Mark Lubotsky, violin
Katarina Andreasson, viola
Olga Dowbusch-Lubotsky, cello

The violinist Mark Lubotsky was born in Leningrad and grew up in Moscow. Along with Abraham Jampolsky, David Oistrakh was his most important teacher at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Lubotsky has won prizes at international competitions such as Salzburg Mozart Competition and Moscow Tchaikovsky competition. In the New Grove Dictionary of Music he is recognized as one of the best violinists of our time.

The Russian composer Alfred Schnittke played also an important role in Lubotsky’s life. The violinist became one of the first interpreters of Schnittke’s works and also a life-long friend. Alfred Schnittke dedicated to Mark Lubotsky the second violin concerto and three violin sonatas. It is characteristic of Lubotsky’s artistic reputation that Benjamin Britten chose him and no other violinist as soloist for the LP recording of his violin concerto Op.15, which he himself conducted. Britten declared: “This is the performance I have been waiting for.” Among the conductors with whom Mark Lubotsky has performed as a soloist, are Kyrill Kondrashin, Eugene Ormandy, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Bernard Haitink Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Kurt Sanderling and others.

His recordings were published by Philips, Sony Classical, Decca, Melodiya among others.

Katarina Andreasson is one of the leading Swedish violinists and concertmasters. By the age of 22 she became concertmaster of the Aalborg Symphony orchestra and later of the Gothenburg Opera Orchestra. Since 1997 she is concertmaster of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra of Örebro (SCO).

As a soloist she made her international debut in London 1997, where she performed Howard Blake’s violin concerto “The Leeds” at the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonic Orchestra. Critics hailed her “sparkling virtuosity”. She performed also Peteris Vasks’ violin concerto “Distant Light” at the Bantry Festival in Cork 2000. Her recording of this work with the SCO has received international critical acclaim. As leader of SCO she has also recorded the flute concertos by Mozart (Gallois/ Naxos) and as soloist Beethoven’s two Romances (Dausgaard/Simax). 2004 Katarina Andreasson performed the broadcasted world première of the violin concerto by Anders Flodin, dedicated to her. As a chamber musician she has performed worldwide, since 2003 regularly also with the Lubotsky Trio. Between 1996–2001 she taught the violin at the School of Music and Music Education within the Gothenburg University. After studying conducting with Professor Jorma Panula, Katarina is also having a career as a conductor.

The world-famous contemporary composer Sofia Gubaidulina has said of Olga Dowbusch-Lubotsky’s playing: “Her total command of the instrument, her faultless intonation and a very high degree of all-round musicality allow her to give the best suited nuances and colours to works of the most diverse styles and epochs. She is rightly a soloist but also an enrichment for any ensemble”.

Born in Russia (Saratov) she began playing the cello at the age of seven. She studied first in Moscow, then in Hamburg where she successfully completed her studies with Prof. Wolfgang Mehlhorn at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater. Olga Dowbusch- Lubotsky performs successfully in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Russia. Among her chamber music partners are Irina Schnittke, Ralf Gothoni, Vladimir Skanavi, Dmitri Vinnik, Amir Tebenikhin, Alexander Brussilovsky, Ferdinand Erblich and others. Together with Mark Lubotsky and Katarina Andreasson she founded the Lubotsky Trio in 2003. In 2010 she took part in the Netherlands’ première of Gubaidulina’s “Repentance” for cello, three guitars and double bass.

Her recordings have been published by Melodiya, Brilliant Classics, BIS and others.