Press Enter to search
Sought-after as a song accompanist and chamber musician, Jonathan Ware is a regular feature across the world’s leading venues, with recent appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Luxembourg’s Philharmonie, Barcelona’s L’Auditori, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal.
Ware opens the 2021/22 season with a string of dates in the UK alongside violinist Randall Goosby, violist Timothy Ridout and cellist Maciej Kułakowski, performing at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, St George’s Hall, Bristol, Leeds Town Hall and Wigmore Hall. European appearances follow including at Kölner Philharmonie with countertenor Bejun Mehta, Staatsoper unter den Linden and Lied Festival Würzburg. Devised with soprano Golda Schultz, the long-standing duo present their new programme of female composers to venues across Europe and North America, including Philadelphia, San Francisco, London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Cologne and Aix-en-Provence. Titled ‘This Be Her Verse’, the programme was recorded for CD release on Alpha Classics in 2022.
Randall Goosby, an American violinist signed exclusively to Decca Classics in 2020 at the age of 24, is renowned for his sensitive and intense musicianship, and his commitment to making music more inclusive and accessible. He champions under-represented composers and inspires others through his artistry.
Highlights of Goosby’s 2023/24 season include debut performances with the Boston Symphony, National Symphony, and European debuts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Danish National Radio Symphony, and Oslo Philharmonic. As Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre, Goosby will perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 with the London Philharmonic and appear in recitals across Europe and the U.S.
Goosby made his Mostly Mozart Festival debut in 2023, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. He has previously collaborated with leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra. His debut concerto album with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra features works by Max Bruch and Florence Price, with Gramophone praising his expressive playing.
His first album, Roots, is a celebration of African-American music, exploring its evolution from spirituals to modern compositions. The album includes world-premiere recordings of music by Florence Price and works by William Grant Still and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, along with a newly commissioned piece by Xavier Foley.
A passionate advocate for education and outreach, Goosby has worked with organizations like the Opportunity Music Project and Concerts in Motion. He hosted a residency with the Iris Collective in Memphis, connecting family history to music and fostering community collaboration.
Goosby has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant. He has studied at the Juilliard School under Itzhak Perlman and plays the 1708 “ex-Strauss” Stradivarius, generously loaned by the Samsung Foundation of Culture.
A multimedia artist born in Athens in 1967, Marc Philippin began his career as an actor before devoting himself entirely to his passion for the arts. He studied at the Ecole Supérieure d’Art Visuel in Geneva, graduating in 1992. He then embarked on a career as a painter. In 2006 he founded Kitchen-Project with his partner Soômi Dean, a duo of multimedia artists who use video as a means of scenic expression.
They developed a visual instrument with four hands, offering a new form of cinema that is both experimental and accessible to a wide audience. Today, Marc Philippin is continuing this artistic project on his own, and in 2013 opened KP, a virtual space for contemporary art that can be viewed on the web. He is currently offering courses for children at the Jaques-Dalcroze Institute and is taking part in the Verbier Festival’s UNLTD by creating art and animation workshops for young audiences.
Born in Lancashire in 1955, Stephen Johnson studied at the Northern School of Music, Manchester, and under Alexander Goehr at Leeds University.
After a brief period working for BBC Radio 3 – listening to LPs for clicks prior to transmission – he did a postgraduate course at Manchester University (subject: Shostakovich’s String Quartets). Then two friends – the composer Robert Simpson and the record producer Andrew Keener – suggested he try musical journalism. This soon grew into a full-time career.
Since then he has broadcast frequently for BBC Radio 3, 4 and World Service, major projects including 14 programmes about the music of Bruckner for the centenary of the composer’s death (1996), and has written regularly for The Independent, The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone.
