Paul Lewis - Piano

Paul Lewis is one of the foremost interpreters of the Central European piano repertoire, his performances and recordings of Beethoven and Schubert receiving universal critical acclaim. He was awarded CBE for his services to music, and the sincerity and depth of his musical approach have won him fans around the world.

This global popularity is reflected in the world-class orchestras with whom he works, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras. His close relationship with Boston Symphony Orchestra led to his selection as the 2020 Koussevitzky Artist at Tanglewood.

With a natural affinity for Beethoven, he took part in the BBC’s three-part documentary Being Beethoven and performed a concerto cycle at Tanglewood in summer 2022. He has performed the cycle all over the world, and was the first pianist to play the complete cycle in a single season at the BBC Proms in 2010.

Beyond many award-winning Beethoven recordings, his discography with Harmonia Mundi also demonstrates his characteristic depth of approach in Romantic repertoire such as Schumann, Mussorgsky, Brahms and Liszt.

In chamber music, Paul Lewis works closely with tenor Mark Padmore in lied recitals around the world – they have recorded three Schubert song cycles together. Between 2022 and 2024, Paul Lewis embarked on a new Schubert Piano Sonata Series where he will present the completed sonatas from the last 12 years of Schubert’s life at venues around the world. Lewis is co-Artistic Director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.

Awards: Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year; two Edison awards; three Gramophone awards; Diapason d’Or de l’Annee; South Bank Show Classical Music Award; honorary degrees from Liverpool, Edge Hill and Southampton Universities; appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

www.paullewispiano.co.uk

Bjørg Lewis - Cello

Bjørg Lewis is one of Norway’s most highly esteemed cellists.  As a soloist, she played with the Oslo Philharmonic as well as many other orchestras throughout Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Baltics.

Bjørg is a founder member of the Vertavo String Quartet, an internationally-acclaimed ensemble, which has received numerous awards including Norway’s prestigious Grieg Prize. Vertavo launched their own chamber music festival, Vertavofestivalen in 2016.

A busy performance schedule takes Bjørg throughout Europe and North America. A frequent participant in many international chamber music festivals, Bjørg was also been regularly invited to join the Nash Ensemble for Wigmore Hall concerts and tours. She was Artistic Director of the Elverum Festival in Norway from 2001- 2015 and co-Artistic Director of Midsummer Music since its inception in 2009.

Since 2018, Bjørg has held the position of Associate Professor of Cello at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. In 2024 she curated athe Academy's first ever International Cello Festival. She is frequently invited to give masterclasses and be a jury member at many international chamber music competitions

Bjørg plays on a 1748 Gennaro Gagliano cello provided for her by the Dextra Musica Foundation, previously played by Martin Lovett of the Amadeus Quartet

www.vertavo.com

Tim Horton - Piano

Tim Horton is one of the UK’s leading pianists, equally at home in solo and chamber repertoire. He is a founder member of both the Leonore Piano Trio and Ensemble 360 and has been a regular guest pianist with the Nash Ensemble. He was invited to make his solo debut at Wigmore Hall in 2016. Tim returned to Wigmore Hall in early 2021 to perform a programme of Mozart, Chopin and Szymanowski, and will be giving further solo recitals in the coming seasons. Between 2011 and 2015 Tim presented a complete Beethoven Sonata cycle at Sheffield’s Crucible Studio for Music in the Round, who invited him to return for a cycle of Schubert Sonatas 2017-2019, and a Chopin cycle which is currently underway.

Following two performances of Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle at Symphony Hall, Birmingham and the Royal Festival Hall, London in 1995, at the recommendation of Alfred Brendel, Tim was asked to give concerts with the RLPO, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.

The Leonore Piano Trio has produced seven discs for Hyperion, including the complete Parry Trios and the Piano Quartet. They have also recorded the complete Piano Trios of David Matthews for Toccata Classics.

With Ensemble 360, a mixed group of strings, wind and piano that took up residency at the Crucible Studio in Sheffield in 2005, Tim has performed to great acclaim throughout the UK and abroad.

