Greta Benini, originally from Ravenna, Italy, is musical director of the Master Opera Programme at Musik- und Kunstuniversität MUK, Vienna

As pianist, she graduated with distinction from the Ravenna Conservatory. She continued her studies in Piano and Chamber Music at the Accademia Internazionale in Florence and the Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola. She also obtained an EU-sponsored Diploma in Piano-Didactics, studying with Piernarciso Masi, Alexander Lonquich, Konstantin Bogino, Boris Petrushanski, Franco Scala, and Riccardo Risaliti.

Since 1999, Greta Benini has been based in Vienna, where she specialized as a solo pianist at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. Additionally, she pursued studies in Lied and Oratorium Accompaniment at the Vienna Conservatory. Significant milestones in her career as a collaborative pianist include extensive, long-term collaborations with Paul Hamburger (Lied and Oratorium) and the renowned Italian coach Ubaldo Gardini (Covent Garden, London).

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Jörg studied conducting with Sergiu Celibidache, Constantin Bugeanu and Jorma Panula. Further important impulses he received through the conducting school of Viennese legend Hans Swarowsky. He also studied Viola with Berta Volmer and Reiner Schmidt.

Besides the symphonic standard repertoire, his passion and dedication belongs to the symphonic œuvre from Haydn to the 20th century and the operas of Mozart and the forgotten and forbidden symphonists, like Egon Wellesz.

As a sought-after conducting teacher he has recently published his fundamental study "The Observation of Form" read on...

Ukrainian pianist Dmytro Choni is internationally recognised for his technically impeccable pianism, stupendous virtuosity, clarity of articulation and finest sensitivity. In recent years he garnered international attention by winning numerous top prizes and awards, including the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021, the Bösendorfer USASU in 2019 and the Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition in 2018. Notwithstanding these achievements, Dmytro says: “Being successful for me means to continuously grow as a musician and as a person, and not to stop searching for the truth in music. In my opinion, the most important aspect would be to love the music with all your heart.”

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Severin von Eckardstein, one of the leading German pianists of his generation, has an already lengthy record of solo concerts and concerto performances on major stages around the world. Since 2023 he is professor for piano and piano chamber music at the “Hochschule für Musik und Tanz” in Cologne.

He has performed with orchestras such as Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, NHK Orchestra or the Mariinsky Orchestra, and conductors such as Paavo Järvi, Jaap Van Zweeden, Philippe Herreweghe, Marek Janowski and Valery Gergiev.

As a frequent guest of the concert series “Meesterpianisten” at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, von Eckardstein opened the gala concert celebrating the series’ 25th anniversary in 2012. In 2020 he was reinvited to this extraordinary series for the 8th time. He appears regularly at the Klavier Festival Ruhr, Germany.

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Austrian born violinist Univ.-Prof. David Frühwirth has already made quite a name for himself in the international music scene.

He is a passionate teacher and gives since 20 years regular Master Classes for violin, chamber music and lectures in Europe, South America and Asia.  He holds a professorship for violin at the Vienna University for Music and Art – mdw.

At an early age David Frühwirth enrolled at the Salzburg “Mozarteum” University where he studied with the legendary Ruggiero Ricci. He then continued his studies in Germany with the Zakhar Bron.

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Since 2002 Eszter Haffner has been Professor of Violin at the KUG University of Music Graz, Austria and since 2010 also at the Royal Academy of Music Copenhagen, Denmark. As a guest professor she taught regularly at Royal College London, Lisz Academy Budapest, Aurora Stockholm, Sibelius Academy Helsinki, etc. Eszter Haffner was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1969. She studied for 13 years in the Gifted Musician Class at the Budapest Liszt Ferenc Music Academy with Andras Kiss, Ferenc Rados and György Kurtag. After the completion of her studies in Hungary, she came to the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria to study with Gerhard Schulz ( Alban Berg Quartet ) and Josef Sivo. She received her Diploma with unanimous distinction and prize from the Department of Culture Vienna.

