Wednesday, July 31, 21:00
Hadjinikos Hall
Cristina Basili, cello I Timotej Kosovinc, guitar
Greek-Austrian Music Summer (AGMS) -an initiative by the Austrian Embassy Athens- aims to present and connect young and established musicians from Austria and Greece in order to introduce their music to a wider audience.
Founded in Vienna, the duo of internationally renowned musicians Cristina Basili and
Timotej Kosovinc share the desire to explore cello and guitar chamber music and to find
new paths in the world of classical music. Their repertoire includes classical compositions
for cello and guitar as well as Latin American and contemporary works, especially works by
guitarist and composer Timotej Kosovinc. Their focus lies on creating colors and special
atmospheres never heard before, evoking emotions, painting musical landscapes while
connecting with the audience in a unique way.
Τhe duo has been recorded and broadcasted by Austrian, Slovenian and Greek radio and
television and is touring with performances in Europe’s chamber music festivals and concert
halls.
Duo Basili & Kosovinc plays on strings from Thomastik-Infeld Vienna.
Cristina Basili performs as a soloist, chamber musician and as creative participant in diverse
projects between genres and art disciplines.
With her cello she has toured in Europe and the USA and played at various international concert
halls (Konzerthaus and Musikverein Vienna, Tonhalle Zürich, Gasteig Munich, Megaron Athens,
Odessa Philharmonic Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Romanian Athenaeum) and festivals
(Grafenegg Festival, Pärnu Music Festival, Yellow Barn Music Festival, Davos Festival, Enescu
Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern, a.o.)
Her chamber music partners include distinguished musicians such as Oleg Maisenberg, Anthony
Marwood, Lucy Shelton, Antonio Meneses, Salvatore Accardo, Barbara Moser, Rainer Schmidt,
Annely Peebo. As a soloist and orchestra musician she collaborates with conductors Hobart Earle,
Claudius Traunfellner, Vitaly Protasov, Francois-Xavier Roth, Benjamin Zander, Michael Tlson
Thomas, Yoav Talmi, Uriel Segal, Michael Sanderling, Marin Alsop, Neeme Järvi and Paavo Järvi
and participates in projects with the Estonian Festival Orchestra, LA Philharmonic Orchestra,
Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra.
Also a very dedicated interpreter of contemporary music she regularly gives world premieres by
living composers. In 2021 her recording of works for solo cello by the Australian-Greek composer
Nestor Taylor, published by Donemus Records, was released.
Since 2020 she collaborates with guitarist and composer Timotej Kosovinc. Their repertoire
includes both classical compositions for cello and guitar as well as contemporary works and in
particular works by Timotej Kosovinc. They have appeared in concerts at major concerts halls
throughout Europe as well as Austrian, German, Slovenian and Greek radio and television
recordings.
Together with actress Elisabeth Kanettis, she is co-founder of the interdisciplinary collective
EnsemblART, whose video performances have received several international awards (e.g. at the
Goodmesh Concours 2020 and ISA Creative Award 2020) and of the Musicpoetry Duo (cello &
acting), which performed in 2021 as part of the Vienna Cabaret Festival at Rathausplatz Vienna and
has been touring successfully in German-speaking countries since then. In this season the duo is
touring with its recent show Poisonflower- oder die Wurzel allen Übels.
She is a guest member of the Ensemble Wiener Collage and participates in various staged concert
productions in collaboration with the Vienna State Opera and the Oorkaan Institute in Amsterdam.
Cristina is prize winner of national and international competitions such as Brahms International
Cello Competition, International Cello Competition Liezen, Janigro Youth Competition, Austrian
national Competition ”Prima La Musica” , Lions Music Competition, a.o. In 2012 she won a prize
grant from the Rahn Kulturfonds in Zurich, which placed a master cello at her disposal.
She was a scholarship recipient of the Karajan Stiftung Vienna, Rahn Kulturfonds Zurich, Lyra
Stiftung, Onassis Foundation Greece, University of Southern California and the Accademia
Chigiana Siena, Italy. In 2014 she was awarded the Premio Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
Born into a Greek-Italian family of musicians in Vienna, Cristina started her cello studies at the age
of six with Vladimir Malinovsky. Since 2005, she has also worked intensively with David Grigorian
in Munich. At the age of fifteen she met the renowned cellist Antonio Meneses and was asked to
join his classes at the University of Arts in Berne where she graduated her studies under a
scholarship of the Onassis Foundation Greece with a Master Performance Diploma in 2015. She
also holds a graduate diploma from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, where she studied with Ralph Kirshbaum, as well as pedagogical degree
and a Master in Chamber Music from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where
she studied with Johannes Meissl.
In addition to her studies she has worked with and been coached by Natalia Gutman, Frans
Helmerson, Wolfgang E. Schmidt, Thomas Demenga, Claudio Bohórquez, Gustav Rivinius, Leonid
Gorokhov, Alban Gerhardt, Benjamin Zander, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Belcea Quartet and Hagen
Quartet.
Cristina is also an enthusiastic teacher and gives masterclasses throughout Europe. She is professor
at Johann-Joseph-Fux Conservatory in Graz and Albrechtsberger Musikschule Klosterneuburg,
Austria. Her students have won prizes at national and international Competitions such as
International Virtuoso Music Competition, Prima La Musica, Popper Competition, International
Cello Competition Gorizia, a.o.
She plays on an instrument by Antonio Gibertini, Parma, 1744.
http://cristinabasili.com/
Timotej Kosovinc
“Each tone has its own life, its story, and incorporated itself beautifully in the wider sound image at the same time.” (Radio Ars, Slovenia)
Slovenian born, vienna-based composer/guitarist Timotej Kosovinc composes for various musical instruments and ensembles and is specialized in concert music. His work frequently combines classical composition techniques with musical material drawn from popular music, with the express aim of speaking a musical language accessible to all music lovers. Concurrently, his compositions explore the depths of the human soul and intellect, and therefore of interest to specialists as well.
He graduated from the mdw-University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Austria), where he studied guitar with Alvaro Pierri and composition and music theory with Johannes Kretz and Detlev Müller-Siemens. He was honored by the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Research of the Republic of Austria in 2019 for his achievements in composition and music theory, and received an honor award from the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna in 2020 for his achievements as
a guitarist.
Kosovinc has won numerous competitions as both composer and guitarist and is a regular guest in prominent concert halls such as Musikverein (Vienna, Austria) or Cankarjev Dom (Ljubljana, Slovenia) and in various festivals and summer schools such as Wien Modern, Intonation Ungarn, Sonus-Kammermusikwerkstatt or International Guitar Festival Postojna. As a guitar soloist he performed with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Marko Hribernik and he played several concerts in Austria with the Austrian orchestra Philharmonie Marchfeld and conductor Bettina Schmitt. For more than 10 years, he is organizing summer and winter concerts in Ljubljana (in the Botanical Garden and in the Red Hall of the City Hall), which have already become a tradition.
Both he and others perform his music regularly in concerts and tours throughout the world, and he regularly collaborates with many musicians and other artists in international projects in a number of ensembles.
In his own words, Kosovinc says, “in my music, some will find entertainment or a beautified evening after an exhausting working day; others will identify themselves with it on an emotional level, and still others will observe complex compositional structures and methods of processing the musical material in it. Everybody will be able to find something to enjoy in my music, and I am very happy to share it with them!”.
