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Violist Ami-Louise Johnsson from Stockholm is currently studying at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with David Takeno, where she has been supported by the Anglo-Swedish Society since 2019. Ami-Louise won the 2020 Max and Peggy Morgan Viola Award at the Guildhall, was Second Prize and Special Award winner of the 2021 Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition in Prague. She has also received a Junior award from the Hattori Foundation in London. Ami-Louise has attended chamber music festivals at Yellow Barn, IMS Prussia Cove, Festival Jong Talent Schiermonnikoog, and Valdres Sommersymfoni. Ami is a 2023 Drake Calleja Trust Scholar as well as being a recipient of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. She was also awarded the Sigrid Paskell Scholarship 2023 in Performing Arts from SWEA International.
Dongyoung Jake Shim achieved international acclaim by winning top prizes at prestigious competitions, including the Stulberg International String Competition, International Mozart Competition, F. Kreisler International Violin Competition, and Irving M. Klein International String Competition. He was also recognised as a Laureate at the J.S. Bach Competition. With debut performances on three continents, Dongyoung has appeared at well-known venues like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Alice Tully Hall. He has participated in chamber music festivals, including the Perlman Music Program and CMS of Lincoln Center’s Spring Festival, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. Currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music under the mentorship of Shmuel Ashkenasi and Ida Kavafian, Dongyoung plays the 1705 G. B. Rogeri violin on loan from the Sooyoung Art Trade. He previously studied with Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory.
SongHa has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including Lietuvos nacionalinis simfoninis orkestras, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, KBS Symphony, Daegu Symphony Orchestra, Gangnam Symphony Orchestras to name a few. She is a major prizewinner of international competitions, including the Montreal International Violin Competition, Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, Premio Lipizer International Violin Competition, Berlin International Music Competition and Jeunesses Musicales International Violin Competition. This spring she was named Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. SongHa has recently given solo performances at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Maison Symphonique in Montreal, Seoul National Arts Center, and the Elbphilharmonie. She has also been featured in numerous live media, including BBC Radio 3, BBC Arts, Classic FM, and Medici.tv. She previously took part in the Verbier Festival Academy in 2018.
Maya Oganyan was born in Moscow and has lived and studied in Venice since 2011. She began studying the piano at age of 4 with Alexander Maykapar, professor at the Gnessin Music Academy in Moscow. In 2015 she entered the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, where she studied under the guidance of Massimo Somenzi. She has continued studies since 2022 in the class of Olaf John Laneri. The union of the Russian and Italian school are the key to Maya’s reading and interpretation of her repertoire. She is the winner of numerous national and international competitions and performs regularly as a soloist, chamber musician and with orchestras at important festivals.
Born in Moscow in 2003, Ekaterina Bonyushkina received her first piano lessons at the age of six. She has been
performing regularly as a soloist and in various chamber music formations since 2012.
In April 2014, at the age of 10, she won first prize at the 2nd International Youth Music Competition “CRESCENDO.GENEVE” in Geneva. A few weeks later, she played her first piano recital in Zürich. In the following years, she won prizes at multiple international competitions, notably, Jeune Chopin” competition in Valais, Geneva International Junior Piano Competition, Concours d’interprétation Musicale de Lausanne, the Grand Piano Competition in Moscow.
Ekaterina has performed with various orchestras: “Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra”, Ulyanovsk Symphony Orchestra, Ural Symphony Youth Orchestra, Svetlanov State Symphony Orchestra.
Her repertoire includes piano concertos by Tchaikovsky (No.1), Brahms (No.1,2), Beethoven (No.3,4,5), Rachmaninov (No.3), Saint-Saëns (No.2), Schumann, and others.
Ekaterina has been a guest in a number of international festivals: “Herbst in der Helferei”, where she performed as a soloist, with the festival orchestra, and in a duo with Gilad Karni (2015), Yuri Bashmet’s festival “Elba, Isola Musicale d’Europa” (2017), where she also received the “Prize of the year-2019”, Boris Berezovsky’s Festival in Tatarstan, Elabuga (2021), “Jeune Chopin” Festival in Cannes (2021), International A. Scriabin Festival in Moscow,(2022), “Aisa and friends” in Belgrade (2022), Puplinge Classique (2023) and “Primeurs musicales” in Geneva (2024).
