Artists - Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF)

2025 Artists

Conductors
Strings
Woodwinds
Brass
Percussion
Piano
Composer
Guest Artists

Conductors

Michael Repper

Conductor

Michael Repper

Conductor

Conductor Michael Repper’s work spans five continents. In 2023, he became the youngest North American conductor to win a Grammy® Award in Best Orchestral Performance. He has an international reputation for engaging and exciting audiences of all spectrums, and for promoting new and diverse musical talents.

Repper is currently the Music Director of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and the Northern Neck Orchestra of Virginia. He recently concluded tenures as Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony, and as Principal Conductor of Sinfonía por el Perú, the elite youth orchestras and choruses of one of South America's most versatile social impact music programs. Repper was the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Conducting Fellow for two seasons, and he served as the BSO's New Music Consultant. Recognizing his success at these ensembles, and his growing profile as a guest conductor all over the world, Repper was awarded a Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

His album with the New York Youth Symphony, which features debut recordings of works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, and Valerie Coleman, achieved widespread critical acclaim, reached #1 on the Billboard Chart, and won a Grammy® Award, marking the first time a youth orchestra achieved this milestone.

Repper has collaborated on large-scale productions of symphonic and theatrical works with the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia Festival, Peabody Institute of Music, and the New School of Music, among others. An avid pianist, he regularly performs as a soloist alongside his orchestras and choruses, and as an orchestral player as well. Recently, he played in the Chicago Symphony for their performances of Bernstein’s Mass, which was broadcast on PBS Great Performances.

Alongside the standard repertoire, Repper is especially invested in programming new music and showcasing fresh talent. His ensembles have performed dozens of world premieres and pursued innovative commissions, as well as a variety of Carnegie Hall premieres from established and emerging composers. A trusted ear, Repper is asked to assist and cover at orchestras nationwide, including the St. Louis Symphony, the Van Cliburn Competition, and for Naxos recordings with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra.

His experience with choruses has been recognized with significant positions, including his tenure as the Music Director at the Baltimore Basilica, the first Catholic Cathedral in the United States. Internationally, Repper has performed with highly regarded ensembles and in the world’s greatest venues, including the São Paulo Symphony, and at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Carnegie Hall, and others.

His discography includes the aforementioned album of music with the New York Youth Symphony, alongside an album with the Grammy®-Nominated Metropolis Ensemble and Grammy®-Winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus ("Musical America"), and several with the Peabody Institute as an Assistant Conductor. With the New York Youth Symphony during the Coronavirus pandemic, he was one of the first to pioneer the practice of distanced orchestral performance videos, and he made two performance appearances on CNN, the final one with Platinum-Artist Billy Ray Cyrus.

Repper complements his work with professional orchestras with a firm commitment to education, and travels worldwide to work with ensembles of young musicians. As Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Maryland, he ushered in a slate of innovative educational programming, such as the Reinecke Youth Chamber Music Scholarship and Fellowship Program. He has conducted several masterclasses for orchestras from all over the United States on behalf of the New York Philharmonic, and conducts side-by-side and educational concerts with major orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony and the Colorado Symphony.

Repper's most influential conducting mentors are Marin Alsop and the late Gustav Meier. He believes that a conductor's main role is to connect people and to use performance as a vehicle for positive change. He aims to promote a diverse and inclusive future for the arts, and to pay forward the passion for community that his mentors demonstrated to him.

Antony Hermus

Conductor

Antony Hermus

Conductor

Antony Hermus is Chief Conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra, conducting the orchestra at their home in Brussels BOZAR, on tour internationally, and at the Queen Elisabeth Competition. A leading figure in Dutch musical life, he conducts all the major orchestras in Holland including Royal Concertgebouw, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest and Rotterdam Philharmonic. He was Principal Guest of the North Netherlands Orchestra from 2015-2024 and is now Honorary Conductor for Life. He has become known for his infectiously positive approach to music and life, and his natural talent for encouraging musicians to give their very best. His dramatic flair, sense of line and clear-sighted approach are equally successful in the opera house and in the concert hall.

In 2024/25 he returns to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in their prestigious Matinee series at the Concertgebouw, and to the Residentie Orkest, Auckland Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and North Netherlands Orchestra. He appears for the first time with the Vancouver Symphony, Bonn Beethovenorchester, Tenerife Symphony and Polish National Radio. He is a regular guest with the Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Danish National and Orquesta Sinfonica da Galicia, and has appeared with many other distinguished orchestras across the globe - notably the Philharmonia, Suisse Romande, Orchestre National de Lille, Strasbourg Philharmonic Bamberg Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and Seoul Philharmonic.

He has been Principal Guest at Opera North since 2019; plans in 24/25 include Simon Boccanegra, after his acclaimed double-bill production of Cavalleria rusticana and Aleko. He will also conduct Martinu’s Giulietta in Nice. Hermus has conducted extensively throughout his career in opera houses across Europe, notably in Stuttgart, Strasbourg, Gothenburg, at the Komische Oper Berlin, the Opéra de Paris studio, Essen and the Nederlandse Reisopera. He was Music Director in Dessau from 2009, ending his tenure in summer 2015 with his first Ring cycle and promotion to Honorary Conductor.

Next year will see the release of his first recording with the Belgian National Orchestra on La Dolce Volta, featuring Medtner and Rachmaninov. His existing discography on CPO focuses on neglected Romantic composers such as Hausegger, Klughardt and his compatriots Diepenbrock and Wagenaar, as well as Auber’s opera La Muette de Portici.

For Hermus, music is an essential part of life and society. Always pushing the boundaries of traditional concert programming, Antony has been involved in numerous out-of-the-box-projects, such as Ligeti at the “Lowlands” rock festival and Symphonic Cinema (Mahler/Stravinsky). He was initiator of the award-winning „Scratch“ concerts and of the first performances in Germany of “Tweetfonie” (52 world premieres on one day) during his Residency at the International Kurt Weill Festival.

Hermus started playing the piano at the age of six. He studied piano with Jacques de Tiège at the Brabant Music Conservatory and conducting with Jac van Steen and Georg Fritzsch. He is passionately committed to nurturing the next generation of young musicians; he is Visiting Professor at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the “National Master of Orchestral Conducting” programme and teaches regularly at Sibelius Academy and Royal Northern College of Music. He is also Artistic Advisor of the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands.

Strings

Farida Bacharova

Violin

Farida Bacharova

Violin

Farida Bacharova came to South Africa in 1995 from Russia, with her husband, violist and violin/viola maker Oleg Alekseev, to join the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. By then she had already graduated with distinction from the Gnesin Musical Pedagogical College and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. At the age of 25, Bacharova was one of the youngest female concertmasters in Russia with the Maly Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. She also performed with the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra and the Moscow Academic Philharmonic Orchestra. As a recitalist, she also played in the Chamber Hall, Rachmaninov Hall and White Hall in Moscow with internationally-acclaimed pianists. She has been on many international tours and performed with conductors such as Yehudi Menuhin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Seiji Ozawa and Kurt Mazur. Since 2000 she has dedicated much of her time to teaching at various institutions and regular performances in and around Cape Town. Since 2002 Bacharova has been extremely active in training various groups such as the Sontanga Quartet and preparing her students for international exposure. As a chamber musician, she has formed the Bacharova Quartet and also plays in the UCT Piano Trio with François du Toit and other ensembles. She is an associate professor at UCT’s South African College of Music (SACM), and has played often as a soloist with orchestras in Cape Town and at festivals. As head of the string department at the SACM, Bacharova has been fundamental in promoting this department across South Africa and abroad.

Suzanne Martens

Violin

Suzanne Martens

Violin

Suzanne Martens studied violin at the University of Pretoria under Prof. Alan Solomon, where she obtained BMus and BMus Hons degrees. She furthered her studies in Holland and Austria under Lavard Skou-Larsen (Mozarteum, Salzburg), where she was also a member of the Salzburger Musici Chamber Orchestra. She subsequently obtained an MMus degree in Chamber Music at the University of Stellenbosch. Suzanne was the winner of the ATKV Forté competition (Now Musiq) and the University of Natal 75th Anniversary prize. Until June 2000, she held the position of associate concertmaster in the now defunct New Arts Philharmonic Orchestra Pretoria and was also a founder member of the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa. In June 2001, she was appointed concertmaster of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra until she took up a lecturing post at the University of Stellenbosch in 2002. Suzanne has been a guest leader of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra since 2005. She is an active chamber musician and is currently a member of the Amici Quartet, the Quartet of Peace and the Lyric Trio. She was also a member of the Rosamunde and Schwietering quartets. Suzanne serves on the faculty of the annual Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival and was invited to Portugal in a similar capacity in 2008 and 2009. She has premièred the violin concertos of two South African composers, Allan Stephenson (2009) and Thomas Rajna (2010). Suzanne is married to cellist Peter Martens and they have two daughters.

Nicolas Dautricourt

Violin

Nicolas Dautricourt

Violin

Voted ADAMI Classical Discovery of the Year at Midem in Cannes, awarded the Sacem Georges Enesco Prize, guest artist at the 23rd Victoires de la Musique in Toulouse and a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, Nicolas Dautricourt is one of the most brilliant and engaging French violinists of his generation.
In January 2019 he made his debuts at the Paris Philharmonie with Orchestre National d’Ile de France, performing Prokofiev second violin concerto under british conductor Jamie Philipps, and appears regularly at major international venues, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Wigmore Hall, Moscow Tchaikovsky Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Salle Pleyel, Cité de la Musique and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées among others. He also appears at many classical and jazz festivals such as Lockenhaus Kammermusikfest, Festival Enesco in Bucharest, Music@Menlo, Pärnu, Ravinia, Sintra, Davos, Tokyo and Nantes Folles Journées, Jazz à Vienne, Marciac Jazz Festival, Jazz à la Grange, and has performed with the Detroit Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, SWR Saarbrücken, BBC Wales National Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Aachen Symphony, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Quebec Symphony, Oulu Sinfonia, Liège Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, Novosibirsk Philharmonie, International Players Busan, Mexico Philharmonic, NHK Tokyo Chamber Orchestra and the Kanazawa Orchestral Ensemble, under conductors Leonard Slatkin, Paavo Järvi, Fabien Gabel, Yan- Pascal Tortelier, Tugan Sokhiev, Frédéric Chaslin, Maxim Emelyanichev, Stanislas Lefort, Philippe Auguin, David Niemann, Dennis Russell Davies, Wolfgang Doerner, Carlos-Miguel Prieto, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Yuri Bashmet, Michaël Francis, François-Xavier Roth, Kazuki Yamadaand Vahan Mardirossian.
In January 2025, will be released a recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto with BBC Wales National under great conductor Frederic Chaslin, and a Schumann Violin Concerto with the Manchester Camerata under conductor and former leader of the legendary Takacs Quartet, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, is also under process.

