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Francis Kefford
Viola & Co-Director
Australian-born violist, Francis Kefford, made his solo debut at the Sydney Opera House aged 16. Soon after he moved to London where he studied with Ian Jewel and Andriy Viytovych at the Purcell School and the Royal College of Music, winning the Cecil Aronovitz and Lionel Tertis prizes for viola. As a soloist and chamber musician in a variety of ensembles, Francis has performed in many leading concert venues across Europe including the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room in London and has performed in masterclasses with Gordan Nikolic, Yuri Bashmet, Gabor Takacs and Mikhail Kopelman. In 2006, Francis premiered ‘Elegie’, a work for viola and string orchestra by Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe, at Angel Place Recital Hall, Sydney and toured the work in Spain and Portugal. He was subsequently asked to perform it at the International Viola Congress the following year.
In 2008 Francis moved to Toronto to study with Steven Dann, his most affecting musical influence. While there he was guest principal of Toronto based chamber orchestra, Via Salzburg, and is now acting principal violist at the Canadian Opera Company. In the UK, Francis is currently on trial for principal positions at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and in the section of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Hannah Strijbos
Viola
Hannah Strijbos (1989) started playing the violin when she was eight years old. Till she was 18 years old she studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. Since September 2007 she studies the viola with Marjolein Dispa and Nobuko Imai at the Conservatoire of Amsterdam, and she also studied with mr. Pierre-Henri Xuereb at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.
Hannah won several prizes on both National and International competitons. In 2005 she was awarded a grant from the Han Lammers Foundation, a foundation for young talented artists. This year she was awarded the second prize at the Dutch National Viola Competition.
She took part in several festivals throughout Europe and in Canada. She had lessons and master classes with a.o. Yuri Bashmet, Nobuko Imai, Lawrence Power, Michael Tree and Thomas Riebl. She took part in the prestigious Verbier Festival (Switzerland), the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove (UK) and she studied for one month with Pinchas Zukerman in his Young Artist Program in Ottawa.
Hannah gives concerts regularly, both as a soloist and chamber musician. She played together with a.o. Janine Jansen, Colin Carr, Nobuko Imai and Yuval Gotlibovich. She is also a member of the Allegra Quartet, which made its Concertgebouw debut in 2006 and has returned there several times since.
Hannah plays a Johannes Cuypers viola built in 1776, which she has on loan from the Dutch National Music Instrument Foundation.
Manuel Hofer
Viola
Manuel Hofer, born in 1983, received his first violin lessons at the age of 5 at the Joseph Fux Conservatory in Graz. Five years later, he decided to play the viola, then at the age of 16 joined the class of Siegfried Führlinger at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and continues his studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Thomas Riebl and with Lars Anders Tomter and Tabea Zimmermann at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin.
He received an education in chamber music from members of internationally-renowned ensembles such as the Artis Quartet Vienna, Amadeus Quartet, Quartuor Mosaique, Quartuor Ysaye and the Vienna String Sextet as well as from Prof. Eberhard Feltz, (Musikhochschule Hanns Eisler), Valeria Servansky and György Kurtag.
Manuel Hofer is a repeated prize winner and special prize winner of the Austrian youth competition Prima la Musica; winner of the Anton Bruckner Prize donated by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and prize winner of the International Johannes Brahms Competition. He won the viola category in the Austrian music competition Gradus ad Parnassum 2005, and after the prize winners Concert was moreover awarded the Great Gradus ad Parnassum Soloist Prize for all categories.
His busy chamber music and solo activities have taken him throughout parts of europe, america and asia among others in collaboration with musicians such as Dimitri Ashkenazy, Ernst Kovacic, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Hariolf Schlichtig, Martin Lovett, Christopher Hinterhuber, Richard Harwood, Christian Altenburger, the Armida Quartet, the Minetti Quartet and soloists from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a soloist Manuel performed with the Haydn Orchestra Bolzano, the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Pannonic Philharmic Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra collaborating with conductors such as Marcello Panni, Herbert Böck, Ingo Ingensand, Stamatia Karampini and Serge Baudo.
Manuel Hofer plays on a viola made by G. Marconcini, Ferrara 1840.
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Jannis Agraniotis
Violin & Co-Director
Greek violinist Jannis Agraniotis, born 1983 in Athens,.began playing the violin at the age of six. He earned his Diploma at the Athens Sychronon Conservatory in 2002, with First Prize and Distinction in the class of Vladislav Halapsis.
He further studied for 5 years with Prof. Werner Scholz at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre in Germany, where he earned his Performance Diploma in the year 2009 .Mastercourses with Heime Müller, the Petersen Quartet, Sergei Kravtchenko and Ivan Zenaty completed his instrumental studies.
