artists

Linus Roth - violin

Linus Roth, who already received the ECHO KLASSIK Award as "Best Newcomer" of 2006 for his début CD on the label EMI, has received his second ECHO award in 2017 for a recording of the violin concertos by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky with the London Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Sanderling.

Photo: Diego Franssens

Linus Roth has made a name for himself internationally not just with standard repertoire, but also with his discovery or rediscovery of works that have undeservedly fallen into oblivion. He has devoted special attention to the works of Mieczysław Weinberg, both in concerts and the recording studio, being the first violinist to have recorded this composer´s complete Œuvre on CD. Making Mieczysław Weinberg’s works known to a wider audience is also the aim of the International Weinberg Society, which Linus Roth founded in 2015.

Linus Roth attended the preparatory class of Prof. Nicolas Chumachenco at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg, Germany, before going on to study with Prof. Zakhar Bron. Subsequently, he pursued his studies for several years with Prof. Ana Chumachenco. While studying, he held a scholarship from the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.

In October 2012, Linus Roth was appointed professor for violin at the “Leopold-Mozart-Zentrum” at Augsburg University and is also the artistic director of the 10th Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition in Augsburg. In addition, Linus Roth is the artistic director of the international festival Ibiza Concerts, which he himself founded, and of the music festival Schwäbischer Frühling in Ochsenhausen, Germany.

Linus Roth plays on the Stradivarius violin “Dancla” from 1703 – a kind loan from the music foundation of the L-Bank Baden-Württemberg.

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Sophie Pacini - piano

Since her concert debut in 2000, Italian-German pianist Sophie Pacini has appeared in many renowned concert halls throughout the world including concert halls Philharmonie München, Philharmonie Berlin, Suntory Hall and Orchard Hall in Tokyo, Tonhalle Zürich, KKL Luzern, plus the concert halls in Vienna, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Paris, Brussels, and London.

In recital, she has performed at international festivals such as Lucerne Piano Festival, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Piano Festival aux Jacobins Toulouse, Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus with Gidon Kremer, MDR Musiksommer, Rheingau Musikfestival, Young Euro Classic Berlin, at Wigmore Hall and the Progetto Martha Argerich.

Pacini has been awarded a number of prestigious prizes, most recently the Young Artist of the Year at the International Classical Music Awards "ICMA", the ECHO Klassik in the category of „Rising Artist / Piano“. She was awarded the Prix “Groupe Edmond de Rothschild” at the Sommets Musical de Gstaad as well as the „Förderpreis Deutschlandfunk“, as "one the greatest talents of their generation.“ Sophie’s last two albums “In Between”, contrasting the works of Schumann and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy with those of their wife and sister, as well as “Rimembranza” and also her in 2023 newly released album „Puzzle“ have been topping the classic charts for months.

Pianist and musical activist, Sophie Pacini's special focus is on new ways to impart classical music to the younger generation. In our present times, where the unfiltered digitalization creates an arbitary reception of music, she actively campaigns for a new awareness of “analogue artistry”. Consequently, the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation (BR) and the GOETHE Institute made her Beethoven representative in 2020. A recipient of the Deutschlandfunk grant, she designs new radio formats. In general, she is a coveted dialogue partner in the media. Sophie is also scholarship holder of German musical head organization “Der Deutsche Musikrat”.

Since 2023 Sophie is member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. An intimate friendship, both personal and artistic, connects Sophie with the legendary Martha Argerich with whom she shares the stage for selected duo concerts.

Petrit Çeku - guitar

Petrit Çeku’s exquisite sensibility and expressiveness have attracted and engaged audiences worldwide. He has performed many recitals throughout the world and was a soloist with symphonic orchestras such as Baltimore Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Czech Chamber Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, State Hermitage Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Pannon Philharmonic and Zagreb Philharmonic. He collaborates regularly with the famed ensemble The Zagreb Soloists and is a founding member of Guitar Trio Elogio, established in 2008.