Awarded in numerous international violin contests, such as Wieniawski, Lipizer, and Belgrade, he has studied with Philip Hirschhorn, Miriam Fried, and Jean-Jacques Kantorow, and since September 2023, is a member of the Ensemble Midtvest based in Herning (Danemark).

Artistic director of the Fêtes Musicales de Corbigny, Nicolas Dautricourt plays a magnificent instrument by Antonio Stradivari, the "Château Pape-Clément" (Cremona 1704), on loan from Bernard Magrez, and in January 2021, has received from the French Ministry of Culture, the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

Peter Martens

Cello

Peter Martens

Cello

Peter Martens holds a Masters Degree from the University of Cape Town and a PhD from Stellenbosch University where he studied in his formative years with Dalena Roux before studying with Heidi Litschauer at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1993 he returned to South Africa and occupied principal positions in the New Arts Philharmonic Pretoria and Cape Philharmonic before moving to Stellenbosch University where he currently holds the position of Director of the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival. He is a member of the Amici String Quartet, enjoys chamber music with, amongst others, Leon Bosch (double bass), David Juritz (violin), Benjamin Schmid (violin) and Leslie Howard (piano), and has performed with the Brodsky String Quartet in London. Concerto engagements have resulted in collaborations with a number of fine conductors including Victor Yampolsky, Bernard Gueller, Douglas Boyd, Wolfram Christ, Nicholas Cleobury and Jonas Alber. He has participated in festivals in Russia, Holland, Salzburg, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Portugal as well has having performed in the UK and USA. Many South African composers have written for him, the most notable composition being the Cello Concerto by Allan Stephenson, which he recorded for Meridian Records with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. He has recorded the Bach Cello Suites and Beethoven Cello Sonatas for TwoPianists Records. Martens has recently acquired a Baroque cello having performed with L’Orfeo Baroque in celebrating Dr Barry Smith’s 50 years of music making in Cape Town. He is married with two children to violinist, Suzanne Martens.

Daniel Rowland

Violin

Daniel Rowland

Violin

“ When it can be hard these days to differentiate between the top violinists’ individual sounds, Rowland truly sounds like nobody else. “ Charlotte Gardner, Gramophone

“ Daniel Rowland has a powerful, glamorous tone, gleaming at the top and throaty and rugged down at the bottom” Richard Bratby, Gramophone

“Glorious … ravishing in its finesse” Tim Ashley, The Guardian

“The kind of authenticity one might expect from Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel or Isaac Stern…a force of nature that raises actual goosebumps“ Robert Maxham, Fanfare

“Naked, vulnerable and extremely virtuosic playing – an ideal soloist‘ Misha Spel, NRC Handelsblad

“Rowland’s spur-of-the-moment, light-on-the-bow inspiration, whereby the music vanished in the very act of articulation – a bewitching quality that few musicians possess.” Andrew Clark, Financial Times

“We haven’t had such an emotive, but also totally and truly a charismatic guest in a very long time. The emotions, smouldering passions, the melancholy… Rowland transported us with daring and severity into the composer’s soul” Thijs Odendaal, Beeld, Johannesburg

“It was not just the technical brilliance of his playing or the astonishing richness of his tone that gave his performance its unique stamp of quality. He radiated a single-minded intensity that made him seem totally at one with the music.” Michael Tumelty, The Glasgow Herald

Dutch/English violinist Daniel Rowland’s playing has been acclaimed as “wonderful, ravishing in its finesse” by The Guardian, as „both naked and highly virtuosic“ by NRC Handelsblad, while The Herald praised his “astonishing sound and uniquely single-minded intensity”.

Daniel has established himself on the international scene as a highly versatile, charismatic and adventurous performer, with a wide ranging repertoire. In recent seasons Daniel has performed with orchestras from Tromso in the north of Norway to Cape Town, in concertos from Beethoven and Brahms to Elgar, Berg, Korngold, Weinberg, Prokoffief and Schnittke and has worked with leading conductors such as Heinz Holliger, Jaap van Zweden, Francois Xavier Roth, Lawrence Foster, Anthony Hermus, Rossen Milanov and Andrey Boreiko. He loves championing contemporary composers and is a passionate advocate of concertos such as those by Vasks, Lindberg, Glass, Saariaho and Van der Aa. In 2017 he premiered Isidora Zebeljan‘s Violin Concerto „Three curious loves“ and this autumn sees the premiere of Roxana Panufnik‘s „Songs of Love and Friendship“ with the Dutch Radio Choir at the Concertgebouw. September 2020 saw the release of Daniel’s newest CD ‘Distant light’, for Challenge Records with Violin Concertos by Peteris Vasks, recorded live at the Stiftfestival 2019 with the composer present. (“A beautiful ode to Vasks – rich in tension and magic“ – NRC Handelsblad)

A passionate chamber musician, Daniel has performed with artists as diverse as Ivry Gitlis, Heinz Holliger, Gilles Apap, Anna Fedorova, Alexander Lonquich, Nino Gvetadze, Michael Collins, Nicolas Daniel, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Lars Vogt, Alberto Mesirca, Willard White and Elvis Costello. He is a frequent guest at foremost international chamber music festivals such as Kuhmo, Stellenbosch, Risor, Sonoro, Rio de Janeiro, Chiemgau and Osnabrück. Daniel is part of acclaimed duo partnerships with pianist Natacha Kudritskaya, “a perfect partnership“ according to BBC Music Magazine, and with cellist Maja Bogdanovic, who‘s recent duo CD „Pas de deux“ (Challenge Records) included 5 world premieres and was described as „a magical meeting between violin and cello“ by Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad. He is also a founding member of a cutting edge Tango Quintet with bandoneon virtuoso/composer Marcelo Nisinman (an ensemble with the power of dynamite – Süddeutsche Zeitung)

In 2005 Daniel founded the Stift International Music Festival in the bucolic region of Twente in the eastern Netherlands, where he grew up, with the 15th century Stiftkerk as the main venue. The festival has garnered acclaim as one of great intimacy, adventure and atmosphere. Daniel was for twelve years the leader of the Brodsky Quartet, performing all over the world, and making numerous recordings, including the celebrated Shostakowitch Cycle. He teaches at the Royal College of Music in London.

Daniel was born in London, and started his violin lessons in Enschede after his parents moved to Twente in the eastern Netherlands. He studied with Jan Repko, Davina van Wely, Herman Krebbers, Viktor Liberman and Igor Oistrakh. Meeting Ivry Gitlis in 1995 was of great significance, leading to lessons in Paris and, later, to musical collaborations. Daniel’s competition successes include first prize at the 1995 Oskar Back competition at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Brahms Prize in Baden-Baden. His violin is by Lorenzo Storioni (Cremona 1796), and his bow is a Maline, kindly loaned by the Dutch Instrument Foundation.

David Cohen

Cello

David Cohen

Cello

The world-renowned cellist and conductor David Cohen embodies a unique combination of qualities making him one of the most versatile and exciting musicians of this day. He has been internationally acclaimed for his remarkable instrumental mastery, generous musicianship, vast experience in varied repertoires combined with a flamboyant charisma.
Highlights of the 2024-2025 season include Davids’ appearence as a conductor with the PHION Orchestra in The Netherlands and his performance as a cellist of the Edward Elgar Cello Concerto at the Barbican Centre together with the London Symphony Orchestra and Antonio Pappano.

Born in the town of Tournai in Belgium, David made his solo debut with the Belgium National Orchestra at the age of nine. His international career as a soloist soon flourished leading him to perform with top-class orchestras such as the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Soloist Chamber Orchestra, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Liege, l’Orchestre Symphonique de la VRT, l’Orchestre de la Beethoven Akademie, l’Orchestre National de Lille, the Zurich chamber orchestra, L’Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne, l’Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Grenoble, the Polish Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphonia of Varsaw, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, NHK, BBC Concert Orchestra. Furthermore, David has worked as a soloist with some of the most distinguished conductors in the industry such as Lord Menuhin, Mislave Rostropovitch, Walter Weller, Sir Charles Mackerras, Vladimir Ashkenazy, C.V.Dohnanyi, Pedro Hallfter, Martin Brabbins.

His solo debut in Japan with The N.H.K and Maestro V.Ashkenazy performing Tchaikowsky ‘Rococo Variations’ in June 2007 has made a great impression, leading to recurring collaborations in the years to follow.
As a graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Guidhall School of Music & Drama, with the support of a grant from the Menuhin Foundation, David won more than 25 prizes in International Cello Competitions. Amongst his prizes and awards are the Gold Medal of the GSMD in London, (like Jaqueline Dupre), The Geneva International Cello Competition, the Audi International Competition, International Cello Competition in Douai, ’Tenuto’international Competition”, The Guilherminia Suggia Gift, The Ian Flaming Trust, SPES, KPMG Martin Scholarship, Hattory Foundation, Berllotti-Buitonie Fellowship award, Fondation SUISA, J.S.Bach International Competition.