Charles Sigel is a Swiss radio presenter and cultural commentator, formerly of RTS/Espace 2. Known for his eloquent interviews and deep knowledge of classical music, he has engaged with many of the world’s leading artists. A longtime friend of the Verbier Festival, he has introduced performances, moderated public talks, and brought the Festival’s spirit to airwaves and audiences alike
Tim Carroll began his career with the English Shakespeare Company before becoming Associate Director of the Northcott Theatre in Exeter. From 1999 to 2005, he was Associate Director of Shakespeare’s Globe. His ‘original practices’ productions of Shakespeare transpose the natural habitat of the Elizabethan outdoor theatre into 21st century spaces. This approach earned him success on Broadway in 2013, when his Tony-nominated Globe productions of Richard III and Twelfth Night starring Oscar-winner Mark Rylance earned ecstatic raves in The New York Times and The New Yorker. He is also known for creating edgy productions at the Factory Theatre in London. Since 2015, Carroll has been Artistic Director of Canada’s Shaw Festival.
Italian singer Barbara Frittoli is considered today as one of the greatest lyrico-spinto sopranos of her generation. Born in Milan, Frittoli graduated with the highest honour from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, where she studied with Giovanna Canetti. She later was the winner of several international competitions. Among her career’s most remarkable performances have been Le Nozze di Figaro (Contessa d’Almaviva) in Ferrara, Otello (Desdemona) at the Salzburg Festival and at Teatro Regio in Turin with Claudio Abbado, Così Fan Tutte (Fiordiligi) at the Wiener Staatsoper and at Ravenna Festival with Riccardo Muti. In addition to Abbado and Muti, she has worked with a long list of distinguished conductors: Lorin Maazel, Georges Priêtre, Daniele Gatti, Antonio Pappano and Riccardo Chailly.
Thomas Enhco, born in Paris, France in September 1988, is a French pianist and composer (jazz and classical music). He starts playing the violin and the piano at the age of 3, gives his first concerts and writes his first compositions at 6. At the age of 9, Didier Lockwood invites him to perform on stage with him at the jazz festivals of Antibes Juan-les-Pins, Vienne and Marciac. He studies jazz at CMDL and classical piano with the great master Gisèle Magnan. At 16, he enters the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP), from which he is expelled two years later. Since then, he has released 8 albums as a leader and has been playing an average of 100 concerts per year around the world, both in classical and jazz venues and festivals.
His first album Esquisse, written and recorded at the age of 15 with his trio (and featuring drums-legend Peter Erskine) comes out in 2006. Thomas becomes then Laureate of Fonds d’Action SACEM.
In 2008 he is spotted by the great Japanese producer Itoh “88” Yasohachi, who makes him record three albums (Someday My Prince Will Come, The Window and the Rain in Japan and Jack and John with Jack Dejohnette and John Patitucci at Avatar Studios in New York) and invites him for ten tours in Japan, in solo, duo and trio.
In 2012, he moves to New York where he plays in jazz clubs and collaborates with many artists, and he releases this same year on Label Bleu his self-produced album Fireflies (winner of Victoires du Jazz 2013).
In 2014 he signs with Universal Music and records for label Verve his solo piano album Feathers (nominated for « Best album » at Victoires du Jazz 2015).
Parallel to his jazz career, Thomas Enhco develops in the classical music world. In 2016 he releases on legendary label Deutsche Grammophon the album Funambules, in duo with percussion virtuoso Vassilena Serafimova. Their explosive duet without borders tours worldwide and wins the 2nd Grand Prize at Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2017 (Japan).
In 2017, he makes his debut as a soloist with symphony orchestras in Gershwin’s Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue, Mozart’s Piano Concerto K.491 (no. 24), Ravel’s Concerto in G, John Adam’s Eros Piano, Bach’s Concerto for Four Keyboards (BWV 1065), Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and his own first Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, with Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Lorraine, Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn, Orchestre Régional Avignon Provence, Ensemble Appassionato, Geneva Camerata, Orchestre de Cannes, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France and Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine, under the baton of conductors Julien Masmondet, Pierre Dumoussaud, Samuel Jean, Mathieu Herzog, Jean-Claude Casadesus, David Greilsammer, Junichi Hirokami, Benjamin Lévy, James Gaffigan and Fayçal Karoui. He is also invited as a soloist by Radio France Choir (dir. Sofi Jeannin) and Spirito Choir (dir. Nicole Corti) in programs around Brahms and his own compositions.