He has appeared as a soloist and chamber music ensembles in concerts at the Athens Megaron Hall, around Greece, in Germany and other European countries. He is a member of the Chamber Orchestra of the Greek National Opera in Athens and artistic director of the Saronic Chamber Music Festival, taking place for the first time this summer. He plays a violin specially made for him by Stephan von Baehr, Paris 2010.
Laura Lutzke
Violin
Violinist Laura Lutzke enjoys a musically versatile career, with a passion for solo playing, chamber music, and is always eager to discover new ways of making music. She began studying the violin with her mother at the age of 3, and later studied with Burton Kaplan, Hyo Kang, and Donald Weilerstein, among others, while performing in Master Classes given by Pierre Amoyal, Andras Keller, Rudolf Koelman, Cho-Liang Lin, Gyorgy Pauk, and Gerhard Schulz.
Laura is currently a student of Lewis Kaplan, pursuing the Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School. From 2004 to 2007, she served as Concertmaster of the New York Youth Symphony, the country’s premier youth orchestra, with its three yearly performances at Carnegie Hall.
Laura has been the winner of several competitions since the age of 9. She has performed as soloist with the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra in Philadelphia, the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Symphony Orchestra, and most recently as a Rising Star with the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra in New Mexico.
She has given recitals on the Belz-Parker Artists Ascending concert series in Memphis, Tennessee, at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, on the Caramoor International Music Festival’s Performers’ Showcase recital series, at the Great Mountains Music Festival and School in South Korea, the International Holland Music Sessions, The Juilliard School, Kent State University, Klavierhaus in New York City, the Lausanne Academy, the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg, the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Wave Hill Mansion in Riverdale, NY, and at Weill Recital Hall.
As an avid chamber musician, Laura has been regularly invited to attend the prestigious Open Chamber Music sessions at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, UK since 2006. She was chosen to participate in its Autumn Tour in September 2010, ending with a performance at the Wigmore Hall in London. She was also chosen to be one of Caramoor's Rising Stars in 2008 and in 2009, working and performing with musicians such as Atar Arad, Timothy Eddy, Pamela Frank and Arnold Steinhardt.
In New York City, Laura often collaborates with the critically-acclaimed American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), thoroughly enjoying and experimenting with a wide variety of musical genres. Performances have been at the Galapagos Art Space and St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, The Kitchen and Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village, among others. She is passionate about collaborating with not only musicians of all kinds, but with actors, dancers, young composers and artists alike. She has been lucky enough to work and perform with incredibly artistic individuals such as Sam Amidon, Joe Brent, Cornelius Dufallo, Clarice Jensen, Nico Muhly, Nadia Sirota and Alexandria Wailes.
Laura has been featured on several WQXR broadcasts of Robert Sherman’s “Young Artists’ Showcase”, and her playing was described as “liquid, radiant and shimmering, with beautifully played solo lines”, by The New York Times.
Laura is the recipient of the Belz-Parker Artists Ascending award and medal, the Irving Ludwig Prize, the Rosengarten Chair and Fellowship of the New York Youth Symphony, as well as scholarships from the International Holland Music Sessions, the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, the Keshet Eilon Violin Mastercourse, the London Master Classes, the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg, and the Starling DeLay Master Classes at The Juilliard School.
Laura performs on an 1822 violin made by Pierre Pacherele, on a generous loan from The Christophe Landon Rare Violins Collection.
Bogdan Božović
Violin
Bogdan Božović was born in Belgrade, Serbia, where he had his first lessons in violin and piano at the age of six. He continued his studies with Vesna Stanković in Belgrade, Klara Flieder in Salzburg, and Rainer Schmidt in Basel. He has been strongly influenced by the collaboration with such prominent musicians as Heinz Holliger, Ferenc Rados, and Steven Isserlis. In demand equally as chamber musician and soloist, Bogdan has been invited across Europe to festivals such as Prussia Cove, Diabelli Sommer, Klangspuren Schwaz, and the Xong Festival, performing repertoire spanning from baroque to contemporary. His chamber music partners have included Steven Isserlis, Lukas Hagen, Ana-Maria Vera, François Benda and many others.
In June 2011 Bogdan obtained his master degree with distinction at the Music Academy in Basel and in September he will commence his soloist-degree studies (Solistendiplom) at the same institution. Upcoming highlights include debuts at London’s Wigmore Hall, in collaboration with the IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music Tour, and at the prestigious Lucerne Festival, where he will serve as leader of the Chamber Ensemble of Basel Music Academy. Bogdan plays on a Leopold Widhalm violin from 1770, generously loaned to him by Klara Flieder.
