Bettina Schimmer

The Paris based Quatuor Modigliani, which was founded in 2003, is a regular guest of the world’s top venues and finest String Quartet & Chamber Music series.

The Molyvos International Music Festival (MIMF) is a unique project in the North Aegean region that brings together the greatest international young talents for a four-day celebration of world- class classical music. The motto of the 2019 edition was "Dia-logos".

Hailed by Gramophone Magazine as "one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists", German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras. His latest recordings include the concertos by Dvořák, Lalo, Elgar and Tchaikovsky, which have gained him the prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d'Or. Johannes Moser records exclusively for the label PENTATONE.

As a conductor, Alejo Pérez possesses an inherent stylistic awareness and the ability to bring every detail of the most complex score to life. This has consistently secured him a firm place on the international opera and concert scene. Since the 2019/20 season, Alejo Pérez is Music Director of the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.

In 2019 Theo Plath was appointed principal bassoon player of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and won 3rd Prize at the ARD Competition in Munich. In 2019 he recorded a solo CD with the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, due for release on the Genuin classics label in 2020. In May 2021 his second album with works for bassoon and piano will be released on the label CAvi with works by Saint-Saëns, Boulanger, Debussy und Franck.

As an international award-winning violinist, graduated conductor, chamber musician and former concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic, he persuades audiences today both as a soloist and on the conductor’s podium with his affinity for various genres and repertoires and is therefore considered one of the most versatile artists of his generation. In 2021 Fedor Rudin released his album "Heritage" with the pianist Boris Kusnezow on Orchid Classics. The program includes works written by composers of different generations in the middle of the last century - Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich and his known grandfather Edison Denisov. The listener will find well-known, regularly performed works, among previously unperformed and even unpublished works.

What happens when a pianist specialising in contemporary classical music joins three avantgarde musicians and they compose in real time? When modern piano pieces are structurally thought ahead and hence played by a trio with vibraphone, drums and bass?

The three brothers Mark, Erik and Ken Schumann have been playing together since their earliest childhood – meanwhile violist Veit Hertenstein completes the quartet. Those who experience the quartet in performance often remark on the strong connection between its members. The four musicians enjoy the way they communicate without words: how a single look suffices to convey how a particular member wants to play a particular passage. Although the individual personalities clearly manifest themselves, a common space arises in every musical work in a process of spiritual metamorphosis.

Miroslav Srnka's international breakthrough came in 2016 when his opera "South Pole" was premiered at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich under Kirill Petrenko, in a production by Hans Neuenfels that featured Rolando Villazón and Thomas Hampson in the title roles. Several of Srnka's works will be premiered in the season 2022/23: The Berliner Philharmoniker will perform the orchestral work "Superorganisms" for the first time conducted by Kirill Petrenko in February 2023, before it has its Asian premiere in Tokyo with the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Wigglesworth in June 2023.

Intelligent clarity and an in-depth and always curious musicality characterize Markus Stenz' work. Worldwide much valued, he has held a number of high-profile positions with international orchestras and opera houses including Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (2012-2019), Principal Guest of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (2015-2019), Conductor-In-Residence of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (2016-2019). He was General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister for 11 years.

The South Korean conductor Shiyeon Sung is a real trailblazer of her profession. She is the first female conductor out of South Korea to make the leap to the podium of internationally renowned orchestras, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Bamberg and the Nuremberg Symphony.

After digital issues necessary due to the pandemic, the Ohrknacker series is now continuing in 2022 again with live concerts in Hamburg (Residenzraum) and Berlin (Radialsystem). The new season started with igualito, igualito, igualito (2018) by thee Uruguayan composer Vladimir Guicheff Bogacz on 4th and 5th October 2021. In 2022 the first events were on 1st February in Hamburg (Resonanzraum) and on 2nd February in Berlin. The piece of music in focus: whirl and pendulum (2021) by Matthias Kranebitter.

Belgian clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe is forging a reputation as one of the most exciting and original clarinettists of her generation, captivating audiences with her expressive, intense and lyrical performances. A former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Annelien has won numerous international competitions. Her debut album Belle époque with the Orchestre National de Lille conducted by Alexandre Bloch was released in 2019 on Pentatone. She is the co-founder of Brussels-based CAROUSEL Chamber Music Ensemble.

Sarah Wegener approaches every role with captivating intensity. She has enthralled listeners with the warmth and richness of her voice in performances such as Strauss’ Orchestral songs under Mariss Jansons and Vladimir Jurowski in Munich, London, and Hamburg, Mahler’s 8th Symphony under Kirill Petrenko in Bregenz, Eliahu Inbal in Hamburg, and Kent Nagano in Montreal, as well as in her War and Peace programme shaped around works by Handel and Purcell, which she also presented at the Schwetzingen SWR Festival. Her “marvellously radiant voice, as powerful as it is rich in colour” (FAZ) distinguishes her as a lieder singer of the highest order, as illustrated on her highly praised CDs "Into the Deepest Sea" and "Zueignung". A recording of songs arranged by B.A. Zimmermann with the WDR Symphony Orchestra is due to be released at WERGO in October 2022.

Brimful of energy, Antje Weithaas’ brings her compelling musical intelligence and technical mastery to every detail of the music. Her charisma and stage presence are captivating, but never overshadow the works themselves.

The ensemble was founded by young musicians in Augsburg in 1990. It is characterised by the strong integration and artistic energy of each one of its members, as expressed in its expert playing without a conductor, and by its unusual concert programmes. In 2022 an album with the complete works for string orchestra by the Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim will be released on CAvi-music, followed by tours in July and October 2022 and an education programme.