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Born in Spain in 2005, Luis Aracama studies at the Escuela Superior Reina Sofía with Ivan Monighetti since 2018. He received the diploma for the most outstanding student from Her Majesty Queen Sofía for the academic year 2021/22. He is a scholarship holder of the Liechtenstein Music Academy and was selected in 2024 to participate in the masterclasses of the Academy Kronberg with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Luis has received masterclasses from Frans Helmerson, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Márta Gulyás, Gautier Capuçon, Torleif Thedéen, Alban Gerhardt, Kian Soltani, Pablo Ferrández, Miklós Perényi and Jan Vogler. He won first prize at the International Dotzauer (with the special prize for best contemporary interpretation), the Competition Dobato Benavente and the Competition Janigro in Croatia (as well as the Zagreb Soloists’ Prize), and second prize at the International Popper Competition.
Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt is considered one of the great German cellists and is also a highly sought-after conductor. A laureate of the Rostropovich, Tchaikovsky, and Leonard Rose competitions, he has performed as a soloist with prestigious orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Sinfonia Varsovia, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Houston Symphony, under the direction of Charles Dutoit, Marek Janowski, Jiri Belohlavek, among others. A passionate chamber musician, he has performed alongside Lang Lang, Emanuel Ax, Gil Shaham, and Leonidas Kavakos, and was a member of the Chamber Music Society Two at Lincoln Center in New York. His recordings with Sony Classical and Capriccio have received critical acclaim and were awarded a Diapason d’Or and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Founder and principal conductor of the Metamorphosen Berlin ensemble, he regularly conducts this orchestra throughout Europe, often appearing as both soloist and conductor. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello that once belonged to Hugo Becker.
Estelle Revaz performs in numerous countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. She has been invited to festivals such as the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Verbier Festival, the Sion Festival, the Colmar International Festival, and the Pablo Casals Festival, collaborating with musical partners including Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Alexandra Conunova, Raphaëlle Moreau, Tai Murray, Lena Neudauer, Sergey Ostrovsky, Tedi Papavrami, Pierre Génisson, Ralph Manno, Dana Ciocarlie, Finghin Collins, Anais Crestin, Christian Chamorel, Gaspard Dehaene, Shani Diluka, François Dumont, François-Frédéric Guy, François Killian, Cédric Pescia, and the Quatuor Sine Nomine, to name but a few. She also regularly performs in prestigious venues such as the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Louvre Museum in Paris, the NCPA in Beijing, the Oriental Art Center in Shanghai, the CCK in Buenos Aires, and the Auditorio del Sodre in Montevideo.
Her orchestral repertoire ranges from concertos by C.P.E. Bach to those by Gulda or Ligeti. Starting from the 2017-2018 season and for a period of 3 years, Estelle Revaz was the Artist-in-Residence with the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève under the direction of Arie van Beek. Among other projects, she recorded the album JOURNEY TO GENEVA, dedicated to Frank Martin’s concertos and a new work by Xavier Dayer. Released in 2021, this album received high praise from the press and was notably awarded 5 Diapasons and 5 Etoiles Classica.
Critics enthusiastically welcomed her first CD, titled CANTIQUE (NEOS 2015), on which she performs as the soloist for concertos by Ernest Bloch (Schelomo) and Andreas Pflüger (Pitture-Création). Le Temps highlighted it as “a profound, incisive, and demanding album where the orchestra and soloist perform with finesse and intelligence.” Her solo cello album BACH&FRIENDS (Solo Musica/Sony 2017) was also fervently received by the specialized press. Pizzicato wrote: “the sound is of perfect purity, the phrasing is extremely clear, and the dynamics are exceptionally refined,” while Musik und Theater spoke of “one of the best cello concepts of the moment.” Her duo album with pianist François Killian, titled FUGATO (Solo Musica/Sony 2019), featuring sonatas by Beethoven, Brahms, and Strauss, was also very warmly acclaimed by journalists. More recently, her fifth opus, INSPIRATION POPULAIRE (Solo Musica/Sony 2022), a duo with pianist Anaïs Crestin, was described by the media as radiant, sensitive, moving, inventive, and contrasted.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Estelle Revaz tirelessly mobilized to demonstrate the essential role of culture and to relay the concerns of cultural stakeholders to the political sphere. Her advocacy continues, as she was elected to the Swiss National Council in 2023. She has already successfully brought two projects to fruition, one concerning social protection for cultural professionals and the other addressing the fight against poverty.
Estelle Revaz has been featured on Radio France, RTBF, Deutschlandfunk, WDR3, SWR, and Swiss Radio and Television. She has also been a guest multiple times on RTS’s evening news program and was featured in a report alongside Gautier Capuçon. More recently, she co-produced a 5-episode radio series titled ‘Estelle and the Cello,’ broadcast on Espace 2/RTS.
After her debut in Switzerland, she trained in France at the CRR de Boulogne-Billancourt (Xavier Gagnepain) and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Paris (Jérôme Pernoo), as well as in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (Maria Kliegel). She thus obtained, with the highest honors, a Soloist Master’s degree, a Master’s degree in Contemporary Music Performance, and a Master’s degree in Instrumental Pedagogy.
Estelle Revaz is a laureate of several foundations and institutions that support her career through both scholarships and concert organization. These include the City of Geneva, the Canton of Valais, the Fonds Français Instrumental, and the Leenaards, Little Dreams, Dénéréaz, Kremer, Thiébaud-Frey, and Patiño foundations. In 2014, she was selected for the Verbier Festival Academy and received the ‘Rotary Prize’ in that context.
Since 2015, Estelle Revaz has been a member of the ‘Forum des 100,’ which brings together personalities shaping Switzerland’s future.
