Alexander Gebert

Hochschule für Musik Detmold

Alexander Gebert was born in 1977 to a family of musicians in Warsaw. When he was three years old, they moved to Finland, where in 1982 he started to study cello with Timo Hanhinen at the Turku Conservatory. Later he became a student at the Sibelius Academy in the classes of Csaba Szilvay, Victoria Yaglig, Kazimierz Michalik, Marko Ylönen and Heikki Rautasalo. From 1995 through 1998 he received a Polish state scholarship to study at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw. After his graduation there he continued his studies with Philippe Muller at the Paris Conservatory and on a DAAD scholarship with Natalia Gutman in Stuttgart. In 2002 he was granted a three-year scholarship from the Groupe Banques Populaires in Paris.

Alexander Gebert won his first international contest at the age of 16. In 1997 he came in second at the Lutoslawski Competition in Warsaw, and the year 2000 saw him win Third Prize at the Antonio Janigro Contest in Zagreb, Second Prize and Audience Prize at the International Geneva Cello Competition (where he played with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Heinrich Schiff conducting), and First Prize at the Valentino Bucchi Contest of Rome subsequently.

He has widely performed both as a soloist and as a chamber musician at many prestigious venues (Kuhmo Festival, Oleg-Kagan-Musikfest, Festival de Deauville, Ravinia Festival, Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus). Among his chamber music parters were Eduard Brunner, Ana Chumachenko, Bernarda Fink, Ilya Gringolts, Alois Posch, Henri Sigfridsson, Elina Vähälä, Meta4 Quartett and Bennewitz Quartett.

In 2004 he was invited to join the Altenberg Trio Vienna. Since its "official" debut during the Salzburg Mozart Week (January 1994), the Altenberg Trio Wien has in far more than 1000 performances earned the reputation of one of the most daring and consistent ensembles in this category: its repertory comprises - in addition to a large number of works from directly related fields (piano quartets & quintets, duos, triple concertos, vocal chamber music) near to 200 piano trios, among them many pieces which the Altenberg Trio suggested and first performed itself. Simultaneously with its foundation, the ensemble became trio in residence of Vienna´s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, annually performing a cycle in the Brahms Saal of Musikverein.

Its regular activities also include artistic directorship of the music festival at Schloss Weinzierl, that place so important in music history, where the young Haydn composed his first string quartets.

In 2007 Alexander Gebert began a collaboration with the pianist Anna Magdalena Kokits. Since its founding the duo has given two annual concerts in the Musikverein Wien. Other performances soon followed in Austria, as well as in Finland, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Belgium. Apart from the classical repertoire for cello and piano, Anna Magdalena Kokits and Alexander Gebert are interested in rarely heard or forgotten works. Thus in the summer of 2011 they will be recording a CD for Gramola with the sonatas of four Jewish composers that had to emigrate from Austria in 1938. The works included will be those by composers Hans Gál, Karl Weigl, Ernst Toch and Erich Zeisl. Another important place in the duo´s activity is occupied by the living contemporary music. The duo each year comissions a new work: in 2010 they gave the first performance in the Musikverein of "The Garden of Desires" by Richard Dünser, which was written for them and later published by Edition Peters. In 2011 Anna Magdalena Kokits and Alexander Gebert will give the first performance of the 2nd Sonata for piano and cello by Akos Banlaky and in the next season two other premieres in the Musikverein Wien of works by Helmut Schmidinger and Tomasz Skweres will follow.

Alexander Gebert gives numerous masterclasses internationally, and teaches regularly in Austria, Finland, Slovenia and Poland. With the Altenberg Trio he taught at the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität and the Accademia pianistica de Imola. The trio also held numerous courses in other colleges in Italy, Finland, Russia, Holland, Albania, Denmark and the USA. In 2010 he was appointed Professor at the Hochschule fur Musik Detmold.