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The Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic goes back to an initiative of Herbert von Karajan, who in the early 1970s had the idea of organizing the training of young orchestral talent of the Berlin Philharmonic in an academy. This form of institutionalized support was an innovation at the time. For the first time, outstanding young musicians who were undergoing first-class university training, but mostly oriented toward solo repertoire, were given the opportunity to perfect their skills in a community of top musicians such as the Berliner Philharmoniker. Mentored in individual lessons and chamber music by instructors from the ranks of the orchestra, and integrated into orchestra rehearsals and concerts, the young musicians gain irreplaceable experience for their careers, learn the professional discipline of a world-class orchestra and concert routine in the best sense of the word.
Marina Grauman, violin
Marina Grauman was born in 1994 in Saint-Petersburg into a family of musicians. Her musical career began at the Special Music School of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory (class of Prof. Savely Shalman), followed by bachelor’s and master’s studies and concert examinations at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin with Prof. Ulf Wallin: each degree with distinction. In 2015 she was awarded the DAAD prize for outstanding achievements by foreign students at German universities.
In 2018/19 she was a scholarship holder of the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (lecturer N. Bendix-Balgley) . From Season 2019/20 she is the 1st concertmaster of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
She is a founding member of the ensemble Trio Marvin (piano trio), which has been awarded the Grand Prix of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and the 3rd prize of the ARD Music Competition, among others. The trio pursues a busy concert schedule in Germany and abroad and completed their master’s studies with the Artemis Quartet at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2020 with distinction.
Chamber music as well as solo performances have been broadcast by ARTE, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, BR, SWR, SR, ORF and Fine Music Radio Capetown.
Beata Antikainen, cello
Beata Antikainen (1993) is currently a member of the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker, where her mentor is Olaf Maninger. She studied at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Claudio Bohorquez and in the Sibelius Academy with Marko Ylönen.
Antikainen is a prize winner of the Finnish National Turku Cello Competition, the International Anton Rubinstein competition and the Peter Pirazzi Competition.
Antikainen is an active chamber musician and performs regularly in many festivals such as Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Helsinki Chamber Summer, Hauho Music Festival, Saimaa Music Festival, Sibafest, Avanti Summer Festival, Pyhäjärvi Chamber Music, ClasClas Festival and Eloa Festival.
She is the artistic director of the Hvitträsk Chamber Music Festival in Finland.
As a soloist she has played with such orchestras as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Ensemble and Baden Baden Philharmonia.
She has received scholarships from the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Pro Musica Foundation and the Wegelius foundation.
Noora Ylönen, piano
Coming from a family of musicians, Noora was forced to sit through concerts and rehearsals while growing up. She stubbornly searched for another path for her own future and for example competed in athletics until late teenage years. It wasn’t until one summer festival when she heard Schubert’s string quintet live and realized she had no choice but to continue her musical journey. Coming from Finland, Noora studied at the Sibelius Academy and then found her way to study first at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and currently at the Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen with Henri Sigfridsson.
Chamber music she cherishes closest to her heart and that has lead her to perform in interesting locations from fells in Lapland to the great Musikverein in Vienna.
During the pandemic an ever present curiosity for visual arts took a bigger role in her life and since she has painted with oil paints and aquarelles whenever she finds the time.
From the very beginning, the Fanny Mendelssohn Förderpreis has promoted joint performance opportunities for the award winners, where they can also pursue their soloistic ambitions. One example is the annual Festival of the Award Winners at the Elbphilharmonie. The award winners want to further expand the concept of joint performances in a changing line-up and have joined forces with selected FMFP finalists under the name Fanny Mendelssohn Artists. Together they form a new ensemble of top-class classical soloists that will delight audiences with creative programs and flexible instrumentations at festivals and concerts in Germany and abroad.
Philipp Schupelius, cello
Philipp Schupelius (born 2003) is a cellist who performs in many genres and on numerous stages.
