Marc Danel (Frankrijk)
Violist
Oprichter van de beroemde Quatuor Danel
Artistiek leider van de Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Akademie (Amsterdam), Nederland
Professor aan het Conservatorium van Lyon (CNSMD), Frankrijk
Professor aan The Music and Education Higher School of Namur, België
Marc Danel grew up in Lille, France, where both he and his sister learned violin with Jezdimir Vujicic. He continued his studies with Prof Igor Ozim in Cologne graduating with high hours in 1992. In 1991, he founded the Danel Quartet, studying extensively with the Amadeus and Borodin Quartets, as well as with Pierre Penassou, Hugh Maguire, Walter Levin and Fiodor Druzhinin. As leader of the quartet, he was major prizewinner of all the six competitions they entered between 1991 to 1995, including Evian, London and St Petersburg. Since 1991, Marc Danel has performed 2500 concerts with the quartet including 25 performances of the complete cycle of Shostakovitch quartets and numerous performances of the Beethoven, Weinberg and Bartok cycles in the major halls in Europe, USA, Russia, China, Japan, Taiwan, South America and Central Asia. The quartet have recorded more than 20 CDs, garnering numerous awards in Europe and the US. The quartet have championed the great but neglected soviet composer Mechtislav Weinberg, playing his quartets extensively since the ‘90s and recording the all of his 17 string quartets, (2009). For Weinberg’s centenary this year, the quartet will give 7 performances of the complete cycle of quartets, some of which the quartet have premiered. The quartet residence at Manchester University. Marc Danel is artistic leader of the Dutch National String Quartet Academy (NSKA), many students of which have won major competitions. A highly sought-after teacher, he teaches at CNSDM Lyon and IMEP Namur, and at Manchester University where the quartet are artists in residence. He has also given Masterclasses in Europe, USA, Japan, Taiwan, Bielorussia and has a regular collaboration with the National Youth Orchestra of Chile.
Daniel Rubenstein (Belgium)
Altviolist & Violist
Professor Altviool & Viool & Kamermuziek aan het Koninklijk Conservatorium van Bergen – Arts2 (BE)
Kamermuziek associate professor aan het Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel (BE)
Artistiek directeur van het Festival Mozart – Internationaal Kamermuziekfestival Waterloo / Nagakute (BE / JP)
Daniel Rubenstein performed extensively as a chamber musician, in recitals or as a soloist, across Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Ireland, Bulgaria, Romania, Brazil, Turkey, Tunisia, Israel, South Korea and Japan. 1st Prize Winner of several national music competitions, Daniel Rubenstein gave his first concert as a soloist at the age of 15 with the National Orchestra of Belgium under the direction of Mendi Rodan. Daniel Rubenstein performed more than 200 chamber music works with nearly 100 International artists in festivals and important Concert Series, and has created more than 40 new works by renowned composers such as Hao-Fu Zhang, Jacqueline Fontyn, Don Freund, Oded Zehavi, Jean-Pierre Deleuze, Michel Lysight, Jan Freidlin, some of those work being especially written for or dedicated to him. He is also the 1st violinist for the Ensemble Mendelssohn which performs extensively in quintets and sextets, and violist of Estampes. His discography includes 12 CD published by Dux, Talent records, Pavane, Kalidisc and Harp&Co, which received excellent critics from the International press (Gramophone, Crescendo, Fanfare, Musiweb etc.) including recitals violin-piano, viola-piano, double concertos and chamber music works. Graduated with Honors from the Royal Brussels Conservatory (Belgium) and the Indiana University (USA) in 3 instruments (violin, viola & piano), Daniel Rubenstein is presently violin and viola as well as chamber music professor at the Royal Conservatory of Mons (Belgium), and Associate Professor in chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where he also served as guest violin Professor. In addition, he gives regularly Masterclasses in Europe and abroad. Daniel Rubenstein is also the Artistic director of the Festival Mozart (Belgium and Japan) and International chamber music festival which is now in its 25th year.
