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An opera and oratorio singer, she embodies a heritage blending Russian roots from the Ural Mountains, in Mednogorsk, and the Ukrainian plains, in Melitopol, a city twinned with Melito di Napoli, Italy.
She studied singing, piano, and accordion. Her artistic career primarily developed in Europe, and more specifically in Italy, a country she has embraced as her own.
With a deep affection for Italy, she now resides there and promotes lyrical music and culture in general.
She is the recipient of numerous national and international competitions, awards, and distinctions:
Ekaterina Bakanova is a regular guest at the most renowned international opera houses and collaborates with the most prestigious conductors.
She has established a fruitful collaboration with the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, and has performed on several occasions with Maestros Fabio Luisi, Steven Mercurio, and Juraj Valčuha, as well as with Ensemble Matheus under the direction of Jean-Christophe Spinosi, and alongside Plácido Domingo, Myung-Whun Chung, Dan Ettinger, Daniele Rustioni, Nello Santi, Daniele Callegari.
She has participated in productions by renowned directors such as Mario Martone, Franco Zeffirelli, Achim Freyer, Calixto Bieito, Robert Carsen, Henning Brockhaus, Richard Eyre, Hugo de Ana, Renaud Doucet, Andrea de Rosa.
Following her highly acclaimed debut at the Royal Opera House in London in the role of Violetta Valéry, critics praised the subtlety of her interpretation. Since then, she has been invited to the most prestigious stages: Dresden Staatsoper, Arena di Verona, Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Royal Opera of Versailles, Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, Zurich Opernhaus, NCPA Beijing, and many others.
Johanna Vaude is a multidisciplinary artist whose cinematic and musical universe unfolds as a perpetual quest for poetry and innovation. Her works, often described as fierce, poetic, and intense, explore the shifting boundaries between genres, merging the visual and the auditory into a unique narrative alchemy.
Her first screenings in cultural institutions and short film festivals quickly garnered the attention of the public and critics, who praised her audacity, technical mastery, and highly personal art (with her work featured at MK2 Beaubourg, Côté Court de Pantin, Forum des images, Commune Image, Cinémathèque Française, Collège des Bernardins, Festival Silhouette, Cabaret Vert, among others).
The Arte channel dedicated a portrait of the artist in its magazine Court-Circuit. This was followed by the release of the monographic DVD Hybride by the Lowave label with the support of the CNC. This concept of artistic hybridization – a theory she defines through the concepts of “Graft, Fusion, Heredity,” a reflection on the relationship between art and science, published by the scientific journal Corps (read) and a study on the plastic and technical uses of images – earned her carte blanche for avant-garde programming at the Cinémathèque Française (read).
For several years now, she has been a regular guest on the show Blow Up on Arte TV, which gives her carte blanche to create, through editing and music, videos in homage to the 7th Art. Among these, several have gained recognition: including interviews on France Culture, a media presence at Gaîté Lyrique, a screening at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, relayed by the media outlet Nowness as Super-Edit, and articles in Première, Konbini, Télé Star, and Les Inrockuptibles (“Falling in Love with Scarlett Johansson in 5 Minutes /// Exquisite Corpse”).
She received the Label Image Award from Les Passeurs de Lumière at SCAM, consecrating her as an “Alchemist of Images.”
Excerpts from Johanna Vaude’s films are integrated into two installations conceptualized by artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster: L’œil sauvage for TH.2058 at the Tate Modern in London, and Hypnotic for the Evento event in Bordeaux. Her video I’m more than a machine is part of the Electro exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris, which continues at the Design Museum in London and the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf.
The streaming platform medici.tv, specializing in classical music and jazz, gave her carte blanche for a music video in homage to the world of music and to emphasize the importance of culture: “Art is a guarantee of sanity.”
Télérama selected Samouraï on its platform, giving it 3 TTT then 4 TTTT to signify their enthusiasm: “A frenetic montage around the art of the samurai draws us into the poetic spiral of a fierce artist.”
Other media also expressed their enthusiasm: Best Video Essay 2022 on Sight and Sound for “Conforme” and “Au Cinéma!”, Best Video Essay 2023 on British Film Institute for “Searching for Incognita” and “Mind Autopsy.”
Sasha Rozhdestvensky is considered one of the greatest contemporary Russian violinists. Yehudi Menuhin described him as “one of the most talented and refined violinists of his generation.”
He has performed on international stages with prestigious ensembles such as the Bayerische Staatsorchester, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of La Scala, the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Moscow and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrey Boreyko, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Valery Gergiev, Theodor Guschlbauer, Vernon Handley, Vladimir Jurowski, Valery Polyansky, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Yuri Simonov, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Gerard Schwarz, and Christopher Warren-Green.
