“Former orchestra leader Caroline Duffner, now a professional violinist based in Vienna, returned to the fold for Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto Opus 35. The composer’s intended soloist, Leopold Auer, was apparently uncomfortable with the technical demands of this piece, but Duffner had no qualms, and she dazzled with her virtuosic handling of Tchaikovsky’s melodic and rhythmic gymnastics, while her impressive double stopping and glissando in the extended first movement cadenza was mesmerising in its brilliance.”
The Oxford Times
"Caroline Duffner is an extremely gifted and accomplished violinist.
She played as Soloist in my International Festival and gave many excellent performances".
Kato Havas OBE

Professor Klos (Head of Strings Vienna Music University)
Präsident der ESTA Österreich
I have known Mrs. Caroline Duffner for many years as a very active violin pedagogue and a dedicated representative of the method known as Havas New Approach.
Thanks to her studies at the Vienna Music Academy and her extensive activity in various Viennese musical formations, she has every reason to be called a representative of the Viennese School of interpretation. What is more she furthered her education in numerous European countries, enabling her to broaden her artistic and pedagogical horizons considerably.
For many years, she has been considered a prominent representative of the Havas Method and successfully spread this method by giving masterclasses, workshops and lectures internationally. ESTA (European String Teachers Association), specialized Association for String Pedagogy in Europe, is a very popular platform for spreading the Havas pedagogical and didactical teachings.
Students of the MDW (Vienna Music University) also take part in these presentations with great interest, and profit from this work immensely.

Prof. Caroline Duffner CV
Caroline was born in England but grew up in Austria where she was accepted into the violin class of Prof. Günther Pichler, first violinist of the Alban Berg Quartett who recognized her talent. She studied violin performance with him at the Vienna Music University when she was only 15 years old as one of his youngest students. Later on, she studied with Prof. Thomas Kakuska (Alban Berg Quartet). She continued her studies with Kato Havas OBE in England. During this time, she gained much experience playing as soloist in the “Kato Havas International Music Festival” founded by her teacher, which took place in Oxford (Vote concerto Nr 22 etc.). She also performed Vivaldi violin concertos in the Roehampton Music Festival in London as soloist on several occasions. She developed herself further getting important musical impulses participating in master-classes held by Sandor Vega and Ion Voice in the Mozarteum Salzburg and in Prussia Cove. Caroline completed her violin studies gaining a performers diploma with distinction. She went on to pursue an orchestra career playing first violin tutti as a full member of the Orchestra with orchestras such as Orchestra Sinfonica di San Remo, Durban Philharmonic Orchestra SA and more recently the Gran Canaria Philharmonic. She also had substitute contracts with Rai Napoli (Radio orchestra) in Italy and with the Bayrischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester. She left her full time position as 1st violin Tutti in the G. Canaria Philharmonic, which enabled her to pursue a more varied freelance career. She moved back to Vienna playing in orchestras such as the Opernballorchester, ORF Symphony orchestra, Strauss Festivalorchester etc. as well as other orchestras abroad, both as a tutti player and guest leader. She is also much in demand as a chamber musician and has performed throughout Europe. Concert tours and recitals have taken her to Japan, China and America. As soloist, she recently performed the Tchaikovsky violin concerto and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante (Dorchester Festival, Valdagno Italy, Merton College Chapel Oxford).
She has a keen interest in contemporary music and has performed with Ensembles such as Ensemble Modern under Pierre Boulez, die Reihe with C. Muthspiel and Ensemble Kontrapunkte under Peter Keuschnig. A dedicated pedagogue Caroline teaches and is based in Vienna and runs master-classes in Italy, Switzerland and England.

