Andreas Sundén is a clarinet soloist in the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and was previously clarinet soloist in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He has been a soloist with many of the leading European orchestras and has won several prizes in international competitions. He began his studies at the Norwegian Academy of Music taught by Hans Christian Braein and has since studied alongside Hans Deinzer and Yehuda Gilad in Los Angeles. He has taught master classes in the US, Australia, Japan, China, Korea, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and in Scandinavia. Sundén is currently a Professor at the Ingesund School of Music and teaches at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Sundén is the artistic director of the Summer Academy Voksenåsen for Winds.

The Finnish clarinetist Björn Nyman (born in 1977) is one of the leading clarinetists of his generation in the Nordic region, and is a sought-after chamber musician and soloist.

Björn Nyman is a prizewinner in two of the world’s most prestigious clarinet competitions: the ARD competition in 2003 and the Carl Nielsen competition 2005. In both competitions, he was in addition awarded a special prize for his interpretation of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, and in the ARD also the prize for best interpretation of the commissioned new piece. Furthermore, Nyman was awarded the first price in the Crusell competition 2002, the ConocoPhillipps’ Young Artist competition the same year and the Yamaha Music Foundation Europe competition in 2000.

He has performed as soloist with orchestras like the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayeriche Rundfunk, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Shenandoah Festival Orchestra and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. In January 2010, Nyman premiered the Clarinet Concerto of Jan Erik Mikalsen, composed for Nyman and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Björn Nyman has performed on main chamber music festivals such as Risør Festival of Chamber Music, Oslo Chamber Music Festival and the Korsholm Music Festival. His recent recording of Bartok Contrasts on the Norwegian label 2L has received excellent reviews.

Björn Nyman was chosen as Principal Clarinet for Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and toured with conductors like Claudio Abbado, Seiji Ozawa and Pierre Boulez. Already at the age of 19, he was appointed Principal Clarinet in the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland.

He studied with Professor Hans Christian Bræin and Leif Arne Pedersen at the Norwegian State Academy of Music, where also Nyman himself teaches today, and with Yehuda Gilad at the University of Southern California.

Gitte Marcusson is Professor of Flute at Royal College of Music, London. 

She is devoted to teaching and, in addition to her professorship at RCM, she coaches students worldwide in her London-based studio. She has taught many of today’s outstanding flautists, including Katherine Bryan, Principal Flute of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Adam Walker, Principal Flute of the London Symphony Orchestra; Alex Jakeman, Principal Flute of the BBC Philharmonic; and Joshua Batty, Principal Flute Sidney Symphony Orchestra.

Gitte taught at Chethams School of Music for 16 years and is much in demand as guest professor giving classes at conservatories and colleges around the world. She is founder and director of Nordic Flute International Summer School.

As a student Gitte Marcusson left her native Denmark to study flute with Trevor Wye and Clare Southworth in Manchester. Later she continued her studies in London with Patricia Lynden, Patricia Morris and Rachel Brown. 

After a decade living in London combining orchestral playing, chamber music and teaching she moved to Sweden where she was co-principal with Camerata Calluna Chamber Orchestra 2000-2010.  

Her commitment to chamber music shows in the vast numbers of performances at societies and festivals throughout Europe. One of her 500 concerts for “Live Music Now” was a performance at Buckingham Palace celebrating Sir Yehudi Menuhin.

She is a member of the faculty at Wildacres Flute Retreat, North Carolina, and Professor at the prestigious Old Ox Festival, Stockholm.

Linda Taube is solo piccolo in the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and she was also a member of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in the years 2001-2008. She has played in most of the Swedish orchestras and also a lot of different projects with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. 

Linda teaches piccolo at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and flute at Lilla Akademien. She has also been teaching at the Music Academy in Gothenburg and Birkagårdens Folkhögskola in Stockholm, and has been a guest at Voksenåsen Summer Academy for several years now. 

*Teaches only some of the days

Tom Ottar Andreassen is co-principal flute in Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and in the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. One of Norway’s top wind players, he is an often sought soloist and chamber musician, and has made a number of recordings. He is Professor of flute at the Norwegian Academy of Music. 

*teaches only some of the days

In 2015, Olivier Stankiewicz was appointed Principal Oboe of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Professor of Oboe at the Royal College of Music. He has given masterclasses at the Juiliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the Sibelius Academy, and in Hong Kong and Japan. Born in Nice, Olivier studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. He was awarded 1st Prize at the 2012 International Oboe Competition in Japan, and in 2013 was named ‘classical revelation’ by the French association ADAMI. In 2016, he was selected by the Young Classical Artists Trust.

Sought after as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Olivier has performed widely in Europe, Japan, and the USA. Highlights include recitals at Wigmore Hall, Snape Maltings, the Louvre in Paris, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and Merkin Concert Hall and Morgan Library in New York. He has collaborated with Alasdair Beatson, the Doric and Castalian String Quartets, Jean Rondeau, Jonathan Ware and Alvise Sinivia, among many others. Olivier has appeared as guest Principal with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and the Philadelphia, Bavarian Radio Symphony, and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras. Between 2011 and 2015, he was Principal Oboe of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse.

Fredrik Ekdahl is the principal bassoonist of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and previously held the same position with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is also a regular guest principal with orchestras including the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Bernhard Haitink and Sir Simon Rattle.
An avid soloist and chamber musician, Ekdahl has collaborated with artists such as Janine Jansen, Martin Fröst and Radek Baborak at festivals and venues around the world.
Ekdahl has previously been teaching at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm and has held master classes at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, The Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, the Beijing Conservatory of Music and the Australian National Academy of Music, as well as teaching annually at the Voksenåsen Summer Academy in Oslo.
Ekdahl studied with Arne Nilsson, Knut Sönstevold, Ole Kristian Dahl and Dag Jensen at universities in Gothenburg, Stockholm, Aarhus and Hannover. In 2006 he was awarded 2nd prize at the Gillet-Fox Competition in the USA.
Being on a quest to expand the bassoon repertoire Ekdahl is frequently performing new music and is collaborating with composers such as Jesper Nordin, Jacob Mühlrad and Molly Kien. 
In 2022 Jesper Nordin ́s bassoon concerto ”Vicinities” featuring Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra was released on the Kairos label.
Since 2022 Fredrik Ekdahl is professor of bassoon at the HfM Trossingen. 

