Wiener Musikakademie

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.