Competition 2020

Salomé Gasselin is a young viol player from France. She holds the second prize from the 2018 international viola da gamba competition in Köthen, Germany; she has previously received several prizes in duo with Justin Taylor and with the Goldfinch Ensemble.

After hesitating between careers as a rugby player, an illustrator, and a geneticist, Salomé was accepted to the CNSMD de Lyon where she studied with Marianne Muller. Her playing has since been formed at the Koninklijk Conservatorium of The Hague with Philippe Pierlot, Mieneke van der Velden and later at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Vittorio Ghielmi.

Alongside her musical studies, Salomé studied modern literature at the University of Paris X. Early in her career, Salomé joined many of the leading ensembles of her generation: she plays with Pygmalion (Raphaël Pichon), A Nocte temporis (Reinoud van Mechelen), Capriccio Stravagante (Skip Sempé), Les Inventions (Patrick Ayrton), Ratas del viejo mundo (Floris de Rycker) and les musiciens de Saint Julien (François Lazarevitch). In the past two years, she has taken part in recordings for the labels Alpha, Mirare and Naïve. Her playing has been heard at many festivals across Europe and the United States (including at Bozar Brussels, Saintes, Ambronay, Sablé, Oudemuziek Utrecht, Christmas Festival York, MA Festival Bruges, LAUS, Aix en Provence, Versailles Spectacles, Amherst Early Music USA…).

Salomé often works with contemporary composers and playwrights, and has taught at the Nantes Conservatoire. Currently she is particularly interested in the rediscovery of 17th century French consort music and the art of marquetery woodlay on music instruments.

André Lislevand was born in Verona in 1993. Son of art, throughout his childhood the music takes a significant position for his culture and growth. Not only the ancient repertoire will be present in his musical education: he will be fascinated by the pizzicato and “electric” strings of his parents, both guitarists and lutists, interpreting baroque and popular music, who led the young man to discover and perform with the electric guitar in “rock” circles in Northern Italy.

At the age of 11 he began studying the viola da gamba with Alberto Rasi at the Conservatorio “E.F. Dall’Abaco” in Verona, where he had the opportunity to discover the gamba repertoire and at the age of 16 he began to collaborate with various in Europe renown ensembles, performing in festivals and concerts in Europe, among the most significant and famous, the participation in the Baroque Orchestra of Villa Contarini conducted by Roy Goodman and Alfredo Bernardini, the Verona Baroque Orchestra conducted by Alberto Rasi and Trondheim Barokk conducted by Sigiswald Kuijken. In 2014 he ended his experience with Alberto Rasi, obtaining the diploma with the highest notes and a special mention.

In 2013 he began studying with Paolo Pandolfo at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. In those he played with La Cetra Barockorchester, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Münchner Philarmoniker, The Norwegian Soloist Choir, Ensemble Mare Nostrum, Trondheim Barokk, Roman Concerto, Harmonic Tribute Consort, conducted by artistic personalities such as Andrea Marcon, Paul Mccreesh, Lorenz Duftschmid, Emma Kirkby, Jakob Lindberg, Marco Ambrosini, Atle Sponberg, Gjermund Larsen, Anton Steck, Hiro Kurosaki, Jan Van Elsacker, Grete Pedersen, Alberto Rasi, Alessandro Quarta.

Major festivals and concert halls include Utrecht Oude Muziek Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Gasteig Munchen Philarmonie, Tonhalle Zürich, Göttingen Handel-Festspiele, Styriarte Festspiele, Ambronay Festival, Festtage Alte Musik Basel, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Wunderkammer Festival Trieste, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Trondheim Barokkfest.

In 2015 he obtained the Bachelor of Music and Arts Diploma and in 2017 the Master of Music and Arts Diploma at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

In 2017 he was admitted to the Post-Graduate class of Vittorio Ghielmi at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, with which he studied for the next two years.

María Barajas is a young viola da gamba player originally from Madrid, Spain.

She started studying viola da gamba and cello simultaneously when she was seven years old but it was four years ago when she decided to devote her career to viola da gamba entirely. She studied with Sara Ruiz in Conservatorio Superior de Música de Vigo (2016 – 2019) complementing her studies with an Erasmus program in Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag with Mieneke Van der Velden and Philippe Pierlot. In addition to, she has also received viola da gamba masterclasses from professors of the stature of Marianne Muller, Guido Balestrocci, Christoph Urbanetz, Imke David or Vittorio Ghielmi, and chamber music from professors like Richard Eggar, Ashley Solomon, Wilbert Hazelzet and Kate Clark, among others.

