Sarah Christian, born in Augsburg, completed her studies with Prof. Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, where she, since 2013 has held a teaching position. Christians advanced studies began with Prof. Igor Ozim at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg from which she graduated at the age of 20 with the highest honours. She has also gained invaluable musical insight by taking part in master classes with Prof. Thomas Brandis, Donald Weilerstein, Prof. Rainer Schmidt, Maxim Vengerov and Miriam Fried.

Internationally celebrated, Sarah Christian has won numerous competitions. In Austria, Christian was awarded first prize at the Brahms Competition, and the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg awarded her the prize for the youngest finalist in the 10th annual Mozart Competition. Her success continued in Salzburg, where in 2008 she was awarded the “Best string player of the year” as well as the “Yehudi Menuhin Medal” of the Universität Mozarteum. In early 2012 she won the 1st prize and the Friends of Young Musicians prize at the “Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” Competition in Berlin.

Sarah Christian has always placed special emphasis on her chamber music training and development. Her studies in Salzburg have led to an undeniable influence from the Hagen Quartet. 2015 brought about the debut season of Carte Blanche in Augsburg, a self-initiated chamber music series of which Christian is co-artistic director together with cellist Maximilian Hornung.

Sarah Christian pursues a busy concert schedule, which has already led her to many European countries as well as, China, Japan, South America and the United States. As a soloist she has played with many ensembles including the the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, the Camerata Salzburg e.t.c.

In 2013, Sarah Christian began as the first concertmaster of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In addition to continuing projects with world-famous conductors and soloists, she especially enjoys the opportunity to lead the orchestra from the first desk.

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 (b. 1991) is 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 Dörken 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, Mozarteum Salzburg, KKL Lucerne, Cologne Philharmonie, Philharmonie Essen, at Gasteig in Munich, Konzerthaus Berlin, Bozar Brussels, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Alte Oper Frankfurt, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn. Danae Dörken also performs regularly at major festivals, including Kissinger Sommer, Schwetzingen Festival, LuganoMusica, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Piano Espoo Finland, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Rheingau Musik Festival, Lucerne Piano Festival and the renowned Spannungen Festival in Heimbach. Danae Dörken’s groundbreaking recording of piano concertos by Mozart and Mendelssohn (with Royal Northern Sinfonia) was released in 2016, to raving critical acclaim. Previously, her solo recording of fantasies by Schumann, Schubert und C.P.E. Bach (ARS Produktion) was nominated for an ICMA Award. Her 2012 debut CD, featuring solo works by Leoš Janáček (also on ARS Produktion), received equally enthusiastic reviews. Her new duo album Appolo & Dionysus, recorded whith her sister Kiveli, was recently released by Berlin Classics. Of Greek descent, Danae Dörken founded the Molyvos International Music Festival (MIMF) in 2015 together with her sister Kiveli and Dimitris Tryfon on the island of Lesbos.

Kiveli Dörken’s temperament, passion and dedication to music is palpable in every one of her concerts. With her infectious enthusiasm and captivating presence, she values a close contact with her audience, often addressing the listeners first, before sitting down at the piano and pushing the boundaries of sound diversity and artistic expression. Kiveli Dörken (b. 1995) began her musical path as a seven-year old student of the renowned piano pedagogue Professor Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. She continued her musical education with Professor Lars Vogt at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover  where she is studying until today. She is a member of the TONAListen agency, and has received scholarships and support from various foundations, such as the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, the renowned Spannungen Festival, the International Musikadamie in Liechtenstein and the Werner Richard-Dr. Carl Dörken Stiftung (no relation). At the age of eight she gave her orchestral debut. She has since performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Hamburger Camerata, the Camerata Bern and the Athens State Orchestra. In 2019 Kiveli Dörken gave her debut with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen playing César Franck’s Variations Symphoniques under the direction of conductor Alondra de la Parra. She has performed in most European countries, China and the United States of America, in some of the most famous halls, the Elbphilarmonie, the Mariinsky-Theatre in St. Petersburg, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Alte Oper Frankfurt, to name just a few, and is a regular guest at many prestigious festivals, like the Kissinger Sommer, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Spannungen Festival in Heimbach and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. Highlights of her early career were performances for the Dalai Lama in 2007 and for the German chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington, D.C., in 2009. Kiveli Dörken dedicates a considerable amount of her time to playing chamber music. She performs regularly with artists such as Christian Tetzlaff, Sharon Kam, Maximilian Hornung and Tanja Tetzlaff. Together with her sister Danae Dörken, she has been playing as a piano duo since the age of five. In 2015, she founded the Molyvos International Music Festival (MIMF) on the Greek island of Lesbos, of which she is also the artistic director. The MIMF does not only bring the tradition of classical music to Lesbos, but it has also become a symbol of hope for the entire region. In 2022, Kiveli Dörken released her debut CD with the label ARS Produktion featuring solo and chamber music works by Josef Suk. Together with her sister Danae they have recorded a new album, Appolo & Dionysus, released by Berlin Classics, featuring works of Ravel, Debussy, Brahms, De Falla, Theodorakis et al