*Teaches only some of the days

Audun Halvorsen, born 1979, studied with Robert Rønnes, Eirik Birkeland and Knut Sønstevold, and Ole Kristian Dahl was Audun’s coach and mentor for many years after. Since 2006 he is Principal Bassoon in DR SymfoniOrkestret/Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen, a position he also held in NDR Sinfonieorchester, Hamburg (2011), Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (2005-2006) and in Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (2001-2007). As a guest, Audun has played with orchestras such as Luzerne Festival Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the biggest orchestras in Scandinavia. He has played in chamber music festivals such as Crusell Music Festival, Pracownia Fagocisty-Poznan, Stavanger, Risør, Rosendal and Sandefjord Music Festivals and has been giving Master Classes around in Europe and China. Audun is teaching bassoon at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen since 2009.

*Teaches only some of the days

Horn soloist and teacher Frøydis Ree Wekre was studying piano and violin before turning to horn at the age of 17. Outside of her native Oslo, Norway, her studies have taken place in Sweden, Russia, and USA.

Just after one year playing in the Norwegian Opera Orchestra, she joined the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra 1961 and played as co-principal until 1991. She has performed under such conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Bernhard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Kirill Kondrashin, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Monteux, esa Pekka Salonen and many others. In addition to her orchestral activities, she has been an active soloist and chamber musician, mainly in Europe and North America.

As a teacher, Ms. Wekre was profesor of Horn and Chamber Music at the Norwegian Academy of Music until 2011. Nowadays she is travelling the world and giving master classes and lectures worldwide.

Her 1992 book, Thoughts on Playing the Horn well, has been translated into several languages. Her most recent book, Collected Writings, was published in 2020. More than 40 compositions are written for her, some of which have been recored on brands such as SIMAX, CRYSTAL and 2L.no

For many years Frøydis Ree Wekre has been associated with Musica Riva in Italy, Sarasota Music Festival in the USA, Banff Festival of the Arts and Domaine Forget both in Canada. She is an Honorary Member of the International Horn Society, where she also was the president for a period. In 2023 the Norwegian King Harald appointed her to become “Ridder av St.Olavs Orden, 1. klasse.”

Natallia Papova completed her studies from the Norwegian Academy of Music with Håvard Gimse, Leif Ove Andsnes and Liv Glaser as teachers.
During her career she has toured and played concerts, both as soloist and chamber musician, in large parts of Europe, Asia, the Nordic countries, China and USA.
Musicians like Liv Glaser, Philippe Entremont, Jiri Hlinka, Robert Levin, Malcolm Bilson and Bart von Oort (hammerklavier) has been imporant mentors through masterclasses and festivals.
Papova won the First Prize in the piano competition at the Music Academy in Minsk (2003), was in the semifinal in the M. K. Ciurlionis International Piano Competition in Vilnius, and was a finalist in the Conoco- Philips competition. She has also received several awards as a chamber musician.

Since 2007 Papova has worked as accompanist at Barratt Due Institute of Music.

Asuka Nakamura began playing the piano at the age of three in Nagoya, Japan. When she was six, she made her debut, playing chamber music with members of the state Philharmonic Orchestra, and already as a nine-year-old she made her solo debut with Mozart’s famous Piano Concerto no. 23. Asuka has won both 1st and 2nd prize in the prestigious piano competition J. P. Fresh in Tokyo, which included a concert in Stockholm’s Concert Hall in 1997.

She began studying with Staffan Scheja at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2002. When she finished her studies, she was awarded the Jetong Medal, which is only awarded to the very best in higher education.

After Asuka moved to Stockholm, she has received scholarships from the Masonic Lodge and the Royal College of Music four years in a row. She has also participated as a Research Fellow in the Holland Music Sessions and in the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in Germany. In Sweden she has performed piano concertos by Grieg, Beethoven, Mozart and Messiaën, and in 2010 she was a soloist with Västerås Sinfonietta with Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1.
In 2013, Swedish Radio made the documentary “Mozart has never been to Japan”, which is a free, artistic insight into Asuka’s journey from Japan, and about her life as a pianist in Sweden today.

Craig White is a passionate and highly acclaimed chamber musician, dedicated to both instrumental and vocal repertoire. A graduate from St Catherine’s College, Oxford and Royal Academy of Music in London, he studied with Michael Dussek and Diana Ketler. Craig has won various accolades including the Centenary Kathleen Ferrier Awards, adding to his top accompanist prizes at the Thelma King Awards, Great Elm Vocal Awards, and AESS Finals. He made his conducting debut with London Youth Opera’s The Magic Flute. Internationally, Craig has toured South Korea and Japan, captivating audiences with his performances.

In high demand, Craig spent 2015 living in Germany, working for the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. He toured the UK with Russian violinist Adelia Myslov and appeared with Soprano Eleanor Dennis on the BBC programme “The Joy of Mozart”. In 2018, he performed on BBC Radio 3 in a live soundtrack of Daniel Elms’ ‘Bethia’ during the Hull New Music Biennial. Craig is also a proud member of the “Philomel Project”, which brings a diverse series of concerts to the Crick Institute in London.

Craig’s versatility as a collaborative pianist has led him to work at various International Music Academies. In 2017, he adjudicated the Con Brio Piano Competition in Mumbai, India, and has collaborated with renowned artists such as Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Waltraud Meier at the Aix-en-Provence Académie.