Trained by Ulrich Voss, Valentino Worlitzsch and for the past six years by Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Philipp has been able to explore many facets of the instrument. He is passionate about chamber music, jazz, klezmer, blues – all of that too. But his favorite music is classical, from baroque to modern. In addition to his admiration for the great cellists, Philipp also has a great admiration for the great comedians and entertainers, especially Billy Wilder, Charlie Chaplin and Hans Fallada.
During his musical life, Philipp has received numerous awards, each of which has opened new perspectives. Since October, he has been studying at the Kronberg Academy with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt – where new things are also opening.
Leon Lorenz, percussion
Leon Lorenz (*12.12.1999 in Stuttgart) received his first percussion lessons at the age of six from Gergely Nagy at the Stuttgart Music School. At the age of twelve, he became the first percussionist there to be accepted into the study-preparatory class, which gave him increased training in chamber music, orchestra, music theory, ear training and composition. He expanded his orchestral experience over four years in the German National Youth Orchestra. In 2016, he joined Prof. Jürgen Spitschka at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule as a junior student. He deepened his education with Prof. Bernhard Wulff, as well as during a study visit to Japan with Prof. Keiko Abe. From 2018–2022 he studied with Prof. Alexej Gerassimez, Prof. Raymond Curfs, Prof. Wolfram Winkel, Claudio Estay and Carlos Vera Larrucea at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. Since 2022 he has been studying at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Martin Grubinger. He won numerous first prizes at the following competitions: Bundeswettbewerb Jugend Musiziert (2012, 2015, 2016), Bundeswettbewerb Jugend Komponiert (2016, 2017), Opus ONE 2017, Wettbewerb bavrischer Musikhochschulen, as well as the Förderpreis at the Gasteig Kultur- Wettbewerb. Leon Lorenz can be heard as a soloist at renowned festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling and the Mosel Music Festival. Leon Lorenz is a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.
Ad Astra Percussion Ensemble
The musical world of large concert halls currently combines numerous traditional and innovative elements. The well-tried is combined with the new, alienated, ‘updated’, contrasted, there are interdisciplinary productions, enriching use of lighting and video technology, unusual stage spaces and all kinds of ideas that are designed to acquire new audiences without scaring away tradition-conscious audiences. In this situation, being a multipercussionist now presents special challenges and opportunities at the same time. Multipercussion entails introducing many of the instruments used to the audience in their mode of operation and their special tonal, technical and playful-musical dimensions, since they are sometimes hardly known to anyone. The Ad Astra Percussion Ensemble (Deng Wenhui, Carlos Rubio Amondarain, Godwin Schmid and Leon Lorenz), which was founded in 2022, takes up and continues these ideas. The focus is on new commissioned compositions, and last but not least, the most important: each concert tells a story with a red thread that accompanies the audience on a journey in which they themselves are part of the action.
The CAERUS chamber ensemble was founded in Berlin in 2017. It opposes the passing of time by capturing the moment. Inspired by Caerus – in ancient Greece a religious-philosophical term about the right, unique moment of a decision and at the same time personified as a deity in mythology – a unique body of sound was formed from outstanding instrumentalists of the young European generation of musicians on the initiative of violinist Jonian-Ilias Kadesha and cellist Florian Schmidt-Bartha, which allows the spirit of Caerus to flow into its creative process and thereby create unique, unforeseen things: music created from the right, never again reproducible moment.
As a flexible collective, the CAERUS chamber ensemble plays in programs with various instrumentations – from duos to small chamber orchestras; the design of the programs thus gains the greatest freedom and relevance in terms of content. The young artists – all prize winners of renowned international competitions, such as. Tchaikovsky, Joseph Joachim, Long-Thibaut, Joseph Haydn, Prague Spring, Leopold Mozart and members of leading European orchestras such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Camerata Bern, the Kammerakadamie Potsdam, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Chiaroscuro Quartet, the Kelemen Quartet and the Trio Gaspard – are filled with the common desire to perform chamber music at the highest level, because in this each individual is challenged as a soloist and at the same time as a sensitive part of a community; Freedom and responsibility unite in an indispensable pursuit of chamber music excellence.
