“This evening it was Pablo Barragán who cast a spell on his audience. In addition to his perfect playing in all respects, it was just his soulful tone, which held in breath.”
Westdeutsche Zeitung

With music one can say what cannot be expressed otherwise. Music makes intangible things tangible and touches in a special way. From the first note Pablo Barragán masterfully creates a connection to his audience. His performance is differentiated, elegant and perfectly nuanced. He wants to tell stories, convey emotions and create his own color palette for every work.
As soloist and chamber musician, his performances lead him again through Germany and Europe, from the Philharmonie Berlin, to the Bayerischen Rundfunk in Munich, the Laieszhalle in Hamburg, the Tonhalle Zurich, to the Konzertgesellschaft Basel, into the Auditori Barcelona and to the Athenaeum in Bucharest with conductors such as Clemens Schuldt, Adrian Pravaba and Gabriel Feltz.

The intimacy of chamber music in turn opens up entirely new views, emotions and colors that characterize the young musician. Making music together with the Martha Agerich, Viviane Hagner, or the Schumann and Novus Quartets, and at festivals such as Lucerne Festival, Martha Argerich Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Young Euroclassics Berlin and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival are thus as important as his solo concerts.

Marco Behtash was born in 1990, in Berkeley, California, to Italian and Iranian parents both connected to the prestigious UC Berkeley University and in a whirlpool of different cultures, languages, and influences. He started playing the piano at age 5 and only as a teenager of fourteen picked up the double bass for the first time.Before focusing his career solely on music Marco had a brief foray into the field of mechanical engineering, another passion and fascination of his. Finally, however, at the age of nineteen he decided that playing music with other people made him feel alive in a way that nothing else had before and that that was the path to follow,leading him later to study with the legendary Rinat Ibragimov in London.

Since then Marco has played around the world primarily with great orchestras,including the London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, BandArt, and the Nederlands Kamerorkest. Since 2016 he enjoys being sub-principal double bass the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. Over the past year she has especially enjoyed working with great artists including Gordan Nikolic,Bernard Haitink, Joyce Di Donato, Joseph Calleja, Christian Zacharias, Janine Jansen, Dimitri Hvorostovski, Renee Fleming, Placido Domingo, Antonello Manacorda,Valery Gergiev, Batio Hagony, and many others.

In his free time Marco enjoys sports, being in nature, reading, going to concerts and cooking. Marco usually plays on an English instrument attributed to John Devereaux(London, ca. 1830) using gut strings (metal-wound or uncovered) and enjoys using a variety of bows ranging from baroque to modern.

Anna Ciborowska is a pianist who likes to stray off the beaten track. Although her concert repertoire includes many pieces from the pantheon of piano literature, her discography refers to less know compositions. With The Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra Amadeus under Agnieszka Duczmal she has recorded Concerto for piano, saxophone quartet and string orchestra by Rafal Stradomski. She has collaborated with the esteemed Belgian writer and composer Gaston Compère who dedicated her many of his compositions. Some of them are recorded on CD’s “Polders “and “Lux Mea”. Suite “Polders” was used as the soundtrack to the film with the same title produced by ARTE and RTBF. She recorded the piano quintet of Jules Zarembski for the Belgian radio RTBF. Her searching passion led to releasing the CD with the music of unfairly forgotten polish XIX centaury woman-composer Maria Szymanowska. Some of the pieces on the CD were world première recordings.

As a soloist Anna Ciborowska performed among others with Dutch Orchestra „Amadeus” in the Chamber Hall of Concergebouw in Amsterdam, Orchestra „Ricercare” in Concert Noble in Brussels. She gave the recitals in many European countries. 

Besides solo performances she is an active chamber musician. She is a pianist in Exprezz Duo which played among others in Bruno Walter Hall in Lincoln Center in New York, The Kennedy Center in Washington, Rome, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Warsaw, Rotterdam, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Seoul (The South Korea).

