Summer season 2023

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 violinist Kati Debretzeni who will give masterclasses and a lecture on the interpretation of baroque repertoire on modern instruments.

Born in Transylvania, Kati studied the violin with Ora Shiran in Israel, and the Baroque violin with Catherine Mackintosh and Walter Reiter at the Royal College of Music in London.

Since the year 2000 she has led the English Baroque Soloists under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and her playing can be heard on their recordings of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage (SDG). In 2008 she was appointed as one of the leaders of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with whom she has often appeared as soloist, directing and leading the orchestra in performances in the UK, Europe and the US.

Kati has recorded numerous chamber music CDs with the ensembles Florilegium (Chanel Classics), Ricordo (Linn Records) and most recently Trio Goya (Chandos). Additionally, she features as soloist on two versions of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, one with the European Brandenburg Ensemble under Trevor Pinnock (Avie Records—Gramophone Award 2008), and the other with the English Baroque Soloists (SDG).

Over the last few years, Kati has been invited to direct various ensembles in Israel, Canada, Norway, Poland, Iceland and the UK. She currently teaches the Baroque and Classical violin at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague.

 Photos credit: Eric Richmond

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.

“Annegret Kuttner’s playing is characterised by considerable professionalism and perfection, by her contagious electrifying joy in performing music and by the great stylistic sureness of her interpretation.”
Sächsische Zeitung

„...Kuttner's ... light-fingered playing was impressive for its airy clarity..."
Irish Times

Pianist Annegret Kuttner impresses the audience with the naturalness of her interpretation and the lightness and clarity of her playing.

After successfully participating in the Robert Schumann Piano Competition in Zwickau, Annegret has performed already at the age of 16 as a soloist in concerts in Germany and other European countries, including with the European Union Youth Orchestra. She completed her piano studies at the Dresden Academy of Music with Professor Peter Rösel, and received further musical impetus from masterclasses with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Pavel Gililov and Amadeus Webersinke. Annegret augmented her training with postgraduate studies on piano accompaniment (as a répétiteur) with Professor Monika Raithel as well as studying harpsichord with the internationally renowned expert on ancient music, Professor Ludger Remy.

Annegret Kuttner now teaches at the Academy of Music and Theatre, Leipzig.
In addition to her teaching post, the highly sought-after pianist regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician in diverse musical and cultural centres in Germany and abroad.
Concert tours have taken her to the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, Latvia, Ireland, South Africa and the USA.

Annegret performs regularly with Benjamin Schmid, Antje Weithaas, Natalia Prishepenko, Pauline Sachse, Ivan Zenaty and Robert Oberaigner. In New York, she played Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano together with cellist Peter Bruns. This concert was extremely well received by the public and press alike (New York Sun). Various internationally acclaimed CD recordings are released, including works for cello and piano by Louis Vierne and Charles-Marie Widor, by Robert Schumann and Robert Volkmann as well as for the Beethoven anniversary in 2020 together with Peter Bruns/cello the cycle "Beethoven – Most Complete 1-3“, expanding his known repertoire of five cello sonatas and three sets of variations with another three sonatas and arrangements by Beethoven himself and by composers from his context, for instance the sonata op. 64 (!) and the "Kreutzer“- sonata arrangement for cello by Carl Czerny.

HunJu Sohnn, Korean born pianist, has been performing both solo and chamber music concerts in Switzerland, England, Germany, France, South Korea, Thailand, Costa Rica, as well as throughout the United States.

Highly appreciated for her qualities in collaborative work, HunJu has been invited to appear with various instrumentalists and performed with the wind ensemble Ensemble Five ±, as well as the European-based Varias Ensemble at the New Year’s Music Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland. HunJu has collaborated in masterclasses for world-famous artists such as Pinkas Zukerman, Nobuko Imai, Kyung-Wha Chung, Tabea Zimmermann, Yuri Bashmet, as well as Yo-Yo Ma, Franz Helmerson, and Ralph Kirshbaum. She has been the pianist/coordinator of the viola masterclass at the Verbier Music Festival and Academy. HunJu has participated in a television documentary featuring Nobuko Imai, which was distributed worldwide and performed with Ms. Imai for France Musique Radio program during the Verbier Festival.

HunJu Sohnn continues to perform in Europe and the US, while holding a teaching position at the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique Danse et Théâtre in Geneva. She also participated in studio recordings, most recently in a project of complete works for piano and winds by Francis Poulenc released by Kleos Classics. HunJu Sohnn received her Master's degree from New England Conservatory and holds a Doctoral degree for Piano Performance from Rice University.

Lukáš Klánský was born in Prague in 1989. As a winner of numerous competitions he has become a sought after soloist and chamber music player. He is a member of the successful Lobkowicz Trio which won the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, Austria, in  2014.   He won the second prize at the Hans von Bülow International Competition 2018 in the conducting from piano category. He regularly performs with violinist Jan Mráček, winner of Fritz Kresiler competition 2014 and concert master of Czech Philharmonic orchestra.