With his striking musicality, instinctive stylistic certainty and musical maturity, the young cellist Maximilian Hornung, is taking the international music scene by storm. He received an ECHO Klassik prize as best newcomer of the year for his first Sony CD in 2011, followed by an ECHO Klassik prize for the best cello concerto recording of the year.

Maximilian Hornung regularly performs as a soloist with such renowned orchestras as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony and Bamberg Symphony under conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Daniel Harding, Semyon Bychkov, Bernhard Haitink, Manfred Honeck and many others. His chamber music partners include Anne-Sophie Mutter, Hélène Grimaud and Lars Vogt. In August 2014, he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen and produced a CD of Richard Strauss’ most important works for cello, as well as a CD of the cello concertos of Joseph Haydn and Vaja Azarashvili with the Kammerakademie Potsdam under Antonello Manacorda on Sony Classical in the same year.

Maximilian Hornung began taking cello lessons at the age of eight. The teachers with whom he has studied most intensely are Eldar Issakadze, Thomas Grossenbacher and David Geringas. He is supported and sponsored by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Circle of Friends Foundation and Borletti-Buitoni Trust London.

Much in demand as both a soloist and chamber musician, Vashti Hunter has been invited to important festivals such as Lockenhaus, Ernen, Heidelberger Frühling, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Boswiler Sommer and Shanghai chamber music festivals. She has collaborated with artists Steven Isserlis, Martha Argerich, Pekka Kuusisto, Nicolas Altstaedt and Vilde Frang and performs regularly around the world with her piano trio, Trio Gaspard. The Ensemble was formed in 2010 alongside violinist Jonian Ilias Kadesha and Pianist Nicholas Rimmer and studied with Hatto Beyerle at the European Chamber Music Academy. Vashti is also a member of the Kelemen String Quartet and will record all 6 Bartok quartets for the record label Alpha in 2023. Vashti has won top prizes in international competitions in Vienna, Prague and Weimar. She teaches cello to Master’s students at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock. Vashti plays on a Rombouts cello built in 1720 in Amsterdam. 

Born in Athens of Albanian and Greek heritage, Jonian Ilias Kadesha possesses boundless imagination of sound and curation, constantly exploring new avenues. His playing is characterised by stylistic accuracy and idiomatic interpretation from early to contemporary works. Kadesha has performed widely as soloist throughout Europe, including with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Sir András Schiff, Scottish Chamber Orchestra on tour in Copenhagen, London Mozart Players, Munich Radio, Lübeck Philharmonic, Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic and Thessaloniki State Orchestra. He has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Louvre, Berlin Philharmonie, Salle Molière Lyon, Goldener Saal Augsburg and made his debut at the Konzerthaus Berlin as soloist and artistic director of the Caerus Kammerensemble. Festival appearances include the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Verbier Festival Academy, Heidelberger Frühling, Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus and Schubertiade. Kadesha is a committed chamber musician and has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Martha Argerich, Steven Isserlis, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Ilya Gringolts and Pekka Kuusisto. He is co-founder of the award-winning Trio Gaspard, which regularly appears at festivals and in the music centres of Europe and the USA. In 2021 Kadesha signed to Linn Records. His debut solo album featuring Bach’s Violin partita in D minor alongside the premiere commercial recording of Helena Winkelman’s Ciaccona and works by Biber, Schnittke, Kurtág and Auerbach was released in June 2022. His numerous awards include prizes at the 2015 Deutscher Musikwettbewerb, 2017 Windsor International String Competition and 2013 Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition and was selected for representation by the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2018.

I was born in Athens, Greece in September of 1996, son to a ballet dancer, a banker and future brother to a then unborn sister, who today studies law. At the age of 5, I declared my love for the flute and that I would one day become a soloist. After a long year of trying to persuade both of my parents, I enrolled at the National Conservatory in Athens and received my first lessons from Ms. Myrto Tsakiri.

After having moved to Bulgaria with my family, at the age of 13 I was accepted at the National Music School of Sofia “NMU Lyubomir Pipkov”, to study under Prof. Georgi Spassov. In 2011, after participating in Prof. Robert Winn’s masterclass, I was lucky enough to begin working with him, on an intermittent basis. In 2012 ,thanks to his referral, I met Prof. Greiss-Armin and her assistant Matthias Allin at their annual masterclass in Thomashoff, a meeting that marked the next stage of my musical development.

