Classical Master Classes

Since 1967 the Swiss baritone has very active as a concert and oratorio singer at concerts throughout Europe, Israel, the United States of America, Canada, Russia and Japan under prominent conductors (Raffael Frühbeck department Bourgos, Michael Gielen, Paul Sacher, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Jesus Lopez Cobos).

He regularly sings at various festivals such as the music weeks in Lucerne, Zurich, Montreux, Donaueschingen, Ludwigsburg, London, Brighton, Breslau, Turin, Salzburg and Vienna. He holds the soloist prize of the Swiss Composers’ Association and in 1985 was awarded the Regio Prize for Music of the Upper Rhine Association for the Promotion of the Economy, 1997 Prize for Art of Basel-Land and 2007 Prize for Culture of the City of Wil. The Anton Bruckner-University in Linz nominate him as a Honorarprofessor.

The repertoire of his many records and radio recordings ranges from Machaut’s Mass to contemporary works. So far, he has sung in more than 100 premiéres. From the very start until today, his primary interest has been Lieder. Kurt Widmer has been awarded a number of prizes for records (Prix mondial du disque, Grand Prix du disque, Diaposon d’or Prix de l’Académie du disque français, Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik).

Barbara Doll performs in the international music scene both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. Since 2014 she is professor of violin at the Music Academy in Basel, Switzerland, having hold a similar position at the University of the Arts in Bern since 2004. 

Barbara has given concerts at such venues as the Wigmore Hall and the Barbican in London, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Gasteig in Munich and the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, as soloist e.g. with the English Chamber Orchestra and the European Union Chamber Orchestra. A passionate chamber musician both as violinist and violist she is a regular guest at Chamber Music festivals such as the Schleswig Holstein Festival, Steven Isserlis’ Chamber Music Festival Prussia Cove or the Ravinia Festival, USA, partnering artists as Miriam Fried, Homero Francesch, Heinz Holliger, Patricia Pagny, Silke Avenhaus, Adrian Oetiker, Filippo Gamba, Christopher Hinterhuber, Nicolas Altstaedt, Natalie Clein, Dieter Flury and Dimitri Ashkenazy.

For nearly 20 years Barbara has formed a duo with the pianist Cristina Marton- Argerich. Their interpretations of both mainstream and rarely performed repertoire have been internationally acclaimed for their personal and authentic approach. Since 2014 Barbara is a member of the ARIA String Quartet.

Barbara Doll was born near Munich. She was taught by Ana Chumachenko in Munich, Thomas Zehetmair and Thomas Brandis in Berlin and David Takeno in London. Masterclasses with Sandor Vegh, Ivry Gitlis and Gyorgy Kurtag had an important impact on her. 
Barbara is a laureate of the International Schubert Competition Graz, winner of the Schubert Prize, and of the Kuhmo International Duo Competition, Finland. 

Barbara Doll has been guest leading and directing prestigious chamber orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Basle Chamber Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Kammerphilharmonie Amadé, the Ensemble Resonanz and the German Kammerakademie Neuss. For nearly twenty years she has been playing in the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, often under Claudio Abbado and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Barbara is regularly invited to give masterclasses and coach orchestra academies. Recent and upcoming engagements include Villa Musica Mainz, Künstlerhaus Boswil, Hindemith Foundation Blonay, the Aurora Chamber Music Festival Sweden, the Teatro del Lago Chile.

Since 2006 she is president of the ESTA ( European String teachers’ Association) Switzerland.
 

Andreas Willwohl is German violist, was born in Erfurt. In a age of 14 he studied in the Specialist School for Music at Belvedere Castle in Weimar, later he commenced his studies at the Hochschule für Musik «Franz Liszt»  Weimar continuing a year later at the Hochschule für Musik «Hanns Eisler» in Berlin with Alfred Lipka. Of great artistic incentive for him was the support of, inter alios, Wilfried Strehle, Thomas Kakuska and Kim Kashkashian; in chamber music Norbert Brainin, Eberhard Feltz, Walter Levin, and the Alban Berg Quartet.

Andreas Willwohl has appeared at international music festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein music festival, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Castle Concerts in Thun, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Salzburger Festspiele, and has played with Thomas Brandis, Wolfgang Böttcher, Nobuko Imai, Michael Sanderling, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Johannes Moser, Marc André Hamelin, Lauma Skride and Daniel Heide.

Andreas Willwohl has appeared as a soloist with several major orchestras, including the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Brandenburg Symphonie Orchestra, the Korean Chamber, Lithuanian chamber orchestra and the Chamberorchestra of Germany Berlin. He has partnered with eminent conductors such as Marek Janowski, Patrick Lange, Christoph Poppen, Conrad van Alphen and Matthias Foremny. He is also been active as a chamber musician, and so he is the member of the Mandelring String quartet and of the Ensemble Ceres and has played concerts in Europe, USA and Asia.

www.andreas-willwohl.com
www.mandelring.com

With his first prize win in December 2000 at the International Geneva Competition, Rafael Rosenfeld firmly established his reputation as one of Europe’s most exciting cellists. He toured Europe as a soloist including performances with orchestras like the SWR Stuttgart, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Tonhalle Orchestra, Zürich, the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Orchestra of Lugano, the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Zürich Chamber Orchestra.

In addition to his success at the Geneva competition, Rafael Rosenfeld won numerous other prizes and awards at national and international competitions including third prize at the International ARD competition in Munich, a special prize at the International Jost competition in Lausanne and the highest award at the 1997 Migros Chamber Music Competition. In 1990 he was selected to represent Switzerland at the Eurovision competition in Vienna and in 1994 he was a finalist at the Tchaikowsky Competition in Moscow. He has made numerous radio and television appearances.

Rafael Rosenfeld received his musical education at the Zürich Conservatory and the Lübeck College of Music where his cello professors were Walter Grimmer and David Geringas respectively. Further inspiration came through world-acclaimed musicians like András Schiff, Steven Isserlis, Sandor Végh, Bernard Greenhouse, Ralph Kirschbaum, Menahem Pressler and György Kurtág.

Rafael Rosenfeld has followed invitations to important festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the Ittinger Whitsun Concerts, Young Artists in Concert, Davos, the Interlakner Festwochen, Zürcher Festspiele and Open Chamber Music Prussia Cove. In 1995 Rafael Rosenfeld became the principal cellist of the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, and the ensemble's youngest member. In addition he is a member of Andras Schiff's chamber orchestra Cappella Andrea Barca.

Chamber music plays a cental role in Rafael Rosenfeld's musical life. For many years he performed as cellist of the Rosenfeld Trio and later was invited to join a trio with the violinist Gabor Takács-Nagy, former first violin of the Takács quartet, and the pianist Dénes Vârjon. Since 2002 his focus has been on exploring the string quartet literature with the Merel Quartet.

Rafael Rosenfeld is a professor of cello at the Basel Music Academy.