Summer season 2021

Sergey Ostrovsky is a solo violinist, conductor, founder and first violin of the Aviv String Quartet for 27 seasons, founder and Artistic Director of the ‘Ensemble Symphonique de Genève’ and has taught violin at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève and Neuchâtel since 2009. He was First Solo Violin of the ‘Orchestre de la Suisse Romande’ from 2007 to 2012. He was also First Solo Violin of the ‘Orquesta de la Communidad Valenciana’ from 2012 to 2015.

Sergey Ostrovsky won the Grand Prize at the 3rd Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. He is a laureate of the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, 2nd Prize winner of the ‘Schubert and Modernity’ International Competition in Graz (Schubert Prize), as well as a laureate of the ‘Prague Spring’ International Competition and the Rodolfo Lipitzer Prize.

As a soloist, Sergey Ostrovsky plays with prestigious orchestras such as the ‘Orchestre de la Suisse Romande’, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Geneva Chamber Orchestra, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra (Poland), the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the ‘Orquesta de la Communidad Valenciana’, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the ‘Luzerner Sinfonieorchester’ and the Israel Chamber Orchestra.

A passionate conductor, Sergey Ostrovsky is regularly invited to conduct in Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Estonia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Latvia and Israel.

In 2015, Sergey Ostrovsky created a string ensemble, the ‘Solistes de Neuchâtel’, and in 2023 the ‘Ensemble Symphonique de Genève’. Sergey Ostrovsky's role as artistic director of the’ Ensemble Symphonique de Genève’ is multifaceted, both as an ‘artistic manager’ and as a musician ‘involved’ in the performances. From the latter point of view, he will be able to conduct the orchestra from the podium but also conduct the violin as a soloist.

As a chamber musician, Sergey Ostrovsky has played in the world's most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Louvre Auditorium, the ‘Théâtre du Châtelet’, London's Wigmore Hall and the Sydney Opera House. His ‘Aviv String Quartet’ has also made numerous recordings (Hoffmeister, Dohnanyi, Shostakovich, Schubert, Schulhoff, etc.), some of which have received critical acclaim.

The Geneva International String Academy invites the violist and composer Garth Knox who will give masterclasses and workshops on interpretation of contemporary repertoire.

Garth Knox was born in Ireland and spent his childhood in Scotland. Being the youngest of four children who all played string instruments, he was encouraged to take up the viola and quickly decided to make this his career. He studied with Frederic Riddle at the Royal College of Music in London where he won several prizes for viola and for chamber music. Thereafter he played with most of the leading groups in London in a mixture of all repertoires, from baroque to contemporary music.

In 1983 he was invited by Pierre Boulez to become a member of the Ensemble InterContemporain in Paris, which involved regular solo playing, including concertos directed by Pierre Boulez, and chamber music, touring widely and playing in international festivals.

In 1990 Garth Knox joined the Arditti String Quartet, which led him to play in all the major concert halls of the world, working closely with and giving first performances of pieces by most of today’s leading composers including Ligeti, Kurtag, Berio, Xenakis, Lachenmann, Cage, Feldman and Stockhausen (the famous“Helicopter Quartet”).

Since leaving the quartet In 1998, to concentrate on his solo career, he has given premieres by Ligeti, Schnittke, George Benjamin and many others, including pieces which were especially written for him by composers like Henze, Haas, Saariaho, James Dillon. He also collaborates regularly in theatre and dance projects, and has written and performed a one-man show for children.

He has recently become a pioneer of the viola d’amore, exploring its possibilities in new music, with and without electronics, and is in the process of creating a new repertoire for this instrument.

Garth Knox now lives in Paris, where he enjoys a full time solo career, giving recitals, concertos and chamber music concerts all over Europe, the USA and Japan. He is also an active composer, and his «Viola Spaces », the first phase of an on-going series of concert studies for strings (published in 2010 by Schott) combines ground-breaking innovation in string technique with joyous pleasure in the act of music making. The pieces have been adopted and performed by young string players all over the world.

Garth Knox is Visiting Professor of viola at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Photos credits

Noémie Bialobroda has been the violist of the Aviv Quartet since 2014, leading an active international career with the ensemble. Their performance of Beethoven’s complete string quartets at the Ansermet Studio in Geneva in 2018-2019 was a great success and strengthened their presence in French-speaking Switzerland.

Noémie Bialobroda, passionate about teaching, is since 2025, viola professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon. She is also Chamber Music Professor and Chamber Music Coordinator at the Haute École de Musique de Genève. Previously, she taught at the Conservatoire de Lausanne and the Conservatoire de Genève. During the summer, she teaches at the Flaine International Music Academy. Her students have won prizes in prestigious national and international competitions.