Hailed by Calgary Herald as “an effortless player, with a strong, projecting sound”, Çeku is the first prize winner of many international guitar competitions, including the most prestigious ones like Parkening (Malibu, USA), Schadt (Allentown, USA), Biasini (Bologna, Italy), and Pittaluga (Alessandria, Italy). He was the only classical music act in the 2018 Night of the Proms Tour with the Antwerpen Philharmonic conducted by Alexandra Arrieche, featuring pop music greats like Brian Ferry, Milow, Seal and Suzanne Vega.

Çeku graduated from the Zagreb Academy of Music in the class of Darko Petrinjak and at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore USA in the class of Manuel Barrueco. Petrit Çeku teaches Chamber Music for Guitar, a special graduate study dedicated to chamber music, at The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz in Austria. His recordings have been released by Naxos, BuntArt and Eudora records. Çeku’s record The Cello Suites, which includes all six cello suites by Bach was nominated for ICMA. Recording sessions for this album were the subject of documentary film ‘Sarabande’ by the award-winning director Kaltrina Krasniqi. Continuing the collaboration with the filmmaker, Petrit Çeku later composed the original score for her feature film ‘Vera dreams of the sea’, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2021.

Petrit Çeku is a D’Addario artist and plays on a Ross Gutmeier guitar.

Jennifer Stumm - viola

Violist and director Jennifer Stumm blazes a courageous creative path with diverse projects mixing sheer musical enthusiasm with boundary-breaking artistic direction and committed advocacy for social equity. Known for the “opal-like beauty" (Washington Post) of her sound, Jennifer appears on the world’s great stages like Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, Kennedy Center, and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. She is winner of the William Primrose, Geneva and Concert Artist Guild competitions (and the first violist ever to win first prize.) The 2022-23 season brings appearances at festivals around the world, Jennifer’s debut in the large hall of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, solo tours of Ireland and the UK and a new album with São Paulo Chamber Soloists. She also makes her Lucerne Festival debut, as both director and violist in a new staged program from Ilumina called “The Nature of Light.”

Jennifer is founder and director of Ilumina, the São Paulo-based artist collective and social equity initiative, which has ascended rapidly to prominence as a modern model for 21st century creativity and the advancement of diverse talent. Ilumina unites leading international soloists with the best rising talent from Latin America, working and performing side-by-side at the Ilumina festival and on tour around the world, with the goal that worthy talent receives an equal chance to shine. Ilumina young artists regularly study at leading international universities and have entered the highest echelons of the field. Jennifer’s flair for curation and stage direction has received much attention, and Ilumina concerts invite listeners to be immersed in dynamic musical worlds, steadfastly committed to interpretation, powered by the freshness and energy of cultural exchange.

Jennifer is in much demand as a speaker about diversity, talent development and the future. She regularly interacts with the innovation and technology sector about how artistic thinking can impact progress, productivity and the world of ideas. She was invited to speak at NASA’s Cross Industry Innovation Summit in Houston and is a member of the Ecosystems 2030 collective, working with global thinkers on what the future will look like. Her viral TEDx talk about the viola and the blessings of being different, “The Imperfect Instrument,” was named an editor’s pick of all TED talks and led to a solo debut at the Berlin Philharmonie.

Jennifer has released two celebrated solo albums. Her debut recording for Naxos’ Laureate Series featured works by Italian composer/violist Alessandro Rolla, hailed as "an absolutely phenomenal display of virtuoso viola playing" (The New Recordings.) She next released her album of Berlioz's Harold In Italy and performed the work in her unique staging and characterization almost fifty times. A recipient of the prestigious BBC New Generation artist and Borletti Buitoni Trust awards for her work in chamber music, she appears at major festivals such as Verbier, Marlboro, Stavanger, Spoleto, Aldeburgh, Delft and IMS Prussia Cove and regularly appears with Spectrum Concerts Berlin and as a trio with cellist Jens-Peter Maintz and Kolja Blacher.

Jennifer Stumm is Professor of Viola at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, International Chair of Viola Studies at the Royal College of Music, London and gives masterclasses around the world. Since her school days teaching strings in the Atlanta inner city, she has devoted considerable time to supporting young musicians from culturally and economically diverse backgrounds, both in person and online.

