MÓNIKA TÓTH
Born in 1974 in Heves. Between 1981-1988 she was a student of the local State Music School, where she studied with Tivadarné Szabó.
She graduated with honours as a violin teacher and chamber musician from the Szeged Conservatory of the Liszt Academy of Music in 1997. Márta S.Dobos, Péter Masopust, Lajos Huszár and László Meszlényi were her mentors.
In 1999, she was awarded scholarships from the Soros Foundation and the Marco Fodella Foundation and studied early music specialisation at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan under Enrico Gatti.
She received her Master’s degree in Baroque Violin “cum laude” in 2007 at the Vincenzo Bellini Conservatory in Palermo, as a student of Enrico Onofri. (Il Giardino Armonico)
Parallel to her studies, she attended master classes with Simon Standage, Lucy van Dael, Jaap Schrőder and Malcom Bilson.
In 2000 she was awarded second prize at the “Premio Bonporti Rovereto” international chamber music competition (Estro Cromatico) and in 2001 she was third prize winner at the “I.Telemann Wettbewerb” in Magdeburg (Eclisse).
Between 2000 and 2006 she was a member and second concertmaster of the Orfeo Orchestra under the baton of György Vashegyi. In 2005, she was concertmaster at the opening of the MÜPA Festival Theatre, where she performed Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo, directed by Csaba Káel.
She performs regularly with renowned European baroque orchestras and chamber music ensembles such as I Barocchisti, Ensemble Zefiro, Imaginarium Ensemble, Stella Matutina, Ensemble Castor, Accademia Bizantina, Il Giardino Armonico, Dolce e Tempesta, Europa Galante, Capella Leopoldina Graz, Barucco Wien, Neue Hofkapelle Graz, Accentus Austria, L’Eclisse, Musica Perduta.
As a chamber music artist and concertmaster she has participated in festivals such as Regensburg, Trigonale,Berlin,Stockholm,Barcelona, Leipzig, Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Mantova, Milan, Crete, Mexico City, Jerusalem and Festival Academy Budapest.
He has recorded 50 CDs with Decca, EMI, Sony, Archiv, Naiv, Arts, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Chandos, Hungaroton, Symphonia,Taktus, Amadeus, RTSI, Brilliant Classics, Erato, Querstand, Panclassics, Passacalia, Arcana, Preiser Records and Virgin.
She has collaborated with vocal soloists such as Cecilia Bartoli, Philippe Jaroussky, Julia Lezhneva, Max Cencic, Silvia Frigaro, Gemma Bertagnoli, Roberta Mameli, Franco Fagioli; conductors and instrumental soloists such as Gustav Leonhardt, Diego Fasolis, Anderas Staier, Alfredo Bernardini, Malcolm Bilson, Enrico Onofri, Giovanni Antonini, Bahrt Kujiken, Gabriele Cassone, Elisa Citterio.
Between 2005 and 2010, she was a teacher of baroque violin at summer schools of early music in Tokaj, Bélapátfalva and Agárd in Hungary, and in 2011 she founded the Miszla Academy of Early Baroque Music (Tolna County). Since then, she has been organizing international master classes twice a year at Nemeskéry Castle.
Since 2012, she has been mentor of the youth baroque orchestra “I Talenti Vulcanici”, founded by the “Capella della Pietá de’ Turchini” Early Music Centre in Naples.
Since the 2018/19 academic year, she has been teaching baroque violin at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana.
In October 2019 she received the Wagner Betty Award in Heves.
KRISZTINA LANCZKOR-KOCSIS
Krisztina Lanczkor-Kocsis made his diploma with honours at the University of Szeged, Faculty of Music (Prof. Zoltán Lass) in 2006 and received his doctorate degree (DLA) ”summa cum laude” at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in 2013.
She has participated in the masterclasses of András Adorján, János Bálint, Csalog Benedek, Sir James Galway, Gergely Ittzés, Lóránt Kovács, Barthold Kuijken, István Matuz, Emmanuel Pahud. Krisztina Lanczkor-Kocsis won the 1st prize in the Zoltán Jeney Hungarian National Flute Competition in Kaposvár in 2000, and in the Prosper Amtmann Flute Competition in Sellye in 2010.