Award winning and Grammy nominated violinist Peter Herresthal has appeared with orchestras and ensembles world wide from Melbourne Symphony, with Thomas Adès conducting his Concerto at the Melbourne festival, Vienna Radio Symphony in Konzerthaus Wien, BBC Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, London Sinfonietta to numerous performances with the major Scandinavian Orchestras including Oslo and Stockholm Phil. 

He has recorded 22 violin concertos earning ten nominations and five Norwegian «spellemannsprisen». His Nørgård recording was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award and was Editors Choice in The Strad and International Record Review. 

The last seasons Peter has been touring Europe and US with Kaija Saariaho’s aria “Vers toi es si loin” written for him and more than 30 performances of her violin concerto “Graal Theatre”, most recently recording the work for BIS with glowing reviews in BBC and Gramophone Magazines, a TV production for BBC and nominations for a US Grammy Award. His latest recording of Missy Mazzolis violinconcerto was nominated for two Grammy Awards in Los Angeles 2024 and BBC Classical Music Awards.

In 2023 he retired from performing and is focusing on his teaching.
Peter Herresthal is Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Royal Academy of Music Copenhagen, visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music London, Ingesund College and NYU Steinhard School New York. 

 *Teaches both violin and viola.

”Her taut musical intelligence and vivid sound combined with a fine instinct for the tender, searching quality of this music … absolutely magical.” The Guardian.

Her versatility lies in the fact that she not only plays the violin, but as well viola with the same energy, performing chamber music in any thinkable combination and directing chamber orchestra performances. Whether in the over 20 year intense collaboration with the Dutch pianist Ronald Brautigam, concerts with mezzo Christianne Stotijn, performing/directing the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, combining violin and viola in one appearance, founding a chamber music festival – from 1997 until 2006 Isabelle van Keulen was Artistic Director of the Delft Chamber Music Festival – giving masterclasses or being a soloist with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic or NHK Tokyo. Above all, being faithful to the music is her highest priority. 
 
She has over the course of her career engaged works written by contemporary composers. She had many concertos written especially for her (Theo Loevendie, Erkki-Sven Tüür) and has many other 20th and 21st century works in her repertoire: Concertos by Henri Dutilleux, John Adams, Lera Auerbach, Oliver Knussen and Brett Dean. She also likes to perform less known works by Colin Matthews and Concertos by Krenek, Pettersson and Busoni. 
 
Isabelle van Keulen has made many recordings in the past decades, the most recent ones are Berg Violin Concerto (Chandos), a CD of violin-piano sonatas by Strauss, Nino Rota and Respighi (Channel Classics), Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with Sharon Kam (Berlin Classics) , Bach’s Goldberg Variations  with the Leopold String Trio (Hyperion) and Prokofiev Complete Works for violin and piano with Ronald Brautigam (Challenge, December 2012). In May 2013 a high profile CD with music by Astor Piazzolla was released on Challenge Records, Tango!, combined with DVD/Bluray and documentary, with the Isabelle van Keulen Ensemble. 
 
Since autumn 2012 she is professor for violin, viola and chamber music at the Luzern University of Arts. 

American violinist Melissa White has enchanted audiences and critics around the world for her “warmly expressive and lyrical…glittering” playing (Chicago Classical Review) and for “making her violin sing elegantly” (Aspen Times). Ms. White’s rapid rise as a soloist has captured the attention of orchestras and audiences worldwide, many of whom already know her for her successes as a founding member of the Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet.

Born and raised in Lansing, Michigan, she received her BMus from The Curtis Institute of Music and MMus from New England Conservatory, where her teachers included Jaime Laredo, Ida Kavafian, Donald Weilerstein, and Miriam Fried.

Highlights of the 2025–26 season include Ms. White’s debut with the Seattle Symphony; the world premiere of Sophia Jani’s Violin Concerto with the Dallas Symphony, where Jani is composer-in-residence; and debut performances with the Mobile and Columbus Symphony Orchestras.

In addition to her musical career, Ms. White has enjoyed practicing various styles of yoga for more than a decade, and completed training in both Vinyasa and Ashtanga at Sampoorna Yoga School in Goa, India.

Photo: Dario Acosta

Winner of the 2019 prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition, Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene ‘is not just a virtuoso like many others, he is a voice. He has a tone, a presence’ (Diapason). At the age of 23, he has performed with leading orchestras and in celebrated recital halls both at home and abroad. His ability to “make his Stradivarius sing like a master” (Le Monde), coupled with his refreshingly honest musicality and engagement with musicians and audiences alike, has won him countless admirers. In 2022, he was named Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year. 

Johan began playing the violin at the age of four and made his professional concerto debut three years later. In Summer 2016, he was student-in-residence at Switzerland’s Verbier Festival (where he made his performance debut in 2021) and in 2018 was accepted on to the Norwegian Crescendo programme, where he worked closely with mentors Janine Jansen, Leif Ove Andsnes and Gidon Kremer. 

Johan studied with Per Enoksson, Professor at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, as well as with Janine Jansen, and has also participated in masterclasses with a number of distinguished teachers, including Dora Schwarzberg, Pamela Frank, Gerhard Schulz, and Henning Kraggerud. He has been awarded various scholarships and prizes, notably from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, The Anders Wall Giresta Scholarship, Queen Ingrid’s Honorary Scholarship, The Norwegian Soloist Prize, The Håkan Mogren Foundation Prize, Equinor Classical Music Award, Sixten Gemzéus Stora Musikstipendium, The G.T. Bäckmans Kulturstipendium, Norrköping Kommuns Kulturstipendium and Rolf Wirténs Kulturpris.  

Johan plays the 1725 ‘Duke of Cambridge’ Stradivarius, generously on loan from the Anders Sveaas’ Charitable Foundation. 

Photo: Mats Bäcker

Malin Broman is much in demand as an artistic director, soloist and chamber musician.