In 2014 she won the award “Premio extraordinario de la Comunidad de Madrid” which gave her the chance to play as solist in “Auditorio Nacional de Música de Madrid”.

María has played with music ensembles like “Nereydas” (2014), “Ars Combinatoria” (2015), “Orquesta Barroca Vigo 430” (2018), “Metamorphosis Ensemble” (2019), “Koor en Orkest van der Nederlandse Bach Academie” (2019), “Consort de violas da gamba de la Universidad de Salamanca” (2019), etc.

Currently, María teaches viola da gamba in “Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Torrent” (Valencia) and keep playing and learning with different ensembles of Early Music in Spain.

Gianni Bergamo was born in Milan, Italy in 1941, attended primary school in Italy and Liceo in Switzerland. After a degree in Economy (1964) at the Catholic University of Milan, he dedicated himself to the study of music with Tissoni (harmony and composition), D. Maffeis (organ) and N. Sanzogno (orchestra conducting) at the Conservatory of Bergamo, Italy.
From 1964 to 1994 has been a businessman with his own import-export, real estate and finance companies, though at the same time he has remained close to music and to its world.
In 1990 he created the Cultural Association “Gli Amici Cantori”, first as a chorus alone, then later accompanied by an orchestra. He has given many concerts in Italy with them, preferring the symphonic-sacred repertoire (masses, oratories, passions, etc.). At present, he lives in Santiago del Chile.

Italian viola da gamba player, conductor, composer, Head of the Institute for Early Music and Professor at Mozarteum Salzburg and Visiting Professor at Royal College (London). Compared by the critics to Jasha Heifetz (“Diapason”) for his virtuosity he attracted notice for his new approach to the viol and to the sound of the baroque repertoire. He appears as soloist or conductor with famous orchestras (modern as L.A. Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, Konzertverein Wien etc. or baroque orchestra as Il Giardino Armonico, Freiburger baroque Orchestra etc.) and as one of the leaders of the ancient music scene, he shared the stage with musicians as Gustav Leonhardt (duo), C. Bartoli … or with Andràs Schiff, T. Quasthoff, V. Mullova and with his brother Lorenzo. He has been assistant of Riccardo Muti for the Salzburger Festspiele. Since 1999 forms a duo with the lutenist Luca Pianca with whom he played hundreds of concerts and CD recordings. His ensemble Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra, founded in 2007 with the argentinian singer Graciela Gibelli, is regularly invited in the most important venues (Berliner Philharmonie etc.), and devoted to a new investigation of the ancient music repertoire as well as to the creation of new projects and performed with important jazz players (K.Wheeler, Uri Caine, P.Fresu, M.Stockhausen, Carmen Linares…). He collaborated with the Hollywood regisseur Marc Reshovsky creating a spectacle around Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri tourning in 2007-9. In summer 2018 he has conducted Pygmalion by Rameau in the Drottningholms Slottsteater (Stockholm) in collaboration with the regisseur and dancer Saburo Teshigawara (Karas).

He got a degree as Docteur ès Lettres (Università Cattolica di Milano). His fieldwork within old musical surviving traditions led to him being presented the “Erwin Bodky Award” (Cambridge, Massachusetts USA 1997), and the prestigious Echo Klassic Award 2015 (Germany). The collaboration with traditional players is documented in the film “The Heart of Sound – a musical journey with Vittorio Ghielmi”, BFMI (Salzburg-Hollywood). Vittorio recorded countless cds as soloist. The last prize-winner Cds: “Gypsy Baroque” 2018 and “Le Secret de Ms. Marais” (2020) for Alpha Classic (Paris). More at www.ilsuonarparlante.com.

Martyna Pastuszka was born in 1980 in Upper Silesia, Poland. Raised in a musical family, she received traditional music education: she studied violin performance at the Academy of Music in Katowice, which she graduated from in 2004. In 2017, she defended her doctoral thesis and currently serves as lecturer at her alma mater.

