Gavriel Lipkind

Born in 1977 in Israel to a family of immigrants from Moscow, Lipkind enjoyed a stellar rise to fame in his early years and appeared in some of the world’s most prestigious venues with orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, and the Baltimore Symphony, working alongside outstanding musicians such as Zubin Mehta, Philippe Entremont, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Yehudi Menuhin, Pinchas Zukerman, Yuri Bashmet, and Gidon Kremer. Having graduated from three major academies on three continents and won more than a dozen top prizes in major competitions, Lipkind found himself at the pinnacle of his youthful achievements. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote of him: “A new star ascends the cello sky […] The young Israeli cellist is one of the major musicians to have entered the music scene […]” (Ellen Kohlhaas, 1997)

In spite of his fulminant success as a young cellist, Lipkind decided aged 23 to take a sabbatical and focus wholly on the innermost aspects of his musicianship. With a Glenn Gouldian precognition he relocated into a small village in the Taunus mountains near Frankfurt and spent the next three years working reflectively on his repertoire, liaising with composers and experimenting with new instrument setups. During this period Lipkind’s lifelong fascination with recordings and the studio found fruitful ground. Concluding over three years of his active retreat he released among other recordings his rendering of Bach’s Cello Suites. These recordings revealed a conceptual musician with his own compositional voice and a true expressive virtuoso with a deep knowledge of the cello. Shortly thereafter, a whole series of albums featuring major cello concertos, an album titled ‘In Search of New Worlds’ showcasing the Lipkind Quartet as well as half a dozen recital programmes for live broadcast were released, putting Lipkind in a unique niche of his own.

160,000 sold copies of exclusive editions and four reprints later, these recordings have long become celebrated jewels and collector’s items in the music world. Off stage, Gavriel Lipkind inspired hundreds of cellists, string players, and ensembles around the world by sharing his modus vivendi in masterclasses and organising special retreat courses for musicians.

Over the past year Lipkind was often referred to by the press as “The Cello Maverick”. His touring with outstanding orchestras and conductors such as the Mariinsky Theatre under Valery Gergiev, Brussels Philharmonic under Anthony Wit and Michel Tabachnik, and Tokyo Metropolitan under Eliyahu Inbal – became a small part of a rich spectrum of activities.

At the age of 40, Gavriel Lipkind has taken the most daring step in his career to date. Convinced that producing sleek video content of great performances is key to the future relevance of classical music, Lipkind moved to the Netherlands and took over a famous monumental building in the heart of the old city of Utrecht. He established ConcertLab.com – a media corporation that operates a new kind of concert venue that is specialised in filming acoustically performed recitals. Hundreds of top artists will soon come to be filmed at ConcertLab in a new innovative way.

Gavriel Lipkind plays a unique Italian cello labelled “Aloysius Michael Garani (Bologna, 1702)” estimated, however, to have been completed in the years 1670-1680; An enigma which has come to be known as “The Zihrhonheimer cello”. This instrument has been made available thanks to the generous support of D. & M. P.