All About Sandi Toka Nova
Sandi Toka Nova is an inspiringly-talented Classical Musician who has dedicated herself to music and performing. Through her unforgettable live performances and impeccable studio recordings, she has honed her technical capabilities and sound to form one unstoppable force in the music world. Find out more about her appearances below.


About
Sandi Toka Nova was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan. At 13 years of age, she gave her first recital on cello, at 15 she performed for the first time as a soloist with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Kazakhstan. A graduate of the Republican Specialized Music School in the class of Evgeny Lutsenko, at the invitation of Maestro Tibor Varga, she moved to Switzerland in the year 2000, where she continued her studies at the private Academy of Music Tibor Varga in Sion, Switzerland (Professor Marcio Carneiro), performing as a cello soloist in the Tibor Varga Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Tibor Varga and Maestro Gabor Takacs-Nagy. After obtaining her Soloist Diploma (class of Professor Patrick Demenga, Lausanne Conservatory) and her Orchestra Diploma (class of Professor Susanne Basler, Zurich Hochschule of Music and Theater), Sandi worked at the Zurich Opernhaus Orchestra, the Camerata of Lausanne, like a cello soloist in Jura Symphony Orchestra and was replacing as an assistant to Professor Susan Ribicki Varga in Lausanne Conservatory. Winner of national and international competitions (First Prize of the National Competition of Young Performers, First Prize of the G. Zhubanova Competition, prizewinner at the Shabyt International Festival of Creative Youth, prize-winner at the Nicati de-Luz Foundation Competition, Switzerland, Fellow of the Tibor Varga Foundation, the Vontobel Foundation, and the Rotary Club of Lausanne), Sandi performed in the most prestigious halls all over the world. Following an injury that precluded from cello playing, in 2008, Sandi interned at the Department of Conducting at the Lausanne Conservatory; in the same year, she won the Collard Prize at the Kiefer Hablitzel Competition (Switzerland), as an up and coming young conductor. Since 2011, Sandi worked for the prestigious Verbier Festival in Switzerland as an artistic assistant of the executive director and coordinator of the summer music camp. Sandi is actively involved in various contemporary and chamber music projects, performing both as a soloist and as a member of chamber ensembles and orchestras. In 2017 as an artistic director of the classical part of the cultural program of Expo2017 in Astana Sandi successfully led a series of prodigious concerts with the participation of such great stars of classical and jazz music as Mischa Maisky, Igor Butman&Moscow Jazz Orchestra, “The Artist” movie-concert with the composer Ludovic Bource on piano, Maestro Ernst van Tiel and the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Kazakhstan. For the first time a real barock orchestra, “The Lautten Compagney” from Berlin was performing in KZ along with Maurice Steger, the world-known recorder player from Switzerland. An incredible French pianist David Fray performed for the first time in KZ, an outstanding Kuss Quartet from Germany performed for the first time with Mischa Maisky in a Quintet, fabulous Italian musicians - Enrico Dindo and Andrea Lucchesini, and also incredibly gifted French pianist Julien Quentin, British violinist Thomas Gould and an outstanding British soprano Mary Bevan performed brilliantly as soloist with the State Academy Symphony Orchestra of RK under the baton of Kanat Omarov. Thomas Gould, Julien Quentin, and Sandi Toka Nova performed the famous Triple Concerto of Beethoven for violin, piano, and cello. Founder and Artistic Director of the Benefiz-Festival Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland (https://www.benefizfestivalzuerich.com)