TRAVERSO (BAROQUE FLUTE), FLUTE

Hernando Leal is a versatile and innovative musician whose repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to the modern music. His musical activities have taken him to many countries in Europa, Asia, North and South America. He appeared in several musical projects with renowned Ensembles and Orchestras as Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt, South West German Philharmonie, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra of Budweis, Ensemble Modern, Kölner Akademie, Stagione Frankfurt, Karlsruhe Baroque Orchester, Cappella Academica Frankfurt, Ecuador Philharmonic, Bach-Collegium Frankfurt and La Chapelle Ancienne of Zürich. Hernando Leal performed at important festivals as the Contemporary Music Festival of Darmstadt, Weilburg Music Festival, Wiesbaden Bach Festival, Frankfurter Forum für Alte Musik, Magdeburger Telemann Festtage, Frankfurt Bach Concerts and Salzburg Music Festival. He has been guest performer at the National Flute Association of USA and Flute Festivals of Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Ecuador und Peru. Hernando appeared also in projects at major music centers as the Royce Hall of Los Angeles, Auditorio Nacional and Teatro Real of Madrid, Markgräfliches Opernhaus Bayreuth, Festpielhaus Bregenz, Mozart Hall and Opera of Frankfurt, KKL and Opera of Lucerne, Casino of Bern, Tonhalle Zürich, Palau de la Música of Valencia, Teatro Rex of Buenos Aires, Luis Angel Arango Hall and Teatro Colón of Bogotá, Palacio de Bellas Artes of México, Teatro Nacional Sucre in Quito, and Hiroshima City Hall in Japan among many others. He was involved in different CD-productions for exemple with music from ancient scriptures of St.Egidien in Nuremberg and also in a CD-production with the german Ensemble "La Stagione Frankfurt" with music by C.P.E.Bach. He performed as a soloist flute concertos by Carl Nielsen, Anton Stamitz und Franz Doppler. Recently he performed concertos by C.P.E Bach, Franz Benda, A.Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, Johann J.Quantz and G.Ph.Telemann. Another focus of his work is the Interpretation of contemporary music by composers such as: Salvatore Sciarrino, Heinz Holliger, Toshio Hosokawa, Klaus Huber, Robert Dick, Jürg Wyttenbach, Rudolf Kelterborn, Toru Takemitsu, Kazuo Fukushima, Isang Yun, und Blas Emilio Atehortua u.a. He has been prize winner at diferents music contest for traditional music, received the special prize at the Mazda Young Musician Competition, was semifinalist at the Polish International Flute Competition in Krakow and also received the Carolina Oramas and Frankfurt Bach Foundation Scholarships. Hernando Leal finished musical studies in Germany and Switzerland receiving degrees in Music Pedagogy, Orchestral and Soloist Performance, Conducting, Contemporary Music and Master of Music in historical informed performance practice (M.Mus.). His mentors have included Sir James Galway, Peter-Lukas Graf, Anna K.Graf, Karl Kaiser and Michael Schneider. He atended also Masterclasses at important music academies with Auréle Nicolet, William Bennett, Emmanuel Pahud, Patrick Gallois, Barthold Kuijken, Janos Balint, Jeanne Baxtresser, Philippe Bernold, Robert Dick and Maxence Larrieu. He gives masterclasses at diferents music institutions as the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Sevilla in Spain, Conservatorio Nacional in Colombia, Universidad Central and Universidad Corpas of Bogotá, Universidad Bellas Artes of Cartagena, Universidad Nacional Autónoma y Conservatorio Nacional de Música in México, Spanish Flute Association and at the Flute Festivals of Lima and Quito, among others. He is founder of the Internacional Flute Academy of Colombia.

PIANO

Prof. Nelly Banova-Kostner, born in Plovdiv (Bulagaria), performed as a soloist and in chamber music formations among others with her piano trio with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in South East Asia, America and Europe (Concertgebouw, Wiener Konzerthaus, Wiener Staatsoper, National Palace of Culture in Sofia...). She played with partners such as Rainer Küchl, Volkhard Steude, Clemens Hellsberg, Günter Seifert, Johannes Kostner, Laura Vikman and Georgy Goryunov.

She completed her education at the University of Music in Vienna (Professor Noel Flores, piano and Prof. Avo Kouyomdjian, chamber music) as well as at the National Academy for Music in Sofia (Professor Milena Mollova, a student of Emil Gilels). She recieved further instruction from Lasar Berman, Leon Fleisher, Vladimir Krainev, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Boris Bloch and John O'Conor.

In 2012 she was the founding member of the „Hietzinger Kammerkonzerte“ with her ensemble „Wiener Artists“ with which she is currently involved with great enthusiasm and success. During the same year she became Piano-Professor at “Gustav Mahler Conservatory” Vienna. She is winner of several international competitions and has made recordings and has appeared with ORF, Radio Sofia, Bulgarian, Italian and Portuguese Television.

 

VIOLIN

Tanja Palu, born in 1982, is a finnish violinist, saxophonist and music educator with French roots. She began learning the violin at the age of six and started performing only a year later.

 

Tanja has been giving concerts for more than 20 years all over Europe and since 2010 also in China.

First she studied at Helsinki Conservatory where she graduated in 2006, then continued her studies at Vienna Conservatory where she got her Solo Violin Diploma with honors in 2010 and her Music Pedagogue Diploma in 2013 (major in Classical Violin, minor in Jazz Saxophone).

Tanja Palu is a soloist, a chamber musician and an orchestra musician (Österreichische Symphoniker, Junge Philharmonie Wien,  Tanja Palu is a soloist, a chamber musician and an orchestra musician (Österreichische Symphoniker, Junge Philharmonie Wien,  Modus 21...) and her wide repertoire goes from classical music to pop, jazz, electronic music and improvisation. In 2014 she founded together with Austrian violinist Ismene Weiss the ensemble Modern Sounds Vienna, a young and dynamic formation which is building bridges between classical music and modern elements such as electronic music, jazz, dance and visual elements.

