Press Enter to search
Magdalene Ho is a Malaysian pianist and the 2023 laureate of the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Vevey, Switzerland. She began playing piano at the age of four and studied for nine years with Patsy Toh at the Purcell School in the United Kingdom. She currently studies with Dmitri Alexeev at the Royal College of Music in London. At 19, she performed Beethoven’s
Swedish pianist Edward Ahlbeck Glader recently graduated from Stockholm’s Lilla Akademiens Musikgymnasium, where he studied with Martin Sturfält. Since 2022, he has been a private student of Paolo Giacometti at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf. He has also drawn inspiration from the Jiri Hlinka Piano Academy in Norway and pianist Roland Pöntinen. In 2024, he made his solo debut with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, accompanied by the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, and his German recital debut in Hamburg. Edward received First Prizes at the Steinway & Sons Nordic Junior Piano Competition, the MozArte International Junior Piano Competition in Aachen, and the Euregio Young Piano Award in Geilenkirchen. He has performed in venues and at festivals such as Konserthuset Stockholm, Göteborg Concert Hall, Queen Silvia Concert Hall, Sasel-Haus Hamburg, the Royal Palace of Stockholm, the PIANALE Piano Festival, and the O/Modernt festivals and the Helsingborg Piano Festival.
Roberto Olzer, a pianist comfortable in both jazz and classical music, possesses a unique musical sensibility and extraordinary expressive power – A. Valiante, Jazzitalia
“Olzer’s unique disposition towards music and the intellectual awareness of a cultivated man have undeniably defined him as a jazz musician of admirable expressiveness; this becomes evident in his lucid inventiveness, his melodic and imaginative clarity, and his refined and appealing harmonic colorations.” – B. Schiozzi, Musica Jazz
“Reason combined with emotion… merging into a precious symphony with the power to evoke dreamlike spaces and distant lands.” – S. Maccari, Muzik Box
“… A pianist who is at once sophisticated, sensitive, and highly expressive, steeped in both classical and jazz traditions…” – F. Caprera, Dictionary of Jazz, Feltrinelli, 2014
“This ultra-refined recording by pianist Roberto Olzer (Steppin’ Out) is a clear example of how to create quality music with disarming formal simplicity, with an obvious preference for the ‘beautiful,’ devoid of unnecessary stylistic embellishments or exaggerated virtuosity.” – F. Peluso, Fedeltà del Suono
“A beautiful album (Steppin’ Out) of precious lyricism, by Italian pianist Roberto Olzer… very visual, each piece seems to tell a story.” – M. James, Only Jazz
“Clarity of phrasing, a pure sound, lyrical themes, a strong propensity for expressive linearity.” – L. Sforza, All About Jazz
Born in 1971 in Domodossola, Italy, Roberto Olzer began studying piano at a young age and subsequently studied organ with Maestro Giancarlo Parodi, under whose guidance he earned his diploma in organ and organ composition at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, Italy. Concurrently with his philosophy studies at the Catholic University of Milan, he studied jazz improvisation with Roberto Ciammarughi. He then refined his technique by attending courses and seminars with renowned master pianists such as S. Battaglia and E. Pieranunzi. He completed his musical education with a diploma in piano.
Roberto Olzer’s first recordings date back to 2002-2003 with “Folk Songs” accompanied by guitarist F. Spadea and “Eveline” accompanied by a sextet bearing his name for the Splasc(h) label. Subsequently, he collaborated with the Max De Aloe Quartet, recording six albums, including a live concert released by Abeat Records. Following this, he recorded two albums for Splasc(h) and Dodicilune with the Michele Gori Quartet, a recording titled “Bill Evans Homage” with the Roberto Mattei Double Quartet, and a CD with Florentine singer Susanna Parigi.
