Competitors
Alexa Beattie
Alexa Beattie (from North Berwick, Scotland) has recently graduated with Honors from the Artist's Certificate in Chamber Music Program at San Francisco Conservatory, where she studied with Paul Hersh and Jodi Levitz. As a soloist, Beattie has appeared with Glasgow's Kelvin Ensemble, in the Festival of British Youth Orchestras and with new music ensemble sfSoundGroup, of which she is a core member. Beattie is a founding member of the San Francisco Bay Area's Picasso Quartet, and the CMASH soprano, viola and piano Trio. She is a recipient of the City of London's Chartered Surveyors String Quartet Prize and a Jerwood Scholarship to Prussia Cove. Beattie has worked with the inspiring Bonnie Hampton, Robert Mann, Ian Swensen, Kim Kashkashian, Paul Hersh, and Canada's slam poetry champion Shane Koyczan. She gained her Undergraduate and Masters degrees in Performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and is indebted to the Dewar Arts Awards, the Scottish International Educational Trust, the Oldhurst Trust, the Hope Scott Trust, the Stella Moffat Charitable Trust and the St Andrew's Society of Washington DC for support throughout her studies.
Benjamin Beck
Since 2007, the nineteen year old Benjamin Beck has been a student of Jean Sulem at the CNSM de Paris. Before that he was taught by Prof M. Michalakakos at the CNR de Boulogne, where he won first prizes for viola and chamber music (with congratulations). Since then he also won first prize and a special CaiAstur prize at the Asturias International Competition in Llanes (Spain), and third prize in the French national competition for young violists (2006); second prize in the Epernay International String Competition (2007); first prize in the Clés d'Or de Villemonble (2008); and only this summer, third prize in the Kichcompré-Gérardmer International String Competition (2009).
Jessica Beeston
Jessica won the Waddell Memorial Prize for strings in 2006 and was a finalist in the 2009 ROSL Strings Competition. As a member of Live Music Now she has performed throughout Britain. She has been awarded scholarships by the Countess of Munster Trust, Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship, the Cross Trust and the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund. Jessica received a first class Masters degree from the Salzburg Mozarteum, where she studied with Thomas Riebl. She is a guest principal viola of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and plays with Camerata Salzburg, the London Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, City of London Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia. As a chamber musician, she has performed in the Wigmore Hall with Ensemble Na Mara and has recently become a member of the Nephele Ensemble.
Fedor Belugin
Fedor was born in Krasnoyarsk in 1982. In 2001 he entered the Moscow State Conservatory in the class of prof.G.Odinetz. During his studies he won the Classical Legacy International Competition (Moscow 2005) for both Viola solo and Chamber Music. In 2008, with his pianist Alexander Osminin, he won the 5th International Duo Competition in Katrineholm (Sweden). Since 2005 Fedor has been a permanent member of the state Shostakovich String Quartet; and he has taught Quartet and Viola Classes in Moscow State Conservatory since 2007. He has toured with the quartet and as a soloist in Russia, Germany, France, Belgium, Croatia, USA, Sweden and other countries. Celebrated musicians with whom Fedor has performed include N. Gutman, A. Rudin, I. Kandinskaya, G. Gislin, P. Vernikov, V. Kraynev, S. Girshenko, K. Blaher, and E. Brunner.
Cecilia Bercovich
Born in Madrid in 1986, Cecilia began to learn the violin at the age of 3, with her father, Victor Bercovich, who has remained her teacher throughout her career. She gave her first recital at 8 years old, and has received masterclasses from Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern. In Spain, she has performed with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonía and Musika Antiqua Köln, and played under Reinhard Goebel and Kristof Penderecki among others. In March 2009, she gave the Spanish premiere of Simon Holt's "the sharp end of night" with great success. A versatile player on both violin and viola, Cecilia has taken part in several festivals in Europe, most recently the Lucerne Festival Academy under the artistic direction of Pierre Boulez. Her recording of Hindemith's Der Schwanendreher is available at www.musikene.com. Cecilia is a LRSM and FRSM, both with distinction (and the only FRSM in Spain). She also holds two bachelor's dipomas, in Violin Performance (with Keiko Wataya) and Viola Performance (with Natalia Tchitch).