Since 2017, Estelle Revaz has been accredited as a professor of cello and chamber music at the Kalaidos University of Music in Zurich (CH). She also regularly and enthusiastically gives masterclasses/workshops in Europe, Asia, and South America. She recently conducted research on “the development of artistic identity in higher instrumental education,” which was published in March 2019 by l’Harmattan (musical education sciences collection).
Estelle Revaz currently plays a G. Grancino cello (1679) and a J. Eury bow (1825), provided to her by generous Swiss patrons.
Cellist Aleksey Shadrin, a participant in the Kronberg Academy’s Master Program, was born into a family of musicians in Ukraine. He won first prize at the 4th M. Lysenko International Music Competition in 2012. In 2018, he was awarded third prize at the Prague Spring Competition.
Following his initial successes in numerous competitions, including the Ukrainian National String Competition in Lviv/Lemberg and the 8th Ukrainian National ‘New Names’ Competition in Kyiv, he became a scholarship recipient in 2004 from the International Foundation of violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov.
In 2005, Aleksey Shadrin was a finalist at the 3rd David Popper International Cello Competition in Hungary, and in 2008, he won second prize at the Minsk International Competition. Following these successes, he performed in major concert halls across Ukraine, Russia, Germany, France, South Korea, China, Vietnam, the Netherlands, and Portugal.
Aleksey Shadrin has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, the Opéra National de Montpellier, and the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz.
In 2016, he made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 2017, he performed as a soloist with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, under the baton of Andrew Manze, in the Grosser Sendesaal in Hanover, and made his debut at the Hamburg Chamber Music Festival.
Aleksey Shadrin earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in musical arts at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with Professor Leonid Gorokhov.
He is currently studying with Frans Helmerson at the Kronberg Academy.
Since September 2020, he has been an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where he studies with Gary Hoffman.
Winner of the 15th International Tchaikovsky Competition and exclusive SONY Classical artist, Pablo Ferrández is considered a “new cello genius“ (Le Figaro). A captivating performer, “Ferrández has it all: technique, courage, spirit, authority as a soloist, expressiveness, and charm“ (El Pais).
He has become a cello phenomenon and one of the most sought-after instrumentalists of his generation.
His debut album with SONY Classical, “Reflections“, released in 2021, was highly acclaimed by critics and received the Opus Klassik award. In autumn 2022, Pablo Ferrández released his second album, which included Brahms’ Double Concerto, performed with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Czech Philharmonic under the direction of Mr. Honeck, as well as Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio, performed with Ms. Mutter and Lambert Orkis, which also received rave reviews.
Swiss cellist Samuel Niederhauser was mentored by Matthias Walpen, Cliodhna Ni Aodain and Rebecca Firth before embarking on a bachelor’s degree at Zurich University of the Arts with Thomas Grossenbacher in 2016, graduating with honours in 2020. He then completed his training at the Musik-Akademie Basel with a soloist master’s degree under Thomas Demenga. Samuel receives further inspiration by regularly attending masterclasses with Frans Helmerson, David Geringas, Louise Hopkins, Jens-Peter Maintz and Troels Svane, among others. In addition to various First prizes at national and international competitions, he received the Guy Fallot Prize at the Concours de Genève in 2021, was laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2022 and won Third Prize at the Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki in 2023. Samuel plays a cello by Carlo Giuseppe Testore from 1690 thanks to a generous loan.
Jan Sekaci began playing the cello at age of 10 at the High School of Arts in Oradea, Romania. He went on to take part in the Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle de Gautier Capuçon for three consecutive years and is currently studying at the Barenboim-Said Academy with Frans Helmerson. Jan has attended numerous masterclasses with other renowned cellists, including, Valentin Radutiu, Romain Garioud, Raphael Pidoux, Reinhard Latzko, and Jens Peter Maintz. In 2018, he was chosen as an active participant at the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses under Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Jan won First Prize at the 2021 Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria and, as a result, made his debut at Prague’s Smetana Hall playing Dvořák’s cello concerto with the Martinů Philharmonic. Jan plays a cello made around 1850 in Naples.
João Pedro Gonçalves began playing the cello at age 12 under the mentorship of Ana Cláudia Serrão in Lisbon, later continuing his studies with Marco Pereira and Paulo Gaio Lima. João was honoured with the Maestro Silva Pereira Prize as Young Musician of the Year 2020/21 in Portugal. As a soloist, he has collaborated with the Orquestra Gulbenkian, Young Belgian Strings, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, and Orquestra Metropolitana. He is currently pursuing his studies at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel with Gary Hoffman and Jeroen Reuling, as well as at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with Jeroen Reuling. João performs on a cello crafted by Nicolas Lupot in 1804, which is on loan from the ‘Fonds de dotation Adelus’.
Arne Jesper Zeller began playing the cello at age 6 and has been under the guidance of Peter Bruns at HMT Leipzig since he was 14. He has also been influenced through masterclasses with Ivan Monighetti, Jens Peter Maintz, Jan Vogler, and Frans Helmerson. Throughout his musical journey, he has achieved numerous awards and prizes in both national and international competitions, including, most recently, Second Prize at the international Brahms Competition in Pörtschach. At 13, he made his solo debut with the Rococo-Variations, followed by performances of the Korngold cello concerto with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic. In 2023, he was soloist with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2023. He has performed in solo and chamber music recitals at several festivals, notably the Rheingau Musik Festival, Heidelberger Frühling and the Moritzburg Festival. Arne was a participant in cello masterclasses with Frans Helmerson at the Kronberg Academy in 2022 and, two years later was chosen as the youngest ‘Junior’ for Kronberg’s ‘Chamber Music Connects the World” programme.