In June of 2013, at the age of 16, I was accepted to study with them at the Music University of Karlsruhe and graduated in July of 2018 with distinctions. In February 2016, I was selected to be the only student representative in the committee that would select the new flute professor in our university, Prof. Pirmin Grehl.

During my studies, I regularly premiered different pieces from the composition class of Prof. W. Rihm and was often invited to perform as a member of both youth and professional orchestras like the State Theater of Karlsruhe, Kölner Kammerorchester, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France between others.

Searching for inspiration is a never-ending and vitally crucial journey in one’s life. In my case some of the most inspiring figures have been Maestro Zubin Mehta whom I saw for the first time on stage in 2005 conducting “Carmen”, Maestro Christoph Eschenbach whose recordings I grew up with, Maestro Yutaka Sado conducting one of the most impressive performances of the “Requiem” by G. Verdi. I consider myself extraordinarily lucky and privileged to have had the opportunity to learn from and be invited to collaborate with them as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician. As a chamber musician I have collaborated with artists like Vilde Frang, Matthias Goerne, Nicolas Altstaedt, Daniel Hope, Lang Lang and Marisol Montalvo between others and have had teacher and mentors like Mathieu Dufour, Vangelis Papathanassiou, Petra Müllejans, Henrick Wiese, Peter Lukas Graf..

As a soloist I have been honoured with the “Bernstein Award” from the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival (2020), the “Lotto Prize” from the Rheingau Festival (2019) and have been awarded with numerous prizes from International Competitions. Past and upcoming performances and recordings include : the World Premiere of the “Zorbas Suite” by M. Theodorakis and A. Wastor which I commissioned together with the Young Euro Classic Festival, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the NCPA Orchestra (Beijing), Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra (Hamburg, Germany), Athens State Symphony Orchestra (Greece), HR Symphony Orchestra (Frankfurt), Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (Bamberg), NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), Munich Symphony Orchestra (Munich) and many others.

My ultimate dream is to understand and serve music to its fullest extent, which has led me to explore all possible variations of my instrument like the Shakuhachi and the Traverse flute to the Contrabass flute. Keen on musical experimentation, I have often joined different bands, groups and world renowned artists on stage like Richard Smith, Tico Pierhagen, Vassilis Rakopoulos with whom we meander through musical forms ranging from free jazz to hard rock.

In 2016 I assisted in organizing the 3rd edition of the “Santorini Arts Factory” festival and the following year I was appointed “Music Director”. Shortly after, I was appointed First Principal Flute of the Athens State Symphony Orchestra, a post that I left in July of 2018 to continue my studies with Prof. Bernold at the Conservatoire National Superieur in Paris and to further pursue my career.

Benedict Klöckner, born in 1989, is one of the outstanding artists of his generation. He has won numerous competitions and awards, most recently the OPUS Klassik 2021. He performs worldwide as a soloist with renowned orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie, the Kremerata Baltica, the Camerata Oslo and the Munich Chamber Orchestra and works with renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Sanderling, Heinrich Schiff, and Sir Simon Rattle.  A keen chamber musician, Benedict is performing with artists such as Sir András Schiff, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Gidon Kremer, Antoine Tamestit, Emmanuel Ax, Fazil Say, Lisa Batiashvili, Yuri Bashmet, Benjamin Grosvenor, Lars Vogt and Christian Tetzlaff. In October 2021 Brilliant Classics released his recording of the Bach cello suites. Since 2014 Benedict is the artistic director and founder of the International Music Festival Koblenz. Benedict Klöckner studied with Martin Ostertag, and as a young soloist of the Kronberg Academy Master with Frans Helmerson and Gary Hoffman. He plays an Italian cello by Francesco Rugeri (Cremona, 1690), formerly played by Maurice Gendron, and a bow by Etienne Pajeot (Mirecourt, 1820).

Sebastian Manz, international soloist, chamber musician and Principal clarinettist of the SWR Symphony Orchestra, had his big breakthrough in 2008, when he won 1st prize in the clarinet category of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. During the preceding forty years the 1st prize had not been awarded in this section; Sebastian Manz was also awarded the coveted Audience Prize and further special prizes. Previously he had also won the German Music Competition, together with his piano partner Martin Klett. Sebastian Manz subsequently received three times the Echo Klassik Award for outstanding CD recordings, as well as the sought-after Emerging Artist Award in New York. For his album A Bernstein Story, which was released in 2019, he received the Opus Klassik Award in the category “Classic Without Borders” in October 2020. Sebastian Manz was born in Hanover in 1986 as the son of two pianists and as the grandson of the violinist Boris Goldstein, who hailed from Odessa. His German-Russian family home thus offered fertile soil for his musical roots. Sebastian joined a boys’ choir at the age of six and started learning the piano early on, but soon decided to concentrate on the clarinet. Among his most important teachers and supporters were none other than Sabine Meyer and Rainer Wehle.