Brenton Caldwell
Brenton Caldwell began studying the viola at the age of 12, studied at the Cleveland and Curtis Institutes of Music, and has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. Brenton is a Fellow of the Academy in New York City. Through the Academy he teaches in the NYC public school system and performs frequently at Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School. He recently won recognition in the National Young Artist Competition. As a chamber musician, Brenton regularly performs alongside artists such as Roberto Díaz, Gary Graffman, Marc Johnson, Ida Kavafian, Menahem Pressler, Steven Tenenbom and Eugenia Zukerman.
Mihai Cocea
A finalist of the 2008 Eurovision Young Musicians Competition, Mihai is a student of Paul Silverthorne at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Born in 1990 in Bucharest, Mihai graduated from the "George Enescu" High School as a student of professor Dumitru Ene. Since then, he has been a winner of national and international awards including the Grand Prize and Best Performance of a Contemporary Work at Icon Arts in Breaza in 2005, as well as a Special Prize at Icon Arts Cisnadie 2006. He has participated in masterclasses with Ladislau Csendes, Marius Ungureanu, Yuval Gotlibovich, Bruno Giuranna, Razvan Popovici and Endre Guran. He has also participated in international schemes in Poland, France, Austria, and China, as well as in the 2007 SONORO-International Chamber Music Festival, in which he appeared on the National Romanian Radio, National Romanian Television and on BBC Radio 3. As a chamber musician and an orchestra player, he has collaborated with Youth Orchestra Wroclaw, Poland in 2005, CEY-Youth Orchestra, in 2006-2007, and EUYO-Youth Orchestra in 2008. Mihai has performed with his quartet in concerts organized by the Principe's Margareta of Romania and "Masca" Theater in the program "The City beneath the City". He has given recitals in the "Sutu" Palace, "George Enescu" Museum and the Romanian Atheneum. He plays on a Salomon viola made France in 1780, kindly lent to him by the Royal Academy of Music.
Shasta Ellenbogen
Shasta Ellenbogen began playing the viola under the instruction of Philippe-Auguste Yvrose at the age of 12, and studied with Nancy Sturdevant and Jethro Marks in Ottawa. She studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Nobuko Imai from 2005-2007, and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (where she earned her post-graduate diploma), with Sven Arne Tepl. She has played under conductors such as Pierre Boulez and Valeriy Gergiev, and has attended courses in North America and Europe with teachers such as Rivka Golani, Isabel Charisius, Steven Dann, Roberto Diaz, Garth Knox, Pinchas Zukerman, and others. Shasta has performed as a soloist with the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra, the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra, and the Holland Sinfonia. She recorded her first CD in May 2009 in Budapest, Hungary. In 2007, she was a finalist in the Landor Records competition, the winner of the Princess Christina Competition in Holland, and won the Vic Pomer prize in the National Arts Centre Orchestra's Bursary Competition in Ottawa, Canada. In 2008, she was a recipient of the prestigious Canada Council Bursary for emerging artists. Shasta taught at the KM Music Conservatory in Chennai, India during 2008 and 2009, and is now returning to Canada to further her career.
Jessica Fay-Siegelaub
Jessica was born in Paris in 1983 of American parents. She has dual nationality and speaks fluent French and English. She began studying the violin in France when she was 5 years old, with Mari Yasuda. In 2006 she began studying the viola with Jean-Baptiste Brunier, soloist of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. In September 2007, she entered the viola class of Tasso Adamopoulos at the Lyon CNSM (National Superior Music Conservatory). She now plays regularly with the Lamoureux Orchestra in Paris. She has a strong preference for chamber music and has performed with the group, Tango Seis, in Music Festivals in the Lyon area; and in the Lyon Amphithéâtre under Bernard Cazuaran¿s direction. She has also performed contemporary music at the Lyon Opera special lunch festival. Having founded the Fantasque Quartet, she continues to explore and study the classical chamber music repertoire at the CNSM. In addition, Jessica seeks to explore other repertoires, particularly in contemporary music and improvisation.