Born in Atlanta, Jennifer first heard the viola when she was eight and, enchanted by its sound, began playing in her school's orchestra. She studied with Karen Tuttle at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, with Nobuko Imai in Amsterdam as well as with Steven Isserlis at IMS Prussia Cove, and also pursued interests in politics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jennifer plays a Gasparo da Salò viola, 1589, generously on loan from a private trust.

Raphaela Gromes - cello

Highly virtuosic and full of drive, passionate and technically brilliant, versatile and charming – there are hardly any other cellists who are able to captivate their audiences the way Raphaela Gromes does. Whether as a soloist with orchestra, as a duo in chamber music or alongside a wind quartet, the young cellist always leaves everyone spellbound with both her fantastically ambitious and remarkably effortless playing.

Photo: wildundleise

Her first appearance as a soloist took place in the fall of 2005 with the Cello Concerto by Friedrich Gulda, a performance for which she received resounding acclaim from both audience and press. As a young student, she began her studies at the age of 14 at the University of Music and Theatre Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig with Peter Bruns before continuing with Wen-Sinn Yang at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich in 2010 and later with Reinhard Latzko at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Awards to her name include First Prize at both the 2012 Richard Strauss Competition and the 2016 Concorso Fiorindo Turin, as well as the German Music Competition Prize in the solo cello category. Also since 2012 she has held a scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and has been supported by Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now.

She gained valuable musical inspiration from master classes with renowned cellists such as David Geringas, Yo-Yo Ma, Frans Helmerson, Jens Peter Maintz, László Fenyö, Daniel Müller-Schott, Kristin von der Goltz, Wolfgang Boettcher, Anner Bylsma and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmid.

Raphaela Gromes celebrated her debut at such renowned festivals as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Jungfrau Music Festival Interlaken, the Vorsprung Festival of the Audi Summer Concerts in Ingolstadt with Kent Nagano, the Munich Opera Festival, the Marvao International Music Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and has given guest appearances at the Tonhalle Zurich, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle Hamburg, and the concert halls of Berlin, Vienna and Dortmund. In 2018, a tour took her to the United States, in 2019 to Korea, and in 2020 to China.

She followed invitations to Isarphilharmonie in Munich, Tonhalle Zurich, the Philharmonie in Essen, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, she played several times at the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle in Hamburg and in the concert halls in Berlin, Vienna and Dortmund. In addition, further concerts in France and a major Central America tour in the summer of 2022.

In the 2022/23 season, Raphaela Gromes is Artist in Residence at the Staatstheater Augsburg and makes her debuts with the Belgian National Orchestra in Brussels and the hr-Sinfonieorchester.

In addition, she performs at Frauenkirche Dresden, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, with the Tonkünstler-Orchester and in Munich's Prinzregententheater with Festival Strings Lucerne.

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Marta Gallego Jovanovic - violin

She began her violin studies at the age of 8 with Anna Baget at the Adolfo Salazar Music Conservatory, where she graduated with the highest qualifications.

She has been awarded prizes in several competitions, such as the first prize at the 3rd Cardinal Cisneros Musical Performance Competition, the third prize at the Forum Musikae Violin International Competition, and the finalist prize at the Villa de Llanes Violin International Competition (2017), the 9th City of Vigo String Competition and the Adolfo Salazar Conservatory Soloist Competition (2019). In March of the same year, she won the first prize at the 14th César Uceda Leioa Young Performers Award.

She has attended many festivals and masterclasses with renowned violinists such as Robert Lakatos, Yulia Iglinova Milstein, Tatiana Samuil, Sara Chang, Keiko Wataya, Eszter Haffener, Allisa Margullis, Shangai Quartet, Miguel Colom, Linus Roth, Miriam Fried, Mihaela Martin and Ralf Gothóni (groups with piano).

