Competition 2026

The Quatuor Citadelle is a French-Japanese quartet founded in 2024. Its name is taken from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s final work, in which the citadel’s value lies not in its stones but in the bonds it forges between people.

Artists in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in the class of Miguel da Silva, Corina Belcea and Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, the Citadelle Quartet are also studying at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía with Heime Müller (formerly of the Artemis Quartet) and Vera Martínez Mehner (Quarteto Casals). They are also an ensemble in residence at ProQuartet – European Centre for Chamber Music, artists in residence at the Singer-Polignac Foundation thanks to the mentorship of the Ebène Quartet, the Hermès Quartet and Lise Berthaud, and members of MERITA as part of the MERITAcubed project.

Trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris in the classes of Jean Sulem and François Salque, and in the « Cycle concertiste » program at the CRR de Paris in the class of Miguel da Silva, the Quatuor Citadelle has also received guidance from members of the Ebène, Modigliani, Belcea, and Strada quartets, as well as from Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet), Eugene Drucker (Emerson Quartet), Marc Coppey (Ysaÿe Quartet), and Kim Kashkashian.

Since its founding, the Quatuor Citadelle has been invited to perform at numerous festivals in France: the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, the Festival de la Roque d’Anthéron, the Rencontres musicales de La Baule, the Festival de musique de chambre d’Arcachon, the Festival du Pontlevoy, and the Musicales de l’abbaye du Thoronet. The quartet has shared the stage with renowned artists such as Miguel da Silva, François Salque, Louis Rodde, and Manuel Vioque-Judde. The Quatuor Citadelle regularly gives concerts for children, such as a performance created for the children at the Parc de Bagatelle in September 2025 featuring Ravel’s string quartet. In the spring of 2026, the quartet participated in a session in the Netherlands as part of the Musethica program, in partnership with the Zeist Music Days festival. This program aims to bring classical music to audiences who otherwise lack access to it: prisoners, children with disabilities, elderly people.

In 2025, the Quatuor Citadelle met Michaël Levinas at the Festival de la Roque d’Anthéron, following which the composer decided to write a piece for them.

In November 2024, the Dora Piano Trio was awarded First Prize at the ORPHEUS Chamber Music Competition, enabling them to perform at some of Switzerland’s most prestigious chamber music festivals, including the Swiss Chamber Music Festival in Adelboden, Musikdorf Ernen, Zunftkonzerte Zürich, and Piano Trio Fest in Bern. In May 2025, the trio was also a finalist at the Brahms International Chamber

Music Competition in Gdańsk.

The Dora Piano Trio is composed of violinist Sofia De Falco, cellist Axelle Richez, and pianist Rocco Michela. They met during their studies, first in Lausanne, then in Basel at the Hochschule für Musik, and after performing for years in various formations — duo, trio, and string quartet — they officially founded the Dora Piano Trio in 2024 in Basel.

Over the years, the trio has studied with renowned professors such as Anton Kernjak, Raphaël Oleg in Basel, as well as Cobus Swanepoel at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste.

The trio performs regularly in Switzerland and abroad, with recent appearances at Festival Musique et Vie, the Concerts au Lignon, and the concert season of the Swiss Foundation for Young Musicians. In November 2025, they joined Le Dimore del Quartetto network in Italy — becoming part of a select group of ensembles benefiting from curated residencies, professional development opportunities, and a European-wide platform for concerts, masterclasses and cultural collaborations. The trio was recently selected to join the MERITA Platform within the MERITAcubed project.

They have participated in masterclasses with Alasdair Beatson, Alexander Lonquich, Vera Martínez Mehner, Jonathan Brown and Benjamin Engeli and are currently continuing their studies at the Musik Akademie Basel with Anton Kernjak, Rainer Schmidt, and Anna Gebert.

The Dora Piano Trio is particularly interested in researching and discovering lesser-known repertoire from diverse genres and cultural backgrounds, and in combining these works with more well-known pieces to create thoughtful and inclusive programs that engage and broaden audiences. One of the composers they are especially passionate about is Dora Pejačević, whose piano trios and broader chamber music output have deeply inspired their artistic vision. The ensemble chose to name itself in homage to her.

The Šuma Quartet is an ensemble formed by prize-winning students studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal College of Music in London.

