VVIIOOLLIINN:

An extremely promising young violinist, Daishin Kashimoto studied in New York with Professor Naoko Tanaka, a faculty member of The Juilliard School, and at the Luebeck Musikhochschule and the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg. Kashimoto is first prize winner in numerous international competitions, including the 6

th Menuhin International Junior Violin Competition in

England and the International Competition for Violinists in Cologne. He is the youngest winner in history of both the International Fritz Kreisler Violin Competition in Vienna and the Marguerite Long – Jacques Thibaud International Competition for Piano and Violin in Paris.

Recipient of a 2008 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo was, at the age of sixteen, the youngest artist ever to be presented in the Young Concert Artists Series in New York, in a critically acclaimed debut as recipient of the Summis Auspiciis Prize. Since then, she has embarked on a highly-acclaimed career with tours and concerts all over the world. She studied on full scholarship at the Julliard School and continued her studies at the Indiana University and the studio of Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Graduate of the Konservatorium für Musik in Bern, Switzerland, Greek violinist Georgios Demertzis was prize winner in the A. Curci violin competition in Italy in 1981, while in 1986, he was awarded the “Spyros Motsenigos” prize of the Academy of Athens. As a soloist, Demertzis frequently collaborates with the most distinguished orchestras in Greece and Europe and regularly appears at the most prestigious venues. He is also the founder of the New Hellenic Quartet, one of the leading chamber ensembles in Greece.

Following his American debut performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Boston Pops in 1990, violinist Movses Pogossian has performed with several illustrious orchestras, including the Brandenburger Symphoniker, the Scandinavian Chamber Orchestra of New York and the Toronto Sinfonia. He is the prize winner of the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Competition and the youngest-ever first prize winner of the 1985 USSR National Violin Competition. A committed propagate of new music, he has premiered over

30 works, and worked closely with composers such as G. Kurtag, A. R. Thomas, T. Mansurian, and P. Manoury. Movses Pogossian is Founder and Artistic Director of the Dilijan Chamber Music Series in Los Angeles and a member of the new music group XTET. He is also Professor of Violin at University of California.

Cyprus-born Levon Chilingirian studied at the Royal College of Music where he is now a professor. His career as a recitalist was launched by winning the first prize in the 1969 BBC Beethoven Competition, followed by the Munich Duo first prize in 1971. The same year, he formed one of the most active and celebrated string quartets on the international scene, the Chilingirian Quartet. The musical director of Camerata Roman, a talented Swedish string ensemble, Levon Chilingirian has received the Cobbett Medal, the Royal Philharmonic Society's chamber music award and, in January 2000, an OBE in the Queen's Honours List for his services to music.

VVIIOOLLAA:

Since winning the Young Concert Artist International Audition Award of New York in 1974, Japan-born violist Heiichiro Ohyama has been in demand worldwide. Regarded as one of the most significant violists of our time, Ohyama has performed extensively throughout the globe. Currently, he holds the position of Music Director and Conductor of the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra (USA) and the Music Director of Nagasaki Music Festival (Japan). He is also the artistic director of CHANEL Pygmalion Chamber Music Series and a member of The Chamber Players.

Violist Vladimir Mendelssohn received his musical training in Bucharest, where he won major prizes in viola and in composition. In his work as a player and as a composer, he has an interest in new music, balanced by tradition in his performance on major repertoire from the classical and romantic periods. As a performer, he has participated in major international festivals, notably Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaussen and Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s Wasa Festival. He currently teaches at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, in Rotterdam, and at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen.

One of the finest viola players of her generation, Diemut Poppen studied in Germany (Köln, Düsseldorf, Aachen, Berlin), USA and Paris. Even though she is one of the very few musicians who did not build their career through competitions, she has been awarded several scholarships and prizes, among them the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, and the renowned European Music Prize. As a soloist, Diemut Poppen has appeared in important music centers all over the world including the Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, and the Mozarteum. She was, for 15 years, the principal viola and a founding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Currently, she is

professor of viola and chamber music at Detmold in Germany and at the renowned Escuela di Reina Sofia in Madrid.

CCEELLLLOO:

Steven Isserlis is a cellist whose passion for music transcends conventional divisions. Acclaimed worldwide for his musicality and technique alike, he is equally at home drawing the audience into his circle of friends for chamber music or in recital; delving into the historical archives to emerge with a forgotten gem; or on the concert platform with some of the world's most prestigious orchestras and conductors. The chamber concerts of Isserlis' devising are renowned, not only for the quality of performance, but also for his ingenuity and innovation in programming. Awarded a CBE in 1998 in recognition of his services to music, Steven

Isserlis has received many honours, including in 2000 the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau (Schumann's birthplace).

