Tomoko Akasaka is a versatile violist who is appreciated for her extraordinary charisma and stage presence as soloist and chamber musician. She won numerous international awards, including 1st prize at the 12th International Japan Classical Music Competition and 3rd prize at the 53rd International Music Competition of ARD (2004). She has appeared as soloist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, the Orchestre de Chambre Genève, the Ensemble Contrechamps, the Filarmonica Banatul Timişoara, the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra and the Japan Chamber Orchestra, under conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Johannes Kalitzke, Rüdiger Bohn, Roman Kofman and Günther Herbig. Her chamber music partners include, among others, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Daniel Hope, Juliane Banse, Heinz Holliger, Menahem Pressler, Julian Steckel. She was playing at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Victoria Hall London and the Grand Theater in Geneva, the Konzerthaus and the Philharmonie Berlin, Elmau Castle, Suntory Hall Tokyo, and Nymphenburg Castle Munich. Tomoko first started playing the violin at the age of five and went to the special school of the Toho Music University. After graduation, she studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. Her musical relationship with György Kurtág has a profound influence on her as a musician. She also regularly collaborates with Helmut Lachenmann, Toshio Hosokawa and performs numerous contemporary works for viola. Tomoko Akasaka joined the Amaryllis Quartet in 2016 and currently lives in Berlin.

“Is the young pianist the discovery of the year?” asked the classical music magazine Crescendo – and answered in the affirmative. The reviewers of the magazine Concerti also consider her to be “on her way right to the top”. The German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken belongs to the elite of a new generation of internationally sought-after artists and captivates audiences and fellow musicians alike with her breathtaking technique, exceptional stage presence and musical depth.

Danae Dörken was already supported by Yehudi Menuhin when she was seven years old and caught the attention of audiences in leading European concert halls early on with “her sparkling joy of playing” (Kölner Stadt- Anzeiger). After studying with the internationally revered piano pedagogue Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and with the renowned soloist and teacher Lars Vogt, she is now a regular guest with leading orchestras such as the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, the Münster Symphony Orchestra, the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Estonian National Symphony
Orchestra, the Norrlandsoperan Symphony, the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg and the Staatskapelle Weimar.

Danae Dörken has performed at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Bozar in Brussels, the Megaron in Athens, the Brucknerhaus Linz, the Philharmonie Köln, the Gasteig Munich, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. She regularly performs at important festivals such as the Kissinger Sommer, the Schwetzinger Festspiele, LuganoMusica, the Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the GAIA Music Festival, the Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker and the prestigious chamber music festival “Spannungen” in Heimbach.

The 2024/25 season is full of highlights for Danae Dörken. She will appear at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York with her long-time chamber music partner Sebastian Manz. As a piano soloist, she will perform Gershwin’s Piano Concerto and de Falla’s Nights in Spanish Gardens in concert with the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also been invited to return to the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, where she will perform the piano part in Scriabin’s Prometheus under the baton of James Gaffigan.

As part of a piano duo with her sister Kiveli, she will be performing at numerous concerts, including some at the Festspielfrühling Rügen, the spring festival forming part of the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where in addition she will also be performing with percussionist Alexei Gerassimez.

The album GLASS TWO, a joint project with the Luxembourg vibraphonist and composer Pascal Schumacher, will be released at the end of 2024. This programme of works by Philip Glass and Schumacher will be performed at the Elbphilharmonie and other venues.

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the Greek national composer Mikis Theodorakis in 2025, a very personal album by Danae Dörken will be released on the Berlin Classics / EDEL label. It will include Theodorakis’ Piano Concerto Helikon and his First Suite for Piano and Orchestra, recorded with the Staatskapelle Weimar conducted by Kornilios Michailidis.

Last year, Danae Dörken released the duo CD Apollo & Dionysus (Berlin Classics) with her sister Kiveli and three albums with the French oboist Philippe Tondre on the Klarthe label. Her landmark CD recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and Mendelssohn’s rarely heard Second Piano Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia under Lars Vogt received glowing reviews. In 2012, Danae Dörken released her debut album of works by Leoš Janáček. Her solo CD with Fantasies by Schumann, Schubert and C.P.E. Bach (ARS Production) won the ICMA Award. Her latest album Odyssee (Berlin Classics) was received with critical acclaim and nominated for several international music awards.

Danae and Kiveli Dörken founded the Molyvos International Music Festival on the Greek island of Lesbos in 2015. In addition to the large annual summer festival, they organize benefit concerts and events throughout Germany in which the festival’s artists (including Sebastian Manz, Marlis Petersen, Linus Roth and Maximilian Hornung) participate. Danae Dörken’s commitment to Greece, to supporting refugees and to strengthening the musical connections between Greece and Germany have repeatedly been the subject of reports on the TV programmes tttand 3sat kulturzeit, as well as on the broadcasting station WDR and in numerous other media.

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

Violinist Clémence de Forceville has a polyvalent career as a chamber musician, soloist, and concertmaster. She has performed throughout the world and has collaborated as a soloist with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Catalonia Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle Europe, and the Paris Chamber Orchestra. A versatile musician, she is passionately involved in the chamber music repertoire, notably alongside the Hieronymus String Quartet, of which she was first violin for three years, and then within the Sōra Trio, of which she was a member until 2021. From this collaboration, an album of Beethoven’s six great trios was released by Naïve in November 2020, which has already been distinguished by some prestigious awards: Choc de Classica of the year and elected “Album of the year” by the Times. Clémence studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in the class of Olivier Charlier and then in Berlin with Antje Weithaas and Mihaela Martin. In 2021, she was appointed first concertmaster of the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and assistant to Philippe Graffin’s violin class at the Conservatoire Supérieur National de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Clémence plays a Lorenzo Storioni violin dating from 1777, generously lent by the Boubo-Music Foundation.

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.

With captivating energy and a fine sense for nuances, Antje Weithaas gives her audience a “stellar hour of music” (FAZ) time and again. Blessed with impressive technical mastery and an enormous gamut of sound, she manages the feat of finding very individual readings of the great masterpieces and yet unpretentiously placing herself at the service of the composer. She has an extensive repertoire that includes the great concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, new works such as Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto, modern classics by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Ligeti and Gubaidulina, and lesser performed concertos by Hartmann and Schoeck. As a soloist, Antje Weithaas has worked with most of Germany’s leading orchestras, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberg Symphony and the major German radio orchestras, numerous major international orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra and the BBC Symphony, as well as the leading orchestras of the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Asia. She has collaborated with the illustrious conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dmitri Kitayenko, Sir Neville Marriner, Marc Albrecht, Yakov Kreizberg, Sakari Oramo and Carlos Kalmar. Last season, Antje Weithaas completed the recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s sonatas for violin and piano with Dénes Várjon as her piano partner on CAvi-music, digitally distributed by Deutsche Grammophon which was honoured with the German Record Critics’ Award 2024. In May 2025 she and Dénes Várjon performed the complete cycle at the Pierre Boulez Saal. In 2004 Antje Weithaas started as a professor at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music. Since then, she has become a world-class violin teacher. She plays on a 2001 Peter Greiner violin.