Since then, the group has enjoyed a varied concert schedule, including working alongside Graham Oppenheimer and performing Tchaikovsky’s ‘Souvenir de Florence’.

Last year, they were part of the J and A Beare Chamber Society and were coached by Ralph de Souza, Jacky Woods, Matthew Jones, and many more. They are regularly mentored by Krysia Osostowicz and David Takeno, and are the 2026 recipients of the St James’ Chamber Music Award. In the summer of 2026, the group took part in masterclasses with the Danish Quartet and the Leonkoro Quartet, and gave concerts in St James’ Church Piccadilly and Bechstein Hall.

The quartet – Yixuan Ren, Pavla Bedřichová, Connor Quigley and Gabriel Webb – are all full scholarship award holders at their respective conservatoires.

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 he was 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.

Fabio Bonizzoni, one of the leading Italian harpsichordists and organists of his generation, graduated in organ, organ composition and harpsichord at the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague in Ton Koopman’s class.

After having played for several years with some of the most important orchestras specializing in early music (Amsterdam Baroque, Le Concert des Nations, Europa Galante), from 2004 he exclusively devotes himself to his activities as soloist and director, in particular of his own orchestra La Risonanza.

Furthermore, he is harpsichord professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (Holland) and in Italy at the Conservatory of Novara; he is founder and president of the Associazione Hendel, a society devoted to the studies of Handel’s music in Italy.

As a soloist he has been recording for many years for the Spanish label Glossa. His discography includes works by Claudio Merulo, Giovanni Salvatore, Giovanni Picchi, Francesco Geminiani, Bernardo Storace, Domenico Scarlatti and Johann Sebastian Bach (Goldberg Variations and the Art of Fugue). His latest release is devoted to the two books of toccatas of Girolamo Frescobaldi.

In 2010 he has completed with La Risonanza the project of recording the complete Italian Cantatas with instruments by G.F. Handel: this project has been defined by Gramophone magazine as the most important of the decade, and 3 of the 7 CDs have been awarded the prestigious Handel Stanley Sadie Prize. The last disc of this series, Apollo e Dafne , won a Gramophone Award in 2011.

His activity is also enriched by commitments as guest conductor: in recent times he has been invited by Capella Cracoviensis and Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra in Poland, by the Holland Bach Society in The Netherlands and by the Orchestra Barroca de Sevilla. Furthermore, he has conducted the orchestra of Teatro alla Scala in Milan in a new ballet called L’altro Casanova.

Since 2014 he is artistic director of Note Etiche, a festival focusing on links between music, ethics and finance, and, from 2016 he and his orchestra enjoy an artistic residence at Palazzina Liberty in their hometown Milan.

Jürg Dähler, born in Zurich, international activity as violinist, violist, pedagogue, and chamber musician as well as organizer and curator of renowned festivals and concert series. Studies 
with Sándor Végh, Heribert Lauer and Pinchas Zukerman on the violin as well as with Christoph Schiller, Kim Kashkashian and Fjodor Druschinin on the viola. Formative longterm 
artist encounters with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Heinz Holliger, Brenton Langbein and György Ligeti. After his debut in the Zurich Tonhalle with the world premiere of Daniel Schnyder's viola 
concerto dedicated to him, he was a guest with many renowned orchestras under conductors such as Giorgio Bernasconi, Douglas Boyd, Friedrich Cerha, Thierry Fischer, Beat 
Furrer, Reinhard Goebel, Heinz Holliger, Brenton Langbein, Petri Sakari, Stefan Sanderling, Heinrich Schiff, Jac van Steen, Marcello Viotti and Thomas Zehetmair. Concert tours as a 
soloist and chamber musician have regularly taken him to Australia, the US and all over Europe with performances at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Salzburg Festival and the 
Wiener Festwochen, the City of London Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Venice Biennale and at the Montreux Jazz Festival. From1985-2000 he was a member and Primarius of the 
legendary Kammermusiker Zurich. In 1993 he co-founded of the Collegium Novum Zurich. Since 1993 he holds the position as principal violist at the Musikkollegium Winterthur and is a 
member of the Winterthur String Quartet. In 1999 he co-founded the Swiss Chamber Concerts and runs since 2015 the Pentecost Festival at Schloss Brunegg as its artistic director. 