Born in Athens, Danae Papamattheou-Matschke started playing the violin at the age of five. She studied with Professor Igor Ozim at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg and completed postgraduate course Konzertexamen in 2017 with honours at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in the violin class of Professor Tanja Becker-Bender. First prizes were awarded to her, amongst others at the international violin competitions Andrea Postacchini, Henri Marteau, Jugend Μusiziert, and she repeatedly received scholarships from Greek and German foundations and institutions. She has performed in Germany, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Cyprus, the United States of America, and China and has been invited to play in major music centres, such as the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Beijing National Performing Arts Centre and the concert halls of Athens and Thessaloniki. Since 2019 she has been teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, and from 2024 at the University of Macedonia Thessaloniki. Her new CD Bridges under the label BIS Classical was honoured in March 2024 by the Union of Greek Theatrical and Music Critics as the Βest Recording of Greek Interest of the year 2022/23.

David Orlowsky is an internationally renowned clarinettist and composer, celebrated for his captivating and expressive performances of works ranging from Mozart to klezmer. An exclusive recording artist with Warner Classics, he has released nine albums and won the ECHO Klassik award three times. In 1997, he founded the award-winning David Orlowsky Trio, which toured worldwide until their farewell tour in 2019. Orlowsky has collaborated with esteemed ensembles such as the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Danish String Quartet, as well as renowned musicians including Martha Argerich and Alban Gerhardt. Many of his compositions for the trio are published worldwide by Schott Music. In April 2023, his clarinet quintet The Clockmaker premiered successfully with the Quartetto di Cremona at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and the premiere of his clarinet concerto premiere is planned for 2024. Orlowsky studied at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.

Christian Tetzlaff has been one of the most sought-after violinists and most exciting musicians on the classical music scene for many years. “The greatest performance of the work I’ve ever heard,” wrote Tim Ashley (The Guardian, May 2015) of his interpretation of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Daniel Harding.

Concerts with Christian Tetzlaff often turn into an existential experience for both the interpreter and the audience; suddenly old familiar works appear in a completely new light. In addition, he frequently turns his attention to forgotten masterpieces such as Joseph Joachim’s Violin Concerto which he successfully championed, and he also attempts to bring important new works into the repertoire such as Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto, which he premiered in 2013. He has an unusually extensive repertoire and performs approximately 100 concerts every year.

Christian Tetzlaff is regularly invited to be the Artist in Residence with orchestras and at events in order to be able to present his musical interpretations over a longer period of time, which has been the case with the Berliner Philharmoniker, at Wigmore Hall in London and at Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall New York with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. In the 2018/2019 season he will be the Artist in Residence of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dresdner Philharmonie at the same time.

During his career Christian Tetzlaff has appeared as a guest with major orchestras around the world, such as the Wiener Philharmoniker, the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and all of London’s leading orchestras, working with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Manfred Honeck, Andris Nelsons, Antonio Pappano, Robin Ticciati, Paavo Järvi and Vladimir Jurowski, to name but a few.

Highlights of the 2018/2019 season include concerts in the USA with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Adès at the Tanglewood Festival, with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as well as an extensive tour with the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas. He will also go on tour to Vietnam with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and in Europe he will perform with orchestras such as the Bergen and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras, the Orquesta Nacional de España, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Münchner Philharmoniker and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin with conductors including Barbara Hannigan, Susanna Mälkki, Vladimir Jurowski, Robin Ticciati and John Storgårds.

Born in Hamburg in 1966 and now living in Berlin with his family, there are three things that make this musician unique, aside from his astounding skill on the violin. He interprets the musical manuscript in a literal fashion, perceives music as a language, and views great works as narratives which reflect existential experiences. As obvious as it may sound, he brings an unusual approach in his daily concert routine.

Christian Tetzlaff tries to follow the manuscript as closely as possible – without regard for “performance tradition” and without indulging in the usual technical short-cuts on the violin – often allowing a renewed clarity and richness to arise in well-known works. As a violinist Tetzlaff tries to disappear from the music – paradoxically this makes his interpretations very personal.

