Professors

Heinz Holliger

Oboe

Heinz Holliger was born in Langenthal (Switzerland, canton of Berne) on 21 May 1939. During his grammar-school education he already studied oboe with Emile Cassagnaud at the Conservatoire of Berne and composition with Sándor Veress. From 1958 he continued his studies with Yvonne Lefébure (piano) and Pierre Pierlot (oboe) in Paris. Between 1961 and 1963 […]

Jürg Dähler

Viola

Jürg Dähler, born in Zurich, completed his studies on the violin and the viola at the Music Academy in Zurich with the highest honours. Various prizes and scholarships enabled further studies with Sándor Vegh, Pinchas Zukerman, Kim Kashkashian and Fjodor Druzhinin. That was followed by influential encounters with artists such as Brenton Langbein, Heinz Holliger, […]

Felix Renggli

Flute

Felix Renggli was born in Basel/Switzerland and studied the flute with Gerhard Hildenbrand, Peter-Lukas Graf and Aurèle Nicolet. He gave up his chair as a solo flautist with the Symphony Orchestra of St. Gallen, to start a freelance career in the same position with several orchestras in Europe (Tonhalle Zürich, Festival Orchestra Lucerne, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Chamber […]

Daniel Haefliger

Violoncello

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, […]

Thomas Zehetmair

Violin

Thomas Zehetmair’s ability to skillfully blend his musical interests is unparalleled. He enjoys widespread international acclaim not only as a violinist, but also a conductor and chamber musician, making him one of the most prominent artistic personalities of today. Since the 2019/20 season he is Chief Conductor of the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester as well as from […]

Ilya Gringolts

Violin

  Ilya Gringolts wins over audiences with his highly virtuosic playing and sophisticated interpretations and is always seeking out new musical challenges. As a sought-after soloist, Ilya Gringolts devotes himself to the great orchestral repertoire as well as to contemporary and rare works; he is also interested in historical performance practices. His concert programmes include […]

Sophie Klussmann

Soprano

With a voice that is warm, wide-ranging and dark-hued, and commanding a repertoire that extends from the baroque to the present day, German-born soprano Sophie Klussmann is in demand as a concert singer, as a recitalist and on the opera stage. In recent seasons her engagements have included a world tour of Mozart concert arias […]

Ruth Killius

Viola

Ruth Killius studied with Ulrich Koch and Kim Kashkashian and was principal viola player of the Camerata Bern. She played as soloist with renowned orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Camerata Salzburg, Basler Sinfonie Orchester, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Symphony […]

Daniel Borovitzky

Piano

Daniel Borovitzky was born in 1991 in Samara, Russia, and immigrated with his family to Israel at the age of three. He has toured North and South America, Europe, and the Far East as a soloist and chamber musician. As a soloist, he has performed under Zubin Mehta at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel […]

Diego Chenna

Bassoon

Diego Chenna studied bassoon with V. Menghini at the Conservatory of Music in Turin and with Sergio Azzolini at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart. At the same time, he was a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester as well as the European Union Youth Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, who also invited him to play […]

Emanuel Abbühl

Oboe

Emanuel Abbühl, born in Berne, Switzerland, studied with André Lardrot and Heinz Holliger. He has received many awards and was a prize winner at the international competitions in Geneva and Prague. He was principal oboist with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and from 2006 to 2015 held the same position with the […]

Irene Abrigo

Violin

Winner of the 2015 Respighi Prize 2015, Irene Abrigo has made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 with the Chamber Orchestra of New York, performing the NY première of the violin concerto by Dirk Brossé “Black, White and in Between”. In 2016 she also performs in Brazil the south America première of the Respighi’s Violin […]

Anton Kernjak

Piano

Anton Kernjak has received several awards and was a prizewinner at the international Johannes Brahms piano competition in Austria. An accomplished chamber musician, he has performed with different duo and trio partners throughout Europe, Canada, the USA and Japan. Some of his more notable appearances include the Tonhalle Zürich, the WDR Cologne, Wigmore Hall, London […]

Christian Lampert

Horn

Christian Lampert was born in 1967 in Offenburg. He attended his first music classes on the French horn with F. Raselli, M. Cakar and Prof. E. Penzel. During his studies he was laureate of the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes” and won several awards in national and international music contests, e.g. the International Instrument Contest Markneukirchen […]

Florent Héau

Clarinet

Juliane Banse

Soprano

With her diverse and extensive repertoire, few artists of her generation are as successful as soprano Juliane Banse. Her operatic repertoire ranges from the Marschallin, Contessa (Le Nozze di Figaro), Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito), Genoveva (title role), Leonore, to Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Arabella and Grete (Schreker’s Der ferne Klang). Her artistic breakthrough came […]

Matthias Würsch

Percussion

Matthias Würsch studied at the Basel Musik-Akademie where he got his soloist diploma; then he improved himself with Jean-Pierre Drouet in Paris. He used to play with many orchestras such as The Basler Kammerensemble, Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt), Ensemble Contrechamps (Geneva), The B.E.A.M., Ensemble Phoenix (Basel) and still Basel Concertino. As a soloist, he was invited to […]

Kirill Zvegintsov

Piano

Kirill Zvegintsov was invited to take part in the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Davos Festival, Festival Piano à Saint-Ursanne, Murten Classics, Musikfestival Bern, SeetalClassics, Musiksommer am Zürichsee; he performed in such famous concert halls as salle Cortot/Paris, Naxoshalle in Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim National Theater and Casino Berne among others. Kirill Zvegintsov is a multiple prize-winner of […]

Peter Laul

Piano

Peter Laul was born in St.Petersburg in 1977 . In 2000 he graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatoire (class of Alexander Sandler) He is a laureate of international competitions: 1995  – the 3rd prize and the special prize for the best performance of Bach  at the  International piano competition in Bremen; 1997 – […]

Geneviève Strosser

Viola

An artist in search: this is probably the most accurate portrait that can be drawn of the violist Geneviève Strosser. From her first concerts under the baton of Harnoncourt, to her encounter with Aperghis, via her daily exposure to the music of Bach, this search is reflected in all the facets of her profession as […]

Gilles Vonsattel

Piano

A “wanderer between worlds” (Lucerne Festival), “immensely talented” and “quietly powerful pianist” (New York Times), Swiss-born American Gilles Vonsattel is an artist of extraordinary versatility and originality. Comfortable with and seeking out an enormous range of repertoire, Vonsattel displays a musical curiosity and sense of adventure that has gained him many admirers. Recipient of an […]

Sarah O’Brien

Harp

Sarah O’Brien is an extraordinarily versatile harpist who proves that the harp is no longer to be confined to a narrow Romantic frame but has a voice of its own, from baroque to contemporary literature. Sarah O’Brien has been principal harpist with the royal Concertgebouw orchestra Amsterdam and the Munich philharmonic for over 20 years. […]

Szymon Marciniak

Double bass

Merel Quartett

String Quartet

Merel Quartett Mary Ellen Woodside Violine Edouard Mätzener Violine Alessandro D’Amico Viola Rafael Rosenfeld Violoncello

Vesselina Kasarova

Mezzosoprano

Winterthurer Streichquartett

String Quartet

Winterthurer Streichquartett Bogdan Božović Violin Francesco Sica Violin Jürg Dähler Viola Sebastian Braun Violoncello