Called “the discovery of the year” by classical music magazine crescendo and “on her way to the very top” by concerti magazine, German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken is, at age twenty-nine, among the elite of internationally acclaimed artists of a new generation, electrifying audiences and peer musicians alike with her stunning technical skills, exceptional charisma and great profundity of her musical thinking. 

A uniquely gifted talent at very young age, Danae received the support of Lord Yehudi Menuhin when she was seven, and soon began to cause a stir at major European venues with her “sparkling joy of playing” (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger). Following her studies with the internationally venerated teacher Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and with Lars Vogt, she is today a regular guest of major orchestras including the Munich Symphony, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Norrlandsoperan Symphony and Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. 

She has performed to great critical acclaim at London‘s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, KKL Lucerne, Cologne Philharmonie, Philharmonie Essen, Gasteig in Munich, Konzerthaus Berlin, Bozar Brussels, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Frankfurt Alte Oper and others.

Danae Dörken also performs regularly at major festivals including Kissinger Sommer, Schwetzingen festival, LuganoMusica, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Piano Espoo Finland, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Rheingau Musikfestival, Lucerne Piano Festival and others. 

Danae’s groundbreaking recording of Piano Concertos by Mozart and Mendelssohn was released in 2016, to raving critical acclaim. Her solo recording of fantasies by Schumann, Schubert und C.P.E. Bach was nominated for on ICMA Award. Her 2012 debut CD, featuring solo works by Leoš Janáček, received equally enthusiastic reviews. Her current two albums “EAST and WEST” (also on ARS Produktion) and “Between Nostalgia and Revolution” (GENUIN) were nominated for an ICMA Award, the Opus Klassik Award and the German Record Critics’ Award

Danae Dörken is co-founder of the Molyvos International Music Festival.

Kiveli Dörken, born 1995, has been playing piano since the age of five. Her first teacher was Marina Kheifets. Since 2003 she was a student of Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the University of Drama, Music and Media Ηanover (HMTM). Following her professor’s death in 2012 she continues her studies in HMTM under Lars Vogt. Kiveli won the International Steinway Competition in Hamburg as the youngest participant ever at the age of five and proceeded to take First Prize in the International Grotrian Steinweg Competition for six consecutive years. She received several first prizes with maximum scores at the German Competition for Young Talent Jugend musiziert, at the International Competition of the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA) in Croatia and the International Piano Competition for the Rotary Youth Music Prize. Kiveli has earned scholarships from the Werner Richard-Dr. Carl Dörken Foundation (no relations), the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, the Festival Spannungen and the International Music Academy Liechtenstein. At the age of eight, she gave her first concert with an orchestra. She now performs on a regular basis (including with her sister Danae) in all major halls and festivals in Europe, as well as in China and the USA. She has been filmed by Arte and the WDR. Kiveli has performed for Dalai Lama and Angela Merkel. The critics describe her music as “a kaleidoscope of feelings and tonal diversities”.

“I see composing and conducting as a whole, as an inseparable relationship,” says Konstantia Gourzi, who combines the rare roles of composer and conductor in an extraordinary way.

She is influenced by the identity of different cultures and musical traditions. Konstantia Gourzi deals with current social issues and incorporates them into her musical work. Creating a connection between the arts and cultures inspires her time and again to create new performance concepts.

Konstantia Gourzi’s compositional work includes works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and solo pieces as well as works for music theater and film music.

Her musical partners and collaborations include, in addition to renowned soloists and ensembles, the Lucerne Festival, the Grafenegg Festival, the Festspiele Europäische Wochen Passau, the Staatsoper Berlin, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the hr-Sinfonieorchester, the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Ensemble Musica Nova Israel, among others, the Ensemble Neue Musik Moscow, the Athens State Orchestra, the Kasseler Musiktage, the Nuremberg Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising, the Patrimonio Nacional Spain, the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition and the ARD Music Competition.

Radio recordings, television broadcasts and live streams document her artistic path as well as her collaboration with labels such as NEOS, NAXOS, SONY Classical and ECM.

