Sergej Nakarjakov

Sergei Nakariakov has broken through more than a few of the perceived boundaries framing the world of the trumpet in classical music. Dubbed "The Paganini of the trumpet" by the Finnish presses after a performance at the Korsholm Festival when he was only 13 years old, Sergei has developed a unique musical voice, which is much more than a vehicle for astonishing virtuosity. His repertoire includes not only the entire range of original literature for the trumpet; but is continually expanding into broader territories, including many fascinating transcriptions, always searching for ever new means of musical expression. At the same time, he has single-handedly brought the flugelhorn to prominence on the concert platform.
Born in Gorky in 1977, Sergei began to study the piano at the age of six. After a spine injury in 1986, that curtailed his piano studies, he decided to learn the trumpet. In the early years, his father, Mikhail Nakariakov, tirelessly sought various trumpet teachers. However, Sergei mostly pays tribute to the technical and musical gifts he has learned from Mikhail Nakariakov, who has transcribed a large repertoire of classical concertos for the trumpet and with whom he has studied daily from the very beginning and since 1995 exclusively.
From the age of ten Sergei started to perform with orchestras in major concert halls of the Soviet Union. In 1988, he got a diploma at a brass competition for adults. It became clear that, in order to develop his career, he had to leave the Soviet Union. Thus, his family made the decision to move to Israel in order to give him the liberty to travel. In 1991 he enjoyed great success at the Ivo Pogorelich Festival in Bad Wörishofen. In August of the same year he made his debut together with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival. One year later, in 1992, Sergei was a guest at the “Schleswig - Holstein Musikfestival” where he was awarded the "Prix Davidoff". Since then he has appeared in many of the world´s leading centres of music, including the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the Lincoln Centre in New York, the Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall in London. He gave concerts at numerous music festivals, such as in Cannes, Menton, Strasbourg, Verbier, Montreux, the Hollywood Bowl Festival in Los Angeles, Mostly Mozart in New York and the Proms in London.
Nowadays Sergei still performs on festivals of most European Countries. Each year he tours for several weeks in Japan and also appears as guest soloist in North America and Canada. He is collaborating with the world's most feted musicians and conductors, such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Bashmet, Jiri Belohlavek, Andrey Boreyko, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Martha Argerich, Christoph Eschenbach, Evgeni Kissin, Emmanuel Krivine, Tatjana Nikolaeva, Sir Neville Marriner, Kent Nagano, Dimitri Sitkovetsky, Saulius Sondeckis, Vladimir Spivakov, Xian Zhang and Jaap van Sweden. He performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the St. Martin in the Fields, the German Chamber Orchestra in Bremen, the Moscow Soloists and Moscow Virtuosi, the Württemberg and Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Radiosinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, the RSO Stuttgart, the Rundfunksinfonierorcher Saarbrücken and the MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig. His international touring schedule includes performances in the foremost concert series all over the world, both with orchestra and in recital - accompanied by his sister pianist Vera Okhotnikova or Belgian pianist Maria Meerovitch.
On Oct. 13, 2002 Sergei Nakariakov received the ECHO Klassik Award on ZDF as instrumentalist of the year from the German Phono-Academy.
On Jan. 18, 2006 Sergei Nakariakov premiered “ad absurdum” with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, a concerto especially composed for Sergei Nakariakov by Jörg Widmann, which features his unusual circular breathing capabilities. On Oct. 05, 2007 Sergei Nakariakov performed “ad absurdum” with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jiri Belohlavec at the Barbican in London. “Sergei Nakariakov must be like a fish, breathing through gills! Where else does he take the air to play that endless trompet-fluttering Jörg Widmann has tailored to him?” asked critics of the Münchner Merkur. Since then this highly virtuous 15 minute lasting Perpetuum Mobile was performed throughout the whole of Europe, among other with the BBC Orchestra London, the Hungarian National Orchestra in Budapest, in Liege and Bochum and with the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg. Recently Sergei performed “ad absurdum” with the RSO in Stuttgart in 2011 and in the beginning of 2012, he concerted with the Jungen Deutschen Philharmonie in the Alten Oper Frankfurt. In the beginning of October 2013/14 he played the opening concerts with “ad absurdum” in the Prag Rudolfinum with the Czech Philharmonics conducted by Jiri Behlolavek.
On May 20, 2006 Sergei Nakariakov served as a member of the jury at the “BBC Young Musician of the Year 2006” Competition at Newcastle Gateshead in England.
Sergei Nakariakov's discography with TELDEC CLASSICS INTERNATIONAL (WARNER) has drawn the most enthusiastic public and critical acclaim; and incorporates the most famous trumpet concertos as well as two recital albums of virtuoso music for trumpet by Bizet, Paganini, de Falla, Gershwin and Rimski-Korsakov with pianist Alexander Markovitch. The "Élégie" recording, with pianist Vera Nakariakova, includes a selection of famous romantic works for voice and piano transcribed for trumpet and piano. "Concertos for Trumpet" features transcriptions for trumpet and flügelhorn of string concertos by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Hoffmeister. The French magazine: "Repertoire" gave it the highest classification: "R10 - Coup de foudre". "NO LIMIT" was awarded the RTL d'Or. "From Moscow with love" features Russian Concertos. One more recent CD is “Echoes from the past”, with trumpet concertos originally written for bassoon and violoncello, written by Hummel, Mozart, Weber and Camille Saint-Saens.
Highpoint of 2010/11 was Sergei Nakariakov's premiere of the trumpet concerto "PIETA" by Christian Jost dedicated to Chet Baker, with the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg in the Laeiszhalle.
In the beginning of 2012 Warner Classics released a collection box of all of Sergei´s Teldec recordings again. In July 2012, Warner Classics released a new recording of Sergei Nakariakov and Maria Meerovitch, which is called “Widmung”. It shows a wide and varied classical repertoire for the trumpet and flugelhorn.
In Japan he appeared in a romantic film production impersonating a Russian trumpet player: “Taiga-no itteki”. He also played in the soundtrack of the film.
SERGEI NAKARIAKOV plays instruments by ANTOINE COURTOIS PARIS