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Spanish accordionist Sofía Ros performs internationally across Europe and the United States. In 2025, she was named BBC Radio Scotland Young Classical Musician of the Year following her solo debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Gourlay, performing Piazzolla’s Aconcagua Concerto. She also appeared at the opening night of the Edinburgh International Festival alongside Nicola Benedetti. Her concert appearances include venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Purcell Room in London and Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. A prizewinner of the Trophée Mondial de l’Accordéon and the Manhattan International Music Competition, Sofía has also been featured on BBC Radio 3 and Spanish National Radio. Born in the Canary Islands, she studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and performs on a Pigini Sirius Compact bayan.
Latvian soprano Estere Katrīna Pogiņa pursues an artistic career spanning both opera and chamber music. She currently studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Her recent distinctions include Third Prize at the 5th Jāzeps Vītols International Singing Competition and participation in the XXIV Santander Music Academy, where she attended masterclasses with Bernarda Fink and performed at the Festival Palace of Cantabria. As a recitalist, she has appeared at venues including the Opéra de Compiègne, the Petit Palais, Arcal Lyrique and Salle Cortot in Paris. Her operatic roles include the First Lady in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in a Philharmonie de Paris co-production conducted by Paul Daniel and directed by Mariame Clément, as well as Vénus in Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers.
Violinist Jeremias Pestalozzi studies with Julia Fischer, with whom he performed Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic in 2024 at Prague’s Rudolfinum. At age 14, he became a junior student at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in the class of Christoph Poppen, and has since also worked with musicians including Ana Chumachenco, Ingolf Turban and Nora Chastain. Jeremias regularly appears as a soloist with orchestras such as the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic and the German String Philharmonic, performing in venues including the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Liederhalle in Stuttgart. As a chamber musician, he has participated in festivals such as the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. He also performs regularly with the German String Philharmonic and will give a recital at Prague’s Rudolfinum in October 2026.
Mexican-American violist Nicolas Perkins is a graduate of The Juilliard School and is currently pursuing his Master’s degree at the Yale School of Music with Ettore Causa. He has participated in leading international festivals and academies including the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses, Gstaad Menuhin Academy, Perlman Music Program, Taos School of Music and Kneisel Hall. As a chamber musician, he has performed in the ‘Juilliard Now’ concert series at Lincoln Center and collaborated with artists such as Tabea Zimmermann, Antoine Tamestit, Nobuko Imai and Rainer Schmidt. A Virtu Foundation Scholar, Nicolas plays a viola by Joseph Grubaugh & Sigrun Seifert, generously on loan, and a bow from the Maestro Foundation. He studied previously with Hsin-Yun Huang and Mai Motobuchi.
Georgian soprano Ana Oniani, from Tbilisi, initially studied conducting before turning to singing. She graduated in vocal performance from the Vano Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire (2020–2024). While still a student, she performed major operatic roles including Mimì (La bohème), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) and the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro). Her portrayal of Violetta in La traviata brought her early international attention. She has since appeared on international stages including the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Royal Opera House Muscat alongside Plácido Domingo, and with the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra in China. Other roles include Clotilde (Norma) and Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte). In concert repertoire, Ana has performed works including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Poulenc’s Requiem. In 2025, she joined the Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris.
Spanish pianist Laura Mota Pello studies at the Musik Akademie Basel with Claudio Martínez Mehner. Her career includes prizes at several international competitions, including the Rahn Kulturfonds Music Prize 2024, the Antón García Abril Competition, the Santa Cecilia Competition and the Ciutat de Carlet Competition. She has been a finalist at the Aarhus Piano Competition and a semifinalist at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition. Laura has performed in major venues across Europe and beyond, including the Teatro Jovellanos and Auditorio de Oviedo in Spain, Chopin-Gesellschaft Hamburg and Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker in Germany, the Ehrbar Saal in Vienna, as well as festivals in Mexico City and Sofia. She has collaborated with orchestras such as the Lucerne Orchestra, Oviedo Filarmonía and the Hamburger Camerata, and received the Hortense Anda Prize and Hungarian Special Prize at the 2024 Géza Anda Competition.
Violinist Sergei Mkrtichian is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions. He currently studies at the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana with Pavel Berman, after previously studying at the Academic Music College of the Moscow State Conservatory with Suren Akhnazarian. His recent awards include First Prize at the 2025 Valsesia Musica International Competition, Second Prize at the 2024 Khachaturian International Competition, the Grand Prize at Gold Talents (2023), and Third Prize at the 2023 Tchaikovsky Youth International Competition. Sergei has participated in masterclasses with leading violinists including Vadim Repin and Leonidas Kavakos. He has performed in prestigious venues such as the Moscow State Kremlin Palace, the Bolshoi Theatre and major concert halls in Austria.
Tonmeister Michel Miersch combines musical performance, recording practice and research in acoustics. Since beginning his studies in 2020 at the Erich Thienhaus Institute in Detmold, he has recorded music in a wide variety of settings, from remote monasteries for intimate chamber music to major concert halls such as Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, where he recorded Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite for the NDR broadcaster. Before entering the field of sound engineering, he trained and worked as an organ builder at Jäger und Brommer in southern Germany from 2015 to 2020, building instruments for churches ranging from small rural communities to metropolitan Tokyo. A recorder player, he has performed with the Hagen Philharmonic Orchestra and appeared as a soloist on the German national broadcaster Deutschlandfunk in Bach’s Fourth Brandenburg Concerto. His experiences inform his research in psychoacoustics, including a conference paper presented at DAS|DAGA 2025.
Chinese pianist Zhexiang Li studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he was admitted with top scores to both the middle school and undergraduate programmes. He has performed internationally since the age of eleven and has collaborated with orchestras including the China Philharmonic, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música and the Salzburg Soloists. His competition achievements include First Prize at the Beijing International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, the Shenzhen International Piano Concerto Competition and the Santa Cecilia International Piano Competition, as well as Second Prize at the Xiamen International Piano Competition. In 2025, he released his debut album Time & Space, available on major streaming platforms.
Jisoo Kim moved to Germany in 2020 after studying at Seoul Arts High School, where she began working with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. During her studies she has received numerous competition prizes, including Second Prize and a Special Prize at the 60th Beethoven Hrádec Cello Competition in 2025, a Special Prize for Best Sonata Performance at the UNISA International Music Competition in Pretoria and First Prize at the Gustav Mahler International Cello Competition. She was also the overall string winner of the Vienna New Year’s Concert International Competition. She has performed with orchestras including the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava and the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, and has taken part in masterclasses with cellists such as David Geringas and Miklós Perényi. She plays a cello by Paolo Antonio Testore, c. 1736.