Homecoming Woodwind Ensemble

Dmitri Bulgakov – oboe

Dmitri Bulgakov was born in 1978 in Moscow.  He graduated from the Gnessin Specialist Music School in Moscow and Detmold High School of Music.  His teachers were I. Pushechnikov and G. Schmalfuss.  Dmitri has won the Russian National Competition for Wind Players, the R. Lauschmann Competition in Cologne and has been a prize winner at the TWIYCA Competition in the UK.  Dmitri is also a recipient of the GWK, DAAD and Triumph Awards.

Dmitri Bulgakov is in high demand as a soloist and chamber musician, he has taken part in various festivals, including the Graz Festival, Elba Festival and Oldenburg Festival.  He has performed with a number of orchestras under the conductors Lev Markiz, S. Sholtesh, Vladimir Ziva, Dmitri Sitkovetsky.  His concert with the Philarmonie Essen was broadcast live by 3sat-Live TV channel.

In 2005 Dmitri Bulgakov and Pavel Strugalev founded the Homecoming Woodwind Ensemble whose first project was the world premiere and recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, arranged for woodwind quartet by the Russian composer Andrei Eshpai.

Pavel Strugalev – oboe

Pavel Strugalev was born in Moscow in 1970. He graduated from the Gnessin Specialist Music School in Moscow and Detmold High School of Music, where he was also an assistant of professor G. Shmalfus.  Pavel is a winner of the Russian National Competition for Wind Players and the Fernand Gillet Intrenational Competition.  Pavel is one of a few oboists who have been honoured with a solo recital in the famous Carnegie Hall in New York.  Pavel has held the position of the first oboist with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and the orchestra of Neue Philharmonie Westafalen.  He founded Das Neue Trio and Homecoming Woodwind Ensemble (with Dmitri Bulgakov) and took part in its first project – the world premiere and recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, arranged for woodwind quartet by Russian composer Andrei Eschpai.  Pavel is a regular guest at the Homecoming festival in Moscow.

Claudia Hellbach – cor anglais

Claudia Hellbach was born in 1977 in Germany.  At the age of five she began to learn the recorder and at the age of 12 she took up the oboe.  Claudia finished school in 1996 and then gained a place at the Folkwang Music School in Essen to study with Pierre W. Feit.  In 2002 she completed her studies and became an oboist with the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen where she was employed for two years.  She is also a member of the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra in Essen which performs its concerts at the Villa Hegel, the famous house of the Gustav Krupp family in Essen.  Claudia has given many concerts of chamber music throughout Europe.  She has performed with the Westfaische Sinfonia, the conductor Dirk Joeres and also as a member of the Homecoming Woodwind Ensemble in Russia.  Claudia Hellbach has been a well known teacher since the beginning of her studies in Essen and is still working at the musicschools in Gelsenkirchen, Velbert and Heiligenhaus.  For the past year, she has been a member of the Bergische Sinfoniker.

Uwe Rebers – bassoon

Uwe Rebers was born in Bremen in 1959.  After school he became a student at the Robert Schumann Music School in Dusseldorf.  After graduating, Uwe Rebers became a member of the Bochumer Symphoniker for two years.  In 1987 he became a member of the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, formerly known as the Philharmonisches Orchester Gelsenkirchen.