She was the winner of the International Flute Competition in Timisoara in 2005 and of the International Flute-Harp Chamber Competition in Arles in 1999 with Anastasia Razvaljaeva.
She was the flute professor of the István Vántus Music High School in Szeged from 2004 to 2018.
Krisztina Lanczkor-Kocsis is the first flutist of the Szeged Symphony Orchestra from 2007.
DÓRA KIRÁLY
Dóra Király was born in 1991. She completed her music school and secondary school studies in Szombathely, where she absorbed her love for early music from the very beginning. Antal Attila Békefi, Gábor Prehoffer played a decisive role in her studying abroad for 9 years from the age of 18: Michael Posch in Vienna, Anna Januj and Györgyi Farkas in Leipzig, and Donna Agrell in The Hague, led his studies of recorder and historical bassoon.
Alongside them, her musical tastes were shaped by many great masters and colleagues, including Nicholas Parle, Jostein Gundersen, Sheng-Fang Chiu, Dominic Gardino, Dóra Haraszti, Koppány Hunyadi, Benoit Dratwicki, Peter van Hyghen, and many others.
He is a member of the Budapest Orfeo Orchestra and a regular guest of other orchestras such as Capella Savaria, Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Collegium 1704, Le Concert Lorrain, etc. Between 2014-2019 he played regularly in the Festival Orchestra of the Early Music Festival in Chisinau, and in the 2016/2017 season he was bassoonist of the European Union Baroque Orchestra.
Over the years he has had the opportunity to work with conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, Nicolas McGegan, Helmut Rilling and Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
He also performs regularly as a chamber musician: with the Olivastro ensemble, he performs his own improvisations as well as sacred and secular music from the 14th and 16th centuries on three flutes; with Concerto Spiralis from Chiucszereda, he plays mostly Italian early Baroque music on flutes and dulciana. With his newest formation, Sans Paroles, he explores the intersection of medieval secular music and Moldavian-Gypso folk music.
In addition to the early music concert, he plays Moldavian and Gypsy folk music as a hobby, which he learns from folk musician and folk music collector Róbert Kerényi.
The idea of the Dador Project formation crystallized in spring 2020 with Adriana Kalafszky and Daniel Bartyik, which aims to put classical music into new contexts, i.e. to perform the music of old times in unusual places and unusual settings. One of their major projects, the Orfeo in the Kitchen video clip, aims to capture this atmosphere.
RÉKA SKRIONYA
Réka Skrionya graduated from the Bartók Béla Faculty of Arts of the University of Szeged in 2020. Her main teachers were László Lőrincz, Katalin Kállay and László Kecskeméti. She is currently studying at the Master of Music in Flute at the Cracow Academy of Music under Professors Erik Bosgraaf and Katarzyna Czubek. She has participated in masterclasses with such outstanding artists as Sheng-Fang Chiu, János Bali, Anneke Boeke, Erik Bosgraaf, Lucie Horsch, Anna Januj, Katalin Kállay, Gábor Prehoffer, György Vashegyi and Mónika Tóth. Currently, he is an active member of the Solis Consort Early Music Ensemble and the Hangzó Konzort Renaissance Flute Ensemble.
MÁRTON BORSÁNYI
Márton Borsányi was born in 1984 in Budapest. He graduated in harpsichord, continuo and historical improvisation from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig and the Schola Cantorum in Basel.
Márton Borsányi is a teacher at the Music Academy of Budapest, the MDW in Vienna and the MUK in Vienna, and organist at the Reformed parish of Oberwil in Basel-Landschaft. In addition to teaching, he gives courses and performs regularly as solo and chamber musician in many European countries. In Hungary he is a regular performer with the Óbuda Danubia Orchestra, has played with the Orfeo Chamber Orchestra under the direction of György Vashegyi and has also performed at the MÜPA Baroque Days.
His solo recordings, published by Rondeau Productions / Klanglogo, feature works by Johann Pachelbel on organ and harpsichord.