Konstantia Gourzi was born in Athens in 1962 and studied piano, composition and conducting in her hometown and from 1988 to 1992 at the HdK (UdK) Berlin. She lives in Munich and on Aegina, Greece.

Sebastian Manz, international soloist, chamber musician and solo clarinetist with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, had his big breakthrough with his sensational success at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in September 2008.  He wins not only first prize in the Clarinet category, which had not been awarded for forty years, but also the coveted Audience Prize and other special prizes. With his partner Martin Klett at the piano, he had also won the German Music Competition just a few months before. Since then, he was awarded thrice with the ECHO Classic Award for his outstanding album releases.

His discography includes numerous awards underscoring Manz’ intuition for details and overarching concepts. The album A Bernstein Story, released in 2019 (Berlin Classics) as a collaboration with Sebastian Studnitzky, presents arrangements as well as original compositions of both musicians and is placed in between classical and jazz music. Manz’ new album with clarinet concertos by Carl Nielsen and Magnus Lindberg was being released in September 2020 on Berlin Classics. For this recording, Magnus Lindberg conducts his clarinet concerto himself. 

Being the grandson of the Russian violinist Boris Goldstein and the son of two pianists, born in Hanover in 1986, Manz’s musical roots are in his German-Russian family background. He begins singing in a boys’ choir at the age of six. He first learns the piano, which he plays very well, but soon concentrates on the clarinet. Among his most important teachers and supporters are the acclaimed clarinetists Sabine Meyer and Rainer Wehle.

The Guardian describes Alissa Margulis’ playing as “exceptional“, Ivry Gitlis praises it as “a revelation” and Martha Argerich calls her a “strong musical personality”.

Appreciated for her expressive and very emotional performances, Alissa Margulis regularly plays in important concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmony, the Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Tchaikovsky Hall Moscow, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Cologne Philharmony, the Vienna Musikverein, Sumida Triphony Hall Tokyo, the Sage Gateshead, the Tonhalle Zurich and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall.

Born in Germany into a family of Russian musicians, Alissa Margulis studied in Cologne with Zakhar Bron, in Brussels with Augustin Dumay and in Vienna with Pavel Vernikov. She won numerous prizes at international violin competiitons and was awarded with the “Pro Europa” prize of the European Arts Foundation which was presented to her by Daniel Barenboim in Berlin.

She made her first public appearance at the age of seven with the Budapest Soloists and has performed since then with numerous orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, New Russia Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Bilkent Orchestra Ankara, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Belgian National Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Kiev, Skopje, Ljubljana, Minsk and Novosibirsk, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Moscow Soloists, and the Kremerata Baltica, amongst many others.

Alissa Margulis worked together with famous conductors: Ivor Bolton, Jacques Mercier, Arnold Katz, Jacek Kaspszyk, Dmitry Liss, Jaap van Zweden, Enrique Mazzola, Daniel Raiskin, Fabrice Bollon, Stefan Vladar, François-Xavier Roth, Lars Vogt, Howard Griffiths, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Hubert Soudant, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Christian Arming, Augustin Dumay, Mikko Franck and Gerd Albrecht to name just a few of them.

Besides her solo career Alissa Margulis is an enthusiastic chamber music player and collaborates with artists such as Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, David Geringas, Ivry Gitlis, Gidon Kremer, Bruno Giuranna, Mischa Maisky, Gabriela Montero, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Liana Issakadze, Alexandre Tharaud, Stephen Kovacevich, Alexander Lonquich, Polina Leschenko, Paul Badura-Skoda and Lars Vogt.

She further appeared at various Festivals: at the Enescu Festival Bucharest, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, in Davos, Tours, Stravanger Festival, at the Mozartwoche Salzburg, “Spannungen”-Festival in Heimbach, “Progetto” Martha Argerich Festival in Lugano, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Sotshi Winter Arts Festival and Verbier Festival.