Furthermore, David was Nominated ECHO “Rising Star” for the season 2002-2003 by the “Royal Philharmonic Society of Belgium” and the “Concertgebouw”.

Davids’ passion for chamber music has led him to regularly enjoy collaborating with fine musicians in major International cello- and chamber music festivals such as Kronberg (Germany), Manchester ( U.K), Cambridge (U.K.), Beauvais (France), Orpheus Baccheus in Bordeaux ( France), the Gstaad Festival (Suisse), West Cork (Ireland) Kuhmo (Finland) Elverum (Norway) Oxford (u.k), Sonoro (Bucharest).

David is the Artistic Director of the Melchior Ensemble, which brings together the finest musicians from Europe such as a.o. Sasha Sitkovetsky, Priya Mitchel, Corine Chapelle, Silver Ainomae, Razvan Popovici and is the ensemble in Residence in Peter House Cambridge.

David was appointed Principal Cello of the Philharmonia Orchestra in March 2001 (making him the youngest principal cellist in the history.). He has be appointed Principal cello of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2022.
Internationally award winning discography by David is to be found with Forlane, Classic FM, Cypres-Records and the LPO Label. It includes recordings of the Lutoslawsky cello concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the S.Gubbaidulina cello concerto with the BBC Symphony.

David plays on a magnificient Dominicus Montagnana cello circa 1735 granted with kindness and generosity by Mrs. Pat Morton and with the support of the Razumovsky trust.

David is the creator and artistic director of « Les Sons Intensifs » , a vibrant chamber music festival in the home town of the famous artist Renee Magritte (Lessines, Belgium ).

A conductor of fine reputation, David has performed in several international festivals such as Kuhmo Festival, Stift Festival, Osnabruck “Con brio Festival”, Les Sons Intensifs, Belgrade Ensemble, Phion Orchestra in Netherlands. His repertoire includes composers such as P.M.Davis, P.Glass, Debussy, Gubbaidulina, Mahler, Stravinsky, Sibelius, including premiere performances and recordings of pieces by Osvaldo Golijov and Isidora Zebeljan.

“…David Cohen, one of the most talented young cellists I know. He was a student at my School for some years, and is altogether a remarkable young man, a remarkable performer and already an outstanding cellist.” Lord Menuhin (dec. 98)

Xandi van Dijk

Conductor

Xandi van Dijk

Conductor

Born into a musical family in Cape Town in 1978, Xandi van Dijk received his first violin lessons at age 4 and has been playing the viola since 1990.

Since the end of 2007 Xandi has been a member of the internationally renowned Signum Quartet. With them he has been a laureate of international competitions, and from 2011-2013 they were BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists. Their recordings have received universal acclaim, and in 2014 the quartet was awarded an International Classical Music Award (ICMA) for their album “No.3”.

Concert appearances have led the Signum Quartet from the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall and the Berliner Philharmonie to the the Aldeburgh Festival, the Festival Aix-en-Provence and the BBC Proms. The Signum Quartet has recorded for Capriccio, harmonia mundi and Sony Classical, and currently records for Pentatone.

Xandi has been principal viola of the Munich Chamber Orchestra since 2017. He is a regular guest principal with i.a. the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Orchestre de chambre de Paris and the Estonian Festival Orchestra.

To further his artistic development as both chamber musician and soloist, van Dijk has had classes with i.a. Wolfram Christ, Lawrence Dutton and Yo-Yo Ma, and has worked together closely with the Alban Berg Quartet, the Artemis Quartet and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. He has had conducting masterclasses with Leonid Grin, Neeme Järvi and Paavo Järvi.

As a conductor, Xandi has worked with all the major South African orchestras. He premiered P.L. van Dijk’s opera earthdiving at the Spier Summer Festival, conducted the William Kentridge production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in Cape Town and Johannesburg, recorded the soundtrack to the Philip Noyce blockbuster Catch a Fire and premiered Denis Goldberg and Matthijs van Dijk’s Moments in a Life at the SICMF 2016.

Dana Zemtsova

Viola

Dana Zemtsova

Viola

Born into the illustrious Zemtsov music family of acclaimed musicians, Dana Zemtsov has established herself as one of the most recognized viola players of her generation. Gramophone Magazine has celebrated her playing as being “so perfectly tuned, so varied in color and with such considerable distances in the intervals between the notes, that you would be forgiven for thinking it sounded more like a chamber orchestra”.

Dana regularly performs in concert halls such as the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, St. Petersburg Philharmonia, The Opera House in Tel Aviv, and Carnegie Hall in New York. She has played chamber music with Janine Jansen, Giovanni Sollima, Martin Frost, Anna Fedorova, Ilya Gringolts, Boris Berezovsky, and many others. As a soloist, Dana has performed with symphony orchestras in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, US, Brasil, Mexico, Ukraine and Estonia, under the baton of Leif Segerstam, Otto Tausk, Daniel Raiskin, Massimo Quarta, Marco Parisotto, and Fabio Mechetti. Dana is 1st Prize laureate of several competitions in Luxembourg, Italy, Austria, Germany, Portugal, and the Netherlands. And so far, she has released seven critically acclaimed albums on the Channel Classics Records label with the likes of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Daniel Raiskin, Phion Orchestra and conductor Shizuo Z Kuwahara, and chambermusic partners as pianist Anna Fedorova and Claudio Constantini. Her latest release “Yellow Butterfly” incarnates the spirit of her Latin American roots and has been praised for its unique place in the viola discography and musical versatility combining high-class musicians from the classical, latin american and jazz worlds.

Born into a family of musicians in 1992, Dana received her first music lessons from her grandmother and her parents. She continued her studies with viola virtuoso Michael Kugel. Dana teaches regularly at places such as the Kuhmo Festival,Stift Musical Encounters, Utrecht Conservatory, Prades Festival, Cividale International Masterclasses and the Davidsbündler Music Academy in The Hague. She is artistic director of the brand new “Numina Chambermusic Festival” in Gouda as well as co-organizer and teacher at the Zemtsov Viola Masterclasses in Hoeve (The Netherlands).

Daniel Austrich

Viola

Daniel Austrich

Viola

St.Petersburg-born violinist Daniel Austrich has equally successful established himself both as a charismatic soloist, as well as a much sought-after chamber music partner, regulary performing on main stages of Russia, Europe, Japan, Israel, and North and South America.

Since his debut at the age of 11 at the Great Hall of the St.Petersburg Philharmonic, Daniel has appeared with man orchestras including the Moscow Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and many others.

As a chamber musician he has performed together with Itzhak Perlman, David Geringas, Donald Weilerstein, Antoine Tamestit, Ian Fountain, Sunwook Kim, Andrey Baranov, and Pamela Frank.

He made his debut on the viola at the Dyaghilev Festival in Perm in 2014, performing viola quintets by Mozart and Brahms together with the David Oistrakh Quartet.

Austrich studied with Alla Aranovskaya in his native St.Petersburg and at the Oberlin Conservatory, and went on to study with the legendary Viktor Tretyakov at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne.

He has been a member of the Michelangelo String Quartet since 2012, and has been teaching violin and chamber music at the Hochschule Cologne since 2015.

Photo © Asya Chzhan

Siwo Kim

Violin

Siwo Kim

Violin

SIWOO KIM is an “incisive” and “compelling” (Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times) violinist who plays with “stylistic sensitivity and generous tonal nuance” (John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune). Siwoo performs as soloist and chamber musician, and he is the co-founding artistic director of VIVO Music Festival in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

Siwoo gave the world premiere performance of Samuel Adler’s violin concerto which was written for him. He recorded the work on Linn Records to commemorate the composer’s 90th birthday, and the BBC Music Magazine praised his “notable fire & impassioned playing.” Siwoo made his Carnegie Hall concerto debut in Stern Auditorium with the Juilliard Orchestra. He has since performed with orchestras around the world including the Staatsorchester Brandenburgisches Frankfurt, Columbus Symphony, Gangneung Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Kwazulu-Natal Philharmonic, Orchestre Royal de Chambre, Seongnam Philharmonic, Springfield Symphony, and Tulsa Symphony in venues such as Walt Disney Concert Hall and Lotte Concert Hall.

As a chamber musician, Siwoo formed the “whip-smart” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) Quartet Senza Misura, which performed at the Phillips Collection, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Seoul Arts Center and more during their three years together. He has had the honor of collaborating with artists such as Dénes Várjon, Itzhak Perlman, Jeremy Denk, Joyce DiDonato, Mitsuko Uchida and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard and Takács Quartets. Siwoo spent numerous summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, and he has been featured internationally as guest artist at the Tivoli Festival in Denmark, the Bergen International Festival in Norway, the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa, the Fundación Juan March in Spain and with Ensemble DITTO in South Korea.

Siwoo was named the recipient of the 2012 King Award for Young Artists. He took second place at the 2010 Corpus Christi International Competition for Piano and Strings, where he was also awarded special prizes for the best performance of solo Bach and violin performance. He has also been named top prizewinner in the California, Chengdu, Crescendo, Hellam, Ima Hogg, Juilliard, NFAA youngARTS, Schadt, Sejong, and WAMSO competitions.

Siwoo received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied under Robert Mann and Donald Weilerstein with full scholarship. He went on to complete a two-year fellowship with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. Prior to college, Siwoo studied under Roland and Almita Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago.

Siwoo performs on a 1753 “ex-Birgkit” Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin on generous loan through Rare Violins In Consortium.

