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.

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 Tiberias, Israel, Victoria Gelman began the violin at the age of five with Irina Etigon, Mila Feldman and Haim Taub. She completed her bachelor’s degree with Hagai Shaham at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv, went on to a master’s degree with Mark Gothoni at the Universität der Künste Berlin, and then to Professional Studies with Ilya Kaler at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Winner of the Clairmont Competition in 2018 and first-prize winner of the “Maestro” Israel National Competition for Young Musicians from 2008 to 2013, she has received America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships many times. She has performed in Paris, at the Kremlin in Moscow, in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, England, Latvia and Italy; in 2011 she was the youngest musician of the Israeli Internet Orchestra under Yuri Bashmet.

She has worked in masterclasses with Miriam Fried, Itzhak Perlman, Shmuel Ashkenazi, Vadim Gluzman and Ilya Kaler, and in chamber music with members of the Szymanowski Quartet and the Jerusalem Quartet. She plays a violin and bow donated by WIZO.

“Rich, warm sound and a high degree of technical skills…” – South Florida Classical Review.

Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Askar Salimdjanov began his training at the age of seven at the V. Uspensky Special Music School as a student of Gulnara Suleymanova. He earned his Bachelor of Music at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore with Qian Zhou, then a Professional Performance Certificate at Lynn University with Elmar Oliveira, and continued his studies at Rice University with Cho-Liang Lin.

In June 2022 he won an international audition and a position with the Naples Philharmonic in Florida, where he holds the Paul and Roberta Bresette Chair in the violins. That same year he was one of the seven violinists selected for the Geneva International String Academy.

A multiple winner of the Lyric Chamber Music Competition, winner of the first NSAL Piano and Strings Duo Competition and of the Fourth John Oliveira String Competition, laureate of the 6th International Competition of Young Performers in Moscow, finalist of the 2nd Yankelevitch International Violin Competition and laureate of Vladimir Spivakov’s International Music Festival, he has performed as a soloist with the South Florida Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Miami, the Uzbekistan National Symphony Orchestra and the Lynn Philharmonia. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, the Esplanade in Singapore and the New World Center in Miami, among other venues.

He has performed on a 1795 Vincenzo Panormo generously loaned by Mr and Mrs Rin Kei Mei, and on two Stradivarius violins, from 1670 and 1702, loaned by the Florian Leonhard Fine Violins collection.

Helene Freytag was born into a family of musicians in Leipzig (Germany) in 2005. She received her first violin lessons at the age of five. In 2013, she passed the entrance exam at the Dresden Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in the class of Prof. Uta-Maria Frenzel. Currently, she is in the class of Hellen Weiß. Since 2019, she has also been at the Julius-Stern-Institute of the Berlin University of the Arts. There she is taught by Prof. Latica Honda-Rosenberg.From the winter semester 2024/25, she will continue her Bachelor's degree at the MUK in Vienna with Julian Rachlin.

Helene attended master classes with Prof. Mihaela Martin, Prof. Natalia Prishepenko, Prof. Zakhar Bron, Prof. Pawel Vernikov and Prof. Boris Brovtsyn. In addition she is a scholarship holder at the "International Music Academy Liechtenstein" and takes part in the "Intensive Weeks" with Prof. Ana Chumachenco, Prof. Ingolf Turban and Marc Bouchkov.

Helene is multiple first prize winner in the national competition "Jugend musiziert” with highest number of points. In this connection, she received spezial prizes as as soloist, as well as a chamber musician, including a prize of the "Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben", the concert series "Freunde Junger Musiker" and the "WDR3-Klassik radio prize". Together with her sister at the piano she was awarded the 2nd prize at the "Carl-Bechstein-Wettbewerb" in Berlin (2021).

At international level Helene won the 3rd prize at the "International Kocian Competition" in Usti nad Orlici (2019) as well as at the "15th International Violin Competition in Honour of K. Lipinski and H. Wieniawski" in Lublin (2021).

As a soloist Helene performed with the "Staatskapelle Halle", the "Sion Festival Orchestra" and the "Elblandphilharmonie Sachsen", among others. In addition, Helene has a great passion for chamber music. Together with her siblings, she successfully plays piano trio, since 2023 in the class of Prof. Boris Kusnezov at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig. Additionally, Helene was a participant in the chamber music projects, such as "Meister von heute und morgen” in Dresden, the "China Youth Music Academy" in Dresden, "Mit Musik-Miteinander” of the Kronberg Academy and the "Geneva international String Academy". There she got inspiration from Prof. Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Anastasia Kobekina, Prof. Walter Küssner and Sergey Ostrovsky. Since 2019 Helene is a member of the "National Youth Orchestra of Germany".

As a laureat of the 28th competition of "Deutscher Musikinstrumentenfond", she has the honour of playing an Italian violin by L. Ventapane (1806) and being additionally supported by a scholarship as well as concerts of the foundation "Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben". In September of 2022, she was also accepted into the "Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes" and the "Hans und Eugenia Jütting Stiftung".

