Violin I
Holger Grohs
(b. 1971) received at the age of six his first violin lessons at the
local music school in Bavaria. At age of 16, he joined the Bavaria State
Youth Orchestra, where he was appointed concertmaster later. After
taking lessons with E. Klemmstein, he continued his training with prof.
W. Forchert at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in
Frankfurt am Main. Holger Grohs was a member of the Junge Deutsche
Philharmonie and the Gustav Maler Youth Orchestra. In 1995 he started
his studies with prof. T. Goldschmidt at the Hochschule für Musik
Würzburg, where he received the highest marks for his diploma recital.
He received several scholarships and attended master classes of S.
Gawrriloffs and F. Gulli. His vast orchestra experience also include
memberships of the Pacific Music Festival of Sapporo in 2000 and of the
Marteau Ensemble. Since 2001 Holger Grohs is a member of the
Staatskapelle Dresden.
Barbara Gruszczynska's CV will be added soon.
Kataryna Leifer (b. 1977) started playing the violin at the age
of six. She studied at the National Music
Academy of Ukraine, as a pupil of Y. Rivnyak, and graduated with
excellence in 2001. One year before finishing she became a student of B.
Belkin at the Maastricht Conservatoire, combining her studies in Ukraine
with a postgraduate in solo performance in The Netherlands. Kataryna
Leifer was successful in numerous national and international violin
competitions. She won a second prize in the Citta di Stresa Competition
and a first prize at the National All-Ukrainian violin competition and
the New Names of Ukraine competition. In 2003 Kataryna Leifer moved to
Denmark. She became a member of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra
in 2004. As a soloist and with orchestras, she has visited Poland, France,
Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, The Netherlands and, as a member of the
Ukrainian Philharmonic String Quartet, Japan.
Idinna Lützhøft (b. 1983) began her violin studies at the Royal
Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen in 2000 with professor P. Elbæk.
Shortly afterwards, in 2001, she received an award from the Københavns Amts
Kulturråd. In 2003, Idinna Lützhøft was accepted into the Oberlin
Conservatory of Music, Ohio (USA), were she studied for two years with prof.
M. Vitek. She returned to Denmark in 2005, to continue her studies at
the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. Idinna Lützhøft has
participated in numerous courses and masterclasses abroad and played as
soloist with several amateur orchestras in Denmark. Shortly after
finishing her studies she became a member of the Copenhagen Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Franz Schubert (b. 1974) was born in Dresden in the former German
Democratic Republic. After his formal studies, specializing in music and violin
performance, he went to study in Leipzig
with professor K. Hertel, one of the most outstanding teachers in East Germany. In 1993
Franz Schubert participated in the Music Festival of Chautauqua at the
University of Rochester (USA). He participated in several masterclasses with teachers
such as I. Osim, Y. Kless, S. Bron and M. Presser for chamber music. He
played many recitals with repertoire for piano trio, and appeared as
soloist with the Westsächsische Philharmonie. In 1996 he won
the competition for the Leipzig Gewandhaus Scholarship. Although he
was invited to play in this orchestra, Franz Schubert returned to
Dresden, where he became a member of the Staatskapelle Dresden in 1997,
and obtained a first violin position in 2004.
Violin II
Hanne Askou (b. 1976) was accepted at the Carl Nielsen Academy of
Music in Odense at the age of 16, where she studied with M. Granvig. She
performed her official début concert from the Soloist Class in 2005,
performing Ruders’ 1. Violin Concerto with the Odense Symphony
Orchestra. She attended the Sibelius Academy in Finland and studied also with prof. P. Elbæk and F. Ayo in Rome. She has received several
scholarships, including grants from the Danish Institute for Science and
Art in Rome and the Danish Institute in Athens. Together with the
Serbian accordion player Branko Djordjevic, Hanne formed the Duo Novello.
They have premiered several works dedicated to them. Their participation in the
Danish Radio Chamber Music Competition has lead to numerous broadcasts
with several European radio stations. In 2006, they produced a CD
with “The 8 Seasons” by Vivaldi and Piazzolla.
Johanna Fuch's CV will be added soon.
Alexander Klemmstein
(b. 1971) continued his professional studies in 1994 at the Music School
of Würzburg with prof. Th. Egel-Goldschmidt, receiving his degree in
2002. During his studies, he participated in numerous international master
classes and took lessons with prof. Y. Marzurkevich, G. Karrand and M. Katims.
From 2000 to 2001, he was a resident student at the Banff Centre for the
Arts in Canada, where he studied with prof. Th. Brandis
(former Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic) and Prof. D. Takeno
(Royal Academy of Music, London) performing chamber music with
renowned flute soloist P. Galois and Prof. Th. Brandis. Between 2001 and
2003, he held a first violin position in the Orchestra of the Meininger
Staatstheater, Germany. He now teaches at the Erlanger Musikinstitut and performs with the ”Erlanger Piano Trio“.