Anna Vasilyeva

Violin

Anna Vasilyeva

Violin

Anna Vasileva was born in 1986 in St-Petersburg into a family of musicians and started playing violin at the age of four. In 1994 she entered the special music school of St-Petersburg Conservatory where she studied with Lev Ivaschenko, Elena Zaitseva and Vladimir Ovcharek. She continued her education at the St-Petersburg Conservatory and simultaneously at the Basel Music Academy (with Thomas Füri) and later at the Lausanne Conservatory (with Pierre Amoyal). During 2005-2008 Anna was a member of Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra (under the artistic direction of Claudio Abbado) and during 2005-2007 of the Verbier Festival Youth Orchestra (under the artistic direction of James Levine). Later, Anna regularly performed as a member of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, Orchestra of Opernhaus Zürich, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and since 2012, has been a member of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. Anna participated in the master classes of Christian Altenburger, Rainer Kussmaul, Zakhar Bron and Friedemann Eichhorn. As a soloist, Anna appeared with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, St-Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Lausanne University Symphony Orchestra and Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. Anna participates regularly in the festivals of Verbier and Gstaad.

Zoran Marković

Double Bass

Zoran Marković

Double Bass

After graduating from The Academy of Music in Podgorica and taking his M.A. at The Faculty of Musical Art in Belgrade, the double-bass player Zoran Marković continued his studies with renowned pedagogues in Venice, Cremona, Munich, Salzburg.

During his study, he was awarded numerous prizes at competitions at home and abroad. As a member of the Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra he was awarded the Prešeren Fund prize (the prestigious Slovene prize) in 1999, the O. Župančič prize in 2004, and the J. Betetto prize in 2006.

Zoran Marković performs in Slovenia and abroad as a soloist, with renowned orchestras and chamber musicians. He has been successfully performing as a soloist with the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, The RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Detmolder Kammerorchester, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Nuova Orchestra Ferruccio Busoni, the Slovenicum ensemble, the Strings Chamber Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra, St. George's Strings, the Niš Symphonic Orchestra, Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, Britten String Orchestra…

He performed at the Aspecte Salzburg, Neuebühne Villach, Serenate nel Chiostro, Trieste Prima, I suoni delle Dolomiti, Akzente-Neue Music in Klagenfurt, Ljubljana Summer Festival, Grad teatar Budva, PAC Murska Sobota, A Tempo Podgorica, Oxford Chamber Music festival, Osnabrücker Musikfestival classic con brio, Düsseldorf ChamberJam, Stiftfestival, Gauting München, The Schloss Elmau, Holstebro “Klassiske Dage”, Storioni Festival, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Sonoro, Stavanger, Sylt, Stradun classic Dubrovnik,

From 1990 to 2004 he was the head of double basses of the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra. From January 2004, he is employed as a senior lecturer at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. He has been a permanent external associate of the RTV Symphony Orchestra as a double-bass soloist since 2006. He also acts as a professor at the International Summer Academies of Music in Austria, Italy, Holland, England, Finland and Germany.

His relentless search for better sound has also led him on a path of discovery and innovation. Many years of research and development resulted in the invention of ZMT (Zoran Marković Tailpiece), a tailpiece which enhances the acoustical properties of stringed instruments.

Andrey Baranov

Violin

Andrey Baranov

Violin

“…a natural player who makes you listen…one is struck by his sound and his large music-making gestures” – The Strad Magazine

Andrey Baranov is the winner of the 2012 Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition. He also won the Benjamin Britten and Henri Marteau International Violin Competitions, and prizes at more than twenty other international competitions including Indianapolis, Seoul, Sendai, Liana Isakadze, David Oistrakh, and Paganini (Moscow) international competitions.

Andrey is the first violinist of the David Oistrakh Quartet, an outstanding ensemble established in 2012.

Born in St Petersburg in 1986 into a family of musicians, Andrey began playing the violin at the age of five. He attended the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St-Petersburg and the Consevatoire de Lausanne. He studied with L. Ivaschenko, V. Ovcharek, P. Popov, but the most important teacher for Andrey will always be the legendary French violinist Pierre Amoyal. Andrey also has taken masterclasses from B. Kushnir, L. Isakadze, and K. Kashkashian among many others.

Since making his major debut in 2005 at the St Petersburg Philharmonie hall under V. Petrenko and the Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrey has performed on renowned stages throughout the world including Bozar Brussels, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Großer Saal Mozarteum, Cadogan Hall London, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Konzerthaus Berlin, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow and St.-Petersburg Philharmonic halls.

Many of Andrey’s performances have been broadcast worldwide – on BR Klassik, Radio Orpheus, Espace 2 (Switzerland), YLE Radio (Finland), WFYI, WFMT Chicago (USA) and NHK Sendai (Japan).

Andrey has appeared with leading international orchestras including Luxembourg Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, MusicAeterna Orchestra, St-Petersburg Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic London, SWR Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, under direction of K. Nagano, T Currentzis, V. Petrenko, N. Alekseev, M. Tabachnik, W. Weller, K. Yamashita, A. Boreyko and E. Krivine among others.

Andrey has performed alongside such renowned artists as Martha Argerich, Julian Rachlin, Boris Andrianov, Pierre Amoyal, Liana Isakadze.

At the young age of 23, Andrey was appointed as teaching assistant to Pierre Amoyal at the Conservatoire de Lausanne and has since been in demand as a teacher at many international masterclasses. He has been invited to conservatories in Bangkok, Chicago, Riga, Vilnius, Stockholm, Moscow and more.

Maja Bogdanović

Cello

Maja Bogdanović

Cello

Following her stunning recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall The Strad hailed Maja Bogdanovic for “an outstanding performance of exceptional tonal beauty and great maturity of interpretation - gloriously honeyed, fiery, eloquent and fervent.” Since then, she has taken her place among today’s foremost cellists. Concerto engagements have included the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Tokyo Philharmonic, Minas Gerais Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, and the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the U.S., Ms. Bogdanovic made her debut at the 2017 Grand Teton Music Festival under the baton of Cristian Macelaru. She has also performed with the Forth Worth Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Lubbock Symphony, Portland Symphony, Columbus Symphony and Princeton Symphony.

An avid chamber musician, Maja Bogdanovic is a frequent guest at leading chamber music festivals and worlds leading venues such as Kuhmo Festival in Finland,, Amsterdamse Cello Biënnale, Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Folle Journée/Nantes, Storioni Festival, and the Stift International Chamber Music Festival in The Netherlands, performing with artists such as Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Julian Rachlin, Nino Gvetadze, Daniel Rowland, Nemanja Radulovic and Marianna Schiriniyan. Maja has produced several internationally-released CDs for labels Lyrinx and Nimbus and her recital disc ‘Eastern wind’ (Orchid Classics), with pianist Maria Belooussova, dedicated to Glière and Rachmaninoff received rave reviews. Maja’s latest CD release (Challenge Records) with violinist Daniel Rowland, ‘Pas de deux’, includes world premiere recordings of works by Penderecki, Vasks, Sollima and Nisinman, and was described as ‘a magical meeting of cello and violin’ by leading Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad.

Within her wide repertoire, Maja Bogdanovic devotes a special place to contemporary music. She has premiered works of Nicolas Bacri, Sofia Gubaidulina, Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Sawyers, Eric Tanguy, Benjamin Yusupov, Natasha Bogojević, Isidora Žebeljan, among others. Her collaboration with Krzysztof Penderecki began with the Belgrade Philharmonic in 2008, and with the Slovenian Philharmonic in Ljubljana, where she performed his Cello Concerto No. 2 under the baton of the composer. This led to several further collaborations, such as with the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the Orchestra National de Pays de la Loire and the Krakow Philharmonic. Amongst a select group of the world’s leading artists, including Lorin Maazel, Anne-Sophie Mutter and others, she was invited to play for special performances in Warsaw and Krakow celebrating Maestro Penderecki’s 80th and 85th birthdays. In 2019, Maja recorded Krzysztof Penderecki’s Second Cello Concerto under the guidance of Maestro Penderecki, for the DUX Label.

Laureate of numerous international competitions, Ms. Bogdanovic won First Prize at the third Aldo Parisot Cello Competition in South Korea and received the Second Prize and Special Audience Award at the Gaspar Cassado International Competition in Tokyo. She was awarded the Special Prize at the Concours Rostropovich in Paris and, in the same year.

Born in Belgrade, Serbia, Maja began playing the cello at a very early age, studying with Professor Nada Jovanovic in Zemun. She went on to graduate with a First Prize from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where she completed her postgraduate course with Michel Strauss; while there, she also studied chamber music with Itamar Golan and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Following her studies in Paris, she pursued further training at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Professor Jens Peter Maintz, as well as Bernard Greenhouse, Alban Gerhardt, and Heinrich Schiff.

Maja’s instrument was custom made for her by French luthier Frank Ravatin. She lives in Amsterdam with her husband, violinist Daniel Rowland and their Daughter Lily.

Ian Watson

Violin

Ian Watson

Violin

South African violinist Ian Watson obtained an MMus at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2008, enabled by an RSM International Scholarship. Prior to this, he obtained a BMus (Hons) under Dr. Suzanne Martens at the University of Stellenbosch, RSA, and was subsequently appointed Co-Principal 2nd violin with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, at the age of 21.

After graduating in Scotland, Ian formed a duo with celebrated guitarist-composer, Marek Pasieczny. This collaboration lead to invitations to Italy, Japan, South Africa and Poland, where they subsequently became Laureate of the Nowa Tradycja Competition in Warsaw, 2008.

Ian joined the Royal Northern Sinfonia in 2010, under the direction of Thomas Zehetmair. Two years later he was appointed Principal 1st Violin of the Hallé Orchestra, under Sir Mark Elder. Highlights from this period include Parsifal at the BBC Proms (2013) and a number of tours within Europe, China, South Korea and South America.

Since leaving the Hallé in 2015, Ian has enjoyed a varied career as a Guest Leader and Co-Leader with some of Britain's major orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the BBC Philharmonic, BBC SSO, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, Manchester Collective, London Mozart Players, and the Hague Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also Guest Principal 2nd Violin of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and guest directs the Northern Chamber Orchestra. Ian is regularly away on tour, and has played at venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Concertgebouw and Musikverein, sharing a stage with musicians such as Argerich, Vengerov, Tetzlaff and the late Lars Vogt.