Lukáš Klánský performs with leading Czech orchestras under the baton of conductors such as Libor Pešek, Andrea Sebastian Weiser, Gundi Emilsson or Istvan Denes.  He has played at the Prague Spring Festival, Feasts of Music with Václav Hudeček, Talich’s Beroun  Festival, Prague Dvořák´s Festival, Festival Lago Maggiore, the Mendelssohn Musikwoche Wengen, Chopin Marathon Darmstadt, the Nafplion festival, Il Timbro Ivrea, Basel’s Kammermusik um halb acht,  to name but a few.

He is a laureate of many national as well as international competitions:  Hradec Beethoven Competition, the International Rotary Piano Competition 2012 and the Darmstadt International Chopin Competition 2013. At the age of fifteen he made his debut in the Dvorak Hall in Prague with the Prague Chamber Orchestra playing Mozart’s F Major concerto K459. 

Between 2004 – 2010 he studied at the Prague Conservatoire with Eva Boguniová, graduating with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 2 in f minor. He finished his studies at the Academy of Performing Arts, where he studied with his father, prof. Ivan Klánský. His musical development has been influenced not only by his tutors but also by Martin Kasík and the internationally renowned  Garrick Ohlsson, whose Prague masterclasses he attended. 

His countless concert performances have served to introduce  himself to audiences in many countries.  In addition to the Czech Republic he is known in Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Poland, Turkey, USA and South Africa. His recordings are available on the  Praga Digitals, Radioservis, Gramola and Naxos labels. 

Lukáš Klánský is also conducter and gives concerts conducting Mozart and Beethoven Piano concerti from piano. He studied conducting with Professor Leos Svarovsky.  

Lukas also cooperate with legendary czech violonist Václav Hudeček. They play concerts together and works on summer Academy for young talents in Luhačovice.

Louise was born in Arras, north France, and started the piano at the age of seven. At ten she also started playing classical percussions. After obtaining her DEM with the "félicitations du jury" in Paris
Conservatoire Régional in the class of Brigitte Bouthinon Dumas, Louise started studying the Geneva HEM where she obtained both a Bachelor Degree and a Master Degree in Dominique Weber's class, as well as a Pedagogy Master Degree in Ricardo Castro's class.

Louise has also been learning piano with renowned pianists such as Philippe Cassard several times during the Tibor Varga Academy and Bruno Rigutto at the Ecole Normale de Paris. Lately, she has
specialized her-self in piano accompaniement under the precious advices and teachings of Helmut Deutsch, Maciej Pikulski and Nina Uhari.

Louise has been invited since a very young age to perform solo piano recitals in french festivals such as Musique en roue libre, Les inouies, Format raisin, Les pianos folies de Lille, etc. And she also
enjoys particularly chamber music playing, as she performs often in duo with singers Caroline Arnaud and Amélie Halary, pianists Alain Raes and Emmanuelle Huart, violonists Clara Chartre and Anna Sofia Bonino, amongst others.

She as also performed several times as a soloist accompanied by an orchestra, especially in Geneva Victoria Hall after wining the HEM Concerto Competition in 2016 where she played the K450
Mozart Concerto.

Louise as recently been hired by Geneva HEM as a accompanist pianist for the Percussion and Conducting classes. She will start working at this prestigious position in september 2023.

Born in 1980 in Neuchâtel (Switzerland), SIMON PEGUIRON first studied violin before turning to the piano and organ. He studied music at La Chaux-de-Fonds Conservatory, graduating with the best marks in organ and piano, and also completing a degree in music theory. He then studied organ with Guy Bovet at the Music Academy Basel, and at the High School of Music in Zurich in the piano class of Homero Francesch. He graduated in 2006 with highest honors and a soloist diploma for both instruments.

He appears regularly in concert as accompanist, chamber musician, soloist, composer, and more recently, as a conductor. He also is dedicated to arrangement and improvisation in various styles.

He has taught piano at the Conservatoire of Neuchâtel since 2006 and, after ten years of activity at the Temple du Locle, in 2009 replaced Guy Bovet as organist of the Collegiate Church of Neuchâtel.

In 2017, he was appointed as conductor and music director of the Orchestre de Chambre de La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Born in 2005, Naama is currently pursuing her bachelor's degree in the class of Mrs. Miriam Fried and Mr. Paul Biss, at the New England Conservatory in Boston, USA. She studied at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (Israel) with Mrs. Mila Feldman.

Naama played in the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra of the Jerusalem Music Centre, serving as concertmaster in many projects, and participated in all of its outstanding musicians programs; She performed chamber music with guidance from members of the Jerusalem Quartet and musicians of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and took part in many masterclasses with world-class violinists such as Grigory Kalinovsky, Mihaela Martin, Shlomo Mintz, the late Chaim Taub, and many others.