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Caspar Frantz
Piano
Caspar Frantz, a native of Kiel, studied with Prof. Matthias Kirschnereit at the Rostock University of Music and completed his post-graduate studies with Professor Eberhard Feltz at the Hanns Eisler University, Berlin. He further received great support due to the intense artistic collaboration with Renate Kretschmar-Fischer as well as Ferenc Rados, Andras Schiff, Elisabeth Leonskaja and György Kurtag.
Since his debut at the Rheingau Music Festival Caspar Frantz has played in Germany and abroad, in major Festivals such as Ravinia, Septembre Musical Montreux, Festival de Pollenca, Beethoven Festival Bonn, IMS Prussia Cove and Festival Schwetzingen. He has appeared with orchestras such as the Polish Chamber Philharmonic,the MDR Orchestra Leipzig, the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, the Iasi Moldova Philharmonic and the Ensemble Kaleidoskop.
Caspar Frantz is an ardent chamber music player. With cellist Julian Arp he has formed a duo for more than a decade (the duo is 1.Prize Winner of the Mendelssohn Competition, the Premio Vittorio Gui, Firenze, and winner of the German Music Competition), and Chloe Hanslip, Rainer Kussmaul, Sabine Meyer and Bryn Terfel are among his chamber music partners. Since 2006, Caspar Frantz has played all Beethoven piano sonatas in a series of concerts at Castle Melschede, Westfalia.
The highlights during the recent seasons included a tour as a soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Germany to South Africa and – together with Julian Arp and publisher Johannes CS Frank - the inauguration of the ZEITKUNST Festival for Literature and chamber music at the Villa Elisabeth, Berlin.
Moreover, Caspar Frantz made two recordings which had been highly acclaimed by the national and international press : first, a recording of Mendelssohn's works for cello and piano together with Julian Arp for the label GENUIN, Leipzig, as well as Piano Concertos by Joseph Haydn for the Label ARS( together with Ensemble Kaleidoskop).
James Barralet
Cello
English cellist, James Barralet, has performed at most of the major UK venues, including the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Purcell Room and Bridgewater Hall, throughout Europe and globally.
James was winner of the 2007 Landor Records competition and his debut recording of virtuosic solo cello pieces of the twentieth century was released in 2009 to excellent critical acclaim in the Strad, the Gramophone and the Classical Music magazine, the first in his ongoing partnership with the Landor label. During his studies, first with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Northern College of Music and then with Thomas Demenga at Basel Hochschule für Musik, James received innumerable prestigious awards including the Royal Philharmonic Society Julius Isserlis Scholarship, the Muriel Taylor Cello Scholarship and the Hattori Scholarship, and graduated from Basel in 2006 with the renowned ‘Soloists Diploma’. He has enjoyed associations with the Park Lane Group and Making Music.
He is an open-minded musician and works regularly with Indian musicians, having studied Indian music in Kolkata, Benares and Basel, and includes free improvisation in many of his concerts.
As a chamber musician, James is the cellist of Neuvensemble in Switzerland, the Bacchus Piano Trio with Alasdair Beatson and Thomas Gould, and the Williamson Clarinet Trio with Sarah Williamson and John Reid. He is a regular at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, an important source of inspiration for him. He has served as guest principal cellist with many UK orchestras.
James's compositions for cello octet have been performed at festivals throughout the world.
Rebekka Markowski
Cello
Born in Berlin in 1986, her first longtime teacher in Berlin was Prof. Günter Sennewald, then she studied with Heinrich Schiff and Reinhard Latzko at the Vienna Music University and presently with Valter Despalj in the Music Academy of Zagreb. She won several prices in national and international competitions, such as the Gradus ad Parnassum in Austria, the Carl Flesch- Akademie Baden-Baden and the International Johannes Brahms Competition.
As a soloist she has performed with German orchestras like the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester, Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie, Heidelberger Philharmoniker. Philharmonie Baden-Baden and Kärtner Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Michael Sanderling, Thomas Kalb, Heribert Beissl and Pavel Baleff.
Recently she performed the Haydn Concerto D major in the chambermusic hall of the Philharmonie Berlin with the German Chamber Orchestra under Patrick Lange.
She is regularly invited to play chambermusic in the new halls in the Musikverein Wien, and took part in the festival The Next Generation, Brandenburgische Sommerkonzerte and the Moritzburgfestival. She played with renowned artists like Benjamin Schmid, Jan Vogler, Christian Altenburger, Ewa Kupiec, Lars Anders Tomter, Alex Kerr, Wolfram Christ, James Ehnes.
In 2008 she was invited by Claudio Abbado to play in his Orchestra Mozart in Bologna and is member of the 2009 formed Christ Quartett (with R. Christ, C. Schmidt and C. Steller).
