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 FLORIAN KRUMPÖCK, pianist
"Forget about Lang Lang and Arcadi Volodos. Austria has its own virtuosic tiger of the keyboard", was how the newspaper Die Presse wrote of Florian Krumpöck, the pianist and conductor who was born in Vienna in 1978.
The son of a cellist and an art historian, Mr Krumpöck, studied from an early age with some of the leading pianists of the day, including Rudolf Buchbinder, Gerhard Oppitz and Elisabeth Leonskaja. After a private performance, it was Daniel Barenboim who called him quite simply "a wonderful pianist," thus paving the way for his promising international career.
The sensational reviews which greeted his debut at the Tonhalle in Zurich with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Fedosejew led to further concert engagements in such leading European music centers as Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Moscow, as well as in Israel, the USA and China. Highly acclaimed solo recitals at international festivals such as the Bregenz Festival, the Salzburg Easter Festival and the Music Summer at Bad Kissingen further consolidated his pianistic career. In 2003 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with a highly praised solo recital and gave his first concert at the Vienna Musikverein. Sir Peter Ustinov also helped to introduce the young musician to a wider public.
In an exclusive arrangement since 2003 the piano maker Blüthner has provided Mr Krumpöck for life with a concert grand piano, that accompanies him in concerts and recordings.
He has released six CD recordings of works by Mozart, Schubert, Liszt and Weber. These recordings have been issued on the Pan Classics, Preiser Records and Blüthner Records labels (distributed by Hänssler).
 JOHANN LUDWIG, violoncello
born 1980 in Cologne, had his debut as soloist at the age of 11, playing Saint-Saens’ concerto a minor with the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt (Oder). A few years later his first CD production with Haydn’s C major concerto followed.
Important stages of his studies were Maria Kliegel and the Alban Berg Quartett in Cologne and Miklos Perènyi in Budapest. Mstislav Rostropovich and Wolfgang Böttcher were his instructors in master courses. He got further impulses from Thomas Brandis, Saschko Gawrilow, Hartmut Rohde, Siegfried Palm and Wolfgang Güttler.
As a soloist he appeared with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, WDR Cologne, Philharmonia Hungarica, Niklaus Esterhazy Sinfonia Budapest and the State Orchestras in Kiel and Halle. He was invited by well-known festivals such as Davos (Switzerland), South Bohemia (Czechia), Maringa (Brasil), Dresdner Musiktage, Rheingau and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (all Germany).
In addition to numerous radio and television productions, Ludwig recorded CDs for different labels such as Naxos and Telos.
 DANIEL OTTENSAMER, clarinet
born 1986 in Vienna, studied with Johann Hindler at the University of Music in Vienna and in master classes with Sabine Meyer and Martin Froest.
Got many prizes and distinctions at international competitions et al. 1st prize at the International clarinet competition of the "Animato-Stiftung" in Zürich 2006, prize winner of the Konzertgesellschaft München 2005 and at the national Gradus ad parnassum and of the Musica-Juventutis competition in Vienna 2005.
Since 2009 Daniel Ottensamer is solo clarinet-player of the Vienna Philharmonic and of the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera.
As soloist he plays regularly with orchestras as Rundfunkorchester München, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Wien, Wiener Kammerorchester, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and appears in the most important concert halls asWiener Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus, Prinzregententheater München, Rudolfinum Prag, Radio-Kulturhaus Wien.
He performs chamber music with members of the Vienna Philharmonic, 2006 he played in Theatre Champs Ellysée Paris with an international artists ensemble wind chamber music of W.A.Mozarts.
With his father (Solo clarinet player of the Vienna Philharmonic) und his brother he plays in the clarinet trio "Clarinotts" in Tokyo, New York, Vienna etc.).
Collaborations with Angelika Kirchschlager, Barbara Bonney, Mihaela Ursuleasa, Julian Rachlin are highlights inhis young career.
 HARDY RITTNER, pianist
selected as "Rising Artist of the Year 2009" and “Instrumantal Soloist of the Year 2010” by the German Music Award "Echo Classic 2009".Born 1981 in Rüsselsheim, Germany. First piano lessons at the age of four. Studies of the piano and fortepiano with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Siegbert Rampe at the Mozarteum Salzburg. After graduating with distinction in 2003, he studied with Klaus Hellwig at the Berlin University of the Arts, graduating in 2007, again with distinction. He attended master classes of Paul Badura-Skoda, Dominique Merlet, Christian Zacharias and Andrej Gavrilov, and gleaned further artistic insights by working with Maria Joao Pires, Silvain Cambreling, Ivo Pogorelich and Krystian Zimerman.
In 1996 Hardy Rittner became the youngest prizewinner in the history of the Rina Sala Gallo piano competition in Monza, Italy. In 2002 he won a prize at the Académie de Musique Lausanne and in 2005 he received the special prize for his interpretation of Isang Yun's "Interludium A" at the international piano competition in Gyeongnam, South Korea. Hardy Rittner was included in the Live Music Now series in Salzburg and was awarded a scholarship by the Herbert von Karajan Centrum in Viena in 2002/2003 in recognition of his exceptional artistic talent.