Liza Ferschtman - Violin

To love music deeply and share that with her audience is Liza Ferschtman’s raison d’être.  A musical storyteller committed to the emotional language of every composer she interprets, the ever-widening path of her international career is as varied as the work she performs. For a musical chameleon like Liza, the romantic standard repertoire feels equally important as playing or collaborating with leading voices of our time such as Fagerlund, Zuidam, Kancheli, Lann and Wolfe. Her great affinity for Schubert and Beethoven stands right alongside a passion for the expressionistic world of the early 20th century composers. Her extensive discography lays further claim to that versatility, with music written from 1676 to 2014.

Liza has made a particular specialty of the high-wire daring of the solo violin recital. Widely known for her interpretations of Bach’s solo violin works and often performing them in one marathon concert, she is also one the few performers who dares play all the Rosary Sonatas of Biber in one performance, using a minimum of 7 different violins to do so.

As concerto soloist she performs with leading orchestras worldwide such as the BBC Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, with conductors including Ivan Fischer, Antonello Manacorda, John Storgards, Juraj Valcuha and Stephane Denève. Also in demand as a director-soloist, she works with orchestras like Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Potsdam Kammerakademie, Lapland Chamber Orchestra,Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and ORCAM Madrid.

Liza’s creativity as an artistic director, curator and collaborator has taken flight in a large dynamic range of international projects. Through her love for dance, she collaborated in creating a performance around her solo work with modern dance company LeineRoebana, which toured extensively, as well as being a frequent collaborator of the National Ballet of the Netherlands. At the young age of 27 she was named artistic director of the Delft Chamber Music Festival, and during her tenure of 14 years expanded the festival into a multi-arts annual event taking a unique place in the Dutch cultural landscape. Liza commissioned numerous new works, of which many have found a lasting place in the repertoire. Each year she also commissioned and co-created a musical theatre performance based around the festival theme. Most importantly, the festival built a broad circle of like-minded musicians and friends with whom she continues to perform on major concert stages throughout the world.

Growing up in family of professional musicians was deeply formative to the musician she became. Her first musical memories are of playing with her toys under the piano while her parents, immigrants from Russia to the Netherlands, worked on Beethoven cello sonatas, and of dancing to her sister practicing Chopin etudes. The choice of the violin might not have been all-encompassing for Liza until her early teens, but what was always very clear was her great love for music. Through the careful guidance of her teachers Alla Kim and Herman Krebbers, musical enthusiasm and instrumental expression united, resulting in her winning the Dutch National Violin competition at age 17. 

After spending some years at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she met many musicians who became lifelong collaborators, her most important teacher was David Takeno in London. Many musical mentors along the way were invaluable guides as she shaped her creative identity.  Philippe Hirschhorn, a close family friend for whom she played regularly from an early age until his untimely death, gave her essential understanding and knowledge about what can be searched for in music. Her early encounters with Nobuko Imai gave direction and a wider spectrum of possibility. Walter van Hauwe, Frans Bruggen and Anner Bylsma opened wider into the rich world of baroque music and interpretation, and Elisabeth Leonskaja shone as an example as a selfless performer. 

Next to her busy life on stage Liza is now herself much in demand as a teacher.

In 2006 Liza received the Dutch Music Prize, the highest governmental award for young musicians. In 2021 she was made Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau, a royal acknowledgment for her contribution to the Dutch cultural scene.

Berit Cardas - Violin / Viola

Berit Cardas, born in Norway in 1969, started playing the violin at the age of 8.

Studied at the Music Conservatory in Oslo, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany and at the University of Minnesota, USA.

Berit Cardas plays both the violin and the viola and is a frequently appearing as a soloist on both instruments. In her quartet, the Vertavo String Quartet she has changed back and forth between 1st, 2nd violin and viola.

Founded in 1984 and the group is still going strong, with an interesting and steady career, including regular visit to exciting festivals and great venues as the Wigmore Hall, London, Carnegie Hall, NY and the Amsterdam Concertgebow.  For their 35 anniversary they did a complete cycle of Haydn string quartets together with friends and colleagues in one 27 hour long marathon concert! As a member of the quartet she has won the Grieg Prize, the Nordic Chamber Music Competition and most importantly, the 1st prize, the Audience Prize and the Radio listeners Prize at the 2nd Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 1995.
Berit Cardas is part of the artistic board in Oslo Quartet Series and she plans and runs two twinned chamber music festivals in Norway.