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The British pianist Martin Hughes made his first appearance at London’s Wigmore Hall at the age of twelve. At sixteen he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in the class of Yvonne Lefébure. At eighteen he made his debut at the Salle Gaveau, Paris and on BBC radio. He went on to study at the Moscow Conservatory with Lev Oborin, and worked also in Aldeburgh with Benjamin Britten and in Positano with Wilhelm Kempff. There followed tours to the USA, the USSR, Europe and Israel, together with invitations to many of Europe’s broadcasting networks, and appearances with major orchestras.

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Born in London into a musical family, cellist Vashti Hunter is currently based in Berlin and enjoys a versatile career as a soloist and chamber musician, being invited regularly to play in some of the world’s leading music festivals and concert halls. She is the first British cellist ever to be awarded a prize at the International Cello Competition ‘Prague Spring’ in its 65 year history.

Vashti studied in London and Hannover for many years with Leonid Gorokhov and later in Berlin with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. A very important influence is the cellist Steven Isserlis, with whom she studied with regularly at IMS Prussia Cove. Her chamber music teachers include Hatto Beyerle, Ferenc Rados, the late Rita Wagner and Gyorgy Kurtag.

Vashti was recently appointed professor of cello at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, Austria, and also holds a teaching position for cello master students at the University in Hannover. Along with the other members of Trio Gaspard, Vashti is guest chamber music professor at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy, on invitation from pianist Alexander Lonquich.

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Roberta Invernizzi was born in Milan and was first a pianist and double bass player before studying singing under the tutelage of Margaret Heyward.

She went on to specialize in baroque and classical repertoire and is now one of the most sought after soloists in the field of baroque and classical music and is teaching Baroque and Renaissance singing at the B. Maderna Conservatory in Cesena (Italy) and at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien.

She has sung in many of the most important theatres in Europe and the United States, working with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Claudio Abbado, Ivor Bolton, Ton Koopman, Gustav Leonhardt, Franz Brüggen, Jordi Savall, Alan Curtis, Giovanni Antonini, Fabio Biondi, Antonio Florio, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Ottavio Dantone and collaborating regularly with ensembles like: Concentus Musicus Wien, Orchestra Mozart, Accademia Bizantina, Il Giardino Armonico, Cappella de la Pieta dei Turchini, Concerto Italiano, Europa Galante, Ensemble Matheus, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Barocchisti etc..

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Vladimir Kharin began his musical education at the age of 6 years at the central music special school of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory for especially gifted children. He gave his first piano recital at the age of eleven and made his orchestra debut at the age of 13. He then studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Jevgeni Malinin and Lev Naumov (both students of Heinrich Neuhaus), which he graduated with distinction.

Further study and “Konzertexamen” (also with distinction) with Michael Roll and Boris Bloch at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen in Germany, as well as master classes with Vitaly Margulis, Oleg Maisenberg and Dmitri Bashkirov.

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Born in 1962, Kirschnereit has been performing on the stages of Germany and other European countries as well as the Americas and East Asia for more than three decades. He works in close collaboration with the Camerata Salzburg, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Münchener Kammerorchester and the New City Philharmonic Orchestra Tokyo, and the number of orchestras is continually growing. In the future, he will debut with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. Among his chamber music partners are the violinists Christian Tetzlaff and Lena Neudauer, the horn player Felix Klieser, the clarinetist Sharon Kam, the Cellist Daniel Müller-Schott as well as the Minguet Quartet and the Amaryllis Quartet.

For many years now, he has been sharing his experience and convictions as a professor at HTM, the Rostock University of Music and Drama, with the next generation of musicians.

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Raquele Magalhães is a most versatile artist with a passion for chamber music, for orchestra playing and for flute teaching. She deploys her musical sensibility in classical music as well as in improvisation, and also in interdisciplinary performances inviting painting or theatre on stage.

