www.janolisboa.eu

 

The Portuguese Jano Lisbon won the first prize of the Young Musicos Award in Lisbon in both Viola and Chamber Music categories. He is also the winner of the 2006 NEC Mozart Concerto Competition in Boston, USA, and the 2009 Watson Forbes International Viola Competition in Scotland.

 

Jano Lisbon worked with Tigran Mansurian at his Viola concert."..and I Something in Time Again"... ...which was launched in 2006 with the Algarve Orchestra in Portugal. His contribution to the promotion of Portuguese music was the performance of Fernando Lopes-Grac seina Viola Concertino with the Orchestra do Norte and the Viola Concerto by Alexandre Delgado with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon. Recently, he had his solo premiere with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and Junischi Hirokami, where he played Takemitsu Viola Concerto. In the summer of 2019, Jano Lisbon performed with Christoph Poppen and Israel Chamber Orchestra Hummel Potpourri.

 

His chamber music partners are counting.a. Lisa Batiashvili, Leif Ove Andsnes, Antje Weithaas, Tabea Zimmerman, Jörg Widmann, Maximilian Hornung, Christian Poltera, Herbert Schuch, Matthias Hofs, Peter Donohoe, Endellion String Quartet, Carmina Quartet and Kiss Quartet. Jano Lisbon was a member of the Munich Chamber Orchestra and artistic director of the Viana Chamber Music Festival in Portugal.

 

Since September 2013, he has been the soloist of the Munich Philharmonic. He's playing a 1932 French Ettore Siega.

 

 

 

https://www.diyangmei.com/

 

“The instantaneous grip, the electrifying playing style throughout, the logical phrasing, the rhythmic stability, and the staggeringly accurate intonation characterized all of Diyang Mei’s performances.”

 

Harald Eggebrecht, Süddeutsche Zeitung

 

Ever since violist Diyang Mei’s brilliant success at the 2018 ARD International Music Competition, winning first prize in the viola category, the Audience Prize and several special prizes, he has been steadily furthering his international career.

 

As a soloist, Diyang Mei has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the SWR Festival Schwetzingen, the Schwarzwald Music Festival and the Mozartfest in Würzburg. He has performed with András Schiff, Vadim Gluzman, Günter Pichler, Gerhard Schulz, Ana Chumachenco, Sabine Meyer, Christoph Prégardien und Frans Helmerson among others.

 

Diyang Mei has held the position of 1st principal viola of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra since the fall of 2019. In October 2022, he will take up the same position with the Berliner Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

He was awarded first prizes at the 52nd International Instrumental Competition for Viola in Markneukirchen (2017), at the International Max Rostal Music Competition for Viola in Berlin (2015), at the Kulturkreis Gasteig Musikpreis for Strings in Munich (2015), at the IVC Young Artist Competition in Rochester (2012), at the 19th International Johannes Brahms Viola Competition in Austria (2012) and at the 10th International Viola and Cello Competition in Villa de Llanes, Spain (2008).

 

His first solo-album “Transforming Viola” was released in 2019. In June 2022, His second album “Viola à L’Ecole de Paris” will be released, to which he is dedicated together with the German-pianist Oliver Triendl.

 

Diyang Mei has studied with Hariolf Schlichtig at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich since 2014 and as of October 2019, will continue his studies with Nobuko Imai at the Kronberg Academy. He is supported by both the Yu Art Foundation in China and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and is also a Yehudi Menuhin LMN e.V. scholarship holder. He plays a Antonio Mariani viola from 1646, on generous loan by a private collection.

 

 

 

https://www.lechantoniouszynski.com/

 

With his characteristic warm sound and sensitive interpretation, Lech Antonio Uszynski has become a sought-after Violist on international stages. As a soloist and chamber musician he has played in concert halls that include the Philharmonie Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Vienna Konzerthaus, London’s Wigmore Hall and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.

 

He is also a regular guest at international festivals where he has performed with Artists such as Vilde Frang, Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff & Antoine Tamestit. In June 2022 he had his critically acclaimed Solo Debut at the NFM in Wrocław under the direction of Krzysztof Urbański. In addition to his wide stylistic range as a performer, he is also passionate about teaching and has been giving regularly Masterclasses over the past years. Lech Antonio Uszynski is professor of Viola at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague.

