“Emmanuelle Bertrand is among the cellists who have impressed me the most (…). I admired the sensitivity and intelligence with which she conveyed the styles of each composer, bringing out their originality. I was immediately overwhelmed by the transparency of her sound, her rhythmic rigor, her technical perfection, and the brilliance of her playing.”
Henri Dutilleux

A radiant and generous personality, Emmanuelle Bertrand is recognized as a leading figure on the European cello scene. Trained at the Conservatoires Nationaux Supérieurs de Musique et de Danse in Lyon and Paris in the classes of Jean Deplace and Philippe Muller, she has won numerous international awards and distinctions. These include the title of “Artist of the Year” in France, awarded by Diapason magazine and the listeners of France Musique (2011), as well as the Diapason d’Or de l’année on three occasions for her recordings with Harmonia Mundi. In 2017, the Académie des Beaux-Arts awarded her the prestigious Prix d’Interprétation Simone et Cino Del Duca. She has also received two Victoires de la Musique awards: “Instrumental Revelation” in 2002 and “Instrumental Soloist of the Year” in 2022.

At the age of 25, she met the composer Henri Dutilleux, who described her as a “true revelation.” Since then, she has premiered and recorded works by Nicolas Bacri, Thierry Escaich, Édith Canat de Chizy, Bernard Cavanna, Janez Matičič, David Lampel, Pascal Amoyel, and Benoît Menut. She also gave the world premiere of Luciano Berio’s Chanson pour Pierre Boulez.

During this period, she founded a duo with pianist Pascal Amoyel, her partner in life and on stage, with whom she passionately champions both the great classical repertoire and the rediscovery of forgotten works.

As a soloist, Emmanuelle Bertrand performs regularly with major orchestras, including the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, the Ukrainian National Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Busan Symphony Orchestra (Korea), the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Wuhan Symphony Orchestra (China), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestres Nationaux d’Île-de-France, de Lille, and de Lorraine, as well as the Philharmonic Orchestras of Strasbourg and Monte-Carlo.

She is currently Associate Artist with the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France for three seasons.

Alongside her concert career, Emmanuelle Bertrand teaches at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. She is the first woman in the history of the institution, founded in 1795, to be appointed Professor of Cello.

Mario Caroli begun his musical training at the age of 14 and got his soloist diploma at the age of 19. He studied with Annamaria Morini in Bologna and Manuela Wiesler in Vienna. At the age of 22, he won in Darmstadt the coveted Kranichsteiner International Prize and started a very highly successful career as a solo flutist. His activity starts, as a logical prosecution of the Prize of Darmstadt, as an advocate of contemporary music: his fame has grown very fast and he quickly became the preferred interpreters of the many of the biggest living composers. Salvatore Sciarrino, György Kurtag, Doina Rotaru, Toshio Hosokawa, Ivan Fedele, Olga Neuwirth, Philippe Hurel, Wolfgang Rihm and many others wrote for him some beautiful soloflute works as well as new flute concertos, which contribute to wide the flute litterature. Some years later, his career turns back to the whole repertoire, without any distinction of styles and historical periods. An unique figure among the flutists of today, Mario is one of the very rare artists capable of passing from the most classical composition to the most extreme contemporary piece, witht the same vivd virtuosity, vibrant personality and rigorous both analytic and aesthetical approach. The critics didn’t hesitate to call him a “phenomenon” for his refreshing interpretations of Bach, Schubert or Debussy and the “New York Times” wrote that “he has a sound you want to drink in”. Mario has appeared as a invited soloist with many prestigious orchestras, such as Philharmonia Orchestra in London, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, Tokyo Philharmonic in Tokyo, SWR and WDR Radiosinfonieorchester of Stuttgart and Cologne, National Orchestra of Belgium in Brussels, Italian Radio National Orchestra in Torino, the Greek Radio Symphony Orchestra, in Athens, Basel Sinfonietta, Icelandic Symphony Orchestra in Reykyavik, Sofia Soloists, Mozart Kammerphilharmonie, the Orchestras of the Opera Houses of Stuttgart, Verona, Rouen, Bari, Cagliari, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Strasbourg, Nice, Montecarlo, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, the Ensemble Contrechamps of Geneva, the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart… Present in the biggest festivals, Mario has performed at the Berliner and Kölner Philharmonie, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, at the Royal Festival Hall in London, at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, at the Linclon Center in New York, the Scala in Milano, the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Megaron in Athens, the Herkulessaal in Münich, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, at the Cité de la Musique in Strasbourg. He has recorded more than 60 Cds, including many important world premiere as well as the big classical of the repertoire. Very much in demand as a teacher, he has been teaching masterclass all over the world. A cosmopolitan and polyglot artist, Mario lives in Strasbourg. After teaching more than twenty years at the Académie Supérieure de Musique de Strasbourg and five years at the University of Music in Lugano (Swiss), Mario has been appointed Flute Professor at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg I’m Breisgau, in Germany. Mario plays a platinum Miyazawa flute.

