Jordi Carrasco Hjelm is a Swedish classical double bass player working with chamber music and improvisation. He studied classical double bass with Rick Stotijn and Olivier Thiery and finished his studies in Conservatorium van Amsterdam with a Masters degree in improvisation studying with the jazz violinist Tim Kliphuis. He lives in the Netherlands where he is a core member of the Asko Schönberg Ensemble who are a leading ensemble in the field of contemporary music. As a passionate advocate for free improvisation on stages for classical music and for chamber music as an inherently improvisational form he has performed in many European chamber music festivals such as the Oxford Chamber Music Festival, Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht, Felix! Festival Köln, Ghent Festival, Miesbach Kammermusik festival, KMF Eibergen, KMF Sylt and most notably as a regular guest in Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland.

One of the most versatile and original cellists of his generation, Adrian Brendel has travelled the world as soloist, collaborator and teacher. His early immersion in the core classical repertoire inspired an enduring fascination that has led to encounters with many fine musicians at the world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls. His discovery of contemporary music through the works of Kurtag, Kagel and Ligeti in his teenage years opened a new and vital avenue that he continues to explore with huge enthusiasm alongside his passion for jazz and world music. In 2014 he became a member of the Nash Ensemble of London.

Projects with contemporary composers and conductors such as Kurtág, Thomas Adès and Peter Eötvös among others inspired him to cultivate new music in his concert programmes wherever possible. A three-year project with Sir Harrison Birtwistle led to premieres of his song cycle Bogenstrich and a piano trio released on the ECM label. He also premiered York Hoeller’s cello concerto Mouvements with NDR Hamburg alongside Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Canto di Speranza.

Tetiana Lutsyk, the violinist with a broad musical spectrum as a chamber musician, soloist, orchestral musician and teacher studied with Prof. Sergey Evdokimov in Kharkiv and Prof. Mariya Futorska in Ukraine as well as with Prof. Leonid Sorokow in Zagreb and Prof. Priya Mitchell in Graz. She is the Prizewinner of many international competitions and has performed as a soloist with renowned orchestras, including the RTVE Symphony Orchestra Madrid, Orquestra de València, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Lviv Chamber Orchestra, Ivano-Frankivsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Girardi Ensemble. Tetiana Lutsyk has been concertmaster of the Liechtenstein Symphony Orchestra since 2021. Tetiana has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at many renowned international music festivals such as the Oxford Chamber Music Festival.

First Prize and Commission Prize winners at the Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition 2023, the Kleio Quartet are quickly establishing themselves as an internationally-recognised quartet. They formed at the Seiji Ozawa International Chamber Academy in 2019 and consist of Juliette Roos (violin), Katherine Yoon (violin), Yume Fujise (viola) and Eliza Millett (cello). They have performed in major international venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Victoria Hall, Cadogan Hall, Royal Festival Hall, the DR Koncerthuset, the Black Diamond in Copenhagen and many others.

The Kleio Quartet are delighted to join the BBC New Generation Artists scheme from September 2024- 26. The quartet have recently been appointed as the resident quartet for the Royal Northern College of Music’s String Quartet Studio. They are grateful for the ongoing support of Le Dimore del Quartetto from whom they received the ‘Ensemble of the Year’ (2024, IT) and most recently,  received the Freiburg and Walburger Prizes at the Jeunesses Musicales International course in Weikersheim (2024, GE).

They have held a residency as Britten-Pears Young Artists in Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh and continue a series of residencies hosted by the Strijkkwartet Biënnale Amsterdam from 2023-2025 and at ProQuartet – Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre for the season 2023/24. They have been selected both for the Tunnell Trust’s Music Club Awards Scheme 2022/23 and as Kirckman Concert Society Young Artists for 2023/24. They have also been selected to join the MERITA platform from 2023-2025, and hold the Hattori Foundation Senior Award.

Recent performance highlights include debuts at the Edinburgh International Festival, London’s Kings Place, and appearances at the North Norfolk Music Festival. Upcoming highlights of their 2024-25 season include a Danish Tour and appearances at La Schubertiade de Sceaux (FR), Frederiskværk Festival (DR) and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (GE) alongside cellist Eckart Runge and pianist Jacques Ammon.

The Kleio Quartet is particularly grateful to have received support and mentorship from Eckart Runge, John Myerscough (Doric Quartet), and Steffan Morris (Castalian Quartet). They have also received coaching from internationally-renowned chamber musicians Sadao Harada, Nobuko Imai, Heime Müller, Kirill Gerstein, Kronos Quartet, Cuarteto Casals, Pamela Frank, Simon Rowland-Jones, György Kurtág and Oliver Wille. The quartet continue their studies at the Hochschule für Robert Schumann in Düsseldorf with their mentor Eckart Runge.

Israeli born flutist Roy Amotz has established himself as a soloist and in the chamber music field worldwide, and performs with leading ensembles and orchestras. His repertoire ranges from early Baroque to contemporary music.

