Clarinettists Madis Kari and Toomas Vavilov, Neeme Ots (trumpet), Kirill Lissijenko (piano)

MADIS KARI
is one of his generation’s most distinguished clarinettists, who has studied at Georg Ots School of Music (teacher Olev Pikknurm) and Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (Prof. Hannes Altrov). He has furthered his knowledge in London with professors David Campbell, Julian Farrell and Colin Courtney. During his studies at the Royal College of Music M. Kari won the Frederick Thurston an-nual clarinettist award (1997) and the Senior Exhibitioner scholarship. In cooperation with the pia-nist Marko Martin they won the III Prize at the UK Howarth Young Clarinettist Competition (1998). M. Kari has worked in Richmond Chamber Symphony Orchestra as a concert master of the clarinet group and as a piano teacher in different schools in London and its vicinity.
From 2002, he is working in the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra as an assistant concert master of the clarinet group and he is teaching in Tallinn Music High School. M. Kari is constantly giving concerts all over Estonia and he is an expected performer at the Tallinn Chamber Music Fes-tival and Tallinn Winter Festival. He has represented Estonia in the World Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris and he is taking part of Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and Nyyd Ensemble projects. M. Kari is a PLMF Music Trust scholar.

TOOMAS VAVILOV
finished his clarinet studies in 1988 at TMKK (Tallinn Music High School, Ülo Üksik) and in 1992 at EMA (Estonian Academy of Music, Hannes Altrov) and in 1998 at the same place as an orchestral conductor (Jüri Alperten). He has furthered his skills in the field of conducting with Jonas Aleksa and Roman Matsov; as a clarinettist he has attended the master classes of Karl Leister and Ivan Mozgovenko; in 1990 he won the first prize at the Estonian Brass Players Competition. Vavilov was ERSO’s (Estonian National Symphony Orchestra) second conductor from 2004 to 2006. In 2006/07 he was the music director and chief conductor of Vanemuine. He has led Estonian orchestras, worked with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Latvian Radio Choir. As a clarinettist, he has given concerts in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Germany, Belgium, Australia and elsewhere. He is a professor at EAMT and a teacher at the Brass Department, he has continuously taught summer courses of brass students in Elva and Põltsamaa, and he has been part of a jury of various competitions. Toomas Vavilov has received the Annual Prize of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia’s Sound Art Foundation in 2001 and an annual scholarship of the interpreter in 2005.

NEEME OTS
began his studies at the age of six under the guidance of his father, dots. Aavo Ots and he has defended a bachelor’s degree at the Helsinki Sibelius Academy (2011). The studies continued at the same place at the masters’ level, where he furthered his skills in the context of an Erasmus program during 2013 in Madrid. N. Ots has taken part of the master courses of several distinguished trumpet pedagogues and he has been awarded with several prizes at competitions in Estonia and abroad. Chamber concerts have brought him together with such reputed interprets as M. Voites, M. Palm, A. Teemets, I. Zahharenkova etc. N. Ots has been a soloist in front of several well-known orchestras, he has been invited to perform as a soloist at several festivals and he has cooperated with such outstanding conductors as J.-P. Saraste, K. Järvi, L. Segerstam, M. Lehtinen etc. He has been a concert master of the trumpet group in several different youth orchestras with which he has performed in Estonia and abroad. In 2015, his first CD “Baroque Pictures” was released in cooperation with the organ player Tiia Tenno.

KIRILL LISSIJENKO
has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EAMT) in 2010 (prof. Lilian Semper, Irina Zahharenkova, Age Juurikas). In 2016, he graduated from master’s level of the Sibelius Academy in the piano class of Hui-Ying Liu-Tawaststjerna and from EAMT in the chamber music class of Matti Reimann. Kirill has furthered his skills in the master classes of pianists like Tamas Ungar, Rolf Plagge, Cyprien Katsaris, Daniel Pollack. He has successfully taken part of piano competitions “Helm Valtman” and “Con Brio” in Tallinn. In 2015, he obtained the 2nd Prize at the Alion Baltic International Music Competition. He is often performing in Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Russia and he has cooperated with two well-known singers – Maria Veretenina and Nadia Kurem and the flutist Andre Cebrian Garea. Kirill is frequently playing the harpsichord in a baroque ensemble and he has performed with the EAMT Symphony Orchestra guided by Paul Mägi.