She holds a CA degree in pedagogy and a competitive examination for the Civil Service. She worked with composers Hugues Dufourt and Jérôme Combier on her research thesis: "Musical interpretation: the contribution of the plastic arts". She currently teaches at the CRR in Strasbourg in Strasbourg and at the Académie Internationale de Musique de Flaine.

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Svetlana Makarova is Professor for violin at Haute Ecole de la Musique in Lausanne. She started to play violin at the age of 5 in the class of Ludmila Egorova. At the age of 10 she won the first prize at Moscow International Youth Tchaikovsky Competition.

Hereafter she won different prizes at numerous state and international competitions. In 2008 Svetlana finished her postgraduated studies at Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with professor M. Glezarova. Read on ...

Since his sensational success at the Vienna Beethoven Piano Competition in 1985, Hamburg-born pianist Stephan Möller has made a reputation worldwide as a pioneering Beethoven interpreter. His repertoire includes all five piano concertos and 32 piano sonatas by this composer, which he has also performed in complete cycles. His concert activities have taken him to many countries in Europe, North and South America, Japan, Korea and China.

Stephan Möller completed his training as a pianist and conductor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. From 1983-89 he was artistic assistant to Herbert von Karajans at the Salzburg Festival. Since 1990 Stephan Möller has taught as professor for piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

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Born in 1994, Edgar Moreau is a Prizewinner at the 2009 Rostropovich competition, 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition and winner of the 2014 Young Concert Artist Award. He took up his studies with Philippe Muller at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and continued at the Kronberg Academy under the guidance of Frans Helmerson. At the age of 11, he made his debut with the Teatro Regio Orchestra in Torino, playing Dvorak’s cello concerto.

From September 2023, Edgar has been appointed Cello Professor at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur. Read on...

Pascal Nemirovski is recognized as one of the most sought-after piano pedagogues in the world, with many of his students winning top international prizes (Tchaikovsky (Moscow), Leeds, Busoni, Ettlingen, Dublin, Sydney, Hastings, Casagrande, Piano Campus International Piano Competition, YCA New York, YCAT London, BBC New Generation Artist…) and are now successful recording artists represented by major Concert Artist Management companies (IMG, Harrison Parrott, Askonas Holt, Intermusica…). Among them Lise de la Salle, Louis Schwizgebel, Daniel Lebhardt, Mario Mora, Roman Kosyakov, Emanuil Ivanov, George Harliono, Edward Leung, Yi Zhong ...

​He studied at the Juilliard School with Nadia Reisenberg and Adele Marcus from 1981 to 1984 on a full scholarship (Steinway & Freundlich Fund). Then he continued his studies in Paris with France Clidat and Alexis Weissenberg and started to give concerts and masterclasses in Europe, read on ...

Without doubt, Miklós Perényi can be considered being one of the greatest living artists on his instrument.

He studied with Pablo Casals, Miklós Zsamboki, Enrico Mainardi and Ede Banda. In 1963 Miklós Perényi won the Pablo Casals International Cello Competition in Budapest.

Since 1974 he has been teaching at the Budapest Franz Liszt Academy, since 1980 as a professor. He was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 1980 and the Bartòk-Pasztory Prize in 1987 for his musical achievements. His career as a soloist continues to bring him to all the great music centres of the world and to numerous international music festivals. Read on ...

Ewa Pobłocka is a prize-winner of the 10^th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1980), where she also won the prize for the best performance of mazurkas. She won First Prize in the International Viotti Music Competition in Vercelli (1977) and the gold medal in the International Festival of Young Laureates in Bordeaux (1979).

Ewa Pobłocka has performed throughout Europe and the Americas, as well as in China, Indonesia, the RSA, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Australia, in such venues as the Herkules-Saal in Munich, Musikhalle in Hamburg, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, Kyoi Hall in Tokyo, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Barbican Centre and Wigmore Hall in London, Musikverein in Vienna, Lincoln Center in New York, Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto and Sala Cecília Meireles in Rio De Janeiro, among many others. She has played as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Bayerischers Rundfunkorchester, Sinfonia Varsovia and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

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Henja Semmler received her education from Rainer Kussmaul, Gerhard Schulz and Thomas Brandis, among others.