He has played under the baton of conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Harding and Christoph von Dohnanny, and participated in festivals such as the International Chamber Music Festival in Jerusalem, the Verbier Festival and the Lucerne Festival. Solo performances with orchestras include the Verbier Festival Orchestra, BBC Scotland Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Geneva Camerata.

Mr. Amotz has won first prizes from the International Flute Competition in Volos, Greece and the Pergamenschikow International Chamber Music Competition, Berlin. Scholarships include the America Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship for soloists, the Varon Foundation, Hindemith Foundation Berlin, and the LBBW Grant for promising talents.

Since 2005 he has been a principal player of the Verbier Festival Orchestra with which he toured Europe, Asia, Australia and South America, and since 2013 he is the solo flutist of the Geneva Camerata Orchestra – a new innovative ensemble that performs music of all periods and styles, from early baroque all the way to contemporary music.

As an avid promoter of contemporary classical music composed by the younger generation, Mr Amotz has collaborated with numerous composers and commissioned pieces for solo flute as well as flute concerti and chamber music. He is a member of the acclaimed Meitar Ensemble for contemporary music, with which he toured Europe, USA and Canada, performing in venues such as the Purcell Room London, Centre Pompidou Paris, Venice Biennale, Radial System V Berlin, Moscow Conservatory Hall and the Heidelberger Frühling Festival to name a few.

His teachers include Vladimir Silva, Avner Biron, Yossi Arnheim, Jean-Claude Gérard, Christoph Huntgeburth and Roswitha Staege, with whom he studied at the Berlin University of Arts where he graduated with high honors.

In September 2017 Roy created a new music series, aiming to bring classical music to wider audiences, creating a transformative experience for audience and performers alike: “Music and Beyond”. The first project in this framework is called Fantasies, and integrates the art of cooking and music into one whole, aiming to explore our senses without the domination of the visual engagement.

Annette Walther studied in Düsseldorf, Essen and London with Ida Bieler, Vesselin Parschkevov and David Takeno. She is a founding member of the internationally renowned Signum Quartet. The group has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus Vienna, the Wigmore Hall and at the BBC Proms. Their recent Schubert recording, released in March 2018, has received international critical acclaim, winning the September 2018 Diapason d’Or. In addition to her career with the Signum, Annette regularly performs at festivals including the Musikfestspielen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival. She also played  in the Figure Humaine, choreographed by Sasha Waltz for the inauguration of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. A passionate teacher of music, in 2016 Annette was appointed violin lecturer at the Music Academy in Kassel.

Chilean-Swedish mezzo soprano Luciana Mancini is internationally in demand for her intense stage presence and vocal expressiveness in repertoire that spans from the Renaissance and Baroque to Berio and Piazzolla.

This season 2024-25 sees her return to MusikTheater an der Wien to reprise her signature role of Maria in Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires and to appear in Combattimenti, a new pastiche with music by Monteverdi. She will perform Messagiera/Orfeo with Christina Pluhar at Mozartwochen Salzburg and Ottavia/Virtù in the acclaimed Ted Huffman’s production of L’incoronazine di Poppea with Nederlandse Reisopera. With Le Poème Harmonique she will appear as Nerone/L’incoronazione di Poppea in Bogotà. In concert she will perform various programs with Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata throughout Europe and Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with Collegium 1704 and Vaclav Luks.

In recent seasons she performed the title roles of La Cenerentola, Handel’s Serse and Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires at Theater Bonn, Melissa in Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione at Theater an der Wien and was part of Sasha Waltz’ productions of Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Other opera engagements have led her to Staatsoper Berlin, Teatro Real Madrid, Opéra Comique Paris, Drottningholm Festival, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Grand Théâtre deLuxembourg, Opera de Lille, Bergen, Nationale Reisopera and Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon in roles such as Annio/La Clemenza di Tito, Proserpina/Euridice/Musica/Messagiera in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Zaida in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia, Ottavia/Virtù in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Panthalis/Mefistofele, Volupia and Didone in Cavalli’s Egisto. With the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer she appeared in various concert and opera projects, featuring works by Monteverdi and Ravel.

Equally sought after in concert, Luciana Mancini has worked with conductors such as Pablo Heras-Casado, Raphaël Pichon, Jordi Savall, René Jacobs, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Jan Willem de Vriend and Juanjo Mena and performed with ensembles like the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester, Bergen Philharmonic, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Bachconsort Wien, Ensemble Pygmalion, Il Pomo d’Oro, O/Modernt, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Les nouveaux Charactères, Residentie Orkest and Noord Nederlands Orkest at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Händelfestspiele Halle, Musikfestspiele Sansoucci Potsdam, Festivals Chaise-Dieu and Sablé et al.

Most recent releases of her extensive discography include Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans with Ensemble Lorenzo da Ponte and Roberto Zarpellon and Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires with Beethovenorchester Bonnn and Christoph Sprenger, released by Capriccio.