His first solo piano recording, “Esprit de Finesse,” released by Dodicilune, was recorded in 2009 and is dedicated to F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy to commemorate his bicentenary. He then developed themes from the classical repertoire as a basis for jazz arrangements and compositions with the Rudy Migliardi Quartet. “Au Rebours” is a recording with double bassist Roberto Mattei of improvisations on classical themes, released by 201 Editions, which is also the label for “Avorio,” a recording with singer Elisa Marangon.
A more recent formation is the JMT (Just Music Trio) with Yuri Goloubev and Fabrizio Spadea. The trio recorded “Standpoint,” released by Caligola.
The Roberto Olzer Jazz Trio was formed in 2011 with double bassist Yuri Goloubev and percussionist Mauro Beggio. Their debut album “Steppin’ Out,” on the Abeat label, released in 2013, was widely acclaimed by music critics and the public. In particular, it was named best instrumental album of 2013 by the Japanese magazine “Jazz Critique Magazine” (HIHYO) in a category that includes world-renowned names such as Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Steve Swallow. Since the trio’s debut at the prestigious Moods Jazz Club in Zurich, Switzerland, they have continued to refine their sound, highlighted by the strong solo talents of each member and their creative reciprocity.
Roberto Olzer continues to perform in concert, not only as a jazz pianist but also as a classical pianist and organist in Italy, Switzerland, France, and England, at theaters, festivals, clubs, and significant events such as Time in Jazz (Sardinia, Italy), Fano Jazz by the Sea (Italy), Musica sulle Bocche, Iseo Jazz, Gallarate Jazz Festival, MITO, Blue Note (Milan, Italy), House of Jazz (Rome), Piazza Verdi (Radio Rai 3, Italy), Moods Jazz Club (Zurich, Switzerland), Villa Streuli (Winterthur, Switzerland), Swiss Radio Auditorium (Lugano, Switzerland), Paris Conservatory, Choletais Conservatory (France), Bangor New Music Festival (United Kingdom), and many others.
Roberto Olzer is also active as a composer and arranger for bands, string quartets, and prestigious ensembles. He has arranged compositions such as “Homage to Nino Rota,” “Xilophonia,” “Rhapsody in Blue,” and “John Williams Suite” for the Decimino d’Ottoni (Brass Ensemble) of La Scala in Milan. He has also arranged Astor Piazzolla’s tangos, a tribute to Ennio Morricone, etc., for the Coccia Theater Symphony Orchestra (Novara, Italy).
His collaboration with the La Scala Brass Ensemble as arranger and soloist in Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” (Domodossola, Italy, 2013) developed into a new project called “American Sweets,” where he performs, in combination with his own Trio and the Brass Ensemble, his original arrangements of music by Leonard Bernstein and John Williams.
Roberto Olzer’s published works as a composer include “Tetragono” for clarinet and piano (Bim Vuarmarens Editions Switzerland), “Sciccareddu” and “Monte Rosa” (Wicky Editions in Milan), “Per Geometrico Destino” for soloists, choir, and orchestra, commissioned for the centenary of the Simplon Tunnel (Switzerland), and two organ compositions commissioned by M° Parodi: “Prelude, Fugue et Chorale” and “Fantasy on B.A.C.H.”
In addition to the musicians mentioned above, he has collaborated and performed with musicians such as Chris Collins, Paolo Tomelleri, Emilio Soana, Bruno de Filippi, Roberto Rossi, Asaf Sirkis, Luciano Zadro, Emanuele Cisi, Bebo Ferra, Andrea Dulbecco, Ramberto Ciammarughi, Mauro Negri, Steve Mead, as well as with exceptional Italian singers such as Diana Torto, Barbara Casini, Susanna Parigi, Antonella Ruggero, Tosca Donati.
Clarinetist Pierre Génisson, one of the most renowned representatives of the French wind school, has signed an exclusive contract with Warner Classics/Erato.
