VLADIMIR STOUPEL, Pianist & Conductor
Vladimir Stoupel is an individualist with an extraordinarily rich tonal and emotional palette. The Washington Post recently praised his “protean range of expression” and Der Tagesspiegel Berlin described his performance as “enthralling and atmospherically dense.” His extraordinary technical command allows him to explore the outermost limits of expression, mesmerizing audiences with his musical intensity. After a solo recital, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung granted the pianist a critic’s greatest compliment: “Unforgettable!”
Vladimir Stoupel has been a guest soloist with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, the German Symphony Orchestra and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Russian State Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Staatskapelle Mainz, and the Staatsphilharmonie Kassel. In the United States, he has been heard with orchestras including the Wheeling Symphony, Lancaster Symphony and Lake Placid Sinfonietta. He has collaborated with conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Michail Jurowski, Leopold Hager, Marek Janowski, Steven Sloane, Stefan Malzew, Patrik Ringborg, and Günther Neuhold.
Vladimir Stoupel has appeared on many of the world’s notable stages, including Berlin’s Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Avery Fisher Hall in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, Hamburg’s Grosse Musikhalle, and Dortmund’s Konzerthaus, to name just a few. Festival appearances include the renowned Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Piano en Valois (France), Brandenburgische Sommerkonzerte (Germany), Printemps des Arts in Monte Carlo, the Helsinki Festival, and Festival La Grange de Meslay in Tours (France).
He is a co-artistic director and founder of the international festival "Aigues-Vives en Musiques" (France).
Stoupel’s interest in breaking up the at times rigid incrustations of the concert business and – in addition to the cultivation of the classics – in dedicating himself to the unjustly forgotten “edges of the repertoire” is also reflected in his CD recordings and diverse chamber music activities. Thus, in 2007, he released a CD on the EDA label, entitled The Life of the Machines, with piano works of the twentieth century by George Antheil, Conlon Nancarrow, Alexander Mossolov, and others. His extensive discography includes Arnold Schoenberg’s complete piano works (auris subtilis, 2001), the complete sonatas of Alexander Scriabin (Audite, 2008) – a highly regarded recording for which he received the Luxemburgian Excellentia Prize, among others – and a recording of the complete works for viola and piano by Henri Vieuxtemps, with violist Thomas Selditz, which was awarded the coveted Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2002.
In recent years, Vladimir Stoupel has also made a name for himself as a conductor. He collaborates on a regular basis with the Philharmonie Neubrandenburg, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic, the Nîmes Chamber Orchestra, the Berlin Kammerphilharmonie, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Cuidad d'Oviedo, and the Young Europe Philharmonic, among others. With his own Ensemble Courage, founded in 1999, he has made guest appearances in Germany and other European countries. A main focus is on the works of the twentieth century and contemporary compositions. Thus, Stoupel gave an extremely successful debut at Iceland’s Reykjavik Arts Festival in 2009, where he performed works of contemporary women composers (Sofia Gubaidulina, Frangis Ali-Sade, and others) with the Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra. In July 2009 he conducted works by Simon Laks with the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Marseille, and in September 2009 he will direct the new production of Shostakovitch’s opera The Story of the Priest and his Worker Balda at Berlin’s Konzerthaus.
In addition to other planned engagements as conductor (including at the 2009 Jewish Culture Festival in Berlin with the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra Leipzig), the 2009/10 concert season holds numerous solo recitals and concerts for the pianist Vladimir Stoupel. He will be heard, for example, within the framework of the 2009/10 season opening at Berlin’s Konzerthaus with works by François Couperin and George Antheil. Recitals in Kassel (Musiktage) and Berlin (Konzerthaus), among others, again offer him the opportunity to arouse his audience’s enthusiasm for unjustly forgotten masterworks (Bohuslav Martinu, Karol Rathaus, Erwin Schulhoff, and others). Appearances with the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt, the Kassel State Orchestra, and the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, to mention just a few, are in the offing as are numerous concerts with his longstanding chamber music partner Judith Ingolfsson (violin) in Germany, France, Switzerland, and the USA.
Born in 1962, Vladimir Stoupel received his first piano lessons at the age of three. He studied piano with Evgeny Malinin and conducting with Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the famous Moscow Conservatory, thus laying the foundation for a remarkable international career. Moreover, he was a pupil of the renowned Russian pianist Lazar Berman for five years.
A French citizen since 1985, Vladimir Stoupel currently lives in Berlin.