“One of the best and most fascinating piano recordings of the year“, wrote the German magazine Fono Forum about his recording of Sonatas and Rondos by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, followed by an „Editor‘s Choice” by the renowned English Gramophone Magazine for the recording of works for piano and orchestra by Hummel.
Another recording which has brought him international attention was the recording of all Piano Concertos by Ferdinand Ries with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and other orchestras.
Born in Austria, Christopher Hinterhuber studied with Alex Papenberg, Rudolf Kehrer, Lazar Berman, Avo Kouyoumdjian and Heinz Medjimorec at the mdw – University for Music and performing Arts in Vienna and the Accademia „Incontri col Maestro“ in Imola, Italy acquiring additional artistic input from such artists as Oleg
Maisenberg and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
He has won numerous top prizes and honors at the international piano competitions in Leipzig (Bach), Saarbrücken (Bach), Pretoria (Unisa), Zurich (Geza Anda) and Vienna (Beethoven) among others.
As “Rising Star” 2002/03, he performed with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja in the international series at the Carnegie Hall, New York and in all important musical centers in Europe.
The last few years have seen him play in major festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein- Festival in Germany, Styriarte Graz, Carinthischer Sommer in Ossiach, Mozartwoche in Salzburg, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Ruhr Piano Festival and the Prague Autumn; under such conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kirill Karabits, Jakub Hrusa, Bertrand de Billy, Sylvain Cambreling, Beat Furrer, Howard Griffiths, Yakov Kreizberg, Christian Arming, Adrian Leaper, Andrés Orozco Estrada, Dennis Russell Davies, Ari Rasilainen, Hubert Soudant, Alfred Eschwé and Bruno Weil; with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Klangforum in Vienna, the Vienna and
Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the MDR Orchestra Leipzig, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra among others.
A special project was the sound recording (Schubert, Rachmaninov, Schönberg) and filming (his hands) for the French-Austrian movie “La pianiste” based on a novel by Elfriede Jelinek and directed by Michael Haneke, which was awarded the Great Prize of the Jury in Cannes in 2001.
He frequently plays chamber music, for example as pianist of Vienna-based Altenberg Piano Trio, which has its own series in the Musikverein in Vienna.
He often gives masterclasses in Japan, Europe and South America and is professor for piano at the mdw – University for Music and performing Arts in Vienna.

Dag Jensen was born in Horten, Norway and began bassoon lessons at the age of eleven with Robert Rönnes. He later studied with Torleiv Nedberg at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He won his first orchestral position with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of sixteen and was promoted to co-principal of the same orchestra soon after. He continued to study with Klaus Thunemann in Hanover.
He was principal bassoonist of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 1988 and held the same position in the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1988 to 1997. Dag Jensen won a first prize at the Norwegian Youth Music Competition and won the coveted ARD Music Competition in Munich twice, in 1984 and 1990.
His numerous solo appearances include performances with renowned orchestras such as, among many others, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Swedish Chamber Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra Manchester, and with conductors like Seiji Ozawa, Jeffrey Tate, Christopher Hogwood, and Iona Brown.
Chamber music plays an important part in his musical life, and he is a member of the Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble and of the Ensemble Villa Musica. He is also a regular guest at several music festivals.
Dag Jensen was Professor at the Hanover Academy of Music and Theatre from 1997 to 2011, and since 2011 he has been Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. He is also Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo.

Patrick Jüdt is a professor of viola and chamber music at the Bern University of the Arts, teaches at numerous international master classes, and serves as one of the artistic directors of ECMA (the European Chamber Music Academy) together with Hatto Beyerle and Johannes Meissl. In addition to chamber music, a further important emphasis of his concert activities is on contemporary music.
He is a member of Collegium Novum Zürich and forms the ensemble Le tre C’ together with Imke Frank and François Poly.