The first album from this new collaboration, dedicated to Mozart with Concerto Köln, complements an already extensive discography that has been unanimously praised by critics (Diapason d’or, Choc de l’année de Classica, ffff de Télérama, “CD of the week” from the Sunday Times, Gramophone, Clef d’Or de Resmusica…)
Awarded the “Cino del Duca” Prize by the Académie des Beaux-Arts de l’Institut de France in 2018, Pierre Génisson is also a laureate of prestigious international competitions such as the Carl Nielsen International Competition, the Jacques Lancelot International Competition in Tokyo, as well as the Banque Populaire, Safran, and “Musique et Vin au clos Vougeot” foundations.
Pierre Génisson trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Michel Arrignon for clarinet, and Claire Désert, Amy Flammer, and Jean Sulem for chamber music. After unanimously winning first prizes in both disciplines there, he furthered his studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles with Yehuda Gilad, where he earned an Artist Diploma.
Equally adept on modern and period instruments, Pierre Génisson is regularly invited to perform as a soloist with prestigious orchestras such as the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester-Berlin, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC orchestras, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, the Sichuan Symphony, the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, the Insula Orchestra… and collaborates notably with conductors such as Krystof Urbansky, Olari Elts, Darell Ang, Sacha Goetzel, Alexandre Bloch, Laurence Equilbey, and Lionel Bringuier.
In addition to his solo activities, Pierre Génisson frequently engages in musical collaborations with some of the most renowned string quartets (Ebène, Modigliani, Jerusalem, Zemlinsky, Hermès, Van Kuijk…), as well as soloists such as Maxim Vengerov, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Nemanja Radulovic, Marc Bouchkov, Miguel Da Silva, Lise Berthaud, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, David Kadouch, Franck Braley, Michel Dalberto, David Bismuth, Bruno Fontaine, Les Solistes du Metropolitan Opera de New York, Patrick Gallois, Marielle Nordmann, Emmanuel Ceysson, Karine Deshayes, and Delphine Haidan.
A fervent advocate for contemporary music, Pierre Génisson promotes French music abroad and collaborates with numerous composers, notably Tristan Murail, Thierry Escaich, Eric Montalbetti, Karol Beffa, and Eric Tanguy, to whom several concerti and chamber music pieces are dedicated.
Pierre Génisson also dedicates part of his time to education, through numerous masterclasses worldwide and as a faculty member at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot.
Born in 1992 in St. Petersburg, he graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov Music College in St. Petersburg (Pavel Krichashvili’s class) and the St. Petersburg Conservatory (Alexander Mikhailov’s class). He honed his skills with Peter Sadlo, Marinus Komst, Nick Woud, Raymond Curfs, and other percussionists. Winner of national and international competitions.
Since 2013, he has been a member of the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and, since 2018, its principal timpanist, also performing with the “Renaissance Percussion” ensemble.
He teaches at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and, since 2022, he has been a coach for the Verbier Festival Orchestra (Switzerland). His students now work at the Paris Opera, the Orchestre National de Bretagne, and other prestigious institutions.
He is currently studying orchestral conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Alexander Polishchuk.
After studying psychology, Hanna Schwarz began her vocal training at the Hanover Academy of Music, where she also made her operatic debut as Sigrune in Wagner’s Die Walküre. After winning a singing competition in Berlin, she was engaged by the Hamburg State Opera.
In 1975, she made her Bayreuth debut, where she achieved an international breakthrough as Fricka in the Chéreau/Boulez Ring. In the following years, Hanna Schwarz also performed at Bayreuth in the roles of Erda, Brangäne, and Waltraute.
An international career followed, leading her to the world’s major stages, collaborating with renowned conductors. She participated in
Hanna Schwarz also excels on the concert stage. She has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Europe’s and America’s most prestigious venues, such as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Berlin and Cologne Philharmonies, the Vienna Musikverein, and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, to name but a few.
