Alexander Matrosov - Scarlatti, Bach, Kagel, Takahashi & Zubitsky: Works for Accordion (2014)

Alexander Matrosov was born in 1979 in Chimkent, Kazakhstan. In 1989 he was the youngest student of Oleg Sharov at the Rimsky-Korsakov special school for gifted children in St. Petersburg, with whom he continued his education until 2002. In 2003 he came to Germany, where he studied with Professor Mie Miki. She taught him first at the Detmold University of Music, Dortmund department, and since 2004 at the Folkwang University in Essen. Between 1990 and 2005, Alexander Matrosov received 20 prestigious awards. In 2005 alone, for example, he won the Grand Prix at the 4th IAA International Accordion Competition in Tokyo and first prize at the Federal University Competition for Music in Hamburg, in addition to the GWK Förderpreis in Münster/Westphalia. He was also a prizewinner at the International Gaudeamus Performers Competition Amsterdam and received a scholarship for young soloists from the Cologne Reinsurance Company GenRe and, as a member of the Folkwang Accordion Trio, a scholarship from the Werner Richard-Dr. Carl Dörken Foundation, Herdecke. In 2004 he won the Folkwang Prize in Essen and received a scholarship from Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now. He won first prize at the Gitta di Lanciano in Italy and at the International Accordion Competition in St. Petersburg. Three years earlier he had won the Grand Prix France in Geneva, in 1998 the 31st International Accordion Competition in Paris and in 1992 the Russian Federal Accordion Competition in St. Petersburg.