Naama has performed across Europe, in all major concert halls in Israel, and on national radio. She is an active member of “Musethica,” an organization bringing classical music to audiences with special needs, and in 2020 premiered a piece written especially for her by Israeli composer Eyal Malkinson.

She has been supported by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships since 2018, receiving the Outstanding Merit Scholarships. She won second prize in the “Keshet Eran” competition (2023), first prize in the Strings Department Competition at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (2024) and in 2025 she received the Claremont Prize, granted to a single violinist by the Claremont Foundation.

Naama has performed in concerts under conductors such as Lahav Shani, Karl-Heinz Steffens and Zubin Mehta.

Her activities in international music festivals, include the Geneva International Strings Academy (Switzerland), Keshet Eilon seminars, which she has attended regularly since age ten, to name a few. She has been an active participant at the Kronberg Academy "Good Vibrations" Festival and performed in masterclasses with Vadim Gluzman.

As the founder of her chamber group, Alma Rosé piano quartet, she performed at the Zeist Music Days Festival in the Netherlands, and worked with members of the Jerusalem Quartet and the Schumann Quartet (Germany). The quartet also toured London, played many concerts and worked with pianist Murray Perahia.
Naama plays a 1770 Nicolaus Gagliano violin, generously on loan from the late Yehuda Zisapel.

Eliane Menzel was born in Germany in 1999. She was a pre college student of Prof. Katrin Scholz at the Academy of Arts Bremen from 2008 - 2017. In addition to winning several first prizes at the national competition Jugend musiziert between 2007 and 2016, she was awarded special prizes for outstanding musical achievements (donation of Jugend musiziert 2007 and donation of the Oldenburgische Landschaft 2011).

Eliane was a member of the German Youth String Orchestra Deutsche Streicher philharmonie from 2011 to 2018, in which she performed in well-known concert halls throughout Germany and Europe. From 2014-2018 she served as concertmaster on tours, CD productions and broadcasts such as Young Euro Classics in the Konzerthaus Berlin. This concert, broadcast via livestream, showed Eliane Menzel also as soloist in the encore, the last movement of Vivaldi's Summer.

In 2015 she was awarded the NDR Kulturpreis, which included a broadcast production of S.Saens: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso at NDR Hamburg (transmitted in July 2016). In 2016, Eliane won 1st prize at the VIII. International competition Szymon Goldberg Meißen as well as a special prize for the modern piece and a performance at the festival Schubertiade Schnackenburg. Eliane Menzel took part in summer festivals such as Castleman Quartet Program 2018, Heifetz International Music Institute 2019 in Staunton, VA, Young Artists Program in 2017, 2018 and 2019, the Keshet Eilon Summer Master Course 2021 and 2022 as well as the Allegra Festival 2021 in Ruse, Bulgaria. She has taken part in masterclasses with Thomas Brandis, Rainer Honeck, Rachel Podger, Igor Ozim, Silvia Marcovici, Rainer Sonne, Andrés Cárdenes, Hagai Shaham, Pinchas Zukerman, Patinka Kopec, Grigory Kalinovsky, Ilya Kaler, Shmuel Ashkenazy, Itzhak Rashkovsky and Vadim Gluzman.

As a soloist Eliane Menzel has performed with orchestras such as the Oldenburger Schloss orchester, Kammersinfonie Oldenburg, Main Kammer orchester Frankfurt, the Ensemble Bremen-Frankfurt and the Oldenburg State Orchestra. In February 2017, Eliane performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in the sold-out concert halls of Emmen and Groningen (Netherlands) and at Die Glocke Bremen. She was accompanied by the Hanze Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Etienne Siebens.

In 2019 she performed in a recital at the German Embassy in Ottawa as well as in the German Embassy in New York in December 2019. Together with her father, oboist Prof. Fabian Menzel, she regularly gives chamber music concerts, presenting music from baroque to modern style, including world premieres of Compositions written for Eliane and Fabian Menzel. In 2017 they started their own concert series in the Castle of Neuenburg with numerous performances every year. With the start of the pandemic they started to livestream the concerts.

Eliane studied at the Manhattan School of Music from 2018 - 2022 and was part of the "Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program" with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec. She graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor of Music, she is now continuing her studies at the Juilliard School with Joel Smirnoff.

Sofija Dodig is a Serbian violinist born on August 30th 2005 in Belgrade. At the age of 17, she became the youngest finalist in the history of International Jeunesses Musicales Violin Competition in Belgrade and won the 5th prize, and the special prize for the best domestic candidate.

Sofija has been playing the violin since the age of 7 and firstly started studying with Professor Jelena Komatina in Belgrade. At the age of 10, she started studying with Professor Ana Veskov, and studied with her till the age of 17 in Belgrade. When she was 16, she enrolled University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz in the preparatory class of Professor Emilio Percan where she then studied for the next 3 year.. She has also been studying privately with Professor Brian Finlayson in Austria, during the years 2020 and 2021.