After its first steps and projects in its founding year, including concerts at the Bronnbach Music Spring Festival at the Bronnbach Monastery, the ensemble experienced a renaissance in 2020 and has since performed at festivals such as Young Euro Classic at the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Kalamata International Music Days in Greece, Music at Tresanton in Cornwall (UK), the International Schlosskonzerte Meersburg and the Konzerthaus Blaibach. In addition, radio recordings by BR, BBC Radio 3 and Deutschlandfunk Kultur document the artistic work of the ensemble.
At the festival INS OFFENE…! at the Kühlhaus Berlin, the ensemble can be experienced as a string quartet in a special instrumentation with two cellos, consisting of violist Timothy Ridout, cellist Tim Posner and the two founders of the ensemble, Jonian-Ilias Kadesha and Florian Schmidt-Bartha.
Jonian Ilias Kadesha, violin
“To regard him simply as a huge talent is not enough: there is an element of pure genius in this young man” – Süddeutsche Zeitung
Born in Athens of Albanian and Greek heritage, Jonian Ilias Kadesha has a keen interest in philosophy and rhetoric and possesses boundless imagination of sound and curation. His playing is characterized by stylistic accuracy and idiomatic interpretation from early to contemporary works, executed with immaculate articulation.
Chamber music performances connect him with renowned musicians such as Martha Argerich, Steven Isserlis, Nicolas Altstaedt, Thomas Demenga and Gábor Takács-Nagy, Ilya Gringolts and Pekka Kuusisto. He has also performed at Kronberg Chamber Music Connects the World and the Verbier Academy Festival. Jonian Ilias Kadesha is a co-founder of the award-winning Trio Gaspard, which regularly performs at festivals and in music centers in Europe as well as the United States. Kadesha, together with cellist Florian Schmidt-Bartha, founded the CAERUS Chamber Ensemble in 2017, a flexible chamber ensemble composed of outstanding instrumentalists of the young European generation of musicians.
On private loan, Kadesha plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1749).
Timothy Ridout, viola
Timothy Ridout, a BBC New Generation Artist and Borletti-Buitoni Trust fellow, is one of the most sought-after violists of his generation. This season he appears as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Odense, San Jose symphony orchestras and Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, amongst others. In 2020, Ridout won Hamburger Symphoniker’s inaugural Sir Jeffrey Tate Prize and joined the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center in 2021.
In recent seasons, Ridout has made his debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Hamburger Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Lille, Camerata Salzburg, Graz Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Hallé, BBC Symphony, Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestra, and performed the Walton Concerto at the BBCProms/Sakari Oramo and with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/David Zinman. He has also worked with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Lionel Bringuier, Gabor Takács-Nagy, Sylvain Cambreling, Nicholas Collon and Sir Andras Schiff.
He plays on a viola by Peregrino di Zanetto c.1565–75 on loan from a generous patron of Beare’s International Violin Society.
Tim Posner, cello
In 2018, Tim Posner became the first British prize winner of the Karl Davidov International Competition in Latvia. Born in 1995, the cellist has performed as a soloist with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the London Mozart Players with conductors including Andrew Manze. Highlights of the 2022/23 season include a recording of Cipriani Potter’s Concertante with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the IMS Prussia Cove tour, and debut recitals in Gstaad and Het Concertgebouw.
As a chamber musician, Tim Posner plays regularly in several ensembles and in 2010 he formed the Teyber Trio with Tim Crawford and Timothy Ridout, with whom he is still active internationally. He has performed at several renowned chamber music festivals, including the Musikdorf Ernen-, IMS Prussia Cove (Open Chamber Music)-, Molyvos International Music Festival-, Kronberg Chamber Music Connects the World-, Lewes-, Peasmarsh- and Cheltenham-Festival. He has collaborated with many renowned musical personalities including Sir Andras Schiff, Gidon Kremer, Lars Vogt, Alasdair Beatson, Anthony Marwood, Alexander Rudin and the Doric Quartet.
Tim starts as principal cellist of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta in the 2022/23 season. He receives important impulses from Steven Isserlis.