He received much international acclaim for his world premiers and first performances of solo and chamber music works - many of which are written and dedicated for him - by composers 
such as Birtwistle, Blank, Braun, Bodman-Rae, Cerha, Danner, Dayer, Drushinin, Dubugnon, Dusapin, Furrer, Gaudibert, Gervasoni, Haller, Hefti, Henze, Holliger, Jost, Käser, Kelterborn, Kür, 
Lehmann, Ligeti, Moser, Pärt, Polglase, Racine, Schnyder, Wyttenbach, Vassena and Zimmerlin. He produced over 30 CDs for labels such as ECM, NEOS, Genuin, Accord, Claves, 
Grammont, Jecklin and Cantando. Currently he teaches at the Kalaidos University and gave master classes at many renowned teaching institutes such as Conservatorio di Musica “Arrigo 
Boito” di Parma, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music or the National Academy of Music in Melbourne. In 2007 he obtained the title “Executive Master in Arts Administration” from the 
Faculty of Philosophy and Economics at the University of Zurich with summa cum laude. In 2008 he received the Zolliker Art Prize for his artistic work and his services to the Swiss cultural 
life, and in 2020 he was honoured with the Swiss Music Prize for his dedicated work for the Swiss Chamber Concerts. He plays a violin by Antonio Stradivarius, Cremona 1714, and a viola 
by Raffaele Fiorini, Bologna 1893. 

www.juergdaehler.com 
www.festivalbrunegg.com 
www.swisschamberconcerts.ch 

Born in Lugano, Switzerland, Giulia Genini studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in the Recorder class of Conrad Steinmann and in the Historical Bassoon class of Donna Agrell and Josep Borras. She obtained her diploma in recorder (performance and pedagogy) with distinction and her Master in Historical Performance Practice in baroque bassoon and dulcian, also with distinction. She also took part in Master Classes with Jordi Savall, Pierre Hamon, Masaaki Suzuki, Steven Devine and Katharina Arfken.

She was awarded a scholarship of the FriedlWald Stiftung Basel, as well as the ASRI Prize in 2009. In 2014 she won the first prize of the Foundation Kiefer Hablitzel and consequently performed as a soloist at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad.

Giulia Genini regularly performs with Ensembles such as: La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, I Barocchisti, Accademia Bizantina, Il Giardino Armonico, La Divina Armonia, Ensemble Claudiana, La Piffarescha, Cappella Mediterranea, Kammerorchester Basel, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Accademia degli Astrusi, Freitagsakademie Bern, Capriccio Basel, Il Pomo d’Oro, Il Complesso Barocco, NDR Barockorchester, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre de l’Académie Européenne, Britten Pears Baroque Orchestra, Cantus Cölln and Concerto Palatino, Freiburger Barockorchester, Il Gusto Barocco, Millenium Orchestra. She has worked with conductors such as Andrea Marcon, Diego Fasolis, Giovanni Antonini, Lorenzo Ghielmi, Luca Pianca, Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon, Ottavio Dantone, Stefano Montanari, Alan Curtis, William Christie, Masaaki Suzuki, Bernhard Forck,  Konrad Junghänel, Ivor Bolton, Federico Ferri, Gabriel Garrido, Andreas Stoehr, Jörg Halubeck.

In october 2012 she performed as a guest recorder player with the Berliner Philharmoniker for a Vivaldi programm conducted by Andrea Marcon.

As a soloist she performed together with Venice Baroque Orchestra at Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival, Settimane Musicali di Ascona, Geneva Victoria Hall, Carinthischer Sommer Festival Ossiach, 59. Festspiele Europäische Wochen Passau in Ostbayern and in New York Carnegie Hall.

She is the director of the ensemble Concerto Scirocco, developing an intense discographical and musical activity focused on XVII repertoire all around Europe, obtaining important rewards like Diapason Découverte, 5 Diapasons, CHOC Classica du mois, 5 Étoiles Classica.

She took part in radio recordings for RSI Radio Svizzera Italiana Rete Due, Radio de la Suisse Romande Espace 2, Radio Swiss Classic, Radio Classique France, SRF Kultur und MDR, video recordings for ARTE, TSI and Schweizer Fernsehen and in CD recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin Classics, Decca, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, Arcana, Alpha and CPO.

Since 2015 she is invited as guest-coach at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, coordinating winds sectionals for orchestral projects about Historical Performance Practice. There, she’s also currently working as Co-Head of Studies in the performance area.