In recognition of her contributions to music, Noémie Bialobroda was awarded the Leenaards Foundation cultural grant in the music category in 2024.

As a performer, she is invited to renowned concert seasons and festivals, including Wigmore Hall (London), the IRCAM Manifeste Festival, and the Cité de la Musique (Paris), among others. She performs with artists such as Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Yovan Markovitch, Luis Claret, Boris Garlitsky, François Guye, Philippe Müller, Tedi Papavrami, Jean Sulem, Jean-Pierre Wallez, and the Rosamonde Quartet, giving concerts across Europe, Israel, and the United States.

Dedicated to contemporary music, Noémie has premiered two solo viola pieces at IRCAM: Caprice for Solo Viola and Electronics by Japanese composer Keita Matsumiya (2012) and Drifting by Pierre Stordeur (2013). She is also regularly invited to perform with the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt and the Contrechamps ensemble in Geneva.

Noémie Bialobroda studied with Nobuko Imai and Miguel Da Silva at the Haute école de Musique de Genève and later at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where she completed an Artist Diploma (third cycle) with Professor Jean Sulem.

Noémie Bialobroda is the co-founder and artistic director of the Geneva International String Academy.

This is one of the best CD recordings of the year – perhaps of the decade […]. Here we encounter the closest we have witnessed […] to a new Casals.”

(Early Music Review on the CD recording of J.S. Bach’s 6 Suites for Solo Cello)

“Peter Bruns does what he does best on his Tononi cello from 1730: he declaims, just like Pablo Casals, who also used to own the instrument. Peter Bruns once confirmed the closeness to Casals, saying: ‘I also try to speak with the instrument.’”

(Maja Ellmenreich in Deutschlandradio Cologne)

The cellist Peter Bruns has established an excellent reputation in the international music world as one of Germany’s leading cellists. Born in Berlin, he studied with Professor Peter Vogler at Berlin’s “Hanns Eisler” Academy of Music.

Peter Bruns has performed as soloist and chamber musician in renowned concert halls throughout all continents, including the Berliner Philharmonie, the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Wigmore Hall in London, concert halls in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul, in the Semperoper Dresden, in the Leipziger Gewandhaus as well as at the most important festivals including the Kuhmo, Bergen, Berlin and Dresden Music Festivals, the Budapest Spring Festival, the Seoul Spring Festival and Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus festival.

The artist has also performed as soloist with many major orchestras and has toured with the Staatskapelle Dresden as well as with the RAI, MDR and Berlin symphony orchestras. He has collaborated with conductors such as Giuseppe Sinopoli, Eliahu Inbal, Gianandrea Noseda, Christoph Prick, Marc Albrecht and Bruno Weil.

His fascination with the ancient language of music and the instrumentation of the various stylistic periods has led to close collaboration with renowned orchestras in this field, in particular with the “Akademie für Alte Musik” Berlin, with whom Peter Bruns has played for CD productions, concerts and festivals (Bergen, Brügge, Berlin, Regensburg, Köthen).

From 1993-2000, Peter Bruns was Artistic Director of the Moritzburg Festival. From 1998 to 2005, he was Professor for Cello at the Dresden School of Music and, since 2005, has held the same position at the Academy of Music in Leipzig.

Master classes led Peter Bruns to many German cities as well as to London, New York, France, Sweden and Australia.

Developing also a career as conductor, Peter Bruns is the Artistic Director of the Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig since 2014, and performs regularly in its own concert series in the Gewandhaus Leipzig as well as on tours.

Peter Bruns has recorded a series of award winning CDs including Brahms’s Cello Sonatas, Bach’s Six Suites for Cello Solo, the works of Gabriel Fauré, Ernest Bloch, Charles Koechlin and Robert Schumann, a recording of a Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach concert which won the Cannes Classical Award for “Best CD of the Year”, Antonin Dvorak’s works for cello and orchestra with the Staatskapelle Dresden and his highly acclaimed recordings of Haydn’s, Schumann’s and Volkmann’s Cello Concertos with the Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig.

Peter Bruns plays on a cello from Carlo Tononi, Venice 1730, which was once owned by Pablo Casals.

Piano - accompanist (edition 2021)

Yukiko Tanaka was born in Kasugai, Japan. She began playing the piano at the age of 4. She graduated from the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music. In Japan, she earned several prizes in various national competitions. In 1996 she went to Basel to continue her piano studies, and in 1998 she entered the virtuosity class of Christian Favre at the Conservatoire de Lausanne.