BARNABÁS HEGYI
Barnabás Hegyi was born in Budapest, where he also began his musical studies: after studying piano, organ and composition at the Music Academy of Budapest, he studied conducting and church music with Éva Lax, and then continued his vocal studies at the Music Academy of The Hague with Rita Dams, Jill Feldman, Michael Chance and Peter Kooij.
She has sung as a countertenor soloist at the Budapest Opera House and in performances of the Budapest Chamber Opera, but is mainly a soloist in oratorios and a member of solo vocal ensembles both at home and abroad.
He is currently the choirmaster of the Matthias Church in Budapest, the founding director of the early music ensemble Capella Coronata, and the conductor of the Budapest Choir
ESZTER GYÜDI
KLÁRA HARAMZA
In 2017 she graduated from the Faculty of Music of the University of Szeged, Faculty of Oratory and Songwriting. One year later, she also completed her studies as an art teacher. From childhood he was able to participate in singing performances, mainly in sacred music, learning the world of Gregorian and folk songs through the opera singer László Haramza. This musical world kept him busy later on, so in his last years of university, he and some colleagues formed the early music ensemble “Il Chiaroscuro” and released their first album in the autumn of 2019. In the same year, he founded the “Clamavi Singing Ensemble” with Kinga Nemcsics, a folk singer, performing sacred music from the medieval and Renaissance world. In recent years, she has participated in the master classes of György Vashegyi and Ágnes Kovács in Vác, in the early music course of the Győr Baroque Week under the guidance of Judit Andrejszki, in the Baroque course of Barna Hegyi, and in the private singing master classes of Johannes von Duisburg, Andrea Rost, Viktória Vizin, Adrienne Csengery and Júlia Hamari.
He sees the interpretation of his musical orientation in expanding his knowledge and in making his ensembles as authentic and personal as possible.
GERGELY BOGÁNYI
Gergely Bogányi started playing the piano at the age of four at the Music School in his hometown of Vác, where his first piano teacher was Katalin Szabó. At the age of six he was a special prize winner at the National Piano Competition in Nyíregyháza (1980), which he won at the age of nine (1983).
Klára Máté (a member of the jury), a music academy teacher, noticed his special talent at the competition. In 1984, at the age of ten, not unknown, he was accepted into the pre-training ‘special talents’ class of the Liszt Academy of Music, where his teacher was initially Klára Máté, later Zsuzsa Esztó and finally László Baranyay at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music.
In 1993, at the age of nineteen, he was awarded a scholarship from the Finnish Academy of Music to study overseas at an American music university on a one-year scholarship. He studied there in parallel with the Academy of Music in Budapest.
In the United States, his work was directed by Professors György Sebők († 1999) at Indiana University and Matti Raekallio at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He returned to the USA in 2004 and performed at the site of his old studies at Indiana University with violinist Barnabás Kelemen.
He also visits Transylvania every year, playing in Târgu Mures and other cities. He has given concerts in the world’s most famous concert halls. His repertoire includes more than thirty piano concertos and a large part of the piano literature. A clear highlight of his career to date was his two-day concert series for the 2010 Chopin Year, in which he performed all of the composer’s works for solo piano.
ANASTASIA CHURAKOVA
Anastasia Churakova is a Russian Soprano from Moscow. She started her music education with piano lessons and finished college as a pianist.
Ms. Churakova spent the last 6 years in Salzburg the birthplace of Mozart where she got Bachelor degree at the Universität Mozarteum and finished her Master studies in 2022.
Anastasia Churakova was invited to perform at the Summer Festival Gut Immling for the seasons 2016-2019 with such roles as Giannetta from Elisir D’amore, Ännchen from Der Freischütz or Zerlina from Don Giovanni. She participated in many concerts of the festival including songs and musicals repertoire.
Ms. Churakova is interested in baroque music, so she has performed with the Ensemble Echo die Rehno in Salzburg with a special program. She is also a guest soloist of the Holy Masses and concerts at the Salzburg Cathedral.
Ms. Churakova has sang for a series of Open Air concerts in August 2021 in Germany with Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie with Jonathon Heyward as the chief conductor.