Kristina Fialová
Born in 1987, Kristina started to play the piano at 4, the violin at 7, and the viola at 16, taught by Miroslav Kovar at Brno Conservatory. During 2007-9 she studied at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with Prof. Jan Peruska, and since September 2009 at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen with Prof. Tim Frederiksen. She won 2nd and 1st solo prize and 1st prize in chamber music at the (Slovakia) Talents for Europe international music competition in 2004 and 2005. She won 1st prize at the National Conservatory Competition in 2005, 3rd prize at the ACT International Competition in London, 2006; and in 2008 she won 2nd prize at the International Beethoven Competition in Hradec nad Moravici. Kristina is currently a member of two Prague chamber orchestras - the Pavel Haas Chamber Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra Berg. She has taken master classes and summer courses in Europe and the United States, and this season she is a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra (Music Director Vladimir Ashkenazy). Kristina is listed on the Premium Youth Roll of the Friends of Music Club of the Czech Music Fund.
Michael Fenton
Michael Fenton was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Oakland, California. He came to the viola in high school after playing piano and violin as a child. A magical summer at the Interlochen Arts Camp confirmed his love for the viola and inspired him to pursue a musical career. He studied with Roland Vamos at the Oberlin Conservatory and Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory, after which he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2002 to complete his studies with Wolfram Christ in Frieburg, Germany. Since 2003 he has been assistant principal violist of the Badische Staatskapelle in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Bendik Goldstein
Bendik Christopher Goldstein was born in Washington USA. He is 28 years old and has played the violin since he was six, but has recently focussed on the viola. He studied with Alison Jewer, Jerry Loghney, and Ralph Evans, violinist from the Fine Arts Quartet at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. He has also studied with Professor Mark Zinger at DePaul University in Chicago and at the Norwegian Academy of Music with Isaac Schuldman. In Norway, Bendik also took viola courses under Lars Anders Tomter, chamber music with the Grieg Trio, and Baroque studies with Knut Johannesen. From the fall of 2007, Bendik took a one year master course in chamber music at Mälardalens Univerity in Västerås Sweden, with Thomas Sundkvist, and Daniel Möller. Currently he is enrolled at the Royal College in Stockholm under the tutelage of Henrik Frendin and is in his first year of the Artist Diploma in viola performance. He has had internships in the Swedish Radio Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Stockholm. Goldstein has attended many courses in chamber music, solo and orchestral studies and has received lessons and tutelage with Fine Arts Quartet, Zakhar Bron, Vladimir Repin, Terje Moe Hansen, Ulrik Knörzer, Franz Helmersen and Nobuko Imai, Tatjana Masurenko, and Hartmut Rohde. He has also received grants from Tom Wilhelmsen Stipendium, Ekbos Artist Grant and a stipend from Vestfold Bank in Norway. Bendik has additional experience within American folk music and is currently a member of Foxbone Bluegrass Band.
Elias Goldstein
Elias graduated with a Master's in Music from DePaul University. He has appeared as a soloist with the DePaul Symphony Orchestra, and as guest concertmaster with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He is the first prize winner of the Leonard Sorkin Memorial Violin Competition, and is the former Wisconsin State Fiddle Champion. He has played with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He is the principal violist of the Advent Chamber Orchestra and a member of the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra. He is currently a Collins Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is a doctoral candidate. He mentors include Mark Zinger and Sally Chisholm.