In 1999, she played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, accompanied by the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and was awarded the Prix Paderewski. With her piano trio "ITOYAKA" she won 3rd prize at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition.

In 2001, with the OCL, she played Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major and was awarded her Soloist's Diploma with the congratulations of the jury, as well as the Prix Colassis.

Yukiko Tanaka won the "Piano 80" competition twice, in 2000 and 2002.

She also attended masterclasses with professors such as Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Charles Rosen, Mauricio Kagel, Paul Badura-Skoda and François-René Duchâble, as well as chamber music classes with Gérard Wyss, Pierre Amoyal and Patrick Genet.
In 2002 and 2003, she had the privilege of attending the class of Konstantin Scherbakov in Winterthur.

She regularly gives chamber music concerts with the musicians of the OCL and of the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, among others at the Riffelalp Concerts, at the Entr'actes du Mardi, and at the Schubertiade. With violinist Julien Zufferey, she played at the Festival des Concerts du Cloître in Guebwiller and at the Festival Radio France in Montpellier.

Yukiko Tanaka is accompanist at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne for the cello classes of Patrick Demenga and François Salque. She is also professor of piano at the Ecole de Musique de Lausanne.

Piano - accompanist (edition 2021)

Sander Sittig performs regularly with great violinists like Shlomo Mintz, Pavel Berman and Liza Ferschtman. These concerts have taken him to major concert halls in almost all European countries as well as Japan, China, Israel and North and South America. Also as a soloist he gets very positive reviews, for instance for his CD with works by Mozart, his performances with orchestras in the Netherlands, Spain and the Czech Republic and his recitals, often with spoken introductions and audio-visual support.

Sander Sittig studied with master pedagogue Jan Wijn at the Amsterdam Conservatory. During these studies he made his debut in the main concert halls of the Netherlands, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and De Doelen in Rotterdam. He was a prizewinner at international piano competitions in the USA, Italy, France and the Netherlands.

Sander Sittig is a regular guest at festivals in Italy, Israel, Austria and the Netherlands. He performs frequently for radio and television. As a pedagogue he collaborates at the Codarts Conservatory of music in his native city Rotterdam and at the online courses of iClassical Academy.

In the 2021-22 season recitals are planned with Shlomo Mintz in Italy and Argentina. Sander Sittig will also extensively tour the Netherlands and other European countries with prizewinning violinist Hawijch Elders and give recitals in France, Spain and Portugal with violinists Miguel Simoes and Benjamin Scherer Quesada. As a solist he will present his audio-visual recital around Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition at many venues in the Netherlands.

Of Korean origin, Seat Byeol Choi trained in Russia, first in Vladivostok and then at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Edouard Grach. In 2017 she joined Sergey Ostrovsky’s class at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, where she obtained her Master’s in Concert Performance in 2022, before continuing at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with Ilya Gringolts in the Soloist Diploma programme.

In 2025 she joined the Orchestre national de Metz as co-soloist. A versatile and inquisitive musician, she develops projects in chamber music and the solo repertoire, plays with orchestras for special projects and takes an interest in historically informed performance on period instruments.

Winner of the EMCY Prize at the Kloster Schöntal Competition in 2015, second prize at the Concours d’Interprétation Musicale de Lausanne in 2019 and first prize at the Kiwanis Competition in 2023, she has worked in masterclasses with Alfred Brendel, Ilya Kaler, Vadim Gluzman and Silvia Marcovici, and has performed in Vienna, Tel Aviv, Moscow and London, among other cities. At the Geneva International String Academy she appeared in 2021 under the name Se Tsoi.

Violinist Pierre-Alain Baron has formed the Duo Baron-Fleury with pianist Pierre Fleury since 2021. Founded in Brussels, the duo went on to study at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon.

A laureate of the Kreutzer International Music Competition in 2024, the duo explores the violin and piano repertoire from aesthetic, organological and historical angles: major works by Beethoven, Schubert, Ravel and Messiaen, lesser-known pieces and women composers such as Marguerite Canal, Rebecca Clarke and Galina Ustvolskaya. It performs in France, Belgium and Switzerland, where it also gives masterclasses and educational sessions.

Sophia Fournier studied the violin at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional in Nice and then at the Académie Rainier III in Monaco, where she was awarded diplomas in violin and in chamber music, both unanimously and with the jury’s congratulations. She continued her training at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon in Marc Danel’s class.