 

He has been the Stradivari Quartet’s viola player since 2010 and enjoyed great acclaim with this ensemble on international tours throughout Europe, Asia and America. Additionally, to his performance as chamber musician and soloist, he has been invited in the past years as guest principal Viola by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, the Gstaad Festival Orchestra and numerous other Ensembles. In 2022 he held an “ad interim” position as co-principal Viola at the Sinfonieorchester Basel.

 

2019 his solo album “Progetto Gibson” was released by RCA Red Seal (Sony Classical). The pieces on this recording are related to Antonio Stradivari's famous "Gibson" Viola, 1734, which Uszynski played from 2010-2017. Previous recordings include Steve Reich's string quartets "Different Trains" & "Triple quartet" for Warner Classics and chamber music versions of Mahler 1st and 4th Symphonies. In 2018 his quartet released two CDs (Works by Schumann & Schubert) for RCA Red Seal (Sony). In 2021 he received much critical acclaim for his live-recording of Bachs Toccata & Fugue in a version for Viola Solo which was published on Youtube.

 

He was born in 1986 into a family of Polish musicians in Padova in Italy but moved to Switzerland the following year. It was there that he grew up, studying with Ana Chumachenco, Zakhar Bron and Michel Rouilly at Zurich’s University of the Arts. He also received mentoring and encouragement as a viola player from Rudolf Barshai.

 

Lech Antonio Uszynski currently performs on a rare Viola by the Maker Hendrick Willems built in 1690. Lech Antonio Uszynski is an Thomastik-Infeld Exclusive Artist and is playing on Spirocore and PI Strings.

 

 

 

https://www.australianworldorchestra.com.au/1305-florian-peelman/

 

Florian has played the violin since the age of five, and after absorbing the sound of gamelan in Indonesia, started formal training in Helsinki. At the age of 14 he continued his studies at Chethams School of Music in Manchester. Returning to his Belgian roots at the age of 18, he enrolled at the Antwerp Conservatorium and switched to the viola. He completed his Masters under Walter Küssner at the world leading ‘Hans Eisler’ Hochschule für Musik Berlin achieving the highest distinction and has since continued to work there as Assistant Professor.

 

As a soloist he has performed the Kancheli concerto, the Mozart and Bruch double concertos and most recently, Pierre Charvet’s ‘And death’. During his time in Belgium he toured with the Production ‘Wanja’ fusing the roles of Musician, Actor and Puppeteer. The groundbreaking production for young children won the 2009 ‘Jungen Ohren Preis’ for Best Children’s Music Theatre.

 

As a dedicated chamber musician, he has been a member of the Arsis4 Quartet, the Boccherini String Trio, alumni of the Chapelle Musical “Reine Elizabeth” and the European Chamber Music Academy Performing across Europe Canada and Australia.

 

During the last few years he has been Principal Viola of the Brussels Chamber Orchestra, Principal Viola of the Gürzenich Orchester Köln, a regular guest with the Berliner Philharmoniker and a guest principle with the Dresden Staatskappelle, Munich Staatsoper, the Northern Sinfonia and the Australian Chamber Orchestra amongst others.

 

 

 

https://www.melissareardonviolist.com/

 

Grammy-nominated violist Melissa Reardon is an internationally renowned performer whose solo and chamber playing spans all musical genres. Melissa is the Artistic Director of the Portland Chamber Music Festival in Portland, ME, Artist in Residence at Bard College and Conservatory and a founding member and the Executive Director of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO). As a member of the Ensō String Quartet from 2006 until its final season in 2018, Melissa toured both nationally and internationally, with highlight performances in Sydney, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center to name a few. Lauded by Classical Voice for her “elegant” and “virtuosic” performances, the Massachusetts-born musician won first prize at the Washington International Competition, and is the only violist to win top prizes in consecutive HAMS International viola competitions. A sought-after collaborative musician and teacher, Melissa has appeared in numerous festivals across the United States and around the world, and has toured with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and with Musicians from Marlboro. She held the post of Associate Professor of Viola at East Carolina University from 2007 -2013, and earned degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory. Melissa is married to the cellist Raman Ramakrishnan and they live in NYC with their seven-year-old son Linus.