Born in Sweden, Malin completed her studies in London with David Takeno. A passionate chamber musician she has toured and recorded extensively for the last twenty years as a member of the Kungsbacka Piano Trio, Stockholm Syndrome Ensemble and Nash Ensemble of London. 

In 2008 Malin was appointed concertmaster of the Swedish Radio Orchestra. Since then she has performed Brahms’ double concerto with Steven Isserlis conducted by Daniel Harding, received rave reviews for a her recording of Nielsen’s Violin Concerto and premiered violin concerti written for her by Helen Grime, Daniel Börtz, Britta Byström, Andrea Tarrodi, Daniel Nelson and Jesper Nordin. 

She regularly directs the Swedish Radio Orchestra and is now in demand as a musical director/soloist. In that role she has appeared with Tapiola Sinfonietta, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, ACO Collective (Australia), Scottish Ensemble and Tampere Symphony Orchestra and co-operated with artists such as Pekka Kuussisto, Janine Jansen and Peter Mattei.Upcoming engagements include performances with Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Malin is currently the Artistic Director of the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra in Finland having succeeded Sakari Oramo. 

During ‘lock-down’ her YouTube video of Mendelssohn‘s Octet, where Malin plays all eight parts, went viral.

In 2019 she was awarded H.M the King’s medal for services to music. She plays a 1709 Stradivarius violin on kind loan from the Järnåker Foundation.

Frederik Øland studied violin under Professor Serguei Azizian at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and under Professor Ulf Wallin at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. At the age of 23, he won the position of leader of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, and in the same year he was appointed a teacher of violin and chamber music at RDAM in Copenhagen. Frederik left the Copenhagen Phil in 2017 to focus on the Danish String Quartet, in which he is a violinist, but he continues to assist in several of the Danish orchestras from time to time. 

Frederik is one-quarter of the Danish String Quartet, with whom he has received many awards and accolades, most recently as Musical America Ensemble of the Year in 2020. The quartet tours all over the world, and in 2020 they completed a concert cycle of all Beethoven’s string quartets at the Lincoln Center in New York. Their CD series ‘Prism’ was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2019. 

The Danish String Quartet are the organisers of both the DSQ Festival and the ‘Series of Four’ concert series. Here, the musicians in the quartet take on a more administrative role, while also acting as artistic leaders. 

Frederik has received the Jacob Gade Prize, the Victor Borge Prize, the Léonie Sonning Scholarship and the Emil Holm Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. 

Photo by Caroline Bittencourt.

*Teaches only some days.

Violist and director Jennifer Stumm blazes a courageous creative path with diverse projects mixing sheer musical enthusiasm with boundary-breaking social innovation. Known for the “opal-like beauty” (Washington Post) of her sound, Jennifer appears on stages around the world both as solo violist and as artistic director of Ilumina. She is the 2024 recipient of the Pablo Casals Prize for a better world, and was winner of the William Primrose, Geneva, and Concert Artist Guild competitions (the first violist ever to win first prize.) The 2024-25 season brings Jennifer’ s return as soloist in the large hall of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, a week-long residency at the Edinburgh Festival, and appearances on four continents. She will also appear as featured speaker on innovation and social equity at NASA and conferences around the world.

Jennifer is founder and director of Ilumina, the São Paulo-based artist collective and social equity initiative, which began on a coffee farm in 2015 and has since ascended rapidly as a modern model for 21st century creativity and the advancement of opportunity for diverse talent and audiences.  Ilumina unites leading international artists and thinkers with extraordinary young people from Latin America, with the goal that worthy talent receives an equal chance to shine. Ilumina young artists go on to study at leading universities around the world and lead careers of impact. Jennifer’s curation and stage direction receive much attention, inviting listeners to be immersed in dynamic musical worlds, steadfastly committed to interpretation and powered by the freshness of cultural exchange. Ilumina’s annual festival, based on its coffee farm, attracts huge audiences, all free of charge, and on tour its productions have been seen recently in spaces ranging from the Colombian cloud forest to the Lucerne Festival and Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

An enthusiastic speaker and writer,  Jennifer recently spoke at NASA about how the arts can help innovate toward a better world, and her viral TEDx talk about the viola and the blessings of being different, “The Imperfect Instrument,” was named an editor’s pick of all TED talks and led to a solo debut at the Berlin Philharmonie.  Her debut recording for Naxos’ Laureate Series featuring works by Alessandro Rolla was hailed as “an absolutely phenomenal display of virtuoso viola playing” (The New Recordings) and her album of Berlioz’s Harold In Italy and performed the work in her unique staging and characterization almost fifty times.  A recipient of the BBC New Generation artist and Borletti Buitoni Trust awards for her work in chamber music, she has appeared at major festivals such as Verbier, Marlboro, Stavanger, Spoleto and Aldeburgh as well as with Spectrum Concerts Berlin.

Born in Atlanta to a family of singers steeped in Appalachian tradition, Jennifer first heard the viola when she was eight and, enchanted by its sound, began playing in her school’s orchestra.  She studied with Karen Tuttle at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School and also pursued interests in politics and astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jennifer Stumm is Professor of Viola at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna and plays a Gasparo da Salò viola, 1589, generously on loan from a private trust.

A genuine rising star” is how The Strad Magazine described Sigge E Nisbeth, giving their CD ‘Let Beauty Awake’ (BIS, 2017) with works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Rebecca Clarke and Benjamin Britten their “Editors Choice” Award. Since their debut in 2012, when they became the first violist ever to win the Soloist Prize and Norwegian Soloist Prize, the most prestigious prizes for young musicians in the Nordics, Sigge has established themself as one of the leading viola players on the international scene. In 2014, they premiered together with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra Britta Byström’s viola concerto, written especially for Nisbeth. The disc recording of the concert was nominated for a Grammy, and Gramophone Magazine hailed them as “a model soloist”.