Sharon Kam is one of the world’s leading clarinet soloists and has been working with renowned orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Japan for over 20 years. Mozart’s clarinet masterpieces have been an object of artistic focus for Ms. Kam since the beginning of her career. At the age of 16, she performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in her orchestral debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Zubin Mehta. A short time later, she performed the Clarinet Quintet with the Guarneri String Quartet in Carnegie Hall, New York.
As part of Mozart’s 250th birthday celebrations at the National Theatre in Prague, her interpretation of the Mozart concerto was televised live in 33 countries and is available on DVD. In the same year, she was able to realize herlongtime dream of recording the Concerto and the Clarinet Quintet using the basset clarinet.
As a passionate chamber musician, Sharon Kam regularly works with artists such as Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, Enrico Pace, Daniel Müller-Schott, Leif Ove Andsnes, Carolin Widmann and the Jerusalem Quartet. She is a frequent guest at festivals in Schleswig-Holstein, Heimbach, Rheingau, Risør, Cork, Verbier, and Delft, as well as the Schubertiade festival.
Sharon Kam feels at home in a variety of musical genres –from classical to modern music and jazz –a fact reflected in her diverse discography. She received the ECHO “Instrumentalist of the Year” award two times. Her “American Classics” CD with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by her husband Gregor Bühl, was awarded the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik Prize.

Recognized for her compelling performances and versatility, Australian-Korean violinist Suyeon Kang enjoys a rich and varied musical life.
A former prize winner numerous international violin competitions, including the Michael Hill, Menuhin Competition, Buenos Aires, Bayreuth and Indianapolis, Suyeon was also named “Australian Young Performer of the Year” at the age of 16. Her extensive repertoire includes styles ranging from early baroque to avant-garde.
Her path in the chamber music scene is particularly active: she is the founder of the Trio Boccherini (string trio) together with violist Vicki Powell and cellist Paolo Bonomini, with whom she has released several discs to critical acclaim (BIS Records, Genuin Classics).
In late 2023 Suyeon became the newest member of the acclaimed Belcea Quartet, with whom she appears regularly in many of the world’s important concert halls. The quartet is a regular guest at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie de Paris, Pierre Boulez Saal, Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Toppan Hall, Wigmore Hall, and their next season will feature the world premiere of Australian composer Brett Dean’s 4th String Quartet ‘A Little Book of Prayers’ .
Her orchestral experience was largely crafted in her role as concertmaster of the Kammerakademie Potsdam (2019-2025) and as member of Camerata Bern (2017-2024). Invitations as guest concertmaster and in recent years also projects as Play/Direct artistic leader, have led her to several self-curated projects with many orchestras throughout Europe and Asia.
Her major pedagogues have been Antje Weithaas, Daniel Gaede, Rainer Schmidt, Hatto Beyerle, Goetz Richter, Alice Waten and Josette Esquedin Morgan.
In 2023 Suyeon joined the violin faculty of the HfM Hanns Eisler, and in 2025 was appointed Professor of Chamber Music at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen.
She plays on a Francesco Gofriller (‘Ex- Zöldy’, 1730) violin kindly loaned to her by an anonymous donor, and also owns a custom-made violin by Julia Maria Pasch (Vienna, 2019).

Born in Beirut (Lebanon) into a family of Armenian descent, Kouyoumdjian began his studies when he was 12 years old at the mdw ‒ University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he studied with Dieter Weber, Noel Flores, Alexander Jenner and Georg Ebert. He continued his postgraduate work with Djanko Iliev, Stanislav Neuhaus and Alisa Kezeradze.
Since winning first prize at the Sixth International Beethoven Competition in Vienna in 1981, he has performed in famous concert halls in Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan. He has been a soloist with well-renowned orchestras around the world and taken part in many different festivals. He is a sought-after juror in major international competitions in addition to conducting master classes in many universities in Europe and Japan. His recordings express his artistry as a pianist and a chamber musician.
In 1997, he was appointed Professor of Piano and Chamber Music in the Keyboard Department of Piano at the mdw, which is where he began his pedagogical career as an assistant professor in 1987. He is the initiator and founder of the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition at the mdw and in 2002 he became the cofounder/director of the Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Institute of the university. Since the summer of 2004, he has been the Artistic Director of the Piano à Saint-Ursanne Festival in Switzerland.
In October 2010, he was appointed Dean of Instrumental Studies at the mdw. In October 2016, he was appointed Professor of Piano at the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel in Belgum.