In July 2024, Ekaterina was invited to take part in Verbier Festival’s Academy for emerging soloists, where she attended solo piano and chamber music masterclasses of J. Achucarro, K. Gerstein, N. Namoradze, A. Keller, and G. Takács-Nagy. She was there awarded the Tabor Foundation Award.
Apart from Verbier, at different times she has worked with Prof. Hamish Milne, Esther Yellin, Rena Shereshevskaya, Janina Fialkowska, Zlata Chochieva, Philippe Cassard.
Since 2014 Ekaterina has studied piano at the “Moscow Special Music School of Gnessin” with Evgeny Talisman and Boris Berezovsky. In September 2022, she enrolled at the Haute école de musique de Genève to complete the Bachelor piano course with Professor Nelson Goerner.
Jan Sekaci began playing the cello at age of 10 at the High School of Arts in Oradea, Romania. He went on to take part in the Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle de Gautier Capuçon for three consecutive years and is currently studying at the Barenboim-Said Academy with Frans Helmerson. Jan has attended numerous masterclasses with other renowned cellists, including, Valentin Radutiu, Romain Garioud, Raphael Pidoux, Reinhard Latzko, and Jens Peter Maintz. In 2018, he was chosen as an active participant at the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses under Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Jan won First Prize at the 2021 Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria and, as a result, made his debut at Prague’s Smetana Hall playing Dvořák’s cello concerto with the Martinů Philharmonic. Jan plays a cello made around 1850 in Naples.
João Pedro Gonçalves began playing the cello at age 12 under the mentorship of Ana Cláudia Serrão in Lisbon, later continuing his studies with Marco Pereira and Paulo Gaio Lima. João was honoured with the Maestro Silva Pereira Prize as Young Musician of the Year 2020/21 in Portugal. As a soloist, he has collaborated with the Orquestra Gulbenkian, Young Belgian Strings, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, and Orquestra Metropolitana. He is currently pursuing his studies at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel with Gary Hoffman and Jeroen Reuling, as well as at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with Jeroen Reuling. João performs on a cello crafted by Nicolas Lupot in 1804, which is on loan from the ‘Fonds de dotation Adelus’.
Paloma So has studied with Zakhar Bron since age nine. She is currently in her first year in the Harvard-New England Conservatory Dual Degree Program with Donald Weilerstein, receiving the Dean’s Scholarship and winning the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra Concerto Competition. She is also mentored by Eduard Wulfson. With multiple victories in international competitions, Paloma has performed as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Symphoniker, China Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra at venues including the Mariinsky Theater, Buckingham Palace, the Berliner Philharmonie, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.
Violinist Alexey Stychkin began his studies at Moscow’s Central Music School before continuing studies at the Conservatoire royal de Liège and the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. In the 2022/23 season, Alexey’s talent was showcased as an academy artist with the Staatskapelle Berlin, where he led the orchestra as concertmaster alongside Daniel Barenboim. He also earned the first-ever open application place on the Classeek Ambassador Programme and has received awards from competitions such as the International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Henry Vieuxtemps International Violin Competition.
German violinist Alexandra Weissbecker began her musical journey at Kazan Special Music School in Russia under the guidance of Julia Vivat, before moving on to study with Pierre Amoyal at Mozarteum University Salzburg in 2019. Currently a student of Stephan Picard at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, she has also gained valuable insights from masterclasses with musicians including Boris Kushnir and Maxim Vengerov. A laureate of several prestigious competitions, including the International Louis Spohr Competition and the Anton Rubinstein Violin Competition, Alexandra has showcased her talents with orchestras such as the Jena Philharmonic and the State Symphony Orchestra. She plays a violin by Niccolò Gagliano on loan from Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.