“About Alina Pogostkina one can only be enthusiastic: so young, so brilliant, so musical, perfect and at the same time so natural.”
– Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 2007
Winner of the 2005 Sibelius Competition, Alina Pogostkina’s recent concert tours have seen her perform at some of the world’s most renowned festivals and concert venues. Pogostkina has collaborated with conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Gennadi Roshdestvensky, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Mark Elder, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Mikko Franck, Paavo Järvi, Andris Nelsons, Andrey Boreyko and Thomas Hengelbrock.
As soloist she performed with orchestras such as the SWR Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, as well as the Finnish Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm, Hallé and Czech Philharmonic orchestras. Pogostkina has also appeared with the Residentie Orkest, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as well as the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras.
Last season, Alina Pogostkina embarked on a tour of Japan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Jonathan Nott. Highlights of the 2011/12 season include performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Orchestra of the Estonian Opera under the baton of Arvo Volmer, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR with Stéphane Denève and a mini tour with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jonathan Nott to Muscat.
Her great love of chamber music has led her to work with musicians such as Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Menahem Pressler, Christoph Eschenbach, Pekka Kuusisto, Maxim Rysanov and Joshua Bell. Current chamber music activities focus on performances with pianist Havard Gimse and trio recitals with clarinettist Reto Bieri and pianist Diana Ketler.
Numerous radio and television productions document her artistry. Her passion for contemporary music is evident in her recording of Peteris Vasks’ complete body of work for violin, due for release in Spring 2012.
Born in St. Petersburg, Alina Pogostkina moved to Germany in 1992, receiving her earliest violin lessons from her father. A former student of Antje Weithaas at Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”, Alina Pogostkina has won many important competitions, including the 1997 Louis Spohr Competition in Freiburg, where she was the youngest competitor. In 1999 she received the “Prix de l’espoire” of the Presidents of the European Council. In 2001 she was a prize-winner at the Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels and in 2002 of the International Violin Competition in Indianapolis, USA.
Alina Pogostkina performs frequently at internationally renowned festivals such as Schwetzinger Festspiele, the festivals in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Bergen and Aspen Festivals, Beethovenfest Bonn, Salzburg Festival where she appeared with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica as well as the Dresden Musikfestspiele and Lockenhaus Festival.
Alina Pogostkina plays a violin by Antonio Stradivari (Cremona 1709), made available to her by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.