Nature is a recurring source of inspiration for Nisbeth, and their Sami origins inspired Andrea Tarrodi to write her acclaimed concerto for viola, joik and orchestra, Ur Ædnan, which was premiered in 2018 with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, the work was performed at the Royal Opera in Stockholm in a staged version which was later broadcast on SVT2 Kulturstudion. Nisbeth has appeared as a soloist with some of the leading orchestras in Scandinavia and Europe, and has worked with conductors such as Neeme Järvi, Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Dalia Stasevka. Between 2014 and 2023, Sigge has taught at the Royal Academy of Music, Edsbergs Slott. They are also a sought-after guest lecturer at several universities in Europe and at NYU Steinhart.  

Sigge also collaborates with artists from other genres and disciplines, including actress Anita Wall, artist Maxida Märak and electric guitarist Loke Risberg.

Sigge Nisbeth plays a Dom Nicolo Amati viola from 1714 and a Benoît Rolland bow. 

Tim Frederiksen (b. 1955) studied with Erling Bloch and Max Rostal, and subsequently studied chamber music with, amongst others, members of the Amadeus Quartet and Knud Frederiksen of the Danish String Quartet. In 1980 Tim was appointed principal viola player in the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and in 1983 he was awarded the position of leader of the orchestra.

In 1995 Tim was appointed professor of viola and chamber music, as well as department head, at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Here he has taught a number of ensembles which have not only played a major role in Danish chamber music life, but have also proved themselves internationally viable in competitions and concert series.

Tim has performed as a soloist on violin and viola with most of the Danish orchestras, including with Bartok’s Viola Concerto and Per Nørgård’s Remembering Child. He has premiered Jan Yngve Trede’s Viola Concerto, which is dedicated to him, and he has performed Poul Ruder’s Viola Concerto with the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra.

As leader of the Danish Quartet (1986-1996) he has travelled all over Europe, and he was also co-founder of Trio Soleil with Elisabeth Westenholz and Niels Thomsen.

Tim is in demand as a judge in international competitions, and has recorded a long series of CDs.

Born in Denmark, Henrik studied at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen with Erling Bløndal Bengtsson, and later in London with William Pleeth and Ralph Kirshbaum. 

He joined the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in 1987, shortly after having done his first tour. Since then, Henrik has been working extensively with the Orchestra. 

He has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, and is a regular guest at highly profiled international chamber music festivals. 

His numerous recordings include the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven, solo works for cello by Sofia Gubaidulina, and cello works by Chopin and Liszt which won the French award “Diapason d’Or”. 

Henrik is a very active chamber musician and has been the cellist of several leading ensembles in Denmark, such as The Danish String Quartet, the string sextet “Copenhagen Classic”, and the Gefion Trio. 

He is currently Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music in Århus, Denmark. 

Fredrik Sjølin (b. 1982) grew up in Trondheim and is one of Scandinavia’s most sought-after cellists and chamber musicians of his generation. For 15 years, Fredrik has been a cellist in “The Danish String Quartet”, which still forms the main part of his work. The quartet conducts extensive touring activities with around 100 concerts a year, regular recordings on ECM records, and often appears as guest teachers around the world. Outside the quartet, Fredrik is active as a guest soloist and a chamber musician, and he teaches on a regular basis at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music. 

Jakob Koranyi has toured globally as a soloist and chamber musician, performing world premieres of new cello concertos as well as the classical standard repertoire alongside leading orchestras and musicians. He has been a frequent guest at prestigious festivals, including the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and the Cello Biennale in Amsterdam, and for over a decade, he performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

Since 2019, in response to the climate crisis, Jakob has declined engagements requiring air travel, focusing his performances in Europe until the aviation industry adopts fossil-free energy sources.

Together with pianist Peter Friis Johansson, Jakob co-founded the climate-conscious Fairplay Chamber Music Festival and Summer Academy in Järna, near Stockholm.

Since 2022, Jakob has served as a professor of cello at Edsberg, a chamber music-focused campus of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. 

The award-winning cellist Amalie Stalheim (b. 1993) has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, among others. Recently, she premiered a new work by Mazzoli at the Bergen International Festival, a world premiere by Therese Ulvo with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and made her debut with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Turkey.

Amalie has collaborated with conductors such as Edward Gardner, Dalia Stasevska, Patrik Ringborg, Okko Kamu, Anna Maria Helsing, James Gaffigan, Nuno Coelho, and Stanislav Kochanovsky. Stalheim won the Norwegian Soloist Prize in 2021 and the Swedish Soloist Prize in 2018.

She is also the winner of the Ljunggren Competition in 2015 and the Nicholas A. Firmenich Prize at the Verbier Festival in 2015.

In addition to performing traditional cello concertos, Amalie often plays contemporary music and also commissions new works from the 21st century. In the coming seasons, she will perform and record five new cello concertos written especially for her by Scandinavian composers.

As an enthusiastic chamber musician, Amalie has collaborated with artists such as Janine Jansen, Yo-Yo Ma, Leif Ove Andsnes, Kathryn Stott, Christian Ihle Hadland, Polina Leschenko, Benjamin Schmid, and Lars Anders Tomter.

She frequently takes part in festivals such as the Bergen International Festival, the Stavanger International Chamber Music Festival, the Rosendal Festival, the Hemsing Festival, the Copenhagen Summer Festival, and the Hindsgavl Festival.

Stalheim has received awards and scholarships from international festivals and foundations, including the Firmenich Prize at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Anders Wall’s Giresta Scholarship in 2019, the Forsberg & Aulie Scholarship in 2020, the Fegersten Scholarship in 2018, and the Sollentuna Cultural Scholarship in 2018.

From 2018 to 2020, Amalie Stalheim was “Artist in Residence” on the Swedish Radio classical music channel P2.

Amalie Stalheim plays a cello built by F. Ruggieri (1687), generously loaned to her by the Anders Sveaas Charitable Foundation in Norway.