She has had opportunities to attend masterclasses of renowned artist and musicians such as Pavel Vernikov, Gil Shaham, Svetlana Makarova, Sergey Ostrovsky, Mihaela Martin, Kirill Troussov,, Brian Finlayson, Daniel Rowland, Boris Kuschnir, Grigory Kalinovsky, Stefan Milenkovic, Nemanja Radulovic,, Kati Debretzeni,, David Bowlin, Tatyana Balashova, Savely Shalman, Igor Tkachouk, Maja Jokanovic, Robert Lakatos.

She has played chamber music with acclaimed musicians, as Peter Bruns, Daniel Rowland, Kati Debretzeni, Maja Bogdanovic, Dana Zemtsov, Nicholas Schwartz, Uki Ovaskainen. She was participant and scholarship holder of the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, Stauffer Academy in Cremona, Davidsbündler Academy in The Hague and Geneva International String Academy in Switzerland. She was a participant of Lac Lemann Music Masterclasses in Blonay, Switzerland.

She had a chance to hold her solo recitals in Switzerland, The Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Macedonia and Serbia and perform in many countries around Europe. She was first on all national and international competition in Serbia, and won 3rd prize at Jeno Hubay Violin Competition in Hungary 2021 and 3rd and special prize at Ohrid Pearls Competition 2020. She was the winner of Franjo Krezma and Ludmilla Weiser Violin Competitions in Croatia 2019.

Sofija received a number of awards for her successes in music field - she is a stipendist from “Dobar glas” Foundation, which supports the best young musicians from Serbia, as well as the scholarship holder of the Fund for Young Talents of the Republic of Serbia. She has also received the “Dositeja Prize” from the Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Vasilisa Neliubina was born in Perm, Russia, into a family of musicians. At the age of 4 she started violin lessons with Tatiana Shevtsova, Honored Worker of Culture. She made her solo debut performance at the age of 7 with the Perm Opera and Ballet Symphony Orchestra. She played two years later with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia conducted by Vladimir Spivakov.

In 2016 Vasilisa entered the Music College at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the class of prof. Vladimir Ivanov and prof. Elena Chvertok. In 2020 she entered Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the first ranks.

Vasilisa performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra musician in the Small, Grand and Rachmaninov Halls of the of the Moscow Conservatory, Pushkin Museum’s Hall in Moscow, Chamber Hall of the Moscow International House of Music, in different cities of Russia: Saint-Petersburg, Tyumen, Nizhniy Novgorod, Izhevsk, Ryazan. She played at the Victoria Hall in Geneva, Stadtcasino Basel, Temple du Bas in Neuchâtel, and participated in the International Music Festival Hellas in Greece, International Festival of Slavic Music, Summer Academy “New Names”, Third Practicum for Performing Contemporary Arts in Russia.

Vasilisa took part in masterclasses with Eduard Grach (Russia), Maxim Fedotov (Russia), Boris Kushnir (Austria), Yair Kless (Israel), Lev Gelbard (Germany).

She is a laureate and prize winner of several competitions: 2021 1st prize of the Delphic Games of Russia, 2021 1st prize of the All-Russian Violin Competition named after the Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation G.S. Turchaninova, 2021 2nd prize of the All-Russian Violin Competition “Magic bow”, 2nd prize of the International Violin Competition Josef Hassid in Estony.

Vasilisa is currently studying at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève/Neuchâtel in Switzerland with Sergey Ostrovsky.

She plays an1880 Samuel Nemessanyi violin lent by the LaLive Foundation.

Elizaveta Cibotaru was born on November 15th , 2003, in Chișinău, Moldova. At the age of five, she started learning the violin at the Liceul Republican de Muzică "C.Porumbescu" in Chișinău, in the violin class of Nikolai Buinovschii, who was a student of Igor Oistrakh. Later, she studied with his wife, Galina Buinovschii, and their son, Vadim Buinovschii.

She is a laureate and prize winner of various competitions in Moldova and Romania, such as the "Zlata Tkach" competition, "Paul Constantinescu" competition in Ploiești, among others. Elizaveta played in the Moldovan National Youth Orchestra and supported charity projects in her hometown.

In 2021, she started her bachelor's degree at the Haute École de Musique de Genève-Neuchâtel in the violin class of Sergey Ostrovsky, where she continues her studies.

Elizaveta has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra musician in venues such as the Organ Hall and Serghei Lunchevici National Philharmonic in Chișinău,Philharmonic Paul Constantinescu in Ploiesti,
Stadtcasino in Basel, Temple du Bas in Neuchâtel, Théâtre Les Salons and Victoria Hall in Geneva, Salle de musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Auditorium Stravinsky in Montreux.

She regularly plays concerts at nursing homes and hospitals, bringing solace and joy to those in need.

