Chinese violinist, Jiayi, is currently studying with Prof Ulf Wallin and Prof Johannes Meissl at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Her former studies were at the  Shanghai Conservatory of Music with Prof Lina Yu.

Jiayi was the top prize of the 10th Chinese Golden Bell Award For Music Violin Competition, the 3rd prize in the 7th International Yampolsky Violin Competition and the 4th prize in 2nd Shanghai Issac Stern International Violin Competition.

She performs regularly with Chinese orchestras such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen Symphony Orchestras with conductors John Nelson, Maxim Vengrov and Long Yu.  Jiayi has appeared in the Lucerne Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Grafenegg Festival, Ravinia Festival, BBC Proms, Zell am See International Music Festival and Allegro Vivo.

In demand as a chamber player, Jiayi plays first violin in the Sōng Quartet which and won prizes at the Shanghai Chamber Music Competition and the International Summer Academy of University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Canadian-born violinist Gabrielle Després is the winner of numerous competitions, most recently first prize in 2022 Juilliard Concerto Competition, second prize in the 2022 Washington International String Competition, first prize in the 2020 Irving M. Klein International String Competition and second prize in the 2021 Shean Strings Competition. She was included in Canadian Broadcast Company’s list of 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30 for 2020 and in 2022, and was selected as one of the recipients of the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award.

As a soloist, Gabrielle has performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Edmonton. In 2021, she served as Concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra, performing Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano. Her debut as soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra was performing the Korngold Violin Concerto.

Gabrielle received a Bachelor of Music at the Juilliard School where she studied with Masao Kawasaki and Joseph Lin (winner of the inaugural Michael Hill International Violin Competition). She is now pursuing a Master of Music degree as a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship at Juilliard, studying with Catherine Cho and Donald Weilerstein. She is also very appreciative of her past teachers, Robert Uchida and James Keene, for their guidance during her early years of study.

Gabrielle plays on a Zosimo Bergonzi violin, ca. 1760-1770, graciously provided by CANIMEX INC., from Drummondville, Quebec, Canada. She gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Anne Burrows Music Foundation and the Edmonton Community Foundation in supporting her education.

Kingston Ho began playing the violin at the age of five. He currently studies with Cornelia Heard at Vanderbilt University as a Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholar and recipient of the Jean Keller Heard and David Rabin prizes. He has previously taken lessons with Victor Danchenko, Robert Lipsett, Philip Setzer, Duoming Ba, and Elena Peres. Kingston has been a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival and has played in masterclasses with Augustin Hadelich, Tessa Lark, Ida Kavafian, Benjamin Bowman, Edgar Meyer, Viktor Pikayzen, and Dmitri Berlinsky among others. A 3-time member of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA and former member of the New York String Orchestra Seminar, Kingston was a semifinalist in the 2021 Premio Paganini International Violin Competition and the 2018 Johansen International Competition as well as a winner of competitions such as the Vanderbilt University Concerto Competition, Suburban Music Study Club Scholarship Competition, National League of Performing Arts Competition, and National YoungArts. He also reached the quarterfinals of the 2022 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition and the 2022 Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition (receiving a special prize there). As part of the Eunoia String Quartet, Kingston won 1st place in the 2022 MTNA National Chamber Music Competition. He has given solo recitals and performed with orchestras in various halls across the USA including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and the State Theater of New Jersey.

Seonglan was born in Seoul ad began playing the violin at the age of seven. She graduated from Seoul Arts High School and is currently studying at the Seoul National University with Prof Young Uck Kim.

She was awarded 4th prize at the 2022 Sendai International Music Competition and is a laureate of numerous Korean competitions including the Joongang Music Competition, Busan Music Competition, and The Strad Competition. She made her debut as a soloist with the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, Korean Chamber Orchestra and has performed as a soloist at The Young Musicians Festival and The Strad Gala Concert.

Seonglan has performed chamber music at Lotte Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Center IBK Hall and the Seoul Arts Recital Hall. She was invited to perform at The Gyechon Classic Festival, and Kwangwhamun Culture Forum and is a member of On Dream Ensemble. Additionally, she has been concertmaster of the Seoul National University Orchestra and Seoul Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Born in South Korea, Yeyeong began violin lessons at age two. She is currently a student at The Juilliard School and a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship.

