Geringas Chamber Orchestra; David Geringas, conductor; Lorenzo Lomartire, cello (Italy); Rae Pung, piano (Singapore), and others

During his school years, Lorenzo studied composition with Maestro Riccardo Panfili, under whose guidance he earned his bachelor’s degree with honors from the Conservatorio di Musica in Monopoli. He continued his studies at the Conservatorio, studying cello in Taranto and orchestral conducting in Bari under Giovanni Pelliccia; he completed both degrees with honors in July 2024.

During his conducting studies, he had the opportunity to conduct Beethoven’s symphonies as well as Grieg’s Piano Concerto. For his final exam, he conducted Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. In the triple role of cello soloist, composer, and conductor, Lorenzo participated in the Bari Conservatory’s Passati Presenti concert for the Exultet Festival at Bari Cathedral. He has also performed as a soloist with the orchestra of the Paisiello Conservatory in Taranto and with the Taranto Opera Festival Orchestra.

Since 2020, Lorenzo has been taking cello classes with David Geringas at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, at the Usedom Music Festival, and at the Blackmore International Music Academy. In addition, he has participated in masterclasses with Thomas Demenga, Leonid Gorokhov, Enrico Dindo, Martti Rusi, Helmar Stieler, Enrico Bronzi, and Mihovil Karuza. Lorenzo Lomartire is the winner of the 2024 Lions Club Taranto Poseidon Prize and the 2025 Chigiana - Mediocredito Centrale - Banca BdM Scholarship. He performs regularly as a chamber musician and is currently studying chamber music with Ivan Rabaglia at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Singaporean pianist Rae Pung studied piano with renowned teachers such as Ingrid Fliter, Boris Petrushansky, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Andrzej Jasinski, and Piotr Paleczny. She began her musical training at the age of four with Thomas Hecht and later with Albert Tiu.

Rae was accepted into numerous prestigious institutions and ultimately continued her studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the United States, the Fondazione Accademia Internazionale di Imola in Italy, and the Purcell School in the United Kingdom. In 2024, Rae released her debut album “Piano Sonatas” as well as several albums featured on Spotify’s “Classical New Releases” playlist. Her discography also includes “Wisteria Lights” (2026). Driven by her strong sense of community, she has collaborated with orchestras worldwide, including the Alicante Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dohnányi Symphony Orchestra Budapest, the Orchestra Filharmonica della Calabria, the Danube Symphony Orchestra, the Toruń Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Music Makers, the Orquesta de Cámera, the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, and the Oberlin Contemporary Ensemble.

Her passion for music education has led to features in international media such as the Straits Times, the Business Times, Vale Magazine, Bresciaoggi, Todo Alicante, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Telewizja Polska, Lianhe Zaobao, Musik Magazine, Teen World of Arts, Interlude.hk, The Star, Ipoh Echo, Ritmo Magazine, Modern Classical Music Magazine, and Murcia Today. Her works have reached a global audience through radio stations and streaming platforms. Rae has won prizes at numerous competitions and awards, including the Nuova Coppa Pianisti Competition, the Sydney Eisteddfod Kawai Senior Piano Scholarship, the Val Tidone Piano Competition, the 5th International Subcarpathian Chopin Piano Competition, the 8th International Chopin Competition in Budapest, the 13th Volodymyr Krainev Piano Competition, the 12th International Piano Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz, the Imola City Award, the 21st International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition for Children and Youth, the Jeune Chopin International Piano Competition, the Young Pianist of the North Upon Tyne Competition, the Piano Island Competition, and the Hong Kong International Piano Open Competition.

Rae served as a piano teacher at the Oberlin Conservatory and taught for several years at the Ethan Project, a family-run nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about autism through music education. Rae is the artistic director of the Virtù d’Arte International Piano Competition and Festival. She also studied conducting with Marco Boni, the conductor of the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra in Amsterdam.