She has participated in numerous masterclasses with musicians such as Dora Schwarzberg (Austria-Israel), Pavel Vernikov (Switzerland), Silvia Marcovici (Romania) Mihaela Martin (Romania), Bartolomej Niziol (Poland), Yair Kless (Israel), Bogdana Pivnenko (Ukraine), Stefan Arzberger (Germany), among others.

She has also participated in many academies and festivals as a soloist and chamber musician in Switzerland, Romania, Israel.

Elizaveta played from the beginning of her studies in Switzerland on a Honoré Derazey violin provided by the Lalive Foundation .

Now, she plays on an italian violin from the Maggini Foundation.

Michelle Bushkova, born in Moscow on May 25 2004, continues the third generation of her family’s music traditions. At the age of four she started violin lessons with Prof. Galina Turchaninova, and in the following year, she enrolled in the piano studio of Prof. Tatiana Zelikman.

From 2011 to 2021 Michelle continued studying with both of her teachers at the two most famous Moscow music schools: the Gnessin State Musical College - piano, and the Central Music School by the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory - violin (also in her father, Evgeny Bushkov’s, studio). Several days before her 6th birthday she made her solo debut performance as both violinist and pianist with the Belarusian State Chamber Orchestra in Minsk. Michelle has performed with orchestras in Moscow, Minsk, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Istanbul, and Ankara (Turkey); has appeared in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Pushkin Museum’s Museyon Hall in Moscow, Palais de Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Svetlanov’s Hall of the Moscow International House of Music, NCPA (Mumbai, India), Wiener Konzerthaus, Severance Hall (Cleveland, USA); and participated in the “Musica Mundi” Chamber Music Festival in Belgium, “Keshet Eilon” International String Masterclasses in Israel, Gstaad New Year Music Festival in Switzerland, “Stay-in-May” International World Festival in Naples, Florida, “Rheingau Festival” in Germany, “Kogan-Festival” in Yaroslavl, Russia, “Moscow Autumn” Contemporary Music Festival.

Michelle took part in masterclasses with Ilya and Olga Dubossarskaya-Kaler (USA), Pavel Vernikov and Svetlana Makarova (Switzerland) - on the violin; Stephen Kovacevich (England), Anna Malikova (Germany), and Victoria Mushkatkol (USA) - on the piano.

She is a laureate of the “Goldene Note” audition in Vienna, the Manhattan International Competition, the Berlin International competition, and the Chicago International Violin Competition. Michelle is currently studying both instruments at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Ilya Kaler and Olga Dubossarskaya-Kaler on the violin, and Antonio Pompa-Baldi on the piano. Her achievements and successes have been supported generously by Olga Kondurova.

Violinist Miray Ito seeks to evoke the intricacies of life through her music. Recipient of the 2022 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, Miray has stood on many stages from the start of her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of twelve. Throughout the years she has been awarded first prize at the Kocian International Violin Competition, been named as the “2018 Young Artist of The Year” by the Ruth Laredo Memorial Foundation, and awarded the Joan Graham Award and Irene Kinsey Stare Award, both from the Tuesday Musicale of Detroit.

Miray has been a prize winner of the Kloster Schöntal Violin Competition, Valsesia Musica International Competition, and Colburn Music Academy Concerto Competition.

She has appeared at venues such as The Kennedy Center, Warner Theatre, and Merkin Concert Hall, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Sendai Philharmonic, Toledo Symphony, and Orchestre du Conservatoire de Musique de Geneve, among others. Miray was a featured performer on NPR’s “From The Top” with Peter Dugan and has appeared as part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival and Japanese Medical Society of America.

A graduate of The Juilliard School where she was under the tutelage of Li Lin, she will be working with Augustin Hadelich as part of her Master of Music degree at The Yale School of Music in the fall.

Miray plays a 1734 Pietro Guarneri violin on a generous loan from the Ryuji Ueno Foundation.

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.

Originally from Padova, Italy, Leonardo Jelveh studied viola at the Cesare Pollini Conservatory of Music in Padova in the class of Fabrizio Scalabrin and graduated with honors in 2016.

At the age of 14, he took part in masterclasses and concerts at the International Orchestra Institute Attergau in Salzburg. From 2013 to 2015, he completed his training by attending the Internationale Sommerakademie in Bad Leonfelden, Austria with Thomas Riebl, and in 2015 he joined the European Union Youth Orchestra as a member of the Leverhulme Summer School in Austria. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in viola in 2021 at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, where he worked with Wolfram Christ. In September 2021 he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris in the class of Jean Sulem.

He has won numerous awards at international competitions, such as first prize at the 7th International Salieri Competition in Legnago, first prize at the 7th International Premio Crescendo Competition in Florence and first prize at the International Contea di Treviso Competition in 2016. He also placed second at the prestigious Francesco Geminiani International Competition in Verona.

From 2016 to 2019, he performed in the main European festivals and theaters with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, the La Fenice Orchestra of Venice or the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2021 he has participated in the Academy of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra and since 2022 he’s a member of the Academy of the Opéra National de Paris.