Craig White is a passionate and highly acclaimed chamber musician, dedicated to both instrumental and vocal repertoire. A graduate from St Catherine’s College, Oxford and Royal Academy of Music in London, he studied with Michael Dussek and Diana Ketler.Craig has won various accolades including the Centenary Kathleen Ferrier Awards, adding to his top accompanist prizes at the Thelma King Awards, Great Elm Vocal Awards, and AESS Finals. He made his conducting debut with London Youth Opera’s The Magic Flute. Internationally, Craig has toured South Korea and Japan, captivating audiences with his performances.

In high demand, Craig spent 2015 living in Germany, working for the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. He toured the UK with Russian violinist Adelia Myslov and appeared with Soprano Eleanor Dennis on the BBC programme “The Joy of Mozart”. In 2018, he performed on BBC Radio 3 in a live soundtrack of Daniel Elms’ ‘Bethia’ during the Hull New Music Biennial. Craig is also a proud member of the “Philomel Project”, which brings a diverse series of concerts to the Crick Institute in London.

Craig’s versatility as a collaborative pianist has led him to work at various International Music Academies. In 2017, he adjudicated the Con Brio Piano Competition in Mumbai, India, and has collaborated with renowned artists such as Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Waltraud Meier at the Aix-en-Provence Académie.

Nelson Padgett enjoys a multifaceted career as a soloist and collaborator. He has appeared with the Houston, National, and North Carolina Symphonies, and his many awards include a silver medal at the William Kapell International Competition and a Beethoven Fellowship from
the American Pianists Association. A former student of Leon Fleisher, he toured the world with the Philip Glass Ensemble for over thirty years.

Specializing in collaboration with string players, he has given recitals with renowned violinists such as Pamela Frank and Elmar Oliveira, and
has been an official pianist at the Meadowmount School of Music, the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and the Cooper International Violin Competition. Since 2011 he has been a pianist at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival.

A native of North Carolina, Mr. Padgett has lived in New York City since 1987, and spends most of his time playing with string students at The Juilliard School and New York University. He can be heard in the
soundtrack for the recent movie May December, starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.

Anna Christensson is one of Sweden’s most sought-after classical pianists and chamber musicians, acclaimed for her stage presence, rigorous interpretations, and personal touch. She possesses a vast repertoire and has over the years dedicated herself to exploring both the classical and romantic core repertoire, as well as music that has undeservedly been overlooked by history. Through a series of critically acclaimed albums on the Austrian label Capriccio, she has contributed to bringing Swedish music to a wider international audience. Anna has performed as a soloist with the majority of Swedish orchestras and is a regular guest on the country’s chamber music stages and festivals, appearing both as a soloist and in various ensembles. She has toured throughout most European countries, as well as in Asia
and North America.

In 2025, Anna was awarded the Janos Solyom Memorial Music Prize. Her previous honours include the FST Interpretation Prize and the de Frumerie Scholarship, as well as prizes in the Swedish Soloist Prize and the Ljunggrenska Competition, among others. As a longstanding member of the contemporary music ensemble Curious Chamber Players, she has premiered hundreds of works and performed at numerous international festivals.
She has served as musical director at venues such as the Royal Swedish Opera and Piteå Chamber Opera. From 2014 to 2025, she was the musical director of the Stockholm-based Kamraterna Opera, where she led a series of productions that achieved great success with both audiences and critics alike. She currently teaches at the Royal College of Music/Edsberg.

In the spring of 2026, Anna’s upcoming engagements include appearing as a soloist with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Swedish Orchestra.

Mezzo-soprano Randi Stene is one of Scandinavia’s leading opera and concert soloists, and appears on the most important European stages. Since 1989 she has been engaged at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. She has a large repertoire, covering both the classical mezzo roles and many new or rarely performed works. She was Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Stene iss the Opera Director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Stene is artistic leader of the Summer Academy Voksenåsen Voice program.

*Teaches part-time

Susanna Eken is one of Scandinavia’s most prominent voice teacher. Since 1972 Eken has been teaching at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory as associate professor in voice and vocal techniques. She also taught at the Opera Academy at the Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen. During the last 25 years Eken has taught several Scandinavian and international singers, among them Randi Stene, Mari Eriksmoen, Magnus Staveland, Johannes Weisser and Lise Davidsen.

Together with an extensive musical and artistic knowledge Susanna Eken’s method of teaching is rooted in contemporary psychological and physiological principles. Combining the results of modern voice-science with the demands of classical bel-canto singing the aim of her method is to develop the individual vocal/musical/artistic talent as far as possible, and to develop singers with a healthy and balanced technique that can endure a long performing career. Eken’s technique has proved successful in training young singers on to a high level of professionalism and, equally important, in rehabilitating singers with problems due to a poor technique.

Susanna Eken was awarded the prestigious ‘Improvement of Talent’ award by Talent-DK in 2008. She received the accolade for her relentless curiosity, enjoyment and enthusiasm and for her outstanding work developing young singers thereby making Denmark the frontrunner and center point for contemporary opera education not only in Scandinavia but all of Europe.

For 18 years, next to her carreer as a Royal Danish Opera Soloist at the Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen, Anne Margrethe Dahl was Head of the Royal Opera Academy in Copenhagen. In addition, she has taught and educated a large number of Danish and international opera singers. Anne Margrethe Dahl was pointed out to be Head of WOYS – a new opera studio that The Norwegian National Opera & Ballett launched in 2024. At the same time, she began her position as Guest Professor at Karlstad University, Ingesund. She has for many years had a very close collaboration with Susanna Eken.

The Norwegian mezzo-soprano Ingeborg Gillebo has studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Royal Danish Opera Academy in Copenhagen, as well as at the Académie Européenne de Musique at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. She made her debut in 2010 as Margret in Wozzeck at the Royal Danish Opera, and the following year performed the role of Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet.