Andrea Lieberknecht was born in Augsburg, Germany. She studied music with Paul Meisen at the academy of music in Munich. In 1988, even before finishing her studies, she became the soloist flute player in the Munich Radio Orchestra. Three years later, she changed to the same position in The West German Radio Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, where she remained until 2002. As a soloist as well as a member of chamber music groups (ARCIS Quintet and with the pianist Jan Philip Schulze), she has won many national and international competitions including the Prague Spring International Flute Competition, the International Flute Competition Kobe, the German Music Competition, the ARD-Competition and international chamber music competitions in Colmar, Trapani and Belgrade.
Since then, recitals, solo concerts and chamber music concerts with well-known musicians have taken her around the world. She has played solo concerts and chamber music concerts at international festivals such as the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Moreover, during the years 1993 to 1996, she was the solo flute player at The Richard-Wagner-Festival in Bayreuth. The clarinetist Sabine Meyer invited her for chamber music concerts at Luzern Festival, Schubertiade Festival Schwarzenberg, among others.
In Germany, she has given flute concerts with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Symphonists, and many others.
Numerous CD recordings with solo and chamber music, some of them prize-winning, document her versatile artistic activity.
She is also a passionate teacher: She taught at the Academy of Music in Cologne and was Professor of flute at the Academy of Music in Hannover until 2011. She is regularly asked to be a jury member at flute competitions and teaches masterclasses in Europe, Japan and Australia. Since 2011, she has been Professor of flute at the University for Music and Performing Arts Munich.

Dorin Marc was double bass teacher at the Academy of Music in Nuremberg, from 1998 until his retirement in 2022.
He graduated from the University of Music in Bucharest in the double bass class of Prof. Ion Cheptea. Between the years 1981-1992 he was a member of the State Philharmonic “Transilvania” from Cluj-Napoca.
From 1992 to 2003 he was solo double bassist of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of maestro Sergiu Celibidache and then conductor James Levine.
He is a laureate of many national and international competitions, including the ARD Munich, Geneva, Markneukirchen competition.
Together with other valuable Romanian instrumentalists, Dorin Marc was actively involved in the training of young musicians, members of the National Youth Orchestra.
He has an intense pedagogical activity holding master classes in many European centers and is present in most of the international specialized juries. His students occupy solo positions in the most famous European orchestras and are the winners of many prizes at the most prestigious international double bass competitions.

Born in Madrid, she studied at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía with Serguei Fatkouline and Zakhar Bron, with whom she completed her advanced studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. At the same time, she completed postgraduate studies in chamber music in Germany, already as a member of the Casals Quartet, under the guidance of the Alban Berg Quartet.
In addition to having won numerous international prizes, such as the Henryk Wieniawski Competition, she has performed as a soloist with various orchestras under the direction of conductors including Zubin Mehta, Yehudi Menuhin, Daniel Harding, and Paavo Järvi. She is also regularly invited to serve as concertmaster and concertmaster-director with both symphony and chamber orchestras, and she frequently performs piano–violin recitals together with her brother, Claudio Martínez Mehner.

Vera has been a co-founding member of the Casals Quartet since its inception in 1997. With the quartet, she has performed concerts in the world’s most prestigious venues across Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia. The Casals Quartet records exclusively for the Harmonia Mundi label, with which it has released more than twenty recordings to date.
Currently, Vera Martínez Mehner is a professor of violin and chamber music at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya. She also regularly teaches at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. She is frequently invited to give masterclasses throughout Europe and the United States and serves as a jury member at major international competitions.

Tatjana Masurenko is one of the leading viola players of our time. Already at the age of five she started taking piano and violin lessons in St. Petersburg and continued her musical studies in Germany with Kim Kashkashian and Nobuko Imai. She has made solo appearances with orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Radio Symphonie Orchester Berlin, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and other leading orchestras in Europe and Asia. For many years now, she has been a welcome guest at major international festivals as both soloist and chamber musician and has given first performances of numerous works. She has worked with composers such as the recently deceased Gladys Krenek as well as with Moritz von Gagern, Dimitri Terzakis, Wolfgang Rihm, Hans-Christian Bartel, Luca Lombardi and Nejat Başeğmezler. A number of her CD recordings have received the German Record Critics’ Award and international accolades such as the Supersonic Award (Luxemburg) and the Diapason découverte (France).
Currently, Tatjana Masurenko focuses intensively on historical performance practice and devotes herself to the promotion of young musical talents. Since 2002, she has been professor of viola at the internationally renowned University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig. She gives masterclasses in Spain, Canada, Scandinavia and other countries and is artistic director of the International Viola Camp in Iznik (Turkey) as well as of masterclasses in Leipzig and Düsseldorf.

