Christoph Croisé (1993)
is a cellist with international concert appearances. At the age of 17, he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall, where he has performed on several occasions since. He also appears regularly in further world-renowned concert halls including the Tonhalle Zurich, the Wigmore Hall London, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Residenz Munich, the Capella St. Petersburg, the Philharmonia St. Petersburg and the State Philharmonia Baku. Several of his concerts have been broadcast live on radio and television by the Bavarian Radio, the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, RTS, RSI, SRF, WMFT and others.

As a soloist, he has appeared under the batons of conductors such as M. Sanderling, L. Gendre, K. Griffiths, A. Guliyev, A. Ardal, M. Dones and D. Botinis with various orchestras including the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra Baku, Azerbaijan, the Skyline Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, the Camerata Zurich, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra of Constance, the State Capella Symphony Orchestra St. Petersburg, Russia, the Collegium Musicum Basel, the Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Tirana, the Bavarian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Michoacan, the Harbin Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra Budejovice.

Christoph Croisé is regularly invited to perform at prestigious festivals such as the Festival “Musical Olympus” in St. Petersburg, New York, and Baku, the Lucerne Festival, the Davos Festival “Young Artists in Concert”, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, the Salzkammergut Festwochen Gmunden, the Schwarzwald Music Festival, the Festival de Sully, the Belfast International Arts Festival, the Emilia-Romagna Festival and the Festival de Musique de Wissembourg. As a chamber musician, he has performed with Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Mayuko Kamio, Alexander Zemtsov, Bartłomiej Nizioł, Oliver Schnyder, Oxana Shevchenko, Nikita Mndoyants, Lorenzo Soulès, and Alexander Panfilov.

He has been laureate of several first prizes at international competitions including the Schoenfeld International String Competition Harbin/China (2016), the Manhattan International Music Competition (2016), the International "Salieri-Zinetti" Competition in Verona/Italy (2016), the International Johannes Brahms Competition (2015), the International Competition “Ibla Grand Prize” in Sicily (2010), the International Competition “Petar Konjović” in Belgrad (2009), the Migros-Kulturprozent in Zurich (2015 and 2016), the International Carlos Prieto Competition Morelia/Mexico (3rd Prize, 2016) and the First Berliner International Music Competition (Golden Medal with honors, 2017).

In 2017 Christoph Croisé was awarded the Swiss Ambassador's Award. His debut album with Oxana Shevchenko was released in May 2015 on Quartz Classics.

Christoph Croisé began playing the cello at the age of seven under the tutelage of Katharina Kühne. Since 2007, he has been studying with Alexander Neustroev and, as of 2013, with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at the Berlin University of Arts. He has additionally benefited from major artistic advice from Steven Isserlis, Michael Sanderling, David Geringas, Walter Grimmer, and Frans Helmerson. Christoph Croisé plays on a Goffriller cello made in Venice in 1712.

Chamber Orchestra I TEMPI
We are enthusiastic young professional musicians from Basel with a will to make music from all the periods and styles using historically appropriate instruments. Together with our conductor, Gevorg Gharabekyan, we formed the Chamber Orchestra I TEMPI in 2013.

We overcome the traditional separation between baroque and modern orchestra by using instruments appropriate for each work we play within a concert. This allows us to design contrasting concert programs using authentic styles and nuanced interpretations.

The name "I TEMPI" [Italian for Times] reflects our desire to perform a piece of music by trying to approach the musical language of the period. In this way through the timeless expressiveness of music we aim to establish a connection to the present.

Our passion for expressiveness, liveliness and highly detailed differentiation drives us in our engagement with each work whether baroque, classical or modern, and whether known or unknown. We also enjoy including contemporary works with their innovative and unfamiliar sound aesthetics to contrast with the music from earlier eras.

Rotation of musicians within instrument groups is important for us as well, thus each musician in an orchestral group can experience different responsibilites including leadership roles.

Gevorg Gharabekyan
is founder and conductor of the chamber orchestra I TEMPI in Basel, which performs a wide repertoire ranging from baroque to modern music, on period and modern instruments. In 2015 the orchestra recorded it’s debut CD with Swiss Radio SRF 2 and label Genuin.

Gharabekyan has conducted the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Aargau Symphony Orchestra, Groningen Symphony Orchestra and different Orchestras of Järvi, Aspen and Gstaad Music Festival. From 2009-2011 he studied conducting with prof. Ralf Weikert in Lucerne (master degree with distinction) and attended conducting masterclasses with Jorma Panula, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, David Zinman and Leonid Grin. Born in Armenia, he started his musical education as a violinist and was a winner of several violin competitions (i.a. Khachaturian int. competition - 2nd prize). He continued violin studies in Freiburg (Germany) with prof. Rainer Kussmaul and in Basel (Switzerland) with prof. Adelina Oprean, …