Ian plays in the first violin section of the Aurora Orchestra, which has earned international recognition for performing ambitious and large-scale symphonic works entirely from memory. In recent years, he performed both Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' and Berlioz' 'Symphonie Fantastique' from memory, televised at the BBC Proms. In 2019 he joined the renowned Dante String Quartet. He lives in Chester with his wife and two children.

Woodwinds

Dwight Parry

Oboe

Dwight Parry

Oboe

Dwight Parry has been the principal oboist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since his appointment in 2007. Previously, he held the same position with the San Diego Symphony and was a Fellow with the New World Symphony. He has performed as guest principal oboist with groups including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Opera, and the Deutsche Symphonie of Berlin. Originally from coastal Southern California, he found his passion for music studying piano, voice, and jazz saxophone. It was not until late in high school, however, that he began playing the oboe, taking lessons from Joel Timm, and truly found his calling. He received his Master's Degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music with John Mack and his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Southern California with Allan Vogel and David Weiss, a gentleman who also taught him to surf.

Mr. Parry performs and teaches internationally in concertos, recitals, masterclasses, and chamber music. Past appearances have featured the works of Mozart, Goossens, Haydn, Bach, Strauss, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Barber, and Marcello. This season . This season alone, he performed Francaix's Flower Clock, Mozart's Oboe Concerto, and Strauss' Oboe Concerto three times. His performances of Strauss' Oboe Concerto in February 2017 were his third subscription solo appearance with the Cincinnati Symphony.

Mr. Parry is an Adjunct Faculty member at both the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and at Northern Kentucky University. He also teaches privately and gives masterclasses at schools and festivals throughout the year.

When not performing, you'll often find Mr. Parry in the audience for concerts and shows, including broadway, jazz, and bluegrass as well as opera and symphony performances. He spends the rest of his time hiking, running, volunteering, tossing frisbees, reading and creating curiosities in the kitchen.

Mr. Parry is a Loreé Artist.

YaoGuang Zhai

Clarinet

YaoGuang Zhai

Clarinet

YaoGuang Zhai currently serves as the principal clarinetist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2016. Prior to that, he was the associate principal clarinetist of the Toronto Symphony in Canada and the principal clarinetist of the Shanghai Symphony in China.

YaoGuang has established himself as a sought-after soloist and orchestra player, having performed with several major orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra (Canada), the Toronto Summer Music Festival Orchestra, the Stellenbosch International Music Festival Orchestra (South Africa), the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (China), the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, the American Academy of Conducting Orchestra (Aspen), and the Springfield Symphony Orchestras. Additionally, he has served as a guest principal clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

YaoGuang has played as the principal clarinetist during the live recording of Handel’s Messiah, arranged and conducted by Sir Andrew Davies, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in the year-end 2015 performance released by Chandos Records. He has also recorded for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s exam-level commercial CD, which has been sold across North America.

As a chamber musician, YaoGuang has actively participated in various music festivals around the world, including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa, The Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, Music From Angel Fire Festival, Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Beijing International Clarinet Festival, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Chongqing International Clarinet Festival in China, and the International Clarinet Festival in Taiwan.

YaoGuang is also a respected educator and has held teaching positions at several prestigious institutions, including guest teaching faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music, Valade clarinet faculty at the Interlochen Summer Music Camp, the Curtis Institute Summer Music Camp, Master-Players Summer Music Festival, and National Youth Orchestra of China. He currently serves as an associate professor of clarinet at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

YaoGuang’s musical journey began at the age of three when he started playing the violin. He later switched to the clarinet and entered the China Central Conservatory in 1999. In 2003, he came to the United States and attended the Idyllwild Arts Academy as a full scholarship student. He continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and graduated in 2009. During his studies, YaoGuang won several competitions, including the Hellam Competition, the Blount-Slawson Young Artists Competition, Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition, the Spotlight Award, and the Pacific Symphony Concerto Competition. His instructors include distinguished clarinetists Yehuda Gilad, Donald Montanaro, Ricardo Morales, and Joaquin Valdepeñas.

YaoGuang Zhai is a Buffet Crampon and Vandoren artist.

Liam Burden

Saxophone

Liam Burden

Saxophone

Saxophonist and conductor, Liam Burden teaches saxophone and clarinet at the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre where he is Departmental Head: Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion and Piano, and is the principal conductor of the Hugo Lambrechts Symphony Orchestra. He also lectures saxophone at Stellenbosch University on a part-time basis. Liam graduated from Stellenbosch University in 2020 with an MMus cum laude researching repertoire choices of youth orchestras in South Africa. During his studies, he was afforded the opportunity to study at the West Virginia University, USA on an exchange programme studying with Dr Michael Ibrahim (saxophone) and Dr Mitchel Arnold (conducting). Liam has participated in all the major instrumental as well as conducting competitions in South Africa namely, the Len van Zyl Conductors Competition where he was a finalist in 2019 conducting the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, SAMRO Overseas Scholarship and Unisa Licentiate Competitions (saxophone), and ATKV Muziq Competition (saxophone and percussion). Liam made his debut performance with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in 2022, in the South African premier of Kevin Houben's Legend of a Giant, to high acclaim. He is an avid chamber musician having performed with the Connections Saxophone Quartet and the newly formed Intonga Reed Quintet of which he is a founding member. As of 1 June this year, Liam will be taking up the position of principal conductor of the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

Ekaterina Kornishina

Flute

Ekaterina Kornishina

Flute

Ekaterina was born in Moscow in a family of scientists and athletes. She started playing music at the age of 4. As a child she performed on the historical stage of Bolshoi Theater as a part of children's choir. In 2003 Ekaterina enrolled in Central Music School of P. I. Tchaikovsky, the class of famous flute professor Dolzhikov. Since age 11, Ekaterina has regularly participated in international music festivals in France, Norway, Germany, Israel, Russia, Greece, Austria and Italy, visited master classes of the famous professors in Europe, such as Felix Renggli, Francois Laurent, Vicens Prat, Vincent Luca, Shigenori Kudo, David Formizano, Kersten McCall, Andrea Lieberkneht, Philippe Bernold and Sophie Cherie.

Ekaterina Kornishina shares the stage with no less than Denis Matsuev, Vladimir Spivakov, Alexander Sladkovsky, Christian Schultz, Arkady Shilkloper and many others. At the age of 13 she won the "New Names" competition and got a scholarship of the New Names Foundation. Since then Denis Matsuev has been constantly inviting the young flutist to perform at the festivals "Crecendo" and "Stars on Baikal".
"Ekaterina Kornishina is one of the brightest flutists of the younger generation. Ekaterina is a student of the New Names Foundation and a former student of the great Dolzhikov, a fantastic master of flute artistry. She is a modern, talented, motivated musician destroying the stereotype that a wind instrument player can only make a career in the orchestra by successfully performing solo," — said the renowned pianist.

In 2010 Ekaterina made a debut at the Brahms hall in Vienna with Mozart's concerto and Wiener Concert-Verein orchestra. At the age of 18 after graduating from the Central Music School Ekaterina was invited by Vladimir Spivakov to become a soloist of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia. Spivakov also gave her a a great instrument as a gift. In 2016 Ekaterina received Hyundai scholarship for her academic success at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky conservatory. In 2018 Ekaterina finished the Conservatory, class of Professor Alexander Golyshev and enrolls in Reina Sofia Academy in Madrid, class of Jacques Zoon.

Bram van Sambeek

Bassoon

Bram van Sambeek

Bassoon

Bram van Sambeek is an international bassoonist and professor of bassoon at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. He is known for his highly versatile approach to bassoon playing and for his innovative programming. He is the only bassoonist to receive the highest Dutch Cultural Award: The Dutch Music Prize in 2009. As a soloist, he performs with orchestras such as the Gothenburg, Galicia and Netherlands Symphony Orchestras, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn and Camerata RCO. Many composers, such as Vanessa Lann, Sebastian Fagerlund and Kalevi Aho, have written concertos for him.

He played for ten years as principal bassoonist in the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and as a guest principal with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Since 2009 he has been teaching the bassoon at the Conservatories in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague. In 2017 he started a professorship at the Hochschule für Music und Tanz in Cologne, before deciding to return to the Royal Conservatoire The Hague in 2021. Bram has taught masterclasses at schools like Bloomington Indiana, the Royal College of London and the Hochschule für Musik in Basel.

As a chamber musician he has worked regularly with Alexei Ogrintchouk, Reto Bieri, Hervé Joulain, Radovan Vlatkovich, Liza Ferschtman, Christoph Pregardien, Pekka Kuusisto, Nicolas Altstaedt and his most frequent chambermusic partner Rick Stotijn. In 2010 Bram was offered a Carte Blanche series in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and in 2015 he received a “Wild Card” consisting of many adventurous concerts at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, also in Amsterdam. He is a regular guest at festivals like the Delft Chamber Music Festival, Storioni Festival, Orlando Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, and he has experimented with concert formats such as playing people to sleep.

In 2016 he was the spokesman of the “Save the bassoon” campaign set up by the Holland Festival. This led to a lot of international attention and publicity for the instrument. Bram is very much interested in playing any style he likes, which leads him to work with rock musicians like Sven Figee at Konzerthaus Berlin, Jazz musicians like Joris Roelofs at the famous North Sea Jazz Festival, and Arab musicians like Kinan Azmeh at the Morgenland Festival.

On the occasion of being awarded the Dutch Music Prize, Bram played the bassoon concerto by Gubaidulina with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and chief conductor Seguin. De Telegraaf newspaper wrote about this performance: “He uses his instrument freely as a mouthpiece, conjures the finest timbres, and is technically capable of doing anything.” In 2011 he won a Borletti Buitoni Trust Award, and has been admitted to the Chamber Music Society of New York’s Lincoln Center.

