“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.

COMPOSITION

Austrian composer and singer Yevgen Gembik was born in Lutsk, Ukraine.

He got his first music diploma as a violin teacher at the State Conservatory in Lutsk. During his studies (1989-1994) of Composition und Music Theory at the Tchaikovsky National Academy in Kiev under Professor M.Skoryk, he also participated in education courses of Jazz Arrangement and Improvisation, led by Professor K.Vilensky.

In 2000 Yevgen Gembik started his postgraduate studies at the University of Music and Dramatic in Graz (Austria) with famous composer Beat Furrer (Switzerland). In 2007 Mr.Gembik received his degree Magister Artium with diploma thesis on the Voice in Modern Music. He took part in Composition Workshops IMPULS Vienna with Helmut Lachenmann and Beat Furrer and also continued his postgraduate research at the University of Music in Graz into Jazz Singing as a Reflection of Instrumental Performance under supervision of Professor F.Kerschbaumer.

Yevgen Gembik has worked as composer, arranger, pianist and singer for various companies and events, including Molodizhny Theater and Romance State Theatre (Kiev, Ukraine), Theatre Delphin Vienna, "Rennaissance" Cruise Lines, Casino Graz, Salzburg Opera Festival, Theater an der Wien, Carinthischer Sommer International Music Festival, New Opera Vienna and others.

As composer Yevgen Gembik has written many works in different styles, including symphonic music: Concert for Violin and Orchestra (premiere took place in 1994 by Ukrainian State Radio and Television Orchestra, Kiev), electronic, chamber, church, vocal music as well as several pop and musical pieces.

In 2013 Mag. Gembik won the 1th prize of the 1th International Nikolaus Fheodoroff Composition Competition with the work "Die Erkenntnis Gottes" (for mixed choir, organ and violin). In the following year this work was successfully premiered by Arnold Schoenberg Choir (soloists Thomas Fheodoroff and Stefan Gottfried. conductor-Erwin Ortner) at the International Music Festival Carinthischer Sommer, Austria. 

VOICE

Mirela Gernac-Karamovic, born in Bijeljina (Bosnia & Herzegovina), began her musical education right there, where her passion for music unfolded in early years. Ihr musikalisches Schaffen startete bereits während ihrer schulischen Ausbildung und so absolvierte sie das Musikgymnasium in Bijeljina she graduated with distinction from a secondary school with a particular emphasis on music, majoring in music pedagogy and Solo singing. 

Already in 2002 she had her first solo concerts. She participated in many national and international competitions and won many prizes. She began her studies at the Faculty of Music at the University of Belgrade (Serbia) with the voice performance major (singing, song, oratorio and opera) as the youngest student and completed in 2009 in the class of Professor Aneta Ilic. She also obtained her Master's degree in Solo voice at the Faculty of Music at the University of Belgrade (Serbia). 

She had regular concerts as a soloist, as a member of various chamber music ensembles and as a soloist in various choirs in Russia, Austria, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Montenegro, Germany and Croatia. In 2015, she moved to Vienna and continued her singing career as well as her pedagogical career as a music teacher in the solo singing and piano department.

Thanks to the knowledge and experience she has received in the classes of outstanding professors from the best music institutes, her students have always been able to achieve top performances at many national and international competitions. She is happy to meet people who share the same enthusiasm for music and who she can help with developing. 

COREPETITION

Persönliche Daten: Geburtsdaten: 18.01.1978, Guangdong - China Staatsbürgerschaft: Österreich Familienstand: Verheiratet, 2 Kinder Sprachen: Mandarin & Kantonesisch, Englisch und Deutsch Ausbildung: 1999-2001 - Xin Hai Konservatorium (Kanton, China) 2002-2004 - Franz Schubert Konservatorium, Hauptfach Klavier 2004-2008 - Gustav Mahler Konservatorium, Hauptfach Klavier Berufserfahrung: Seit Oktober 2014 - Korrepetitor Wiener Musikakademie