Competition 2019

Tereza Privratska, violin
Julia Loucks, violin
Lorena Cantó Woltèche, viola
Toby White, cello

Originally formed in 2006, the Jubilee Quartet now exists as a collection of four musicians from across the globe. Although the group is based in London, each member brings his or her unique sense of cultural identity, and the group thrives on musical inspiration from the Czech Republic, Canada, Spain, and England. 2019 has been a very successful year, with positive reviews from sources such as The Sunday Times, Classical Source, The Daily Telegraph, Gramophone and Strad Magazine for their debut recording of three Haydn quartets completed for Rubicon Classics in 2018 along with their receipt of First Prize at the Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award in Lugano, Switzerland. Future engagements for 2019 and 2020 include performances and workshops with ProQuartet and ChamberStudio in London and Paris, performances in Saffon Hall (Cambridge) and Madrid, as well as being Associate String Quartet at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

The quartet was recently selected to perform at the prestigious International Chamber Music Festival in MonteLéon, Spain in December 2018, as well as a tour of the Southwest of England with Concerts in the West in the early summer of 2018.They have a strong connection with Basel, Switzerland, appearing in the Basel International Chamber Music series in 2017 following their studies with Rainer Schmidt, and also appeared at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 2016 in collaboration with the Doric Quartet. The quartet has performed widely throughout the UK in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Conway Hall and the Purcell Room, and their continental tours have included a performance in the presence of the former Czech president Vaclav Havel. They have enjoyed a variety of outreach work as part of the Live Music Now! scheme, as well as working with young chamber music students at the Purcell School.

The quartet has a long history of success, including First Prize at the Val Tidone International Chamber Music Competition and the St Martin’s Chamber Music Competition, Second Prize at the Karol Szymanowski International String Quartet Competition, and Third Prize winners at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition. They held a Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship at the Academy during 2012-13, and the Richard Carne Junior Fellowship at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance during 2013-14. The quartet are award winners of the Tillett Trust ‘Young Artists’ Platform’; the Park Lane Group ‘Young Artists’; the Hattori Foundation; the Worshipful Company of Musicians ‘Concordia Foundation Artists Fund’; and are recipients of the Philharmonia MMSF ‘Charles Henderson Ensemble Award’ and the Eaton Square ‘St. Peter’s Prize’. 

Along with Rainer Schmidt, their studies have recently been overseen by professors such as John Myerscough through ChamberStudio and Oliver Wille at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. The quartet has worked extensively with Günter Pichler, Hatto Beyerle,and the Belcea String Quartet, and have participated in masterclasses with Ralph Kirshbaum, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and the Skampa, Wihan and Chilingirian Quartets. 
The Jubilee Quartet would like to thank Nigel Brown and the Stradivari Trust, the Mears/Speers and Eyers families and Mike Down for their generous support.

Jan Vojtek, piano
Matouš Pěruška, violin
Kristina Vocetková, viola

The Trio Bohémo was founded in 2019.
The members of the ensemble are – Jan Vojtek, piano, Matouš Pěruška, violin and Kristina Vocetková, cello.
Currently they are studying under the guidance of prof. Onczay Csaba and Mezö Peter in Budapest.
All the members used to play together in various chamber music formations over the past years. Through this experience, they gradually built connections and a strong network of supporters, which led them to the idea of founding a piano trio.

Recently, they have been receiving numerous concert invitations, including an appearance in May 2019 in Nagyterem of Zeneakademia, Budapest.

In May 2019 they were admitted to European Chamber Music Academy, where they will study under the guidance of the best chamber music professors around Europe.

Katarzyna Gluza, violin
Paulina Marcisz, violin
Karalina Orsik-Sauter, viola
Dominika Szczypka, cello

Considered by many to be among the most promising young generation string quartets, the Ãtma Quartet first appeared publically as the New Music Quartet in 2016 and for the two years that followed per-formed under its former name.

Four outstanding instrumentalists, graduates of Polish music academies, Ka-tarzyna Gluza (violin), Paulina Marcisz (violin), Karalina Orsik-Sauter (viola) and Dominika Szczypka (cel-lo), have been busy giving concerts at home and abroad, popularizing chamber music, particularly, works by Polish composers.