Sasha has notably recorded Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 6 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic (Chandos). He premiered this work, which was written for him and Viktoria Postnikova. He subsequently recorded Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Glazunov’s with Gennady Rozhdestvensky and the State Symphony Capella of Russia (Nimbus). He also recorded the complete works for violin and piano by Tchaikovsky with Josiane Marfurt, including the world premiere of Oh, chante encore (Delos), as well as the complete chamber music for violin by Ravel with Josiane Marfurt (Praga Digitals), a recording that received a Choc de Classica award. He has also recorded the complete works for violin and piano by Shostakovich with Jeremy Menuhin for FHR (UK), world premiere recordings of sonatas by Myaskovsky, Shebalin, and Nechaev with Viktoria Postnikova, and more recently, a world premiere of John Mayer’s Second Violin Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Debashish Chaudhuri.
Sasha Rozhdestvensky has performed at numerous prestigious festivals such as the BBC Proms, Tanglewood, Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad, Colmar, Ravinia, Florida, Lockenhaus, Montreux, and Rheingau. He has played in renowned venues including Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican and the Festival Halls in London, the Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonie, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Salle Pleyel and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, and La Scala in Milan.
He has shared the stage in chamber music with Marc Coppey, Gary Hoffman, Steven Isserlis, Josiane Marfurt, Jeremy Menuhin, Kun Woo Paik, Michel Portal, Viktoria Postnikova, and Michael Rudy.
His commitment to contemporary music is marked by his close ties with great composers such as Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Giya Kancheli, Arvo Pärt, and Ian Venables.
He also dedicates time to performing traditional Latin American music, notably with the instrumental group Ambar, whose recordings include El Diablo Suelto (Delos) and O voo da mosca (FHR). Recently, the group premiered a violin concerto composed for Sasha by Francisco Gonzalez with the National Orchestra of Colombia.
Sasha studied at the Central Music School in Moscow, the Moscow Conservatory, the Paris Conservatory, and the Royal College of Music in London.
He is currently a professor at the Royal College of Music in London and the Geneva University of Music.
Annie Dutoit-Argerich was born in Switzerland. She studied Latin and Greek and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. She then obtained a Master’s degree in Journalism from New York University and a PhD in French and Romance Philology from Columbia University. While pursuing her academic career, Annie discovered a passion for performance art and has since worked as an actress and reciter. She has performed works by Milhaud, Liszt, Stravinsky, Cage, Prokofiev, integrating text, performance, and music in international venues. A recording of Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals with a text by Francis Blanche, featuring Antonio Pappano and Martha Argerich, was released in September 2017 by Warner Classics. In June 2019, she performed the roles of narrator and soldier in Michel Van Zele’s ‘The Adventures of The Soldier’s Tale’ under the direction of Charles Dutoit. She performs in French, English, and Spanish. Annie Dutoit-Argerich hosts a new series produced by Arte ZDF and BelAir Productions titled “Private Concert”. The first episode will feature Daniel Barenboim.
Swiss pianist Lionel Monnet was awarded a virtuosity degree with “Distinction” in 2003 in Christian Favre’s class at the Lausanne University of Music. He continued his training with his mentor Abdel Rahman El Bacha in Paris. He also worked with Manahem Pressler of the “Beaux-Arts Trio of New York” and the Trio Wanderer of Paris.
Since 1999, he has been the pianist of the Trio Nota Bene, with whom he continues to perform regularly on Swiss and international stages.
Lionel Monnet won the 1st Prize at the Rotterdam International Music Competition, was unanimously awarded the 1st Prize by the jury at the 28th Instrumental Trio Competition – Géraldine Whittaker Prize in Neuchâtel, distinguished himself by winning the Philippe Chaignat Prize, which recognized the quality of his performance at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, and secured the Audience Award at the 2009 edition of the Zulawski-Ville de Chamonix Prize.
Lionel Monnet performs internationally, appearing at the Sion International Festival, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, La Roque d’Anthéron, Les Folles Journées de Nantes, the Ljubljana Festival, the Castres Festival, the Zermatt Music Festival, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Bodrum Festival, the Ljubljana Festival, the Zermatt Festival, the Jerusalem Music Center, the Tel Aviv Museum, the Nice Festival, and as a soloist with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the KammerOrchester Zurich, and the Orchestre des Concerts Européens.
Lionel Monnet performs with renowned artists such as Tibor Varga, Renaud Capuçon, Svetlin Roussev, Fabio di Càsola, Malin Hartelius, Rachel Harnisch, Christoph Schiller, Shlomo Mintz, Nobuko Imai, Gérard Caussé, Pierre Amoyal, Ilya Gringolts, Blythe Teh Engström, Ophélie Gaillard, Svetlana Makarova, Terpsycordes Quartet, Sine Nomine Quartet, Edgar Moreau, Michel Dalberto, Brigitte Engerer, Fabio di Casola, Dany Bonvin, and Shmuel Ashkenasi.
Lionel Monnet is supported by the Irène Dénéréaz Foundation, by composer Henri Dutilleux, and the “Swiss Global Artistic Foundation”.
Since 2011, he has been a piano professor at the Valais Cantonal Conservatory of Music. In July 2016, he was appointed professor of piano and chamber music at the International Academy of Biarritz, Basque Coast.
In January 2017, he was invited for an American tour to festivals in New York, Philadelphia, Princeton… That same year, he also served as a piano jury member for the “Musique Riviera” Competition in Vevey.
