THE NEMTSOVS
"Since childhood we've always loved playing together (Duo Bio). We are also very passionate to collaborate with other artists, playing in bigger chamber groups or concertos with an orchestra, together or separately. (Repertoire)"
Mikhail's solo career
As a soloist Mikhail Nemtsov has performed all over the world. Recent highlights include performances with Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the London Philharmonia Orchestra, Porto Symphony Orchestra, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, the RNCM Chamber Orchestra, Liverpool Mozart Orchestra, and London Festival Orchestra. Previous musical collaborations include Vasily Petrenko, Nicholas Collon, The Nash Ensemble, Razumovsky Ensemble, Alexandre Zemtsov, Maxym Rysanov, Anna Kandinskaya, Leon McCawley, and Me Kyong Lee.
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Mikhail grew up in Saint Petersburg and following his graduation from the Rimsky-Korsakov Special Music School, he moved to Manchester where he studied at Chetham’s School of Music and Royal Northern College of Music kindly supported by Dorothy Stone and Howarth Scholarships. He has studied with eminent professors including Nicolas Jones, Hannah Roberts, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Gary Hoffman.
Mikhail was the recipient of the Pierre Fournier Award in 2011, Silver Medal winner at the Rostropovich Memorial International Competition, the Muriel Taylor Scholarship, Silver Medal of The Worshipful Company of Musicians, Gold Medal of the Royal Northern College of Music, and twice the recipient of MBF Guilhermina Suggia Gift.
Mikhail taught at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and at the Altensteiger Sommermusik Akademie in Germany. He has held master classes throughout Europe as well as in Russia. Nemtsov is a holder of an International Artist Diploma at the RNCM and was awarded the position as a CMF Artist in 2013, in the company’s inaugural year.
Mikhail appeared as a Solo Cello in Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Bergen Symphony Orchestra, and Co-Principal cello in BBC Philharmonic, Manchester, and worked as a Co-Principal in Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. In 2016 he was given a position of an Associate Honorary Artist at Royal Northern College of Music and in 2020 Mikhail became an Associate Member of the RNCM, Manchester.
Mikhail was recently appointed as a Solo-Cello in Frankfurt Oper and Museumorchestra. He is a member of the Hindemith String Quartet. He plays a Marquis de Corberon Stradivari copy by Robin Aitchison.
Elena's solo career
Elena Nemtsova is an internationally recognized chamber musician and accompanist. She combines a busy performing career with her professorship in solo accompaniment in Music and Art University in Vienna, Austria as well as an accompanist position at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz.
She regularly appears at international music festivals such as Altensteiger Summer Academy, Schloss Heiligenberg Int. Music Academy (Germany), Orlando Festival (Holland), Allegro Vivo Festival (Austria), and Singapore Int. Violin Festival (Singapore), Musiques Vivantes festival (France)
Vituskircherl Chamber music Festival (Austria). Elena's musical collaborations include working with Gerhard Schulz, Thomas Riebl,Karine Georgian, Garry Hoffmann,Sophia Jaffe, Henk Guittart,Alan R.Kay, Ralph Kirschbaum, Amiram Ganz and Lars Mlekusch.
Since the early age of five, Elena Nemtsova started developing her musical skills both as a pianist and a composer at the Special Music School-Lyceum named after Rimsky-Korsakov followed by completing a joint Bachelors Degree in Piano Performance and Composition with Distinction at the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire. In 2009 she went on to continue her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music where she obtained a Masters Degree in Performance and a prestigious International Artist Diploma in Chamber Music.
Elena is a winner of numerous prizes and awards. Her achievements as a composer include First Prizes at Young Composer Competitions "I am a composer" and “Crystal Tuning Fork". She has written a piece “Heartbeat” especially for Nemtsov Duo that has been released on the CD. Her piece “Mirage” has been commissioned by Ensemble Mirage and was premiered at St John’s Smith Square in London in 2017.
Elena performs a wide range of chamber music repertoire from duo to small chamber orchestra. She regularly takes part in crossover projects like performing arrangements of Bruckner 7th Symphony and Maler "Lieder fahrenden gesellen" with Gruppo Montebello, performing Schubert "Winter Reise " and "Schöne Müllerin" arranged for piano, cello and orator, and taking part of in Mozarteum orchestra Salzburg chamber music series "Viertel nach acht".
Elena is constantly looking for opportunities to expand her repertoire and performs a lot of modern and contemporary music. She has given a world premiere of a cello-piano sonata by Edwin Roxburgh in 2017 and recently recorded "Double" for clarinet and piano written by Louis Andriessen with Alan R. Kay (Theatre Heerlen, Netherlands).