The well-known and popular Bushakevitz brother and sister duo will give a violin and piano
performance at Unisa on Saturday 16 June at 18:00 in the Enoch Sontonga Hall.
Ammiel and his younger sister Abigail Bushakevitz were both born in Jerusalem - Ammiel in 1986 and Avigail in 1988. The family emigrated to South Africa in 1989. Having grown up in George and after their excellent training in South Africa, the two musicians have been studying abroad extensively for the last few years: Avigail in the USA (Juilliard School of Music) and Ammiel in Europe.
The musicians have a special connection with Unisa, since Avigail won the Unisa South African Music Scholarship in 2006 and the Unisa National String Competition in 2009 and Ammiel won the Unisa Overseas Music Scholarship in 2008.
An ex-student of the doyen of violin teaching, Prof. Jack de Wet of Stellenbosch, Avigail commenced her B.Mus studies through Unisa in 2006, transferring to The Juilliard School of Music in 2007. Avigail graduated from Juilliard as a Bachelor of Music in May 2010, and a Master of Music in May 2012. She currently studies the violin with Sylvia Rosenberg and Lewis Kaplan.
After Ammiel’s studies at the universities of Stellenbosch and Pretoria under Mario Nell, Joseph Stanford, and Heinrich van der Mescht, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig, Germany under Phillip Moll and Hanns-Martin Schreiber. Ammiel also furthered his studies at the European Academy of Music and Arts in Montepulciano, Italy, and at the International Schubert Institute in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria.
He is currently studying under Jean-Frédéric Neuburger at the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur de Musique in Paris, France. The programme that they will perform, consists of solo piano works as well as violin and piano duos.
First on the programme is the Sonata in A major for violin and piano, D 574 by Schubert, followed by the solo piano piece Klavierstück, Op 3 no 1 by Richard Strauss, Liszt’s Weinen, klagen, sorgen, zagen, the Intermezzo Op 117 no 3 by Brahms, the Sonata for violin and piano in E flat major also by Strauss and Polonaise brillante no 2 in A major by Wieniawski.
Ammiel Bushakevitz
Ammiel regularly performs as soloist and chamber musician in centres such as Rome, Berlin, Paris, London, Vienna, New York, Cape Town, Lisbon, Dublin, Zürich, Casablanca, Milan and Barcelona. Festival appearances include the Festival d'Automne à Paris (France, with the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris); the Festival Pontino di Latina (Italy, where he gave the festival's opening recital); the Holland International Music Sessions (Netherlands); the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (South Africa, with his sister Avigail) and the Heidelberger Frühling Festival (Germany, at the invitation of the famous baritone Thomas Hampson).
Since his orchestral debut at the age of 16, performing Tchaikovsky's 3rd Piano Concerto with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductor Leslie Dunner, he has appeared as soloist with numerous European orchestras and with every professional orchestra in South Africa, including the Johannesburg Philharmonic, KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic, Cape Town Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa.
Having a special admiration for the German Lied, Ammiel often performs as a vocal accompanist. He has collaborated with and received mentorship from, amongst others, famous names in the world of song such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Thomas Hampson, Barbara Bonney, Mimi Coertse and Elly Ameling. In 2011 he was invited by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau to accompany singers at Fischer-Dieskau's masterclasses at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade in Austria.
Ammiel is also active as a musicologist and specializes in research concerning Franz Schubert and Richard Wagner. In 2011 he presented a paper at the International Conference on Late Schubert in Maynooth, Ireland. He is an alumnus of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and is an honorary member of the Richard Wagner Society of South Africa. He is the winner of some 20 scholarships and coveted prizes.
Avigail Bushakevitz, violinist
Apart from being the winner of the first prize in the Unisa National String Competition in 2009, Avigail won the special prizes for the best interpretation of a Bach Solo Sonata and the best third round recital. She was the only South African in semi-finals of the Second Unisa International String Competition. She has performed concerti by Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Saint-Saens, Mozart, Beethoven and Bruch with various orchestras in South Africa, including the Cape Philharmonic, Kwazulu Natal Philharmonic and Johannesburg Philharmonic.At the SASOL South African National Youth Orchestra of 2006, she was awarded first prize at the Lubner Competition. In October 2006 Avigail won five prizes including 1st prize at the Unisa South African Music Scholarship Competition. Later that month she won the Pick 'n Pay/FMR music travel award, which enabled her to audition at, among other music institutions, the Juilliard School of Music.
She participated in the Juilliard Chamberfest from 2008 to 2012. Referring to these performances, The New York Times referred to her chamber group, saying that their performance of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time was “riveting”, also mentioning “the delicacy of the violinist Avigail Bushakevitz in the final section, Louange à l'immortalité de Jésus.”
Avigail attended the nine-week long Aspen Music Festival in Colorado for the third time last summer, and participated in The Heifetz International Music Institute in New Hampshire in 2011. She was concertmistress of the Britten-Pears Orchestra in Aldeburgh, England, in August last year, and performed at Holland Music Sessions the same month in a duo with her pianist brother, Ammiel.
While still a student at Juilliard, Avigail was employed as a teaching assistant in ear training, a position she held for three years.
The concert on Saturday 16 June at 18:00 is presented by the Unisa Music Foundation.
Tickets are sold only at the door at R85 for adults and R65 for students and pensioners.
Enquiries about the concert can be directed to Alet Joubert at the Unisa Music Foundation, tel: 012 429 3336/3311 or cell: 084 763 4079, www.unisa.ac.za/musicfoundation.