Florian Schmidt-Bartha, cello
Influenced significantly by some of the most renowned cellists of several generations and different musical cultures such as Julian Steckel, Heinrich Schiff, David Geringas, Natalia Gutman, János Starker, Wolfgang Boettcher, Orfeo Mandozzi and Bernard Greenhouse, Florian Schmidt-Bartha has experienced a versatile career as a chamber musician and soloist. He has worked with orchestras such as the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Würzburg, the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Kyrgyzstan, the National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova, the Romanian State Philharmonic Orchestra of Iasi, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra of Sopot, the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, the Südwestdeutsche Kammerorchester Pforzheim, the Ensemble Reflektor and engagements at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Mozartfest Würzburg, the Stavanger Chamber Music Festival, the Cello Biënnale Amsterdam, the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Stars of the White Nights Festival St. Petersburg and at the Young Euro Classic Festival at the Konzerthaus Berlin. He has also devoted himself to contemporary music, working with composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Toshio Hosokawa, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann, Marc Sabat and Walter Zimmermann and premiering works by Alexander Khubeev, Konstantin Heuer, Vladimir Tarnopolsky, Dmitri Kourliandski and Klaus Lang. Florian Schmidt-Bartha plays a cello by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (Paris, 1844) and lives in Berlin.
Since 2016, the state-recognized Barenboim-Said Academy has been teaching talented young musicians, primarily from the Middle East and North Africa, in the pedagogical spirit of Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim. In addition to musical theory and practice, the intensive study program places a second emphasis on humanities topics. Students learn to listen to each other and develop their own ideas against a broad, interdisciplinary and transcultural educational background. Goal is to educate musically excellent, curious and reflective individuals.
World-renowned artists:inside form the faculty of our academy. In addition to the Bachelor’s degree, an Artist Diploma can be earned in all orchestral instrumental subjects as well as piano and composition. The Artist Diploma is a certificate program that prepares aspiring musicians for a professional career. A master’s degree program, also for all of the above-mentioned majors, is in preparation.
The Barenboim-Said Academy is also a lively place for artistic and intellectual exchange, for international encounters and debates, through the musical programs in the Pierre Boulez Hall designed by Frank Gehry and a variety of lectures, symposia and other events.
Parisa Saeednezhad, clarinet
Parisa Saeednezhad, born and raised in Tehran, studied her Bachelor’s degree in clarinet performance at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen. She completed her Master’s degree at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf and later earned her Artist Diploma at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin. She participated in various master classes with Charles Neidich, Giora Feidman, Daniel Barenboim and James Campbell, among others. She was a scholarship holder of various foundations including DAAD and Live Music Now Rhein Ruhr. In 2015 she won the DAAD prize and the audience award+2nd prize of the Schumann Video Competition. She played several times with different ensembles and orchestras as well as Boulez Ensemble, Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, Berliner Symphoniker and Ensemble Luminar. She was the clarinetist of Staatsbad Philharmonie Kissingen in 2019 and has been a member of West Eastern Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim since 2018, with whom she has participated in Europe and US tour in famous halls as well as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms in London), etc. In November and December 2022 Parisa Saeednezhad also taught the clarinet students of the Barenboim-Said Academy as an assistant to her former professor, Matthias Glander.
George Banos, violin
George (Georgios) Banos was born in July 1999 in Athens, Greece. He began his violin studies at the age of 6. He has studied in Athens, Greece (2005–2014) with professors N. Sarandithou, D.Semsis, V.Pappas, in Innsbruck (2014–2015) with professor Christos Kanettis (Innsbruck Landeskonservatorium) and in Vienna (2015–2018) with Professor Lucia Hall (J. S. Bach Musikschule). Until the age of 14 he gave solo recitals and performed with distinguished Greek orchestras like Athens Camerata (2010) and Orchestra of Colours (2012) in Music Halls like Athens Megaron, Onassis Stegi, etc. He is also a member (and concertmaster) of Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra since its foundation (2017), performing as a soloist too, under the distinguished Greek maestro and clarinetist D. Grammenos.