Since then, Ingeborg has appeared at Zurich Opera, Theater an der Wien, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Baden-Baden, the Bayreuth and Drottningholm festivals, Bergen National Opera, and the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet. In 2014, she sang the role of Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and returned in 2017 to sing Hans in Hansel and Gretel in Richard Jones’s iconic production. The year before, Ingeborg made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival, performing as a Flowermaiden in Uwe Eric Laufenberg’s production of Parsifal.

Among the roles in her repertoire are Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Mélisande (Pelléas and Mélisande), Siebel (Faust), Nicklausse (The Tales of Hoffmann), Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Annio (La clemenza di Tito), and the title role in Carmen.

On the concert stage, she has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Paris Chamber Orchestra.

Ingeborg has worked with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Marc Minkowski, Vasily Petrenko, Sir Roger Norrington, Iván Fischer, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Biondi, James Levine, Andrew Manze, Thomas Dausgaard, Hartmut Haenchen, Andrew Parrott, and Emmanuel Villaume. As a concert and lieder singer, her repertoire includes works by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mahler, and Grieg.

Ingeborg has sung at the Richard Tucker Gala at Carnegie Hall in New York and represented Norway in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and the Belvedere Competition. She also won second prize in the Queen Sonja International Music Competition. In 2015, she was awarded the Tom Wilhelmsen Opera and Ballet Prize.

Bo Skovhus is a Danish singer (baritone). He divides his business between opera, lieder and teaching.
Skovhus was educated at the Music Conservatory in Aarhus, the Opera Academy in Copenhagen and in New York. After a sensational debut at the Vienna Volksoper in 1988, where he stepped in at short notice in the title role of Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), he quickly made a career on the largest international opera stages, such as the Metropolitan in New York, The Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Paris Opera, as well as the two opera houses in Vienna, at the Salzburg Festival and a number of other festivals.
His repertoire includes roles such as The Count in Figaro’s Wedding and Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, both by Mozart, and title roles in Eugen Onegin (Pyotr Tchaikovsky), Billy Budd (Benjamin Britten), Hamlet (Ambroise Thomas) and Wozzeck (Alban Berg), among others.
Bo Skovhus is considered one of the foremost lied interpreters of our time and has played in several albums with songs by, among others, Hugo Wolf, Erich Korngold and Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin and Schwanengesang. He performs frequently with orchestras and has been a soloist in works such as Carmina Burana (Carl Orff), War Requiem (Britten), Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Das Lied von der Erde (Gustav Mahler) and Ein deutsches Requiem (Johannes Brahms).
Skovhus is also active as an educator, such as at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. He has been a professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music since 2014.

Åshild Kyvik Bauge completed her teacher training from the Music Department at Bergen Teacher Training College and vocal teacher training from the Norwegian Music Teachers’ National Association, before she obtained a master’s diploma in singing at the Norwegian Academy of Music. From 1996, she is singing teacher at Rud Upper Secondary School in Bærum. For 15 years she was affiliated with the Norwegian Academy of Music as a part-time teacher and college lecturer, until she was employed as Associate Professor of vocal didactics at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in 2005. 

In addition to her pedagogical practice, Åshild has had an extensive career as a mezzo-soprano.

In 2015, she published the book “Singing technique in the children’s and youth choir” together with Randi Clausen Aarflot. Together with Associate Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music Kristin Kjølberg, in January 2024 she published the book “Stemmens signatur”, a textbook in vocal didactics, for Gyldendal Publishing House. This is a vocalidactic textbook that, through theoretical and practical descriptions, presents song training in a holistic perspective.

Åshild has contributed to both Voksenåsen Winter and Summer Academy.

Ståle Ytterli, from Korgen in Nordland. He is educated from Oslo, Copenhagen and New York. Ytterli is a singer with a wide repertoire that ranges from medieval music to modern musicals. In recent years he has worked mostly with theater, musicals, entertainment music such as early jazz / ragtime and tango. He also has participated in several modern dance performances. He has had major roles in musicals such as Les Miserables, Chess, Which Witch, Lady be good. He has also worked at Haugesund Theater in “Annie”, The Vamp musical “Hello Goodbye”, and the theater monologue “I am my own wife.” In 2014, he was associated with Sogn og Fjordane Teater in the newly written musical “Kjærleikens Ferjereiser” by Sommero and Hoem. He has been on three long study trips to Buenos Aires to learn more about tango singing and to experience a living tango environment. He has now started a tango group (Cantango) that focuses mainly on Argentinian tango singing. He is also a sought-after singing teacher and is associated with the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Norwegian Theater as a singing teacher. At the Norwegian Academy of Music, he also teaches drama subjects.

Ole Christian Haagenrud (born 1989) is one of the most sought after young pianists in Norway. He earned his Artist Diploma from the Norwegian Academy of Music under professors Jens Harald
Bratlie and Håvard Gimse.

In 2014, the year of his debut concert in the University Aula in Oslo, he was awarded the prestigious Robert Levin Festival Prize. In 2017 he gained a place in ArtEx, a cross-genre programme established by Talent Norge and Sparebankstiftelsen DNB focusing on developing careers and artistic integrity.

Ole Christian is a critically acclaimed chamber musician and accompanist, and he regularly performs at major festivals in Norway and abroad. He has already received numerous awards. Among highlights of his career so far are solo performances with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared at prestigious venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Vienna Musikverein, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and Shanghai Concert Hall.

He is a graduate of the soloist program at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and is one of Denmark’s most sought-after young répétiteurs. A former Young Artist at the Royal Danish Theatre, he conducted the Royal Opera Chorus backstage during Verdi’s Aida in the fall of 2023. In recent years, he has served as a répétiteur for numerous opera productions, collaborating with international conductors such as Paolo Carignani and Julia Jones. These productions include titles like La Traviata, La Bohème, Don Giovanni, Carmen, The Manual and The Seven Deadly Sins, Aida, and Peter Grimes.

He has won 2nd prize in the Copenhagen Lied Duo Competition and performs Lied recitals at prominent festivals, including the Hindsgavl Festival, Hvide Sande Festival, Lindegaard Concerts, and Fuglsang Music Association, among others.