Winner of the Palmes Académiques interpretation prize in Monaco and of the Prince Rainier III Prize in 2017, and third prize at the Marie Cantagrill International Competition in 2019, she has received scholarships from Soroptimist and the Rotary Club of Monaco.

A soloist at ten at the Musique cordiale festival in Fayence and at fifteen with Les Solistes de Monte-Carlo, she performed Tchaikovsky’s Concerto with the Chambre symphonique de Lyon in 2019. A passionate chamber musician, she plays a repertoire ranging from Handel to Ligeti, with a particular fondness for Russian music.

Born in Yerevan in 1996 into a family of musicians, Feliks Harutyunyan began the violin at the age of five. Since 2022 he has held a permanent position in the first violins of the Vienna Volksoper Orchestra.

After the Tchaikovsky Music School and the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan, where he studied with Alexander Kosemyan, he joined Dominika Falger’s class at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, earning his bachelor’s degree in 2019 and his master’s degree in 2021, both with distinction; he then continued with her at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.

As a soloist he has appeared with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Armenian National Chamber Orchestra – with which he made his debut in 2018 in Mozart’s A major Concerto – and the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Graz, with which he played Bartók’s Second Concerto in 2021. Guest concertmaster of the Armenian National Chamber Orchestra, he also plays with the Wiener Symphoniker and the Tonkünstler-Orchester.

First-prize winner at the Váša Příhoda International Violin Competition and the Malta International Music Competition 2018, finalist of the Ysaÿe and Grażyna Bacewicz competitions in 2019 and laureate of the Khachaturian Competition in 2020, he founded the string ensemble Grazer Solisten. A scholarship holder of the Académie musicale de Villecroze and the Geneva International String Academy, he has worked with Renaud Capuçon, Tedi Papavrami, Sergey Ostrovsky and Mihaela Martin.

Born in Ashdod, Israel, in 2001, Sophi Rochlin studied the violin with Elena Mazor at the Givatayim Conservatory and then joined Boris Garlitsky’s class at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany.

Trained in the programmes of the Jerusalem Music Center, including the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the David Goldman Program for Outstanding Young Musicians, she has taken part in the Keshet Eilon International Mastercourses, the Saline Royale Academy, Elba Isola Musicale d’Europa, the New Virtuosi International Mastercourse in England and the Geneva International String Academy. She has worked with Vadim Gluzman, Miriam Fried and Zakhar Bron, among others.

Awarded a special prize at the Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition in 2018 and a 2024 AFSF Opportunity Award, she is a scholarship holder of Villa Musica (Schloss Engers) and a member of Musethica Israel. She plays a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin from the collection of Yehuda Zisapel.

Born in 1997, Clara Mesplé began the violin at the age of six and in 2006 entered the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional in Montpellier, in the classes of Anne Temperville and then Anne-Marie Regnault. At twelve she won first prize in her category at the Vatelot-Rampal Competition.

Admitted in 2014 to the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon in Marianne Piketty’s class, she earned her master’s degree unanimously with distinction, then continued her studies in Berlin with Peter Rainer at the Universität der Künste. She has also been taught by Krzysztof Węgrzyn, Michael Frischenschlager and Renaud Capuçon.

A member of the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra in 2013 and 2014, then of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland in 2018, she plays with Les Forces Majeures, Ensemble Appassionato, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Orchestre Eroica Berlin and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine.

In chamber music she co-founded the Quatuor Confluence, unanimous first prize with the jury’s congratulations at the Philharmonie de Paris competition in 2016, and later the Quatuor Arlequin, third prize at the Anton Rubinstein International Chamber Music Competition in 2019. Winner of the Talents Classiques jury prize in 2019, she plays a violin by François Caussin dated 1885.

Born in 1998, Lisanne Schick took classical dance and piano lessons from the age of four and began the viola at six with Tina Strinning at the Lausanne Conservatoire. There her first quartet, the ensemble Krysalid, won three first prizes with distinction at the Swiss Youth Music Competition, and she herself won two first prizes as a soloist and a SUISA prize for the performance of one of her own compositions.

A pre-HEM student of Noémie Bialobroda from 2014 to 2017, she joined Jean Sulem’s class at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris in September 2017, and in 2021 spent an Erasmus semester with Pauline Sachse at the Musikhochschule Lübeck. She has played with Bachs Erben, the German National Youth Orchestra, the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra and the Quatuor Métamorphoses, under conductors including Simon Rattle and Daniel Harding.

