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.

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.

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.

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.

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.