Laurits also debuted as a continuo pianist in the Royal Danish Theatre’s production of Rossini’s Cinderella in the fall of 2022 and regularly performs with the Royal Danish Orchestra.

In the 2023/2024 season, Laurits has been under contract with the Opera Academy in Copenhagen and is also a permanent pianist for the international Malko Academy for prominent conductor talents.

Stefan Zlatanos has his education from the Norwegian Academy of Music (2003-2009), where he studied under Liv Glaser and Einar Henning Smebye, and the Hans Eisler Hochschule für Musik Berlin, under Galina Iwansowa. During this time, he has also studied jazz piano, as well has having singing lessons and Continuing Education in choral conducting with Tone Bianca Dahl at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Stefan is a University Lecturer at the Norwegian Academy of Music. In 2015, he released his first solo album.

“Christopher Park is a pianist who captivates with his fascinating technical mastery, astounding musical maturity, and a particularly intense performance style” – this was the explanation given by the jury upon awarding Christopher Park the renowned Leonard Bernstein Award 2014. 

Numerous important ensembles have engaged Park, a German-born musician, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Norwegian National Opera, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, China NCPA Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne, English Chamber Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra and Bamberg Symphony. 

So far he has worked with conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Jarvi, Sebastian Weigle, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Ion Marin, James Gaffigan, Zsolt Hamar and Dimitri Kitaenko. He has given concerts all over the world and played at events including the Ravinia Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Klavierfestival Ruhr, the Rheingau Music Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. As soloist he debuted in renowned concert halls in Barbican Centre London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Musikverein & Konzerthaus Vienna, Konserthus Stockholm, Opera Oslo, Müpa Budapest, Gulbenkian Lisboa, Philharmonie Berlin, Seoul Arts Center, Kennedy Center Washington D.C., and others. 

Next to his solo albums with Deutsche Grammophon, his CD with works by Schumann, Stravinsky and Neuwirth is celebrated in European magazines as “brilliant recording” and “reference version”. It is released with Oehms Classics. 

Christopher Park was influenced by two major musical traditions during his studies: the Russian school of Lev Oborin with Lev Natochenny as well as the German school of Wilhelm Kempff with Joachim Volkmann. 

Park was teaching in Frankfurt/Germany at both, the Conservatory and the University of Music and Performing Arts. Since 2021 he holds a professorship at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. 

Bart Jansen is solo timpanist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra since January 2024. At the Rotterdam Conservatoire Bart Jansen studied percussion with Chris and Hans Leenders, Richard Jansen and Danny van de Wal. He was active as a timpani player in the Dutch National Youth Orchestra and from 2008 to 2012 in the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.

After being accepted in 2009 in the Orchestral Percussion Class of David Searcy and Michael Quinn at Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado in Milan, his studies were mainly focused on timpani playing. Jansen pursued his masterstudies with Raymond Curfs in Munich at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater and was accepted to the Academy of the Bavarian Radio Symphonie Orchestra.

He won his first audition as solo timpani player at La Monnaie in Brussels. Shortly after he won the position of solo timpanist in the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

As a guest, Jansen has performed with ensembles such as the World Orchestra for Peace, the Orchestra of the Bayreuther Festspiele, Orchestre de Paris, Staatskapelle Berlin, and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

Working with composers such as Wolfgang Rihm, Maurizio Kagel, Sofia Gubaidulina and Krzysztof Penderecki has given shape to his vision on the modern classical repertoire.

Bart Jansen is a professor of timpani at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and a guest lecturer at Codarts Rotterdam. In addition, he leads his own very successful workshop, Picarde Timpani Products, which ships timpano sticks worldwide.

Born in Bergamo, Italy, on December 11, 1989, Nicola Carrara is an accomplished timpanist and percussionist. He is the principal timpanist and percussionist at the Danish National Symphony Orchestra since 2016 and has worked with The Royal Danish Theater, Filarmonica della Scala and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, among others.

Nicola Carrara holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in classical percussion from the Royal Danish Academy of Music and a Bachelor’s from the Conservatorio L. Campiani in Mantova, Italy. He also teaches timpani and percussion, conducting masterclasses and teaching privately. He is the founder of the Danish Timpani Academy and co-founder of the renowned Timpani course “Timpani Lab”.

Both the Danish Timpani Academy and Timpani Lab come from a personal desire to create a more open and inspiring musical environment. These projects are meant to bring people together, encourage sharing, and strengthen the connection between players in a meaningful and human way.

Jason is the founder of JGPercussion. For seventeen years he has worked toward the goal of creating the finest quality timpani mallets, together with timpanists like Joseph Pereira (LA Philharmonic) and David Herbert (Chicago Symphony Orchestra). In recent years JGpercussion has expanded to new orchestras and ensembles – and can be found on six continents. Ultimately the goal remains the same: to be driven by the music to create the highest quality timpani mallets.

Versatility has always been one of the keywords for describing Sebastiaan’s personality. From the days he was living on a houseboat in the center of Amsterdam, as skateboarder or as drummer in punk bands. In 2005, he moved with his family from the Netherlands to Norway, got by coincidence in contact with a local brass band and started playing classical percussion by the age of 18. One year after he was accepted to study at the Norwegian Academy of Music and later
finished his Master degree in orchestral percussion and timpani in 2017 at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

Sebastiaan is since 2026 principal timpanist of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and has previously been solo timpanist of the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra (2019-2024). During the
last years he also worked intensely with orchestra’s like the Kammerorchester Basel, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra,
Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Wroclaw Philharmonic and Gstaad Festival Orchestra, among others.

In 2022, Sebastiaan founded the annual Bodø BEAT International Percussion Festival in Norway. He has also been managing director for the Arctic Chamber Music Festival at Svalbard and is a representing artist for Adams Musical Instruments.