Brian Isaacs, 23, grew up in Queens, New York City and started playing the violin at age four. After switching to viola in 2014 and graduating from LaGuardia High School in 2018, Brian began his studies at Yale University, where he received his B.A. cum laude in Sociology with Distinction in the Major, and his M.M. in Viola Performance as a student of Ettore Causa. Starting September 2023, Brian will be based in Berlin as a member of the Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker.

An aspiring viola soloist, Brian most recently won both the Yale School of Music Woolsey Hall and Yale College William Waite Concerto Competitions. As a result, he performed the Walton Viola Concerto with the Yale Symphony Orchestra in April 2022, conducted by William Boughton, and will return to New Haven in April 2024 to perform the Martinu Rhapsody-Concerto with the Yale Philharmonia, conducted by Peter Oundjian. Brian was one of eight semi-finalists at the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition, a semi-finalist at the 2022 Kodaly International Music Competition, and a prizewinner in the 2019 Anton Rubinstein International Viola Competition. At Yale, he has also received the Wrexham Prize in Music, “awarded annually to that senior who, as a performer, has best exemplified the standards of Quincy Porter”, the Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Award, given “to students especially notable for their contribution in the field of music” as well as the Terry E. and Irene A. Sharp Prize, awarded “to the most outstanding performer in the junior class in recognition of their fine musicianship and potential in the field of classical music”. He has performed as a soloist in masterclasses for artists including Misha Amory, Yuri Bashmet, Noemie Bialobroda, Alfred Brendel, Isabel Charisius, Nobuko Imai, Jeffrey Irvine, Lawrence Power, Thomas Riebl, Nadia Sirota & Nico Muhly, Steve Tenenbom, and Lars Anders Tomter. His pre-college teachers include Barbera Berg, Molly Carr, Caeli Smith, and Jonathan Weber.

Brian has been fortunate to perform chamber music around the world with remarkable musicians. Most recently, he traveled to South Korea in September 2022 for chamber music concerts in Seoul, Gimhae, and Heyri. Brian participated in numerous chamber music festivals in the summer of 2022, including the Viridian Strings (USA), NUME Festival and Academy (Italy), Geneva International String Academy (Switzerland), Verbier Festival Academy (Switzerland), Moritzburg Festival Academy (Germany), and Thy Chamber Music Festival (Denmark). He has performed with distinguished artists including Peter Bruns, Jose Gallardo, Annette von Hehn, Mihae Lee, Mi-kyung Lee, and Tony Nys. In previous summers, Brian attended the Taos School of Music, Maine Chamber Music Seminar, and NEXT Festival of Emerging Artists. At Taos, Brian received numerous chamber coachings from Misha Amory, Robert McDonald, Mai Motobuchi, Nicholas Tzavaras, and additional members of the Borromeo, Brentano, and Shanghai string quartets. He has performed in chamber music masterclasses for artists such as Simone Dinnerstein, Augustin Dumay, Lynn Harrell, Mathieu Herzog, Joel Krosnick, Michaela Martin, Fred Sherry, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, and Roger Tapping. Brian has been coached at Yale by Melvin Chen, Nina Lee, Don Palma, Wendy Sharp, Mark Steinberg, and members of the Omer and Rolston string quartets.

An avid orchestral musician, Brian joined the viola section of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra in 2019 as its youngest member and gained tenure in 2021. He has served as principal violist with several renowned youth/university orchestras including NYO-USA, in which he participated in concert tours across Asia and Europe, the Moritzburg Festival Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, Yale Philharmonia, and Yale Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Brian attended the 2018 and 2019 New York String Orchestra Seminars and the 2020 Detroit Symphony Orchestra Summer Institute. As a member of the Karajan Academy, he will participate in the viola section of the Berlin Philharmonic for numerous performances over the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.

This summer, Brian looks forward to returning to the Viridian Strings, Geneva International String Academy, and Verbier Festival Academy and participating for the first time in the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival and Gstaad Menuhin Festival String Academy. Brian plays on a 2011 Douglas Cox viola, on generous loan from the Virtu Foundation.

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”.

Israeli cellist Tamir Naaman Pery trained with Zvi Plesser and Frans Helmerson. A graduate of the Karmiel Conservatory, the Jerusalem Music Center and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, he is a member of the Boulez Ensemble and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

Recipient of the Bruno Frey Music Prize, first-prize winner of the Young Musicians Competition in Israel, second-prize winner of the David Grits Competition and winner of the Verão Clássico Academy Award, he has taken part as a soloist and chamber musician in Lumières d’Europe, Yellow Barn, the Geneva International String Academy, the Thy Chamber Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, the Perlman Music Program, Musethica and the Moritzburg Festival Academy.

He has shared the stage with David Grimal, Donald Weilerstein, Gary Hoffman, Peter Bruns and Claire Désert, notably at the Pierre Boulez Saal, and has worked with Daniel Barenboim, David Geringas and Kyril Zlotnikov. A scholarship holder of the Jerusalem Music Center, the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, he plays a cello commissioned from luthier Yair Hod Fainas and named “Shushik” after his grandfather.