Violin

First prize winner in the 1980 Queen Elisabeth Music Competition Yuzuko Horigome (born 1957) has brought her virtuosity and rich musical mind to audiences all over the world.
She has also appeared as a soloist with the world’s greatest orchestras, including the London Symphony, Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Scala di Milano, Czech Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and NHK Symphony.
She has shared her passion for music on stage with exceptional artists like Rudolf Serkin, János Starker, Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, Charles Neidich, Jean-Marc Luisada and Abdel Rahman El Bacha. Horigome's prominent recordings are Mozart Complete Concertos with Sándor Végh and Camerata Academia, Violin Works (series no.1 - 5) as well as her recent recording Brahms Concerti with the Czech Philharmonic.
Based in Belgium as a professor at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, Yuzuko Horigome has been active in masterclass projects. She annually gives masterclasses in Cassero, Italy, and Trinity College Cambridge, UK. Horigome herself studied under Mr Toshiya Eto at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. Now she is often on the jury at numerous international competitions including the Sendai International Music Competition, where she chairs the jury. 
 

Acclaimed as “a player of impressive authority and presence” (The Strad) and “one of the top violinists of tomorrow” (Diapason), Yossif Ivanov, has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting violinists of his generation. At the age of 16 he was awarded First Prize at the Montreal International Competition, and two years later the Second Prize, as well as the Public Prize, at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.
Over the past seasons Yossif Ivanov has made acclaimed debuts in all the major European halls. He has performed with orchestras such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI, Vancouver Symphony, Residentie Orchestra The Hague, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Lucerne Symphony, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Milano Verdi Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Luxemburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, as well as all major Belgian orchestras.
He has collaborated with well-known conductors such as Neëme Järvi, Marin Alsop, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vladimir Jurowski, Kazushi Ono, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Philippe Herreweghe, Jaap Van Zweden, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Ion Marin, Yuri Simonov, Louis Langrée and John Axelrod.In 2010 he was invited to tour North America with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (under Vladimir Jurowski) and made his Asian debut (Malaysian Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony Orchestras).
 

Born in Moscow to the family of the illustrious Oistrakhs, Valery Oistrakh represents the third generation of great violin virtuosi beginning with his grandfather David and followed by his father Igor.Valery Oistrakh took his first violin lessons from his grandfather David. He then studied at the famous Central Music School in Moscow where father Igor actually graduated. He continued his studies at the Gnessin Music-Pedagogical Institute in his native city. Some years later Valery completed his violin education in Germany with the world known professor Zakhar Bron - who in fact was also a disciple of his father at the Moscow Conservatory.

With his awe-inspiring technique, silky tone and consummate artistry he has beguiled audiences the world over performing on the great concert stages of Russia, United States, Canada, Australia, England, France, Germany. Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Japan... He has played as both violinist and violist with world-leading orchestras as the Moscow and Leningrad Philharmonics, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish National Symphony, Orchestre Colonne de Paris, Orchestra Santa Cecilia di Roma, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester , Toronto and Vancouver Symphonies, Sydney Symphony... He has been accompanied by such notable conductors as Kurt Mazur, Gennady Rozdestvensky, Yuri Simonov, Muhai Tang, Gyorgy Lehel, Saulius Sondetzkis, Vladimir Fedoseev, Tibor Varga, Yuri Botnari, Marco Parisotto…

Mr. Oistrakh was a winner at the All-Russian Competition of the former Soviet Union and the Tibor Varga International Competition in Switzerland, among others. He is the leader of the "Oistrakh Ensemble" and the "Oistrakh Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra" based in Germany.

Violinist Philippe Graffin has established an indisputable reputation for his interpretations of the French repertoire, natural perhaps for one of the few pupils of Josef Gingold, himself a pupil of Ysaye for whom most of the violin repertoire of this era was written.

As concerto soloist, he has performed with orchestras such as The Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken the Residentie Orkest, Gothenburg Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra di Padova et del Veneto and St Petersburg Philharmonic.

Graffin performs works of many living composers such as Dutilleux and Saariaho and has had works written for him by Rodion Shchedrin, Vytautas Barkaukas, David Matthews, Philippe Hersant and Yves Prin. Following a performance of his Concerto Cantabile with Rostropovich conducting, Shchedrin wrote Concerto Parlando for Graffin which is now awaiting release on CD.

Philippe is a highly sought after chamber musician and is founder and artistic director of the “Consonances” chamber music festival of St Nazaire, France which in 2012 marked the 150th anniversary of Debussy. Recent highlights include concerts with the Georges Eneso Philharmonic in Bucharest and a recital in Venice at the Palazzetto Bru-Zane, televised by Mezzo as well as recitals in the summer at many French festivals including the Festival d’Orangerie de Sceaux. Graffin also featured on a BBC 4 documentary on Delius, performing Delius’s ‘Legende’ for violin and piano.

Zygmunt Marek Kowalski was born in Poznan, Poland. He studied music at the High School of Music in Gdansk, where he obtained a degree in "master of music". After his studies, he was recruited into the Gdansk Baltic Philharmonic, thus becoming Poland's youngest ever concertmaster.

In 1977, he came to Belgium to study at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. There he obtained First Prize and Higher Diploma with highest distinction. At the same time, Kowalski was still schooling with André Gertler and Arthur Grumiaux. In 1980, he was laureate of the International Violin Competition in Belgrade. A year later, he was concertmaster of the National Opera symphony orchestra in Brussels. He gives concerts as a soloist and plays chamber music in America, Japan and several European countries. Kowalski also realised numerous CD recordings and collaborated in radio.

Between 1981 and 1997, he was part of the string quartet of La Monnaie and the Brussels String Quartet: in both companies he played first violin. For numerous years, Kowalski taught as a teacher and assistant at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. Since 2008, he has been a teacher and has his own violin class. In addition, he has regularly participated as a teacher in the "International Music Lessons of Morges" (Switzerland) and given master classes in France, Belgium and Poland.