Her discography includes more than than a dozen CDs at labels such as EMI Classics, Oehms, Novalis, Avanti Classic and CAvi. Notalbly two of the six EMI Classics releases of the „Martha Argerich and Friends“ series received a GRAMMY nomination, several others won the Diapason d’or. She recorded repertoire by Mozart, Shostakovich, Enescu, Beethoven, Messiaen and others as well as the complete music for violin and piano by Franz Liszt. She recorded Piazzolla’s seasons and took part in an all Klezmer recording alongside musicians such as Myriam Fuks, Roby Lakatos, Evgeny Kissin, Polina Leschenko and Mischa Maisky. Alissa Margulis will be featured in another live recording of chamber music performed at the Progetto Martha Argerich, a 2016 release by Warner Classics.

This season she plays concerts in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Russia
Luxembourg, Lebanon, South Africa, Aruba, Malta, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the USA, Italy, France at venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, the Tchaikovsky Hall Moscow and the Verbier Festival, among many others.

 Combining integrity with elegance and focus with panache, Hyeyoon Park is an artist of outstanding style and virtuosity. Since making her orchestral debut at the age of nine with the Seoul Philharmonic, she has achieved international acclaim with orchestras such as the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra St Petersburg, and NHK Symphony Orchestra. 

The youngest ever first prize winner of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich at the age of 17 in 2009, Hyeyoon was also a recipient of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2011 and went on to receive the London Music Masters Award in 2012. Passionate about education, this award has provided her with a regular platform to bring music and performance into London’s schools.

Hyeyoon regularly appears at major festivals and venues around the world, such as London’s Southbank Centre, Spannungen Festival Heimbach, Moritzburg Festival and Marlboro Festival. She has collaborated with Gidon Kremer, Andras Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Yuri Bashmet, Lars Vogt, Daniel Hope, Alban Gerhardt, Jan Vogler, and Benjamin Grosvenor, to name but a few.

Born in Seoul in 1992, Hyeyoon studied at the junior colleges of the Korean National University of Arts and University of Cincinnati with Professor Piotr Milewski. She also studied with Professor Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin and with Christian Tetzlaff as a Young Soloist at the Kronberg Academy. These studies were funded by the Nikolas Gruber Stipendium.

Hyeyoon Park plays a violin made by the German violinmaker Stefan-Peter Greiner.

Rosanne Philippens is an extraordinary communicator, with an innate musicality and an infectiously joyful yet sincere approach to music-making.  She is in high demand across the Netherlands where she performs regularly in the major halls and series both as soloist and chamber musician.  She is also a keen play/director and recently made her debut with the Orchestre National de Lyon leading the orchestra in a hugely successful performance of The Seasons by Vivaldi and Piazzolla in Lyon’s Auditorium receiving the highest praise from players and management.  Philippens’s playing is refined, exuberant and profound, and was described by the Dutch daily paper De Telegraaf as “energetic, sensitive and flawless.”

Highlights of her 20/21 season include returns to the Orchestre National de Lyon to play/direct and to the St Gallen Symphony. Recent highlights include performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic at De Doelen, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in the prestigious Zaterdag Matinee series and the Residentie Orkest both in The Hague and at the Concertgebouw Hall, Amsterdam.

In recital and chamber music, Philippens plays with artists such as István Vardai, Amihai Grosz, Julien Quentin, Kian Soltani, Camille Thomas and Edgar Morreau in festivals and halls across Europe.  A strong believer in breaking down barriers in classical music, she runs her own concert series ‘The Amsterdam Salon Pop-Up’, presenting high-quality concerts in carefully sought-out and unusual locations in an intimate salon atmosphere.

Philippens records exclusively for Channel Classics and all her recordings have received glowing praise.

Rosanne Philippens was taught from an early age by Anneke Schilt at the Amstelveen music school. She continued her studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Hanns Eisler Academy in Berlin with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Vera Beths, Anner Bylsma and Ulf Wallin, receiving the highest distinction from both institutes.  Philippens won first prize at the Dutch National Violin Competition in 2009 and the Freiburg International Violin Competition in 2014.

Philippens plays on the 1727 Barrere Stradivarius, thanks to the generous support of the Elise Mathilde Foundation.