Later in August, she took part in concerts with Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria, including a performance in the Sofia concert hall with Nayden Todorov as the conductor.
ALESSANDRO MISCIASCI
Alessandro Misciasci was born in Catania, Italy. He has worked as vocal coach at the University “Mozarteum” in Salzburg during the last 35 years.
In 1986, he won the third prize at the first International Competition for Lied Accompaniment in Den Haag.
He has accompanied numerous master classes with renowned opera singers including Josef Greindl and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and his work as an accompanist has taken him throughout Europe and Asia.
He has served as musical assistant for several productions at the Salzburger Festspiele, working under conductors like Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Christan Thielemann and Valery Gergiev.
DÓRA KOKAS
Born in 1992, Dóra KOKAS started to learn the cello at the early age of four from her mother. In 2006 she was admitted to the Liszt Academy’s Special School for Exceptional Young Talents, where she studied under the direction of László Mező. From 2007 she continued her studies in the preparatory class of the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, and later at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, where she is currently a first‑year MA student of Miklós Perényi.
Besides her academic studies, she had the opportunity of participating in the master classes of such world-renowned artists as János Starker, Steven Isserlis, Johanthan Cohen, Susan Moses, Csaba Onczay and Ferenc Rados.
In addition to her numerous triumphs at youth competitions in Hungary, she won the first prize at the Gorizia International Cello Competition in 2005, second prize at the Liezen International Cello Competition in 2004 and bronze medal in Dolny Kubin in 2006; in 2014 she got into the finals of the Pablo Casals International Violoncello Competition organized in Budapest and received two special awards.
As a founding member of the Kelemen Quartet, she has won a plethora of prizes at the most prestigious international string quartet competitions and took to the stage in the world’s top-ranking concert venues, partnering with musicians like Joshua Bell, José Gallardo, Nicholas Altstaedt, or Péter Frankl. She made her solo debut with a performance of Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto at the Gala Concert of the Young Talents International Music Festival in 2006. She has performed Haydn’s C Major Concerto and the Double Concerto by Brahms with her sister, the violinist Katalin Kokas on several occasions. She has played as a soloist with the Budapest String Orchestra, the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra and the MÁV Symphony Orchestra. In 2014 she was awarded the Gundel Art Prize.
JÓZSEF BALOG
József Balog is one of the most talented pianists of his generation. This exceptionally gifted performer was surrounded by the astonishing heritage of the internationally well-known Hungarian piano tradition established by Franz Liszt, Ernst von Dohnányi and Béla Bartók. He is praised and compared to Horowitz and Earl Wild by critics and acknowledged by the audience for his brilliant technic and very deep, sensitive musicianship. Along with the standard piano repertoire, he plays jazz-influenced classical compositions, contemporary music, and works written by rarely played composers as well. He has also earned fame for premiering a large number of contemporary pieces and he regularly holds master courses at various prominent musical institutions.
For the last 20 years, he has given more than 1000 concerts as a soloist and chamber musician in more than 25 countries accross Europe, America and Asia. He performed in well-known concert halls such as the Koch Theater (Lincoln Center) in New York, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Chan Centre in Vancouver, the Philharmonic Hall in Saint Petersburg, the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Hall in Lodz, the Lisinski Hall in Zagreb, the Musikhuset in Aarhus, the Vredenburg Music Center in Utrecht, the Kensington Palace in London, Konzerthaus in Wien, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, the Macedonian National Philharmonic Hall in Skopje, the Brussels’s Théatre Royal de la Monnaie, the Equinoxe in Chateauroux, the Karsiyaka Opera House in Izmir, the CRR-Concert Hall in Istanbul, the TRT Radio Hall in Ankara, the Philharmonic Hall in Kiev and Opera House in Nizza. He also achieved great success at the following festivals: Shanghai China International Arts Festival, Bellagio and Lago Maggiore Festival, Chopin Festival in Mallorca, Tansman Festival, Lisztomanias in Chateauroux, Schubertiade in Roskilde, Beethoven Festival in Zutphen, Spring Festival in Russia, Liszt Festival in Sopron and Ankara, Budapest Spring Festival and, on more than one occasion the Festival Academy, Kaposfest and the Beethoven Nights staged in Martonvásár.