As a composer, Thomas Enhco has written more than 100 works and regularly gets commissions from orchestras, chamber music ensembles, soloists, choirs and festivals.
He has notably composed a Concerto for Piano and Orchestra and a Double Concerto for Piano, Marimba and Orchestra (premiere in February 2019) for the OPPB Orchestra, four pieces for pianist Lise de la Salle (album Bach Unlimited, Naïve 2017), a suite for Brass Quintet and Piano (for Local Brass Quintet — album Stay Tuned, Klarthe 2019), a piece for Choir and Piano (for Spirito Choir)… He has also composed the credits of radio shows “La Récréation” and “Le Grand Atelier” on France Inter, and two film scores: Aux Arts Citoyens by Daniel Schick (2010) and Les Cinq Parties du Monde by Gérard Mordillat (for which he wins the 2012 FIPA d’Or for Best Original Score).
Just before turning thirty, Thomas Enhco records for Sony Music the album Thirty, which comprises seven new solo pieces and his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. (Release: February 2019 on Sony Classical, Paris concert on April 17, 2019 at La Cigale).
For the past ten years, he has been playing an average of 100 concerts per year around the world. Among the jazz venues that have invited him, are jazz festivals of Tokyo, Montreal, Vienne, Montreux, Istanbul, Gent, Middelheim, North Sea, La Villette, l’Olympia… and among the classical venues, are festivals of La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, Philharmonie de Paris, Opéra de Bordeaux, Flagey in Brussels, French May in Hong Kong, Shanghai Grand Theater, Folle Journée de Nantes, Tokyo, Warsaw, New York, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Beijing Concert Hall…
The Philharmonie de Paris features him regularly, equally as a jazz and as a classical artist, and offers him a “carte blanche” at the 2017 Jazz à la Villette festival, features him at its weekend around Bach and as a soloist in his own Concerto and in Ravel’s Concerto in G in 2018. In 2019, he will participate in the performances of the complete Piano Etudes by Philip Glass, with the composer.
He is invited by the main French television and radio shows (C à Vous – France 5, Quotidien – TMC, Le Grand Échiquier, Fauteuils d’Orchestre – France 2…) and his recordings and concerts are praised by the national and foreign press.
As an educator, he gives masterclasses on improvisation, teaches jazz (piano and violin) at CMDL and since 2018 writes the jazz section of bi-monthly magazine Pianiste.
Thomas Enhco has won numerous prizes and awards, among which the 3rd Grand Prize at the 2010 Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition, the 2010 Django d’Or « New Talent », the 2012 FIPA d’Or for Best Film Score, the 2013 Victoire du Jazz « Révélation » (also nominated at the 2015 Victoires du Jazz), the 2nd Grand Prize at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, the 2017 Sacem ACEG Prize.