With the Oberon Trio founded by her in 2006 and with partners such as Tabea Zimmermann, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Jens-Peter Maintz, Jörg Widmann, Ian Bostridge and Christoph Prégardien, she has performed at Musikfest Berlin, Rheingau Musikfestival, Heidelberger Frühling, Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Beethoven-Woche Bonn, Herbstgold-Festival Eisenstadt and Lucerne Festival read on ...

Snežana Stamenković was born in Belgrade and completed her vocal studies at the University of Arts Belgrade with KS Prof. Biserka Cvejić. After her studies she received the Danica Mastilović award and the Bahrija Nuri-Hadžić (Alban Berg’s very first Lulù) award as the most talented singing graduate and began her vocal pedagogic career as an assistant to her teacher at the University of the Arts in Belgrade.

Her students are prizewinners at ‘Montreal Music Competition’ (2018), ‘Queen Sonja International Voice Competition’ (2017), ‘Maria Callas’ Voice Competition (2017), ‘Concours International de Chant Marmande’, International Singing Competition ‘Feruccio Tagliavini’, International Voice Competition ‘Hariclea Darclee’, ‘Concorso Internationale per Canti Lirici Alcamo’, “Grandi Voci” Salzburg Opera Singing Competition and won engagements at Metropolitan Opera (Lindemann Young Singers Programm), La Scala di Milano (Academia della Scala di Milano), Opera Zurich, Opera Köln, Opera Graz, Nationaltheater Mannheim and Opera Strassbourg. Read on ...

The Austrian soprano Sandra Trattnigg is one of the most important representatives of her generation for Opera, Songs and Oratorio. She was discovered by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and worked as an ensemble member at the Zurich Opera House and had a great international career.

The artist can be heard on several recordings and films released by Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and SONY Classics. Sandra Trattnigg is the founder of the very successful international training program THEMASTERCLASS ZURICH I VIENNA and is invited as a guest professor and at several music universities in Switzerland (Zürich I Luzern I Bern). Read on...

Executive Director and Founder of the International School of the Voice, Soprano, former President of the Executive Board of Directors of Joy In Singing, the Art Song Institute, and a Voice Faculty member of The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Elizabeth De Trejo is trailblazing a new path in the sphere of classical voice, and through the International School of the Voice, is revolutionizing the way the art form is taught.

Ms. De Trejo made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Berg’s Lulu; and her career has given her the opportunity to perform the roles of Norma, Violetta, Lucia di Lammermoor, Donna Anna, Gilda, Marguerite, Fiordiligi, Die Königin die Nacht, Adina, Poppea, Juliette, Musetta, Giulietta, and Cleopatra, and the role of Rosina in Anton Coppola’s epic opera, Sacco and Vanzetti; for which an aria was composed for her. Read on...

Born in Odessa, Pavel Vernikov studied with David Oistrach and Semjon Snitkowsky. For more than 20 years he has been performing as a soloist and as a chamber musician – i.e. with the Tchaikovsky Trio – on Europe’s and America’s most notable stages, such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Salle Gaveau, La Scala di Milano and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. Read on ...

Claudia Visca graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She was a Fulbright Scholar to Vienna, specializing in the vocal works of Mozart.Over the past 26 years she has guested in more than 25 opera houses of Europe (including those in the cities of Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, Geneva, Munich, Salzburg, Zurich) and has sung 2000 performances in over 75 operatic, operetta and musical roles. Read on ...

Born into a family of musicians in Kiev, Wladislav Winokurow received his first musical education from his father at the age of five. Intensive musical training with Alexander Panov, Avanes Buludian and Isaak Kuschnir followed his attendance of the Special Musical College for Gifted Children. He debuted as a soloist at the age of ten with the Kiev Chamber Orchestra. He continued his studies in Vienna with Eugenia Polatschek and later at the Vienna University of Music and Dramatic Arts under Gernot Winischhofer and Boris Kuschnir read on...