Renowned for her strong musical personality and the versatility of her musicianship, which combines powerful dynamism and intense lyricism, Liza Ferschtman has been praised in the international musical press, with The New York Times describing her as ‘nothing short of revelatory’, and referring to the ‘laserlike intensity, purity and refined beauty of her playing’, while The Guardian commended her ‘vivacious musical personality’ and ‘lovely lyrical quality’.
The daughter of prominent Russian-Jewish musicians, Liza grew up in a musical environment and as a young child she was soon taking her first violin lessons from the legendary violinist and family friend, Philip Hirschhorn. After his death she studied with Herman Krebbers, Ida Kavafian at the celebrated Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and David Takeno in London.
Since winning the Dutch Music Award, the most distinguished prize for Dutch musicians, in 2006 Liza has appeared as a soloist with many of the world’s top orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Warsw Philharmonic and Brussels Philharmonic, collaborating with conductors including Jaap van Zweden, Iván Fischer, Stéphane Denève, Jacek Kaspszyk, Jun Märkl, Frans Brüggen, Neeme Järvi, Otto Tausk, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Thomas Søndergård.
Liza Ferschtman is also a passionate chamber musician and a popular guest at festivals and concert venues throughout the world. Since 2007 she has been artistic director of the Delft Chamber Music Festival, an internationally renowned festival that invites world-class musicians to present a captivating, strongly thematic programme each summer. Liza Ferschtman’s chamber music partners include Elisabeth Leonskaja, Jonathan Biss, Alisa Weilerstein, Christian Poltera, Julius Drake, Martin Roscoe, Nobuko Imai, Lars Anders Tomter, Marie Luise Neunecker, Sharon Kam and Amihai Grosz. Her Wigmore Hall debut with Roman Rabinovich in December 2017 received glowing reviews, including 5 stars in The Independent.
Liza Ferschtman has an impressive discography. Her CDs under the Challenge label feature violin concertos by Beethoven, Dvořák, Mendelssohn, Korngold and Bernstein (Serenade). She has also recorded chamber music on CD, including Mendelssohn’s octet, works by Schubert and Beethoven performed with Inon Barnatan and the Kodaly, Ravel and Schulhoff duos performed with her father, the cellist Dmitri Ferschtman. Liza’s CD featuring solo works by Bach and Ysaÿe was chosen as ‘CD of the Month’ by The Strad magazine. Her latest recording (Korngold Concerto anmd Bernstein Serenade) has also been highly acclaimed by the international press.