 

 

 

http://www.maria-azova.com/

 

Born in Tashkent and grew up in a very musical household. She made her debut with orchestra at the age of 12, playing Vieuxtemps violin concerto no.5.

 

Maria Azova has expanded her artistic activities to various musical areas. She appears as a soloist with many renowned orchestras, including the Museumsorchester Frankfurt, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha amongst many others. She played with conductors such as Hans Drewanz, Paolo Carignani, Adi Bar, Michel Tilkin and Pavel Baleff.

 

Maria Azova, who was called "a very promising young talent on the violin" by the german newspaper "Frankfurter Rundschau" successfully appears with her piano trio „The Frankfurter Klaviertrio“, plays as a guest concertmaster of many orchestras such as Münchner Symphoniker, Nürnberger Symphoniker, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Frankfurt Radio Symphonie orchestra and will start work as a 1st concertmaster of the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra from September 2019.

 

Maria Azova studied with Josef Rissin, Nathan Mendelssohn and Walter Forchert.
The young violonist‘s artistic career was supported by scholarships and grants, coming from the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, LiveMusicNow, the Mayor of the city of Baden-Baden, the Da Ponte Foundation in Darmstadt and the support group of the Academy for Music in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Furthermore, Maria won several competitions, including a first prize at the Alois Kottmann Competition in Frankfurt, a bronze medal at the Henryk Szeryng Competition in Mexico, a second prize at the Michelangelo Abbado Competition in Milano. She was also awarded with the "Ruth Flesch Memorial Prize" in Baden-Baden, Germany.

 

Mrs. Liao-Zottl has released seven CDs, a DVD and a double vinyl album with “radio.string.quartet” as well as several other recordings, including ancient Chinese music arranged for erhu and western classical string instruments, the entire string quartet works from Giacomo Puccini, a string quartet cover of Jimi Hendrix, and many orchestral works. She has taken on additional roles in the production of some of these productions, including: erhu player, arranger, composer, booklet author, and executive producer.

 

 

 

https://www.radiostringquartet.net/

 

Cynthia Liao-Zottl began her studies of viola, piano, and composition in her native Taiwan at the age of four before moving to Vienna in 1992. There, she continued her studies of viola with Professor Thomas Kakuska at the University for Music and Performing Arts. She received the title “magistra atrium” and her diploma for concert viola in 2000.

 

Mrs. Liao-Zottl has performed throughout Europe, North America, and Africa since 2006 as a member of the non-classical ensemble “radio.string.quartet,” both in concert halls as well as music clubs. She is also a chamber music and orchestral coach in high demand teaching workshops and master classes in Austria, Italy, Taiwan and Japan.

 

In addition to solo recitals, Mrs. Liao-Zottl has been invited to play as a soloist with orchestras in Europe and Asia with conductors including M° Riccardo Chailly and M° Christopher Hogwood. She has performed the world premiers of several works for viola that were dedicated to her by the composers and received invitations from chamber music festivals around the world.

 

After working as Principal Viola in various orchestras in Italy and Austria, Mrs. Liao-Zottl joined the Vienna Chamber Orchestra in 2004, where she has been Principal Viola since 2011.

 

Mrs. Liao-Zottl has released seven CDs, a DVD and a double vinyl album with “radio.string.quartet” as well as several other recordings, including ancient Chinese music arranged for erhu and western classical string instruments, the entire string quartet works from Giacomo Puccini, a string quartet cover of Jimi Hendrix, and many orchestral works. She has taken on additional roles in the production of some of these productions, including: erhu player, arranger, composer, booklet author, and executive producer.

 

he has appeared on radio and television in Austria (ORF), Germany (Bayrische Rundfunk, Hessische Rundfunk, Arte), Italy (RAI, Radio Classic) in Great Britain (BBC), France, Spain, Sweden, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro. and in South America.