She is an active chamber music teacher and the workshops she does combining her background in theater improvisation and chamber music has become very popular.

Berit Cardas is also a sought after leader of chamber orchestras with her original and uncompromising view on music making. 

Orchestral conducting is the latest experience for Cardas, she has studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music and at the University in Stavanger and been to several master classes around Europe. Latest  season engagements as a conductor include the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic orchestra, Arctic Philharmonic and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Berit Cardas plays a Lorenzo Storioni violin (1770) gererously lent to her by the Norwegian Dextra Musica foundation.

Claudia Ajmone-Marsan - Violin

Claudia Ajmone-Marsan is a member of Ensemble 360 who have recently been nominated for the Royal Philharmonic Society Award 2023. The ensemble perform chamber music all over the UK including at the Wigmore Hall, Crucible Theatre Sheffield, The Bath and Aldeburgh festivals and feature regularly on BBC Radio 3. They have given regular workshops at Huddersfield, Sheffield and Nottingham Universities. 

Claudia is also a member of Camerata Bern, Switzerland, who were awarded the BBC Music Magazine award in 2022 for their CD recording Plaisirs Illuminées. 

Always active as a chamber musician, Claudia has taken part in international festivals all over the world and has played regularly in orchestras such as the Royal Opera House London, Mahler Chamber Orchestra,  Staatskapelle Berlin, the Royal Danish Orchestra and the Philharmonia in London.

As a soloist, she has performed with the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, Kammerphilharmonie Amadé and Copenhagen Chamber soloists. 

Claudia has recorded a CD with pianist Tanya Bannister, which was selected on ArtsBeat as the “Pick of the Week” by the New York Times.

Originally a founding faculty member, Claudia is now co-artistic director of Alpenkammermusik in Austria, where she coaches and plays alongside both amateur and pre-professional musicians.

Claudia studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Manhattan School of Music and Oberlin Conservatory where she received her Bachelor of Music degree. She completed her postgraduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.

Nicholas Bootiman - Viola

Nicholas Bootiman enjoys a dual career as conductor and violist, having recently been appointed principal violist of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Prior to this, he held a principal position with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London for over a decade. Alongside his orchestral posts he is in high demand as a guest principal with many orchestras in the UK and abroad. Nicholas studied at the Royal College of Music in London with further studies taking him to Prague and New England Conservatory in Boston, with Milan Skampa and Kim Kashkashian respectively. As a conductor, Nicholas has assisted Jérémie Rhorer on major opera productions at Aix-en-Provence Festival, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, and is co-founder and Artistic Director of Echor Music, a groundbreaking new chamber orchestra and arts charity based in the Chiltern Hills.

Giovanni Gnocchi - Cello

The Salzburg-based Italian cellist Giovanni Gnocchi has established himself as one of the most interesting personalities of his generation, with an international activity both as a soloist and refined chamber player.

He made his debut as soloist at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in a concert together with Yo-Yo Ma, who said: “a wonderfully talended cellist, who will make a valuable contribution to music wherever he goes”.

He performed as a soloist under the baton of some of the most prestigious conductors of the international scene, like Gustavo Dudamel, Christopher Hogwood, Carlo Rizzi, Pavle Despalj, Michele Spotti, Daniele Agiman, Enrico Bronzi, Daniele Giorgi, Daniel Cohen, at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Wiener Konzerthaus, Mozart-Woche in the Großer Saal of Mozarteum in Salzburg, Essen Philharmonie, Kurhaus Wiesbaden, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Rosengarten Mannheim and many more.

In these years he has been playing as a soloist orchestras like the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Orchestra della Toscana of Florence, Filarmonica of Teatro La Fenice in Venezia, performing the most important cello concertos, including Dvořák, Schumann, Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, Boccherini Concertos, both Haydn’s, Beethoven Triple, Brahms Double, in Salzburg and in England, and also Friedrich Gulda’s Concerto for cello and Big Band. Very recently he made his debut as soloist at the prestigious Beethovenfest of Bonn with Orchestra da Camera di Mantova, being immediately invited again by the orchestra for further soloist appearances.