At age eight, Yeyeong won the Kumho-Asiana Cultural Foundation Award, resulting in the loan of a fine ½ size Carlo Giuseppe Testore violin made in 1700, and a solo recital. At nine years of age, violinist Yeyeong Jin was admitted to The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she studied with Ida Kavafian. She has also been a student at the Perman Music Program.

Yeyeong has won top prizes at the Stulberg International String and the Zhuhai International Violin Competitions.

Lorenz Karls was born in Vienna into an Austrian-Swedish family. He began playing the violin at age four and is a student at the University Mozarteum Salzburg where he studies with Prof Benjamin Schmid. Lorenz has also studied at the Stauffer Center for Strings with Salvatore Accardo and attended masterclasses with Julia Fischer, Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin.

Lorenz won 1^st prize at Zhuhai International Mozart Competition 2022, 2^nd prize at Concorso Andre Postachhini and 3^rd prizes at the Seoul International, Khachaturian International, Tibor Varga International and International Mozart Competitions.

His soloist appearances include his debut at the Mozartwoche Salzburg in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation followed by concerts with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Funkhausorchester, Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Bern, Odense Symfonieorkester, Ferenc Liszt Chamber Orchestra und Kremerata Baltica.

Lorenz plays the G.B Guadagnini “ex-Bachmann” violin kindly loaned to him by the Stephan and Viktoria Schmidheiny Foundation.

Tianyu is a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School where he studies with Joseph Lin (winner of the 2001 Michael Hill). He was a previous undergraduate scholarship student with Professor Siow at the College of Charleston.

Tianyu’s prizes include the Grand Prize of the Ronald Sachs International Music Competition, 1^st  prize in the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Young Artist Performance String Competition, 1st Prize and the Best Paganini Prize in the Cremona International Competition for Strings in Italy.  He was selected as one of the 22 competitors chosen globally to participate in the Menuhin competition in Richmond, Virginia and was one of the Michael Hill 2019 quarter-finalists.

Liu was a recipient of the Marion and Wayland H. Cato, Jr. Endowed Scholarship for the School of the Arts, the Lee Harwood Scholarship in Music and the Reba Kinne Huge Award in Music.

A native of Toronto, Julia has been featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Center’s Top 30 Classical Musicians Under 30, CBC radio 94.1, and classical 96.3 FM. Her awards include top prizes at the Irving M Klein international competition including the Susan Weiss prize for the commissioned work, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal competition, grand prize at the Canadian Music Competition, and first prizes at the Crescendo International competition and Cremona music festival competitions.

As a soloist, Julia has performed with the Montreal Chamber Music Festival’s Jeunes Virtuoses orchestra, the Scarborough Philharmonic, Sinfonia Toronto, the Canadian Sinfonietta, the University of Toronto Symphony, Orchestra Toronto, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony.

A passionate chamber musician, Julia has been a winner of the Yale Chamber Music competition, and has been invited to participate in the Sarasota, Manchester, Toronto, Yellow Barn, and Perlman Music Program festivals. Julia is a founding member of the Myriade String Quartet, who have been selected to compete in the live rounds of the Wigmore Hall and Trondheim String Quartet competitions.

A graduate of the University of Toronto, Mcgill University, and the Yale University school of music, Julia has received the Broadus Erle graduating prize at the Yale School of music, and the Golden Violin award at Mcgill University. Her mentors include Andrew Wan, Ani Kavafian, Jonathan Crow, and Jacob Lakirovich.

Audrey currently studies at the Juilliard School under Mr. Hyo Kang, with additional instruction from Linda Rose, Almita Vamos, and Cho-Liang Lin.  She is a scholarship recipient of the Mark Zinger Foundation.

Audrey was featured in the prestigious 2019 Starling-DeLay Symposium at the Juilliard School and has attended the Young Artist Summer Program at the Curtis Institute of Music, Domaine Forget de Charlevoix Music Festival, Montecito International,  Bravo International Music and La Jolla Music Society Festivals and has participate in masterclasses by Ray Chen, Glenn Dicterow, Cho-Liang Lin, Jan Sloman, and Vadim Gluzman.