During his career he has appeared with a great many outstanding orchestras and ensembles including the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Concerto Budapest, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra, the Ankara Presidential Symphony Orchestra, the Ukranian National Philharmonic and Radio Orchestra, the UANL Symphony Orchestra, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hungarian State Opera House Orchestra, the Croatian National Radio Orchestra, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Pécs Symphony Orchestra, and Opéra de Nice Orchestra. Furthermore, he has already been on stage with great conductors such as Gilbert Varga, Zoltán Kocsis, Jesús Medina, David Nimrod Pfeffer, Győriványi Ráth György, Yeruham Scharovsky, Vitaly Protasov, Felix Carrasco, Volodimir Sheyko, Gerard Korsten, Balázs Kocsár, Tamás Vető, András Keller, Tibor Bogányi, Zsolt Hamar, Balázs Kocsár, Gergely Kesselyák and Gregory Vajda.
József has released altogether fourteen CD-s. His first album – entitled Hungaricum – won the „Liszt Grand Prix du Disque” prize in 2005. The multiple international prizewinner pianist has received the “Liszt-Prize” from the Hungarian Govermnent in 2018.
BARNABÁS KELEMEN
Violinist Barnabás Kelemen has conquered the most famous concert halls in the world with his virtuoso technique and dynamic, passionate playing style. Versatile and open-minded, he is an outstanding soloist and chamber musician, as well as an artistic director of festivals and a teacher at renowned institutions. In recent years he has also worked as a conductor.
Barnabás Kelemen began studying the violin under Valéria Baranyai; as a student of Eszter Perényi, he graduated from the Liszt Academy of Music in 2001. He was enormously influenced by his later teachers, Isaac Stern, Ferenc Rados, and Zoltán Kocsis. He studied conducting from two giants of the Finnish tradition, Leif Segerstam and Jorma Panula. He is currently a professor at two illustrious institutions: Budapest’s Liszt Academy and the University of Cologne.
Due to his exceptional sense of style and his comprehensive technical proficiency, Barnabás Kelemen navigates with confidence through the entire catalogue of music written for violin. His repertoire is thus extremely diverse and he performs Early Baroque, Classical, and Romantic works with just as much authenticity as twentieth-century pieces. He is additionally a devoted advocate of contemporary music, with world or Hungarian premieres of works by Kurtág, Ligeti, Schnittke, Gubajdulina, Steve Reich, and Ryan Wigglesworth to his name.
KATALIN KOKAS
Violin and viola virtuoso Katalin Kokas is one of the most outstanding figures in Hungary in the field of classical music. In addition to solo concerts, chamber music, performances with string quartets, and teaching all play prominent roles in her life. Since 2002, she has regularly held masterclasses all over the world and she has been an associate professor at the Liszt Academy of Music since 2004.
Kokas began studying the violin under Mrs Béla Gyánó in the city of Kaposvár when she was only five years old. Her tuition continued in Pécs with György Papp and then at the age of 11 she was admitted to the Liszt Academy’s School for Exceptional Young Talents, where her mentors were Ferenc Halász and then Dénes Kovács. At 16, she received a scholarship at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, where she was a student of Lóránd Fenyves. Following her time in Canada, Kokas returned to the Academy of Music where, tutored by Eszter Perényi, she graduated with honours. Her education was further enhanced by frequent visits to the private lessons and masterclasses of Ferenc Rados, Igor Ozim, Endre Wolf, Tibor Varga, György Pauk, Dénes Zsigmondy, György Kurtág, Jaime Laredo, and Leon Fleischer.
In 2004, 2005, and 2008 Kokas received an Annie Fischer Scholarship. Her work has also been recognized with the Ferenc Halász Prize and Kaposvár’s award for contributions to the city. In 2009 she was awarded the Liszt Prize by the Hungarian State and was also presented with Hungary’s Junior Prima Award.