About working together with Bram, Yannick Nézet-Séguin remarked in a television interview available at www.bramvansambeek.com: “I think he is able to fall in love with many aspects of the music, and doesn’t set himself too many boundaries.” In another interview about Bram, Valery Gergiev remarked: “…all in all a combination of being artistically involved, motivated and being gifted, being a very nice person, and also being a little bit unusual!”

On his debut cd with Brilliant Classics, called ‘Bassoon Concertos’, he presented a very accessible programme of bassoon concertos by Vivaldi, Du Puy, Villa Lobos, and Olthuis. On his second album“Bassoon-Kaleidoscope,” he presented extremely different chamber music pieces, including Tango, Jazz and Rock music. In 2015-2016 Bram has performed the two new bassoon concertos by Sebastian Fagerlund and Kalevi Aho and recorded them for the BIS label with whom he has an on-going cooperation. This album received the BBC Music Magazine Award in 2018.He recorded an extraordinary album with his favourite rock songs with his own band called ORBI (The Oscillating Revenge of the Background Instruments) that reached nr 1 in the iTunes Classic charts. In 2020 he recorded the well known bassoon concertos by Mozart and Weber, and expanded this standard repertoire by introducing an unknown Romantic bassoon concerto by Édouard Du Puy. In 2022 he released his solo Bach album for the same label, using an innovative multitrack technique to record a keyboard partita, besides other partita’s and suites.

Brass

Marco Silva

Trumpet

Marco Silva

Trumpet

Marco Silva was born in Porto, Portugal, and began his studies at the Conservatory of Maia in 2004 with Helder Magalhães. In 2007 he joined the class of Professor Paulo Silva at the ARTAVE School and continued with a Bachelor’s Degree in 2013 at the Superior School of Music of Lisbon with Stephen Mason and David Burt. In 2014 he entered for a soloist’s Master’s Degree at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with Frits Damrow where he enrolled at the Zurich Opera Orchestra Akademie in which he participated until 2016. In 2012 and 2013 he regularly deputised in the Ochestre de Jeunes de la Méditerranée (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'zur.) having already performed in recitals in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland and other countries. In 2013, he participated in the national debut of Marc-André Dalbavie's Axiom, as part of the Debussy Festival under the auspices of the French Institute of Portugal and the Caloust Gulbenkian Foundation. In addition to prizes at numerous national competitions, Silva was a finalist at the 2017 Girolamo Fantini International Trumpet Competition in Rome, Italy and in 2022, won the Special Prize in the 7⁰ Maurice André International Trumpet Competition in Paris. He has worked with several orchestras including the Bern Symphonie Orchester, Zürich Opera Orchestra, Santa Siccilla Orchester, Caloust Gulbenkian Orchester and Portuguese Symphony Orchestra.

Mark Hampson

Trombone

Mark Hampson

Trombone

Mark was born in Bletchley, England in 1971 and started his musical studies aged 6 with the piano. He took up the euphonium when he was 11 and quickly became involved with the brass band movement playing with the most important London brass bands at the time . He took classes at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama junior department with John Clark and started playing the bass trombone here under the guidance of Roger Harvey.

In 1991 Mark started his formal studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London studying euphonium under John Clark and later bass trombone with Ron Bryans, Eric Crees and Simon Wills. He went on to continue his studies with Hans Rueckert and Andreas Kraft when he moved to Mannheim in Germany.

Mark was a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra from 1993 to 1996 where he played under Claudio Abbado, Ricardo Chailly and Sir Neville Marriner receiving coaching here from Denis Wick. He was also a member of the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra during this period.

Professionally Mark worked for two years as a tenor, bass and contrabass trombonist at the National Theatre in Mannheim 1995-1997 and went on to join the Gran Canaria Philharmonic from 1997 where he continues to be a member. He is also a founder member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra having played their first major Project with Claudio Abbado in Aix en Provence in 1998. He continues to be an active member of this ensemble where he has also been a member of the orchestra board for 9 years with special responsibility for education and outreach. He is also a founder member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in its present form having played every year since its establishment under Claudio Abbado in 2003. He is also a founder member of the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra in China where he lived for the season 2016/2017 and was involved in recruitment, management consultancy and playing as leader of the wind section in this orchestra.

Since beginning these Projects Mark has enjoyed a diverse and active career playing in many of the top orchestras in Europe including Bavarian Radio Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,Tonhalle Zuerich, Deutsche Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen ,Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and many others, including many Spanish ensembles. He has also had the pleasure of performing under many of the world’s most famous conductors including, Claudio Abbado, Ricardo Chailly, Lorin Maazel, Pierre Boulez, Kurt Mazur, Daniel Harding, Daniele Gatti, Herbert Blomstedt, Fabio Luisi, Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink, Andris Nelsons,Gustavo Dudamel to name but a few.

Mark has had an active international teaching career in the last ten years having taught across the globe in such institutions as the Australian National Academy of Music, Griffith University and Sydney Conservatory in Australia, the YST school of music at the National University of Singapore, Beijing Central Conservatory and China Conservatory and Shanghai Conservatory in China, South Africa National Youth Orchestra, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Royal Academy and Royal Northern College of Music in the UK, Dortmund Orchesterzentrum, and Stuttgart Musikhochschule in Germany, and many establishments in Spain.

He is presently on staff at Essen Folkwang Musikhochschule, Franz Liszt Musikhochschule in Weimar, Superior Conservatory of Music of Aragon in Zaragoza and the Alicante Brass Academy.

He holds positions as artistic consultant at both the Youth Philharmonic of Columbia and the Global Youth Orchestra (China). Furthermore he is a tutor at the Alicante Brass Academy, Superior Conservatory of Aragon in Zaragoza, MpMusic academy in Valencia and Gustav Mahler Academy in Bolzano amongst others.

Mark has also been engaged extensively as an adjudicator and jury member globally having worked with the Corpus trombone competition in Hungary and the Beijing Central Conservatory amongst others.

Whatsmore he is active as a conductor have founded the South Africa National Youth Brass Ensemble and Colombian National Youth Brass Ensemble and regularly directs concerts of brass and wind music at the Gustav Mahler Academy in Bolzano and the Orchesterzentrum in Dortmund.

Mark is also active as a soloist having performed at the Portuguese National Trombone Festival in Braga in July 2018 and the Brazilian National Trombone Festival in Belem in September 2019. He will also undertake a tour of teaching and solo playing in China during the Autumn of 2019.

José García Gutiérrez

Horn

José García Gutiérrez

Horn

Hailing from Alicante, Spanish horn player José García Gutiérrez was co-principal horn of the
Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, Orquesta de Galicia, and Orquesta Real Sinfonica de
Sevilla, and principal horn of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra and Orquesta Sinfónica de
Extremadura. In November 2007 Jose was appointed principal horn with Spain’s prestigious
Orquesta de RadioTelevision Española (ORTVE) in Madrid. Since 2018 he has been a member of
ADDA Simfònica Alicante, one of Spain’s newest and most dynamic orchestral formations.
He has repeatedly collaborated as guest principal horn with the London Symphony Orchestra,
with whom he has also recorded various works. As a guest performer he has had concert
engagements as soloist or principal horn with several leading international orchestras across the
world, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica della Scala de Milan,
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of India, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Vienna
Radio Orchestra, Sichuan Symphony Orchestra (China), Orchestre d’Auvergne (France), Orquesta
Sinfónica do Porto, Orquesta Reino de Aragón, Orquesta de Cadaqués, Orquesta de la
Comunidad Valenciana (Les Arts), Orquesta de Castilla y León, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife,
Orquesta de Granada, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao and Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid.
He has worked with conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Valery Gergiev, Kent
Nagano, Rostropovich, Riccardo Chailly, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda and Simon Rattle,
amongst others.

José is very active as a chamber musician and has appeared alongside various ensembles
including members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Spanish Horns, Cosmos Wind Quintet,
the Argotti Ensemble as well as the Chamber Orchestra of the Festival Lyrique International de
Belle- Île-en-Mer, France.

He has recorded several works for horn by different composers, including various compositions
written specifically for him.

Apart from his performances as soloist and his orchestral work, he is very much sought after as a
pedagogue and is regularly in demand for masterclasses all over the world.
He was professor on the teaching panel of Alicante’s prestigious Brass Academy during 2019/20
academic year. In 2020 he was professor with the Mahler Chamber Academy in their youth
orchestra project with the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia in Bogotá and he will be couching the
brass section of the Sinfónica Azteca in Mexico in 2023.

From 2015-18 he was artistic consultant for the Malta Youth Orchestra, and in September 2019
was appointed its Artistic Director, a post he held until 2023. Apart from working with the students
to develop their full potential, he has also conducted the orchestra in various different productions
ranging from baroque to opera. In 2025/26 he will once again serve as professor at the Brass
Academy Alicante.

Percussion

Jauvon Gilliam

Percussion

Jauvon Gilliam

Percussion

Jauvon Gilliam was named principal timpanist of the National Symphony Orchestra in 2009 at age 29.

Since 2011, Gilliam performs regularly as guest principal timpanist of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. He is also timpanist of the All-Star Orchestra, a made-for-PBS group comprised of players from orchestras across the United States.

Gilliam has previously performed with The Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, as well as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He was also timpanist of the Bear Valley Music Festival for three seasons.

Prior to his NSO appointment, Gilliam was timpanist of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for seven years. While in Winnipeg, he was also timpanist of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and, for a time, played drum set for the WSO pops series.

As an educator, Gilliam has taught clinics at universities and institutions across Canada and the United States, including the Interlochen Arts Academy, New World Symphony and at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. He is currently co-director of Percussion Studies/artist-in-residence at the University of Maryland, co-founder of the annual Washburgh Timpani Seminar and is a timpani coach for the National Youth Orchestra of the USA.

A native of Gary, Indiana, Gilliam began his musical career playing piano, winning his first national competition at age 11. He received a full scholarship in piano performance to attend Butler University, but later changed to full-time percussion study. He graduated with honors with a degree in arts administration and then continued his graduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Jauvon proudly endorses Remo Drumheads, Yamaha Musical Instruments, Innovative Sticks and Sabian Cymbals.

