Yulia Deyneka

The violist Yulia Deyneka was born in 1982 on the island of Sakhalin off Russia’s Pacific coast. She began playing violin at the age of seven and had her first lessons at the Gnessin Music Academy in Moscow; at the age of 14 she switched to violin and entered the class of Alexander Bobrovsky at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory before moving to Germany in 2001 to complete her training with Felix Schwartz in Rostock and Wilfried Strehle in Berlin. Yulia Deyneka won the International Rubinstein Competition in Moscow and the Rovere d’Or Competition in San Bartolomeo al Mare, Italy. Her most important mentor has been Daniel Barenboim, who invited her to perform for the first time with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2001, appointing her to principal viola of the Berlin Staatskapelle in 2005 and of the Pierre Boulez Ensemble in 2016. The two musicians also work together in the area of chamber music and have performed the major works of the viola repertoire. Deyneka regularly appears as a soloist with the Staatskapelle: credits include playing Schnittke’s Viola Concerto under Andris Nelsons; the opening of the new Philharmonie in Paris, when she played Boulez’s Dérive II: and, in the fall of 2016, her debut at Carnegie Hall in New York playing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante (conducted by Daniel Barenboim). Yulia Deyneka devotes a good part of her activity to chamber music. In the spring of 2017 she performed at the dedication of the Boulez Hall in Berlin with Lisa Batiashvili, François Leleux, Michael Barenboim, Magdalena Kožená, and Simon Rattle. She is also committed to the field of education. From 2006 to 2011 Deyneka taught at the Music Academy that Barenboim founded in Seville; since 2016 she has served on the faculty of the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin and is also involved in the Berlin Staatskapelle’s Orchestral Academy as a mentor.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 1 September 2014 playing chamber music by Mozart and Shostakovich.

April 2017