In 2018 he was accepted in for Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUC) Bachelor studies with violinist and Professor Pavel Vernikov and also in Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin, Germany, where he was enrolled in October 2018 with a full scholarship, with Prof. Mihaela Martin and later with Prof. Michael Barenboim.
Assif Binness, cello
Born in Israel. Attended Givatayim conservatory at age 5, under Prof. Shmuel Magen. Later he studied in Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts. from 2015–2018 studied with Prof. Hillel Zori at The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music. In 2022 finished his Bachelor’s degree studies with Prof. Frans Helmerson at the Barenboim- Said Akademie. Assif was a participant of the David Goldman music program. Assif played as the principal cellist of the YIPO, the Buchmann-Mehta school of music symphony orchestra and is part of the LGT young soloists. Nowadays he plays as the assistant principal cellist at the West-Eastern Divan orchestra of Daniel Barenboim and as an academy cellist for the Staatskapelle Unter Den Linden Berlin. Prizes he has won include Aicf scholarship, scholarships from Givatayim conservatory, scholarship from the IPO, First prize in the string and chamber music competitions of the Buchman-Mehta school, second prize in the Paul Ben-Haim competition He participated in Keshet Eilon and the Heifetz institute masterclasses.
Itai Navon, piano
Pianist Itai Navon is performing frequently as a soloist and a chamber musician in many concert halls across Europe, including Konzerthaus Berlin, Pierre Boulez Saal, Wigmore Hall, Beethovenhaus Bonn and more. He appeared with orchestras such as the Israel Camerata, the Israel Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and in music festivals such as Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Bath Music Festival, Musikfestspiele Saar and Aspen Music Festival and School. At the invitation of pianist Sir András Schiff, Itai Navon appeared in the Building Bridges series of concerts throughout Europe in the 2018/19 season. In 2021 he participated in a series of filmed masterclasses with Daniel Barenboim on Beethoven solo piano and cello sonatas. Born in Jerusalem in 1996, Itai Navon began his piano studies with Esther Narkiss at the Conservatory of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and continued with Emanuel Krasovsky in the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv. Itai is a graduate of the Barenboim-Said Akademie, where he studied from 2018–2022 with Sir András Schiff. Currently, Itai is studying in the Sir András Schiff Performance Programme for Young Pianists at the Kronberg Academy. He has received valuable advice from renowned pianists such as Murray Perahia, Emanuel Ax, Angela Hewitt, Jonathan Biss, Robert Levin, and more. Itai is supported by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and Szloma-Albam-Stiftung.
Meike Droste was born in 1980 and grew up in Augsburg.
From 1999 to 2003, she completed her acting training at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich. In 2002 she was engaged by Claus Peymann at the Berliner Ensemble, where she appeared under his direction in Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe by Bertolt Brecht, among others. In 2004 she moved to the Schauspielhaus Zürich, and from 2006 to 2013 she was an ensemble member of the Deutsches Theater Berlin, where she enjoyed a close collaboration with Jürgen Gosch. In 2009, she received the German theater prize DER FAUST for playing Mascha in his production of Chekhov’s The Seagull.
She has also been engaged several times at the Salzburg Festival, most recently in 2014 for Die Komödie der Irrungen. Since 2015 she can be seen at the Residenztheater Munich as Medea in Das goldene Vlies by Grillparzer.
Since 2013, Meike Droste has been working as a freelance actress and, in addition to her theater work, is also repeatedly in front of the camera for film and television.
She has already worked with directors such as Jürgen Gosch, Claus Peymann, George Tabori, Robert Wilson, Leander Haußmann, Peter Zadek, Werner Düggelin, Barbara Frey, Michael Thalheimer, Stephan Kimmig, Martin Laberenz and Anne Lenk.
Valentin Silvestrov is probably the most prominent composer of Ukraine. His work has received much attention, especially in recent decades, and not only in Europe. No small part of his fame has been due to numerous recordings released on the Munich-based label ECM.
