One of the most successful musicians of his generation, violinist Andrey Baranov enjoys an exclusive career as an outstanding soloist and a sought after ensemble partner, performing on main stages and festivals in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia.
He is the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition of 2012, the Benjamin Britten and Henri Marteau International Violin Competitions, and a prizewinner of more than twenty other international competitions, including Indianapolis, Seoul, Sendai, Liana Issakadze, David Oistrakh, and the Moscow Paganini Competition.
Since making his debut in 2005 at the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Grand Hall under Vasily Petrenko and Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Baranov went on to performing with Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchesra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, MusicAeterna Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic, Royal Phiharmonic London, Camerata Salzburg under the baton of conductors Teodor Currentzis, Vladimir Fedoseev, Michel Tabachnik, Walter Weller, Emmanuel Krivine, Yuri Temirkanov, Kent Nagano, Thomas Sanderling, Michael Sanderling and Alexander Vedernikov, among others.
Boris Brovtsyn has established himself as one of the most profound and versatile musicians of his generation. He is in ever-increasing demand all around the world as both concerto soloist and chamber musician. His repertoire includes over fifty violin concertos and hundreds of chamber works, some of which he premiered. He is a frequent guest at "Les Grands Interpretes" chamber music series in Geneva and Spectrum Concerts Berlin, where he has appeared in every season since 2008.
A fourth-generation musician, Boris started to play violin under the guidance of his grandfather, a student of Lev Tzeitlin and Abram Yampolsky. After graduating from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory where he studied with Maya Glezarova, Boris made his UK debut with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Rumon Gamba and soon relocated to London. He completed his studies with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has taught there himself from 2010 until 2016. In addition to the professorship at the GSMD, he also chaired a class at the Trinity College of Music in Greenwich and has given masterclasses all around the world, including South Korea, Thailand and Brazil. He is currently holding a professorship at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität in Vienna.
American violinist Karisa Chiu first came to international prominence with her first prize win at the 2021 Isangyun Violin Competition, resulting in her debut with the KBS Symphony Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Center. She has since gone on to solo in some of the most renowned concert halls around the world such as Severance Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Casals Forum. Karisa received top accolades from the Menuhin, Leopold Mozart, Stulberg, and Irving M. Klein Competitions and has been featured as a soloist with orchestras such as the Munich Radio Orchestra, Tongyeong Festival Orchestra, Asheville Symphony Orchestra, and Montgomery Symphony Orchestra. Her debut album Home, recorded with pianist Zhu Wang, is set to release with Cedille Records in the fall of 2025.
Raised in a musical family, Karisa began her studies at age two with her father, Cornelius Chiu, a first violinist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She collaborates frequently with her mother and uncle, pianists Inah Choi-Chiu and Frederic Chiu. The Chiu family has given annual concerts for over two decades at the Festival of the Arts at Mohonk Mountain House. She has performed in many other music festivals around the globe including Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Music@Menlo, Chigiana Summer Academy, Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, and Aspen Music Festival.
A seasoned performer at the ripe age of twenty-three, Elli Choi is quickly establishing herself as one of the most talented violinists of her generation. Choi has performed throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East at esteemed venues such as David Geffen Hall the David H. Koch Theater, Maison Symphonique de Montréal, Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall, Tonhalle Zürich, Rudolfinum Dvořák Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, BOZAR, Abu Dhabi Palace, and Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, collaborating with orchestras such as Orchestre Philarmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Armenian State Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, The Juilliard Orchestra, and members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Winner of the Monaco World Music Masters in 2016, Choi has since won top prizes at the Qingdao International Violin Competition, Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition, and the China International Music Competition. Elli has just finished her undergraduate studies at Columbia University, while simultaneously enrolled at the Juilliard School where she has been studying since 2009 and will continue her Masters studies as a Kovner fellow this fall.
Choi currently plays a J. B. Vuillaume c. 1840 on generous loan.