Johannes Meissl is a professor of chamber music and has been Vice Rector for International Affairs and Art at the mdw ‒ University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna since October 2019.
Prior to his appointment as vice rector, he headed the Joseph Haydn Department of Chamber Music, Early Music and Contemporary Music beginning in 2010 and also served as president of the mdw Senate from 2015 until September 2019. Furthermore, Meissl is artistic director of isa – the International Summer Academy of the mdw.
Johannes Meissl studied at mdw with Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Gerhart Hetzel, and Hatto Beyerle. In 1982, he joined the Artis Quartet (in which he continues to play). The quartet soon became a frequent guest of the world’s most important concert halls and festivals, and the numerous awards won by their approximately 40 recordings (such as the Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, Echo, etc.) as well as the successful “Artis Series” at the Musikverein in Vienna (running since 1988) bear witness to their international standing. Alongside his quartet work, Meissl also performs in solo recitals and as part of numerous international chamber music projects.
Meissl shares artistic direction of ECMA (European Chamber Music Academy) with Hatto Beyerle and gives master classes at numerous renowned schools and summer academies worldwide. He is currently serving as a visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. And finally, recent years have seen Johannes Meissl achieve additional success as a conductor, regularly working together with orchestras in Japan, Romania, Lithuania, Austria, and Finland.

Isabel Mundrys Werke zeichnen sich durch eine differenzierte Klangsprache aus, in die das Nachdenken über die Bezüge zwischen Zeit, Raum und Wahrnehmung auf vielfältige Weise einfließt. Dabei öffnet sie sich in ihrem Schaffen stets neuen Wegen und unterschiedlichsten Realitätsbezügen, die sie mit ihrer in Timbre, Harmonik und Rhythmik nuancierten Musik erforscht.

Unter den Uraufführungen der letzten Jahre finden sich Werke verschiedenster Gattungen mit diversen Inspirationsquellen, interpretiert unter anderem vom Chicago Symphony Orchestra, dem Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, dem Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, dem Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, dem Ensemble intercontemporain oder dem Ensemble Resonanz.

Ihr kompositorisches Handwerk erlernte Isabel Mundry unter anderem bei Frank Michael Beyer, Gösta Neuwirth und Hans Zender, ergänzt um Studien in Musikwissenschaft, Kunstgeschichte und Philosophie, sowie um einen Kurs für Informatik und Komposition am Pariser IRCAM. Sie ist Mitglied der Akademien der Künste von Berlin und München sowie der Akademie für Wissenschaft und Literatur Mainz. Seit 1998 war sie vielfach als Dozentin bei den Darmstädter Ferienkursen zu Gast. Nachdem sie ab 1996 eine Professur an der Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Frankfurt innehatte, ist sie seit 2004 Professorin für Komposition an der Zürcher Hochschule der Künste und seit 2011 zudem an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater München.

Displaying a dazzling combination of technical brilliance and a uniquely profound musical personality, Hagai Shaham is internationally recognized as one of the astonishing violinists who have emerged from Israel. Hagai Shaham began studying the violin at age of six and was the last student of the late renowned Professor Ilona Fehér. He also studied with Elisha Kagan, Emanuel Borok, Arnold Steinhardt and the Guarneri Quartet.
First prize winner of ARD Munich Competition in 1990, Ilona Kornhouser competition, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority Young Artist competition, the Tel-Aviv Rubin Academy competition, Clairmont Awards, and an annual scholarship from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation.
As a soloist he has performed with many of the world’s major orchestras, including the English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, RPO, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, RTE Ireland, Belgian National, Taipei, Singapore and Shanghai Symphonies, SWF Symphony Orchestra, Czech Radio and philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. In 1985 he was invited to join Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman in a gala concert at Carnegie Hall, following which Zubin Mehta invited him to perform Brahms’ Double Concerto at Carnegie Hall.
In 2006 he performed once again this work under Mehta, at the Israel Philharmonic 70th anniversary’s celebrations with cellist Mischa Maisky.
Hagai Shaham is in great demand as a recitalist. He regularly tours throughout Europe, North and Central America and performs at international recital series and festivals.
Hagai Shaham recorded for Hyperion, Decca International, Chandos, Biddulph, Naxos, Champs Hill and AVIE. He records regularly for Nimbus, where his CDs received critical acclaim.
Hagai Shaham is a member of the Shaham-Erez- Wallfisch trio. The trio performs on major stages including London’s Wigmore and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. They recorded several albums for Nimbus Records, including the complete Beethoven trios.
Hagai Shaham is professor at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University and an Artist in Residence at Stony Brook University, New York.
Together with his colleague, violinist Ittai Shapira, he is co-founder of The Ilona Feher Foundation.

Anton Sorokow, Principal Concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, was born on September 30, 1978, into a family of musicians in Moscow. He received his first violin lessons at the age of four from his mother. From the age of ten, he studied at the Moscow Central Music School with Yevgenia Tchugaeva.

In 1991, he moved to Vienna and became an Austrian citizen in 1996. He continued his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Prof. Dora Schwarzberg, graduating with distinction in March 2004.