Bassoonist Theo Plath is in high demand as a soloist, chamber-music partner and orchestral musician. His artistry has been recognized with prizes at many competitions, among them the Aelous International Competition for Wind Instruments, the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb (German Music Competition) and the ARD International Music Competition Munich. 

He has gained important musical insight from Sergio Azzolini, Klaus Thunemann, Nikolaus Maler, and Dag Jensen, with whom he studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich.

Theo Plath has performed as a soloist with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, the Münchner Kammerorchester and has appeared at music centers such as the Konzerthaus Dortmund and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

He is a welcome guest at international chamber music festivals, including the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and “Spannungen” in Heimbach and is also a member of the Monet Wind Quintet.

Since 2019 Theo Plath is principal bassoonist of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. 

In 2020 his Debut-CD was released, featuring bassoon concertos by Weber, Crusell, Bitsch and Jolivet, recorded together with the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Leo McFall. 

In May 2021 Theo Plath releases his second CD “lost times” together with pianist Aris Alexander Blettenberg. 

Theo Plath regularly takes part in the “Rhapsody in School” outreach program through which he passes his enthusiasm for classical music on to young people.

In 2018, Tim Posner became the first ever British prizewinner at the International Karl Davidov Competition in Latvia. Born in 1995, he began playing the cello at the age of eight and is currently studying in the ‘Solo Class’ of Leonid Gorokhov at the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover.

Tim made his debut concerto performance at the age of 14. Since then he has performed as soloist with renowned orchestras including the NDR Radiophilharmonie, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Mozart Players with conductors such as Andrew Manze. Highlights of the 2021/22 Season will include the world premiere of Polo Piatti’s Cello Concerto and a recital debut at the Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Between 2017-2019 Tim was the recipient of the prestigious ‘Gundlach Musikpreis’ award.

As a chamber musician, Tim regularly plays in various ensembles. In 2010 he founded The Teyber Trio with violinist, Tim Crawford and violist, Timothy Ridout, with whom he continues to perform internationally. As a former member of the Celan Quartet he recorded a debut CD of Berg’s Op. 3. Tim has performed at numerous international chamber music festivals such as the Musikdorf Ernen, IMS Prussia Cove (Open Chamber Music), Wye Valley, Lewes, Peasmarsh, Frinton, Musique à Marsac, Buxtehude, Joroisten Musiikkipaivat, Roman River, Cheltenham und Brighton-Festival festivals. Tim has collaborated with internationally acclaimed musicians including Lars Vogt, Alasdair Beatson, Anthony Marwood, Ewa Kupiec, Esther Hoppe, Alexander Rudin, Andrej Bielow, Richard Lester, Elisabeth Kufferath, Matthew Hunt, Katherine Gowers, Bengt Forsberg and the Doric String Quartet.

Lech Antonio Uszynski has come to prominence as one of the most exciting and versatile viola players of his generation thanks to what the Badische Zeitung has described as his “thoughtful playing, which banks not on showy effects but on timbre, texture and emotion”. As a soloist and chamber musician he has played in concert halls that include the Philharmonie Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Vienna Konzerthaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Seoul Arts Center and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. He is also a regular guest at international festivals. He has been the Stradivari Quartet’s viola player since 2010 and enjoyed great acclaim with this ensemble on international tours throughout Europe, Asia and America. Additionally, to his performance as chamber musician and soloist, he has been invited in the past years as guest principal Viola by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Lucerne Festival Strings and other Ensembles. 

2019 his solo album “Progetto Gibson” was released by RCA Red Seal (Sony Classical). In 2018 his quartet released two CDs (Works by Schumann & Schubert) for RCA Red Seal (Sony Classical). 

As a chamber musician he has worked with artists such as Vilde Frang, Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, Antoine Tamestit and many others. In addition to his wide stylistic range as a performer, he is also passionate about teaching. Lech Antonio Uszynski is fortunate to have been playing from 2010-2017 on the “Gibson” Stradivari 1734. Currently he performs on a rare Viola made in 1690 by Hendrick Willems.