The COE, Veronika Eberle and Amihai Grosz
23 - 28 August 2021

The COE was looking forward to performing with Janine Jansen who, over the past decade, has become a regular partner of the Orchestra. However, due to ill-health, Janine unfortunately had to cancel on the second day of our tour. We were extremely fortunate to find a world-class replacement straight away as Veronika Eberle kindly stepped in to perform with us instead. We keep very fond memories of our very first project with Veronika back in 2018 together with one of the COE’s Honorary Members, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, as part of tour shared with Lisa Batiashvili across Germany. We very much look forward to working with her again and are very grateful that she happened to be available just at the right time!

The COE, Veronika and Leader Lorenza Borrani are joined by Israeli violist Amihai Grosz, who is doing his debut with the Orchestra. Together, we will give one concert at the Philharmonie in Berlin on 26th August featuring R. Strauss’s Serenade for winds, Haydn’s Symphony No. 60 ‘Il Distratto’ and Mozart’s Maurerische Trauermusik and Sinfonia Concertante in Eb major.

On 27th August, we travel to Hamburg to perform for the first time in the impressive Elbphilharmonie. On this occasion, and due to the restrictions currently in place, there will be two shorter concerts featuring Haydn’s Symphony No. 60 and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante without an interval, once at 6.30pm and once at 9pm.

Following the concerts, Veronika wrote on her Instagram page: “overwhelmed by this mini-tour with the unbelievable @chamber_orchestra_europe and @amihaigroszviola. I have no words for the pleasure it was to play with these outstanding musicians at the @berlinphil venue. Also all my love and gratitude to the #audience who make these performances into something special.” Amihai also wrote: “Dear orchestra friends, our concerts together where a pure joy and the highest music making one can ask for. The  absolute support one feels on stage is unique! I’m thanking you guys from the bottom of my heart for letting me be part of this. Thank you.”

Veronika Eberle

Veronika Eberle’s exceptional talent and the poise and maturity of her musicianship have been recognised by many of the world’s finest orchestras, venues and festivals, as well as by some of the most eminent conductors.

Sir Simon Rattle’s introduction of Veronika aged just 16 to a packed Salzburg Festpielhaus at the 2006 Salzburg Easter Festival in a performance of the Beethoven concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker, brought her to international attention. Key orchestra collaborations since then include the London Symphony (Rattle), Concertgebouw (Holliger), New York Philharmonic (Gilbert), Montreal Symphony (Nagano), Munich Philharmonic and Gewandhaus Orchestras (Langree), Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Janowski), Hessischer Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester (P.Järvi), Bamberger Symphoniker (Ticciati, Nott), Tonhalle Orchester Zurich (M.Sanderling), NHK Symphony (Kout, Stenz, Norrington) and Rotterdam Philharmonic (Rattle, Gaffigan, Nézet-Seguin).

Born in Donauwörth Southern Germany, she started violin lessons at the age of six and four years later became a junior student at the Richard Strauss Konservatorium in Munich with Olga Voitova. After studying privately with Christoph Poppen for a year, she joined the Hochschule in Munich, where she studied with Ana Chumachenco 2001-2012.

Veronika Eberle plays on a violin made by the Italian violin maker Antonio Giacomo Stradivari in 1693, which was made available to her on generous loan by the Reinhold Würth Musikstiftung GmbH.

Amihai Grosz looks back on a very unusual career path: At first a quartet player (founding member of the Jerusalem Quartet), then and until today Principal Violist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and also a renowned soloist.
Initially, Amihai Grosz learned to play the violin, before switching to the viola at age 11. In Jerusalem, he was taught by David Chen, later by Tabea Zimmermann in Frankfurt and Berlin as well as in Tel Aviv by Haim Taub, who had a formative influence on him. At a very early age, he received various grants and prizes and was a member of the “Young Musicians Group” of the
Jerusalem Music Center, a program for outstanding young musical talents.
As a soloist Grosz has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Tugan Sokhiev, Ariel Zukermann, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Alexander Vedernikov and Gerard Korsten and performs internationally with orchestras such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the
Orchestre d’Auvergne and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.
In the world of chamber music, Amihai Grosz performs with artists such as Yefim Bronfman, Mitsuko Uchida, Daniel Hope & Friends, Eric le Sage, Janine Jansen & Friends, Julian Steckel, Daishin Kashimoto and David Geringas. Internationally, he can be heard regularly at the most prestigious concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tonhalle Zurich, Wigmore Hall
in London and the Philharmonie Luxembourg, as well as at leading festivals including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Evian, Verbier and Delft Festivals, the BBC Proms and the Utrecht International Chamber Music Festival.
The highlights of the season 21/22 are concerts with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ludovic Morlot, the argovia philharmonic, under the direction of Rune Bergmann, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra together with Janine Jansen and chamber music projects, among others
with Magdalena Kozena and friends and the quartet formation Made in Berlin of the Berlin Philharmonic together with Ray Chen.
Amihai Grosz and the pianist Sunwook Kim form a strong chamber music collaboration. In autumn 2020 their joint album for viola and piano (with works by Schubert, Partós and Shostakovich) was released by Alpha Classics.
In the season of 21/22 Amihai Grosz has been appointed as Artistic Director of the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht.
Amihai Grosz plays a Gaspar-da-Salò viola from the year 1570, which is a lifelong loan made available to him by a private collection.