Jiri Kabat
Jiri Kabat has played the violin since the age of five and changed to the viola in 2003. He studied at The Prague Conservatoire, first as a violinist with prof. Dana Vlachova and later as a viola player in the class of prof. Jiri Rajnis, from which he graduated in 2007. He is also a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow, where he studied under Lev Atlas, earning his Master of Music degree (MMus.) in 2006. As a soloist he has appeared with numerous orchestras including the Prague Philharmonia (PKF), the Prague Chamber Soloists, the Czech Philharmonic Collegium etc. He has been a prizewinner in several international competitions including the Beethoven uv Hradec, the Julio Cardona, and the Lionel Tertis Competitions. He has also recorded for Czech TV and Radio. Currently, Jiri is a composition student of prof. Jiri Gemrot at the Prague Conservatoire. His works include a Viola Concerto (2004), Piano Quintet (2006), Songs for Alto, Viola and Piano (2007), Oboe Concerto (2008), String Quartet (2008), Doublebass concerto (2009), Piano trio (2009) and other works.
More info
Please see: http://www.jirikabat.cz
Lukas Kmit
Born in Presov, Slovakia, Lukas began violin lessons at Music School in Presov and later studied viola at the Kosice Conservatoire with Vera Lipatova. While there he won First Prize in viola and Second Prize in chamber music at the international competition Talents for Europe, and first prize in the Competition of Slovak Conservatories.He also performed concertos with the Symphony Orchestra of Kosice Conservatoire under Larry Newland, the State Philharmonic of Kosice, and Sinfonietta Zilina nad Visegrad Youth Symphony Orchestra. In addition he worked with the Vienna Beethoven Ensemble (Austria). Lukas has taken part in the masterclasses in Slovenia (Ch.Frohn), Spain (A.Viytovych), Slovakia (M.Radic) and Croatia (M.Kugel). Lukas is currently a student of Andriy Viytovych at the Royal College of Music in London. He has additionally studied and performed in masterclasses with Paul Silverthorne, Ian Jewel, Gordan Nikolitch and Lawrence Power. At the RCM he has worked with conductors including the late Janos Furst, John Wilson, Sir Roger Norrington and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In 2007 he won Second Prize at the North London Festival and was also highly commended in the RCM viola competition. In June 2008 Lukas was awarded Third Prize in the Francesco Geminiani Competition in Italy. He has also been awarded a special prize for the best performance of a contemporary composition at the Kenneth Page Viola Competition. Lukas has recently performed at the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He also participated in the Castleton Festival (Washington, USA), performing in the chamber orchestra for Benjamin Britten operas under Lorin Maazel.
Anna Larionova
Anna was born in 1986 in Moscow. In 2000 she completed the violin course at the Igumnov Music School. In 2005 she graduated with honours from The Academic Musical College of Moscow Conservatoire in the viola class. Currently she is a student of the 5-th course of Moscow Conservatoire (in the class of Vitaly Astahov), and a member of the Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Conservatoire conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Anatoly Levin. Anna has also played in other musical forums and festivals such as the Festival of the World's Symphony Orchestras as a member of the United Russian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. She has participated in master-classes with the soloists of the Maryinsky Theater Orchestra and is active in concerts as both soloist and as participant in chamber ensembles.
Daniel Hanul Lee
Korean-Canadian violist Daniel Hanul Lee carries a passion for music which goes beyond traditional boundaries of genre and repertoire on the instrument. He is a prize winner of numerous competitions including the Corpus Christi Competition, the Canadian Music Competition and the Juilliard School Concerto Competition. Recent chamber music appearances have included a performance of Brahms B flat Sextet with Itzhak Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts, and Tchaikovsky's Sextet Souvenir de Florence with the Borromeo String Quartet in Jordan Hall. Currently, he is pursuing his Masters in Viola performance at The Juilliard School in New York as a pupil of Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang.
Eun Won Suzy Lee
Jano Lisboa
Jano Lisboa has been a 1st prize winner for both Viola and Chamber Music in the Lisbon Young Musicians Prize Competition, Portugal, and also won the 2006 NEC Mozart Concerto Competition in Boston, USA. He has been awarded the Viana do Castelo Merit Citizen's Medal (Portugal). He switched from the piano to the viola at the age of 13 and studied with José Luis Duarte and Paul Wakabayashi. He then studied with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory, where he graduated with a Masters of Music diploma. He also studied the string quartet repertoire in Madrid with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) at the Reina Sofia Music School. Jano toured through Europe, Japan and Israel with the Quatuor Benaïm during 2007-08, and is now a founder-member of the Europa String Quartet and plays with the Münchener Kammerorchester.