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“Next it was Gilliam’s turn to take the limelight…he delivered with a virtuosic performance. It was refreshing to see and hear this gifted musician emerge from the back of the orchestra.” -Winnipeg Free Press, 2005, Kraft Timpani Concerto

“Special mention must be made of timpanist Jauvon Gilliam, who pounded the skins right off their kettle drums.” -Winnipeg Free Press, 2007, Rite of Spring

Piano

Nina Schumann

Piano

Nina Schumann

Piano

Since being diagnosed with breast cancer and focal dystonia in 2012 and Parkinson’s Disease in 2018, Nina Schumann has drawn on her status as one of South Africa’s foremost concert pianists to raise awareness about living with these conditions, while providing support and guidance to musicians navigating similar challenges.

As one of South Africa’s most distinguished pianists, Nina has shaped the landscape of classical music as both performer and educator. Hailing from a musical family in the historic town of Stellenbosch, Nina’s orchestral debut at the age of 15 marked the emergence of an extraordinary talent. In a career spanning decades, Nina has delivered over 150 concerto performances in Europe, the United States and South Africa, and boasts an extensive repertoire of 40 concertos.

For two decades, Nina was one half of the critically acclaimed TwoPianists duo, alongside Luis Magalhães. Their recordings earned praise from international publications such as Diapason, the International Record Review, Gramophone and Allmusic.com. The American Record Guide selected their second album as an Editor’s Choice. Emerging from this collaboration was the label TwoPianist Records, of which Nina is a director. The company won the South African Music Award for the Best Popular Classical Album two years in a row, and has its releases distributed internationally by Naxos.

Nina’s first recording with mezzo-soprano Michelle Breedt, titled Shakespeare Inspired, received the German Critics’ Choice Award. Further collaborative work has led to engagements at Wigmore Hall and Zürich Tonhalle, partnering with such luminaries as Ivry Gitlis, Bryn Terfel, Michelle Breedt and Daniel Rowland.

A comprehensive and cosmopolitan musical education, spanning Cape Town, Los Angeles and Texas, was formative. As Professor and Head of Piano at the University of Stellenbosch, Nina has found pedagogy to be an important complement to her activities as a performer. While engaged at Stellenbosch University, she founded the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival and the Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium. Both of these annual events focus on young musicians and have become Nina’s passion projects. They have succeeded in promoting South African musicianship and exposing young talent to established performers of international stature. Nina herself is also a sought-after pedagogue, having given master classes worldwide at numerous prestigious institutions across Africa, Europe, the USA and Asia. She is a YAMAHA International Artist.

Despite the challenges posed by her health, Nina’s dedication to music and her role as a mentor has only deepened. She has used her platform not only to inspire, but also to raise awareness about the realities of living with these conditions. Her courage and transparency have made her a source of strength for fellow musicians experiencing similar hardships. Through her work, Nina cultivates a lasting legacy of resilience, offering both profound musical artistry and unwavering support to the global classical music community.

Pieter Grobler

Piano

Pieter Grobler

Piano

Pieter Grobler is an Associate Professor of Piano at Stellenbosch University, and has been described as a performer with “finesse, sensitivity and a flawless sense of the classical style” (The Star, Johannesburg, South Africa). Pieter maintains an active concert profile, both as solo and collaborative artist. In addition to performances across South Africa he has performed in the USA, Canada, Europe and China. Noteworthy amongst these appearances was a live radio broadcast of a solo piano recital as part of the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series hosted at the Chicago Cultural Centre, a number of South African tours, and numerous appearances with duo partner, the violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel: both in Canada and South Africa. As an accomplished Lied pianist he regularly collaborates with colleagues across the country, recently receiving an award at the Woordfees arts festival together with mezzo-soprano Minette du Toit Pearce. In 2025 a highlight included a performance together with violinist Miclen Laipang and musicians of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra at the Franschhoek Chamber Music Festival. Pieter is a familiar face to Stellenbosch audiences and has performed numerous South African premieres of works, the most noteworthy being Alexander Johnson's 3 Incantations for Piano (dedicated to him) and Peter Klatzow's Sonata for Cello and Piano with cellist Peter Martens.

Pieter lectures in piano performance, chamber music, vocal accompaniment and repertoire studies. He is also a popular supervisor for research geared towards performing artists. Grobler is currently the postgraduate programme leader and has also served as chair of the Stellenbosch University Department of Music. He regularly acts as adjudicator and examiner throughout South Africa and is the organiser and chairman of the jury for the Hennie Joubert Piano Competition, held biennually as part of the Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium. He has taught and performed in its sister project, the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival since 2011.

Emanuil Ivanov

Piano

Emanuil Ivanov

Piano

Emanuil Ivanov attracted international attention after receiving the First prize at the 2019 Ferruccio Busoni Piano Competition in Italy. This achievement was followed by concert engagements in some of the world’s most prestigious halls including Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Herculessaal in Munich.

Emanuil Ivanov was born in 1998 in the town of Pazardzhik, Bulgaria. From an early age he demonstrated a keen interest and love for music. He regards the presence of symphonic music, especially that of Gustav Mahler, as tremendously influential in his musical upbringing during his childhood. He started piano lessons with Galina Daskalova in his hometown around the age of seven. Ivanov later studied with the renowned Bulgarian pianist Atanas Kurtev from 2013 to 2018. In 2024 he graduated from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, having studied there on a full scholarship under the tutelage of Pascal Nemirovski and Anthony Hewitt. He is currently an Advanced Diploma student at London’s Royal Academy of Music as a recipient of the prestigious Bicentenary scholarship, under the supervision of Joanna MacGregor and Christopher Elton.

In February 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ivanov performed a solo recital in Milan’s famous Teatro alla Scala. The concert was live-streamed online and is a major highlight in the artist’s career.

In 2022, he received the honorary Silver medal of the Musicians’ Company, London and later in the same year became a recipient of the prestigious Carnwath Piano Scholarship.

Emanuil Ivanov has given critically acclaimed performances and tours in Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, South Africa, the US, the United Kingdom and Poland and has played with leading orchestras in South Africa, the UK, Bulgaria and Italy. Ivanov’s performances have been featured on BBC Radio 3, Italy’s Rai Radio 3 and Japan’s NHK Radio. In 2024, Emanuil also made his debuts on the stages of Wigmore Hall and Konzerthaus Dortmund, and in January 2025, his album of Scarlatti sonatas for the renowned Naxos label was released.
In 2025, he also made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall.

He has continually shown affinity towards some of the more rarely performed works in the repertoire and in 2024 performed Busoni’s mammoth piano concerto. Apart from playing the piano, he also displays great interest in composition and has composed regularly since childhood.

Leo Gevisser

Piano

Leo Gevisser

Piano

Based in New York City: 22-year-old Leo Gevisser is a pianist, composer, and sound artist. He received his B.M. in piano performance from the Juilliard School with academic honors under the mentorship of Jerome Lowenthal. He will continue his studies at the Sound Art M.F.A. program at Columbia University beginning Fall 2025.

In 2024, Leo was awarded the 2nd Prize Caisse de Dépôts in the 16th Concours International de Piano d’Orléans—along with being awarded the Public Prize, Elliott Carter Prize, and the month-long Henri Dutilleux-Geneniève Joy Residency in France.
Leo is the recipient of the First Prize at the Miesczysław Munz Scholarship Competition at The Juilliard School. In New York, he has been invited to perform solo recitals as part of the Sparkill Recital Series in New York for the 2022, 2023, and 2024 seasons.

Raised in Cape Town, Leo remains deeply connected to South Africa. There, his musical studies progressed under the tutelage of Professors Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhães—in which time he became a first prize winner at the SAMRO Hubert van der Spuy and Atterbury national piano competitions. In 2022, he was invited back to South Africa: subsequently performing as a soloist with all of South Africa’s most prominent orchestras as well as solo recital tours across the country for consecutive 2022, 2023, & 2024 seasons.

From 2017-2020, Leo moved to Cleveland, Ohio to further his music studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s (CIM) Young Artist’s Program under the tutelage of Kathryn Brown and Daniel Shapiro. During this time, he received the Grand Prize at the 2019 Baltimore International Piano Festival Competition, which included a recital invitation to New York’s Weill Recital Hall in Summer 2020.

From the start of his musical career, Leo has continuously been involved with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s Masidlale grassroots project: an outreach program teaching all orchestral instruments to underprivileged children in the townships around Cape Town. He has donated a portion of his performance fees to Masidlale since he was 13 years old.

As an active composer and producer, Leo has been invited to premiere compositions and electronic sets at places such as LittleGig in South Africa, Manitoga | Russel Wright Design Center, the highSCORE Festival for Contemporary Composition in Italy, and the Juilliard School. He is an owner of a Lumatone Isomorphic Keyboard.

Composer

Kevin Harris

Jazz Piano

Kevin Harris

Jazz Piano

A distinctive trait of internationally recognized jazz pianist Kevin Harris is his desire to constantly grow, evolve, improve, and advance. His interest to interweave traditional and contemporary music styles, visual arts, electronic media, science, and language, is what distinguishes his music and what renders his performances unique experiences, meant to activate the audience’s senses and personal curiosity.

"Participation,” Harris says, "is what keeps our souls alive.” As a leader, Harris has released six albums. Both live and recorded performances reflect Harris’s determination to capture his audience through explorative interactions that Terri Lyne Carrington describes as "an exciting commitment to quality."

Harris’ music education has its foundation in the degrees he has received, but equally importantly in Black Gospel and Afro-Caribbean styles of music. He possesses the unique ability to compose complex, uplifting, tempestuous, and deeply stimulating notes.