The quartet won the 1st Prize and three special awards in the 2nd Karol Szymanowski International Competition for String Quartets in Katowice (2017), an incentive award and the Bärenreiter Urtext Prize in the International Competition ‘Franz Schubert and Modern Music’ in Graz (2018), and the 3rd Prize in the 1st Karol Szymanowski International Music Competition in Katowice (2018). The musicians have also been recipients of two scholarships awarded by the Mayor of the City of Bydgoszcz. Ãtma Quartet was also awar-ded a scholarship by Ministry of Culture and National Heritage ‘Young Poland’ (2018), thanks to which they accomplished a CD with Polish music.
The Ãtma Quartet has performed during masterclasses taught by members of such highly acclaimed chamber ensembles as the Alban Berg Quartet, the Kuss Quartet, the Jerusalem Quartet, the Ysaÿe Quartet, the Artemis Quartet, the Cuarteto Quiroga, the Vogler Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, the Silesian String Quartet, the Zehetmair Quartet, the Apollon Musagète Quartett, the Meccore String Quartet, the Vien-na Brahms Trio, the Penderecki Piano Trio, or the Herbert Piano Trio. The quartet has also worked with Ala-in Meunier, Avri Levitan and Marek Moś, and participated in the Jenuesses Musicales International Chamber Music Campus (Germany) and the Chigiana International Festival and Summer Academy (Italy).

The quartet has appeared in a number of prestigious festivals abroad, such as the Davos Festival in Switzerland, the Quatuors à Bordeaux Festival and the Château de Lourmarin Summer Music Festival in France, the Zeist Music Days in Holland, or the Musethica concerts in Spain; as well as in Poland, in the Karol Szymanowski Music Days (Zakopane), the Emanations International Music Festival (Lusławice), the International Young Music Competition Winners Festival (Katowice) and the Urle Chamber Music Festival.

The musicians have also performed at most of the local, Bydgoszcz-based artistic events, among which are the Old Waterworks Chamber Music Festival, the ‘Music in the Blumwe Villa’ project, the ‘Eye Never Sle-eps’ International Contemporary Art Festival, the Fonomo Music & Film Festival, the ‘Arts in Gryf’ project, and the Bydgoszcz Science Festival.

Since 2018 the Ãtma Quartet has been actively participating in the Le Dimore del Quartetto project, promoting Polish music in Italy. The ensemble has also been engaged in the French ProQuartet programme, whose aim is to foster the development of chamber music in the world.

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.

Simone Gramaglia is the viola player and one of the founders of the Quartetto di Cremona.

Passionate chamber music player, Simone regularly collaborates with artists such as Antonio Meneses, Lawrence Dutton, Andrea Lucchesini, Jamie Walton, Quartetto Pavel Haas, Emerson String Quartet, performing at the most prestigious concert halls all over the world (among them, Lincoln Centre New York, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wigmore Hall London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Santa Cecilia, NCPA Beijing, Salle Gaveau Paris, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires).

As a soloist Simone regularly performs with numerous orchestras and pianists and frequently collaborates with the Italian guitarist Luigi Attademo. Both his chamber and solo repertoire includes works from the Classical and Romantic period, as well as 20th century composers, with special attention given to rarely-performed and contemporary Italian composers.

Since 2011, he has been String Quartet Professor at the Walter Stauffer Academy in Cremona and he also gives master classes in Europe, Asia and the USA. Simone is proudly involved in several projects supporting young musicians: he is Artistic Director of the international network “Le Dimore del Quartetto” and of the “Sergio Dragoni” String Quartet Competition.

Simone Gramaglia plays a 1680 Gioachino Torazzi viola on kind loan from Kulturfonds Peter Eckes (Germany). He has been the first Italian viola player recipient of the Stradivarius Viola “Paganini” on kind loan from the Nippon Music Foundation (Tokyo).

A versatile musician, Daniel Haefliger is as renowned as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher as he is as organizer, lecturer and translator, and has also initiated numerous educational and musicology projects.

As a cello player, trained by Pierre Fournier and André Navarra, he has performed regularly in important music centres such as Berlin, London, Lucerne, Paris, Tokyo or Sydney with such partners as Heinz Holliger, Dénes Várjon or Patricia Kopatchinskaja and conductors such as Thierry Fischer, Pascal Rophé, Peter Eötvös or Magnus Lindberg. He has travelled all over Europe with the Zehetmair Quartet, which has won the greatest international awards for its recordings and whose specialty is to play every programme by heart. Deeply invested in music of his time, he collaborated closely with all the composers who left their mark on his generation, whether they be György Kurtág, Brian Ferneyhough, György Ligeti, Elliott Carter, Heinz Holliger, Helmut Lachenmann, Klaus Huber, Luciano Berio, Franco Donatoni, Pascal Dusapin, George Benjamin and many others, and continues to premiere numerous works by the new generation of Swiss composers.

