Leo van Debré, born in Moscow and raised in Stockholm, was accepted to the prestigious music school, Lilla Akademien in Stockholm at the age 15. He later went to the Royal College of Music in Stockholm where he attained his Bachelor of Music Degree under the tuition of prof. Elemer Lavotha.
A keen chamber musician, Leo’s interest for chamber music grew throughout his studies, leading to the founding of many chamber ensembles including duets, piano trios, piano quartets and string quartets. His love of the orchestra led him to take part in symphonic ensembles such as the Verbier Festival Orchestra and the Swedish National Youth Orchestra. He recently completed his Master of Music in Performance Degree with Louise Hopkins as his professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Emma Johansson was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1993. She started playing the piano at the age of 6 through the Suzuki piano school. After studying the piano with Anna Simon, Thomas Rydfeldt and Mikael Kanarva, Emma was awarded her Bachelor’s degree with Bernt Wilhelmsson as her main teacher at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. She was accepted to the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Royal College of Music, Edsberg Manor in Stockholm, where she finished her Master’s under the guidance of Professor Mats Widlund in 2017.
She is a prize winner of the Swedish Steinway Competition and has received scholarships from the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Swedish Freemasonry. In addition, she has also been awarded the Anders Sandrew Scholarship for promising musicians as well as the Fredrika Bremer Music Scholarship.
Sophie Bretschneider was born in 1988 and raised in Germany as daughter of two musicians, Sophie played violin since she was six years old. 2008 she attended Lilla Akademien and after playing viola for one year she in 2009 started studying viola at the Royal Academy of music in Stockholm with Torbjörn Helander, Henrik Frendin, Pascal Siffert and James Opie. Courses like Baltic Youth Philharmonic, Gstaad Festival Orchestra occupied her summers until she now is a permanent member at Läckö castle for the yearly summer opera performance.
She now plays frequently with the Swedish Radio Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, etc and has been in Jönköping’s Sinfonietta since 2017. As a permanent member of the Svenska Barytontrion she plays chamber concerts with this unique group and has upcoming recording for all 127 Haydns Barytontrios.
Estonian soprano Mirjam Mesak was born in 1990 in Tallinn and graduated in 2006 from The Music School of Tallinn, playing the piano under the tutelage of Heli Taar. She received her Bachelors’ degree in voice from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with a First Class Honours in 2016 and is now continuing her studies on the Guildhall Artist Masters Programme, under the tutelage of Prof. Rudolf Piernay.
At Guildhall, Mirjam has worked with the finest singers and coaches including Graham Johnson, Sarah Walker, Eugene Asti, Julius Drake, Stephan Loges, Amanda Roocroft. Mirjam has performed as a soloist in several of London’s renowned concert halls such the Barbican Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall (including as part of the LSO’s This is Rattle festival), and Wigmore Hall where she premièred new work by Guildhall composers and writers.
Kevin Kirs Verstege is a musician born in Stockholm, Sweden. His musical journey began in his home, exploring the living room piano, and Kevin was later admitted to ‘Musikskolan Lilla Akademien’ as a piano student. After some time spent in a fully musical environment, Kevin became very fond of the cello and began having lessons with Vladimir Power and later Ulrika Edström.
In 2011, Kevin moved to Glasgow, U.K. to pursue his musical interest at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. During his years in Scotland, Kevin was expanding his musicality as well as instrumental skills under the guidance of his mentor Aleksei Kiseliov.
Kevin is currently a guest player in various Swedish symphony orchestras as well as an active chamber musician in Sweden, U.K, Netherlands and Italy.
Born and raised Stockholm in a korean family, Yongmin began hes violin studies at age of 4 with Nina Balabina and continued hes highschool studies with Estonian violinist/conductor Andres Kaljuste. In 2010 Yongmin was enrolled to Edsberg Institute and finished hes bachelor studies with prof. Per Enoksson and chamber music with prof. Mats Zetterqvist while the same year being awarded the Welin-scholarship.
After the Bachelor in Stockholm, Yongmin continued and finished his two master studies with prof. Rainer Schmidt in Basel, Switzerland and additionally got enrolled to his string quartet class. In Basel he had the opportunity to participate in masterclasses with prof. Pavel Vernikov, prof. Ferenc Rados and prof. Gabor Tacas. He was also awarded in 2017 the ”Järnåker” Scholarship during the studies in Basel.
With passion for chamber music, Yongmin was privileged to have worked with artists and maestros like Heinz Holliger, Ilya Gringolts to name a few, and was active in the chamber music scene around central Europe in festivals like Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern and Menuhin festival Gstaad.
Jesper Alm, born in southern Sweden, started singing from a young age. Started playing the flute at the age of 10, soon delved deeper in to world of music, with music theory and piano studies. Was accepted to the prestigious music school, Lilla Akademien in Stockholm at the age 15. Moved from home ready to explore his love for music, earning Selma Music’s scholarship for promising young musicians. Attend to masterclasses with Göran Marcusson and Gitte Marcusson, which in turn led him to Vänersborg where he continued study under their tutelage. While also working taking on students of his own.
Experienced flute teacher, theoretical and practical musician. As both a soloist, chamber musician and in orchestras, Jesper has performed at concert venues in Italy, the UK, Norway, Denmark and around Sweden. He has participated in Masterclasses with prominent flutist such as Adam Walker, Göran Marcusson, Cecilie Løken and Jan Bengtsson
Melissa was born in the city of Nacka in December 1990 to a Swedish father and Colombian mother. She was a student of the class of professor Staffan Scheja at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm from 2008 to 2010. Since the fall of 2010 she lives in Düsseldorf in Germany, where she completed her master studies in 2014 under Professor Paolo Giacometti and her Konzertexamen in January 2017, under the professorship of Georg Friedrich Schenck. She performed Rachmaninov’s 3rd piano concerto with the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen and a solo recital of 90 minutes, receiving the highest mark for both her exams.
In 2016 she was chosen to take part in the International Music Festival in Cartagena, Colombia, as a soloist and young talent. The same year in the summer she performed “The Seasons” by John Cage under Michael Tilson Thomas during the Verbier Festival with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. She was reinvited for the summer of 2017, where she performed in several concerts, among others with Joshua Weilerstein and Michèle Larivière. She has performed Gershwin´s Rhapsody in Blue with different orchestras and Rachmaninov´s 3rd piano concerto for her graduation concert in Düsseldorf.
Arthur Edman, born in Stockholm, Sweden, began his musical journey as a pianist and cellist before getting admitted to the esteemed music school Lilla Akademien at age 9 where he began playing the bassoon in the class of Staffan Eriksson later in the class of Carl-Johan Nordin and Henrik Blixt. By age 10 he won his first international music competition on the bassoon and decided to pursuit a soloist career as a bassoonist.
Arthur has won multiple international music competitions in many countries such as Sweden, England, Spain, Germany, Israel, Singapore, Serbia, Italy and Russia. He regularly performs on solo concerts and has performed as a soloist on renowned stages such as Konserthuset (home of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra), the Royal Palace of Stockholm, Ulriksdal Palace Theatre and on the opening concert of the newly
constructed Queen Silvia Concert Hall and he also partook in the O/Modernt Festival’s concert series in Konzerthaus Berlin in 2022.