Audrey has appeared as a soloist with the LA Virtuosi Orchestra and Peninsula Symphony and was the Grand Prize Winner of the Bellagrande International Music Competition and Edith Knox Performance Competitions as well as a semi-finalist in the 2022 National Schadt Violin Competition and the 2022 Indianapolis International Violin Competitions.

Eva was born in Lviv, Ukraine and made her debut with the Lviv Chamber orchestra at the age of eight. She is a former student of Mariia Futorska, Yaroslava Rivnyak and Jozef Kopelman, and she obtained her Bachelor and Master Diplomas at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid with Prof Zakhar Bron. She is currently studying at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik with Prof Antje Weithaas.

She regularly performs as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including Slovak Radio Symphony, Kyiv Symphony, Lithuanian National and Belgian National Orchestras. She has played at music festivals such as Encuentro Santander and the Seiji Ozawa Academy .  Eva’s prizes include 2nd Prize at the Carl Flesh International Violin competition, 1st prize at the Lipinski-Wieniawski competition, laureate prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, 2nd Prize of the International Jasha Heifetz Competition, and 1st prize at the 1st Stuttgart International Violin Competition 2021.

Since 2016 Eva has performed on a C. A. Tesotore violin, 1740, kindly lent by the Walter Fischli Foundation and is honoured to perform on a G. B. Guadagnini violin, Piacenza 1746, on a generous loan from The Guadagnini Foundation.

Born in Tokyo, Aoi started playing violin at the age of 5 at the Toho Gakuen Music School and later completed her bachelor’s degree with Prof Asako Urushihara, Prof Natsumi Tamai, and Masafumi Hori at the Tokyo University of the Arts.  She is currently studying with Prof Latica Honda-Rosenberg at the Berlin University of Arts and has participated in masterclasses by Leonidas Kavakos, Pavel Vernikov, Pierre Amoyal, Gerard Poulet, Dong-Suk Kang, Oleh Krysa, and Zakhar Bron.  She has been invited to the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland and Ozawa International Chamber Music Academy in Japan.

Aoi has been former 1^st prizewinner of the Osaka International Music Competition, Kobe International Competition, and Violinwettbewerb der Ibolyka-Gyarfas-Stiftung in Berlin. Additionally, she has been a semi-finalist at the 2019 Tibor Varga and the 2022 International Jean Sibelius Violin Competitions.

As a soloist, Aoi has performed with the Geidai Philharmonia Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and given performances in various festivals and concert halls including the Miyazaki International Music Festival and La folle la folle journée Tokyo.

Aoi is currently playing an 18^th– century G. B. Guadanini on loan from the Berlin University of the Arts.

Hani started playing the violin from the age of three and is currently pursuing a postgraduate degree at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts with Prof Mi-Kyung Lee.  She is a graduate of the University of Arts in Zurich where she studied with Prof Andreas Janke.  Her early teachers were Prof Jörg Hofmann and Philip Draganov and she attended master classes with Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Ana Chumachenco, Igor Ozim and Nora Chastain.

Hani won first prize and a special prize at the International Marschner Competition, 1^st prize at the Swiss Youth Music Competition and 2^nd prize at the Lions Music Competition.  She is the recipient of the 2022 Kiefer Hablitzel | Ernst Göhner Music Prize.  The Lyra Foundation, the Fritz Gerber Foundation and Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Much e.V have granted Hani scholarships over several years and she has also received the Friedl Wald Scholarship.

Hani has soloed with orchestras such as the Orchestra della Magna Grecia, Orquesta Experimental de Repertorio, Bavarian Philharmonic and the Academic Orchestra of Zurich. She is a chamber musician and served as concertmaster of the Zurich Youth Symphony Orchestra.  At the Verbier Festival Orchestra she played under the baton of Charles Dutoit, Sir Antonio Pappano and Daniel Harding. Since the 2022/23 season, Hani has been playing in the first violin section of the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Three documentaries about Hani were filmed by the Swiss National Television and broadcast internationally.

