Members of the Harmony of Nations
Bárbara Barros
Violin
Bárbara Barros was
born in Portugal and came to the United Kingdom in 1998 to study modern violin
with Diana Cummings, whilst reading for a BMus (Hons) at Trinity College of Music
London. She graduated last year and was awarded a scholarship by the college to
further her studies on the baroque violin; she is currently enrolled as a
postgraduate diploma student with Richard Gwilt. She has played in master
classes given by Andrew Manze, Adrian Butterfield, Ruggiero Ricci, Zakhar Bron
and Gerardo Ribeiro. Bárbara has been the recipient of several awards and
prizes such as the Dartington International Music Course award and a Gulbenkian
Scholarship. As soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player, Bárbara has
performed mostly in Portugal and in England. She currently freelances with
various ensembles and orchestras in the UK.
Katarina Bengtson
Violin
Katarina Bengtson was
born in Stockholm and finished her undergraduate studies at the Royal College
of Music there in 2001. She then moved with a scholarship to the Royal Academy
of Music in London, where she studied modern violin with professor Eric
Gruenberg. Having completed her Postgraduate Diploma in 2002, she finished her
second Diploma in 2004 having studied the baroque violin with Catherine
Mackintosh and the late Micaela Comberti. At the Academy, Katarina has
performed extensively as soloist and with chamber ensembles, and with the
Period Instrument Orchestra. In her last term she performed with her
departmental colleagues Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos 3, 4, 5 and 6. Katarina
has worked with musicians such as Jordi Savall, Lisa Beznosiuk, Elizabeth
Wallfisch, Margaret Faultless and Trevor Pinnock. She has performed, toured and
recorded with the Sixteen, La Serenissima, The Band of Instruments, Collegium
Novum Oxford and the Feinstein Ensemble.
Huw Daniel
Violin
Huw Daniel was a
pupil at Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera, South Wales. He became organ scholar at
Robinson College, Cambridge, graduating with a first-class honours degree in
Music. He then studied for two years at the Royal Academy of Music, London,
learning the baroque violin with Simon Standage, and the modern violin with Hu
Kun. Huw is a member of the Arcangelo Quartet and the Irish Baroque Orchestra,
and also plays with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the King's
Consort, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Les Arts Florissants, the English
Concert, and leads the Remix Baroque Orchestra, Porto, Portugal.
Kristin Deeken
Violin
Kristin Deeken was
born and grew up in Bremen, Germany, where she started taking violin lessons at
the age of six. After finishing school she went to Weimar to study modern
violin at the Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt" and before
graduating spent a year at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. After
finishing in Weimar she went to Salzburg for further studies with Christos
Kanettis at the University Mozarteum Salzburg. It was during her time in
Salzburg that she started to take baroque violin lessons with Hiro Kurosaki.
After attending several master classes for early music Kristin decided to enrol
at the Hochschule für Musik Trossingen where she is currently a student in the
baroque violin class of Prof. Anton Steck.
Roswitha Dokalik
Violin
Roswitha Dokalik was
born 1980 in Vienna, and has received music education since she was 5. She
began violin studies in Vienna with Eugenia Polatschek and Alfred Staar, and
later with Josef Sabaini in Linz. Roswitha graduated with a Bachelor and Master
Diploma at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität with emphasis on Early Music
and Elementary Music Education, both with distinction. In 2001 she started
studying baroque violin with Michi Gaigg. She has participated in master
classes with Enrico Gatti, Andrew Manze, Catherine Mackintosh, Maggie
Faultless, and has played in concerts, CD recordings and tours with L’Orfeo
Barockorchester (Michi Gaigg), Tientos, Barucco, Ensemble NovAntique Linz, EUBO
(European Union Baroque Orchestra) 2004 and 2006, Harmony of Nations Baroque
Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Ricercar Consort (Philippe
Pierlot) and the Ensemble “Aurora” (Enrico Gatti). In September 2005 she became
a student of Enrico Gatti at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag, and received
her Bachelor Diploma for Baroque Violin in June 2006. Roswitha loves Alexander
Technique, nature and her first-born Isaak!