In 2018, she was among the five violinists that were selected at the national level to participate through a scholarship in the masterclasses offered in Madrid by violinist Sarah Chang. In 2019, she was selected to attend the Aurora Music Festival in Stockholm, where, as part of the orchestra, she performed with Leonidas Kavakos under the baton of Jukka Pekka Saraste. At the same time, she also atended masterclasses by Maestros Alisa Margullis and Eszter Hafner.

She was a member of the Adolfo Salazar violin Ensemble, conducted by Maestro Anna Baget and has also had the opportunity to give concerts both as part of an ensemble and as soloist in Spain, Greece, Serbia and Sweden.

As a student of the School, she has performed with the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Juanjo Mena; the Fundación EDP Camerata, conducted by Paul Goodwin; the Freixenenet Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Sir András Schiff and Andrés Salado; with the Baroque Ensemble of the School, conducted by Paul Goodwin, and with the Sinfonietta, conducted by Zsolt Nagy. In 2021, she participated in the 30th anniversary tour of the School with the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada, with whom she performed at Madrid's Teatro Real, at Bratislava's Reduta Hall, at Budapest's Liszt Ferenc Academy and at Vienna's Musikverein. She has been a member of the Fundación Mahou San Miguel Trio. She is currently part of the Deloitte Mozart Trio.

Rocio Osuna - dancer

Nace en Ibiza en 1980, donde comienza sus estudios de danza en diferentes escuelas como
Estudio Capricorn, Estudio de Danza Carmen y Centro de Danza. A los 18 años se traslada a Madrid donde es admitida en el Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza y cursa estudios de
Grado medio de danza española, formándose en todas sus disciplinas: flamenco, folclore,
escuela bolera, danza estilizada y danza clásica.

Compagina sus estudios de danza con la diplomatura en Magisterio de Educación Infantil en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. En 2003, y a término de su formación, entra a formar parte de la Compañía de Danza Española de Antonio Márquez, bailando obras cómo “El Sombrero de Tres Picos” (en el papel de Aguadora Mayor), “Boda Flamenca”, “Bolero de Ravel”, viajando a diferentes lugares como Italia, Rumanía y gran parte de la geografía española. En 2004 es seleccionada para formar parte del cuerpo de baile de la película “Iberia” de Carlos Saura, en la cual intervienen bailarines como Sara Baras, Antonio Canales, Aída Gómez y músicos como Manolo Sanlúcar y Roque Baños con coreografía de José Antonio, ex director del Ballet Nacional de España. Durante el rodaje de la película Aída Gómez (Premio Nacional de Danza y ex directora del Ballet Nacional de España) le propone entrar a formar parte de su compañía interpretando obras cómo “Salomé”, “Sueños”, “Carmen” y “Permíteme bailarte” con la que recorre países como Japón, China, Corea, Tailandia, Filipinas, Singapur, Turquía, Grecia, Francia, Colombia, Emiratos Árabes, Italia, España, etc.

En diferentes ocasiones a formado parte del Ballet Español de José Luís Moreno en el Teatro de La Latina y del ballet de TVE. Ha participado como bailarina en el documental de la Expo de Shangai con Bigas Luna. Formó parte de la compañía de Joaquín Cortés. Como coreógrafa y directora en septiembre de 2007, estrenó su primer espectáculo de danza "FLAMENCO AD-LIB", en la inauguración de la Feria Andaluza de Eivissa. Este mismo espectáculo, clausuró la “Trobada de pobles” organizada por el Consell Insular d´Eivissa en 2008. Posteriormente junto con Elvira Ramón (pianista) y Lucía Herranz (soprano) crea los espectáculos “Simplemente Lorca” y “Siglo XX que te vas (Recordándote)” y “Me llaman La Pepa” para el Bicentenario de la Constitución española. También ha dirigido el espectáculo “La vuelta al mundo en 80 danzas”.

Es titulada superior en danza española, especialidad en pedagogía, por el Conservatorio Superior de Danza “María de Ávila”. Como docente ha trabajado en numerosas escuelas municipales y privadas de la Comunidad de Madrid y actualmente es profesora de danza en la Escuela Municipal de Danza de Boadilla del Monte y directora del Ballet Español Noche de Luna.