The Russian cellist has been awarded €10,000 by the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival

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Cellist Anastasia Kobekina © Lusine Pepanyan

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The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival has selected 29-year-old Russian cellist Anastasia Kobekina for its 2024 Leonard Bernstein Award, a prize of €10,000 for young musical talent.

A graduate of the Kronberg Academy, Kobekina studied with professor Jens-Peter Maintz and Frans Helmerson in Germany, and with Jerome Pernoo in Paris. She has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Wiener Symphoniker, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and the BBC Philharmonic.

Her accolades include third prize in the Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019, second prize in the Enescu Competition in 2016, and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Artists award in 2022. She was also BBC New Generation Artist from 2018 until 2021. Kobekina performs on a 1698 Antonio Stradivari cello on loan from the Stradivari Foundation Habisreutinger.

The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival declared Kobekina as being one of the most promising cellists of her generation: ‘she combines beauty of tone with warmth of heart and great joy in experimenting’.

Established in 2002, previous winners of the Leonard Bernstein Award include Alisa Weilerstein, Lang Lang, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Martin Grubinger, and Krzystof Urbánski.

This year’s award jury comprised Alexander Bernstein, Jamie Bernstein, Nina Bernstein Simmons, Ute Fesquet, Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Kuhnt, Per Hauber, Oliver Stolz, and Barbara Lebitsch.

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