Born in Israel, 2000. Started studying the violin at the age of 7 with Mr Simon Ostrovsky. A graduate of the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts and the David Goldman Chamber Music Program at the Jerusalem Music Center. In 2015 continued in his studies with Ms Ludmila Feldman. Currently finishing his degree with Prof Pinchas Zukerman and Prof Patinka Kopec at Manhattan School of Music in New-York.

Natanel has appeared in concerts, international festivals and masterclasses in Israel, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, USA, The Netherlands , Germany and Japan, where he played as principal violist in the symphonic orchestra of The Pacific Music Festival.

As a freelance player he appeared as a principal violist with numerous Israeli orchestras including Camerans ensemble, Ramat-Gan symphony and the Israeli Chamber Orchestra.

Natanel has performed in chamber music concerts and festivals with musicians such as the Jerusalem Quartet, cellist Zvi Plesser (Israel), cellist Michal Korman (Israel), violinist Peter Winograd (American String Quartet,USA) and pianist William Wolfram (USA).

Natanel is a scholarship recipient of the America-Israel Foundation since 2013 and the Ronen Foundation since 2015. He is currently playing on a Samuel Zygmuntowicz 1987 Viola, generously loaned to him by the AICF.

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 and raised in New Jersey, Katie Liu is a Master of Musical Arts candidate at the Yale School of Music in the studio of Ettore Causa. She received her MM degree at the Colburn School, and her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, concentrating in Operations Research and Financial Engineering with minors in Musical Performance and Computer Science.

Katie picked up the viola and made her solo debut in 2019 with the Princeton University Orchestra. Aside from her musical pursuits, Katie has also had summer working experiences in asset management and wrote her senior thesis on the intersection of classical music recognition techniques and neural networks.

She is currently a section violist at the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and was selected to compete in the Hindemith International Viola Competition and Tokyo International Viola Competition in the past year. She was recently selected to compete in the upcoming Prague Spring Competition.

American violist Matthew McDowell began his musical endeavors at the age of four on violin, then shifted his focus to the viola at the age of twenty-one. His primary teachers have included pedagogues such as Ettore Causa, Ivan Vukčević, Boris Abramov, and Gérard Caussé.

In 2021 he completed his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees in viola and violin at Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music, graduating with the highest possible academic and artistic accolades. During this time, Matthew studied with renown pedagogues the likes of Paul Coletti, Carol Rodland, Jeffrey Irvine, Csaba Erdelyi, and Sergiu Schwartz.

In his experience at music festivals as soloist and in ensembles, Matthew’s travels have taken him to major festivals throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico, concertizing at places like Verbier Festival Soloist Academy, Festival Pablo Casals, Moritzburg Festival, Miami Music Festival, Festival Santa Pietra, and many others.

While studying at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland (Rolle), Matthew had the opportunity to play concerts across Europe including in prestigious halls such as Victoria Hall in Geneva.

While participating in masterclasses he has played for world renown artists such as Lawrence Powers, Antoine Tamestit, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Renaud Capucon, Nobuko Imai, and David Gaillard.

Matthew currently studies with Ettore Causa at the Yale School of Music at Yale University.

Arne Zeller, born 4th October 2006, started playing the cello at the age of six and joined the class of Peter Bruns at the HMT Leipzig as a junior student aged 14. Since October 2024 he is a bachelor student in the class of Frans Helmerson at Kronberg Academy. Regular masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz have been contributing additional important artistic impulses since 2021.

Being the winner of the Grand Prix and audience prize of the Budapest International Cello Competition 2025 and the first prize (ex aequo) of the International Pau Casals Award 2024, he is increasingly gaining international attention.

Further important awards in his career were the first prize of the International Anna Kull Cello Competition (Graz, 2020), the first prize of the International Mahler Cellocompetition 2022 and the second prize at the 29. International Brahms Competition (Pörtschach 2023). He also is an awardee of numerous first national prizes and special prizes of the federal German competition „Jugend musiziert” in the categories Cello solo and chamber music and is since 2024 the current holder of the Pergamenschikow Scholarship of Kronberg Academy.

Arne debuted with Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations at 13 years of age, soloistic performances followed with the Baden-Baden Philharmonics, the Euro Symphony Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and the National Philharmonics Budapest with works by Korngold, Dvorak, Shostakovich, Boccherini, Haydn, and Weinberg. In 2023 he repeatedly soloed with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra at the “hr-schooltour”, and the University Orchestra Mainz to relate classical music to school students. During his studies at Kronberg Academy he is also regularly involved in concerts targeting social involvement issues.

In addition to his performances as a soloist, Arne Zeller regularly plays public concerts in varying chamber music formations, for example at the Moritzburg Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Con Spirito Festival Leipzig, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Nymphenburger Sommer, the Bachwoche Ansbach, the Berner Seefestspiele, and the Kronberg Festival.