For almost two decades now, Martyna has cooperated with many ensembles, who invite her to participate in their concerts as chamber musician, soloist or guest concertmaster. These include: Collegium Vocale Gent,  Le Concert de la Loge (Paris), Collegium Marianum (Prague), Collegium 1704 (Prague), Le Cercle de l’Harmonie (Paris), Hofkapelle München.
In 2012, together with the manager Artur Malke, she established and leads the Silesia -based  {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna. The performances of the ensemble, as well as Martyna’s herself, have been hailed by Polish critics as “the biggest discovery of recent years!!”

Since 2015 {oh!} is the ensemble in residence of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, where in the frames of the cycle “Early Music” gives the concert of the baroque and classical repertoire in the cooperation with the top soloists and conductors as A. Staier, J.-G. Queras, L. U. Mortensen, V. Dumestre, J. Chauvin, M. Beasley.

With the  National Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC) {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna develops the historically informed performances of the Polish romantic music, performing during the “Chopin and his Europe” Festival in Warsaw and the special concerts and recordings sessions organised by NIFC.

Together with the International Festival of Early Music “All’improvviso” in Gliwice based in the Silesia region {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna constantly focuses on the baroque opera, producing the first performances of the Domenico Sarri’s „Didone Abbandonata” (2014), Johann Adolf Hasse’s „Arminio” (2016), Leonardo Vinci’s „Gismondo re di Polonia” (2018) and G. F. Handel’s “Il Pastor Fido” (2019, in the coproduction with the Handel Festspiele in Halle).

The production of the opera „Gismondo re di Polonia”, with the M.E.Cencic in the title role was presented in numerous European cities  and recorded with release in April 2020.

{oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna has released five CD albums so far and has received two nominations to the Fryderyk award – most important music award in Poland. Martyna has participated in almost 40 recordings with various ensembles. In 2019, as a “musical individuality” she was nominated to Polish prestigious awards: “Koryfeusz” and “Passport” of Polityka magazine.

Martyna also derives much satisfaction from being active as a teacher. She is a lecturer at the Academy of Music in Katowice, where she teaches the Baroque Violin and she also educates young violinists during various music courses.

Musician, gamba-player, has played music as long as she can think. For her, music is the foremost means of communication between human beings, more precise and intense and unmistakable than language, of greater emotional significance than any other experience besides love. To her, music is a means of connecting not only the past and the future but also a way of socially integrating the most conflicting aspects of existence.

She travels the world, playing concerts and recording CDs with different groups or soloizing, or with her main partner, the lutenist and composer Lee Santana. They mostly perform in the field of 17th and 18th century music, but they also let the music take them to places they never even dreamed of.

When she is not travelling she lives in a farmhouse in northern Germany with her family and a few chickens, sheep, dogs and cats.

She passionately teaches her twelve students at the Hochschule der Künste in Bremen, Germany, everything she knows about music, playing the gamba, and how not to be jealous if someone plays better than you.

Foto: www.hillenet.net

Sara Ruiz studied viola da gamba with Itziar Atutxa and Pere Ros in Madrid and with Ventura Rico in Seville. She continued her studies with Lorenz Duftchmid in Germany. She follows the “Corso di perfezionamento” with Vittorio Ghielmi in Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano (Switzerland) between 2004 and 2008. She attends masterclasses with Jordi Savall, Christophe Coin and Philippe Pierlot. She also studied chamber music with Rolf Lislevand.

She has collaborated with ensembles including Amsterdam Baroque Orquestra, Al Ayre Español, La Cetra Baroque Orquester, Armonico Tributo Austria, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla. In 2006 she was awarded in the Bach-Abel competition in Köthen (Germany). Her first album as soloist “La voix de la viole” with the ensemble La Bellemont and dedicated to the music of Marin Marais has received praise from critics. Her recording of the suites for viola da gamba by François Couperin will be re-lease in 2019. She recently recorded the 12 fantasies for viola da gamba by G.P.Telemann.

Since 2018 she is director of the Consort de Violas da Gamba de la Universidad de Salamanca.

She has been a professor at the Conservatorio Superior de Sevilla and she has given masterclasses in Poland, Italy, Austria and Portugal. She currently combines her teaching activity at the Conservatory of Vigo with an intense concert activity.