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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’.
Paloma So has studied with Zakhar Bron since age nine. She is currently in her first year in the Harvard-New England Conservatory Dual Degree Program with Donald Weilerstein, receiving the Dean’s Scholarship and winning the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra Concerto Competition. She is also mentored by Eduard Wulfson. With multiple victories in international competitions, Paloma has performed as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Symphoniker, China Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra at venues including the Mariinsky Theater, Buckingham Palace, the Berliner Philharmonie, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.
Violinist Alexey Stychkin began his studies at Moscow’s Central Music School before continuing studies at the Conservatoire royal de Liège and the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. In the 2022/23 season, Alexey’s talent was showcased as an academy artist with the Staatskapelle Berlin, where he led the orchestra as concertmaster alongside Daniel Barenboim. He also earned the first-ever open application place on the Classeek Ambassador Programme and has received awards from competitions such as the International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Henry Vieuxtemps International Violin Competition.
German violinist Alexandra Weissbecker began her musical journey at Kazan Special Music School in Russia under the guidance of Julia Vivat, before moving on to study with Pierre Amoyal at Mozarteum University Salzburg in 2019. Currently a student of Stephan Picard at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, she has also gained valuable insights from masterclasses with musicians including Boris Kushnir and Maxim Vengerov. A laureate of several prestigious competitions, including the International Louis Spohr Competition and the Anton Rubinstein Violin Competition, Alexandra has showcased her talents with orchestras such as the Jena Philharmonic and the State Symphony Orchestra. She plays a violin by Niccolò Gagliano on loan from Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.
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.
German cellist Constantin Heise is currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Weimar under the tutelage of Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. He reached the Semifinals at the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2022) and has graced the stages of international festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the Beethovenfest Bonn. As a soloist, Constantin has collaborated with esteemed orchestras including the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt, Jenaer Philharmonie, and the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie. In 2023, he made his orchestral debut with the Berliner Philharmonic. Constantin plays a cello crafted by Dietmar Rexhausen in 2022.
Born in 2001, French violist Héloïse graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in the class of Jean Sulem, receiving the jury’s highest distinction. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where she studies with Miguel da Silva, and a member of the Elite Programme of the École Normale de Musique de Paris with Gérard Caussé.
She won Second Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2023 Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition in Prague and received the Grand Prix Ravel in 2024. She has also been distinguished at the Prague Spring, A. Rubinstein and Brahms competitions.
As a soloist, she is invited to perform with European orchestras including the Orchestre de Paris and the Belgian National Orchestra. A passionate chamber musician, she collaborates with artists such as Cédric Tiberghien, Stéphane Degout, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Sir George Benjamin.
Her debut solo album with Mirare will be released in autumn 2026.
Chinese pianist Victor Yuanhan Lu studied with Yang Yang at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music and now trains with Alexander Schimpf at the University for Music, Drama and Media Hannover. Supported by the Fondation Gautier Capuçon, he has participated in competitions including the Geneva International Competition (2022) and the International Bach Leipzig Competition (2022), where he had the distinction of being the youngest semifinalist. He has performed at Schloss Elmau, and Boston’s Jordan and Williams Hall, all as a Fondation Gautier Capuçon laureate.
Chinese pianist Xiaofu Ju is an alumnus of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Ting Zhou. He holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School after studies with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Nicolas Namoradze. He also serves as a visiting artist at Singapore Capital College. Xiaofu was winner of the Second Hong Kong Youth International Piano Competition and has performed in prestigious venues throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. He is also an advocate for contemporary music, having premiered works by Philip Glass and Xiaogang, and is set to release his debut album, Waldeinsamkeit this year, having already published two collections of poems in 2019 and 2024.