In September and October 2020, eleven advanced violin students of the Zakhar Bron School of Music gave two concerts entitled "Young Soloists Play Baroque Music" in the Church of St. Peter, the oldest church in Zurich and the only Baroque church in the city. Tickets were sold out already two weeks before each concert.

In the school year 2020/2021 our students gave three concerts “Young Soloists Play Baroque Music”. The first took place in August in Herrliberg – as part of the Golden Festival 2020 – with the Gringolts Quartet. After the great success of this concert, two more were organized in September and October – this time in Zurich, at the Church of St. Peter.

The program of the concerts included some of the most famous masterpieces of Baroque music – from Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to the Devil’s Trill by Giuseppe Tartini, as well as other famous pieces by Vivaldi, Tartini and Bach. Because of the great program and thanks to the amazing quartets (the first concert in the church was again given with the Gringolts Quartet and the second with the Belenus Quartet), the tickets were sold out in no time.

Apart from the fact that this was the first time we performed in the most prominent church in Zurich, which is quite a challenge, our students had to perform in front of a full hall (about 400-500 people) – which is another challenge! Moreover, there are very few young violinists – not only in Switzerland, but in the whole world – who are lucky enough to be on stage together with the famous Gringolts Quartet, which is considered by many experts to be one of the best in the world (and consequently also the best in Switzerland). Considering that most of our students are only 9-14 years old, one can hardly imagine the level of responsibility they had to experience during the concerts!

Our violin teachers Liana Tretiakova and Inna Khriplovich prepared their students very well for these two concerts. In addition, participation in various concerts and competitions is a mandatory part of the advanced education at ZBSM (in the 2019/2020 school year alone, our students performed in 31 concerts at home and abroad and won 19 prizes in various competitions). So despite the great stress our students had, the two concerts went impeccably and the audience totally loved them!