 

VIOLA

Born in Warsaw, Natalia Binkowska is a renowned solo and chamber violist. In addition to an MA in Instrumental Pedagogy (Frederic Chopin Music University) she holds an MA in Concert Studies from the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, where she studied in the class of Prof. Wolfgang Klos (both with honours). Natalia is a scholar of the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art as well as the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Art and Culture. A prize winner at many national and international competitions, Natalia was a member of Orchestral Academy of Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics in 2011-2013, and has been appointed as a viola leader in many youth and professional orchestras such as the Wiener Jeunesse Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchester Linz, the Breslauer Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stadtheater Baden and the Vienna Symphonics, where she is now under a contract.
Chamber music has always been an important dimension of Natalia’s activity as a violist. She gets invited to collaboration at some chamber music projects with the members of Vienna Philharmonics and Symphonics. In 2013 with three outstanding musicians she established the Auner Quartet and soon the ensemble became very successful, performing on the national as well as international level. Moreover, with the support of Radio Klassik, Bank Austria, and the Austrian daily Die Presse, the Auner Quartet recently began an already acclaimed concert cycle in the Old Town Hall in Vienna.
Besides her activity as a chamber musician, Natalia regularly performs as a soloist. She has played solo recitals in Austria, Poland and Sweden, and worked as a soloist with many orchestras (most recently with the Polish orchestra Camerata Polonia). She has an extensive experience as a private viola tutor, with some of her students passing the challenging entrance exams to the Music University in Vienna. In late 2015 she joined the Vienna Music Academy.
Natalia is playing a modern viola of the German Luthier Heiko Seifert and is supported by the Viennese string company Thomastik Infeld. 

 

CLARINET

Corinna Wasserfaller, Klarinettistin MMMag.art. geb. am 5.April 1975 in Kärnten

(Mädchenname: Corinna Ulver)
Musikausbildung ab dem 5. Lebensjahr Blockflöte vom 5.-11. Lebensjahr Gitarre  ab dem 8.Lebensjahr Klarinette bei Gernot Fresacher (Brucknerorchester Linz), Gerhard Lippauer (Carinthia Saxophon Quartett) Prof. Franz Rieger (Konservatorium Klagenfurt) ab dem 13. Lebensjahr Klavier 6 malige Preisträgerin bei Jugend musiziert (5 mal 1. Preis, 1 mal 2. Preis) ab dem Alter von 13 Jahren Solokonzert mit Orchester in Österreich, Ungarn und Italien Urauffühurungen als Solistin mit dem Kärntner Landessymphonie-Orchester Studien an der Kunstuniversität Graz: Klarinette Klassik Konzertfach, 1. und 2. Abschnitt) bei Prof. Stefan Schilling (Soloklarinettist des Bayerischen Rundfunk-Symphonieorchesters) IGP (Instrumental-und Gesangspädagogik) Klarinette Klassik bei Prof. Bertram Egger und Prof. Stefan Schilling sowie Prof. Eike Straub im Zweitfach Klavier Musikerziehung und Instrumentalmusikerziehung Leistungsstipendiantin der Kunstuniversität Graz Klarinettenklasse in der MS Fohnsdorf 5 Jahre Privatinstitut in Graz mit Spezialisierung auf Vorbereitung für Aufnahmeprüfungen und Vorbereitung + coaching für künstlerische Diplomprüfungen an Kunstunis Meisterkurse bei Prof. Martin Spangenberg (Hannover) und Prof. Hans Klaus (Detmold) Orchesterprojekte als Soloklarinettistin in München. Kammermusikerin in mehren Ensembles: u.a. Primrose Ensemble, Wasserfaller&friends, Trio giocoso, Messiaen Quartett Studiomusikerin für CD-Einspielungen erste eigene CD im Trio mit Staatsopern-Solistin Alexandra Reinprecht und Pianisten
Michael Wasserfaller seit März 2016 in Arbeit.
Mutter eines 21jährigen Sohnes. Seit Oktober 1999 verheiratet mit Michael Wasserfaller (Pianist, Komponist und Dirigent)

 

 

CEMBALO

Keiko Omura wurde in Osaka, Japan, geboren wo sie Ihre musikalische Ausbildung abschloss. Anschließend ging sie an die Hochschule für Musik in München, wo sie Klavierunterricht von Klaus Schilde sowie Musikpädagogik studierte und das Diplom Musiklehrerin erhielt. Danach erteilte sie als Klavierlehrerin, an der Sonderklasse für begabte Kinder, in der Yamaha Music Foundation in Osaka Unterricht. Sie gab auch zahlreiche Klavierrezitale in Japan.