Jano worked with composer Tigran Mansurian on his viola concerto ...and then I was in time again..., nationally premiered in Portugal in 2006 with the Algarve Orchestra. His interest in promoting Portuguese music has led to performances of Fernando Lopes-Graça's Viola Concertino with the Orquestra do Norte, and Alexandre Delgardo's Viola Concerto with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon. In 2010 Jano Lisboa will perform Hindemith's Der Schwanendreher with the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon.
More info
Please see: http://www.janolisboa.com
Ekaterina Myasnikova
Ekaterina was born in 1986 in Moscow, and at the age of eleven she won second prize in the "Nikolai Rubinstein and Moscow Composing School" International Competition. In 2004 she graduated with distinction from Moscow Central Music School for Gifted Children (viola class of Maria Sitkovskaya ) and continued her studies at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (class of Prof. Bobrovsky), graduating this year. In this time she has performed in all the major concert halls of Moscow, and the leading halls of the CIS countries and countries of Western Europe. She has been a member of many student and youth orchestras in Europe and Russia - in 2004 the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra; in 2005 the VIII "Homecoming" Festival orchestra (Russia); in 2006 - 2007 the II International Festival "Musical Offerings", the "Primavera Classica" (Russia), and the Festival "De Falla" (Spain); in 2008-2009, the VI International Festival "Sound Universe", the Festival of Modern Music, "Moscow Autumn" (Russia), the XV International Conductors Competition as a member of the orchestra Jovenes Virtuosos La Perla de Moscu (Spain), and the CIS Youth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yury Simonov. Ekaterina's repertoire includes solo and orchestral works ranging from Bach to Shnittke.
Daniele Palmizio
Born in 1986, Daniele studied in London at the Purcell School of Music, and then at the Royal College of Music with Ian Jewel. He has collaborated in chamber music concerts with Accardo, Helmerson, and Meneses. Since 2000 he has performed throughout Great Britain (including the Wigmore Hall and St. John's Smith Square, where he played the Walton Concerto) and America (Boston and New York). As a soloist he toured Italy, Malta and Estonia with the World Youth Orchestra in 2005 and 2008. In 2008 he was the youngest winner of the principal viola post in the Teatro San Carlo, Naples. Early in 2010 he will perform the Bartok Concerto with the Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra of Milan.
Liisa Randalu
Liisa was born in 1986 in Tallinn (Estonia) and raised in Karlsruhe (Germany). She has worked with Sebastian Schmidt (Mandelring Quartet) and Christine Busch (Musikhochschule Stuttgart), and is currently studying at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt with Roland Glassl. As a soloist, Liisa has performed with the Karlsruher Chamber Orchestra and the Tallinn Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, and in Germany, France and Venezuela. She has also been a member of the German National Youth Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. Liisa Randalu is scholarship holder of the Gemeinnützige Hertie Stiftung and the Villa Musica Foundation in Germany, where students have the opportunity to perform chamber music as partners of internationally renowned musicians. With her recently formed piano quartet (Notos Quartet) she has won prizes at the International Mendelssohn Summer School, Hamburg in 2008 and the Musikpreis Schloss Waldthausen Competition in 2009. The group has worked with members of the Fauré, Mandelring and Alban Berg Quartets as well as the Beaux Arts Trio.
Sara Rogers
Sara Rogers is completing an Artist Diploma at the University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music (CCM), where she is a student of Catharine Carroll and Masao Kawasaki. She is active as both an orchestral and chamber musician in the greater Cincinnati (Ohio) area. In addition to playing with several area orchestras she has also performed with the Kohitoneko Trio on several chamber music concert series. Recently, Sara won the concerto competition at the conservatory and performed Miklos Rozsa¿s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra with CCM¿s Concert Orchestra.