Alexis Galpérine (Frankrijk )
Violist
Professor aan het National Conservatory of Music in Parijs, Frankrijk (viool en pedagogiek)
Professor aan het Amerikaanse conservatorium van Fontainebleau, Frankrijk
Violinist Alexis Galpérine was born in Paris in 1955. In his nearly forty-year career he has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in most European countries, Russia, Israel, America and Japan. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris and at the Juilliard School in New York. His main teachers were Roland Charmy, Ivan Galamian and Henryk Szeryng. He is laureate of the Carl Flesch (London) competition, Paganini (Genoa) competition and First Prize at the Belgrade competition. He also holds a degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne. He has performed as a soloist with the Orchester Lamoureux, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchester Mondial des Jeunesses Musicales, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchester Philharmonique de Lorraine, the American Chamber Orchestra and chamber orchestras from Sofia, Belgrade, Cologne, Tuscany, Bratislava etc., under the direction of Manuel Rosenthal, Michel Tabachnick, Antoni Ros-Marba, Paul Méfano, Charles Groves, Bruno Mantovani, Marcello Viotti… As a chamber musician, he has performed many festivals such as the Library of Congress Summer Festival in Washington DC, the Musicades de Lyon, the Nancyphonies, the Arcs, Siena, Asolo, Cremona and in the concert series of Radio-France. A founding member of the American Chamber Players, an ensemble that was ten years in residence at the Library of Congress, he has given hundreds of concerts in the United States and Canada. In France, he is a permanent guest artist of the Ensemble Stanislas. Alexis Galpérine has created nearly a hundred works, notably with the 2e2m and Musicavanti ensembles. He is the dedicatee of Alone by Paul Méfano, Légendes of Laurent Martin (concerto for violin, with winds and choir), the concerto by Yassen Vodenitcharov, sonatas by Frédérik Martin and Roger Boutry, Adagio by Olivier Greif , Belgirate by Carlos Roqué-Alsina, Edouard Souberbielle Quartet … The cinema called on him and he composed stage music (for Coline Serreau, Benno Besson …) Professor at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris (violin and pedagogy) and at the American Conservatory of Fontainebleau, he sits on the juries of international competitions (president of the Ginette Neveu Competition in 2013) and gives masterclasses in France and abroad . He was notably invited to Bloomington University. His discography currently has around sixty recordings. A number of CDs and DVDs were distinguished (“Choc” from the World of Music, “10” from Repertory, “Coup de Cœur” from the Charles Cros Academy, “Diapason d’Or”, “Disc of the Month” from Classica …) Alexis Galpérine is the author of musicological books and articles. The Olivier Greif book, in which he participated under the direction of Brigitte François-Sappey and Jean-Michel Nectoux (Editions Aedam Musicae), won the Singer-Polignac Foundation Prize and the Critics’ Prize, best musical book of the ‘year. He is a member of the editorial board of La Revue du Conservatoire, he is now President of the French section of ESTA (European String Teachers association) and directs the violin collection of Delatour-France editions.
Joachim Eijlander (Netherlands)
Cellist
Professor cello en faculteit vertegenwoordiger lage strijkers bij Codarts, Rotterdam, Nederland
Docent aan de Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Akademie van het Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Nederland
Professor aan The Music and Education Higher School of Namur, België
De veelzijdige musicus en cellist Joachim Eijlander speelde samen met onder anderen het Borodin quartet, Bennewitz quartet, Lisa Larsson, Giles Apap, Charles-André Linale, Ferdinand Erblich, Stefan Metz, Zuill Bailey, Nino Gvetadze, Paolo Giacometti, Inon Barnatan en Karl Leister. Joachim werkte samen met de componisten Henri Dutilleux, György Kurtag, Sofia Gubaidulina, Louis Andriessen, Joey Roukens. Naast gastdocentschap aan verschillende Nederlandse conservatoria gaf Joachim les aan de Indiana University, Texas University, Kansas University, Milwaukee Conservatory, Oklahoma University, Ljubljana Conservatory Slovenië, Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Academie, en verder op festivals in (onder andere) de VS, Italië, Roemenië, Nederland. Joachim is mede-oprichter van het Rubens Quartet. Met dit strijkkwartet geeft hij regelmatig concerten in de VS, Europa en Israël. Het repertoire van het kwartet vindt zijn basis in de klassiekers van Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms en Bartok. Daarnaast speelt het kwartet talloze minder vaak, soms zelden, gehoorde verrassende meesterwerken. Het kwartet heeft sinds jaren een speciale band met componist Joey Roukens, die verschillende nieuwe werken aan het kwartet opdroeg. Het kwartet was prijswinnaar op internationale concoursen, waaronder Oostenrijk en Praag, en won verschillende nationale en internationale prijzen, waaronder de Nederlandse “Kunstprijs” en de “Schubertprijs” in Graz. Het kwartet bracht verschillende veelgeprezen cd’s en dvd’s uit. Joachim speelt met Anastasia Safonova het repertoire voor piano en cello, in Nederland en onlangs een serie concerten in Midden-Europa. Joachim is bezig met een opnameproject, een solo cd, met de cellosuites van Bach op het label Navis classics. Joachim volgde zijn opleiding in Utrecht, Amsterdam en Berlijn. Met het Rubens Quartet volgde hij de voltijds strijkkwartetstudie aan de Nederlandse Strijkkwartetacademie. Zijn docenten waren leden van het Amadeus Quartet, het Hagen Quartet, György Kurtag, Stefan Metz, Elias Arizcuren, Paul Katz en Jan Hollinger. Joachim speelt op een cello van Gaetano Chiocchi (Padua 1870) en met een strijkstok van Nikolaus Kittel (St.Petersburg 1860), hem tot zijn grote dank ter beschikking gesteld door het Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds.
Mark Messenger (UK)
Violinist & Conductor & Famous chamber music player
Mark Messenger has had a broad and varied career which has resulted in a global reputation as soloist, chamber musician, conductor, teacher, jury member, speaker, and consultant.
His love of music and the human connection it offers has meant he has shared the concert platform with some remarkable musicians and some incredible students. He hopes that these connections, some of which are fleeting, and others which last for decades, have in some way affected these people to the same extent as he has been transformed by them..
He has taken great pleasure from over three decades of string quartet playing, travelling across the world as a pedagogue, violinist, musical director, speaker and mentor. As long as his exploration of life and music continues to provide such human experiences, he will continue the journey with travelling companions from any walk of life and in any nation of the world.