Collaborations with other artists include (Jazz): Didier Lockwood, Mike Stern, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jack DeJohnette, Gilad Hekselman, José James, Baptiste Trotignon, Ari Hoenig, Patrick Zimmerli, Dan Tepfer, Ibrahim Maalouf, Emile Parisien, Vincent Peirani, David Enhco, Biréli Lagrène, Anne Paceo, Hugh Coltman, Peter Erskine, Daniel Humair, André Ceccarelli, Victor Lewis, John Patitucci, Hein Van de Geyn, Lew Soloff, Sylvain Luc, François & Louis Moutin, Joel Frahm, Cyrille Aimée…
(Classical): Vassilena Serafimova, Henri Demarquette, Renaud Capuçon, Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri, Jean- François Zygel, Michel Dalberto, Anne-Sofie Von Otter, the Arod, Hanson, Modigliani and Voce string quartets, Beatrice Rana, Jérôme Pernoo, Caroline Casadesus, Lise de la Salle, Déborah Nemtanu, Xavier Philips…
As well as pop singers Jane Birkin, Christophe, Oxmo Puccino, dancer and choreographer Marie-Claude Pietragalla, director Alain Sachs, cartoonist Aurélia Aurita…
Born into a family of musicians in 1985, Vassilena Serafimova is the first Bulgarian percussionist to be awarded the Second Prize of the 56th ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the First Prize of the Fifth World International Marimba Competition in Stuttgart. She won the Grand Prix of the 10th International Competition Music and Earth as a soloist as well as the First Prize as a member of the Percussion Ensemble Accent, founded by her parents Avgustina and Simeon Serafimov. She received the Young Musician of the Year Award in Bulgaria in 2008 as well as the First Prize of the Music Critics in the 18th International Festival of Central Europe in Slovakia.
In 2014, Vassilena made her debut in Carnegie Hall of New York. One year later, together with Thomas Enhco (piano), she was the first marimba player in history to perform at the French Awards Ceremony Victoires de la Musique. In 2016, the duo recorded their first album titled Funambules for Deutsche Grammophon.
She has recorded for Radio France, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Bulgarian National Radio, and the Slovakian National Radio. Vassilena has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall (New York), Théâtre de Champs Elysées, Théâtre de Châtelet, Salle Pleyel (Paris), Hermitage Theater (Saint-Peterburg), Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam and Eindhoven), Herkulessaal (Munich), and Bulgaria Music Hall (Sofia). She has been invited to numerous festivals including Les Flâneries Musicales de Reims, Classique au Vert (France), Middelheim Jazz Festival (Belgique), REpercusionES (Costa Rica), Focus! 2011 Festival (Etats-Unis), and TransART (Bulgaria)). She has been invited to teach masterclasses in Europe, Central and North America, and Asia.
In 2013 Vassilena co-founded the Paris Percussion Group with Jean-Baptiste Leclère – a new ensemble of twelve percussionists uniting the young French generation of percussionists. She is also the artistic director and co-founder of the International Marimba And Percussion Festival in Bulgaria (2009, 2012, 2014).
Vassilena’s inspiration, mentors and teachers include the following musicians: Simeon Serafimov, Sylvio Gualda, Keiko Abe, Bogdan Bacanu, Momoko Kamiya, Chantal Stigliani, Katarzyna Mycka, Michel Cerutti, Florent Jodelet, Gordon Gottlieb, Daniel Druckman, Tatiana Koleva, Nebojsa Zivkovic, Jeff Malarsky…
Her curious nature lead her to participate in the Pyxis transdisciplinary project, searching and discovering a dialog between different art forms. This complex work significantly developed her imagination and is reflected in her way of performing.
Vassilena performs on ADAMS Alpha Series Marimbas. She is a Zildjian artist since 2014, and has created her own marimba mallets series with Vibrawell Mallets France.
Born in Italy of Russian origin and with Argentinian and German nationality, Ana Chumachenco started playing violin at the age of four under the supervision of her father – a disciple of Leopold Auer – and later took lessons from Ljerko Spiller in Buenos Aires.
After enjoying considerable success in her early years in Argentina, she returned to Europe at the age of 17 to continue her studies. Just one year later she was awarded the gold medal at the Carl Flesch Competition in London and, not long afterwards, the silver medal at the international Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Her musical mentors in those years included Joseph Szigeti, Sándor Végh and Yehudi Menuhin.
Besides her recitals and performances as a soloist with leading orchestras, Ana Chumachenco devotes much of her time to chamber music. For more than 20 years she has played in the Munich String Trio with violist Oscar Lysy and cellist Walter Nothas.
Chumachenco has been a member of the faculty at Kronberg Academy since 2008.