She has taken part in the European Chamber Music Academy, the Geneva International String Academy and the Académie internationale de musique de Flaine. A regular guest of the Festival 4 Saisons in Lausanne, she was commissioned by the festival to write a sonata for viola and piano for the final concert of its 2021 edition. Supported by the Fondation Irène Dénéréaz, she plays a viola by Philippe Mahu.

Sarah studies viola at the Geneva Conservatory of Music (CMG) under the tutelage of Noémie Bialobroda. Her rapid integration into the intensive course of the Conservatory allowed her to benefit very early on from the advice of professors from the HEM-Geneva such as García Alarcón. Today, she continues her career in the CMG pre-professional cursus.

In order to complete her training, Sarah participates in high-level international academies such as the Lac Leman Music Masterclasses (2021 and 2022), 2022), the Geneva International String Academy (2021, 2022, 2023),, the Verbier Festival Soloists Academy (2021) and the Kronberg Academy Workshops (2021). She was thus able to perfect her skills with renowned artistic personalities such as Nobuko Imai, Lawrence Power, Jean Sulem, Antoine Tamestit and Tabea Zimmermann.

At the age of 20, she wins the first Prize at the 79th edition of the Concours de Geneve 2025. In addition to sharing the main prize with Brian Isaacs, Sarah Strohm received most of the other awards. The Victoria Hall audience also strongly supported her, granting her the Audience Prize, the Young Audience Prize, and the Students’ Prize. These distinctions mark a new step in her remarkable journey.

Despite her young age, she has also obtained various distinctions on the national and international scene, including the EMCY prize (2022), the second prize in the Johannes Brahms competition (Pörtschach/Austria, 2021) and the first prize in the competition of the Aims Foundation to play as a soloist with symphony orchestra (Spain/Solsona, 2019). She is also multi-laureate of the Swiss Youth Music Competition (2016; 2018; 2022) and has just qualified for the final of the Valiant Forum competition which will take place as part of the Murten Classics 2023 festival.

Sarah performs regularly as a soloist: she has just performed the concerto for viola, clarinet and orchestra by Max Bruch under the direction of Alexei Ogrintchouk and Hummel's Pot-Pourri with the Trois-Chêne orchestra. Finally, her involvement in the field of chamber music has allowed her to perform alongside established musicians such as Garth Knox and Antje Weithaas.

Sarah is supported by the Ruth and Ernst Bürkhalter Foundation.

Born in Hong Kong in 1999, Kwan Hon Gordon Lau started on the violin and switched to the viola in 2014 for its fuller, warmer sound. After the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with Werner Dickel, he studied from 2017 to 2022 at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin with Tabea Zimmermann and German Tcakulov, including an Erasmus semester in Geneva with Máté Szűcs. Since 2023 he has been studying for a master’s degree with Tabea Zimmermann at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.

A chamber musician trained by Eberhard Feltz and the Artemis Quartet, he has played with Sayaka Shoji, Daniel Hope, Rainer Schmidt and Peter Bruns, and has been guest principal viola of the Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra. He has performed at the Seiji Ozawa Academy, the Zermatt Music Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Moritzburg Festival, and in 2020 appeared with his brother on Daniel Hope’s ARTE programme “Hope@Home”.

A scholarship holder of Villa Musica Rhineland-Palatinate since the 2019/20 season, he received the “Star of Villa Musica 2023” award. A former member of the Hong Kong Children’s Choir, he is also a keen singer. He plays a 2013 viola by Patrick Robin, on loan from the Hochschule Hanns Eisler.

Born in Geneva in 2001, Johannes Moehrle started the viola at the age of four with Laurent Rochat and went on to study with Noémie Bialobroda and Andriy Viytovych. In 2019 he joined Tabea Zimmermann’s class at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, and in 2020 began a degree in French and German literature at the University of Oxford; he believes that exploring the links between the two art forms deepens his understanding of both.

He has attended masterclasses with Nobuko Imai, Garth Knox and Jean Sulem, and has played in the Verbier Festival orchestras, at the Zermatt Music Academy and at the Karajan and Seiji Ozawa academies. A member of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra since 2021, he has been artistic director of the Ensemble PuplinGE Classique, resident at the Puplinge Classique festival, since 2022.

Mila Gafner, born in 2004, started playing the viola at the age of 6 at the Lausanne Conservatory. She will then study with Noémie Bialobroda and joined the Pre-HEM program in 2018.

Mila has been a three-time winner of the Swiss Youth Music Competition in solo viola, as well as three times in chamber music. In April 2020, she was a finalist in the international Anton Rubinstein competition in Berlin and received the Förderpreis for the best interpretation of a contemporary work.

