Described as a ‘phenomenon’, Tatjana Vassiljeva is known as a musician possessing an irreproacha- ble technique and irresistible range of sonorities, whose superlative virtuosity is of only minor im- portance beside the strength of musical personality and ideas, and her ability to communicate them. Tatjana’s innate musical curiosity is reflected by her extensive repertoire which ranges from baroque to contemporary music and includes several works of which she has given the world première.
Since beginning her performing career at the age of twelve, Tatjana Vassiljeva has performed throu- ghout Europe but it was as winner of the First Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris at the 7th Concours de Violoncelle Rostropovitch in 2001 – the first Russian to be awarded the top prize in the history of the competition – and as ‘Revelation from Abro- ad’ at the 2005 Victoires de la Musique Classique that brought her international recognition.
Tatjana has since built a formidable reputation as one of the leading cellists of today, performing with the most prestigious orchestras including the Na- tional Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Moscow Soloists, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Nationale de France, Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Ba- sle Sinfonie, RSO Vienna, DSO Berlin, New Japan Philharmonic and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orche- stra under such distinguished conductors as Yuri Temirkanov, Valery Gergiev, David Zinman, Clau- dio Abbado, Daniele Gatti, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Bashmet, Dmitri Kitaenko, Michail Jurowski, Jiri Kout, Sakari Oramo, Christoph Eschenbach, Bertrand de Billy, Vassily Sinaisky and Krzysztov Penderecki, with whom she gave the world premie- re of the revised version of the composer’s Largo.
Highlights of recent seasons include performan- ces with the Munich Philharmonic / Dmitri Kita- jenko, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande / Miguel Hart Bedoya, Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse / Tugan Sokhiev who she rejoined for their forthcoming tour in Asia in 2013. She will also perform with Orchestre de Paris and Paavo Jarvi at the Musikverien, Vienna and with Orche- stre national de Lyon, in forthcoming seasons.
As a chamber musician, Tatjana Vassiljeva per- forms at international festivals such as Louisiana, Lockenhaus, Kronberg, Colmar, Elba, the Rencon- tres de musique de chambre at Chambery and La Grange de Meslay and the Folle journées in Nantes and Tokyo in collaboration with Viktor Tretiakov, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov, Baiba Skride, Augustin Dumay, Louis Lortie, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Antoine Ta- mestit and Renaud and Gautier Capuçon and Paul Badura-Skoda. Tatjana regularly performs chamber music concerts throughout Europe and Japan with the soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Tatjana Vassiljeva was born in Novosibirsk, Rus- sia and began studying the cello at the age of six with Eugenij Nilov at the Special Music School. Having won second prize at the Munich Competi- tion in 1994, she moved there to study with Walter Northas at the Music High School and completed her postgraduate degree with David Geringas at the Hanns Eisler Music College in Berlin.