KLÁRA WÜRTZ
Klára Würtz is a pianist of Hungarian origin from the Netherlands.
She joined the Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir at the age of six. She started to learn piano at the music school in cooperation with the choir as a pupil of Irén Magyarné Szalai. Soon she became a permanent accompanist of the children’s choir, and from the age of ten she also played solo pieces.
In 1979, at the age of fourteen, she was admitted to the class of exceptional talents at the Academy of Music, where she was a pupil of Miklós Miklós Máthéné Klára Kéri and Zsuzsa Esztó. From 1982 she studied piano at the Academy with Pál Kadosa, Zoltán Kocsis, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados. She has successfully participated in several international piano competitions. She participated in the master class of András Schiff in Prussia Cove, England. She graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in 1989. She then moved to the Netherlands.
Her performance at the 1988 Dublin Piano Competition led to a North American concert tour with Columbia Artist Management in 1991, which took her to 38 countries in the United States. She made her debut at Carnegie Hall in 2003 and at the Salzburg Festival in 2006.
Currently, in addition to performing, she is an associate professor at the Utrecht Conservatory of Music.
Her solo recordings and sonata recordings with Christopher Friend have received worldwide acclaim.
GÖRÖG SISTERS
The two members of the Görög Sisters, Noémi Görög and Enikő Görög, were born in Subotica, Serbia, where they completed the Music School before starting their studies in Belgrade at the University of Arts, Faculty of Music in the class of Professor Ninoslav Živković.
Both artists received their DLA degrees at the Belgrade University of Arts, Faculty of Music. Noémi Görög currently teaches at the Hungarian Language Teacher Training Faculty in Subotica, while Enikő is a teacher at Bartók Béla Faculty of Arts at the University of Szeged.
They have been performing as a piano duo since 2004, playing primarily in this formation.
Their repertoire includes the most significant pieces of the four-hand and two-piano literature from Bach to Mozart, from Brahms over Bartók to Lutosławski. Their focus on contemporary composers is a special treat for their audience, some pieces have been composed specifically for the duo.
The Görög Sisters have released two CDs so far. Their first album came out in 2015 with the title Let’s Play, containing four-hand and two-piano pieces by Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Bartók and Lutosławski. The CD was accompanied by three short videos, presenting three movements of Béla Bartók’s Microcosmos in a completely new light. The videos were produced by the Subotica based Electe Group for music fans and the wider public.
The second album was recorded in Bayreuth and was released in 2018 under the title Let’s Dance. It features the two-piano version of Ravel’s La Valse, as well as pieces by Tchaikovsky, Barber, Brahms, Aleksandar Vujić and Milica Ilić.
The piano duo has held successful concerts throughout Serbia and Hungary, and has toured in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia.
The Görög Sisters started giving concerts for children in 2015, at Studio 6 of Bartók Radio, the Hungarian classical music station, in Budapest. The Sisters believe deeply in the need for fostering children’s musical education and instilling musical artistic values into children starting from a young age. At their concerts, the Görög Sisters provide their young audience with a musical basis that may eventually help them become regular concertgoers.
In 2017, the Belgrade -based composer Milica Ilić also dedicated a work of hers to the Görög Sisters. ‘Higher’, her musical play is centered around the legend of Daedalus and Icarus. The piece is composed for two pianos, baritone vocals, a smaller narrative choir and an actor. This musical play was first performed at the Dorćol Platz alternative theater in Belgrade on September 15, 2017, featuring the Görög Sisters.
In 2021, Hungarian composer Balázs Kecskés D., winner of the Junior Prima Prize, dedicated them his Partita for two pianos.
The Görög Sisters have played with numerous orchestras, including the Odeon Youth Symphony (Munich, conductor: Julio Doggenweiler Fernández), Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra (Budapest, conductor: Ádám Medveczky), Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra (Budapest, conductor: Gábor Werner), Szeged Symphony Orchestra (Szeged, conductor: János Kovács and Sándor Gyüdi), Orquestra Classica do Centro (Coimbra, conductor: Luís Carvalho), Symphony Orchestra of Miskolc (Miskolc, conductor: István Dénes, Máté Sipos Szabó).