Mila has participated in masterclasses with violist and composer Garth Knox, violinist Gilles Apap, the Sine Nomine Quartet, and violist Matthias Buchholz. During the summers of 2018 and 2019, she attended the AIMS International String Academy in Solsona, Spain, and in December 2019, she studied with the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, specializing in contemporary music, before joining them on tour in Germany, Amsterdam, and Antwerp.

In 2023, she recorded Kodály's Intermezzo for string trio with her ensemble for the 4 Seasons festival album.

Since 2022, Mila has been studying with Jean Sulem at the CNSMDP in Paris.

Born in 2001, Héloïse Houzé earned her master’s degree in viola at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris in Jean Sulem’s class in 2022, with the jury’s congratulations, and has continued there in the postgraduate cycle. In 2026 she completed a residency at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel with Miguel da Silva and the Elite Programme of the École normale de musique de Paris in Gérard Caussé’s class.

Winner of the Grand Prix Ravel in 2022, she was awarded second prize and the audience prize at the Oskar Nedbal International Competition in Prague in 2023. She is regularly invited as principal viola by European orchestras and appears at many festivals.

In February 2026 she founded the ensemble Talismans, which champions the viola’s concertante repertoire and where she develops conducting as well as directing from the instrument. She plays a viola by Paul Noulet on loan from the Talents & Violon’celles foundation.

Alex Lau, as a young cellist being active in Europe, the United States and Asia, he was awarded a full scholarship at the age of 19 to the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland, the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival in the United States, the NUME Academy & Festival in Italy, the Villars Music Academy in Switzerland, the Geneva International String Academy, the Schiermonikoog Festival in the Netherlands and the Daniel Hope Academy in Germany. Despite his young age, he has already co-founded his own chamber music festival, the Löwenberg Kammermusikfest in Munich, Germany, together with his brother, violist Gordon Lau.

Alex Lau has also been invited to perform in Korea, Moldova and Saudi Arabia, and has performed with many respected musicians as Robert McDonald, Cathrine Cho, Ani Kavafian, Ara Gregorian, Michael Kannen, Daniel Hope, Mi-kyung Lee, Roland Glassl, Nicholas Kitchen, Sergey Ostrovsky, and performed in concert venues such as the Geneva Victoria Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, Hong Kong City Hall, Foundation Pierre Gianadda and Flagey Brussels.

Alex Lau had the opportunity to gain valuable experience with many renowned musicians such as Frans Helmerson, Misha Maisky, Pavel Gililov, Nobuko Imai, Gary Hoffman, Tabea Zimmermann, Noémie Bialobroda, Peter Bruns, Christoph Richter, Alban Gehardt, Antonio Lysy, Jeroen Reuling, Collin Carr, Kazuki Yamada, Sadao Harada (Tokyo Quartet) and Raphaël Merlin (Quatuor Ébène).
A passionate advocate for expanding the cello repertoire, Alex Lau collaborated with choreographer Jacopo Godani and the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company. Together, they toured Italy and Germany, performing works such as Bach’s Cello Suites, Ligeti’s Solo Sonata, and Kodály’s Solo Sonata, captivating audiences with their innovative blend of music and contemporary dance.

As a soloist, Alex Lau has appeared with the Südwestdeutsche Kammerorchester Pforzheim, Camerata Chişinău, and various youth orchestras, collaborating with conductors including Douglas Bostock, Ulrich Kern, Mihai Amihalachioaie, and Pascal Kaufmann. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he gained international attention through an appearance on violinist Daniel Hope’s Hope@Home series on Arte.tv, performing alongside his brother, Gordon Lau. In 2025, Alex Lau presented a solo recital with pianist Naoko Sonoda as part of the Hong Kong Artists Series organized by the Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department, with a broadcast performance on Radio Television Hong Kong. He is also a scholarship recipient of Villa Musica, Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Munich, and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund.

Alex Lau is an award-winning cellist who won First Prize at the Beijing Ai Qin International Cello Prize, Second Prize at the Heran International Cello Competition in the Czech Republic, and a Special Prize at the Dotzauer International Cello Competition in Germany. In addition, he has reached the semifinals of the 2025 Isangyun International Cello Competition in Tongyeong, South Korea. Alex Lau has been invited by conductor Christoph Poppen to serve as Guest Principal Cellist of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta on multiple occasions during the 2025/26 season.

Born in 2002 in Hong Kong to a musical family, Alex Lau started playing the cello at the age of 7 and was studying at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, Saxon State High School for Music Carl Maria von Weber Dresden and the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts under the tutelage of Hsin-Hsin Chang, Laurent Perrin, Susanne Müller- Hornbach, Marie- Elisabeth Hecker, Norbert Anger and Wen-Sinn Yang.

