic mark is the performance of “seemingly impossible”, “unplayable” or extremely complicated works. Preposterous compositions or unforeseen developments from Renaissance to Contemporary music challenge him. His creed: “Every work of music deserves at the very least one perfect performance in accordance with the composer’s intentions. Only then will its history be decided.” This creed coins his art.
From 1998 until 2012 he was able to share his knowledge/experience with outstanding young performers of international orchestras at the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra Academy and to disseminate his impassioned and historically informed musical style.
Peter von Wienhardt, born in Budapest in 1966 and raised in Germany, has travelled (nearly) everywhere in the world as a musician. He won many prizes (among others Cziffra-Liszt, Deutscher Musikrat, Echo Klassik etc.) and has published manifold recordings as a soloist, with orchestras and chamber music with great artists. Since 2006 he holds the chair as professor for piano and crossover in Münster and is managing director of the Aaserenaden in Münster. Besides music in all its varieties and genres his other great passion is travelling and getting to know the world; he practices this extensively on his concert tours!
For more information on Peter von Wienhardt please visit.