In April 2019 she taught a Workshop at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis about italian instrumental repertoire from 17th century.

She was member of the jury for the Swiss Youth Music Competition from 2010 until 2016.

She is also artistic director of the Early Music Festival CaronAntica, which takes place in the historical village of Carona, by Lugano, Switzerland.

2021-2023 she was appointed professor for historical bassoon and recorder at the Conservatorio “Bruno Maderna” in Cesena.

Since September 2022 she is professor for historical bassoons at the Haute École de Musique de Genève.

www.danielrowland.com

Dutch/English violinist Daniel Rowland’s playing has been acclaimed as “wonderful, ravishing in its finesse” by The Guardian, as „both naked and highly virtuosic“ by NRC Handelsblad, while The Herald praised his “astonishing sound and uniquely single-minded intensity”.

Daniel has established himself on the international scene as a highly versatile, charismatic and adventurous performer, with a wide ranging repertoire. In recent seasons Daniel has performed with orchestras from Tromso in the north of Norway to Cape Town, in concertos from Beethoven and Brahms to Elgar, Berg, Korngold, Weinberg, Prokoffief and  Schnittke and has worked with leading conductors such as Heinz Holliger, Jaap van Zweden, Francois Xavier Roth, Lawrence Foster, Anthony Hermus, Rossen Milanov and Andrey Boreiko. He loves championing contemporary composers and is a passionate advocate of concertos such as those by Vasks, Lindberg, Glass, Saariaho and Van der Aa. Many world where dedicated to Daniel, such as Isidora Zebeljan‘s Violin Concerto „Three curious loves“ and Roxana Panufnik‘s „Songs of Love and Friendship“ (premiere with the Dutch Radio Choir at the Concertgebouw) and Peteris Vasks’ Sonata for Solo Violin. September 2020 saw the release of Daniel’s CD ‘Distant light’, for Challenge Records with Violin Concertos by Peteris Vasks, recorded live at the Stiftfestival 2019 with the composer present. (“A beautiful ode to Vasks – rich in tension and magic“ – NRC Handelsblad). His latest release is his acclaimed recording of the Max Richter Seasons with the Stift Festival Orchestra. CD’s dedicated to the music of Osvaldo Golijov, Peteris Vasks and Isidora Zebeljan will be released over this coming year. 

A passionate chamber musician, Daniel has performed with artists as diverse as Ivry Gitlis, Heinz Holliger, Gilles Apap, Anna Fedorova, Alexander Lonquich, Nino Gvetadze, Michael Collins, Nicolas Daniel, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Lars Vogt, Alberto Mesirca, Willard White and Elvis Costello. He is a frequent guest at foremost international chamber music festivals such as Kuhmo, Stellenbosch, Risor, Sonoro, Rio de Janeiro, Chiemgau and Osnabrück. Daniel is part of acclaimed duo partnerships with pianist Natacha Kudritskaya, “a perfect partnership“ according to  BBC Music Magazine, and with cellist Maja Bogdanovic, who‘s recent duo CD „Pas de deux“ (Challenge Records) included 5 world premieres and was described as „a magical meeting between violin and cello“ by Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad.  He is also a founding member of a cutting edge Tango Quintet with bandoneon virtuoso/composer Marcelo Nisinman (an ensemble with the power of dynamite – Süddeutsche Zeitung) 

In 2005 Daniel founded the Stift International Music Festival in the bucolic region of Twente in the eastern Netherlands, where he grew up, with the 15th century Stiftkerk as the main venue. The festival has garnered acclaim as one of great intimacy, adventure and atmosphere. Daniel was for twelve years the leader of the Brodsky Quartet, performing all over the world, and making numerous recordings, including the celebrated Shostakowitch Cycle. He teaches at the Royal College of Music in London.

Daniel was born in London, and started his violin lessons in Enschede after his parents moved to Twente in the eastern Netherlands. He studied with Jan Repko, Davina van Wely, Herman Krebbers, Viktor Liberman and Igor Oistrakh. Meeting Ivry Gitlis in 1995 was of great significance, leading to lessons in Paris and, later, to musical collaborations. Daniel’s competition successes include first prize at the 1995 Oskar Back competition at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Brahms Prize in Baden-Baden. His violin is by Lorenzo Storioni (Cremona 1796), and his bow is a Maline, kindly loaned by the Dutch Instrument Foundation.