She has also participated in numerous radio concerts and recordings, performing Das Lied von der Erde, Gurrelieder, symphonies and lieder by Gustav Mahler, as well as Verdi’s Requiem under the baton of conductors such as Böhm, Ozawa, Levine, Mehta, Sinopoli, Maazel, Sawallisch, Dohnanyi, and Bernstein. The artist has also distinguished herself through her interpretations of contemporary music, performing works by Maurizio Kagel, Hans Werner Henze, Pierre Boulez, Alfred Schnittke, and Leonard Bernstein.
Her recent projects include new productions of Dialogues of the Carmelites and The Queen of Spades in Basel, concerts of The Threepenny Opera in Vienna, London, Paris, and Hamburg, Salome in Valencia, Das Rheingold in Seville, Salome at the New National Theatre Tokyo, and a new production of Jenůfa at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
At the 2011 Salzburg Easter Festival, Hanna Schwarz performed the role of Herodias in Salome under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle, as well as new productions of Die Soldaten at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the Zurich Opera, and Jenůfa and Salome also in Zurich. Her other engagements include new productions of Tchaikovsky’s
Boris Kuschnir, born in Kyiv in 1948, studied violin with Boris Belenkij and chamber music with Valentin Berlinskij at the Moscow Conservatory. Influenced by Dmitri Shostakovich, with whom he collaborated on the late quartets, and David Oistrakh, his career began in 1969 after winning the All-Union Competition in Leningrad, where he performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto under the baton of Yuri Temirkanov.
A professor in Vienna since 1984 and in Graz since 1999, Kuschnir has trained renowned violinists such as Julian Rachlin, Nikolaj Znaider, Maria Dueñas, and Sergey Dogadin, whose numerous competition victories attest to the excellence of his teaching. He is also an honorary professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.
Kuschnir founded the Vienna Schubert Trio and the Brahms Trio, winning numerous prestigious awards, and has performed in renowned venues such as the Vienna Musikverein, La Scala in Milan, and Wigmore Hall in London. He holds the Grand Decoration of Honour of Austria and the Austrian Cross of Honour.
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.
Arthur Trælnes was born in Lausanne in 2002. He began learning the violin at the age of 6, and at 16, he joined the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU) in Gyula Stuller’s class, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in 2022. He then joined Alexander Kerr’s class (former concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam) at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University (Bloomington, USA), where he obtained a Solo Performance Diploma in 2023, before pursuing Master’s studies there.
Arthur has won numerous awards in national and international competitions as a soloist, including 3rd Prize and the Audience Award at the Tibor Varga Junior Competition in 2018, followed by an invitation from Gidon Kremer to perform as a soloist with his orchestra in Latvia. He also won 1st Prize at the Final of the International Competition for Violin and Orchestra “Premio Rotary per la musica” in Novi Ligure, Italy (2019), 4th Prize at the Tibor Varga Competition (2021), the contemporary music prize at the Spohr Competition in Weimar in 2022, as well as 3rd Prize at the Final of the Franco Gulli Competition in Rome in 2024.
Arthur has performed as a soloist on several occasions in Switzerland, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Latvia, and the United States, and held the position of concertmaster of the Verbier Festival Orchestra from 2022 to 2024, collaborating closely with renowned conductors such as Simon Rattle, Gianandrea Noseda, Klaus Mäkelä, and Lahav Shani. He has also been a member of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra since 2023.
He is regularly invited to perform at Masterclasses, notably at the Kronberg Academy Festival in 2021 (Kolja Blacher) and at the Thüringer Landes Musikakademie Sondershausen (Friedemann Eichhorn) in 2022, where he performs Tchaikovsky’s Concerto with orchestra. In November 2024, he will perform Mozart’s 5th Concerto with orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York during a Masterclass with Maxim Vengerov.
Arthur plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Ceruti dating from 1797 (Cremona, Italy). At the 2023 edition of the Verbier Festival, he had the opportunity to perform on a Stradivarius (“Hrimali”, 1712).
He regularly performs as a jazz violinist, notably with his quintet “Crome,” which has already released two albums (Komorebi, 2020 and Oneiroi, 2023).