Michael Segaud
Born in Scotland, Michael started his viola education in the junior department of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, with James Durrant. In his final year he was awarded the Wolfson Memorial Prize for Strings. He then won an Entrance Scholarship to the Royal Northern College of Music, where he studies with Louise Lansdown. During his time at the RNCM, Michael has performed in viola masterclasses with Thomas Riebl, Marco Van Pagee, Timothy Deighton, Luis Magin Muniz and Annette Isserlis. He has also participated in several chamber music masterclasses with members of the Endellion String Quartet. Michael has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland since 2002, Camerata Scotland since 2006, and plays occasionally with the contemporary music group NYOS Futures. Last year Michael reached the final of the RNCM Viola Prize and during the summer gave a recital of Hindemith Sonatas at the International Viola Congress in South Africa. He plays on a viola by Bela Szepessy, London, 1899.
Ezgi Sentin
Ezgi was born in Ankara in 1978. Her viola studies at the Ankara State Conservatory with Feza Gökmen began in 1988. In 1995 she received a full scholarship from the Interlochen Arts Camp for summer school study with Jerzy Kosmala. Since 1998 she has been a member of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, with which she has participated in many concert tours. From 1999 to 2003 she was principal viola of the Antalya State Symphony Orchestra. Since 2002 she has been a solo recitalist, and in the summer of 2009 she worked again with Jerzy Kosmala.
Hannah Shaw
Hannah completed her Bachelor's degree at Oberlin Conservatory of Music (2006) as a student of Roger Chase, and received her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School (2008) where she studied with Toby Appel and Samuel Rhodes. She performs in a wide variety of genres and has premiered numerous works with the Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. She was principal violist of both the Oberlin and Juilliard Orchestras under such conductors as Sir André Previn and James Levine; and she studied baroque viola with Anner Bylsma and Robert Mealy. As a chamber musician, Hannah performs regularly in Europe and the US. She is a founding member of the Acadia Chamber Ensemble, has spent summers performing at such festivals as the Kneisel Hall and the Casalmaggiore International Festival, and was recently invited to participate in Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove. She can also be heard on the Dutton Epoch label, performing chamber music of Benjamin Dale with her former teacher, Roger Chase.
Estelle Spohr
The German/French Estelle was born in Düsseldorf, and studied with Professor Barbara Westphal at the Musikhochschule Lübeck. Apart from her solo work, she has played with the NDR Symphony Orchestra (Hamburg) and the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2004 she has had regular engagements with the Symphony Orchestra of Krefeld/Mönchengladbach and the Matthäi Symphony Orchestra in Düsseldorf. As a freelance musician she teaches and is member of various ensembles. Since 2007, she has been studying in the Master of Music programme at the Conservatory of Maastricht (NL) with Professor Michael Kugel, and since 2008 with him in Gent, Belgium. Estelle is the great-great-great-greatgrandniece of Louis Spohr, and in 2009 is participating with her own Ensemble Spohr in the chamber music programme celebrating the 150th anniversary of the death of this great violinist. She plays on a viola by Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza, Milan, 1771.
Stephanie Steiner
Stephanie was born in Amsterdam in 1982, and started playing the violin at the age of 4. She studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek and Mieke Biesta. In May 2006 she obtained her Bachelor's Diploma in Violin at the Hague Royal Conservatory, and in 2009 her Master's Diploma in Viola at the same Conservatory with Ron Ephrat. She has participated in masterclasses with Susanne van Els, Nobuko Imai, Milan Radic and Thomas Riebl; and in 2007 she performed Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with the violinist Lisanne Soeterbroek and the Atheneum Chamber Orchestra. Stephanie is member of the The Hague String Variations, a string sextet that plays in different combinations according to repertoire, and plays as substitute in the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Residentie Orchestra and the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble. Stephanie plays on a viola built by Ronald de Jongh, Amsterdam, 2004, by courtesy of the Dutch National Musical Instruments Foundation.