He is the pianist of the “Quinteto del Fuego,” specializing in the music of Astor Piazzolla.
He is the founder and artistic director of the concert hall and recording studio “l’Espace Consonance” in Saxon, Switzerland.
Lionel Monnet is represented by the Swiss record label “Claves” and the American record label “Naxos”.
Loris Mittaz spent his childhood in the Valais mountains, in Chermignon. At the age of 8, he learned that a disease would gradually cause him to lose his sight. His disability would compel him to relinquish several of his favourite activities.
It was then that he developed a passion for music and the piano. He discovered a special affinity with this instrument, which became a means to transcend obstacles, an inexhaustible source of resilience and creativity.
His journey, as much as his music, is an ode to perseverance, a heartfelt invitation to engage with his audience in an authentic and profound experience.
Classically trained (EJMA), Loris has been performing with various projects since the age of 15. With a keen musical curiosity, his projects and collaborations are diverse, spanning from rap (Oxmo Puccino, Moodjo) to electronic music (Feder, Marieposa), including psychedelic rock (The Doors Revival) and pop (Mia Oud).
Concurrently, he explores the possibilities of composition and embarks on his personal musical project. He was quickly noticed and made his solo debut on prestigious stages (Crans-Montana Classics, Autumn Festival Montreux) starting in 2022.
Bridging classical, jazz, and contemporary music, his compositions offer a melodious, profound, and vibrant journey. Loris invites us to embark on this journey with him, with the intention that each listener may close their eyes and envision the narrative of what they hear.
Loris Mittaz passe son enfance dans les montagnes valaisannes, à Chermignon. À l’âge de 8 ans, il apprend qu’une maladie va lui faire perdre la vue progressivement. Son handicap le contraindra à renoncer à plusieurs de ses activités favorites.
C’est alors qu’il se passionne pour la musique et le piano. Il se découvre une affinité spéciale avec cet instrument qui devient un moyen de transcender les obstacles, une source inépuisable de résilience et de créativité.
Son parcours, tout autant que sa musique, est une ode à la persévérance, une invitation chaleureuse à rencontrer son public dans une expérience authentique et bouleversante.
De formation classique (EJMA), Loris se produit avec différents projets depuis qu’il a 15 ans. Curieux musicalement, ses projets et collaborations musicales sont variés, allant du rap (Oxmo Puccino, Moodjo) à la musique électronique (Feder, Marieposa), en pensant par le rock psychédélique (The Doors Revival) ou encore la pop (Mia Oud).
Parallèlement, il explore les possibilités de la composition et se lance dans son projet musical personnel. Il est vite repéré et fait ses premiers pas en solo sur de belles scènes (Crans-Montana Classics, Autumn Festival Montreux) dès 2022.
Entre classique, jazz et musique contemporaine, sa musique est un voyage mélodieux, profond et coloré. Loris nous invite à embarquer avec lui, avec l’idée que tout un chacun puisse fermer les yeux et se faire le film de ce qu’il entend.
After graduating from the Lipetsk College of Music, Alexander Naoumenko pursued advanced studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under the mentorship of the prolific Georgian tenor Zurab Sotkilava. He furthered his training at the Moscow Opera Studio and attended masterclasses with celebrated artists such as Alfredo Kraus, Renata Scotto, Renato Capecchi, Ernst Haefliger, Nancy Evans, and Aldo Baldin.
Naoumenko performed prominent roles, including Podholusin in The Marriage at the Bolshoi Theatre, Alfredo in La Traviata, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, and Don Giovanni in The Stone Guest at the Moscow Conservatory Bolshoi Hall. In 1991, he made his American debut at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, playing Platon Karataev in War and Peace under the baton of Valery Gergiev. He performed Dr. Caius (Falstaff) and Ladislav (The Two Widows) at the English National Opera, Cavaradossi (Tosca) with the European Chamber Opera.
Currently, Alexander Naoumenko serves as a vocal coach at the prestigious Royal Opera House in London, where he continues to impart his extensive knowledge and experience to the next generation of opera singers.
Alex Barck is a German DJ, producer, and founding member of the influential collective Jazzanova. His rise to international recognition began in the late 1990s, when Jazzanova became known for its groundbreaking fusion of jazz, house, and hip-hop. As A&R for the Berlin-based label Sonar Kollektiv, he helped shape a catalogue of soulful pop and forward-thinking dance music that continues to inspire.
Barck started his DJ career in Berlin at Club Akbar Lounge and the legendary Delicious Doughnuts, eventually performing in top clubs around the world—Yellow in Tokyo, Zouk in Singapore, Trouw in Amsterdam, and Plastic People in London. He has shared the stage with heavyweights like François K., Gilles Peterson, and Carl Craig, earning a reputation for eclectic, sophisticated sets that traverse genres and borders.
A tastemaker as much as a performer, Barck has curated acclaimed compilations such as Secret Love and Computer Incarnations, and remains active on German radio and remix projects. In 2011, he teamed up with producer Christian Prommer to form Prommer & Barck, touring widely across Europe with their genre-blending sound.