In 2006, begann sie wieder ihr Studium an der Hochschule für Musik in Weimar und zwar Klavier bei Gerlinde Otto, Cembalo, Clavichord und Generalbass bei Bernhardt Klapprott, Orchesterakademie bei Stefan May und Georg Christoph Biller und Kammermusik bei Midori Seiler. Sie schloss mit dem künstlerischen Diplommusikerin im Fach Cembalo ab.

In 2015 erwarb sie drei Master of Arts von der Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz, in Hammerklavier Instrumentalstudium, Hammerklavier Instrumentalpädagogik, sowie in Cembalo Instrumentalstudium/Alte Musik und historische Aufführungspraxis. Sie studierte Hammerklavier bei Wolfgang Brunner, Alte Musik (Cembalo, Generalbass, Orchesterakademie und Opernaufführung) bei Jörg Halubek, Cembalo und Generalbass bei Brett Leighton und Orgel bei Rudolf Jungwirth.

Sie nahm bei zahlreichen Meisterkursen teil. Unter anderem bei Bob van Asperen, Mark Kroll, David Shemer, Pierre Hantaï, Luigi Frenando Tagliavini, Bart van Oort. Von 2012 bis 2015 lebte sie auf Schloss Kremsegg in Oberösterreich, das eines der größten und wichtigsten Musikinstrumentenmuseen in Europa beinhaltet. Während ihres Aufenthaltes in Kremsegg recherchierte und spielte sie die große Sammlung an Hammerklavieren und modernen Klavieren vom des Ende 18. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Sie arbeitete auch als Assistentin des Kurators im Instrumentenmuseum und gab Hammerklavierseminare, Vortragsabende und Vorführungen für Kinder, mit drei Klavieren aus verschiedenen Epochen.

Sie hat an zahlreichen Konzerten teilgenommen sowohl als Solistin als auch als Continuo-Spielerin in Opern und Kantaten in Europa und in Japan. Zu erwähnen sind Bach Biennale in Weimar, Schloss Kremsegg und im Nakata Museum.

Ihr Repertoire ist sehr breit und reicht von der Renaissance bis zur Moderne. Sie spielt verschiedene Tasteninstrumente: Virginal, Spinett, Clavichord, Cembalo, Orgel, Hammerklavier sowie das "moderne" Klavier. Wenn die Instrumente zur Verfügung stehen kann sie auf dem Tasteninstrument spielen, das für das jeweilige Musikstück am besten geeignet ist um den musikalischen Stil dieser Epoche eine authentische Aufführung zu geben.

Voice

Larisa Kholodnaya,(soprano) is a native of Moscow, Russia where she received her degrees in vocal performance from Moscow State Institute of Music, a major music institution in Russia. One of her voice teachers was Natalia Pustovaya, a premier soloist of the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow. Later, while she lived in the United States, Kholodnaya also graduated from Boston University, Massachusetts, with a degree of Master of Music. Among her teachers were such well- known singers and vocal coaches as Laurel Miller, former soloist of the Metropolitan Opera in New-York and Kathleen Kaun, former soloist of Zalsburg Opera in Austria and Voice Coach for the Houston Grand Opera Young Artists Program in Houston.  In 1996 Kholodnaya moved to the United States where she continued her music career singing numerous solos recitals as well as performing with various musical groups and opera companies. The most well-renowned musical groups, where Kholodnaya performed, include “Musica Sacra of Southeast Iowa” and the “Classical Singers of Cary”. Her operatic repertoire includes roles of Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), and Barbarina (The Marriage of Figaro) as well as role of Lover in Il Tabarro that she performed with Opera in the Heights in Houston, Texas. Her solo recital appearances included such famous stages as The Majestic Theatre in Dallas, The Hamman Hall in Rice University, Houston; The Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall in Vanderbilt University, Nashville; The Mount Erin Hall in University of Incarnate Word, San Antonio; The Wright Music Hall in Middle Tennessee State University, Tennessee State University Performing Arts Center Theatre, Nashville; The Sale Hall in Morehouse College, Atlanta, and The Broomfield Auditorium in Denver. As a solo singer, Kholodnaya was also invited by The Tennessee Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra to participate in the concert that took place at The Tucker Theatre. During several years Kholodnaya closely collaborated with contemporarily composer Olga Harris, former student of the world famous composer Aram Khachaturian, and winner of the “2007 Composer of the Year” Award. Kholodnaya sung her compositions in numerous concerts including retrospective recital at the Performing Art Center in Tennessee State University, Nashville.   Since 2009 Kholodnaya resides in Vienna, Austria, where she also continues her singing carrier. She sings solo concerts and participates in various music projects, including multiple solo recitals at Elizabeth Cappella, Concert Hall Urania, Russian Cultural Institute, Wienner Musikakademie and other venues. She also regularly sings in Akademietheather. Most recently Kholodnaya participated in the concert that took place on the famous stage of Goldener Saal in Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.