Following the UK premiere of Il Ritorno degli Snovidenia for Cello and Orchestra, composer Luciano Berio, amazed with Rohan de Saram, said: "Your performance of Ritorno is splendid, but besides Ritorno, your sound, your perfect intonation, your phrasing and bowing technique, make you a great performer of any music". Consequently, he dedicated to him his final Sequenza No XIV for solo cello - a work that is largely based on the rhythms of the Kandyan drum of Sri Lanka, which Rohan himself has played since his childhood in Sri Lanka. Regarded as one of the most exciting and significant living virtuosos, Rohan de Saram has collaborated also with Kodály, Shostakovich, Poulenc and Walton, as well as several contemporary composers such as Pousseur and Xenakis who have written works for him.

Cellist Bernhard Naoki Hedenborg is prizewinner of a number of national and international competitions. He is silvermedalist at the Tchaikovsky Competition for young musicians and winner of the European Music Prize of Young Musicians in Oslo. He made his solo debut at the age of 12 with Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto with the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg. Since then, he has appeared in the world's most prestigious venues as a recitalist. As a soloist, he has performed the cello repertoire's most demanding works with orchestras such as the

Cologne Radio Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the Radio Bavaria Chamber Orchestra.

A native New Yorker, Korean-born cellist Timothy Park entered the Juilliard School at the age of eleven where he studied with Jerome Carrington and Fred Sherry. He continued his studies with Aldo Parisot at Yale University and at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin as a student of David Geringas. Park has appeared in numerous festivals and has collaborated with a great number of distinguished musicians. At the invitation of Maestro Daniel Barenboim, Timothy Park has served as Associate Principal Cello of the Staatskapelle Berlin from 2005-2007. Timothy Park is the cellist of the

Berlin-based Erlenbusch String Quartet.

A graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, cellist Alexander Chaushian has been the recipient of numerous awards, such as the first prize in the 1990 Premio Mozart Competition in Verona, the first prize in the International Music Competition in Holland in 1992, the third prize in the 12th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and the third prize and the special prize given by the Munich Chamber Orchestra at the Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD in Germany.

PPIIAANNOO:

First Prize winner in the universally acknowledged Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in 2000, Alessio Bax has established himself as a brilliant performer throughout the world. His extensive concerto repertoire has led to appearances with over 70 orchestras. Praised by the international press, his performances have been described as "real music-making that makes its own world on stage and invites the audience in as guests" and "successfully combining authority and poetry”. In January 2005, Bax was selected to play the Fugue of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata for Maestro Daniel Barenboim in the documentary Barenboim on Beethoven. Alessio Bax will soon join Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two residency program for outstanding young artists.

The highly-acclaimed French pianist Philippe Cassard has established an international reputation as concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician since giving a joint recital with Christa Ludwig in Paris in 1985. The same year he was finalist at the Clara Haskil Competition, and in 1988, he won the first prize at the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition. Cassard has recorded for several companies including Deutsche Gramophone, Hyperion, Harmonia Mundi, and Accord-Universal. Philippe Cassard was Artistic Director of the Festival “Nuits Romantiques du Lac du Bourget” (1999-2008), and since 2005, he has presented over 130 live programmes on France Musique Radio

dedicated to piano interpretation («Notes du traducteur»).

Described by Gramophone Magazine as a ‘thoroughbred who possesses the enviable gift to turn almost anything he plays into pure gold’, Ashley Wass is firmly established as one of the most sought-after performers of his generation. He was the second British pianist in 20 years to reach the finals of the Leeds Piano Competition in 2000, and the first British pianist ever to win first prize at the World Piano Competition in 1997. Ashley Wass won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music to study with Christopher Elton and Hamish Milne. He has appeared in recital and concert all over the world and his recordings have been heralded as 'remarkable' and 'the

yardstick against which all future recordings will be judged'.

Greek- Israeli pianist Keren Hanan won several competitions, including the Clairmont Award, and since 1988, she has been the recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships. She studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Wha Kyung Byun, in Tel Aviv with Prof. Arie Vardi and in Italy with Franco Scala and Antonio Ballista. She currently studies with Ferenc Rados in Budapest. Hanan has given recitals and appeared in concert with notable orchestras, including the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Zubin Mehta.

VVOOIICCEE:

“Towering success for Sjöberg,” “magic charisma” and “the most wonderful, flexible and colorful voice” are some of the superlatives given to soprano Gitta-Maria Sjöberg throughout her career. Having studied with Kim Borg at the Opera Academy in Copenhagen, Sjöberg is now the leading soprano of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. In January 2005, she opened the new Copenhagen Opera House as Aida with Roberto Alagna, while her talent has taken her around the world as a guest at opera houses, concert halls and festivals. Sjöberg’s operatic roles include Puccini’s Tosca and Madama Butterfly, Verdi’s Amelia (in Simon Boccanegra and Un Ballo in Maschera), Elisabetta in Don Carlos and Leonora (in Il Trovatore and La Forza del Destino),

Wagner’s Eva (Meistersinger) and Sieglinde - a role she sang together with Placido Domingo in 2006. Gitta-Maria Sjoberg has received several distinguished awards, including the Birgit Nilsson award. In 1996, she was honoured with the Danish order Knight of the Dannebrog and in 2004, with the Knight of the Dannebrog 1st grade by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.