Alex Lau continues studying in Munich under the tutelage of Julian Steckel for his Master degree

An Italian cellist, passionate chamber musician and cello teacher, Lea Galasso studied with Ivan Monighetti, Antonio Meneses and Christian Poltéra, graduating with distinction in Lucerne, Basel and Bern. Holding a master’s degree in music education, she teaches the cello in Basel.

She has performed at the Rome Chamber Music Festival, the Minato Mirai Hall in Yokohama and the Lingotto Giovani festival in Turin, and received the special award “The Note Zagreb” at the 9th Antonio Janigro International Competition for Young Cellists in Croatia. She has taken part in the Gstaad String Academy, the Barenboim-Said Akademie and the Accademia Chigiana, and has worked with Frans Helmerson, Jens Peter Maintz and Peter Bruns.

A founding member of the Moser String Quartet, formed in 2020, she has won several prizes with the ensemble. She plays an Italian cello by Primo Contavalli, acquired thanks to an anonymous donation from members of the Associazione Amici della Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.

Cosima Federle was born in Regensburg in 2002 and started playing the violoncello at the age of four.

At 2010 she was admitted to to the "Bayrische Frühförderklasse", Regensburg under Wolfgang Nüsslein and from 2015-2019 she had lessons with Hanno Simons in Munich. In 2019 Cosima became a junior student of Peter Bruns at the “Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig” and continued there as a full student since 2020.

Her playing was enriched by participation in masterclasses taught by Wolfgang Boettcher, Wen- Sinn Yang, László Fenyö, Jan Vogler, Natalia Gutman, Boris Kusnezow, Kian Soltani, Jens- Peter Maintz, Mischa Maisky and Alfred Brendl. Cosima has won various national and international competitions, including first prizes at the "International Dotzauer Competition", Dresden, at the "Làszlò Spezzaferri International Music Competition", Verona, at “Jugend Musiziert“ and 2nd prizes at the "International David Popper Competition“, Hungary and at the "Concours International de Tremplin", Paris, as well as the Music Prize of the City of Regensburg, a special prize by the "Harald Genzmer Foundation" and a Special prize by the German "Bundesapothekenkammer".

In 2013 Cosima and her brother were one of the main protagonists of the movie "Jugend Musiziert- der Film“, which was broadcasted by various German TV channels. She is a scholarship holder of the "Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben" and the "International Music Academy Liechtenstein" and received further scholarships by the "Geneva International String Academy", Switzerland, "Musique à Flaine", France, from the "Hildegard-Schmalzl Foundation" and the "Dresden Music Festival".

Since 2017 she was an annual scholarship holder of the project "Meisterschüler-Meister" in the Neuhardenberg Castle, Berlin with Jan Vogler.

Cosima has played at several festivals, including "Musique en Été", Geneva, "Dresden Music Festival", "Festival Momentum", Stolberg and performed at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Stadtcasino Basel and Gewandhaus Leipzig.

She produced several recordings with the “Bayrischer Rundfunk“, “Deutschlandfunk“, “Norddeutscher Rundfunk“ and “Radio Berlin Brandenburg“.

Cosima plays a cello by Nicolas Lupot, Paris 1821, that has been given to her as a loan by the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben“.

https://konstanze-pietschmann.com

Konstanze Pietschmann is a cellist from Leipzig. After studying in the young talent promotion class of Anna Niebuhr at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy " in Leipzig, she began her music studies in the class of Prof. Peter Bruns at the same university in 2018. After numerous first prizes at "Jugend musiziert " at the national level, participation in major international competitions followed, including the "Concours Reine Elisabeth " in Brussels. Among others, she was awarded 3rd prize at the International Dotzauer Competition, 1st prize at the International Cello Competition "Anna Kull " in Graz, the "International Suggia Award " in Porto and most recently 1st prize at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition in Berlin.

She made her debut as a soloist in 2019 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig with the Cello Concerto by Robert Schumann. This was followed by concerts with the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra, “Konzerthausorchester” Berlin, the Orquestra Sinfonica do Porto, the award- winning ensemble LGT Young Soloists and others. Several chamber music concerts have already taken Konstanze to the concert halls of Portugal, Italy, Ethiopia, Hungary, Greece, Israel, the USA and many more. In 2021 she founded the chamber orchestra “Camerata Espansiva!” to give young soloists a stage.

