Ekaterina & Frank

Ekaterina Levental

Ekaterina was born in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, a republic in the former Soviet Union. She studied singing at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and harp at the Conservatories of Enschede, Detmold (Germany) and Rotterdam. She obtained her master’s degree cum laude for both. She studied harp with Alexandre Bonnet, Godelieve Schrama, Germaine Lorenzini en Catherine Michel among others. And singing with Meinard Kraak, Rita Dams, Barbara Pearson, Valerie Guillorit, Paul Triepels and at this moment she is being coached by Margreet Honig.

She started her career as a harpist and singer with harp duo Bilitis, together with Eva Tebbe, with whom she performed for 18 years and won several international prizes. The duo made their own arrangements, gave composition assignments and made music theater performances. Duo Bilitis produced three CDs with music by Debussy, Ravel, Franck, Granados and De Falla, among others.

Ekaterina performs in opera and theaterperformances. She has worked as a soloist with opera and music theater companies such as De Nationale Opera, LOD Gent Belgium, Opera Trionfo, Jan Fabre/Troubleyn Belgium, Hollands Diep Dordrecht, Opera Spanga, Veenfabriek Leiden, Theater Sonnevanck, Opera Nijetrijne, Holland Opera, Toneelhuis Antwerp, Silbersee , LeineRoebana, Diamantfabriek, World Opera Lab and others. She has performed on international stages and festivals such as Holland Festival, O-Festival Rotterdam, Aurora Festival, Emmy Verhey Festival, Festival Musica Nova, Grachtenfestival, Oerol, World Harp Congress, Avignon Festival, Korea National Opera, Calais Opera House and Tokyo Opera House.

With Chris Koolmees Ekaterina produces various music theater projects as a group called LEKS Compagnie, including the autobiographical triptych De Weg – De Grens – Schoppenvrouw. 6 LEKS productions are currently playing throughout the Netherlands and Belgium. And LEKS played in Spain, Estonia, France, South Africa, Cyprus, Ukraine, Japan and Uzbekistan.

Ekaterina also gives solo concerts where she accompanies herself on the harp.

Info: www.ekaterina.nl and www.leks.nu

“It was love at first hearing when I came into contact, thanks to pianist Frank Peters, for the first time with the music of Nikolai Medtner. A feeling of deep recognition, as if something that you already knew for your whole life suddenly reveals itself for the first time. Medtner’s music had a mesmerizing force and I am humbly thankful for his ability to fly me to a different world.”

Photo: Feriet Tunc

Frank Peters

Frank Peters studied with Janine van Mever at the Arnhemse Hogeschool voor de Kunst and afterwards with Jan Wijn at the Sweelinck Conservatorium te Amsterdam. He earned his terminal degrees “Cum Laude.” Additionally, he took lessons with Peter Feuchtwanger, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Hans Leygraf, Gyorgy Sebök and Boris Berman.
After winning several prizes at national and international competitions, including the International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, he has performed on all major stages in the Netherlands. He also performed in almost all countries of Europe, Russia, China, Australia and in the United States.

Pianist Frank Peters is active in a wide variety of genres of piano literature. As a soloist, he has performed with, among others, The Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, The Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Residentie Orkest, The Gelderland Orchestra and the Polish National Radio Orchestra in piano concertos by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Schnittke, Ravel, Gershwin, Górecki, Beethoven and Bach.

He is also a sought-after partner in chamber music. With the Quatuor Danel, for example, he played Sorabji’s unprecedentedly complicated piano quintet. This collaboration led to an intense relationship with this renowned quartet and to performances of piano quintets by Medtner, Respighi, Fauré, Franck, Shostakovich, Weinberg, Chausson and Schnittke. He has also performed with Emmy Verhey, Phillip Graffin, Tatiana Samouil, Eldar Nebolsin, Paavali Jumppanen, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Mikhail Zemtsov, Gérard Caussée, Quatuor Mailbran, Zemlinsky Quartet and Oxalys, among others.

In 2003, Frank Peters realized a program around Canadian composer Vivier in collaboration with the Zephyr Quartet. This program was revived at the Holland Festival in 2005 and garnered rave reviews in all major daily newspapers. The “Melbourne International Arts Festival” took over the program in 2006. In February 2004, he gave the world premiere of Hanna Kulenty’s third piano concerto at the “Musica Polonica Nova” festival. It was followed by its Dutch premiere with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in February 2006. Countless concerts were recorded by radio and television at home and abroad. Meanwhile, he worked on CD recordings of works by Kulenty, Ter Veldhuis and Frederick van Rossum. He also recorded CDs with theHexagon Ensemble, of which Frank has been the pianist since 2007, with works by English and Dutch composers and recently with the Piano Quintets of Mozart and Beethoven.

Frank Peters is a principal study teacher at the Coservatorium of Amsterdam and regularly gives master classes in France, Belgium, Italy and China. His students are successful at national and international competitions.

Info: www.frankpeters.nl

My great love for Rachmaninoff brought me to Medtner. Once, in the Soviet Union, I bought what turned out to be, even in that country, a scarce volume of Skazki (“fairy tales” or “narratives”) by Medtner. The music stayed on my grand piano for a long time. Very slowly I discovered that it turned out to be a very special and unique world. Certainly related to Rachmaninoff but in addition completely individual and very Russian.

Medtner’s vocal works are a delight to me on many fronts. Most importantly for me, I see mirrored in his music my soul, my emotional life.

Photo: Marije van den Berg