YOON-HEE KIM
As Korea born Austrian Musician, Yoon-Hee Kim made her first orchestral debut with the Savaria Orchestra of Hungary in 1996 at the age of five and already began playing violin at the age of three.
Within a year she had already performed public concerts. She was admitted to the Vienna University for Music at the age of four as the youngest student ever, studied with Prof. Polatschek, Prof. Gerhard Schulz and Prof. Elisabeth Kropfitsch. Regularly she participated in the Masterclass by Prof. Jakhar Bron.
Yoon-Hee is from South-Korean island, Jeju which was elected as the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” and also she is Honorary Ambassador for Jeju and she got the prize ”the young artist of the year 2011” from the ministry of culture in Korea as youngest ever.
She, the youngest soloist of music history performed for the subscription concerts with important world- wide famous orchestras, among them the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Symphoniker, Stuttgart Philharmonic(at the age of 15) ,Monte Carlo Philharmonic (at the age of 16), Norway Trondheim Symphony orchestra (at the age of 13) ,Spain Radio Television Orchestra RTVE(15), Slovak Philharmonic, Praha Radio Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonia, George Enesco Philharmonic, Janacek Philharmonic, Bayer Philharmonic, Ukraine National Symphony orchestra, National Kiev Chamber Orchestra, Dohnanyi Symphony Orchestra, Transylvanian Orchestra, Catalunya Orchestra, Katowice Philharmonic, Radio Symphony orchestra in Rumania, Salzburg Kammer Philharmonic, Korea-Austria Philharmonic which is established by UN general secretary BAN, Ki-moon on first concert at the age of 8..
In Korea, she performed with all major orchestra of Seoul Philharmonic, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Korean Symphony, Eurasian Philharmonic, Busan, Daejeon, Daegu, Gwangju, Jeonju and Jeju Symphonic.
She played with world-wide famous conductors like Austrian legend Maestro Walter Weller, Roman Kopfmann, Claus Peter Flor, Cristian Mandeal, Philippe Auguin, Petr Altrichter, Berry Wordsworth, Alexander Rahbari, Leos Svarovsky, Erwin Aadland, Othmar Maga, Keiko Mitsuhashi, Damian Iorio, ETC.
She won several international competitions as the First Prize at the Andrea Postacchini international competition in Fermo, Italy, First Prize at Prima la Musica competition in Whole Austria, First Prize by “Concorsi International Di Musica” in Stresa, Italy, First Prize in the Rovere d’Oro Bartolomeo al Mare, Italy, the winner at the Fidelio Competition in Austria, Special Prize and scholarship of the Hebert von Karajan Foundation and Robert and Lina Thyli-Duerr Foundation of Switzerland and Benjamin Prize in Austria.
She gave concerts worldwide famous concert halls, as the Musikverein (Golden hall ), Wiener Konzerthaus Grosser Saal, Brucknerhaus Linz, Berliner Philharmonic Hall, Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall in LA, Cadogan Hall in London, Lieder Halle in Stuttgart, Auditorium Rainier III hall in Monte Carlo, Smetana Hall and Rudolfinum in Praha, the International Palace of Arts in Budapest, Atheneum in Bucarest, RTVE Teatro hall in Madrid, Odd-fellow palace in Copenhagen, Olavshallen in Trondheim and Seoul Art Center .
She was invited at the 35th Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS)” Rising Star” Concerts in Cologne, recital at Wiltz festival in Luxembourg, ” New year concert” in Trondheim , Norway, Samobor Festival in Croatia, Seoul Art Center orchestra festival and KBS New Year Concert.
She played with different famous instruments, Stradivarius “The Red Diamond” 1732 and “Da Vinci” 1725 and now she plays a Bergonzi Violin (Cremona 1734).
CLARA DENT-BOGÁNYI
Clara Dent was born in Berlin to a family of musicians; her family moved soon after to Salzburg. She received her musical education at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Arthur Jensen, and later earned a Master’s degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich studying with Günther Passin. She has won prizes in several international competitions, including the ARD Competition in Munich (1996, third prize) and the Geneva International Music Competition (1998, second prize).