More info
Please see: http://www.thsvariations.com
Maiko Takimoto
Maiko began studying the viola with Junji Suganuma in the High School of Tokyo University of the Arts in 2002. From 2005 to 2009 she studied in the University with Yoshiko Kawamoto. As a member of the "Quartet Venere", she performed in many halls in Japan. She also won a Matsuo Foundation Scholarship, participated in the "Saito Kinen Music Festival" for young talented musicians with Seiji Ozawa; and participated in the International Sommer Akademie Prag-Wien-Budapest, where she was awarded an "Artis-Preis". From 2005 to 2008 she participated in "Viola Space", studying with Nobuko Imai and Masao Kawasaki, and performing with Garth Knox. Maiko took part in Seiji Ozawa's Ongaku-juku Opera and Orchestra Project from 2006 to 2009, and this year she has performed with the Leipziger String Quartet and with Nobuko Imai in "Lafolle Journee au JAPON". Maiko is currently studying at the Stuttgart Musik Hochschule with Andra Darzins.
Anna Tikhmeneva
Anna Tikhmeneva was born in Moscow in 1984. Her musical career began at the age of five when she started music school as a violinist. There she found a new world of sound, concerts and bright performances. While studying, music became an integral part of her life and in 2000 she entered music college where she began to play the viola. In 2004 she graduated from the college and entered Moscow Conservatory in the class of Professor Balashov. She has taken part in such musical festivals as the Margress International Festival (2005, 2006), and the Verbier Festival (2007). She also participated in Yury Bashmet's master-class in 2009. She has just graduated from Moscow Conservatory and has started the postgraduate course. Since 2007 she has been a member of the Moscow Conservatory Orchestra and in 2009 became a principal violist.
Stefano Trevisan
Having received his violin diploma in 1998, Stefano began to study viola at the age of 20 with M. Volpato Luca. In 1999 he was awarded the first prize at the Rassegna Nazionale Violisti in Vittorio Veneto and received his viola diploma in 2000. Since 2001 he has been studying with M. Bruno Giuranna at the Conservatorio Superiore della Svizzera Italiana and at the Accademia Walter Stauffer in Cremona. A member from 2001 to 2004 of the European Union Youth Orchestra and Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, he played with the Orchestra del Teatro La Scala and with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala in Milan from 2003 to 2007.He has won auditions for the principal orchestras in Venice (viola tutti), Ljubljana (principal viola), Qatar (viola tutti), Rome (viola tutti), and for the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna (viola tutti and Second Viola), where he currently works. His chamber music experience includes string quartet studies with Norbert Brainin, Milan Skampa, Piero Farulli, and concerts in many Italian venues. As a member of the Trio d'archi della Fenice he has had concerts in Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Austria.
James Wannan
Australian violist James Wannan is currently undertaking graduate study in the viola and viola d'amore at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, following his study of the viola d'amore in Austria with Marianne Rônez in 2008. He has won a Churchill Fellowship for further research in Europe, and will soon perform with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra as a guest principal. In 2007 James completed his studies with Alice Waten at the Australian National Academy of Music, where he held the Georgina Grosvenor Memorial Scholarship for three years. He previously studied with Caroline Henbest at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he was awarded the Nellie Hadley and Board of Governors Scholarship. James has won the Alex Todicescu viola award, the Kuring-gai Concerto Competition, and the Australian and New Zealand Viola Society International Viola Competition. He has twice won the Australian National Academy of Music Concerto Competition, and was a finalist in the Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards 2007. His appearances with orchestra have included a performance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Celebrated musicians he has performed with include Brett Dean, William Hennessey, Slava Grigoriyan and Alexander Baillie, and members of the Henschel Quartet.
Dana Zemstov
More info
Please see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoMxZUKtTjg
Hua Zhong
Hua Zhong comes from the Hu Nan province of China. He began playing the violin at the age of 4 with teacher Ping Cui, and went on to study at the Guang Zhou Conservatory of Music at the age of 12, with professor Lei Hou. During his time there he won several prizes and took part in the prestigious Morningside Music Bridge International Training School in both Canada and Shanghai. In 2007 he was awarded a scholarship to study the viola with Lev Atlas and Peter Lissauer at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Earlier this year he won the Academy's Watson Forbes Prize for Viola.