“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 is a proud SF Bay Area native, born in Berkeley, California, to Italian and Iranian parents. He is currently Principal bass with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. From September 2024 he will join the forces of Teatro Real, in Madrid, as double bass soloist. Marco studied at the San Francisco Conservatory with Scott Pingel and later at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, completing his Μaster’s degree in 2014 with Rinat Ibragimov and Luis Cabrera. Marco has worked with several leading orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw (graduating the RCO’s Academy programme in 2015), the London Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras, and several others. Chamber music activity has included collaborations with Trio Isimsiz, Amitié Music Project Tokyo, Klassik Novum Dresden, 12 Ensemble et al. He has also appeared as a soloist at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden for a premiere of the Grammy-winning concerto for double bass “Dark with Excessive Bright” by Missy Mazzoli. Marco is a Professor of double bass at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and enjoys an active teaching career in addition to playing. He usually performs on his John Devereux bass (London, ca. 1830).

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 (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

“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.

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.

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 competitions 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 a dozen CDs at labels such as EMI Classics, Oehms, Novalis, Avanti Classic and CAvi. Notably 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.

Last season she played 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, 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. Recent highlights include performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and the Residentie Orkest both in The Hague and at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Elsewhere, Philippens has played with the Barcelona Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, and with orchestras across Germany, Finland, and Switzerland, with conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Lawrence Foster, Otto Tausk, Jan Willem de Vriend, Antony Hermus, and Nicholas Collon. Philippens plays regularly with artists such as István Vardai, Vilde Frang, Julien Quentin, Vikingúr Olafsson, Amihai Grosz, Camille Thomas and Zoltán Fejérvári. She runs her own concert series “The Amsterdam Salon Pop-Up”, presenting high-quality concerts in carefully sought-out and unusual locations. Philippens records exclusively for Channel Classics and all her recordings have received glowing praise. The Strad has described her latest CD Insight as being “both softly spoken and intensely powerful”. Earlier albums include Dedications, featuring works by Kreisler, Fauré and Ysaÿe, and a recording of Prokofiev’s 2nd Concerto, described by BBC Magazine as “a triumph”. 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 1st prize at the Dutch National Violin Competition in 2009 and the Freiburg International Violin Competition in 2014. Philippens plays on the “Barrere” Stradivarius (1727), 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.

Julien Prégardien was born in Frankfurt in 1984 and received his earliest music training in the choirs of Limburg Cathedral. After studying in Freiburg and joining the academy of the Aix-en-Provence opera festival, he was a member of the Frankfurt Opera ensemble from 2009 to 2013. At the same time, he developed an international career as a concert performer. Today, the tenor is an outstanding representative of the younger generation of singers.

As an opera singer, he has appeared at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, at the Hamburg and Bavarian State Operas and at the Opéra Comique in Paris. In 2018 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Narraboth in Richard Strauss’ Salome (director: Romeo Castellucci) with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. In 2019 this was followed by his debut as Tamino in a new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Berlin State Opera under the baton of Alondra de la Parra. During the 2020/2021 season, he returns to the Berlin State Opera for a revival of Die Zauberflöte.

Highlights of the recent past are concert appearances with the Munich Philharmonic, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian Radio Chorus. Julian Prégardien was “Artiste Étoile” at the Mozartfest Würzburg in 2019, where he performed with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, among others. In early March 2020 he made his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, performing Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang under Franz Welser-Möst. During the 2020/2021 season, he is scheduled to perform with the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock, with the Dresden Philharmonic under Cornelius Meister, with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra under Kent Nagano, with the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig under Gotthold Schwarz, with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Antonio Pappano, with Ensemble Pygmalion under Raphaël Pichon, with Concentus Musicus under Stephan Gottfried and with Les Talens Lyriques under the baton of Christophe Rousset.

Julian Prégardien’s artistic activities focus particularly on song recitals and chamber music projects. During the 2020/2021 season, he will be the focus of a portrait series at Cologne’s Philharmonie, with various song and chamber music projects as well as orchestral songs with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Alondra de la Parra. Apart from numerous song recitals, Julian Prégardien will perform Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Martin Helmchen and Schumann’s Dichterliebe with Eric le Sage.

Julian Prégardien records exclusively for the label Alpha Classics. He is a professor at the Munich Academy of Music and Theatre’s vocal department, a member of the Schumann Network and artistic director of the Brentano Academy in Aschaffenburg.

Przemyslaw Pujanek, born in Poznan, Poland, began his musical education aged six on violin. In 2010 he graduated Henryk Wieniawski School of Music in Poznan with distinction.

In the years 2007-2010 he simultaneously attended Julius Stern Institut in Berlin, where he mastered his violin skills under Tomasz Tomaszewski. During this time he was successfully participating in many national and international music competitions as a soloist and as a chamber musician.

After changing his main instrument to viola, he studied from 2010 at Berlin University of Arts withnProf. Hartmut Rohde. During his studies, which he graduated in 2014 with the highest mark, he participated in many festivals (e.g. HARMOS festival in Porto, Portugal), won prizes in many international competitions (Max Rostal Competition in Berlin, Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, Austria) and was a recipient of numerous scholarships (DAAD prize, “Ad Infinitum” Scholarship and Paul Hindemith Association Scholarship).

Beetwen 2015 and 2017, after a successful audition, he worked as 1st Principal Viola at the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In the years 2017-2018 he worked as a First Solo Violist at the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Frankfurt (HR Sinfonieorchester). Since 2019 he is the 1st Solo Violist at the German Opera in Berlin (Deutsche Oper Berlin).

The Norwegian violist Eivind Ringstad (b. 1994) is today featured as one of the most prominent violists of his generation. He made his breakthrough after winning the «Eurovision Young Musicians 2012», and one year later made his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2016, Eivind was awarded the «Borletti Buitoni fellowship award» and appointed the «BBC´s New Generation Artists Scheme», leading to engagements in the UK, including debut recitals in Wigmore Hall and the International Edinburgh Festival.

Eivind released his first recording in 2017 for Lawo Classics featuring William Walton´s Viola Concerto with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. His second recording «Correspondances» with German pianist David Meier was released by Rubicon Classics in 2020. 

He has appeared with many orchestras, including Copenhagen Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Lahti Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with conductors, such as Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Eivind Aadland, Han-na Chang, Anja Bilhmaier and Joshua Weilerstein.

As a prolific chamber musician, Eivind has collaborated with some of the most distinguished musicians around, such as Janine Jansen, Guro Kleven Hagen, Timothy Ridout, Steven Isserlis, Beatrice Rana and Leif Ove Andsnes. Eivind is currently co-artistic director for Norsjø Chamber Music Festival, which takes place annually in Telemark, Norway.

Eivind started to play the violin at the age of 5, moving to the viola as his main instrument nine years later. He studied at the Barratt Due Music Institute in Oslo, Norway with Prof. Soon-Mi Chung Barratt-Due.