Linda
Hannah-Andersson
Violin
Linda Hannah-Andersson was born in
Skellefteå, Sweden in 1978. She studied violin pedagogy for three years at
Piteå Musikhögskola, while working as a Suzuki teacher, and subsequently moved
to Britain. She graduated in 2004 from the Birmingham Conservatoire where she
studied modern violin with Ken Aiso and baroque violin with Nicolette Moonen.
She has led both the Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra and Baroque Orchestra and
won several awards while studying in Birmingham. She has worked with period
ensembles such as Ex Cathedra and Armonico Tributo. She has also taken part in
the 2003 season of the English Haydn Festival.
Johannes Heim
Violin
Johannes Heim began baroque violin with
Thomas Pietsch, with a scholarship from the Richard-Wagner-Stiftung, while
studying modern violin at the Dr Hoch Konservatorium in Frankfurt with Barbara
Kummer. After finishing in Frankfurt he decided to specialise in early music
and enrolled at the Institut für Alte Musik der Musikhochschule Trossingen to
study with Anton Steck, during which time he also took courses with Reinhard
Goebel, Andrew Manze, John Holloway and Lars Ulrik Mortensen. While a student
he played with many different ensembles, including Cappella Coloniensis, Musica
Antiqua Köln and L’arpa festante. Johannes is the first violin and leader of
ensemble fidicinium. In 2003 the ensemble won first prize at the Biagio-Marini
Wettbewerb (D) and took part in the final round of the EMN Young Artists
Competition in York (UK). In 2004 ensemble fidicinium gave concerts in Germany,
Spain and Belgium.
Clara Mühlethaler
Violin
Clara Mühlethaler began her modern violin studies
in Switzerland, and graduated with distinction from the Musikhochschule Zurich
in 2001. She subsequently moved to London to study baroque violin with Rachel
Podger and baroque viola with Katherine McGillivray at the Guildhall School of
Music and Drama. Whilst in London she has taken part in masterclasses with
Ingrid Seiffert, the Palladian Ensemble and Emma Kirkby. In July 2004 she
concluded her studies, receiving a Master of Music degree. Her freelance
experience includes projects with the period instrument ensembles Capriccio
Basel and the Kammerorcheter Basel, and she was invited to join the ensemble
Magic Ayres for a concert in London.
Fani Vovoni
Violin
Fani Vovoni was born in Athens in 1978. She
studied first in Klagenfurt, Austria, with Helfried Fister, and now is at
Vienna Music University, studying modern violin with Ernst Kovacic and Thomas
Fheodoroff and baroque violin with Hiro Kurosaki. She plays in various
ensembles, including the Wiener Akademie with Martin Haselböck, and the Greek
baroque ensemble Ex Silentio. She has also been a member of the European Union
Youth Orchestra.
Viola
Magdalena Malecka was born in September 1981
in Warsaw. She started to play the violin at the age of eight and continued her
musical education at secondary school, where she studied viola with Professor
Reichert. Currently she is a fourth year student at the Frédéric Chopin Academy
of Music in Warsaw, where she is taught the viola by Dorota Sroczynska. She is
also a student of the baroque music faculty at Witold Lutoslawski Conservatory
in Krakow, where she is learning baroque music performance under the
supervision of Agnieszka Rychlik. Magdalena has participated in many master
classes in Poland and abroad (including Łańcut, Krakow, Budapest,
Florence, Wilanów, Pleystein and Bayreuth), where she developed her skills in
solo, chamber and symphonic performance. Currently she also gives regular
concerts in Warsaw and Krakow.
