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The Hungarian cellist, Ditta Rohmann, born into a family of musicians (her father is pianist Imre Rohmann), started her musical education at the age of 7. She studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston from 1993 to 1994 with Suren Bagratuni. After returning to Hungary she was a student at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest from 1995 to 2005, first at the preparatory department with Ottó Kertész; the last six years as a student of Miklós Perényi, earning an Artistic Diploma with honours. From 2005 to 2008, she completed er concert and soloist diploma with distinction at the Basel Music Academy in Ivan Monighetti’s class. Simulateneously, from August 2005 to July 2005, she played two seasons at the Zürich Opera on a scholarship. From 2008 to 2011, she completed at the Franz Liszt Academy her doctorate, entitled ‘Sacher-Theme’, on the 12 works commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich in honour of Paul Sacher’s 70th birthday. Of huge importance to her was her participation in master-classes with Boris Pergamenschikow, Jean-Guihen Queyras, András Schiff, György Kurtág, Steven Isserlis and others. In common with many of today’s greatest soloists, she regards the Hungarian pianist and teacher Ferenc Rados as a reference and ‘master’. In 2012, she was a prize-winner at the prestigious Leipzig Bach Competition.
Ditta Rohmann is known for her enormous versatility as a musician. She appears as a soloist in various concert halls, improvises with world-music ensembles, and plays a major role in collaborations with dancers, both as a chamber musician and most recently as an actress. She gave her first recital in Boston at the age of 11. She has been playing concerts as a chamber musician and soloist throughout Europe from an early age. She has had the opportunity to collaborate with fine musicians such as Peter Lukas Graf, Gergely Ittzés, Keller Quartet, Barnabás Kelemen and Katalin Kokas (with whom she won the National Weiner Prize), Péter Nagy, Miklós Perényi, Livia Rév, Imre Rohmann, Rainer Schmidt, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Dénes Várjon. Her regular duo partner is Emese Mali, and together they won two special prizes at the Il Premio Trio di Trieste international chamber music competition in 2003. They have played numerous concerts in Hungary and abroad. She has also performed with several chamber and symphony orchestras, including the Sinfonieorchester Basel, Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig, Liszt Ferenc Kamarazenekar, Schengen Chamber Orchestra. Recently she has been playing in the Chamber Orchestra of Europe as a guest. Together with the finnish pianist, Anna Kuvaja she was awarded a prize at the Orpheus Festival In Zürich In 2008.
Ditta Rohmann has participated in many international festivals, including Kronberg (where she received a scholarship for 3 years), Lucerne, Santander, Music at Marsac, and September ‘Open Chamber Music’ festival of the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove, UK, where she has played alongside such artists as Boris Pergamenschikow, Steven Isserlis, Bernard Greenhouse, Natalia Shakhovskaya, Frans Helmerson, András Schiff, Ferenc Rados and Thomas Adès.
Ditta Rohmann has a large repertoire, ranging from the Baroque to the music of today. 20th century and contemporary music form an important part of her repertoire, and she works regularly with the Hungarian composer Péter Eötvös. She has worked and performed together with the reknown composer Sofia Gubaidulina several times. She has had several pieces dedicated to her, including one by Barnabás Dukay. For her diploma at the Franz Liszt Music Academy she performed Ligeti’s cello concerto. She received a prize from Artisjus in recognition of her work with contemporary music. Always in search of more direct forms of expression, she takes on projects well outside the framework of the conventional concert, from improvisations (often singing as well as playing) or performing in ‘world music’ groups, to dance performances in which she plays on stage. She even took a role in a play in which she also played the cello. Nevertheless, recitals of solo J.S. Bach remain among her most treasured performances.
Ditta Rohmann has appeared on several radio, television and CD recordings for labels including BMC, Hungaroton and Swiss DRS. Hers CD of cello and piano works by Bartók, Debussy, De Falla and Ravel with her father Imre Rohmann was awarded one of just six Gramofon awards for the best Hungarian classical recordings of 2017. Her recording of the 6 J.S. Bach's Cello Suites (BWV 1017-1012) on Hungaroton has been acclaimed by the public and critics alike, with the authoritative magazine Gramophone ending its review of the second disc “..file Rohmann’s two volumes … on the shelf under ‘definitive’.” In January 2018 her third J.S. Bach disc ‘Sonatas and Partitas’ was released, on which she uses the violoncello piccolo to play the E major violin partita. It also features two of the violin and clavier sonatas with her husband Lászlo Fassang on Baroque organ, and the A minor flute partita.
Ditta Rohmann is also a committed teacher, From September 2009 to February 2013, she was a cello teacer at the University of Debrecen In Hungary. She runs her own summer school, also in Hungary, and gives regular master-classes. In September 2018, she joined the faculty of the Academy of Music Franz Liszt in Budapest as Assistant Professor.
Since 2008, Ditta Rohmann has played on a 1770 cello by Jean-Baptiste Salomon (Paris) and more recently on a five string violoncello piccolo, acquired for the sixth Bach suite but with which she is now exploring the violin repertoire. |