The Swiss clarinettist and improviser Reto Bieri has been playing solo and chamber music for over 20 years. This former artistic director is currently bringing a fresh concept to the classical music scene with his brilliant, poetic theme evenings ‘à la DAVOS FESTIVAL’ in cooperation with various chamber orchestras and accompanied by long-standing chamber music partners – in particular violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Reto Bieri regularly performs with renowned orchestras, and at various festivals and prestigious institutions. He releases CD recordings with the Munich-based cult label ECM, most recently the highly praised album ‘quasi morendo’ with string quartet meta4 from Finland.

Reto Bieri grew up with Swiss folk music. Following formative experience playing dance music in taverns and training as a primary school teacher he initially attended music academies in Basel and Zurich, before studying at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York. He was particularly influenced by the composer György Kurtág and his encounters with the writer Gerhard Meier, musician Eberhard Feltz and the clown Dimitri.

Reto Bieri served as Artistic Director of the Swiss DAVOS FESTIVAL – young artists in concert between 2013 and 2018. During 2012 to 2022, he was professor for chamber music at the University of Music in Würzburg, Germany. In 2022, he accepted a position at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, Germany, where he is now Professor of chamber music. He lives with his family in a remote Swiss Alpine location in the Bernese Oberland.

Nora Thiele is a multi-instrumentalist, artistic director, composer and shifter between genres, eras and cultures. She works in transdisciplinary projects and creates intercultural concert programmes. Nora Thiele is one of the most versatile musicians in Europe and looks at the musical horizon like a universal genius with unusual foresight. Her entire oeuvre lives from her awareness of music history and holistic contexts. Rhythm and improvisation are central to her work.

Raised in a family of music and theatre professionals, she completed her music studies in Leipzig, majoring in ethnic percussion and piano. She has been a freelance musician since 2004.

Nora Thiele is considered a pioneer in the art of frame drumming and with her sensitive virtuosity is in a line of tradition with Glen Velez and Layne Redmond. Since 1998 she has been working with historical percussion in European music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Early Baroque. For her projects in the field of global music and jazz she developed a custom frame drum set, which combines tunable natural skin frame drums and cymbals and is a further development of the original drum set.

Nora Thiele is committed to creating a new repertoire for traditional hand drums. She publishes pieces for frame drums. Contemporary composers such as Klaus Huber and Bernd Franke have written works for her with symphony orchestra. Nora Thiele also composes music herself, incorporating instruments from different cultures.

With more than 1000 concerts, Nora Thiele has toured through Europe, the Middle East and China. She has worked with artists such as Cecilia Bartoli, Ensemble Avantgarde, La Folia Barockorchester, Falk Zenker, Lena Chamamyan, Staatstheater Cottbus, Rubén Dubrovsky, Kat Frankie, Nederlands Kamerorkest, Theater Münster, Theater Odeon Wien, Anna Prohaska, SWR Sinfonieorchester, Hugo Ticciati (O/Modernt), Glen Velez and the Yiddish Summer Weimar.

She draws her enormous knowledge of rhythm from decades of intensive study of music from cultures around the world. She has studied traditions from Europe, the Middle East, South India, West Africa and African-American cultures. Nora Thiele has developed her own rhythm theory. This teaches the highest level of rhythm awareness, improvisational skills, coordinated movement and stylistic confidence. She passes on her holistic teaching to students at the HfM Weimar, as well as in workshops worldwide and master classes at music academies.

In her new solo programme, Nora Thiele 2023 combines percussion instruments and piano with loops and electronics into a setup for the first time, creating her own unique sound cosmos.

The transdisciplinary art duo AUREA with painter Larissa Böhler combines live painting on largeformat canvases with improvised real-time music. In 2021, Nora Thiele founded the Co Collective, and performed the piece Canto Ostinato by Simeon ten Holt for four pianos. The collective is focused on rhythm-based minimalist music between classical, pop and improvisation.

Nora Thiele supports equal rights for women and is active in the Music Women Thuringia network.

Dirk Mommertz, originally a violinist, studied in Karlsruhe, Frankfurt, Paris and Cologne. He is a multiple international award-winning pianist and member of the renowned Fauré Quartet, which performs worldwide in the most important concert halls such as London’s Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Tonhalle Zurich, Tokyo, Paris and New York. Their award-winning recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Classical have highlighted the quartet as a pioneering ensemble at home in both classical and experimental contemporary repertoire. Dirk Mommertz has performed as a soloist with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Duisburg Philharmonic and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, among others. From 2000 to 2005, Dirk Mommertz was a lecturer in piano at the Karlsruhe University of Music. After 2005, he was Professor of Chamber Music at the conservatories in Essen and Nuremberg before being appointed Head of the Chamber Music Department at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich in 2015, where he has been Vice President since 2019. His other teaching activities include public masterclasses all over the world. His students have won prizes at the ARD Competition, the International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne, the Concours Maria Canals Barcelona, Mendelssohn Competition Berlin, Concours international de Chambre de Lyon, Parkhouse Award London, German Music Competition, European Chamber Music Competition, Schubert und die Moderne Graz, Beethoven Competition Bonn, Brahms Competition Pörtschach, Haydn Competition Vienna and many others.