1st prize winner of the Lipizer International Violin Competition, Karen made her international debut as the featured soloist in the Gergiev Festival.

Currently an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel under the mentorship of Augustin Dumay, Karen was born in Los Angeles into a musical family, with both her father and older sister being violinists. She began studying the violin at age 4 with her father Elmer, and later simultaneously with Igor and Vesna Gruppman.

She has appeared as soloist with orchestras in North America, Europe, and Asia, including the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liège Philharmonic Orchestra, Boca de Rio Philharmonic, Sinfonia Rotterdam, Kiev Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra.

Karen has been named prize winner of multiple international competitions, such as Lipizer, Princess Astrid, and Rubinstein International Violin Competitions.  She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Hartman Award, Prins Bernhard Award, Belgian American Educational Foundation Award, and was named as a candidate for the Borletti Buitoni Trust Award.

In addition to solo playing, Karen is an active and passionate chamber musician and works with musicians such as Augustin Dumay, Gary Hoffman, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, and Lorenzo Gatto.

Karen currently plays on a 1747 Nicolo Gagliano from an anonymous donor.

Born in Japan, Yuri moved to the UK and started playing violin at the age of four. She was a scholarship student at the Toho Gakuen Music High School where she studied under Akiko Tatsumi and was awarded the 7th the Arion-Toho Music Award.  She has studied privately with Alexander Souptel in Singapore and is currently a student at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin where she studies with Ning Feng (2005 Michael Hill winner).

At age 12, Yuri was the youngest ever category winner when she won 3^rd prize in the under 25 artist category at the National Piano and Violin Competition.  She won first prize in the primary schools section of the 70th All Japan Student Music Competition in Tokyo and 3rd prize in the national competition. She was the 3^rd prize winner in the junior category at the 14th Lipinski Wieniawski International Competition.

Yuri plays a violin by Gennaro Gagliano c 1735, loaned by a generous patron through the Tarisio Trust.

Born in Osaka, Ayaka has studied with Ms Ikuyo Higuchi, Mr Kirill Troussov, Professors Reiko Otani, Taro Uemura, Asako Urushihara, Machie Oguri, Tsugio Tokunaga, Dong-Suk Kang; after graduating from the Tokyo University of the Arts, she is currently studying with Prof Christoph Poppen and Prof Lena Neudauer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München.

Ayaka was awarded the 4^th Prize at the Wettbewerb der Peter-Pirazzi-Stiftung, 1^st Prize at August-Everding=Musikwettbewerb, the 12^th International Arthur Grumiaux Competition for Young Violinists, and  2^nd Prize at the 5^th Moscow International David Oistrahk Violin Competition (Junior).

She has performed with the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and is an academy member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.  Her festival participation includes the Miyazaki and Tongyeong International Music Festivls.

American Claire Wells grew up in a musical family, playing both violin and piano from the age of three.  She was the Mendelssohn-Prize 1st Prize winner and Commission Prize winner at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition 2021, and has been awareded major prizes at the Indianapolis International, Mirecourt International, Lynn Harrell Competitions, among others.

Following her study at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, Claire is currently studying at the Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy.  She has studied privately with Brian Lewis, Sandy Yamamoto, and Emanuel Borok and with Lutsia Ibragimova at the Yehudi.

Claire has performed with major orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jalisco Philharmonic, the Shen Zhen Symphony Orchestra, the Nancy Lyric Symphony Orchestra, and the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra. A passionate chamber musician, Claire has worked alongside major artists such as Nobuko Imai, Frans Helmerson, Christian Tetzlaff, and Steven Isserlis. Wells has also taken coachings from Ana Chumachenco, Boris Kuschnir, Donald Weilerstein and Robert Levin. She has performed at festivals such as the Music@Menlo chamber music festival, Kronberg Academy Chamber Music Connects the World, Lac Leman Masterclasses, Tibor Varga Music Academy Masterclasses, the Aspen Music Festival and Kronberg Academy Masterclasses.

Claire plays on a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, on loan from a generous donor.