Secondly, Christian Tetzlaff “speaks” through his violin. Like human speech, his playing comprises a wide range of expressive means and is not aimed solely at achieving harmoniousness or virtuosic brilliance.

Above all, however, he interprets the masterpieces of musical history as stories about first-hand experiences. The great composers have focused on intense feelings, great happiness and deep crises in their music; as a musician Christian Tetzlaff also explores the limits of feelings and musical expression. Many pieces deal with none other than life and death. Christian Tetzlaff’s aim is to convey this to his audience.

Christian Tetzlaff played in various youth orchestras for many years. His teacher at the Lübeck University of Music was Uwe-Martin Haiberg, for whom musical interpretation was the key to mastering violin technique, rather than the other way round.

Christian Tetzlaff founded his own string quartet in 1994, and until now chamber music is still as important to him as his work as a soloist with and without the orchestra. Every year he takes on at least one extensive tour with the quartet; in the 2018/19 season they will perform concerts in the Gewandhaus Leipzig and the Pierre-Boulez-Saal Berlin.

The Tetzlaff Quartet received the Diapason d’or in 2015, and his trio with sister Tanja Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt was nominated for a Grammy award. In this season he will appear in this trio at the festivals in Hitzacker and Klosters, in the Alte Oper Frankfurt, as well as on a tour around eight cities in the USA.

Christian Tetzlaff has also received numerous awards for his CD recordings, including the “Diapason d’or” in July 2018, the Midem Classical Award in 2017 und the “Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” in 2015. Of special significance is his solo recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, which he has recorded for the third time and was released in September 2017 on the ONDINE label. The Strad magazine praised this recording as “an attentive and lively answer to the beauty of Bach’s solos”.

Christian Tetzlaff plays a violin made by the German violin maker Peter Greiner and teaches regularly at the Kronberg Academy.

Philippe Tondre has been Principal Oboe in the South West Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart since 2008. He also holds the position of Principal Oboe in the Mito Chamber Orchestra and the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra Matsumoto Japan. He was born in Mulhouse (France) in 1989 and entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at the age of 15, where he studied with David Walter and obtained his Master’s Degree with distinction in 2010.

Philippe is prizewinner of all the major international oboe competitions. As Principal Oboe Philippe Tondre has played in the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Paris Orchestra, the Radio France Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the National French Youth Orchestra. Philippe has also appeared as soloist and chamber musician with leading orchestras such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Munich, the South West Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart and others. He has worked with eminent conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Neville Marriner, Myung Whun Chung and has been invited to give Master-Classes in Germany, Japan, China and Taiwan.

In May 2013 Philippe Tondre performed the German Première of James MacMillan’s Oboe Concerto under the baton of the composer and accompanied by the South West Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart. In September 2013 he played the Japanese Première of György Ligeti’s Double Concerto for Flute, Oboe and Orchestra with Jacques Zoon (flute).

In 2012, after his successful debut at the Beethoven Festival Bonn, Philippe Tondre was awarded the prestigious Beethoven Ring Prize. In June 2013 he made his debut in the Philharmonie in Berlin playing Bohuslav Martinu’s Concerto for Oboe accompanied by the German Symphony Orchestra.

Lars Vogt has established himself as one of the leading musicians of his generation. Born in the German town of Düren in 1970, he first came to public attention when he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition and has enjoyed a varied career for nearly twenty-five years. His versatility as an artist ranges from the core classical repertoire of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms to the romantics Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov through to the dazzling Lutoslawski concerto. Lars Vogt is now increasingly working with orchestras both as conductor and directing from the keyboard. In September 2015 he took up his post as Music Director of Royal Northern Sinfonia at Sage, Gateshead reflecting this new development in his career. Highlights of their inaugural season together include presenting the series’ ‘Reclaiming Mozart’ and ‘Sibelius and the Musical North’ as well as various chamber projects.

During his prestigious career Lars Vogt has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Dresden Staatskapelle, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and Orchestre de Paris. He has collaborated with some of the world’s most prestigious conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Mariss Jansons, Claudio Abbado and Andris Nelsons. His special relationship with the Berlin Philharmonic has continued with regular collaborations following his appointment as their first ever “pianist in Residence” in 2003/4.

In June 1998 he founded his own chamber festival in the village of Heimbach near Cologne. Known as “Spannungen”, the concerts take place in an art-nouveau hydro-electric power station. Its huge success has been marked by the release of ten live recordings on EMI.

A passionate advocate of making music an essential life force in the community, in 2005 Lars Vogt established the educational programme “Rhapsody in School” which brings his colleagues to schools across Germany and Austria, connecting children with inspiring world-class musicians.