Particularly formative experiences in chamber music he experienced as junior artist at “Chamber Music Connects the World” at Kronberg, at the Geneva International String Academy, the Henle Chamber Music Academy, and the soloist program of the Verbier Festival. In this context he was privileged to already perform together with artists like Gidon Kremer, Antje Weithaas, Sergey Ostrovsky, Noémie Bialobroda, Lawrence Power, Valentin Erben and Steven Isserliss.

He played at venues like the Musikverein Wien, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Liszt Academy Budapest, in the Conservatoire de musique de Genève and the Casals Forum Kronberg.

Other important impulses were set through masterclasses with Ivan Monighetti, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Jan Vogler, Gary Hoffman and Steven Isserlis as well as Sir Andras Schiff, Gidon Kremer and Martin Helmchen.

Arne Zeller holds scholarships by the „Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes“, the „Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben”, the International Music Academy Liechtenstein and the Villa Musica Rhineland-Palatinate. He receives funding by the Peter-Klöckner Stiftung and was awarded the Martin-Stadtfeld-Prize, the Werner Stiefel Prize Baden-Baden, and the Lichtenberger Musikpreis.

He is kindly supplied with the Charles Maucotel cello „ex-Tortelier“ (1850), courtesy of a member of the Stretton Society, which also strongly supports him through the “Stretton Exellence Membership Programm” since 2024.

In 2026 Arne Zeller has scheduled concerts as a soloist and as a chamber musician in Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Greece, Romania, Spain and Japan.

Vilém Vlček received his first cello lessons at the age of six with Prof. Martin Skampa. In 2010 joined the class of Martin and Mirko Skampa at Music Gymnasium in Prague. Since 2018 he is student of Danjulo Ishizaka on the Musik-Akademie Basel. He has participated in masterclasses of Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, Steven Isserlis, Frans Helmerson, Richard Aaron, Alisa Weilerstein and others.

He played as a soloist with many renowned orchestras such as Czech Philharmonic, Kammerorchester Basel, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Kaunas Symphony Orchestra, North Czech Philharmonic, Zielona Gora Philharmonic, Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra and cooperated with such conductors as Jiri Belohlavek, Jonathan Bloxham, Petr Altrichter, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Jirí Rozen, Nicolas Ellis and many others.

His soloistic engagements brought him performances in some of the worlds most prestigious venues such as Chamber music hall of the Berliner Philharmonie, the Great Hall of Elbphilharmonie, Tonhalle Zurich, Dvoraks Hall of Rudolfinum, Victoria Hall etc.

Since august 2016 he has been member of LGT Young Soloists and in the 2021-2022 season he was member of the Kukal Quartet.

Marlene Förstel, born in 2000 in Lower Austria, first received cello lessons at the age of 6. In 2012 she was accepted into the gifted class of the J. S. Bach Music School in Vienna as well as the Young- Masters-Program for the promotion of particularly talented young musicians where she was taught by Maria Grün and Andrea Traxler.

In October 2017, she was accepted at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and studied with Maria Grün. Since October 2019 she is continuing her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Professor Reinhard Latzko.

She completed numerous master classes with renowned teachers, including Claudio Bohórquez, Wen-Sinn Yang, Heidi Litschauer, Xenia Jankovich, Miklòs Perényi, László Fenyö,and Johannes Moser. Marlene Förstel is a repeat first prize-winner of the Prima la musica competition.

In 2016, she won first prize in the "Violoncello solo" category at the national competition and was invited to perform as a soloist in the Great Hall of the Festspielhaus St. Pölten. Further soloist appearances followed, including concerts at Schloss Laudon (Lower Austria 2016, 2017), the atmospheric Great Knight's Hall of Burg Raabs (Lower Austria 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022), and the Palace of Justice Vienna with the Franz Schmidt Chamber Orchestra (Vienna 2018). She also gave solo performances abroad, for example in Italy, Croatia, Germany and Slovenia.

In April 2018 she won the string soloist category at the international competition Svirel in Slovenia and was chosen to perform at the „Ten of the Best“ Gala Concert. Furthermore, she was awarded with two special prizes, among these was an invitation to perform with the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania and also present a solo recital there in the spring 2019.

In October 2019 she was part of the Emars-Master-Program and was selected to give a solo performance with the Slovene Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.

In December 2021 she took part in the Musica Juventutis competition and won an invitation to perform at the Vienna Konzerthaus in April 2023. After a successful audition in Summer 2022 she performed the Dvořák Cello Concerto op 104 with the Master-Orchestra in Brescia (Italy). In the season 2021/22 she played among others together with Christian Altenburger a concert of the cycle "Master & Students" in the concert hall "Das MuTh" in Vienna as well as the opening concert of the "Festival St. Gallen", where she performed the Vivaldi Cello Double Concerto RV 531. Marlene Förstel is also a passionate chamber musician.