 

Cynthia Liao-Zottl plays a viola of Ludovicus Guersan (Paris, 1770) and handmade strings of Thomastik-Infeld.

 

 

 

https://www.msmnyc.edu/faculty/anat-malkin-almani/

 

A versatile artist, violinist and violist Anat Malkin Almani has performed as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. She embarked on her first international tour at the age of 10 and later made her Carnegie Hall debut at age 16 under the baton of Alexander Schneider. Among the orchestras she has soloed with internationally are the Camerata Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile), Drammen Byorkester (Norway), Israel Chamber Orchestra, Israel Stage Orchestra, Sharon Orchestra (Israel), New York String Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogotá (Colombia), Orquesta Sinfonica de Salta (Argentina), and the Westchester Philharmonic. Performance broadcasts, interviews, and articles about her have appeared on Albanian, American, Bajan, Israeli, Latin American, and Russian press, radio, and television.

 

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Malkin is a member of the New York based Piazzolla Trio, a piano trio that regularly performs in the United States and abroad, and a guest artist with the Hudson Chamber Series in New York and Kassia Music in the greater Washington D.C. area. She is also a founding member of the prizewinning Malkin Duo, which has appeared around the world as recitalists, including several sold-out recitals in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and numerous critically acclaimed recital tours throughout Israel, Europe, and Latin America. The Duo has also appeared as soloists with orchestra and performed the world premiere of David Ward-Steinman’s Concerto for Two Violins, Perelandra. The Duo has an extensive repertoire for two violins and for violin and viola. Ms. Malkin has performed in a myriad of chamber groups with such distinguished artists as Emanuel Borok, Emilio Colon, Liza Ferschtman, David Geber, Jerry Grossman, Igor Gruppman, Mikhail Kopelman, Julia Lichten, Anthony McGill, Joseph Silverstein, and Aviv Quartet, inter alia.

 

In addition to her performing career, Ms. Malkin is passionately committed to education and teaching. She is a sought-after pedagogue, giving master classes regularly around the globe. With a musical heritage deeply rooted in the Russian and Franco-Belgian schools, she is dedicated to passing those traditions on to future generations. She serves on the violin and viola faculties of the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division; the violin and viola faculties of Eugene ON Classics, an international online music academy based in Seoul, Korea; the artist faculty of the Academy of Music Festival in New York; and several other summer festivals, and has a private studio in New York. Her students include laureates of international competitions such as the 2020 Leonid Kogan International Violin Competition junior division and the 2021 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition junior division. For many years, she also served as a teaching artist for Manhattan School of Music’s Distance Learning Program.

 

A pupil of her father, Professor Isaac Malkin, Josef Gingold, and Boris Belkin, Ms. Malkin is a graduate of the Juilliard School and of the Maastricht Conservatorium, where she graduated cum laude. Ms. Malkin has the honor of being the dedicatee of many new compositions, including a work by Samuel Adler. Henry Roth, in his book Violin Virtuosos from Paganini to the 21st Century, named her as one of the “gifted young violinists who are among the vanguard leading the march of violin art into the 21st century.”

 

 

 

http://stringorchestraofnyc.org/players/hakim.html

 

William Hakim, violist, has performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad. Praised for his "warmth of tone and musicality" (Leipziger Volkszeitung), he enjoys playing, writing and arranging music in many styles. He has recorded for Albany Records, Decca, and Nonesuch for various artists including Renee Fleming, served as Billy Joel's violist for his Madison Square Garden residency, had numerous TV appearances with Josh Groban, toured the country with Branford Marsalis and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

 

Mr Hakim is a member of the Iris Orchestra in Memphis and the le Poisson Rouge Ensemble as well as serving as principal of the New York Symphonic Ensemble and the Glens Falls Symphony. A former member of the Hyperion String Quartet, he studied with John Graham at the Eastman School of Music, Samuel Rhodes at Juilliard, and with Paul Neubauer at the Graduate Center of CUNY where he is pursuing a doctorate and researching improvisation methods for classically trained musicians. Mr. Hakim served on the faculty at Brevard Music Center and is on the faculty of Seton Hall University and Skidmore College.

