Artist in Residence: Azadeh Maghsoodi

At the age of 15, Azadeh Maghsoodi played Bach's double concerto with the star violinist at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival and attracted international attention overnight. This success story was preceded by intensive training with Prof. Maria Egelhof (Lübeck University of Music), Prof. David Takeno (Guildhall School of Music and Drama London) and participation in international masterclasses with Zakhar Bron, Thomas Brandis, Nora Chastain, Baiba Skride, Pavel Vernikov, Igor Ozim and Didier Lockwood, among others. Azadeh Maghsoodi has won prizes at international competitions and has twice won the NDR Culture Prize. She has performed at the Podium Festival Esslingen and Pòdium Matadepera, the Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern and the Oberstdorfer Musiksommer and has appeared as a soloist with the Neubrandenburger Philharmonie, the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock and the Polish Chamber Orchestra, among others. Concert tours have taken her to America, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Russia, the Czech Republic and the Baltic States. Other highlights of her musical career to date include her performance at the "NoRuz Gala" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and a tour of Germany as a duo partner alongside Nigel Kennedy in 2010. Her current project "MoonBach" with Andis Paegle (Fender Rhodes, organ, etc.) promises to be a captivating experience. her current project "MoonBach" with Andis Paegle (Fender Rhodes, organ, etc.) promises a captivating fusion of selected compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, Persian melodies and "Dainas" (Latvian folk songs) as the cultural roots of the two musicians, as well as improvisation in a concert form characterised by seamless transitions between the pieces. Azadeh Maghsoodi has appeared several times on radio and television, most recently on the well-known Persian TV show "Chandshanbeh ba Sina Valiollah" on the MBC channel in London. A childhood dream came true: she was allowed to play a violin by Antonio Stradivari. This special instrument was kindly made available to her by the renowned master violin maker Florian Leonhard as part of his "Florian Leonhard Fellowship". As a long-standing scholarship holder of the German Foundation for Musical Life, Azadeh Maghsoodi has played instruments by Joseph Gagliano (Naples 1795) and Lorenzo Ventapane (Naples 1790), among others. She currently plays a violin by Stefan-Peter Greiner (Bonn 1998).