Yuki Hirano was born in 2004 and grew up in Sapporo, the capital or Japan's Northern lsland. She started playing the violin at the age of 5 and studied under Ms. Yukari Fukushima. In 2017 she came to the national stage by winning the first prize at the All Japan Student Music Competition and receiving the Suntory Foundation for the Arts Award (loan of AngeloToppani 1740). In 2020 she won the second prize in the Music Competition of Japan, Japan's most prestigious national competition.
In 2024 she was awarded second prize at the Ysaÿe International Music Competition.
At the age of 19, Yuki won the first prize at the Vienna Classic Violin Competition.
Yuki won the 7th International Jascha Heifetz Competition. Beside the 1st Prize, she was also awarded the prize for the best interpretation of a Jascha Heifetz arrangement, along with numerous concert engagements for the 2025/2026 season.
She has been performing as a soloist since her debut with the Tokyo University of the Arts Philharmonia in 2016. In 2019, 2021, and 2022; she was invited to appear as a rising star at the Miyazaki International Music Festival.
Her performance with the Tokyo City Philharmonia in 2020 was aired on Japanese Public Television. In 2021, she was selected by jury members to perform a solo recital at the Internationaler Joseph Joachim Violinwettbewerb, Hannover.
She benefits from scholarships from the Munetsugu Angel Fund/Japan Federation of Musicians and the Meiji Yasuda Quality of Life Culture Foundation. Yuki has studied at Toho Gakuen School of Music with Prof. Tsugio Tokunaga. Since the fall of 2023, she has studied with Prof. Pavel Vernikov at the Musik and Arts University of the City of Vienna.
Lorenz Karls was born in Vienna into an Austrian Swedish family and began playing the violin at age 4. To highlight some of his soloist appearances in the last seasons, should be mentioned his appearance at the Mozartwoche Salzburg in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation followed by concerts with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, WDR Funkhausorchester, Camerata Bern, Odense Symfonieorkester, Kremerata Baltica, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra of Milan.
Lorenz has won numerous prizes at national and international competitions, among them seven top prizes from member competitions of “World Federation of Music Competitions” including both Mozart Competitions in Salzburg, Austria and Zhuhai, China.
Lorenz plays the G.B Guadagnini “ex-Bachmann” 1785 violin kindly loaned to him by the Stephan and Viktoria Schmidheiny Foundation.
Violinist Haik Kazazyan has performed with such orchestras as Orchestra of The Mariinsky Theater, Orchestre National de France, Scottish Royal National Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Yu. Simonov, Moscow Symphony Orchestra named after E. Svetlanov, Prague Philharmonic orchestra, Dublin National Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Katowice Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich Chamber orchestra, Moscow chamber orchestra and many others.
The musicians Haik worked with as a soloist and chamber musician are conductors Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis, Yuri Bashmet, Andrew Litton, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Liebreich, Alexander Lazarev, Constantine Orbelian, Jonathan Darlington, Ricardo Averbach, Alan Buribayev, Jac van Steen, David Brophy, Pavel Kogan, Alexander Polianichko, pianists Denis Matsuev, Freddy Kempf, Eliso Virsaladze, Aleksey Lubimov, Alex Kobrin, Ekaterina Mechetina, Rem Urasin, violinists Pavel Vernikov, Gordan Nikolitch, Boris Brovtsyn, cellists Natalia Gutman, Alexander Rudin, Alexander Bouzlov, Sergey Antonov, Boris Andrianov and many other great musicians of our generation.
Haik’s teachers were:
1989–1996 — Levon Zoryan in Yerevan music school named after Sayat-Nova.
1996–2009 — Edouard Grach in Moscow Gleason school, then in Moscow Conservatory.
2006–2008 — Itzhak Rashkovsky in Royal College of Music in London.
He has performed with Scottish Royal Orchestra with A.Lazarev, Russian Chamber Orchestra and Russian National Orchestra with C. Orbelian, Chamber orchestra ‘Moscovia’ with his professor E. Gratch, Dublin National Orchestra and others.
