Year after year, the Rising Stars series showcases Europe’s most promising young musicians in the continent’s most prestigious concert halls. Thanks to the initiative of the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO), an association of the most outstanding performing arts institutions, five talented musicians will be performing at Müpa Budapest again this year from 10 to 12 November.
ECHO launched Rising Stars in 1995 with the aim of giving young talents a helping hand in the often highly competitive world of classical music. The organisation not only helps to discover future stars, but also does not let them go after the first steps: they can go on tours of Europe’s major concert halls to ensure that they are seen by the widest audience possible.
Moreover, each of the musicians will perform a brand new contemporary composition commissioned by ECHO. It is particularly pleasing that this year’s Müpa nominee, violinist Júlia Pusker, has been selected into the programme.
The Rising Stars series of performances will be opened by one of the most versatile guitarists of his generation, Sean Shibe. The nominee of Barbican Centre London will show audiences what this instrument, one of today’s most fashionable ones, can do beyond the boundaries of pop and rock music. The 31-year-old guitarist’s repertoire is a mix of music from the past and the music of today, from a tribute to the spirit of Debussy by Manuel de Falla to Forgotten Dances, a piece written by British composer Thomas Adès, one of the most exciting representatives of his profession in our times.
Sean Shibe. (c) Iga Gozdowska
The Scottish guitarist will be followed by Mathis Kaspar Stier, bassoonist and joint nominee of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Kölner Philharmonie, who has already shown on his debut album Sentiment (Alpha Classics) that he is equally enthusiastic about solo roles, chamber music and orchestral playing. In his Budapest performance with world-travelling accordionist Julius Schepansky, he will perform works from the Baroque period, represented by Philipp Friedrich Böddecker and Johann Sebastian Bach. The Icelandic María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir will be the composer of the contemporary showpiece.
To the delight of Hungarian music lovers, a Hungarian artist has again been selected as one of the young emerging artists after six years, so that the multifaceted talent of Júlia Pusker can be experienced not only in Budapest, but also throughout Europe. The Müpa Budapest nominee studied at the Liszt Academy of Music Budapest, then at the Royal Academy of Music in London, before completing her training as a resident artist at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels until 2021. As well as enjoying Pusker’s magical unaccompanied violin playing at Müpa Budapest, with support of her partner, Ukrainian pianist Christia Hudziy, audiences can also discover the myriad possibilities the violin has to offer, as shown through works by Debussy and Bartók.
The last day will be opened by the nominee of BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts Brussels: the Sonoro Quartet. This Belgian string quartet is one of the country’s most active ensembles, and was a huge success at the Bartók World Competition in Budapest in 2021. They will perform two quartet classics at Müpa Budapest, Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue followed by Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5, and a contemporary premiere of a specially commissioned composition by their compatriot Annelies van Parys.
The eclectic series will be rounded off by Sebastian Heindl’s unmissable all-arts performance. The joint nominee of the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Kölner Philharmonie and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden is the first young artist to showcase his talents on the organ in Rising Stars. After a performance of Moritz Eggert’s Orck, the concert will feature Heindl’s organ improvisation accompaniment to the terrifying visual world of the 1922 silent horror film Nosferatu.
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