She regularly participates in master classes and festivals. At the Geneva String Academy, Musique a Flaine and “Con Spirito” Festival she shared the stage with musicians such as Sergey Ostrovsky, Noemie Bialobroda, Tobias Feldmann, Pauline Sachse, Andrej Bielow and Christophe Poiget. In addition to master classes with Peter Bruns, Alfred Brendel, Marc Coppey, Wolfgang Böttcher, Norman Fischer, Valentin Erben (Alban Berg Quartet) and members of the Quatuor Ysaÿe, Konstanze received important impulses from Wen-Sinn Yang and Anne Gastinel.

Since 2019, Konstanze Pietschmann has been a scholarship holder of the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Leipzig e.V. association. She has also received scholarships from the Jütting Foundation, the Harald Genzmer Foundation and Musique à Flaine. Konstanze plays a cello by Charles Gaillard (Paris, 1867) from the German Musical Instrument Fund of the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben”.

Born in Madrid, Guillermo Ortega Santos studied with Asier Polo and since 2017 has continued his training at the Musik-Akademie Basel (Switzerland) under the tutelage of Rafael Rosenfeld, where he has obtained both the Master Performance and Soloist degrees thanks to scholarships from the Lyra Foundation, the Rudolf Vontobel Foundation and the Rita Zimmerman Foundation. He has also received valuable guidance from Rainer Schmidt, Anton Kernjak, Claudio Martínez-Mehner and Steven Isserlis.

Guillermo has been awarded prizes in numerous competitions, including the Kiefer Hablitzel|Göhner Prize 2023 (Switzerland), the Rahn Kulturfonds 2019 and 2020, Third Prize and Prize for the best interpreter of Spanish music in the International Competition "Villa de Llanes" and First Prize in the National Competition "Ciudad de Vigo", among others. He has performed in the most important Spanish and European concert halls, such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, Musikverein, Concertgebouw and the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, under conductors of the stature of Paavo Järvi, Gianandrea Noseda, Herbert Blomstedt, Heinz Holliger and Krzysztof Penderecki.

From 2019 to 2021, Guillermo was Praktikant at the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich and currently collaborates with orchestras such as the Zurich Opera House, Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Orquesta Nacional de España. He has also been invited to perform at festivals such as OCM Prussia Cove, Musikdorf Ernen, Festival der Stille and Davos Festival. Guillermo also has participated in the program “Young Soloist”, recording 3 programs for the Spanish National TV.

From September 2024 he takes up a permanent position with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. 

Lena Schulz began her studies at the Vorarlberg State Conservatory with Mathias Johansen and in 2020 joined Conradin Brotbek’s class at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts, where she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees with distinction. In 2023/24 she studied as an Erasmus scholar with Jakob Koranyi at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

She then pursued further studies in leading orchestral positions with Francis Gouton in Mannheim and with Frans Helmerson at the Stauffer Academy. Distinguished at the International David Popper Competition and winner of the soloist competition of the Vorarlberg Conservatory, she received the Soroptimist scholarship of the Stuttgart University in 2025.

She has worked in masterclasses with Gary Hoffman, Kian Soltani, Alban Gerhardt, Peter Bruns and Frans Helmerson. Since January 2026 she has been an academy member of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern.

Hannah Ruschepaul was born on 23.01.1997 and grew up in the Hanover region. She received her first cello lessons at the age of six at the Isernhagen music school. From 2010 to 2013, Hannah was an early student at the Institut für Frühförderung musikalisch Hochbegabter (IFF) at the HMTM Hanover with main subject lessons from Prof. Aydintan. At the age of 16, she moved to Prof. Stolzenburg at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar's Center for the Gifted and Talented and completed her Abitur at the Schloss Belvedere music high school there. Hannah now lives in Hamburg and studies at the HfMT Hamburg in Prof. Sebastian Klinger's class.

From 2007 to 2016, Hannah took part in the Jugend Musiziert competition in various formations and won several national prizes. She was a winner of the Lions Music Prize of Lower Saxony and won first prize in the Novissima Award of the Syker Vorwerk, Center for Contemporary Music, as well as the Elise Meyer Competition. Hannah is a scholarship holder of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Yehudi Menuhin organization Live Music Now.

Hannah made her solo debut at the age of 13 with Joseph Haydn's C major Cello Concerto accompanied by the Elizabeth Concort Chamber Orchestra. This was followed by numerous other solo performances, including Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations.

As a member of various ensembles, such as the German National Youth Orchestra, she has given numerous concerts in Germany, EU countries, China and Israel. These include multiple performances in the Berlin Philharmonie and the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem.