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Wooden Elephant are a contemporary classical string quintet who reimagine classic electronic-based albums and present them as totally acoustic, longform contemporary classical concert works. Formed in 2017, they have collaborated with Moor Mother, Ballett am Rhein, and Beethovenorchester Bonn, and their arrangements have been performed by Concertgebouw Orchestra and soundtracked by AppleTV.
They are a team of young professional performers who bring interactive classical music projects to communities. The Collective want to go beyond the boundaries and challenge the clichés that often surround classical music. It also believe that music is an important tool to develop communication skills, encourage creativity and broaden the imagination.
The Collective aims to inspire the next generation of classical music lovers to connect with one another and create, and its mission is to give more people access to the benefits of music-making.
Formed in 2016, the Paris-based Quatuor Agate studied at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Eberhard Feltz, in Paris under the guidance of Mathieu Herzog, and with the Quatuor Ebène at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich. In 2021, they were prize-winners at the Young Classical Artists Trust International Auditions.
Highlights this season include debut recitals at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Lammermuir Festival in Scotland.
They return to Wigmore Hall and collaborate with the Modigliani Quartet at the TauberPhilharmonie and the Diotima Quartet at the Lange Nacht der Streichquartette in Munich. In 2023 they record the complete Brahms Quartets for the Naïve label.
The Quartet is artist in residence at the Fondation Singer Polignac, resident at Pro-Quartet in Paris, and Associate Artist at the Festival la Brėche in Savoie. In 2016 they founded the CorsiClassic Festival with a mission to bring chamber music to areas of the island where it is rarely heard.
Over the last year the Quatuor Agate has made their debut at Wigmore Hall and given recitals across Europe at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Brucknerhaus Linz, TauberPhilharmonie Weikersheim, Les Chaises Musicales, Août Musical (Deauville), Festival de l’Epau, Philharmonie de Paris, the Verbier, Salon-de-Provence, Radio France and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals. They recorded with Frank Braley and Gabriel Le Magadure for the Naïve label due for release in Spring 2023.
The Quartet has performed widely in Europe including the Hamburg International Chamber Music Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Les Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, Konzertverein Schwerin and the Cini Foundation in Venice. They have collaborated with Pierre Fouchenneret, Florent Héau, Enrico Pace, Marc Danel, the Modigliani, Ébène and Jerusalem Quartets, among many others.
All four members of the Agate are from the South of France. It was their love for Berlin, and it’s rich and dynamic culture that brought them together as a Quartet.
The Quartet were prize-winners at the Verbier Festival Academy in 2019 and the Steels-Wilsing Foundation Competition at the Heidelberger Frühling Festival in 2020. They have taken part in the Montreal and Aix-en-Provence Academies working with members of the Alban Berg, Ysaÿe, Talich and Vogler Quartets, Sir András Schiff, Tabea Zimmerman and Christoph Poppen. The Quartet were prizewinners at the 2022 Banff International Competition (Canadian Commission Prize), the 2019 Verbier Festival Academy, and the 2020 Steels-Wilsing Foundation Competition at the Heidelberger Frühling Festival.
Trio Incendio was founded in 2016 in Prague by pianist Karolína Františová, violinist Filip Zaykov and cellist Vilém Petras. The trio has won several national and international competitions, for example Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award in Lugano, Coop Music Awards in Cremona, Concorso Musicale ‘Marcello Pontillo’ in Firenze, Kiejstut Bacewicz Competition in Lodz, Concorso ‘Massimiliano Antonelli’ in Latina and Bohuslav Martinů Competition in Prague. Recently, Trio Incendio took Second Prize at the International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar while the First Prize was not awarded. The young ensemble has already given concerts in some of the most important European venues such as Philharmonie Berlin, Wigmore Hall or Rudolfinum in Prague and has been invited to festivals like Ticino Musica, the chamber music season of the Prague Spring Festival, Ohrid Summer Festival or the Davos Festival.
The Kandinsky Quartet, scholar of Jeunesse Musicales Germany and Villa Musica, has rapidly gathered recognition and experience with musicians such as Elizabeth Leonskaja, Bruno Giuranna, Adrien Brendel, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Gilles Apap, Dirk Mommertz and Mathieu Herzog along with prestigious string quartets such as Arditti Quartet, Kuss Quartet, Ysaÿe Quartet, Cuarteto Casals, Artis Quartet, Mosaïques Quartet, Quatuor Diotima or Alban Berg Quartet. Along that three have been invited to festivals like Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Uzmah/Upbeat, La casa del Quartetto, Academy Diotima, Styrian Chamber Music Festival and Festival Musica Sur. Currently they are studying with Johannes Meissl at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and with Quatuor Ébène at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. Engagements for season 2022/23 include performances in the hall of the Besední dům (Brno) and in festivals among which Festival Milano Musica (Italy) and Heidelberger Frühling (Germany) and Stars and Rising Stars with Elisabeth Leonskaja.
Eight from each solo discipline and two ensembles are selected for three weeks of mentorship and coaching by a faculty that is second to none. The study and performance of chamber music is fundamental at Verbier. In addition to classes and coachings offered to two pre-formed trios or quartets, all soloists, including junior students, are assigned to chamber music groups and take part in chamber music masterclasses in addition to those in their respective disciplines.
The origins of the multi-secular Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia are closely linked to choral singing: in the second half of the 1500’s, several Chapel-masters and Choristers formed an association, electing as President Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, thus founding the Accademia. In May 1595, Pope Sisto V issued the papal bull Ratione congruit, the act officially founding the Congregazione dei Musici.
The objectives of the Institution, which was launched as an association having both artistic and charitable aims, have undergone continuous modification over the centuries, but the promotion and growth of the art of music in all its manifestations have always been the inspiration guiding all its activities.
The Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, made up of about 90 members, appears in both the winter and summer seasons of the Accademia, joining the Orchestra for performances of the great classic and modern symphonic-choral works.
Highlights among its more recent engagements include tours the Santa Cecilia ensembles made together with Music Director Antonio Pappano to the Dresden Semperoper (2006), the London Proms (2007, 2011, 2013), the Salzburger Festpiele (2011, 2013, 2014) and the Enescu Festival (2017); its appearance in Lucerne with the famed Lucerne Festival Orchestra directed by Claudio Abbado (2006); and its participation (October, 2007) in the Sacred Music Festival in Rome, for the performance of Verdi’s Requiem with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Daniele Gatti.
The Chorus has also made numerous recordings. Together with the Accademia Orchestra, it took part in the recording of Madama Butterfly by Puccini, the Requiem by Verdi (both directed by Antonio Pappano), which received the 2010 BBC Music Magazine Award as best recording (choral section), the 2010 Classical Brits Critics Award and a Gramophone Award.
Other recordings are the Stabat Mater by Rossini, Verismo Arias with Jonas Kaufmann (Decca), the opera William Tell and the Petite Messe Solennelle by Rossini (EMI), Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri and Britten’s War Requiem (Warner Classics). Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (with Angela Gheorghiu; the recording won a Brit Award), Verdi’s Requiem (Gramophone Award, BBC Music Magazine, Brit Classical), Rossini’s and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Anna Netrebko (Gramophone Editors’ Choice Award), Rossini’s William Tell, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri, Britten’s War Requiem.
Recently recorded, Verdi’s Aida boasts a stellar cast (Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann, Erwin Schrott) and has taken home numerous awards: Best Recording 2015 for The New York Times and for The Telegraph, Best opera 2015 – Apple Music, Choc Classica de l’année, Diapason D’or and Choix de France Musique, Record of the month for Gramophone and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Antonio Pappano, the Orchestra and the Chorus also recorded Nessun Dorma, The Puccini Album with tenor Jonas Kaufmann (Best Classical Music Recordings of 2015 for The New York Times), which made the world charts.
Among the most recent engagements, mention is to made of the participation, along with the Radio France Orchestra and Chorus, at the Festival de Saint-Denis, conducted by Valery Gergiev (July 2018 – Berlioz, Requiem), and the closing concert of Spoleto’s Festival dei Due Mondi, joined by Marion Cotillard (July 2018 – Honegger, Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher) The year 2018 also saw the Chorus’s participation in the recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony no. 3 (Kaddish, conducted at Santa Cecilia by Antonio Pappano to mark the hundredth anniversary of the composer’s birth).
In May 2020 Sony Classical has released a new recording of Otello by Giuseppe Verdi with Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Antonio Pappano.