Cellist and conductor David Geringas, born in Vilnius, Lithuania, ranks among today’s musical elite. An unusually broad repertoire ranging from the earliest Baroque to contemporary music attests to the artist’s flexibility and curiosity. His intellectual rigor, stylistic versatility, melodic sensibility, and sensuality of sound have earned him accolades around the world.

A student of Rostropovich and winner of the First Prize and Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition (1970), he can now look back on a career spanning decades.

David Geringas has performed worldwide with many leading orchestras and the greatest conductors of our time. His discography, comprising nearly 100 CDs, features numerous recordings that have been honored with prestigious awards, including the Grand Prix du Disque for his recording of Luigi Boccherini’s 12 Cello Concertos, the Diapason d’Or d’Année for chamber music by Henri Dutilleux, and the Annual Award of the German Record Critics for his recording of the cello concertos by Hans Pfitzner, as well as the Annual Award of the German Record Critics for the recording of Alfred Schnittke’s works for cello and piano.

David Geringas was awarded the “Echo Klassik” in 2013 and 2014. In 2013, he received the award for the best chamber music recording of the 20th/21st century (Braunfels/Strauss, Profil Edition Günter Hänssler) and in 2014 for the best chamber music recording of the 19th century (“Pohádka,” C2 Hamburg/ES DUR).

David Geringas was a professor at the conservatories in Hamburg (1977–1986), Lübeck (1980–2000), and at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin (2000–2009). For many decades, he led a world-renowned cello class that produced cello stars such as Gustav Rivinius, Jens Peter Maintz, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Monika Leskovar, Tatjana Vassilieva, Jing Zhao, Johannes Moser, Maximilian Hornung, and Sol Gabetta.

For his global commitment to Lithuanian music and its composers, David Geringas has received his country’s highest honors. For his overall achievements as a musician and ambassador for Germany as a cultural nation on the international music scene and throughout the world, he was awarded the Cross of Merit, First Class, of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In October 2011, David Geringas was honored by the “Gunter and Juliane Ribke Foundation Hamburg” for his outstanding achievements in music education. David Geringas is an honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, as well as an honorary doctor of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater.

The Geringas Chamber Orchestra was founded in Berlin in 2016 to mark the 70th birthday of the legendary cellist and conductor David Geringas. The idea behind it was to offer young and talented musicians the opportunity to perform with the orchestra under the direction of David Geringas. The idea was enthusiastically supported by musicians from Berlin orchestras, renowned chamber musicians, and international prize winners. The first CD and DVD recording took place in 2020. The chamber orchestra made its grand debut at the Elbphilharmonie on June 7, 2021. During the 2021–2022 season, more than 20 concerts took place across Europe. The ensemble performed at the Palace of Music and Congress in Strasbourg and at the Alsace-Moselle Memorial in Schirmeck. Future concert tours will take the orchestra to Japan, China, and South Korea. Concert series are held in Berlin, Munich, and Leipzig. The Lithuanian composer Donatas Prusevičius dedicated “Hommage à Beethoven” to the ensemble, which premiered at the Usedom Music Festival in 2021. The orchestra’s founder and director, David Geringas, regularly appears on stages both domestically and abroad, often performing in a dual role as cellist and conductor. In addition to the major music centers of Western and Eastern Europe (Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Vienna Musikverein, Tonhalle Zurich, Berlin Philharmonie, among others), invitations have also taken him to Asia and the United States. From 2005 to 2008, he served as “Chief Guest Conductor” of the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra in Japan. In 2007, conductor David Geringas made his debut with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and the China Philharmonic Orchestra. In February 2009, he made his conducting debut with the Moscow Philharmonic in Moscow, and in 2015 with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in St. Petersburg. His opera debut took place in 2010 with Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” in Klaipėda, Lithuania. In 2015, David Geringas made his successful debut in Vilnius as musical director and conductor of the ballet “Egle, the Snake Queen” by Eduardas Balsys. Since 1997, David Geringas has been a regular guest conductor of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, with which he has successfully toured Italy, France, Spain, Finland, Costa Rica, and China.

Program:

Haydn - Cello Concerto No. 2 in D major, Hob. VIIb:2

Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37

and others