Alexander Klemmstein has
released several CD recordings with the pianist K. Bouscarrut.
Inkeri Vänskä (b. 1983) was born in a Finnish family residing in Japan and
took her first violin lesson there at the age of four. Her family moved
to Finland in 1989 where she continued her studies at the Lahti
Conservatorium and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Inkeri Vänskä moved
to Copenhagen in 2004 and studied with prof. S. Azizian. She has attended masterclasses with P. Vernikov and G. Schulz,
among others. She has led the second violins of Orkester Norden,
and of the academy orchestras in Finland and Denmark. Inkeri Vänskä was the concert master
for the joint project of the Aalborg Symphony
Orchestra and the Royal Danish Academy of
Music in 2005. She has assisted on a regular basis in the Copenhagen
Philharmonic and the Danish Radio Sinfonietta.
Viola
Michael Leifer (b. 1974) started to play the violin at the age of
five. At the age of eight he received the first prize in the regional
violin competition of his birth town, Taschkent (Russia). In 1995 he moved
to Sweden, where he continued his studies with prof. M. Vitek at the
Royal Academy of Music in Gothenborg, graduating in 1999. He continued
his viola studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen,
where he received the prize “Citizen of the World in Denmark”. After
finishing his studies in Denmark, Micha Leifer won the National Viola
Competition of the Music Academy in Stockholm in 2002. He studied also
in Maastricht (The Netherlands), and attended masterclasses with
D. Schwarzberg, V. Berlinsky and N. Brainin, among others. He played in the Malmö Opera and Ballet Orchestra until he
became a member of the Royal Danish Orchestra in 2005.
Gregori Khodos' CV will be added soon.
Nikolaj Lind Pedersen (b. 1976) studied viola at the Royal Danish
Academy of Music in Copenhagen with prof. T.
Frederiksen. In 2003, he was accepted into the Oberlin Conservatory of
Music, Ohio (USA), where he studied with prof. R. Chase. In 2004, he
returned to Denmark and finished his studies at the Royal Danish
Academy of Music in Copenhagen in 2005. Nikolaj Lind Pedersen
participated in masterclasses with Y. Bashmet and G. Karni, among others. He is an experienced orchestra
musician. He led the viola section in the the joint project of the Aalborg Symphony
Orchestra and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 2005. During his studies he was offered a
contract
with the Sønderjylland Symphony Orchestra. In 2007, he became a member
of the Aarhus Symfoniorkester.
Cello
Andreas Broch (b. 1975) studied cello at the Vestjysk Academy
of Music, Esbjerg, with D. Wolf and at the Royal Danish Academy of Music
in
Copenhagen with H. Brendstrup and M. Zeuthen, where he graduated in
1999. After his studies in Denmark he continued as a pupil of H. Zori,
at the Samuel Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. He took part in
masterclasses with R. Kirshbaum, U. Wiesel, E. Gruber, M. Haran, B.
Greenhouse, S. Heled, B. Gold and C. Carr. Andreas Broch has appeared as
a soloist with several orchestras, including the Clear Lake Symphony of
Houston, the Amadeus Ensemble of Copenhagen and the Esbjerg Youth
Symphony Orchestra, performing Dvořák, Boccherini and Elgar. He has
performed numerous recitals, including the performance of Bach’s solo suites
throughout Denmark.
Frederik Waage (b. 1972), was admitted to the Luxembourg
Conservatoire at the age of eight. Later he studied in England at the
Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, the Royal Danish Academy
of Music in Copenhagen and in the USA at Indiana
University in Bloomington. He was a pupil of R. Kirshbaum, E. Bløndal
Bengtsson and T. Tsutsumi, among others. In 2002, he made his official
début from the Soloist Class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in
Copenhagen. Frederik Waage is Prize-winner in several competitions,
including the Eva Janzer Memorial Popper Cello Competition in Indiana (USA) in 1997. For
the period 2001-2010 he was the cellist of Ensemble Nordlys, performing
throughout Denmark and abroad.
Frederik has participated in several
music festivals and toured as a chamber musician all over the world
including USA, Japan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Argentina, France, Germany,
England, Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Slovakia, Norway, Belgium, Greece,
Israel, Syria and Spain.
In 2005, he founded the Hafnia Chamber
Orchestra.
Double Bass
Andreas Bennetzen (b. 1975) studied the double bass at the Carl
Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense, the Padre Antonio Soler
Conservatoire in Madrid and at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in
Copenhagen, were he performed his official début concert in 2003. In the
year 2000, he studied chamber music at the Juilliard School of Music in
New York with E. Levinson.
Andreas Bennetzen has been assisting in all the Danish symphony
orchestras, including the Royal Danish Orchestra and the Danish Radio
Sinfonietta. Andreas Bennetzen is also a member of
the cross-over ensemble Classic Beat, with which he has performed on
Danish radio and television. In addition, he has composed for ensembles
and theater productions including a children’s cd-book on Politikens
Forlag.