He has performed in most European countries, in the USA, South Korea and Taiwan, where he made his debut at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. Rittner's recordings include a Boulez sonata for radio and Mozart and Beethoven sonatas on commercial CDs. For the label MDG he recorded two CD’s - "Brahms - Early piano works, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2" and “The complete solo piano work of Arnold Schönberg”, all three much prized recordings.
 FREDERIEKE SAEIJS, violin
Frederieke Saeijs (1979, The Netherlands) started to play the violin aged seven. Her violin teachers were Lex Korff de Gidts, Peter Brunt and Jaring Walta.
Frederieke has won several prizes at (inter)national violin competitions: at al. Prinses Christina Concours (1995, 1998), Vriendenkrans Concours (2001), Georges Enescu International Violin Competition (Bucharest, Roumania 2003) and the Grachtenfestival Conservatorium Competition (2004).
In October 2005 Frederieke won the first Grand Prix-Academie des beaux arts at the International Jacques Thibaud-Marguerite Long Competition in Paris, France. Next to that she has been awarded 4 extra prizes: Prix de SAS le prince Albert II de Monaco, Prix Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer, Prize of the members of the Orchestre National de France and Prize of the students of the Conservatories of Paris. As a result Frederieke played recitals and performed as a soloist in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Scotland, Switserland and the USA.
Frederieke has had masterclasses with: Thomas Brandis, Lorand Fenyves (Canada), Mauricio Fuks (Austria, Canada, France, Florida), Detlev Hahn (Switserland), Isabelle van Keulen, Herman Krebbers, Boris Kuschnir (Austria), Rainer Kussmaul, Jaime Laredo (USA), Viktor Liberman, Gerhard Schulz (England) David Takeno (England) and Nikolaj Znaider (Denmark).
As a soloist Frederieke performed with the Chamber Orchestra of The Netherlands, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Duisburg Philharmonic and Beethovenorchester Bonn. She collaborated with conductors Matthias Bamert, Jonathan Darlington, Damian Ioro, Neeme Jarvi, Friedemann Layer, Alexandru Lascae, Ion Marin, Christoph Poppen, Vassily Sinaiski and Jaap van Zweden
 STEFAN SCHILLI, oboe
Born in 1970 in Offenburg, Stefan Schilli studied at the Music Academies of Trossingen and Karlsruhe. 1993 he won the German Music Competition, 1996 the Prague Spring International Music Competition and the 45th International ARD Competition. Since 1991 he is solo oboist at the "Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks", where he has worked with Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Carlos Kleiber, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, C.M. Giulini, Georg Solti, Colin Davis, Zubin Mehta and Ricardo Muti. His solo career includes appearances in all great music centres of the world with many leading conductors, including Maazel, Jansons, Welser-Möst, Colin Davis, Christopher Hogwood, Reinhard Goebel and Russell-Davies. He performs also with the contemporary music group Ensemble Triolog München. In 2004 he was appointed Professor at the Mozarteum Salzburg, and he teaches throughout Europe as a guest professor. His new recording with the oboe concertos from Strauss, Martinu and B.A. Zimmermann with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks conducted by Mariss Jansons will appear at the end of 2008.
 BURKARD SCHLIESSMANN, pianist
Schliessmann is not one of those performers who merely dazzle with their brilliant technique but can get into deep water when the going gets tough. Remaining true to his mission, he never allows his musical narrations to deviate from the course he has set for them. Such consistency is only one facet of this artist. The other is what Schliessmann himself describes as 'intuition'. Schliessmann's affinity with an older piano playing tradition was reinforced by his teachers - musicians like Poldi Mildner and Shura Cherkassky, with whom he studied between 1987 and 1989 in Washington and Paris. Mildner had been a student of Rachmaninov, Schnabel and Liszt's pupil Moritz Rosenthal, while Cherkassky was taught by Leopold Godowsky's son-in-law David Saperton.
"This is the most imaginative playing one has heard yet on the level of Richter, Michelangeli, Serkin, Wild, Gould - the highest order of artistry" wrote the «High Performance Review» in the USA. Understandably, the West German TV-channel WDR in a Co-production with ARD, ZDF «aspekte», ZDF-3sat, the Bavarian TV-station BR, the Hessian TV-station HR, ARTE und the US TV-channel «Classic Arts Show Case» invited the pianist to take part in TV-portraits which were widely praised.
By his tv-recordings Burkard Schliessmann has cooperated with highly renowned regisseurs, such as José Montes-Baquer, Enrique Sánchez Lansch, Claus Viller and Lothar Mattner. When he is working on a piece of music, Burkard Schliessmann always has Hegel in mind: "art isn't all about a pleasant or useful musical mechanism, but about laying bare the truth".
For more information see www.schliessmann.com
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