One of the captivating elements of his ensembles, from duet to orchestra setting, is the level of comfort and understanding they have with one another. Harris is known for his diving into soulfully expressive conversations and playful exchanges of ideas with his musicians, while always providing the space to improvise in the moment. Fred Hersch talks of Harris as one who “plays and writes with flair and real soul" and DownBeat Magazine writes that “Harris' compositions deal with themes of strength, love, courage, and self- awareness. It's a heavy task he's set up for himself, and he meets the challenge gracefully.”

Harris' most innovative project as a composer are: “Roots, Water and Sunlight: A Contemporary Octet Expedition through the Expressions of James Baldwin", and “Pulse”, a compelling through-composed chamber work combining improvised and fully notated music. As a leader, he has released six albums and, in December 2024 he has released his latest, “EMBERS.” One review of EMBERS quotes: “Comparing

Harris' writing to that of Charles Mingus in the early ’60s and Herbie Hancock in the late ’60s is not faint praise. He stands on the shoulders of these masters, adds a singular personal voice, and has recruited strongly individualistic players to give his music definitive interpretation.”

Harris is part of the exclusive YAMAHA’s roster of Jazz piano artists. Among his most notable collaborations are Terri Lyne Carrington, Dayna Stephens, Ralph Peterson, Ameen Saleem, Greg Hutchinson Greg Osby, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Curtis Lundy, Caroline Davis, Bill Pierce, Francisco Mela, Avishai Cohen, Delfeayo Marsalis, Duane Eubanks, Richie Barshay, Ben Street, Jason Palmer, Rudy Royston, Frank Lacey, Eric McPherson.

Guest Artists

Kevin Harris

Jazz Piano

Kevin Harris

Jazz Piano

Figure of 8 Dance Theatre

Figure of 8 Dance Theatre was co-founded in 2014 by acclaimed dance artists Grant Van Ster and Shaun Oelf, with company manager Marie Vogts joining the team in 2018.

FO8DT believes that through the artistic language of dance, we can encourage young people to become more self-aware, rise above challenges, and have the freedom to dream. The creative duo, Van Ster and Oelf, began their formal dance training under the directorship of South African dance icons Alfred Hinkel and John Linden. They have collectively and independently collaborated with some of the most recognised South African and international dance-theatre makers.
Figure of 8 Dance Theatre has been acclaimed for the exceptional dance-theatre productions it creates, receiving Cultural Affairs Awards for Best Contribution in Dance, The Baxter Theatre Artists of the Year Award, Best Dance Production at Toyota US Woordfees, the KKNK Arts Unlimited Young Voice of the Year Award, and additional nominations from BroadwayWorld South Africa and the Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards.

They were nominated for three Naledi Awards and won the Herrie Prize at KKNK 2024 for their groundbreaking work and contribution to the production Set in Motion. The company's repertoire spans traditional and contemporary dance works, featuring award-winning productions such as WAG|Waiting, KARATARA, Set in Motion, and Embody You. Their annual International Dance Day celebrations, in partnership with Suidoosterfees, have become a highlight of their yearly programme. Other notable performances include the prestigious Mentor and Protégé – Rolex Arts Weekend, Dreaming Dance in District Six: The Johaar Mosaval Story, Marc Lottering's musical trilogy Aunty Merle The Musical, and David Kramer's Danger in the Dark.

Most recently they debuted the theatre dance production, Die een wat bly/The one that stay that was nominated for 6 KKNK Kanna Awards. As coordinators of the dance category at Suidoosterfees collaborations and productions included Maze of the Mind, Wings of Light with CTCB composed by Mauritz Lotz, Dance Synergy IV (Collaborative extravaganza in celebration of International Dance Day), dance classes, pop-up performances, salsa socials and Voices of Power by Hennie van Greunen and Pedro Kruger.

Last year marked the organisation's 10th anniversary, which they concluded with their first three-month performance development programme, this year they are back in full swing with their full time performance development programme of a year for emerging artists.

FO8DT strives to develop, promote, and sustain the future of dance theatre. Their dedication to continued work focused on inclusion, equity, and diversity ensures that their programmes are welcoming and accessible to all.

Stephen de Souza

Double Bass

Stephen de Souza

Double Bass

Stephen de Souza, professionally known as Stevovo, is a distinguished bassist celebrated for his versatility and dynamic performances. A cum-laude graduate with a Master’s in Jazz and Performance from the University of Cape Town, Stephen has graced stages across South Africa and internationally, performing in iconic cities such as
Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, Hong Kong, and Taipei.

Equally skilled on the double bass and bass guitar, Stephen occasionally showcases his vocal talents, adding depth to his musical repertoire. His impressive discography highlights collaborations with some of the most prominent names in the music industry, including Mandisi Dyantyis, Brenda Mtambo, YoungstaCPT, Shekhinah, Msaki, Simmy, Nduduzo Makhathini, Tarryn Lamb, Craig Lucas, Hannah V, GoodLuck, and Jack Parow.

Known for his magnetic stage presence and technical precision, Stephen has become a sought-after figure in the South African music scene, performing at the country's most prestigious venues and leaving a lasting impression wherever his music takes him

Namisa Mdlalose

Vocals

Namisa Mdlalose

Vocals

Namisa Mdlalose is a Fleur de Cap winning actor who grew up in Cape Town now based in New York City. She is a theatre-making graduate from the University of Cape Town.

As a performer, she has been directed under Keenan Oliphant Hadestown, Gerry McIntyre The Full Monty, Sharrifa Ali in the workshopped play Hero, Matthew Wild Kinky Boots, Jonathan Munby King Kong, Janice Honeyman The Color Purple, Janice Honeyman and Timothy Le Roux Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs Pantomime. She starred in her first film directed under Charl- Johan Lingenfelder, A Christmas Chorus.

As a theatre maker, she wrote, performed and collaborated with theatre maker and director Qondiswa James in the stage play Cwaka. This was staged and performed at the Theatre Arts Admin in 2020. Namisa has also gone on to collaborate with Director Shelley Lothian to write and star in their own experimental film Girl. The project walked away with an Ovation Award from the 2020 National Arts Festival.

As a voice actor, she voices the character Monde in Mama K’s Supa Team 4 as seen on Netflix.

Lumanyano Mzi

Drums

Lumanyano Mzi

Drums

Lumanyano Mzi is a South African-born, New York-based award-winning drummer, composer, producer, and bandleader.

Born in Cape Town, Lumanyano's musical journey began at the age of six when his curiosity led him to sneak out of his home to watch his father’s reggae band rehearse. That night, fate intervened when he stepped in for the missing drummer, impressing his father with his natural talent. From that moment, his passion for music flourished, shaped by the sounds of reggae, jazz, African music, and gospel, which deeply influenced his self-taught drumming style.

He went on to formalize his training at the University of Cape Town’s South African College of Music graduating in 2017. Seeking to expand his musical horizons, he moved to the United States in 2021 to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he graduated in 2024.

With an extensive performance history alongside renowned local and international artists, Lumanyano continues to push creative boundaries. Whether on stage or in the studio, he remains a dynamic and collaborative force in the global music scene, dedicated to innovation and artistic growth.

ARTIST WORKED WITH INCLUDE:

Larry Klien, Sona Jobarteh, Terry Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Ingrid Saga, Mandisi dyantyis, Maquis Hill, Elena Pinderhughes, Sibongile Khumalo, Mccoy Mrubata, Judith Sephuma, Gentlman, Ruth Tafebe, Luciano, Eric Donaldson, Half pint, Everton Blender, Nando Mitchelin, Albino Mbie, Spha Mdlalose, Zoe Modiga, Gorden Vernick, Darren English, Gloria bosman, Titi Luzipo, Turbulance, Jah Mason, Tyron Downie, Drie Manskap, Kanyi Mavi, Amanda Strydom, Freshly Ground, Micheal Bester, Blake Hellaby, Cedric “Congo” Myton, N8N, Meta & The Cornerstones, Pam Hall, Ebinho Cardoso to name a few

Lumanyano is putting the finishing touches on his new album, iThemba Elitsha (A New Hope), set for release this year. Marking his debut as a solo artist and his third album as a bandleader,. iThemba Elitsha is a rich and unique sonic tapestry that inspires infinite hope in a better future for humanity. In a world that is riddled with existential angst, contradictions, and uncertainty, this musical offering is a welcome tonic. In this debut solo project, Lumanyano, captures the complexity of his personal life’s journey through music and equally reflects on a world that is constantly changing amidst an unrelenting search for meaning and healing.

John Woodland

Livestream Presenter

John Woodland

Livestream Presenter

John was fortunate to be schooled at Bishops (Diocesan College) in Cape Town where he was a Claude Brown Organ Scholar in 2006. That year, he accompanied the Bishops Chapel Choir on its tour to Russia, attended masterclasses in the UK with Anne Marsden Thomas, Catherine Ennis and David Sanger, and gave a recital in the Netherlands. The following year, he was awarded the Cape Organ Guild Barrow-Dowling Scholarship and passed his licentiate recital diploma (LTCL) with distinction. For three years, while a student at the University of Cape Town (UCT), John trained and conducted the UCT Choir, the most diverse musical group on campus. In 2012, the UCT Choir was awarded the prize for Most Outstanding Senior Choir in the Cape Town Eisteddfod and the prizes for Best University Choir and Best African Works in the national finals of the ATKV-Animato Koorkompetisie.

John currently directs his own choral group, VOX Cape Town, and is a volunteer broadcaster on the community station, Fine Music Radio. Last year, John won the South African Radio Award in the Best Community Music Show category for his programme celebrating the life and music of the late Peter Klatzow. Since 2018, John has shared the pre-concert talks for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s symphony concerts and, since 2019, he has presented the live broadcasts of the SICMF’s evening concerts. John is also a scientist with a principal interest in developing new treatments and tools to tackle the scourge of infectious disease, with a focus on malaria. He is currently a Junior Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry and at the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Centre at UCT. John is also passionate about using his skills to promote science and improve scientific literacy in South Africa.