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.

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. 

Guitar

Borbála Seres is an outstanding young talent among the leaders of the international music scene. It is a lesser known fact, that almost every single international tournament Borbala has

entered she has finished in the top three. This is an exceptional accomplishment in the mainly male dominated field of classical guitar. Borbála Seres had her basic musical training received in Budapest under the direction of Prof. József Papp. From 1999-2004 she studied at the Leo Weiner Conservatory also with  Prof. József Papp. In 2011 she graduated with honours at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in the Class of Prof. Alvaro Pierri and Prof. Ahmed Noor Baluch.  She has been participating successfully in national and international competitions starting from a young age. She won first prize at the 12th International Biennial Guitar Competition in Kutná Hora at the age of 16. She has been participating in competitions in the highest age category since 2009 and won several prizes.

Among other things, she won the first place at the Forum Gitarre Wien in 2012 and at the World Guitar Competition in Serbia in 2010, 2^nd Place in Kutna Hora and as well as the 3^rd Place in the international

guitar competitions at Rust in Austria, in Split, in Belgrade, in Petrer and Coria in Spain.

 She performed a number of independent concerts at home as well as at many prestigious international festivals in European countries like Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.

Besides performing as a guitarist, she is engaged in the methodology of guitar playing as well. She wrote her thesis on alternative practice methods: on the so called mental training and its practice on the guitar

PIANO AND COREPETITION

He finished his first musical training as pianist with the distinction „very good, outstanding“ at the Professional Conservatory of Music Oviedo/Spain with Pérez de la Torre and Purita de la Riva as teachers. By interpreting the f minor sonata of Beethoven (Appassionata), the 3rd Scherzo in C scharp minor and the 2nd Ballade in F major of Chopin as well as Allegro de concierto of Enrique Granados he received the price of Excelleny. Since he had felt also very attracted by natural sciences, he studied during the same time music at the Principal Conservatory Eduardo Martínez Torner and Chemistry at University of Oviedo.

At the 7th Piano Competion Casa Viena he obtained the first price combined with a concert tournée with orchestra. This great success he could repeat at the 12th Piano Competition Casa Viena.

He finally finished his musical studies with Purita de la Riva with the grade „very good, excellent“ and was honered with the Price for Graduates of the Principal Conservatory of Music and the Grand Prix Ángel Muñiz Toca being the highest appreciciation for musicians of this institution. He was especially praised by the Rector, a professor for counterpoint and composition, for his transparent interpretation of the polyphonic music of Bach. Under the baton of Alfonso Ordieres he played the d minor concerto of Bach and the c minor concerto of Beethoven during a tournée.

Complementory to his music studies he attended masterclasses, inter alia with Luis Vázquez del Fresno, Tomás Camacho, Xavier Parés, Walter Blankenheim, Piero Rattalino, Jacob Leuschner and Josep Colom. Furthermore, he was postgraduate student at the Music Academy of Aragón, where he attended master courses with Elisabeth Leonskaja and Blanca Uribe.

During many years he gave piano lessons at the Municipal Music School Oviedo and the Conservatories of Music at Logroño und Calahorra. Presently, he is employed by Wiener Musikakademie and teaches piano at the Viennese Music School Polyhymnia as well as at two Viennese Highschools (Gymnasien). Most recently he performed the 6th Partita of Bach on the occasion of a concert at Wiener Musikakademie.