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.

“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.

Natalia Grines is a graduate of the Nizhny Novgorod piano school. In 2004 she graduated the Nizhny Novgorod State Glinka Conservatory (Academy) with professor Bella Alterman. In 2006 she followed her post-graduate courses at the chamber music faculty (studio of Natalia Matveeva) and straightaway began to work at the homeland Academy, where she was working until her repatriation to Israel in 2022.

Being a professor of music (chamber music and piano duo departments), she brought up a lot of students – prize winners of international piano competitions, served in jury in different contests, travelled with master-courses all over Russia, as well as in Armenia, Bosnia, South Africa, Spain, USA.

Natalia has performed in Russia, Israel, USA, Taiwan, Spain, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Africa, Armenia, Ukraine.

At the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition (2019) she played together with a cellist Anastasia Kobekina, who was eventually awarded the title of the 3rd prize winner. Natalia also took part as an accompanist of the XIII and XV Tchaikovsky competitions and was awarded the diploma of the best accompanist.

Since 2007 she was regularly collaborating with Vladimir Spivakov foundation.

Since 2016 Natalia has been tutoring a chamber ensemble at the AIMS Academy-Festival in Catalonia (Spain). She is also taking part at the Keshet Eilon string Academy as an official accompanist.
In 2017 together with Evgeny Brakhman and the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra of soloists, she took part in a series of concerts in Taiwan, including a performance in one of the best halls in the world - Taipei National Concert Hall.

Among Natalia’s chamber partners are violinists Alena Baeva, Daniel Lozakovitch, Sergey Ostrovsky; trumpetist Sergey Nakariakov, clarinetist Valentin Urupin, cellists Anastasia Kobekina, Alexander Ramm, Boris Andrianov, Zvi Plesser and others.

Since 2016, together with Evgeny Brakhman, Natalia has been a founder and codirector of the unique festival and art project in Russia - “Musical Landscapes” www.musiclandscape.ru The project combines arts of music and painting, consists of concerts with world-famous classical artists and mastercourses. In 2022 the 5th edition of “Musical Landscapes” brought together more than 150 participants.

Varvara Vasylieva is a Ukrainian violinist based in Berlin. As a soloist over the last few years she performed with the Sinfonieorchester Basel in Stadtcasino Basel, the Mriya Orchestra in Die Glocke, Laeiszhalle and Berlin Philharmonie and regularly gives concerts with the Kyiv Philharmonic Orchestra.

She is a laureate of several competitions, such the Max Rostal International Competition (2nd Prize), the Odesa International Violin Competition (3rd Prize) and the Ysaÿe International Music Competition (1st Prize) among others.

Varvara finished her Bachelor at the Hochschule für Musik Basel in classes of Prof. Barbara Doll and Claudio Martínez Mehner and currently pursues her Master Degree at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin with Prof. Antje Weithaas.

She has actively participated in numerous festivals, such as the Zwischentöne Engelberg, Beethovenfest Bonn, Riehener Serenaden, Im Spiegel, Fiskars Summer Festival and performed alongside inspiring musicians such as Valentin Erben, Claudio Martinez Mehner, Rafael Rosenfeld, Winfried Rademacher, and Silvia Simionescu to name a few.

Since 2023 she’s a founding member of the Arda String Quartet.

Varvara is currently playing J. B. Vuillaume made in 1866 generously on loan from Wilhelm Geigenbau.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

American violist Matthew McDowell has been a laureate of many competitions nationally and internationally. An avid chamber musician, Matthew is a member of the Amnis Piano Quartet, who won bronze medal at the 50th Annual Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, third prize at the Premio Renzo Giubergia Competition, the Oneppo Chamber Competition, a fellowship at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, prizes at the Yellow Spring Chamber Music Competition, and the Yale Society of Chamber Music. In addition, Amnis was announced as semi-finalists for the 2024 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and were finalists at the recent Coltman competition.

Matthew was also named a finalist in the recent Barbash J.S. Bach competition, as well as a quarter-finalist in the 2024 Primrose International Viola Competition.

Matthew’s travels have taken him to major festivals throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico, concertizing at places like the Verbier Festival Soloist Academy, Festival Pablo Casals, Moritzburg Festival, Zwischentöne Kammermusik Festival, Festival Santa Pietra, Geneva International String Academy, and many others.

He has performed with world renown artists such as Yura Lee, Martha Argerich, Sir András Schiff, Xenia Jankovic, Gabor Takacs- Nagy, Renaud Capucon, David Gaillard, and Oleg Kaskiv.

Matthew is currently pursing an MMA with Ettore Causa at the Yale School of Music, and will begin the next academic year as an artist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium.

Born in Budapest, Jinseok Jeong began playing the cello at the age of five. At the age of eleven, he was accepted into the exceptional young talents program at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he studied under the tutelage of Prof. György Déri and Prof. István Varga.

He went on to win prizes at multiple international youth competitions, including the Antonio Janigro junior Competition in Šibenik, David Popper competition in Várpalota, Jan Vychtil competition in Prague. As a soloist, Jinseok Jeong has performed with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, the Zugló philharmonic orchestra, and the Anima Musicae chamber orchestra.

Jinseok is currently studying with Kian Soltani at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (MDW). Additionally, he has received masterclasses from Frans Helmerson, Miklos Perényi, Reinhard Latzko, Marc Coppey, Wen-Sinn Yang, Claudio Bohorquez, Leonid Gorokhov, and László Fenyő, among others.

Pauline Boudon began playing the cello at the age of three in Lyon. She then trained with Matthieu Lejeune at the Conservatoire de St Maur-des-Fossés before entering the CNSMD in Paris at the age of 17. She continued her studies in the class of Jérôme Pernoo and Cyrill Lacrouts, graduating with unanimous honours with distinction.

She has benefited from the advice of renowned teachers such as Gary Hoffman, Frans Helmerson, Reinhard Latzko, Xavier Gagnepain, Luis Claret and Pierre Foucheneret. She is now completing her Master's degree with Marc Coppey, Tatjana Uhde and Pauline Bartissol.

In 2022, she was selected for the masterclasses at the Kronberg Academy, and then performed at the Amsterdam Cello Biennale. She is a member of the Brahms Promotion (2023-2024) at the Philippe Jaroussky Academy, where she receives guidance from Anne Gastinel.

Pauline is passionate about chamber music, and in 2024 joined the master's programme in trio with Iris Scialom and Nicolas Bourdoncle at the CNSMDP in François Salque's class. She is a member of the Citadelles Quartet, and performs with the Arod Quartet (August 2023), Ulf Wallin, Marianna Shirinyan and Xenia Jankovic, among others, in various countries.

She has also worked with prestigious institutions such as the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Paris, and has been invited to the Musica festival in Strasbourg, the Festival de La Chaise-Dieu, and others.

She plays a cello signed Frank Ravatin, kindly loaned by the El Pasito Association.