DMITRY RASUL-KAREYEV: Principal Clarinet of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Associate of the Royal Academy of Music Dmitry was born in Moscow in 1984. His professional development started with his first clarinet teacher Vladimir Ferapontov at Moscow Central Music School and continued in the class of Victor Petrov at Moscow State Conservatoire. From age 15, as a member of V.Spivakov International Foundation, Dmitry performed regularly in major concert halls in Moscow and St Petersburg, and in 2000 V. Spivakov presented him with a new clarinet, exclusively selected by Paul Meyer. By that time he was already a laureate of several competitions and festivals in Russia, including second prize in the Rosanov International Clarinet Competition 2000.

In 2002 Dmitry was awarded a full scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music in London. In the next six years he continued to win prestigious prizes, such as the Geoffrey Hawks Clarinet Prize, the Max Pirani Prize, John Ireland Prize and Nickolas Blake Prize for chamber music, and the John Solomon Competition for all winds. He also won a Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe scholarship in 2006, and in the following year an award from the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In 2010 Dmitry won the International Debussy Clarinet Competition in Paris. In recognition of his professional standing he was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2013. At the Oxford Chamber Music Festival in 2006, together with accordionist Milos Milivojevic, Dmitry performed the world premiere of Elena Firsova’s “Invocation” for clarinet and classical accordion, and at the Cheltenham Music Festival in 2007 he played Steve Reich’s “New York Counterpoint”. These appearances led to invitations to many other festivals, such as Montreux-Vevey, Aix-en-Provence, Verbier and Dvorak Praha.

2006 was also the year when Dmitry began his orchestral career by joining the Verbier Festival Orchestra, where he was chosen to perform solo with maestro James Levine at the piano. In the same year Dmitry won a trial as Sectional Leader in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which continued until 2008 when he left for Finland to take a position as Co-principal Clarinet in Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2009 Dmitry was appointed Principal Clarinet in the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and is now based in Geneva. Since 2011 he plays a Wurlitzer German system clarinet.

Dmitry is a founder and director of “Soloist Academy” summer courses and Festival in Pays de Gex (France). The courses are designed to help musicians make their first steps in the professional music world.

© Niels Ackermann / Lundi13