Silvestrov was born in Kiev in 1937; he celebrates his 85th birthday on September 30. He did not want to leave his hometown of Kiev even with the start of the Ukraine war, but was persuaded by concerned friends to emigrate. Since then he has lived in Berlin.
As a young man, Silvestrov oriented himself toward the Western avant-garde, which got him into trouble in the Soviet Union. The music he has written in recent decades has also been described by himself as “metamusic” – music about music that meditates on something long past, always or at least mostly on a tonal basis. Nevertheless, Silvestrov’s current compositional style has nothing to do with “New Age.”
In 2022 Silvestrov was awarded the “OPUS Klassik 2022” for his lifetime achievements.
Emmanouela Nikoli Dolianiti is a Greek dancer and choreographer based in Berlin. As a performer, she was engaged in several dance, theatre, circus and visual art projects with Sasha Waltz & Guests, Constanza Macras/Dorkypark, Romeo Castellucci, Greta Granderath & Regina Rossi, Anett Simmen, Otto Lazić-Reuschel. As a choreographer, she has collaborated with Asuka J. Riedl on the creation HIMIKO and with Yuya Fujinami in Memini, that received the audience award best duo 2017 at the 9th international soloduo festival in Cologne, and ETHEREAL, in co-production with Constanza Macras/Dorkypark and EX-teater. Apart from her dance studies, she also holds a degree in philosophy, education and psychology.
David Skudlik is a cultural entrepreneur living in Munich. As the son of a musician and an author, he has been in contact with various art forms all his life. Since 2013, his digital agency David’s Dearest offers website design and social media management, advises cultural professionals and institutions on digital topics and organizes or curates concerts and events. While still in school, David co-founded the accessory label RAPHAEL ROGGENDORF and started an artist agency during his studies. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Cultural and Media Management at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre and is also an alumni of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers and Sandbox.
American violinist Claire Wells grew up in a musical family, playing both violin and piano from the age of three. Wells was the Mendelssohn-Prize 1st Prize winner and Commission Prize winner at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition 2021, and has taken major prizes at the Indianapolis International Competition, Mirecourt International Competition, Lynn Harrell Competition, among many others. Now studying at the Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin, Claire Wells studied privately with Brian Lewis, Sandy Yamamoto, and Emanuel Borok, and in 2017 attended the Yehudi Menuhin School with Lutsia Ibragimova. In 2020, Claire Wells studied with Mihaela Martin at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.
Wells has performed with major orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jalisco Philharmonic, the Shen Zhen Symphony Orchestra, the Nancy Lyric Symphony Orchestra, and the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, among others.. A passionate chamber musician, Claire Wells has worked alongside major artists such as Nobuko Imai, Frans Helmerson, Christian Tetzlaff, and Steven Isserlis. Wells has also taken coachings from the likes of Ana Chumachenco, Boris Kuschnir, Donald Weilerstein and Robert Levin. Claire Wells has performed at festivals such as the Music@Menlo chamber music festival, Kronberg Academy Chamber Music Connects the World, Lac Leman Masterclasses, Tibor Varga Music Academy Masterclasses, the Aspen Music Festival, Kronberg Academy Masterclasses, and many others. Claire Wells plays on a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, on loan from a generous donor.
Carlota Marques is an electronic music producer, live performer and DJ based in Berlin, Germany. Raised amidst the natural environment of the Balearic islands, she incorporates a highly visual approach to production, weaving the subtleties of emotion and memory into vivid sonic excursions.
After obtaining a degree in sound engineering, Carlota gravitated towards modular synths as her machines of choice. Since then, she has devoted her workflow to exploring the outer reaches of generative sound production, intuitively guiding her tools with both a refined sense of control and respect for their autonomy. Employing a musical philosophy that is governed by improvisation, spontaneity and intuition, Carlota’s sonic imprint takes us down the most abstract of rabbit holes – constantly searching for the weird and wonderful, with results that often evade formal description.