The next season includes his debut with Sinfonia Concertante op. 125 by Prokofiev, Schumann Concerto op. 129 with Daniele Agiman and Orchestra Rossini of Pesaro, debut at Festival Stradivari of Cremona with OTOOrchestra del Teatro Olimpico of Vicenza conducted by Alexander Lonquich, at Amici della Musica di Firenze in the role of soloist and conductor of OGI-Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, concerts in trio with Marco Rizzi and Roberto Cominati and some recitals in duo with Andrea Lucchesini.

Winner of the 1st Prize in the “F. J. Haydn” Competition of Vienna, of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship of London (both with David Trio), he was laureate in the Prague Spring Cello Competition, A. Janigro Competition of Zagreb, and in duo at the Parkhouse Award of London at the Wigmore Hall. Passionate chamber player, he regularly appears together with partners like Leonidas Kavakos, the Hagen Quartet’s members, Elizabeth Leonskaja, Liza Ferschtman, Elizabeth Leonskaja, Pekka Kuusisto, Alena Baeva, Gordan Nikolic, Roman Simovic, Andrea Lucchesini, Alasdair Beatson, Oliver Triendl, Vadym Kholodenko, Cristian Budu, Itamar Golan, Esther Hoppe, Yura Lee, Marco Rizzi, Danilo Rossi, Jens-Peter Maintz, Wolfram Christ, Diemut Poppen, Herbert Schuch, Pavel Gililov.

He played at the Casals Festival a Prades, Verbier Festival, Septembre Musical Montreux-Vevey, Festival Radio-France-Montepellier, Haydn Festspiele in Eisenstadt and he’s regularly invited by Steven Isserlis at Open Chamber Music Festival in Prussia Cove in Cornwall.

He has been playing in duo and trio with Alexander Lonquich and Ilya Gringolts, he made his debut at the Lucerne Festival in trio with Olli Mustonen and Alessandro Carbonare, played in chamber music tours in Italy with Leonidas Kavakos and in Holland with Liza Ferschtman, played in Japan in the inauguration of the new Ark-Nova Concert Hall,, soloist at Teatro Regio of Parma with Mario Brunello, and he’s been invited to Ljubljana Cello Fest in Slovenia, Ilumina Festival in Brazil, Järna Music Festival in Sweden, Delft Music Festival in Holland, KotorArt Festival in Montenegro, Festival Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland.

His solo and chamber music performances have been broadcasted by RAI-Radio3, ORF-1 Austria, RTVSRádio Slovensko, Bayerische Rundfunk 4-Klassik and NPO-Radio4 in Olanda. He recorded solo and chamber music projects for Deutsche Grammophone, Stradivarius and for the University Mozarteum.

Giovanni has been Solo-Cellist of Camerata Salzburg for 8 years, Guest Principal Cellist in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London with Daniele Gatti, guest principal in the Münchner Philharmoniker, Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Harding, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Orchestra Mozart with Claudio Abbado and co-principal cellist in the London Symphony with Valery Gergiev, Since 2008 he has been member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, playing with Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink and Andris Nelsons.

In 2012 he has been appointed Univ. Professor of Violoncello at the Universität Mozarteum of Salzburg. Giovanni si é diplomato con lode al Conservatorio “F. Venezze” di Rovigo sotto la guida di Luca Simoncini, studiando poi con Mario Brunello, Rocco Filippini, Enrico Bronzi, Natalia Gutman, David Geringas, Steven Isserlis, Clemens Hagen, Heinrich Schiff, Ferenc Rados e Sir András Schiff.

Born in Cremona, he studied with Luca Simoncini, Mario Brunello, Rocco Filippini, Enrico Bronzi, Natalia Gutman, David Geringas, Steven Isserlis, Clemens Hagen, Heinrich Schiff, Ferenc Rados and Sir András Schiff.