At the turn of the millennium, he initiated the greatest chamber music season in Switzerland, with regular concerts in Geneva, Zurich, Basel and Lugano, known as the Swiss Chamber Concerts, of which he is the musical and administrative director with Felix Renggli (Basel) and Jürg Dähler (Zurich). He has also been solo cellist for the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, the Camerata Bern and the Ensemble Contrechamps. He is a founder member of the musicology editions bearing the same name, and has, among others, translated the Schoenberg-Kandinski correspondence into French. Passionate teacher, he holds the chamber music class at the Sion site of the Lausanne HEMU, and founded the Swiss Chamber Academy in 2014, followed by the Swiss Chamber Camerata in 2017, which brings together Switzerland’s most promising talents. Numerous radio and CD recordings with labels such as Forlane (F), Stradivarius (I), Claves (CH), Neos (D), ECM (D) or Genuin (D) attest to his activities as performer. Daniel Haefliger plays on a Giovanni Grancino cello (Milan 1698).

Marcello Parolini was born in Milan, and received his diploma at the “G. Verdi” Conservatory of Milan in piano (with the highest marks) with L. Leonardi and in composition with S. Gorli and U. Rotondi, obtaining successfully his diploma in Milan.

He was permanent conductor of the “Ensemble Traiettorie Sonore” and of the Baveno Festival Ensemble. He collaborated with the group “Musica XX” and the choir of the “Nuova Polifonica Ambrosiana”. At present, he is permanent conductor of the SIMCensemble.

He has collaborated with several ensembles (Ensemble Nuove Sincronie, Divertimento Ensemble, Tactus Ensemble, Orchestra Cantelli, Orchestra Verdi etc) and has recorded for Stradivarius, Ricordi, Agorà, Eucled, Curci, RAI, Radio France and BBC.

He was awarded at several competitions, he teaches at the CSM C. Abbado in Milan. Beside his teaching activity, he is director of the Music School “Scuola Civica Cassano d’Adda”. He is often invited as jury member of the “Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award” in Lugano and permanently plays in duo with the famous harmonica player Willi Burger.

“…a first-rate violinist with a rich tonal palette, fine technique and a lovely singing vibrato…. a musician of surprising honesty and maturity” (The STRAD)

A prize-winner at three of the most prestigious international violin competitions – the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Queen Elizabeth in Brussels and the Indianapolis – Marco Rizzi has soon been recognised as one of the most interesting young violinists of his generation and was awarded the Europäischen Musikförderpreis on the recommendation of Claudio Abbado.

Marco Rizzi is regarded as one of the most appreciated musicians from Italy. He regularly appeared in leading concert halls such as Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Salle Gaveau and Salle Pleyel in Paris, Lincoln Center in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Philharmonic Society of Brussels, the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory,  the Hamburger Musikhalle, the Berlin Konzerthaus and the Tivoli of Copenhagen.  He worked with such notable conductors as R. Chailly, G. Noseda, A. Ceccato, P. Eötvös, V. Jurowski, S. Denéve, G. Neuhold and was soloist with orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Dresden, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre de Concerts Lamoureux, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orquesta RTVE of Madrid, BBC Scottish, Netherlands Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano ‘G.Verdi’, Radio Chamber Orchestra Holland, and many others.

Passionate about chamber music, Marco Rizzi cooperates with artists like A. Lucchesini, M. Brunello, E. Dindo, L. Zylberstein, G. Hoffman, N. Imai, M. Fischer-Dieskau, D. Poppen, and is dedicatee of various contemporary works composed by A. Corghi, L. Francesconi, F. Vacchi, U. Bombardelli, C. Galante and U. Leyendecker among others.

Marco Rizzi recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Amadeus, Nuova Era, Dynamic, Warehouse, etc.

Marco Rizzi resides in Germany, leading an international class first at the Hochschule für Musik -Detmold (Germany) (1999 -2008). In October 2008 he was appointed at the Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim and since September 2007 he is also professor at the renomated Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. His students have been prize-winners in important international competitions. He is also regularly serving as juror in some of the most prestigious violin competitions, such as the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Bruxelles), the Joachim Violin Competition (Hannover) or the Paganini Violin Competition (Genova).

Marco Rizzi plays on the “Baron Knoop” 1743 violin by Pietro Guarneri, owned by the foundation “Il Canale” ONLUS.