Following a number of highly acclaimed appearances on трип Recordings – which culminated in her 2020 debut solo EP The Bow – Carlota continues to interrogate the artistic potentials of sonic machinery with boundless curiosity. Aesthetically, her sound reflects the infinite power of the machines used to make them. Radiant melodic leads wander through complex rhythmic structures – much like colorful wires spiraling around a modular synth – whilst zoning in on a particular combination of cross-rhythms and looping motifs.
Margarita Broich studied acting at the University of the Arts in Berlin. She had her first engagement in 1987 at the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt am Main. Since then she has performed at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Berliner Ensemble, the Volksbühne and the Maxim Gorki Theater, among others. During this time she worked with directors Einar Schleef, Heiner Müller, Robert Wilson, George Tabori and Christoph Schlingensief, among others. She also appeared as an actress in numerous television, film and radio productions. In 2013, she was nominated for the German Film Award for best supporting female role for Quellen des Lebens and in 2016 she won the Hessian Television Award for best actress for Tatort Wendehammer and Aufbruch. Since 2014, Margarita Broich has been investigating alongside Wolfram Koch in the Frankfurt Tatort.
Denis Davydov (b. 1985, Tashkent, Uzbekistan), a multimedia and CGI artist. He holds a BA in Design from the Tashkent Institute of Architecture and Construction (2008). In his freshman year, he received an award from Render Re, an independent community of CGI artists. In 2012, his project Units of Lust was presented at the group exhibition of the SYE Foundation at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. After establishing his career as an independent computer graphics artist, Davydov joined the N3 agency, developing CGI content for brands such as Microsoft, CCTV, Samsung, NBC, Ford and Bloomberg. Davydov’s projects have received more than 10 Adobe Behance awards in the “Editors’ Choice” and “3D Gold” categories. In 2020, Davydov founded Instigators, a group of art practitioners and crypto enthusiasts united by the NFT study.
In his recent works, Denis Davydov explores the migration of the symbolic heritage of the early and late Internet era and eclectic visual images of Central Asia into the modern reality of late capitalism in its death throws. Davydov develops the plot of retroactive nostalgia for the rapidly disappearing image of national cultures, primarily Uzbek, Azerbaijani and Tajik, and is interested in the clash of historical narratives and fictions of cultural authenticity of the XX century and craft tradition with new media and analysis of the NFT culture.
Bowrain (1983, Ljubljana) is a Slovenian composer, pianist, and music producer. He received his music education at the Conservatorium of Rotterdam and Amsterdam as well as at the Temple University, Philadelphia, USA. In 2014, he released his debut album Far Out, followed in 2017 by the album Distracted, and in 2020 his last live album project 2020 Seconds Alive. His latest album entitled Not Exactly Lost, was released in 2022 in a collaboration with Slovenian musician and painter Luka Uršič – KALU. Apart from albums, he has released several singles and several EP’s. He performed internationally in Europe, United States and South Africa.
Apart from creating his own music, Bowrain has composed music for several works in the field of visual, performing arts and theatre. In October 2022 he composed music for Slovenian national ceremonial day in collaboration with slovene film and theater director Damjan Kozole. Between 2020–2021 he performed at Ljubljana’s Gallus Hall of Cankarjev Dom together with pianist and composer Vollmaier. In 2015 he was a performer and a composer for the project UTTER / The violent necessity for the embodied presence of hope by JAŠA, presented in the Slovenian Pavilion of 56th Venice Art Biennial (IT). Bowrain is currently based in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Flavio de Marco (Lecce, 1975) since 1997 he has participated in numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums. Among the most recent solo exhibitions include those relating to the project “Stella” at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin and Frankendael Foundation in Amsterdam and at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and “Figure” at Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara. He has collaborated with several magazines, newspapers and radio stations. In 2013 he published his first book Stella. He currently teaches Methodologies and Techniques of Contemporary at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. He lives and works in Berlin.
Kateryna Nikolenko (born on June 10, 1990 in Kiev,Ukraine) received art education at the University of Applied Arts and Design in Kiev in 2013. She studied in the department of monumental and decorative painting. The leading teacher of the subject Composition Oleksandr Oliynyk has awakened in Kate the ability to fantasize, think images and turn them into a composition.
