Ohrid, 28 July 2023 (MIA) - Clarinettist Pablo Barragán and pianist Eloise Bella Kohn are set to perform at the 63rd edition of the Ohrid Summer Festival on Friday.

For Barragán, who was born in Andalusia, and now lives in Berlin, it is said that he attaches great importance to the interaction between musicians producing music together and feels that artistic symbiosis is the ideal state of music-making. This applies to his solo performances with well-known orchestras such as the Basel and Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra or the Slovak Philharmonic as well as to his chamber music projects, that is, at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Molyvos International Music Festival or the Martha Argerich Festival, which he performs together with pianists Danae Dörken and Sophie Pacini, violinist Noa Wildschut, cellist Kian Soltani, and the Schumann Quartet.

During 2022/23, Pablo Barragán performed alongside the Slovak Philharmonic, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, while his chamber music performances include five concerts at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where he will perform with artistic director Noa Wildschut and other highly esteemed colleagues such as Timothy Ridout, Julia Hagen, Stephen Waarts and Tobias Feldmann. The highlight of his career will be his debut concert at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2023, performing Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet with colleagues from the Schumann Quartet, followed by a performance with the Quatuor Modigliani in Madrid, the Sitkovetsky Trio in Geneva, and the Cremona Quartet.

Recent projects have taken the clarinettist to South America and across Europe where he is set to perform at the Cartagena Festival (Colombia), and in São Paolo, Lima and Buenos Aires, as an emissary of the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.

Pablo Barragán has attended the Seville Conservatory with Antonio Salguero and with Matthias Glander at the Fundación Barenboim-Said in Seville. He also gained valuable experience as a member of Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. In 2011, he won the Juventudes Musicales de España and the European Music Competition for Youth. In 2012, he was the laureate at the ARD Music Competition, and in 2013 he won the Prix Crédit Suisse Jeunes Solistes, and performed at the Lucerne Festival. Since 2020 Barragan is a lecturer at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Seville and teaches masters courses at the Trentino Music Festival.

Pablo Barragán is an exclusive artist of the Backun clarinet workshop, and plays the Backun Lumière model clarinet.

Eloïse Bella Kohn is a regular guest at France’s most prominent concert venues and festivals, such as Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Cité de la Musique, Salle Gaveau, Auditorium du Musée d’Orsay, Auditorium de Radio France, La Roque d’Anthéron, Radio France à Montpellier, Lille Piano Festival, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, Rouen, and the Festival International d’Art lyrique in Aix-en-Provence.

Kohn was born in Paris in 1991 and started her musical education at the Yamaha music school at the age of four. She also attended the National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance (CNSM) and studied with Michel Béroff, Eric Le Sage, David Fray and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. She continued her studies at the University of Music in Freiburg, Germany and the University of Music and performing Arts Vienna with Lilya Zilberstein. She received important musical impulses during master classes with Aldo Ciccolini, Dmitri Bashkirov, Thomas Adès, Robert Levin, Christian Zacharias, András Schiff.

In 2016, she was awarded the Young Talent of the year award by the renowned cultural magazine Diapason, and in 2018 became an official artist under the auspices of the Yamaha brand. These two recognitions, and the depth of her musicality, help her career's upward trajectory. Together with violinist Christoph Koncz she is co-founder of the chamber music festival Europäische Musiktage Heidelberg and as a soloist and chamber musician, she is invited to important European concert houses and festivals, such as the Berliner Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Mozarteum Salzburg. She shares the stage with successful and prestigious orchestras and conductors, and her partners include Bruno Delepelaire, Daniel Ottensamer, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Silvia Careddu, Sophie and Félix Dervaux- soloists of the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam- as well as Nobuko Imai, Arabella Steinbacher, Christiane Karg, Renaud Capuçon, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Aylen Pritchin, Philippe Berrod, Michel Portal and Eric Le Sage.

She has released three highly acclaimed albums which have won her the “CHOC de Classica” and “Le Choix de France Musique” and “Diapason d’Or” awards.

Friday's concert will be held at the St. Sophia Church, starting at 9pm. The program includes the works of Messager, Albeniz, Poulenc, De Falla and Weber. ssh/sk/

Photo: Ohrid Summer Festival