Christina McEwan
WHEN a comment on the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s Facebook says that Alexander Ramm could have been a model, you know you have something special in this package. But he is more than a pretty face – he is one of the most exciting cellists working on the international stage today. This UNISA prizewinner in 2010 will be in Cape Town to open the CPO’s autumn season with the Rococo Variations by Tchaikovsky tonight at The Cape Town City Hall.
What makes this cellist tick? You might think it is music, but it is life itself for this very positive young man.
“I love life in all its forms. I love spending time with my family. I also love driving and my car is my sanctuary. He also says a good movie is a must and his taste runs from arthouse to blockbusters! Music is not my whole life – friends and family are very important to me, ” he says.
Ramm lives in Moscow with his wife, Anna Odintsova, a pianist who won the prize for best accompanist when she played with him in the Tchaikovsky Competition, who he numbers as one of his main inspirations, the other being his mother who has always been his cornerstone. She moved back to her native Lithuania three years ago but he visits as often as he can. And he also says his teachers at different times have been inspirational.
When Ramm was in kindergarten in Kaliningrad, he heard “a very weird ensemble”. It was eight violins and one cello. All players were children from local music school. I was so taken by the sound that when I got home I imagined I was a violinist, pretending to be one in front of a mirror. My mother – neither she nor my father or even grandparents weren’t musicians - soon gave in and took me to the local music school. I was just seven years old, and at the audition, they told me I was too old to study the violin! It was a terrible blow for me and I was really upset. But a lovely young woman at the school took at look at the size of my hands and offered to let me try the “big violin”. And so I fell in love. I am so happy that this was what destiny had in store for me.”
Ramm won the UNISA competition, and discovered that winning such a competition comes with a huge responsibility.
“The incredible happiness I had felt was not short-lived. Now I had to prove I was worthy of winning such an accolade.”
One of the prizes was a concert tour of South Africa in 2012 and he showed indeed that he was worthy. What’s more, he thoroughly enjoyed it.
Ramm was born in 1988 in Vladivostock and his talent was quickly perceived once he entered the Glier music school in Kaliningrad at the age of seven. His first teacher’s serious attitude towards music studies and her expertise as a teacher quickly revealed the young Ramm’s rare musical talent.
Three years late he was accepted into the Chopin Moscow College of Music Performance and in 2007 entered the the Moscow. He was also a post-graduate student at the Hanns-Eisler Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin under the guidance of the famed cellist Frans Helmerson, where Ramm was perfecting his artistry and mastery of the instrument.
After his debut at the age of nine with the Kaliningrad Chamber Orchestra in the Kaliningrad Philharmonic, he was on the path to playing with orchestras in Russia and now across the world.
Other prizes he has won include the Gold Medal at the 4th Moscow Competition for young cellists(2003), as well as top prizes at the First Cambridge International Boston Competition, the Moscow Festival of Romantic Music and the 3rd Beijing International Music Competition in Beijing and the First All-Russsia Music completion, both in 2010, the Janigro Cello Competition in Croatia.
And the Paulo Cello Competition.
A chamber musician as well, he has established an award-winning duo partnership with pianist Anna Odintsova, and attends master classes with the outstanding cellists of our century such as Maria Kliegel. Since 2012, he has been a soloist of the Saint-Petersburg House of Music.
He plays a fine cello by the Cremonese luthier Gabrielle Jebran Yakoub.
Ramm’s second tour takes him to Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and other smaller towns, but he says his concert with the CPO is definitely a highlight. I am ecstatic to be back.”
The concert, conducted by Conrad van Alphen, will also include the symphonic poem Tamara by Balkirev and A London Symphony by Vaughan Williams.
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