Cello
Gyöngy Erödi was born
in Hungary, and studied choral conducting at the Music Academy Liszt Ferenc in
Budapest and modern cello at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg in Germany. She
became interested in early music during workshops with Balázs Máté. Since 1999
she has been studying baroque cello with Jaap ter Linden, and has been awarded
prizes in Hungary and in Germany. She works with the Dresdner Barockorchester,
the North Texas Baroque Orchestra and currently with the Telemannisches
Collegium Michaelstein. She has worked on projects and recordings with, among
others, Gottfried von der Goltz, Jorg Straube, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Jaap
ter Linden, Ludger Rémy, Klaus Eichhorn, Friedemann Immer and Concerto
Palatino. With her own ensemble Stella Maris she has been honoured with the
title Rheinsberger Hofkapelle for this year.
Cello
Lucy Scotchmer is an
undergraduate foundation scholar at the Royal College of Music in London where
she studies modern cello with Alexander Boyarsky and baroque cello with
Catherine Rimer. Previously a pupil of Jenny Ward-Clarke, Lucy has also
participated in masterclasses with Emma Kirkby, Rachel Podger, Jeremy West and
Stephen Preston, as well as performing in the London Handel Festival with the
Royal College of Music Baroque Orchestra and her early music ensemble La
Follia, founded in 2002. Other recent performances with La Follia include
concerts at the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London,
and Churchill and Fitzwilliam Colleges, Cambridge. Before taking up the baroque
cello, Lucy was principal cellist of the National Youth Orchestra of Great
Britain.
Riccardo Coelati Rama
Double Bass
Riccardo Coelati Rama
graduated in 2001 in Double Bass from the Conservatorio di Musica FE Dall’Abaco
in Verona where he studied with Claudio Bortolamai. He has followed various
early music courses, including those of the Accademia di Musica Antica di
Brunico, the Accademia Montis Regalis di Mondovì and the baroque music
performance course at the Conservatory in Verona where he worked with teachers
including Stefano Veggetti and Paolo Zuccheri. At present he studies viola da
gamba and violone with Alberto Rasi. Riccardo has worked with various groups
including the Ensemble Cordia and L’Accademia Strumentale Italiana.
Oboe
Born in 1977 in Klagenfurt (Austria), Elisabeth studied baroque oboe with
Marie Wolf at the Konservatorium der Stadt Wien and with Paolo Grazzi at
the Conservatorio F.E. dell´Abaco in Verona. She plays with baroque
orchestras such as Accademia Montis Regalis, Armonico Tributo Austria,
Ars Antiqua Austria, Capella Leopoldina, Concentus Musicus
Wien, Concilium Musicum Wien, Sonatori della Gioosa Marca, and Wiener Akademie,
and has made CD recordings for Amadeus, Teldec and WDR. Elisabeth is active in chamber music with the Duo Éole with the bassoonist
Antoine Pecqueur and with the group La Divina Armonia led by the
organist Lorenzo Ghielmi. She has performed as a soloist at the Festival di Sabbioneta, Festival musicale estense Modena, Musica e
Poesia San Maurizio and Incontri Musicali al Castello Sforzesco in Milan.
Oboe
Josep Domènech was born in Spain in 1977. He
began his oboe studies in Amposta and Barcelona, and then moved to Basel as a
student of Omar Zoboli (oboe) and Sergio Azzolini (chamber music). He continued
his studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Alfredo Bernardini, where
he has recently finished the second phase. Josep has worked with oboists such
as Paul Dombrecht and Heinz Holliger, and conductors including Josep Pons,
Frans Brüggen, Lucy van Dael, Jed Wentz, Gustav Leonhardt, Emilio Moreno and
Alfredo Bernardini. His performing experience includes projects with ensembles
such as the Göttingen Baroque Orchestra, Concierto Español, Nederlands Bach Collegium,
Capriccio Basel, Musica Antiqua Basel and Musica ad Rhenum.
Bassoon
Katrin Lazar was born in 1977 in London/UK.