 

 

 

https://www.chicagolyricoperaorchestra.com/amy-hess

 

Amy Hess is a member of the viola sections of the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Grant Park Orchestra, and is on the faculty of the Fulton Summer Music Academy. She was formerly principal viola of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and a member of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, and she has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, and Music of the Baroque. Amy has been heard on the Dame Myra Hess and Rush Hour concert series in Chicago and regularly performs as a member of the Fulton Chamber Players and the Chicago Ensemble. She has recently been a soloist with Sinfonietta DuPage and collaborated in concert with bassist Edgar Meyer as part of the Aspen Salida concert series in Colorado. She also was part of the Chicago premiere of Joel Puckett’s string quartet concerto Short Stories with the Northwestern Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and performed the solo viola role in Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote with cellist Joseph Johnson and the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra.

 

Amy received her Master of Music in viola from Northwestern University and is a Phi Beta Kappa alumna of Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, where she earned degrees in French and violin. While at Oberlin, she spent a semester in Paris, studying violin with David Rivière of the CNSM and musicology at the Sorbonne. Her interest in French music continued with a collaboration with Ravel scholar Sigrun Heinzelmann on a presentation at the Music Theory Midwest conference and several lectures at Oberlin. Amy’s principal teachers and mentors have included Karen Ritscher, Roland Vamos, David Bowlin, and Addison Teng, but it all began thanks to her mother, a Suzuki violin teacher in Lancaster, PA.

 

 

 

https://www.newschool.edu/mannes/faculty/amadi-azikiwe/

 

Amadi Azikiwe, violist, violinist, and conductor, has been heard in recital in major cities throughout the United States, such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, including an appearance at the US Supreme Court. Mr. Azikiwe has also been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Alice Tully Hall and the Kennedy Center. Abroad, he has performed throughout Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, Nigeria, India, Japan, and Hong Kong.

 

As a soloist, Mr. Azikiwe has appeared with the Prince George’s Philharmonic, Delaware Symphony, Virginia Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, Virginia Beach Symphony, Roanoke Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Western Piedmont Symphony, Salisbury Symphony, the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, the City Island Baroque Ensemble of New York, the National Symphony of Ecuador, and at the Costa Rica International Music Festival.

 

Currently, Mr. Azikiwe is Music Director of the Harlem Symphony Orchestra. He is also Community Engagement Director of the Harlem Chamber Players and a member of the Pressenda Chamber Players.

 

As an orchestral musician, he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and as guest principal violist of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra.

 

A native of New York City, Mr. Azikiwe first studied music with his mother, after which he began training at the North Carolina School of the Arts as a student of Sally Peck. His studies continued at the New England Conservatory with Marcus Thompson and at Indiana University as a student of Atar Arad.

 

 

 

https://www.thomasduboski.com/

 

A native of New York, Thomas developed a keen interest in music at an early age. At the conception of his musical training he enrolled at the Mannes College for Music Preparatory Division to pursue his studies of the viola. In 2009, Thomas began studies with Patinka Kopec at The Manhattan School of Music, where he won the Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition and was the recipient of the President Scholarship. In 2015, he also won the Ruth Widder String Quartet Competition with his string quartet. Thomas holds a Bachelor and a Master of Music in Viola Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and a Master of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music.

 

As a teaching artist, Thomas served as viola faculty for programs such as the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, Manhattan School of Music’s Sunday Program, Bronx Conservatory of Music preparatory program, and has been teaching private lessons since 2009.

 

Thomas’ professional experience spans the globe including performances with the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa under the direction of Pinchas Zukerman and Alexander Shelley. He has performed with members of various professional orchestras in Japan, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Vienna Philharmonic. Thomas has also performed with Lincoln Center’s satellite program: Lincoln Center Stage, performing over 15 chamber music programs a week for audiences worldwide.

 

Thomas is currently living and working in Japan as a member of the Hyōgo Performing Arts Center Orchestra where he serves as a principal player.