Among numerous other honors, Anton Sorokow was awarded First Prize and a Special Prize at the Beethoven Competition in the Czech Republic (1994), as well as First Prizes at the Stefanie Hohl Competition in Vienna (1997) and the Romano Romanini Competition in Brescia (1999).

His artistic career has been shaped significantly by his work as a soloist and concertmaster with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, and the Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra, where he served as Principal Concertmaster from 2003 to 2005. Another important milestone in his artistic development was his encounter with the legendary violinist Isaac Stern in Verbier, from whom he received musical guidance and support over several years.

Further highlights of his career include performances with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, as well as collaborations with renowned conductors and musicians such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Georges Prêtre, Philippe Jordan, Myung-Whun Chung, Kent Nagano, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Mstislav Rostropovich, Franz Welser-Möst, and Fabio Luisi. A particularly memorable event was a joint performance with Montserrat Caballé in 2001 before an audience of 5,000 at the Gostiny Dvor Arcade in Moscow.

From 2003 to 2005, Anton Sorokow served as Principal Concertmaster of the Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra at the Nuremberg State Theatre. Since 2005, he has held the position of Principal Concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

In the summer of 2007, he recorded major violin concertos by Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Kabalevsky with the Vienna Classical Players. In 2023, recordings of Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons followed, made with the Wiener Concertverein Chamber Orchestra on behalf of the Austrian National Bank.

From 2008 to 2011, Anton Sorokow taught at the Vienna Conservatory – Private University. Since 2011, he has been Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In 2024, he was appointed Head of the Fritz Kreisler Institute at the same university. He has also been a Guest Professor at the University of Milan–Bicocca since 2013 and is a co-founder of the Eisenstadt Easter Seminar and the masterclasses in Sozopol, Bulgaria.

Anton Sorokow performs regularly as a chamber musician and gives masterclasses, including at the NYCMF Music Festival in Norway. He has served on the juries of numerous international competitions and is frequently invited to give masterclasses both in Austria and abroad. His students hold positions in leading European orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and have won major prizes at international competitions such as the Fritz Kreisler Competition, the Johannes Brahms Competition, the Václav Hummel Competition in Zagreb, Valsesia Musica, the Anton Rubinstein Competition in Düsseldorf, and the International Osaka Competition.

Anton Sorokow plays a violin by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, Cremona 1741, known as the “Ex Carrodus,” from the collection of the Austrian National Bank.

Lars Anders Tomter is one of today’s most outstanding violists. The Giant of the Nordic Viola (The Strad) was born at Hamar, Norway. He began to play the violin at the age of eight and also took up the viola. Both instruments he studied with Professor Leif Jørgensen at the Oslo Music Conservatory and the Norwegian State Academy. He then continued his studies with Professor Max Rostal and with Sándor Vegh. He was awarded a special prize for his interpretation of Bartók’s Viola Concerto at the International Viola Competition in Budapest in 1984 and then went on to win the Maurice Vieux International Competition in Lille in 1986.
Tomter has commissioned and premiered several concertos. He played the world premiere of a new viola concerto, written by the renowned Estonian Composer Erkki- Sven Tüür. The Tüür Concerto “Illuminatio” is a joint European commission of the the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radio Philharmonic Hannover and the Orchestre National de Lille with support of Norsk Kulturråd.
Lars Anders Tomter’s international solo career started in 1987/88 when he toured extensively in the United States and Germany with the prestigious Norwegian Chamber Orchestra under its director Iona Brown.Their recording of Mozarts Sinfonia Concertante was hailed as the best ever by the Grammophone, when they did a comparison of the recordings made. Since then his appearances as a viola soloist has been greeted with the highest public and critical acclaim throughout Europe and the United States, such as Vienna Musikverein, New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin and the Kölner Philharmonie.
Lars Anders Tomter has performed with orchestras such as BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, RSO Frankfurt, NDR Radio Philharmonic Hannover, Gürzenich-Orchestra Cologne, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Dutch Radio Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic and Danish National Radio Symphony. Conductors with whom he has
www.larsanderstomter.com
worked together include among others Marc Albrecht, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sylvain Cambreling, Dennis Russell Davies, Olari Elts, Daniele Gatti, Manfred Honeck, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Juha Kangas, Krzysztof Penderecki, Okko Kamu, Arvid Jansons, Dmitri Kitaenko, Ken-Ishiro Kobayashi, Ervin Lukács, Nello Santi, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Ulf Schirmer, John Storgårds, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Muhai Tang and Hans Vonk. In addition, Lars Anders Tomter collaborates frequently with internationally renowned musicians in chamber music projects.
Lars Anders Tomter is a regular guest at important festivals such as BBC Proms, Mondseetage, Schleswig-Holstein, Schwetzingen, Styriarte, Moritzburg, Verbier as well as at a number of festivals in Scandinavia. In addition, he is artistic director of the Norwegian Fjord Classics in Sandefjord. His large repertoire includes all major contemporary works, and he has recorded for Simax, Naxos, Virgin Classics, NMC, Somm and Chandos.
Lars Anders Tomter is a Professor at the State Academy in Oslo, he plays a Gasparo da Salo viola dated from 1590.