Jinzhu Li, a seventeen-year-old violinist from Hunan, China, began playing the violin at the age of four. She is currently studying with Prof. Erik Schumann at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main. In 2019, she was selected for the “Outstanding Innovation Talents Supporting Program” at Xinghai Conservatory, where she studied under Prof. Dan Li until 2023. Jinzhu has participated in the “Morning Music Bridge” festival in 2021, 2023, and 2024.
Over the years, Jinzhu has participated and got prizes in various competitions, including First Prize at the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in January 2023, First Prize in Violin Group C of the 5th Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians in September 2023 and Second Prize in London Classic Violin Competition in 2024.
She has also held multiple solo recitals and collaborated with orchestras such as the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, and Moscow State Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2023, she had a concert tour as a soloist with the Greater Bay Area Youth Orchestra in Hongkong, Macau, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Additionally, Jinzhu has been invited to perform at renowned concert halls, including the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, the Guangzhou Opera House, and others.
Ruifeng Lin is currently studying with China’s famous violinist and educator Vera Tsu Weiling. He serves as the concert master of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Novus-Classica Camerata.
Lin has won numerous awards, In 2019 he won the “Golden Bell” violin competition; In October 2020, he was awarded the “Young Musician Award” at the 23rd Beijing International Music Festival.In 2022, he became the only “prize winner” from China mainland in the “Isaac Stern International Violin Competition” in Shanghai.In October 2023, He won the 3rd Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition Grand Prize. He was a semifinalist at the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition in May 2024.
Lin has performed with China Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra, Kunming Nie Er Symphony Orchestra, Xi’an Symphony Orchestra, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Harbin Symphony Orchestra, Tianjin Symphony Orchestra and so on.
Mariusz Patyra was born in Orzysz/Poland in 1977.
He began to play the violin at the age of 7. His teachers were: Zbigniew Ciucias, A. Hoffmann in Olsztyn, Agnieszka Cypryk, Prof. J. Kucharski in Warsaw, Prof. K. Węgrzyn in Hannover and Maestro Salvatore Accardo in Cremona. He graduated with honours from the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, and is a lecturer at the Academy.
A true virtuoso of the violin, Mariusz Patyra's artistic career took off after winning the 2001 Niccolo Paganini International Violin Competition. His success was exceptional in that he was the first ever Polish violinist to win the "Premio Niccolo Paganini". Patyra was also awarded a special prize for best interpretation of the Paganini Caprices and received a copy of the great master's violin, "Il Cannone"; he had the honor of performing on Niccolo Paganini's original Guarneri del Gesu during a later concert.
Xiao Wang has been praised by the New York Times as an “excellent violinist,” who “made the most of its expressive opportunities.” First-prize winner of the 2012 Szigeti International Violin Competition and 2016 New York Concert Artist, he has received numerous prizes and awards from international competitions, including the 2015 Queen Elizabeth Competition and the 2015 Seoul International Competition.
Mr. Wang has toured throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. As a soloist, he performed at Bela Bartok National Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Gewandhaus, Kammermusiksaal of the Berlin Philharmonic, National Center for Performing Art
in Beijing, and Seoul Art Center. He worked under the baton of Marin Alsop, David Gilbert, János Kovács, George Manahan, and András Ligeti, and performed with orchestras including the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Kodály Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Academisches Orchester.
Violinist Soyoung Yoon has captivated audiences and critics alike with her “meticulous... highly disciplined” artistry (Gramophone) and “suave” performances, where “technical perfection... is always placed at the service of the music” (The Guardian).
A celebrated virtuoso, Soyoung has triumphed at many of the world’s most prestigious violin competitions. She is a 1st prize winner of the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists, the International Violin Competition ‘Tibor Varga’, and the David Oistrakh International Violin Competition. Additionally, she is a prize winner at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, affirming her position as one of the leading violinists of her generation.