Since 1999, Dent has been a soloist in the oboe group of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2007 she was invited by Kent Nagano to join the Bavarian State Orchestra for a year. As a soloist she has also performed with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, the Württemberg and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras and others. She is one of the founding members of the wind octet Da Ponte Oktett, mainly composed of musicians from the Munich Symphony Orchestra.
From 2005 to 2008, Dent taught oboe at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich, then continued her teaching activities at the Leopold Mozart Centre in Augsburg. In 2009 she became a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg. She also gives master classes in various European and Asian countries and participates in juries of national and international competitions. Her husband is the Hungarian bassoonist Bence Bogányi.
BENCE BOGÁNYI
Bence Bogányi was born into a Hungarian family of musicians. He took his first bassoon lessons at the age of 9 from György Bokor in Hungary. He continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with László Hara and graduated with honours from the Music Academy Hanns Eisler in Berlin in 2004, where Klaus Thunemann was his teacher.
In 1997 Bence Bogányi won the First Prize at the International Crusell Competition in Finland; in 2006 the First Prize at the International “Fernand Gillet – Hugo Fox” Competition in Indianapolis (USA) followed, along with the Second Prize and the Audience Prize at the International ARD Music Competition in Munich, where he competed as part of the Quintet Chantily.
Bence Bogányi was appointed principal bassoonist at the Helsinki State Opera in 1997; in 2002 he won the same position at the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, before moving on to the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin in 2005. From 2007 to 2013 Bence Bogányi was principal bassoonist of the Munich Philharmonic.
As a chamber musician and soloist, he has appeared all over Europe and Asia, performing with renowned ensembles and orchestras. In 2005 he performed the world premiere of the Bassoon Concerto written for him by the Finnish composer Kalevi Aho together with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
From 2009 to 2013 Bence Bogányi taught bassoon as a professor at the Nürnberg Music Academy. In 2013 he was appointed professor of bassoon at the Hanover Academy of Music.
Bence is the winner of numerous competitions, he also regularly performs as a soloist.
JAE-YEON WON
A gifted south Korean Pianist, Jaeyeon Won began learning piano at the age of 11 and has received many high awards in national competitions and international competitions, including the Dong-A music competition in Seoul, the Long-thibaud competition in Paris, concours Geneve, XXIX Cidade de Ferrol, Karl-Robert-Kreiten Preis in Cologne.
In the year of 2017, He won second prize and the audience prize at the 61th Ferruccio Busoni International piano competition. Since then his concert career has developed on many countries.
Mr. Won has performed in concert venues, including Herkulessaal-Munich, Beethoven Haus-bonn, Alte Aula-Heidelberg, Wiener Saal in Salzburg, Salle Cortot, Salle Gaveau, Opera Comique-Paris, Palacio de Opera-Coruna, Auditorio de Ferrol, Teatro Ricardo Castro in Durango, Seoul Art center concert hall and Lotte concert hall-Seoul.
His performances with orchestras include Korean symphony orchestra, KBS symphony orchestra, Bucheon Philharmonic orchestra, Suwon Philharmonic orchestra, Westsächsischen symphonieorchester, Bari Province Symphony Orchestra, Leipizg Musikhochschule orchester, Orquestra Sinfonica de Galicia, Quartetto di Cremona, Das Haydn-Orchestra and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Also his live performances broadcasted by France Musique, RAI in Italy, ORF in Austria, BR-Klassik in Germany and as well as KBS, MBC in Korea, and his first debut recording will be released in autumn of 2019.
He has also given concerts in Korea, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Mexico and Switzerland. Including Kumho young artist series, Kawai piano series, Association animato in Paris, Durango piano festival, Sociedad filarmónica ferrolana, Sociedad filarmonica de A coruna, festival de Musica Cidade de Lugo and Busoni festival in Bolzano.
Mr. Won has been guidanced by tremendous teachers such as Choon-Mo Kang, Pavel Gililov, Claudio Martinez Mehner and Maria Joao Pires.