Born in New York, soprano Claudia Visca graduated from the acclaimed Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she studied with Anna Moffo’s teacher, Eufemia Giannini  and Wagnerian soprano, Margret Harshaw.  A Fulbright Scholarship took her to the Hochschule fur Musik Wien where she finished her education under the guidance of Ks. Hilde Rossel-Majdan and Anton Dermota.  Claudia Visca has worked with renowned conductors, stage directors, and artists, including Eugene Ormandy, Gustav Kuhn, Istvan Kertesz, Miguel Gomez-Matinez, Sandor Vegh, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, Pina Bausch, Christine Mielitz, Marcel Prawy, Bruno Canino, Rudolf  Serkin, members of the Guarneri Quartet, Edith Mathis, Agnes Baltsa and Placido Domingo. A highlight of Claudia Visca’s career was to sing Maria in West Side Story conducted by the composer, Leonard Bernstein. During her long stage career, Claudia Visca guested in more than 25 opera houses in Europe, among them those in Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, Geneva, Vienna, and Zürich. In over 2,000 performances, she appeared in more than 75 roles in operas, operettas, and musicals as well as in concerts.
From 1998 to 2003, Claudia Visca was voice professor at the Hochschule fur Musik Cologne.  In 2003, she became a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Claudia Visca has given international  masterclasses in vocal technique and interpretation in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Switzerland and the United States. Her students are winners of international competitions and are engaged in major opera houses and concert halls as soloists all over the world, including: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bordeaux, Bologna, Buenos Aires, Geneva, Glyndebourne, Hamburg, Lissabon, London (Convent Garden), Madrid, Milan (La Scala), Moscow, Munich, New York (The Metropolitan), Paris, Peking,  St. Petersberg, Prague (National Theater), Rome, Seoul, Tokyo, Vienna, Warsaw and Zagreb.

The Vienna-born double bassist and ECHO and Opus Klassik prize-winner Dominik Wagner presents new facets of his instrument internationally. His activities as a soloist have taken him to renowned venues such as the Vienna Musikverein, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and New York City’s Carnegie Hall. He has also been awarded prizes at nearly all major double bass competitions including the International Bradetich Competition, the ARD International Music Competition, the Markneukirchen International Instrumental Competition, the International J.M. Sperger Competition, and the Eurovision Young Musicians competition.

He has also given solo performances with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Camerata Salzburg, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra. Wagner holds a scholarship of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation and is also in high demand as a teacher: he has been a professor at the Würzburg University of Music since 2023 and regularly gives master classes in Europe and the USA. Dominik Wagner initially trained as a cellist before switching to the double bass in 2007. He took lessons at the mdw from 2009 to 2015 and studied with Dorin Marc at the Nuremberg University of Music from 2015 to 2022.

The Swedish violinist Ulf Wallin studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Sven Karpe and at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Wolfgang Schneiderhan.
Concert tours have taken him to Asia, Europe and the United States. He has worked with such eminent conductors as Jesús Lopéz Cobos, Manfred Honeck, Paavo Järvi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Franz Welser-Möst. Always in great demand as a chamber player, Ulf Wallin has worked with artists like Bruno Canino, Barbara Hendricks, Heinz Holliger, Roland Pöntinen, and András Schiff.
Ulf Wallin has appeared at numerous major festivals including the Lucerne and Berlin music festivals, Marlboro Music Festival, among others. He has performed in the world’s leading venues, including the Berlin Philharmonie, La Scala di Milano, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Musikverein in Vienna.
Ulf Wallin’s dedication to contemporary music is highlighted by his close contacts with several distinguished composers such as Anders Eliasson, Alfred Schnittke and Rodion Shchedrin.
He has made numerous radio, and television appearances and more than 50 CD recordings (BIS, cop, EMI and BMG) have gained much acclaim and attention from the international media.
Ulf Wallin is professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin and professor at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He has served on juries for major international competitions including the ARD Competition in Munich and the Fritz Kreisler Violin Competition in Vienna.
In 2013, he was awarded the Robert-Schumann-Prize of the city of Zwickau and was elected in 2014 into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