Her subjects are as varied as the way they are presented. Mostly symbolic, conceptual, surrealistic compositions that deal with the psychology of people with each other and their interaction with nature.
Nikolya’s compositions also reflect her inner feelings, somewhat gloomy and not optimistic, but with the belief that this art has a right to be and live.
Since 2013 Kate has participated in Ukrainian state exhibitions, competitions and thematic exhibitions. In 2019 she presented a personal exhibition titled Images in the studio Master Class.
Due to the war in her native country, she had to leave it and lives in Berlin since March 2022.
Farhad Farzali was born in Baku in 1989 and is a sound artist who merges traditional culture, popular aesthetics and contemporary music to comment on the situation in his country which was part of the former Soviet Union. He lives and works in Baku and engages in anthropological research on the Azerbaijan cultural context and is cataloguing the striking forms of neo-folklore.
Farhad completed an MFA at the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts in Baku in 2012. Participated in a large number of group exhibitions around the world and his works are represented in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Baku, Azerbaijan National Museum of Fine Arts and Yarat Contemporary Art Space.
Born and raised in the German capital, Colambo developed his curiosity for electronic music at a young age, which led to a promising early career in open air festivals and the Berlin club scene. In fact, the dynamic spirit of Berlin, which has great influence on him, is something Colambo tries to reflect in his music. However, it is also his multicultural, energetic, and crazy-like personality which shines through his musical passion and unique sounds connecting him to individuals worldwide.
Currently a hyped DJ & producer from Berlin, Colambo performs at many festivals and events for more than 7 years now in Ibiza, Berlin, Freiburg, and Salzburg. His singles Don’t Worry Boy, and French Girl in KitKat, entered the top 10 Beatport Hype charts in 2021. All his releases were presented on radio stations globally and supported by many successful artists.
Since 2009 Dani has been active in the scene performing along sides like of Luciano, Martin Buttrich, Seth Troxler, Nick Warren, GUTI, Move D, Hiroko Yamamura, Damian Lazarus, Priku at premier events raging from Pacha in Ibiza, Circoloco in Cartagena, BPM in Costa Rica, SONAR in Argentina, Watergate, CDV, Hoppetosse and counting. Having performed around the world from Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, USA to Spain, France and Germany. She found a home in Berlin where Lacroix Music Studio was founded, this studio is where Dani’s original productions were produced and subsequently released on Planet e, Kindisch, Vatos Locos, Sound of Berlin, Sweatbox and La Marquise, so far her 2022 she has 3 releases, the first one with Vatos Locos, collaboration with Luciano, and with 2 remixes of DEWALTA, the second will be with a Chicago label called Sanbolsa that has a collaboration with SBAI and 1 remix with CHKLTE, and the third release is on her own label called Cachonda Records were there is a remix of TRIPASTAZ.
Nikolaus, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1991, studied piano at the Musikhochschule “Hanns Eisler” as well as at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He also studied musicology at the LMU in Munich.
In addition to his active piano activities as a soloist and chamber musician at renowned festivals and concert halls, Nikolaus Rexroth has always devoted himself to songs, especially song cycles by Ludwig v. Beethoven, Robert Schumann (Dichterliebe) and Franz Schubert (Winterreise).
As a musician, he was a co-founder of the Russian-German Music Academy, which was established in 2013. Since then, intensification and expansion of leading management activities, development and realization of project ideas, event concepts and artistic designs.
Nikolaus Rexroth is the artistic director of the festival “Camera Obscura: Berlin × Tbilisi” in Georgia, the “Be@thoven Festival in Yekaterinburg” and has been working in this capacity at the Berlin-based cultural company RCCR Projects since 2014. Here he was responsible, among other things, for a series of digital concert formats that reached over 10 million views worldwide in 2020–21 and won a variety of international awards. Further stations led him, among others, to the Bayreuth Festival (2019).
Since fall 2022, Nikolaus has also been working in the field of “Planning Program Development” at Karsten Witt Musik Management GmbH.