She grew up in Munich/G, where she received musical education in recorder,
violin, piano and bassoon. She studied baroque bassoon with Christian Beuse and
recorder with Prof. Michael Schneider at the Hochschule für Musik und
Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt am Main. She received degrees in pedagogy and
artistic performance summa cum laude. She also studied at the Koninklijk
Conservatorium, Den Haag, with Peter van Heyghen (recorder) and Donna
Agrell (baroque bassoon). For the 2004/05 academic year Katrin was awarded a
scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Currently she is
working as a freelance and performing regularly with various baroque ensembles
throughout Europe including Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Cantus Cölln,
Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, La Stagione Frankfurt, Düsseldorfer Hofmusik,
Collegium Cartusianum, Neue Hofkapelle München, Haydn Akademie Wien, Capella
Leopoldina. She has worked with conductors such as René Jacobs, Ton Koopman,
Trevor Pinnock, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Thomas Hengelbrock, Konrad Junghänel,
Michael Schneider, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Andreas Spering, Christoph Spering,
Frieder Bernius. She regularly participates in numerous radiobroadcasts and
recording projects.
Harpsichord/Organ
Raphaël Collignon was born in 1979. Having
studied piano at the Conservatoire de Paris where he obtained first prize, he
turned to early music, jazz and improvisation. He was a student of Ilton
Wjuniski for harpsichord, clavichord and basso continuo, and was awarded two
first prizes, one by the city of Paris and the other by the CNR de Paris.
Having followed a performance practice course for harpsichord with Aline
Zylberajch as well as working within the Improvisation Department at the
Conservatoire de Strasbourg, he enrolled at the Royal Conservatoire in Den Haag
where he now studies harpsichord with Patrick Ayrton. Raphaël has appeared with
the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Het Residentie Orkest in Den Haag,
Laurence Pottier and “les Musiciens de Mademoiselle de Guise” with whom he made
a CD recording in 2001. He also works in the field of performing arts (theatre,
dance, film), as composer and instrumentalist.
Harpsichord/Organ
Christian Kjos was
born in Oslo in 1980 and began his keyboard studies at the age of 11. As an
undergraduate, he studied harpsichord for four years at the State Academy of
Music in Oslo with teacher Knut Johannessen, and has now completed the first
year of a three-year post-graduate course, studying with Jesper Christensen, at
the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He has taken part in many masterclasses,
notably as a continuo player at the Ringve summer course with Peter Holtslag,
Ketil Haugsand, Maggie Faultless, Ian Partridge and Wieland Kuijken. Christian
has performed with the Opera Academy of Oslo, director Attilio Cremonesi, in
Handel’s Rodelinda in 2003 and Haydn’s Il mondo della luna in 2004. He has also
worked with orchestras including the Bergen Philharmonic (Ivor Bolton), the
Oslo Philharmonic (Marcus Creed), the Stavanger Symphony (Philippe Herreweghe),
the Norwegian Radio (Andrew Manze) and the Norwegian Baroque (Edward Higginbottom,
Joshua Rifkin).
Björn Weber
Manager
Björn Weber was born
in Klagenfurt in 1978. He first got involved with music when he entered the the
violin-class at the Konservatorium in Klagenfurt at the age of 6. After having
studied the violin for 13 years, Björn decided to dedicate his professional
career to economics and IT. After studying business informatics at the
Technische Universität Wien he began working for a large auditor firm. Later he
was employed by the Austrian Parliamentary Administration where he has been
working as an IT project manager up to the present day. In addition to his
working duties he dedicated his free time to further research and achieved a
doctorate in social and economic sciences. Björn is now trying to combine the
two worlds of numbers and digits with music.
Aloïse Fiala
Aloïse studied Music
and Philosophy in Paris. She then decided to get involved in Music Management.
After her first experience at the Festival International d'Art Lyrique
d'Aix-en-Provence, she went back to La Sorbonne in Paris to study Music
Management as a post-graduate. Since then she has been working extensively with
Les Arts Florissants and with the European Union Baroque Orchestra. She has
also worked for the Versailles regional government Arts Council. She has been
involved with Harmony of Nations since the very beginning.