Born in Vienna, Gottlieb Wallisch first appeared on the concert platform when he was seven years old, and at the age of twelve made his debut in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. A concert directed by Yehudi Menuhin in 1996 launched Wallisch’s international career: accompanied by the Sinfonia Varsovia, the seventeen-year-old pianist performed Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto.
Since then Wallisch has received invitations to the world’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals including Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Zurich, the NCPA in Beijing, the Ruhr Piano Festival, the Beethovenfest in Bonn, the Festivals of Lucerne and Salzburg, December Nights in Moscow, and the Singapore Arts Festival. Conductors with whom he has performed as a soloist include Giuseppe Sinopoli, Sir Neville Marriner, Dennis Russell Davies, Kirill Petrenko, Louis Langrée, Lawrence Foster, Christopher Hogwood and Bruno Weil.
Orchestras he has performed with include the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Festival Strings Lucerne, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra in Budapest, the Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra in Los Angeles, and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra.
In 2012 Steinway & Sons added his name to their roster of Steinway Artists. In 2010 Gottlieb Wallisch became the youngest professor at the Geneva University for Music; the Berlin University of Arts (UdK Berlin) named him professor of piano in 2016.
His recording catalogue features a vast repertoire, ranging from the Complete Beethoven-Piano Concerti on period instruments with Orchester Wiener Akademie under Martin Haselböck, to the ongoing series „20th Century Foxtrots“ for „Grand Piano“, which presents forgotten piano music from the Jazz-era of the 1920Ies and -30ies. Re-discovering the works of ostracized composers is another field of Gottlieb Wallisch’s artistic work, documented by world premiere recordings of Jaromír Weinberger, Hans Gál, Eric Zeisl and Wilhelm Grosz

Christian Wetzel is professor for oboe at the Cologne University of Music. Outside of teaching and performing internationally as soloist, he is a devoted chamber music player, performing at various renowned festivals around the world. As oboist and founding member of the internationally acclaimed Ma’alot Wind Quintet he has won First Prize at numerous international competitions, including the ARD Munich Competition. With a concert career spanning over 30 years, the Quintet has recorded a range of award-winning CDs.
In 1997, after nine years as solo oboist with the National Theatre Orchestra of Mannheim, he obtained his first professorship at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig and has since been a dedicated and successful supporter of young international oboists. In 2008, he was appointed to the faculty of the Cologne University of Music.
Many of his students have gone on to prominent positions in renowned orchestras all over the world.
Christian Wetzel teaches at numerous international masterclasses worldwide and is a visiting lecturer at such renowned music schools as the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Julliard School in New York, the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He holds an oboe class at the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country, “Musikene”, in San Sebastian (Spain).
Numerous recordings and premieres as well as a close collaboration with acclaimed contemporary composers also show his dedication to “New Music”.

Szabolcs Zempléni, geb. 1981, errang mit 17 Jahren bereits den 1. Preis und den
Sonderpreis am Concertino Praga. Es folgten der 1. Preis beim Internationalen
Hornwettbewerb in Békés, der 2. Preis beim Internationalen Hornwettbewerb in
Markneukirchen im Jahr 2000 und der 1. Preis beim Internationalen Hornwettbewerb
Brno 2001.
Den 1. Preis beim Internationalen ARD –Musikwettbewerb in München errang
Szabolcs Zempléni im Jahre 2005. Seitdem spielte er Solokonzerte u.a. in der
Tschechischen Republik, in Japan, China, Thailand, Italien, Deutschland, Österreich,
der Schweiz und in den Vereinigten Staaten unter der Leitung von Ivan Fischer, Yakov
Kreizberg, Jonathan Nott, Daniel Raiskin und Michael Sanderling. Er debütierte bereits
in den größten Konzerthallen wie dem Auditorium in Rom, der Carnegie Hall New
York, der Philharmonie im Gasteig, München und dem Bartók-Saal in Budapest. Er
konzertierte ferner mit dem Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, dem
Münchener Kammerorchester, der Camerata Salzburg, dem Budapest Festival
Orchester, den Bamberger Symphonikern, der Württembergischen Philharmonie
Reutlingen u.a. Zu seinen Kammermusikpartnern zählen András Keller, Péter Nagy,
Dénes Várjon, Christoph Eschenbach, Elena Bashkirova, Christian Zacharias und das
Atos Trio.
Szabolcs Zempléni ist Gastprofessor am Trinity Music College in London und am
Tokyo Music College in Japan. Ab 2010 bekleidete er die Professur für Horn an der
Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen. In 2018 folgte er einem Ruf an die Hochschule für
Musik und Theater in Hamburg. Seit 2024 ist er Professor für Horn an der UdK-Berlin.
Sein erstes Solo-CD (Colours of the French Horn) erschien in 2011