She plays in various formations such as duo, piano trio, string quartet and cello quartet. With her celloquartett “Die Kolophonistinnen” she won the BePhilharmonic competition in April 2016 and received the Strauss Music Contest Award of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. They were furthermore invited to perform live on stage at the Summer Night Concert 2016, in the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace. At the New Year's Concert 2017 of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, “Die Kolophonistinnen” were featured in the intermission film. In April 2020 they launched their very first CD “Heldinnenleben” and had their debut-concert in the Vienna Musikverein in the winter of 2021.

Auguste Rahon was born in 1999 in Reims. He played the cello for the first time at the age of five. At twelve he entered the Conservatoire régional de Lyon and studied there with Augustin Lefebvre. In 2012 he had his first experience as a soloist in Prague with Fauré "Elegie". Since then, he has played regularly in solo recitals, chamber music recitals, solo performances with orchestra and also as a orchestral musician.

In 2016, Auguste started studying in the HEM de Genève, first with Denis Severin (bachelor grade), then with David Pia (master grade). He was a finalist in Murten Classics cello competition in 2018 and laureate of the Marescotti Fondation in 2021. Auguste is currently in residence in the Académie de l'Opéra de Paris.

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“.

Born in 2006, Maxime has been studying cello with Claire Oppert and piano with Roustem Saïtkoulov for ten years, both of whom have had a profound impact on his musical development. Since September 2025, he has been studying at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHdK), in the class of Thomas Grossenbacher, after spending two years at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP) in the class of Emmanuelle Bertrand.

He also benefited from the advice of Steven Isserlis, Nicolas Alstaedt, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Anne Gastinel, Kian Soltani, Ivan Monighetti, Kirill Gerstein and Gábor Takács-Nagy.

He has participated in several prestigious academies, including the Verbier Festival Academy, the Geneva International String Academy, the Seiji Ozawa International Academy, as well as masterclasses in Liechtenstein, Villecroze and Kronberg.

In 2022, Maxime represented France in the Eurovision final for young musicians in Montpellier, and in 2024, he won 2nd prize at the Buchet International Cello Competition in Belgium.

Maxime has had the chance to perform in venues such as the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Minsk Philharmonic, the UNESCO Grand Auditorium and has been invited to festivals such as the Viotti Festival in Italy, the Auvers-sur-Oise Festival in France, “Kazinika Dienas” in Latvia, and many others.

In January 2025, Maxime made his debut at the Tonhalle in Zurich, performing the Dvořák concerto with the Bodensee Philharmonie Konstanz, conducted by Gabriel Venzago.

Maxime regularly plays in a duo with pianist Rustem Saitkoulov, and in a trio with pianist Alexandra Dovgan and violinist Ilva Eigus. He also performs in a duo with his organist brother Alexis Grizard.

Eager to share his art and his passion for music with different audiences, Maxime regularly plays for elderly people in nursing homes and hospitals, but also for young people in middle and high schools.

Since December 2024, Maxime Grizard has been playing a 1696 Gioffredo Cappa cello on loan from the Société Musicale Générale Mécénat, as well as a cello by Stephan von Baehr (Paris, 2009), on loan from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

Jiayi Liu was born in 2002, received her first cello lesson at the age of ten. Only three years later at the age of 13, Jiayi made her Haydn C Major Concerto debut in Qingdao Concert Hall. Until today, she has given numerous solo recitals and ensemble performances in renowned concert halls including Berlin Philharmonie, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, Shenzhen Concert Hall, Oriental Art Center, F Space Art Center, Salzburg Mozart Conservatory Concert Hall and New England Conservatory Jordan Hall to name a few.

As the winner of numerous international competitions, most recently she received the Young Musician Prize of Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann 2022 at the age of 19, as one of the 10 participants, and the only Chinese participants in 12 years of competition history. In October 2022, she also received the 3rd Prize “Prix Amis De La BCS” in Buchet International Cello Competition. She’s also the first prize winner of Janigro Cello Competition Junior and Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra award in Croatia. 3rd prize winner of 2016 Cleveland Cello Competition, and the winner of the Cello Award in Morningside Music Bridge Project 2018. In winter 2021, she joined the tour of Grammy winning composer Tan Dun’s work “Buddha Passion”, with performances in Guangzhou, Lanzhou, Changsha, and on the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon sonata for cello and piano with pianist Sean Tan and Maestro Tan Dun.

After 5 years of study in the middle School Affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Prof. Weixi Luo, she’s now studying in Basel academy of music with Prof. Danjulo Ishizaka.

She was the participant of masterclasses with Arto Noras, Steven Isserlis, Jens Peter Maintz, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Wenn-Sinn Yang, Maria Kliegel, Lawrence Lesser, Paul Katz and many more.

Jiayi is a laureate of scholarships from the, Minister of Education Basel-City, People’s Scholarship of Shanghai, Morningside Music Bridge Program in Warsaw, Poland and Boston, USA and Stipendenfonds der Dozierenden der HSM.

Jiayi is now playing the cello by Carlo Antonio Testore by Musik Akademie Basel.