TRIO MOURJA

Graf MOURJA, violin - Françoise GROBEN, cello - Peter LAUL, piano

Graf MOURJA, Françoise GROBEN and Peter LAUL met at the Festival Juventus
that brings together young European soloists in Cambrai each July.
Françoise GROBEN was one of the festival’s first award winners in 1991,
along with Aleksandar Madzar, Alexandre Tharaud, Xavier Phillips
and Ronald Spaendonck; Graf MOURJA is a 1994 award winner and has become
the festivals foremost violinist, and Peter LAUL, a 2000 award winner,
one of the festival’s most determinant figures.

Born in the Ukraine, Graf MOURJA started to learn the violin with his father at the age of three.
Prize winner in eight international competitions, Graf MOURJA has performed
under such conductors as Svetlanov, Ermler, Dmitriev, Simonov, Janowski, Maksymiuk, Sado…
and has been a regular guest of the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris since 1996.
In January 2004 his Harmonia Mundi recording
with the pianist Natalia Gous “Le violon vagabond”, won all the French record prizes.
His most recent recording, of Shostakovitch’s Op. 134 Sonata, was received
with a similar accolade: “equal to that of Oïstrakh” and “more convincing under his bow
than under that of its dedicatee”. In Russia he has long been recognized
as the leading violinist of his generation.

Françoise GROBEN was the first Western musician to win the Silver Medal in the Tchaikovsky
competition in Moscow. She went on to perform throughout Europe in such prestigious venues as
the Salzburg Festpielhaus, the Vienna Musikverein, Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts,
Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Paris Théâtre de la Ville,
and was invited by Mstislav Rostropovitch to the MIDEM in Cannes...
She has since performed in Japan, China, America, Canada and Israel with numerous orchestras
directed by conductors such as Svetlanov, Rostropovitch, Kitaienko, Harding…
From 1997 to 2003 she was a member of the Zehetmair Quartet with whom she recorded
for ECM Records. She plays on a cello made by Matteo Gofriller (1695),
lent to her by the Banque Fortis du Luxembourg, her country of birth.

Peter LAUL was born into a family of musicians in Saint Petersburg.
His awards include the Saint Petersburg « Virtuosos 2000 »,
the Bremen competition and the Moscow Scriabine competition.
He has performed under Maxim Chostakovitch, Nicolaï Alexeiev, Valéry Gergiev
and Youri Temirkano, and has already played in Japan, the USA and throughout Europe
with soloists such as Ilya Gringolts, Marc Coppey, Graf Mourja, Sergey Levitin, David Grimal,
Laurent Korcia and Françoise Groben. He has recorded a Russian Sonata CD
and a Brahms cycle with the cellist Marc Coppey.
In Paris, he has performed at the Auditorium du Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay
the Théâtre du Châtelet, and twice at the Théâtre de la Ville.

 221334